(RE) RELEASED - S03E06b - The Citadel Rescue (v2.1)

RELEASE VERSION.
This is a BONUS episode that is NOT part of my recommended viewing order! It belongs in what I call the ‘Continuity’ cut, for people who want the most connections to other content.
This is numbered as episode 6B of season three - fitting between s03e06 and s03e07 if you want to watch it.
Comprising the original episodes The Citadel, Counterattack, and Citadel Rescue.
Running 49 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.

By popular request, here’s the Citadel arc, added into TCW:R. You can read about my issues with the original episode (and difficulty editing it) here, but thanks to community encouragement and some great work from bojangles, I’ve returned to this and made a number of significant trims, bringing the episode down to 49 minutes and vastly improving the pacing. The key elements (Anakin/Tarkin, most of Ahsoka’s arc, and a key character moment that’s relevant to the Bad Batch), are still preserved.

I don’t think it’s an incredible arc, but I’m very pleased with how it’s now paced and the story it now tells. Thanks for encouraging me to stick with it.

Noteworthy changes:

This episode is titled ‘The Citadel Rescue’. Like the other well known arcs, I wanted to keep the key word (‘Citadel’) in there.
Regarding placement, I think it belongs here, in the middle of Ahsoka’s journey to independence, but before her more extreme trials later this season.
I used the opening crawl to essentially replace the original newsreel and the very first scene. The first scene is exposition, and repeated a lot of content from the newsreel anyway, so I killed two birds with one stone and just covered that initial plot, so we can kick off the episode with Ahsoka wanting to join.
I also, in the crawl, mentioned the special security droids - hopefully that explains why we see some very competent droids here that we won’t see again.
Sped up the overly drawn out scanning section.
Removed some of Osi Sobeck’s scenes, mainly redundant ones or ones where he gives exposition for the audience. He appears more competent now, though still cruel, and still fearful of Dooku. He’s less stupid too, making fewer mistakes and fewer dumb decisions (like shooting a droid for saying the word “escaped”).
Trimmed the electromines sequence. They get through it quicker now, and without being suprised that a locked door “wasn’t in the plan”.
Removed most of the other goofy traps in the Citadel (energy field, magnetic ceilings, bisecting doors). With the sentry system and the advanced droids, we have more than enough - and there’s very little jeopardy here. The prison’s security is in its remoteness, hostile environment, lifesign scanners, and defensive fleet.
The team still split, and Kenobi’s diversion works, but then we see very little more of Obi-Wan while he’s travelling, keeping the focus on Anakin/Tarkin and Ahsoka.
Removed the dead-end wall sequence, and the commando droid attack here (they have enough presence - and better threat - elsewhere).
Trimmed R2’s storyline quite heavily, and the scenes which made people suspicious of their craft. Now, they pass the lifeforms check, set the team down, wait, then head to pick up Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan’s team don’t get captured (or subsequently rescued). There isn’t a trap, and he doesn’t expect one, since they all expected the R2 droid squad plan to work - and it did. Instead, when he gets close to the landing platform, we also see R2’s team successfully land (“we’ll pick up Obi-Wan”), then instead of calling Anakin, Obi-Wan calls R2, and receives affirmative beeps. They meet up (offscreen) then fake a prisoner transfer to try to trick some guard droids into letting them back on the ship. It’s only once the alarm is raised due to Anakin’s actions and Sobeck working out their plan that it all kicks off.
I’ve made less of a point about plan A failing (since Obi-Wan isn’t captured). Now, the only real issue is that Obi-Wan was a little slower than expected, and switching to plan B (meet at the landing pad) is a much more casual switch, one that they’d clearly considered a likelihood.
After the fight on the platform, and retreat, the fleeing Jedi call the Jedi council, for just one scene. We assume that the backup extraction point is well-known by all characters as part of the plan.
We then cut a whole load of the good guys just milling about talking about how bad the situation is (but with no jeopardy), and a lot of mindless combat. Instead, Sobeck’s immediate reaction is to send out the Anooba hunting dogs (sensible!), which quickly track the party down, and are our only real combat in this section until Sobeck catches up with his larger force.
Trimmed about a minute of the final combat, so the focus is on where the story is.