The Living Force:
My wife and I loved the dream at the start of the episode, that was easily the best editing choice and was extremely compelling.
I also liked the framing around Qui-Gon, but I disliked losing the visual of the Mortis Tho Yor (double pyramid). Making it all a vision makes sense, but I think too much was cut.
Overall the rest of this episode felt so rushed. I get that not everyone likes the mystical stuff, but we lost the establishing lines for the Mortis Gods. The roles of Son & Daughter are just barely established but without their names, and I was left wondering why the DarknSideGuy cared when he killed the LightSideLady.
Three moments I think have to be restored in their order:
We really missed the test the Father had Anakin perform.
Ahsoka getting turned & Ahsoka waking up are necessary moments, imo. This is the last episode before Ahsoka’s Fall, and we lost the emotional moments between her and Anakin. We need to see him choosing not to tell her she was dead.
I don’t entirely hate cutting Anakin turning, but I still miss it.
This is the only episode of Refocused that my wife and I have not enjoyed. The episode feels hollow because the stakes are not established. Why does any of this matter? The Father killing himself came out of no where to us.
I was left overwhelmingly with the question of “Why?”
We ended plugging in the original episodes and watching them because this ended up being a disappointing watching experience. Another issue this raised was how much of Ahsoka got cut, that was arguably the most frustating aspect of the edit for us.
I’m gonna make an alternative version and we’ll see what happens with that.
EDIT:
I did as I said!
Presenting an alternative extended episode that runs at 48 minutes, entitled: The Chosen One.
I used some of TLF’s structure with the following adjustments:
Replaced the opening dream with a dream of Anakin controlling the Son & Daughterin the arena.
Left in all references to Son & Daughter’s names
Restored scene where Anakin accuses Father of being a Sith with minor trims, including a reference to being anchorites and testing Anakin
Restored Ahsoka being turned by Son
After Ahsoka is revived restored Father telling the group to leave
Recolored them boarding the ship from the end of Overlords and crafted a crashing sequence to get into the material from episode 3
Cut Anakin going to the well, instead he has the dream originally used earlier and wakes up in the Monastery to deal with the Son
Everything proceeds as before, but with references to the Son trying to leave intact. Without them being anchorites hiding away this is easily read as the embodiment of the darkside wanting to be free from wherever they are.
The main thing this alternate extended episode does is restore some of the reality of what is happening for those who like the mystical stuff, and leaves as much of Ahsoka’s stuff in the episode as possible. The latter being a necessity imo so close to her last episodes for half a season.