(The Mandalorian+BoBF) The Way of Mandalore | A Legends Movie Saga (Final Update in Progress: 5/6 Done) — Page 12

Further thoughts on Arabian’s idea: If we do just end Book 1 with Mando flying to space and cut to black there, then it lets you potentially start Mando’s story much later in Book 2, allowing Boba to take the lead and with less backwards and forwards. Alternatively/additionally, maybe you could actually have the Boba overlap point a bit later - Mando could be on Tattooine for much longer, leaving Fennec for dead, before Boba comes to Mos Eisley and nearly bumps into him, potentially only then heading out to the desert to find Fennec. Pelli’s dialogue might be modified at the point where Boba sees her walking with her droids, to discuss Mando’s quarry, to give Boba the hint to go save her. Then Boba and Fennec’s plotline could interleave with Mando’s plot on Nevarro, to keep both in focus.

Also, I made my own cut of your current Book 2, which removed Greef’s intended betrayal and the fireside scene (Mando just says “I have a plan” at their first meeting and we cut to him in cuffs meeting Werner Herzog), and also removed Mando needing to take off his helmet (he just “gets his head dinged” but then after the team open the sewer vent he’s walking - with help, through the tunnels). I found that both of these worked nicely to improve the pacing in that sequence.

EddieDean said:

Also, I made my own cut of your current Book 2, which removed Greef’s intended betrayal and the fireside scene (Mando just says “I have a plan” at their first meeting and we cut to him in cuffs meeting Werner Herzog), and also removed Mando needing to take off his helmet (he just “gets his head dinged” but then after the team open the sewer vent he’s walking - with help, through the tunnels). I found that both of these worked nicely to improve the pacing in that sequence.

How did you work around Greef’s guards and the number of Blurrgs? I remember that was the main reason I couldn’t skip around the night time scene.

I’m interested in seeing your rendition of the Din head injury. Do you feel that he still has the proper motivation to retract his hatred of droids without this experience with IG11? Especially considering one of the coming scenes he is visibly distraught over IG sacrificing himself. Something has to change him to go from hating IG to being concerned for him.

Here’s a video clip including both edits.

I got around the Greef situation by just cutting more. It’s not implicit that Greef is meeting Mando a long journey away from the city, so we don’t need travel scenes. Greef begins with his bodyguards, which is sensible even with this interpretation, since they did leave each other on bad terms. That’s the purpose they serve here, then we don’t need to see them again. Then I flipped the scenes so that Greef asks to see Grogu first - and the tension dissipating there as we see that he also genuinely cares for Grogu is what sells us on the fact that they’re now not going to get into conflict. Greef just seems legitimate. Then they talk about the situation a little, but Mando just says “I have a plan.” (I know you like it when we just get straight into the plan, rather than explaining it first!) We then have a quick montage, then just cut straight to Greef escorting Mando to the Imperials - if we notice Greef’s injury, we can assume he faked it to make it look like his capture of Mando was legit. A smooth musical transition helps sell this all too.

For the second scene, “You just got your bell rung, you’ll be alright” is a legitimate statement, rather than Cara being actually worried about his mortality. The flamer then immediately attacks, so we don’t waste any time with them forcing an emotional scene. Grogu works his magic, and IG opens the grate then picks up Grogu. Again the music then carries us to the scene of Mando walking - we don’t need a wipe. Mando updates them on the situation as he’s struggling, then he stops and tells them he can stand. He’s now OK, and has recovered from essentially just a temporarily disorienting knock to the head.

I don’t massively feel like that’s the turning point for him not hating droids - I always felt like that was more of an odd prejudice (plus IG is an assassin droid) that he just gradually gets over.

EddieDean said:

Here’s a video clip including both edits.

I got around the Greef situation by just cutting more. It’s not implicit that Greef is meeting Mando a long journey away from the city, so we don’t need travel scenes. Greef begins with his bodyguards, which is sensible even with this interpretation, since they did leave each other on bad terms. That’s the purpose they serve here, then we don’t need to see them again. Then I flipped the scenes so that Greef asks to see Grogu first - and the tension dissipating there as we see that he also genuinely cares for Grogu is what sells us on the fact that they’re now not going to get into conflict. Greef just seems legitimate. Then they talk about the situation a little, but Mando just says “I have a plan.” (I know you like it when we just get straight into the plan, rather than explaining it first!) We then have a quick montage, then just cut straight to Greef escorting Mando to the Imperials - if we notice Greef’s injury, we can assume he faked it to make it look like his capture of Mando was legit. A smooth musical transition helps sell this all too.

For the second scene, “You just got your bell rung, you’ll be alright” is a legitimate statement, rather than Cara being actually worried about his mortality. The flamer then immediately attacks, so we don’t waste any time with them forcing an emotional scene. Grogu works his magic, and IG opens the grate then picks up Grogu. Again the music then carries us to the scene of Mando walking - we don’t need a wipe. Mando updates them on the situation as he’s struggling, then he stops and tells them he can stand. He’s now OK, and has recovered from essentially just a temporarily disorienting knock to the head.

I don’t massively feel like that’s the turning point for him not hating droids - I always felt like that was more of an odd prejudice (plus IG is an assassin droid) that he just gradually gets over.

Interesting, that’s a solid edit and your cuts do work well enough that the concept could work. However, my next concern is that if I do end up altering the ending anyways, we are already looking at a 1 hour 57 minute runtime. Cutting out so much more would be pushing this film too far into the shorter end and I really don’t feel like it slows down too badly anywhere as is. If I were running long, I would definitely feel stronger about cutting there, but the runtime is spot on where I like it and it’s not like those scenes are necessarily bad.

arabian said:

Also with regards to Book 5, I also hope that you are leaning more towards including the Pershing stuff, with the final lobotomy scene towards the end. And keeping the Shadow Council scene in Book 5 because I really don’t think it worked in Book 3. (Although, I do know you did a lot of work on Gideon’s hair.)

Are you meaning to say put the Pershing stuff in Book 6? And then add a Book 7? Book 5 is what I’m working on now which is largely the BoBF content and some other Mando stuff.

Also, Deagan, what did you think of the Shadow Council scene as a first time viewer? That’s the scene with old imperial officers talking about their future plans/needs. Did the placement work for you? I moved it up in the series to give us a better picture of the state of the Empire compared to where it originally was placed.

Regarding Book 5 production… Whew! I am giving this one a massive overhaul. I didn’t expect to need to do so, but I really, really want to nail Boba Fett as the crime lord we all wanted to see. I think I’ve got something special here folks. My last version worked, but this one is completely fresh with brand new ideas. Really pushing the limits of how much I can alter this storyline. You’ll need to wipe all your previous knowledge of this story going in and just let it play out in a whole new way! I am still hammering out the details, but I’ll get to building the changelog soon. I probably have another week of work to do on this film before it’ll be ready to release. But I’m excited!

Acbagel said:

EddieDean said:

Here’s a video clip including both edits.

I got around the Greef situation by just cutting more. It’s not implicit that Greef is meeting Mando a long journey away from the city, so we don’t need travel scenes. Greef begins with his bodyguards, which is sensible even with this interpretation, since they did leave each other on bad terms. That’s the purpose they serve here, then we don’t need to see them again. Then I flipped the scenes so that Greef asks to see Grogu first - and the tension dissipating there as we see that he also genuinely cares for Grogu is what sells us on the fact that they’re now not going to get into conflict. Greef just seems legitimate. Then they talk about the situation a little, but Mando just says “I have a plan.” (I know you like it when we just get straight into the plan, rather than explaining it first!) We then have a quick montage, then just cut straight to Greef escorting Mando to the Imperials - if we notice Greef’s injury, we can assume he faked it to make it look like his capture of Mando was legit. A smooth musical transition helps sell this all too.

For the second scene, “You just got your bell rung, you’ll be alright” is a legitimate statement, rather than Cara being actually worried about his mortality. The flamer then immediately attacks, so we don’t waste any time with them forcing an emotional scene. Grogu works his magic, and IG opens the grate then picks up Grogu. Again the music then carries us to the scene of Mando walking - we don’t need a wipe. Mando updates them on the situation as he’s struggling, then he stops and tells them he can stand. He’s now OK, and has recovered from essentially just a temporarily disorienting knock to the head.

I don’t massively feel like that’s the turning point for him not hating droids - I always felt like that was more of an odd prejudice (plus IG is an assassin droid) that he just gradually gets over.

Interesting, that’s a solid edit and your cuts do work well enough that the concept could work. However, my next concern is that if I do end up altering the ending anyways, we are already looking at a 1 hour 57 minute runtime. Cutting out so much more would be pushing this film too far into the shorter end and I really don’t feel like it slows down too badly anywhere as is. If I were running long, I would definitely feel stronger about cutting there, but the runtime is spot on where I like it and it’s not like those scenes are necessarily bad.

Not so! This is from your book 2, which clocks in longer than the rest at 2:15. So it’s not massively longer, but I do think that both of those scenes hurt the pacing in an already oddly slowly paced finale.

I loved your book 5, so what you’re saying about it there sounds very exciting!

EddieDean said:

Acbagel said:

EddieDean said:

Here’s a video clip including both edits.

I got around the Greef situation by just cutting more. It’s not implicit that Greef is meeting Mando a long journey away from the city, so we don’t need travel scenes. Greef begins with his bodyguards, which is sensible even with this interpretation, since they did leave each other on bad terms. That’s the purpose they serve here, then we don’t need to see them again. Then I flipped the scenes so that Greef asks to see Grogu first - and the tension dissipating there as we see that he also genuinely cares for Grogu is what sells us on the fact that they’re now not going to get into conflict. Greef just seems legitimate. Then they talk about the situation a little, but Mando just says “I have a plan.” (I know you like it when we just get straight into the plan, rather than explaining it first!) We then have a quick montage, then just cut straight to Greef escorting Mando to the Imperials - if we notice Greef’s injury, we can assume he faked it to make it look like his capture of Mando was legit. A smooth musical transition helps sell this all too.

For the second scene, “You just got your bell rung, you’ll be alright” is a legitimate statement, rather than Cara being actually worried about his mortality. The flamer then immediately attacks, so we don’t waste any time with them forcing an emotional scene. Grogu works his magic, and IG opens the grate then picks up Grogu. Again the music then carries us to the scene of Mando walking - we don’t need a wipe. Mando updates them on the situation as he’s struggling, then he stops and tells them he can stand. He’s now OK, and has recovered from essentially just a temporarily disorienting knock to the head.

I don’t massively feel like that’s the turning point for him not hating droids - I always felt like that was more of an odd prejudice (plus IG is an assassin droid) that he just gradually gets over.

Interesting, that’s a solid edit and your cuts do work well enough that the concept could work. However, my next concern is that if I do end up altering the ending anyways, we are already looking at a 1 hour 57 minute runtime. Cutting out so much more would be pushing this film too far into the shorter end and I really don’t feel like it slows down too badly anywhere as is. If I were running long, I would definitely feel stronger about cutting there, but the runtime is spot on where I like it and it’s not like those scenes are necessarily bad.

Not so! This is from your book 2, which clocks in longer than the rest at 2:15. So it’s not massively longer, but I do think that both of those scenes hurt the pacing in an already oddly slowly paced finale.

Oh! You’re right, I’m mixing up my own films now. Yes, actually that Book 2 did drag on some so I am back in favor of shortening those scenes. Also, I think we discussed in DMs once, but the Grogu healing thing is pretty wack. I was willing to give it a pass orginally just because it was Yoda’s species and they’re so shrouded in mystery and a unique connection to the force, but they never went any further into his healing ability throughout the next 2 seasons. I am pro-cutting that scene. It also lessens the impact of him blocking the fire later since it’s 2 miracles in 20 minutes.

I loved your book 5, so what you’re saying about it there sounds very exciting!

I’m bringing back the Hutts in a whole new way. I can’t yet write out how it’s all going to play out as I’m still rewriting the Hutt dialogue to tie into the story better, but I’ve got some crazy twists and turns planned. Boba’s reign is going to have a completely different tone. He will be pretty well established to start, and then it slowly starts to break down as the Pyke chaos begins to set in and we see a need for his reliance on the Mandalorians which is such a major theme of The Way of Mandalore. Again, his story will be interwoven with Din’s journey. What makes me the most sad is that it is such a shame that Boba was not in Mando Season 3 content at all. Hopefully we get a Book of Boba Season 2 for a Book 7/8 Way of Mandalore?

Big Man Toe said:

Working on Book 5? Have you already finished Book 4? Damn you work quick

Yes! I released Book 4 on May the 4th! Been a LOT of late nights getting this series updated, but it’s been worth it.

I’m actually having a ton of fun re-editing Book 5. There was so much untapped potential there that I hadn’t realized before. I’m about 1 hour 30 minutes through the film so far and am anticipating a ~2 hour 10 minutes runtime? So I’m definitely more than halfway, and with such a big chunk of the ending being combat rather than new story, I should make it through the last Act faster than the first 2. I am very confident you guys will be pleased with the new story. It definitely does a gritty, crimeworld Boba Fett justice. And having Mando S3 at my fingertips has helped on Din’s scenes.

I know there’s a lot of talk about a Book 6 or 7 ending, but I just still don’t know yet. I like to let the story write itself rather than me forcing something either way. I love the Pershing storyline and think re-editing that in a new way to lead up to Gideon’s return sounds awesome, but I want a natural flow for the return to Mandalore and just haven’t gotten to the nitty gritty storyboarding of it all yet. Now that I have a clear picture of how my Book 5 is about to end, I am starting to get to seeing a vision for Season 3 content, but the major decisions are still yet to be made. I need to do a full rewatch of Season 3 first too.

Big Man Toe said:

Acbagel said:

Big Man Toe said:

Working on Book 5? Have you already finished Book 4? Damn you work quick

Yes! I released Book 4 on May the 4th! Been a LOT of late nights getting this series updated, but it’s been worth it.

I’m actually having a ton of fun re-editing Book 5. There was so much untapped potential there that I hadn’t realized before. I’m about 1 hour 30 minutes through the film so far and am anticipating a ~2 hour 10 minutes runtime? So I’m definitely more than halfway, and with such a big chunk of the ending being combat rather than new story, I should make it through the last Act faster than the first 2. I am very confident you guys will be pleased with the new story. It definitely does a gritty, crimeworld Boba Fett justice. And having Mando S3 at my fingertips has helped on Din’s scenes.

I know there’s a lot of talk about a Book 6 or 7 ending, but I just still don’t know yet. I like to let the story write itself rather than me forcing something either way. I love the Pershing storyline and think re-editing that in a new way to lead up to Gideon’s return sounds awesome, but I want a natural flow for the return to Mandalore and just haven’t gotten to the nitty gritty storyboarding of it all yet. Now that I have a clear picture of how my Book 5 is about to end, I am starting to get to seeing a vision for Season 3 content, but the major decisions are still yet to be made. I need to do a full rewatch of Season 3 first too.

Wow I do wanna say your fanedits of Mando and BOBF are my favourite so far. And I would also love a link to Book 4.

Well, thanks! I’m glad you enjoy them. I love Star Wars and would make these just for myself even if I had no one to share with. But it’s a huge honor and pleasure to be able to spread my excitement and my vision with others. Sent you the latest movie

I have completed the first draft of Book 5, going through the bug & story review phase right now, so we’re still looking good for a this week release. That final battle ended up being a doozy to edit! Had some details I needed to keep consistent throughout the battle and it was a maze of scenes to reorder. I’ll probably have some storyline changes to make so I won’t post the changelog until I get all the finer points worked out, but it’s getting close.

arabian said:

Acbagel said:

arabian said:

Also with regards to Book 5, I also hope that you are leaning more towards including the Pershing stuff, with the final lobotomy scene towards the end. And keeping the Shadow Council scene in Book 5 because I really don’t think it worked in Book 3. (Although, I do know you did a lot of work on Gideon’s hair.)

Are you meaning to say put the Pershing stuff in Book 6? And then add a Book 7? Book 5 is what I’m working on now which is largely the BoBF content and some other Mando stuff.

I don’t know how you’re doing it – and it sounds like you have some exciting plans – but just interweaving the Pershing stuff into the plot, and have the final lobotomy scene with Pershing come into play as a consequence of what side you choose. Many said there was no reason for the Pershing storyline, but I disagree. I DO think it should have been integrated throughout the entire season instead of just a one-off episode, but I think it did have a purpose. And I think that by weaving it throughout will show that purpose.

Pershing chose the wrong side; he chose the Empire (even the remnants), and in the end, we see the consequences of many getting happy results of not doing so (Carga–who only “worked” with Gideon to keep Nevarro safe and then turned against him right away, the Mandalorians getting a home, etc.) and those who didn’t (Gideon) and, of course, Pershing. So when we get our resolution scenes towards the end including the Pershing lobotomy scene, I thought it would add this bitter note, yeah, this is what happens when you stick with the Empire too long… and that those remnants still remain alive and kicking.

Now that I’ve got a full picture of Book 5, I’m officially starting Book 6 production! Hope to answer many of these questions soon. As I like to do, I am going to look for my ending first and then work backwards. My two options are to start with the Nevarro ending and work back from there, trying to extend everything to a Book 6 & 7, or to use the Season 3 ending and work backwards from there.

At this point, I think I am leaning towards a 2-book ending rather than shoving everything into 1 movie. For Book 5, I ended up using very little Luke/Grogu content so I have a good amount of that to show throughout Book 6 to fill in for the weaker parts of Season 3. Not yet sure if that would bump Pershing stuff into Book 7. Running an A/B/C plot with Grogu, Din, AND Pershing in one movie might get a little crowded.

The biggest (only?) link the Pershing storyline has to the rest is the finale content with the reveal that Moff Gideon is still into clones, so I think that storyline belongs in whatever ends up being your final movie (6 or 7).

deagan said:

Acbagel said:
Also, Deagan, what did you think of the Shadow Council scene as a first time viewer? That’s the scene with old imperial officers talking about their future plans/needs. Did the placement work for you? I moved it up in the series to give us a better picture of the state of the Empire compared to where it originally was placed.

I tend to zone out during these sort of council/politic meetings, even watching the prequels (haha). I’m not too sure what “Pershing” is, or what they were getting at with “cloning” (sorry lul), but I don’t think its placement detracted from the story at all - it’s a good break from the action to check in on Gideon. Perhaps I’m not following the story too well, but this just felt like an introduction to a complex group whose plans would be better explained in time.

If anyone has watched Naruto Shippuden, they do a similar meeting with The Akatsuki to introduce the group’s goals, then they expand on the stories of each antagonist in later episodes.

https://youtu.be/moyStmyqQ_w

arabian said:
…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.’

While I agree with @Arabian that at that moment it seems the Mandalorians have dispersed, my impression was that the Shadow Council was getting close to finding them, and the meeting was ultimately for them to agree to get rid of the “pests.” Seeing as in Book 4, our protagonists successfully breach Gideon’s ship, maybe he was right to request protection from the Council?

As long as ACBagel has a plan to flesh out this group in future Books, I think this scene could pretty much fit anywhere as a breather.

Excited to see what you have next, love the films!

Thanks for the feedback on this, very helpful to read. The “Shadow Council” is something that was established in old Star Wars lore, and is something we get another glimpse of in this Mandalorian story. We get to see the goings on of one particular member of the Council, Moff Gideon, while others (for example, Moff Pellaeon and Admiral Thrawn) are going to be covered in future Star Wars shows (the coming Ahsoka show in August). So the main purpose is just to get a view of Moff Gideon’s tie in to the workings of the Council as a whole.

I’m still leaning toward removing Boba from this scene, as I don’t understand why he is in it. If he shoots Din, he should be fully ready to fight and retrieve his armor, but he just retreats. It felt like Boba gave up on retrieving his armor, because he was intimidated by Din’s ability to beat up some little raiders, but he could have sniped him and moved closer to his armor.

I’m not sure what the solution would be, but I was a bit confused as to why he retreated, even after trying to kill Din.

¯_(ツ)_/¯ Just my two cents!

That makes sense. However, on the flip side, the actual show just has Boba watch Din walk away with the armor and never confront him at all. I don’t know what is worse now since we are presented 3 choices:

1. Boba watches Din and never engages him (the Disney version)
2. Boba snipes at Din but lets him go rather than revealing himself (Acbagel version)
3. Cut out all scenes of Boba in this segment (Deagan proposal)

Unfortunately, all 3 have issues. The main problem with #1 is why would Boba peacefully watch Din leave with his armor? The main problem with #2 is similar, but why does Boba not engage Din in battle personally right there on the spot after shooting at him? The main problem with #3 is that we now present a scenario where Boba is completely unaware that Din, another Mandalorian, is on Tatooine at all. Further, Boba is actively searching for his armor, which Din finds before him, but then Boba never discovers that Din found the armor, so how does Boba know how to track him down later in the show to confront him about the armor?

Any other solutions that we’re not thinking of here?

I guess the other solution could be Boba seeing Mando’s ship take off as he flies away?

Ooh, I like that ‘not today’.

Hey, all! Here’s what is going on with Book 5:

I’m torn. I have two versions of the film now… both are radically different from one another. Let me share my discoveries/dilemmas.

Draft 1 is akin to my previous Book 5 containing most of BoBF presented in typical ACBAGEL fashion. This contains the updates to my Boba story I have previously mentioned.

Draft 2 is a completely new film from the ground up. A film solely about Din’s journey without Grogu. This goes straight from his BoBF scenes to his S3 Apostate arc with the Underworld/Pirates as the main antagonist, concluding with him helping Nevarro and then finally going to check on Grogu once he has regained status as a Mandalorian.

The main reason I felt the need for a different vision for the film after I completed Draft 1 was because I started working on Book 6 and something felt very wrong. I couldn’t place Din’s motives together in any sensible way. In BoBF he is back to his purposeless, violent ways of bounty hunting, then learns how he is an apostate and cast away, has no hope that he will ever reuinite with Grogu, so restoring himself before his people is his only purpose. It is very offputting for him to go through this and then just ignore his apostate status and his Mines of Mandalore quest for SO long. If that apostate theme is introduced here as such an impactful and life changing moment, it needs to be addressed and not pushed off for no discenrable reason, because there’s really nothing else Din would do. That’s all he has left.

Let’s consider the D+ series of events:

1. After completing his mission with Grogu, Din goes back to bounty hunting for an undetermined amount of time, finally tracks down his clan, but very quickly admits he violated the creed and is cast out of his clan as an apostate (Love it all, it makes sense and is hugely impactful. It sets up so many possibilities for the future of Din’s story)
2. Din sulks off to Tatooine to get a new ship, supposedly with the intent to go to Mandalore in it? (Sure, that makes sense. If he needs to fly to Mandalore alone, he needs a way to get there and explore to find the mines)
3. While getting his ship, he learns that Boba needs help ASAP and says he will assist, but then suddenly decides he has to visit Grogu immediately (Starting to confuse me here, I can somewhat understand Din wanting to lend Boba a quick favor, they have some mutual respect going on, and Boba doesn’t care about Din’s violation of the creed so Din is comforted by a Mandalorian that accepts him, but the need to go see Grogu RIGHT NOW throws a massive wrench in the pacing. Surely, that can wait? Why does he have to go there right this second? This was where the Disney forced reuinion stuff starts to interfere… With no actual urgency in the plot, Din tells Boba to wait until he gets back and then rushes to check on Grogu. I get it, he misses him and wants to give him the armor, but there’s no reason at all this shouldn’t just happen after the Tatooine battle. [And this is how I have my Book 5 Draft 1 setup, visit Grogu AFTER Tatooine concludes])
4. Din flies across the entire galaxy to check on Grogu, learns he can’t really interfere and immediately leaves. We then see ALL of Grogu’s Jedi training take place in 20 minutes. (Sigh… Great emotional scenes on their own, but again, we learn there truly was no urgency at all to do this right now and it ends up feeling like a distraction. It strips this visit of much of its emotional weight. When he leaves to go right back to Tatooine it’s like… ok, that was touching but kind of pointless in the overall plot structure. It is also VERY confusing how much time passes in these events. How long was Grogu with Luke? Some of the lessons seem very basic Day 1 stuff, so what was he doing with Luke in between seasons? He does all of this training while Din is flying back to Tatooine? I can’t get a grasp on the chronolgy here)
5. Din goes straight back to Tatooine to help Boba instead of going to Mandalore (Aside from just zooming back and forth across the galaxy for no presented reason, this decision from Din is fine, he already promised Boba he would help him and Din has always been a man of his word)
6. Din fights on Tatooine to stay true to his oath, but WHOA he reunites with Grogu who followed him, and after the battle they jump off to hyperspace, and we are left with 0 clue with where they go or intend to do next (I am definitely on the side of Din and Grogu reuniting in BoBF is the worst thing to ever happen in the Mandalorian. No need to beat a dead horse here as many already share that sort of sentiment, and I had always planned to NOT make them reunite here. The other problem is that the “film”/BoBF ends here. We get this whole solo Din on the apostate’s repentance trail setup, but then suddenly Grogu returns and makes that all seem unnecessary. The first 2 seasons were all about how Grogu grows to be Din’s #1 purpose giver, not the Mandalorian clans… So it’s like, wait, does Din even care about being an apostate anymore? He can just stay with Grogu now like he always wanted. Where are they going now? What do they want to do together?)
7. With Din’s motivations and emotions completely unknown at this point, we learn that offscreen Din meets a Jawa on some unknown planet and that Jawa had already met a random traveler who had somehow made it to the surface of Mandalore and pulled a tome out of the crystal and then sold it to the Jawa and then Din buys that tome… Whew. Then Din, for no apparent reason, goes back to his former Mandalorian clan on their random new rock world hideout, even though he is still a banished apostate, to tell them that he acquired this tome from a Jawa from a traveler who said they made it to the surface. And the Armorer is like, “Ok…? But did you baptise yet?” and Din says no and so is still told to leave, but then he STILL doesn’t go to Mandalore. (Holy crap! This is an absolute mess. First of all, THIS is how we learn that Din still wants to not be an apostate even though he has Grogu again? From an offscreen event? And then Din looks like a complete moron traveling to his old clan to tell them about this third party story with no real information and no actual steps made towards repentance. I mean, this is beyond awful. Grogu is serving no function here as he is completely ignored in all of this, we see that them reuniting changed nothing at all about the plot that was so carefully setup, and that Din just reverts back to his secondary motivation of wanting repentance without showing us anything on screen. No character growth at all for him and Grogu and an absolute mess of his character arc is unfolding)
8. So now Din goes to Nevarro because he NEEDS IG-11! No other droid will do, that’s the only one he trusts to search for the mines with him. Thankfully, IG-11 is mostly intact, except for one crucial part that would restore his memory. Since no one on the planet has this part, Din leaves empty handed but tells Greef he will be back with the part. (More yikes, that fact that IG-11 even has any parts usable aside, this is so forced in… We haven’t seen IG-11 on screen for years. Years in real life and years in the show. But Din NEEDS him right now! He can’t find the mines without him specifically, but not really, he just wants him. Another extremely distracting wrench in the plot structure, and that’s not even considering the whole pirate arc that gets setup while he’s here.)

(Am I missing something here? How is R5 already following Din on Nevarro? Season 3 Episode 1 right after they land and walk. Din doesn’t even pickup R5 from Pelli until the next episode. Also, there are a TON of scenes where Grogu completely vanishes from sight. Like one shot he’s hovering right next to Din’s hip, the next he is nowhere to be found. Here he is clearly to the left of Greef, and then POOF he is gone again, but then in the VERY NEXT SHOT he is directly behind them walking but his compositing and color on the scene looks super wonky. It makes even less sense when you see it play out in video form rather than these stills. I mean there’s at least 5 instances of this where he should be there on the screen based on his previous placement but he’s not, and this occurs throughout all of Nevarro. Am I losing my mind with all this or is this evidence of some massive scene rearranging going on from Disney last minute? It’s like they had originally shot the whole planet with R5 and no Grogu at one point, and then re-shot half the scenes again to add Grogu in with a new storyline, but didn’t do a good job as Grogu is still missing from a ton of the new shots. This would also mean that Din was supposed to go to Tatooine before episode 2. Din also lands on Nevarro with Grogu still in the bubble instead of the droid port, but then R5 is following him in the next shot… So there are tons of different reshoots and VFX alterations going back and forth and it is a terribly messy presentation. This is just at first glance of my editing too, I’m sure there’s a ton more wrong here if you go frame by frame on this world.)

9. So Din is apparently now searching for this part to fix IG before he can go to Mandalore, so hmmm, where will he go to find it? Maybe he will try some scrapyard world like Raxus Pri- wait, what? Why is he suddenly in the Mandalore system? He’s landing on Kalevala from The Clone Wars? So this must be where Bo-Katan is… wait why does Din think she has or knows where the IG-11 part is? Din tells her that he wishes to join her in going to Mandalore. She says no one will follow her without the Darksaber, then Din just says that he is going anyways and leaves in under 2 minutes. (What the hell is going on? I thought he needed the droid part? Why did he just randomly go to Bo-Katan and want to join her in liberating Mandalore?? Bo-Katan sees Grogu next to him and doesn’t react at all??? Is she not confused how they reunited? Last thing she did with them was that enormously risky quest to rescue Grogu and she saw him leave with LUKE SKYWALKER. Then Din leaves without ever mentioning the droid and it seems like he is going to Mandalore right now without him? I am SO lost in this disjointed order of events.)
10. So I guess Din is just suddenly okay with going to the Mines alone without IG since he is only a few minutes flight away from Mandalo- Oh ok, random scene of Pelli on Tatooine, maybe it’s setting something up with Boba returning to join Din on Mandalore? That would be kind of cool for them to- WHAT?? How and WHY is the N1 instantly landing on Tatooine?! Din gets out and tells Pelli he needs the IG11 part…! Wtf is going on?? Why did he go right to the Mandalore system to talk to Bo BEFORE getting the droid part if that’s what he still wanted? Now he has to go ALL THE WAY BACK to the system he just came from! But wait! She doesn’t have the part, and the Jawas don’t have it, so she tells him to just take R5 and Din says ok fine I guess. He then flies ALL THE WAY back to Mandalore where he JUST CAME FROM to now go into the Mines with R5 instead of IG…??? (And this is where I gave up. This order of events is so beyond understanding or any form of logical sequencing it’s not even possible to edit this into anything sensible without RADICAL changes. And we’re only 5 minutes into Season 3 Episode 2 at this point and still have an enormous mess of pacing ahead throughout the rest of the season. This is seriously a complete nightmare plot structure. It is unsalvagable in its current form.)

Din’s apostasy happens in point #1 there and isn’t even resolved through EVERYTHING I wrote there. So so so many random events and distractions, nonsensical plot structure, and blatant mental errors. That is why I had a meltdown after Book 5 Draft 1 and starting to build Book 6.

Let me propose to you an alternative solution:

Book 5 Draft 2:

1. Din’s Ringworld story, he hunts the bounty, and we see what Din is like absent of Grogu. He has reverted back to his old brutal, somewhat purposeless self. Din is banished and I add in dialogue from Mando S3 from Armorer so he has a crystal clear picture of how he can be restored (this just avoids him going to that Rock planet to have a 95% identical conversation that makes him look like a moron).
2. Din takes a transport ship from Ringworld to Nevarro, where we get the scene of him and Greef discussing his desire to fix IG-11 to search the Mines with him. Din is lonely and he is seeking any resemblance of companionship as he feels like he has lost everything. He learns that this task to restore IG-11 is a fools errand and there is no way to achieve what he wants. The man is extremely depressed and hopelessly alone now. He runs into the subsequent trouble with the Pirates on the surface just to add onto his neverending trials. Mando then leaves on another transport ship to go to Tatooine to get his new Razorcrest so he can explore Mandalore.
3. When Din gets to Tatooine, we now get the Pelli building N1 sequence. During the test flight, Din encounters Gorian Shand’s pirates above Tatooine. We get the dogfight scene as in S3 with him testing out the new N1, before he lands back on Tatooine and gets R5 instead.
4. Din, still searching for companionship, goes to Bo-Katan as she is right next to Mandalore where he is headed anyways. She rejects him too, and again, Din sulks off completely alone in his suffering. The rest of the mines play out without Grogu. He gets captured alone and all hope is lost, he has resigned himself to die. (This also explains why he doesn’t even try to fight the freaky droid or try to break out later, he has lost all will to even live)
5. R5 notices Din isn’t coming back to the ship, so he jets out by himself and returns to Bo’s castle. She has a change of heart, curious to see Mandalore for herself, and goes to save Din alone. The rest of the Mines and baptisms play out.
6. Now restored, Bo takes Din back to his ship on Kalevala, only for them to be ambushed and the whole castle to be bombed by Imperials. Din and Bo then escape to the Mando clan rock planet (for the first time now) and she is introduced to the Watch as they are both accepted into the clan.
7. Nevarro is suddenly attacked by the Pirates that have been dogging Din throughout the film and we play out the final storyline of the Mandalorian clan retaking that world as a temporary home. Bo is given a task to go reunite the clans under this new hope for Mandalore, and Din, not only again a Mandalorian, but a Mandalorian hero carrying the Darksaber to bring them all to Mandalore, goes to see Grogu, his true desire, only to realize that he still can’t be with him and has to leave after delivering the armor as we get a tiny glimpse of Grogu training his new Jedi powers. The end.

Having the Nevarro retaking happen as the conclusion of Book 5 serves a few purposes. The first is that it brings the pirates into the story to fulfill the role of the villain for this film which some of Season 3 was lacking as it bounced around random storylines. We open the film with Din hunting criminals, he is attacked by pirates, and then he brings the clan together to save Nevarro from pirate invasion, all while going on a full character arc of personal redemption. We now have a clear and concise antagonist that helps give Din’s journey some guidance. Second, this gives the Mandalorains more agency and power up front, fortelling their strength in being able to retake Mandalore at some point down the road.

I still have to storyboard exactly how Book 6 and 7 would play out on their own now, but essentially, Book 6 would be Grogu training with Luke, Din and Bo reuniting the rest of the clans to prepare to retake Mandalore, and BoBF Boba content (now I can also consider the possibility to have Din and Grogu reunite during this Tatooine battle, as it actually feels like time has passed and each character has grown and changed significantly since they departed one another. We also can see how much Grogu learned from Luke as we’ve seen him train across 2 films and then come in to subdue the Rancor which is an awesome new display of strength). I am considering interweaving Pershing’s storyline throughout a Book 6 as well. Book 7 then addresses Grogu training as a Mandalorian after already training as a Jedi, and then everything to do with retaking Mandalore.

Would love to hear some thoughts on all this! I really like how it gives Din a very personal journey in Book 5, paces out Grogu’s training SO much better through the entirety of 2 films as we really feel his absence, sets up a natural growth of power for the clans reuniting and retaking Mandalore across 3 films, and gives Boba’s final scenes some closure instead of feeling like he just gets written out of the story for all of Season 3.

Wow, that is a radical change. But on paper atleast I think it sounds great at my first read through it!

If you’re able to pull it off seamlessly that is, then this sounds potentially incredible.
I think the main thing here to consider is that (IMO atleast) if the edits aren’t near “invisible” then the story may not hit the way that it should.

But if you’re able to properly get grpgu out of those storyline in the way you outlined seamlessly then it sounds incredible.