OK, so I finished Book 3, time for my notes!

I liked this one. Except for the action-packed beginning, it was a lot slower-paced, but it was good. I liked it. And I have way less notes for this one than the others, LOL!

Hmm, so I was wondering why you don’t have the title at the beginning? Like: Star Wars: The Way of the Mandalore titled the Star Wars way? Or the traditional Star Wars crawl? I ask for a selfish personal reason because I really enjoy these and think I might use them for my version of binge-watching and would like the consistency of the titles like that and the SW crawl, LOL!
The edit of excising the frog lady from the ice spider planet was spectacularly done. Seriously, it was amazeballs. You managed to make that whole section just absolutely, spot-on perfection, from beginning to end with the NW pilots (Carson!) and bbYoda and the spiders and the rescue, and just all of it. SO GOOD!
Oooh, I loved how you went from Boba telling Fennic “don’t touch my buttons” at the Sarlac pit to Mando trying to get Grogu to "touch his buttons’ and fix the Razorcrest and failing miserably. Beautiful connective tissue between those two scenes!
I’m sorry, but placing the Shadow Council scene from Season 03 after the clone lab scene just did not work at all for me. It felt like strikingly, jarringly out of place. There had been a beautiful ebb and flow so far to the edit and then that just was dropped in and it was like… whu? It just really came out of nowhere. Especially with the mention of “I need protection, and we have to get rid of Mandalorians, and Pershing’s research is gone.” I mean, up to the scene prior, all we as the audience knew everyone thought Gideon was dead so WHY would he suddenly need like a ton of continued protection, the covert Mandalorians are all scattered now, and the Pershing message was literally sent 3 days ago where he said ‘I’m still working on it, boss! I’ll do better.’ The scene just does not work at all here. It doesn’t make sense, and it simply stops the flow dead-on.
So I mentioned above how great it was to go from Boba ‘don’t touch my buttons’ at the Sarlac pit to Grogu failing to fix Mando’s ship. We then went to Nevarro, they stuck around while Mando and co. went to check out the cloning facility, etc. came back and then he and Grogu took off. All of this happened… and then we go back to Boba and Fennec STILL at the Sarlac pit? Sure, they could have come back, but it doesn’t read that way. It reads like they’re still there. I would definitely move this scene up.
The scene after Carson talks to Carga and blue dude about the cloning facility when he has a little chat with Cara about her past and how she can help now could (and should, I think) really be cut. It was clearly establishing backstory for the Cara show that we never got. It feels extraneous now because it’s not leading anywhere.
I had a thought watching the Cobb Vance story play out about my pacing/balance issues in Book 2… perhaps it would play out better if there wasn’t cross-cutting between Boba’s story and the Mando Sorgan story? What if the Boba story with the Tusken Raiders played out before his final scene leaving the village, and then we cut to Mando’s Sorgan story and that played, then have Boba’s final scene where he comes to the burnt out village, buries and leaves, cut to the Mando, the shooting, and him leaving. I dunno, just a thought.
I was a little confused at Boba aiming at Mando in the desert and then him walking away but I think that was from the show. Yes? No?
So, back to Pel and you wanting to cut some of her quirkiness, I’m gonna stand up for another bit with her. When she told Mando about taking on a passenger and he asked her if she could trust the passenger and Pel said “with my life,” you just cut the scene there. I remember that it came up then in convo that Pel had just met her like a half-hour ago, and Mando was like ‘really?’ and Pel was like ‘hey, I’m a good judge of character.’ I think keeping that in is important for two reasons. 1) It’s the show telling us through Pel’s words and then showing us through the fish lady’s words/actions that Pel IS a good judge of character which means that since she thinks so highly of Din, hey, we are right to think highly of him as well. And 2) Since Din and fish lady are good people that Pel is good people too so we can trust her in any/all situations that come up with her. In other words, it’s a small little “show” moment that has long-ranging ramifications for the character.
Speaking of the fish lady, I really do think you should keep more of her story. There were some really beautiful conversations between her and Mando, and why it was so important for her to make this journey. I think they should be kept for a few reasons. 1) This Book is light on character depth/development. 2) They are really well-written scenes, and the fish lady was a well-written one-off character. 3) Mando brings Grogu back to her to watch and spending more time with this character, and Mando knowing her better explains why he would trust Grogu with her, 4) that whole section felt quite rushed, especially in comparison to the lengthy Cobb Vance section, and substantial enough Mandalorian section. This gives it all more room to breathe, 5) Mando is trying very hard to bring Grogu to his people, he’s on this mission, and connecting that to this woman who is trying to keep the line of her people alive and flourishing strengthens the overall arc.
I liked the ending. It was simple but powerful. They are off to find a Jedi, a name we know very well, Ahsoka Tano, and Grogu is growing in his power.

Three out of four done. I won’t get to the fourth this weekend. I don’t know how my notes will be received. But here you go. Not as much Boba in this, but for the most part, I was fine with him in the background. I could even see you stretching out his story in Book 2 into Book 3 if you wanted to rework it, but it does work here. Overall, excellent work again.