RELEASED - S04E06 - THE HAND OF GREED (v2.1)

RELEASE VERSION.
Our sixth episode of season four.
Comprising the original episodes An Old Friend, The Rise of Clovis, and Crisis at the Heart.
Also including the video ‘Ahsoka’s Decision’ created by Cinematic Captures on Youtube (used with permission and fully credited), itself a fan-enhanced version of a scene from the unfinished episode In Search of the Crystal from the unfinished Utapau arc.
Running 67 minutes.
DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

This is my longest single episode yet. The Scipio arc isn’t quite brilliant, but it has a lot of good moments, and it does a lot of good work to give us the state of the war and many of the major players as we head towards the show’s conclusion. I didn’t cut it down into shorter episodes because there’s no simple breakpoint - it’s one single narrative and treating it as one keeps it all in focus as the plot progresses.

I included ‘Ahsoka’s Decision’ (even though its animation style is slightly different) and modified a little dialogue to do as much as I could to have the loss of Ahsoka visibly affect Anakin in this series - something we didn’t have before due to the show’s cancellation and revival. The new scene hasn’t got quite the same aesthetic, and it’s a little lower visual quality, but it’s the best I can do for now.

Noteworthy changes:

The episode is titled ‘The Hand of Greed’, emphasising both the main plot and Anakin’s possessiveness toward Padmé.
The episode is placed here as the first time we see Anakin after the loss of Ahsoka, again to emphasise that angle.
We use ‘Ahsoka’s Decision’ as this show’s only cold open, mainly to give it a place to exist in this narrative but also to give its unique animation style some room.
The crawl gives us the Scipio and Anakin/Padmé context in a simple way.
The remainder of the episode is largely the three original episodes stitched together. They weren’t amazingly paced but there’s very little that isn’t necessary. (Though I am open to suggestions!)
I changed a little of the dialogue when Obi-Wan visits Anakin’s quarters to add a little more to the Ahsoka angle and try to lightly imply that Anakin’s jealousy here may be related to the loss of Ahsoka.
I removed Padmé’s guard asking Anakin if Rush Clovis’ account of the assault was true, to cut Anakin acting a little suprised, which might have raised suspicion.
I removed a light reference to the connection between Palpatine and Sidious, which I’m avoiding making explicit in this show.

This now lightly forms a trilogy intended to give a bit more weight to Ahsoka’s loss in this order - Mortis, Ahsoka’s Fall, and Scipio (with one break in the middle to allow Anakin a breather offscreen).

Onwards to the Order 66 arc!