(The Mandalorian+BoBF) The Way of Mandalore | A Legends Movie Saga (Final Update in Progress: 5/6 Done) — Page 16

PM sent! I’m looking forward to seeing Book 5!

Sent to all, and thanks for posting feedback! I’m out of state until Thursday, but I have some ideas working for Book 6. I’ll lay them out below.

DarthMeme said:

Another fantastic edit by Acbagel! Book 5 worked so brilliantly; the removal of Grogu was done really well, I love that you managed to keep the Babu Frik aliens trying to repair IG scene, the action all worked great, having the space dogfight with the pirates near Tatooine was a great placement.
It just works so much better when we have Din be away from Grogu for longer, can’t wait to see how you’ll approach Book of Boba & the rest of the Mando S3 content.

Thank you DarthMeme. The pirate dogfight scene is one that I’ve received 50/50 feedback on. I think it’s cool in concept, but there is something a little odd about it as some have posted. Does anyone have any better ideas on alternative placement or do you think it can just be cut altogether?

honestabe said:

Book 5 was a masterpiece much like your other work. It was hard to notice Grogu missing with the VFX work that was done. You clearly had to put forth quite a monumental effort to get that done. Excellent work. You can really feel quite the time lapse going through the various battles with imperials, pirates, and the adventure into Mandalore. This is a must see for everyone.

The heavy restructuring of the saga by and large flowed rather smoothly.

Wonderful, indeed this was my most ambitious project ever. From the massive plot restructuring to dozens of hours masking Grogu out, the changes are quite radical and I’m glad that it can provide a new watching experience for those of us who weren’t too fond of the original Season 3 or even those who were but just want a fresh journey with it. The major goals of the edit were accomplished and it provides a vastly different viewing experience than the Disney version.

There a few minor issues that may be addressed in a future cleanup, but not really major:

• I thought it was a bit awkward for the New Republic pilots to stop Din for flying next to a commercial ship after he flew back down to Tatooine and back up.

I may be able to change this. I can probably come up with a different reason for him getting pulled over.

==> It may be best to have the flyover moved over to the moment where he leaves Tatooine. You can jump straight to the pirates while he is testing the ship.

• I liked having the pirate space fight outside Tatooine. However, I thought it was a bit strange that they would be there all the way from Nevarro without any explanation considering that is where it originally took place.

==> Would it be possible to quickly slip in some dialogue such as, “We have been tracking you.” One of the pirates can mention that to briefly explain how they knew Din was on Tatooine.

I addressed this scene above, but this is a good idea that might salvage it. Anyone else in favor of this or have different ideas?

• As we approach the ending, the volume of the soundtrack noticeably increased to a point where it became very difficult to hear a few words of dialogue between Ahsoka and Luke.

Thanks, made a note and will address it in the final update.

I know there are still some comments regarding Books 1-4 in the thread that I haven’t responded to yet, so I have those marked to come back to. But for now, I want to cast a vision for Book 6.

Here’s what footage I have left to work with:

• BoBF “current day” scenes. ~70 minutes of footage that I consider to be good enough to be usable
• Plazir-15 episode
• Rockworld Raptor episode
• Dr. Pershing episode
• 2-episode ending of retaking Mandalore
• BoBF E06 Luke/Grogu scenes, ~10 minutes

Book 5 ends with Bo-Katan being assigned to unite the clans, and Din still wrestling with being away from Grogu but being restored as a Mandalorian and able to help his clan. So we end with the two of them apart, but the blind setup for Book 6 is reuniting the clans to retake Mandalore and presumably some additional Grogu content. So this is the general structure I have right now:

Act 1

1. Grogu/Luke trainng
2. Din goes to Tatooine to try and get Boba to join the retaking of Mandalore. I use somewhat of a cold open with the Tatooine battle and a few AI voice lines here to explain the context
3. Bo-Katan is meanwhile training the clan on Rockworld and living the Mandalorian lifestyle by hunting the raptor (edited to remove Din and the abducted child). This is OG Mandalorian shit, warrior v beast as Bo-Katan is given new respect in her role.
4. I have merged the Raptor fight and Din’s alligator kill arrival from S03E01 for a seamless bridge. This brings our protagonists back together from their individual journeys between films.

Act 2

1. Dr. Pershing begins his journey as we slowly learn that Gideon lives
2. Grogu/Luke completes training and Grogu is given a decision about his future
3. Plazir-15 but cut everything to do with the side quest, straight into the Mando content
4. We set the scene for retaking Mandalore, but right before we fly out, Din makes one more visit to Grogu where they finally reunite (on academy world)

Act 3

1. Retaking Mandalore, this flows pretty smoothly as one final sequence.

Indeed, this does conclude The Way of Mandalore (for now, until Season 4?) in Book 6. It gives me ~2 hours 45 minutes of a movie. Thoughts?

How much of BoBF would that preserve, doing it the way you currently suggest, Acbagel? I don’t think we should be losing too much of the good present-day BoBF content just to mitigate the structural issues with Mando season 3.

I’ll repost a slightly edited version of my thoughts from PM to you, in case others want to chime in:

In terms of BoBF content, I’ve just looked over your Boba movie V1 (from a good while back), and that has 70 minutes of content not including solo Mando or Luke, or the twin Hutts or rancor content (which you used in your Boba movie V2). Realistically I’m sure there’s 90+ minutes of viable Tattooine-only story there. And I think the reason for Din going to Tattooine can simply be because he’s answering the call from Boba at a time when the Mandalorians aren’t ready to reclaim their homeworld just yet. They’re bros now after their last adventure together.

Buuuuut… maybe there’s a less radical ordering here, where you can get both the most out of the Boba story AND extend out the time that Mando and Grogu were apart, which I know is a (sensible) priority for you. So how about something closer to the ordering of the original release, but just using your Book 5 edits to keep Din and Grogu apart for longer:

• Movies 1-4 as before. They’re perfect. Din’s lost his ship and his kid. He thinks the Mandalorians are scattered. [Offscreen] he’s ordered a new ship from Peli, but it’ll be a while.
• Movie 5 pretty much just from BoBF, but Din and Grogu DON’T reunite. Mando is back to bounty hunting, listless, no clan. He chases the bounty against the dog-butcher people to find the Covert, meets them, makes a gift for Grogu, and gets kicked out. No mention of redemption - he’s now at his absolute lowest. He goes to get his ordered ship (so he can go visit Grogu as much as use it for hunting) and gets pulled in to Boba’s whole storyline on Tattooine (which becomes the main plot of the movie, happening throughout this storyline). After helping Boba, he heads to Luke’s planet, and gives Ahsoka the gift, but is discouraged from meeting Grogu, who we only see distantly. He’s now realised he really needs a family (thanks Boba) and, without Grogu, wants to give the Mandalorians another try.
• Either at the end of Movie 5 or the start of Movie 6, he goes to the Covert now on the Rocky planet (using more of his original entrance there). THIS time he’s much more desperate - he asks to atone. Only NOW does he learn he can do that at the waters of Mandalore. NOW he has a fresh mission - and still no Grogu.
• Most of your current Book 5 now becomes your Book 6. We don’t have your current content on the ringworld or with Pelli remaking the ship, which removes ~35 minutes (of 2h20) which gets us to the Vane/Gorian Shard plot much sooner. We instead fill that lost time with Luke training Grogu, and perhaps the Mando-birds sideplot. At the end of the movie, we see Grogu making the decision to rejoin Din, and cut to them flying together (using the technique for this you used previously where they blast off together).
• Movie 7: Now follows directly from the aftermath of the Gorian Shard fight, where the Mandalorians have safe haven on Nevarro but Bo-Katan’s been tasked to gather the clans and reclaim their home, and Grogu and Din are with them. We open with Bo and Din going to rescue Axe Woves (they don’t get distracted by the rest of Plazir) and Bo finally takes the Darksaber back. Now we’re ready to lead people to Mandalore. We continue with the two finale episodes, which are a nice straightforward story using all the pieces we currently have in play, but we intercut this with the full Pershing story. The Pershing story fits here most of all because (1) it builds on the current knowledge of the Imperial Remnant and New Republic, but mostly (2) because it ties closely back into the cloning plot and the reveal of Gideon’s plans. The scene of Carson finding that Gideon escaped can come just after it’s discussed by Pershing, to better tie it all together and keep the whole movie on theme.

Also, this way, each movie would come out closer to 120-140 minutes.

Agreed, but it gives you fewer narrative challenges to work around. I’m all for radical changes, and Acbagel has always delivered great solutions, but BoBF’s ending works nicely as a third act finale and narrative peak. That might be diminished if it’s cut to fit into a larger narrative about alliances, especially as his earlier appearance in the movie then wouldn’t be delivered upon by, say, a suprise appearance in the movie’s finale which might now be expected.

I really like Eddie’s proposed restructure. Sounds good.

You could even, with my proposed structure, take lots of Boba’s dialogue about needing a clan/tribe and make it direct conversations with Din (as opposed to Fennec/others), to help push Din back to the Mandalorians after his original rejection.

vranir said:

It might be even more involved than the Grogu erasure, but I’d love to see Boba Fett help in the retaking of Mandalore, even just from the air using Slave 1.

I’ve thought about commissioning a 3d artist (Howard Day, maybe?) to do a scene of Slave 1 gunning down the TIE Interceptors in the finale. Would wrap up that loose end, and give Boba some action. You could even use AI voices to show the Armorer calling Boba for help.

Also, could I please get a link to book 5?

EddieDean said:

How much of BoBF would that preserve, doing it the way you currently suggest, Acbagel? I don’t think we should be losing too much of the good present-day BoBF content just to mitigate the structural issues with Mando season 3.

My proposed order would use ~20 minutes from BoBF “current” day. That would be Din’s trip to see Cobb, a couple minutes of planning for the battle, and then a trimmed version of the battle itself. No Cad Bane, no Boba focused scenes, really only using scenes that are exclusively Din or ones where Din and Boba are together (which is only the final battle). The purpose is only to show that Din has been doing his part in trying to unite the Mandalorians together, not to give the typical view of how Boba gained respect on Tatooine. Also to show why Boba isn’t heavily involved in the retaking of Mandalore.

Buuuuut… maybe there’s a less radical ordering here, where you can get both the most out of the Boba story AND extend out the time that Mando and Grogu were apart, which I know is a (sensible) priority for you. So how about something closer to the ordering of the original release, but just using your Book 5 edits to keep Din and Grogu apart for longer:

I like a lot of what you proposed in that message, but it doesn’t address the main reason that I am leaning toward shortening Boba’s solo Tatooine scenes. That being that he is completely absent from Mando S3 and after so much screen time in your proposed Book 5, he is then 100% absent from books 6-7. I am trying to tie him into the main narrative rather than giving him a side story on Tatooine that doesn’t drive the overall theme of my saga.

vranir said:

What you gain by putting Boba Fett in book 6 is that you draw out the whole thing about contacting and building alliances with other Mandalorians. In the vanilla version it’s far too quick and simple. While hanging out with Fett who doesn’t go to Mandalore isn’t actually accomplishing anything, it can give the illusion of connection to the main plot.

Yes, this is exactly what I was going for with this idea. However, I do intend to make it more than just an illusion by also including Boba & Slave 1 in the final space battle as suggested as well as adding him into the final “celebration” clip on Mandalore. He won’t have a large role in this film, but it won’t feel like he was written out of the story for no reason like S3.

EddieDean said:

Agreed, but it gives you fewer narrative challenges to work around. I’m all for radical changes, and Acbagel has always delivered great solutions, but BoBF’s ending works nicely as a third act finale and narrative peak. That might be diminished if it’s cut to fit into a larger narrative about alliances, especially as his earlier appearance in the movie then wouldn’t be delivered upon by, say, a suprise appearance in the movie’s finale which might now be expected.

I’ll restructure the Tatooine battle to be very fast-paced and opening-esque, and I will also include Boba again later on in the film to pay off his early appearance and connection to the overall plot.

Ooooft. Buddy you know I’ve got a huge amount of respect for you and your work, and obviously you’ve got the complete right to execute your vision however you want, but I have to say that I think that treatment of the Boba content isn’t the right move for what I think your priorities are - or what they started out as. Perhaps your priorities have shifted, but to my mind when you started out it was to include as much good content as possible, in a smoothed-out movie structure. Whereas now, I feel like you’ve got major issues with the pacing and structure of Mando season three that you’re trying to repair (totally fair!) but executed this way would come at the detriment of other content.

You’re arguing, fairly, that Boba doesn’t appear to matter to Mando season three’s plot about uniting the clans, but - does he need to? He’s never been a ‘true’ Mandalorian (his own appearances in Mando S1-2 and his own show confirm that), so he doesn’t owe our characters anything. And just because he’s not present this season, doesn’t mean he won’t return in future, or even get wrapped up in the ongoing mission to retake Mandalore. And if he does, what then? I think you’d miss his earlier appearances.

Remember, this isn’t an ensemble show. It’s many contemporary-set shows which sometimes overlap. Boba isn’t (necessarily) a main character in The Mandalorian (or even The Filoniverse) saga, and neither is Ahsoka. Each show is its own thing - and ultimately the payoff, I’m sure, is going to come from consuming as much of it (polished, if you like) as possible.

Furthermore, Boba’s content is good! As you proved with your own original Boba edits, it’s a show which really lands, when some tweaks are made.

I don’t know. I’m not trying to be difficult here - I’ve had loud opinions in your thread quite enough! I just urge you - completely respectfully - to think and be absolutely sure about what your top-level priorities are for the entire Way of Mandalore project, and see how your decisions align. That sounds patronising but I don’t mean it that way at all - many times during my own project I had to check myself and found my priorities drifting, and had to reign them back in and make tough choices. And hey, if you’re certain this is the vision you’re striving for, of course I’ll respect and support that. I’m really invested in this project, that’s the only reason I’m so passionate about it here!