Back to the topic at hand, I am currently rendering out my first test of V3. Other than the big improvement to the video quality, here’s a few other changes:

reinstated the GI’s “I would say that Jedi hunt themselves” in the opening scene.
Added in a little more the Alderaan landing pad scene for better flow and transitions.
reinstated Leia roasting her cousin.
removed the remainder of the kidnapping scene. Ending it after the thug says “you!”
removed the first scene of Leia with the kidnappers. Only keeping the one where Lola gets damaged.
reinstated Kenobi digging up the lightsabers, which now acts as his “answering the call” moment.
the scene where Kenobi leaves Tattooine has been removed, as it’s not needed now that the saber scene is back.
reinstated the homeless clone trooper, for world building.
Kenobi no longer sets off an explosion in the lab. He is able to slip through the lab unnoticed without it.
reinstated Leia showing Lola to the other refugees on the ship, and her and Kenobi’s little bit of dialogue immediately after.
reworked the refugee ship/escape sequence and the final duel for better transitions and pacing. Nothing hugely notable was removed or added. It was mostly audio work.
other small changes throughout to help with timing and transitions.

You may have noticed that I added more than I removed on this go around. This is typical of the way I work. I tend to oversteer at first, then bring back things that feel like they need to be there.

So we are looking at exactly 2 hours and 25 minutes, which feels right to me.

I’m going to keep toying with this one till I’m absolutely satisfied, so I’d say another week or so.

I’ve so far been avoiding other Kenobi edits, but I did watch that one that went viral out of curiosity today and let’s just say… I don’t think I’ll be using any ideas from that one.