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.
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.
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.