The Way of Mandalore v3 Update

Book 1:

(Before I get into the main changelog, the primary difference here is the creation of a whole new story order. Din no longer goes to rescue Grogu immediately. Instead, he tries to push away the guilt by taking another job. A newly edited version of the Prisoner episode takes place which fits incredibly well thematically in this film. After that job is a complete mess, Din goes back to Nevarro for more work, but stumbles upon Grogu’s carrier in the trash. He expereinces flashbacks, and this is what motivates him to save Grogu.)

Added new Mandalorian Disney “Star Wars” intro
Added Razorcrest departing Pagodan shot (Helps with pacing and viewer being able to track where the Razorcrest is going)
Added Blue guy incessantly asking annoying questions leading to Mando slamming him in carbonite (He now locks him away as soon as he asks about Mandos’ helmets. Helps us get a tiny bit more characterization for Din right off the bat)
Cut all the other bounty hunters ominously turning to look at Greef & Din when he mentions the special job (Seems goofy that he is talking so loudly that everyone can hear? It certainly seems like a quiet conversation in a bustling cantina)
Cut Armorer flashbacks in favor of saving them for later on. Din now stares intently at the pauldron being forged, seemingly feeling something but leaving the viewer to guess his emotions at this time.
Added IG saying “The asset” instead of, “Said asset” (Credit to Eddie for pointing out error in the original show)
Reduced the amount of time in which Din tries to open the door at the mercenary compound. He and IG are standing still out in the open and nobody can shoot them for far too long, again lessening the amount of danger it feels like they are in.
Adjusted EWEB shot timing to be faster, extended soundtrack, and added shot of Mando taking cover while it is still shooting instead of before it shoots (More logical & more intense now)
Removed IG trying to needlessly kill Grogu. The bounty for Grogu was clearly stated as “Dead or alive (for more money)”, yet IG says the commission was to terminate him? I never understood that line and it was never explained. There is no longer any danger, so why did IG not attempt to bring Grogu in alive? IG now hints that he would kill him, and perhaps is about to justify his reasoning but Din will now suddenly shoot the droid without even hearing him out, showing his distaste for the machines and that he never intended to actually work with it in the first place.
After Grogu and Din are attacked by bounty hunters, they walk the rest of the day before making camp at night where Grogu first attempts to heal his wounds. They then continue in the morning onwards to the soon-to-be scrapped Razorcrest.
Removed Din telling Grogu to spit out the frog and the subsequent giggle & burp. At this point in the story, Din is not at all playing a parental role so it comes across as an inconsistent characterization and cheapens the eventual parental growth he has later on. Also, the burp is kinda corny. There’s plenty of cute Grogu to be had later on.
Added in Jawa → Mudhorn → Razorcrest plot, but condensed Mando climbing the Sandcrawler, and some other Jawa semantics. With moving the Wetlands to Book 2, we now need one more sequence to keep the pacing of the film. The jawa breaking the ship storyline serves a more logical encounter with the mudhorn, strengthens the bond between Din & Kuiil, and provides some decent characterization for our protagonist.
When Din is fighting the Mudhorn and is speared for the last time, struggling to maintain consciousness, the Mudhorn is charging but there is WAY too much time that passes showing Din trying to raise his knife before it hits him. I know it’s kind of for dramatic purposes, but it reaaaalllly feels like it should be reaching him by now and it’s not. In fact when you go frame by frame, the distance between Din and the Mudhorn goes back and forth between being closer and farther due to them trying to force some extra shots in. A slight trim helps the situation feel real and also strengthens the suddenness of the battle’s stoppage.
Removed the obvious “tell” scene that Grogu is about to stop the Mudhorn charge. It’s actually really cool to experience this scene entirely from the perspective of Din now, as it now plays out more mystical and confusing as we see it unfold from the eyes of the Mandalorian.
Cut a little bit of Jawa egg eating (it drags on so long lol), and Din’s line “I’m surprised you waited.” It’s a tad corny how Kuiil responds after, and I don’t think Din would actually be surprised? Kuiil hasn’t shown any indication of trying to leave him behind before. Now Kuiil simply gives Din a hard time “I’m surprised you took so long” which does feel in line for his character.
New space travel transition from leaving Arvala to arriving back to Nevarro.
Cut Grogu waking up before they arrive on Nevarro. He now sleeps through all of hyperspace and surprises Din by waking up to grab the ball for the first time. I felt like that makes the first ball interaction more noticeable, and makes the ball emotionally connected to Din first realizing that Grogu is okay after saving him from the Mudhorn.
Removed more flashbacks during cuirass construction in order to use later.
When Din enters the cantina for the first time after donning his new armor, the order of shots in the cantina makes no sense. A ton of people stare at Din the instant he walks through the door, but Greef, who has the clearest view of the door, doesn’t notice him until the last second. I just swapped some of the reaction shots around to make a more logical and impactful presentation.
Din now takes a new job from Greef without hesitation, looking to distance himself from the events that just transpired with the child. He leaves Nevarro alone after shoving his conscience away. New soundtrack and visuals were created by using content from Seasons 1 & 2.
Built new travel and landing sequence as Din arrives on the cruddy space station alone for the criminal job he now seemingly took from Greef.
Cut the part about only the Razorcrest being needed. Now the shock is that Mando learns it’s not a solo hunting job and that he has to work on a team with others when he really just wanted to take this job to be alone. We see that running away from the Child isn’t going to be the solution Din thought it would be, and this problem only compounds itself as the job goes awry and he is betrayed.
Edited the entirety of the Prisoner episode to remove all references to Grogu. It works REALLY well as Act 2 to show how much Din is in over his head by abandoning Grogu, and how he is suddenly tired of all the “games” that go along with bounty hunting. Through the disaster of this job, he now realizes the mistake he made by turning his back on the fulfillment that true purpose brings.
When Din attacks the NR droids, I had to cut some reaction shots from the crew. There are moments where the entire combat freezes in time to show a reaction shot and then resumes only after someone’s shocked face, that crap disrupts the whole flow of the action. We now see Din’s combat play out uninterrupted and then learn that everyone was just chilling watching him do it alone.
Cut a few lines off of Sheehan and Mayfeld’s argument, only the ones that make Mayfeld seem like an idiot for hiding some information for no reason at all. Now it seems like the alarm button actually caught them all off guard which helps build the tension.
Cut the scene with Devaronian throwing the NR droid and causing an enormous explosion. Are those things floating gas tanks with guns? Not only that, it was a very shoehorned in one-off scene with terrible transition wipes and probably wasn’t filmed for this placement initially anyway.
Re-added Zero scanning through the Razorcrest’s comms and finding news about Din’s prior Bounty Hunter guild contract. Changed some audio so it doesn’t reveal anything about Episode 3 (since that hasn’t happened yet in my edit), but it works as both another connector to make this new episode placement feel natural, as well as give us a much needed passage of time scene where Din is still trapped in his cell.
Cut obvious “tell” scene that Din is hiding in the vents watching the Devaronian. More surprising when the rope flies down around his neck.
There’s been some discussion on whether we leave the fates of the Bounty crew ambiguous or if we show that Din imprisoned them. However, there was one angle we hadn’t discussed yet. Din is getting abused on this mission, he’s angry at both himself and the scum trying to kill him. I don’t think it’s at all out of the picture for Din to kill everyone, as we just saw him killing many Jawas in Act 1 for messing with him as well. Also for me, logic is king and there is no possible way to explain how the Devaronian survived getting crushed by two doors like that, he is clearly reduced to pulp. So in accordance, I have also edited the female Twi’lek to appear to be killed by Din as well. We already clearly see Din kill the droid, the male Twi’lek, and the guy who hired them all, so killing these two off leaves us with only Mayfeld as the sole survivor. (though we won’t find this out until later in the series and I have left his fate the most ambiguous)
Added flashback sequence when Din finds Grogu’s carrier in the trash. Cutting back and forth between the similarities between his childhood and his time with Grogu. This one is a guilt trip and a tear-jerker.
Replaced shot of Din clearly deciding not to kill Pershing with a shot of him still pointing his blaster at him. (Dr. Pershing seems extremely afraid still at this point, and it doesn’t match Din’s relaxing body language in the original)
When Din is confronted by all the Nevarro hunters I rearranged the sequence of him jumping into the astromechs trailer. In the original, he lays around way too long getting shot at and the order of following shots is bizarre. I have recut this scene to be far more action-oriented, and Din now makes the logical decision to attempt to get the droid to drive far sooner. However, he is now interrupted by blaster fire and then attempts again shortly after. I also reduced a few of Din’s killshots as he racks up way too many precise shots and that lessens the danger we feel he is in. (Scene is more intense and more logical now instead of feeling like “How is everyone missing so many shots here?”)
Similarly, I rearranged some of the killshots and added new SFX when Din is pinned down with the Disrupter rifle. Original was too slow and verging on cheesy, it should now feel more terrifying.
Cut down looking confused when his flamethrower runs out of fuel, surely he has practiced before? He wiggles his arm in disbelief as it flutters out, all the while everyone stops shooting? Tightened up the shots for intensity.
Din now experiences the flashbacks of being saved by the Mandalorians as a child as he is currently being saved by them again as he now, as a Mandalorian, is doing the same for Grogu. It is incredibly poetic and the best scene in the film.
Increased the speed of Din and Greef’s final standoff and fixed a bug in the original show. (They again do the weird thing here where Greef actually gets shot twice by the same blaster bolt. I’ve found this bug in a few other places throughout the show. Someone gets shot, then it cuts to a new camera and that same person gets shot again in the new camera angle. It’s super disorienting, check it out frame by frame on the original sometime. It happens REALLY bad on Werner Herzog’s death)
Cut Grogu messing with the controls on the way to Sorgan, will use later in the series. (It’s too lighthearted/humorous & doesn’t really fit the tone of the ending)
Intercut IG-11’s resurrection and Greef’s survival together as a transition between Nevarro and the closing scene on Sorgan. This sets up future films and shows us a gap of time for the travel to take place.
Film now ends with Mando & Grogu landing on Sorgan and walking out together, the start of a new life.
Adjusted Credits concept art to coincide with new story order.

[Film is going through one final bug check this evening, so I can send out links tomorrow]