Let me know if I missed anyone on links!

Darth Sadifous said:

So I just finished watching the updated Book Four…Bravo! This is my favorite book so far and I loved how you reworked the scene in the imperial commissary where Din no longer removes his helmet. The payoff of removing Din’s face reveal till the parting of him and Grogu on the imperial cruiser definetly worked for me…chef’s kiss!

I believe you used the updated deapfake of Luke’s face in the conclusion too and while it looks a little devoid of movement, I think it really sells it is “Mark Hamill” as Luke again. The Book of Boba Fett scenes vastly improved so I do not think they need touch up down the road. Overall, awesome job and you deserve all the flowers…this series is awesome; can’t wait for the revised book five.

Thanks for the review! Glad you had a good time with the movie. Yes, that is the fanmade deepfake Luke, and while you’re right that it does look a bit stiff emotionally, the Disney version really didn’t look like Luke so you have to pick your poison a bit on this scene. As you mentioned though, BoBF did a fantastic deepfake of Luke that gives emotion and resemblance (probably because they hired the guy who made the Mando Luke deepfake).

One minor continuity issue I may have noticed is during the battle of Tython there is one transport ship shown landing around the 46 minute mark, then we see through the scope there are two transport ships at 46:38 ish then at 47:30 another transport ship lands and drops off more troops, but there only appears to be two ships total and Boba Fett takes out only two later. So by the edit I believe it would imply three ships total, but one is unaccounted for by the end. It could be implied one took off during the battle off screen, but I thought it was worth mentioning as I know you heavily edited the scene to fix the student film quality directing of the original which worked for me btw!

Nice spot! Yes, I do need to move that first infrared scope scene back ~90 seconds to preserve the placement of the transports.

So what’s the plan for Book 5? I spent 12+ hours over the weekend going through books 5/6 to examine my options. I enjoyed the uniqueness of my previous book 5 a lot and I think it did a ton right, but unfortunately, I may have written myself into a little corner with it. I loved the idea of pacing out Boba’s story into the later content of the saga, but there really is just no way to build anything out of it. I wanted to frame something about Din trying to get Boba to join the retaking of Mandalore and use the Tatooine battle as part of that, but the lack of dialogue with Din and Boba outside of battle scenes is extremely limiting. There’s not even a scene post-Tatooine of them together whatsoever. Battle ends with them apart, and there’s no ending dialogue at all. Din just leaves the planet without a scene with Boba so it can focus on Grogu. Really dislike it, but it is what it is. Thankfully, with the great feedback about some of my previous poor ideas, EddieDean proposed this:

EddieDean said:

… 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.

Going through the pros & cons of this structure:

Pros -

Overall storyline is much easier to structure, will need to rely less on AI lines, and have fewer gaps in connective tissue.
Fixes my biggest scene hiccup in current book 5 of the X-wing pullover scene and the pirate dogfight balance
Better paced full Boba story that doesn’t feel like a distraction, continues the flow of Din and Boba’s journey (at least for one more movie)
Longer solo journey for Din, more time away from Grogu, longer time as not a mandalorian
Gives me more flexibility to move around scenes within season 3, and probably can make the Dr. Pershing story fit

Cons -

Boba’s storyline falls off significantly after Book 5 (I will work in a couple of scenes and easter eggs that I already made, but he can’t be a major plotline and with him in Books 3-5 so heavily it definitely is noticeable that he is less of a main character)
Less of a unique storyline structure compared to my previous Book 5 where Din fits in a Nevarro trip before Tatooine
Doesn’t feel like Din does much to reunite the clans compared to my previous structure of him trying to get Boba to join
Maintains my previous criticism of the Mandalorians inheriting Nevarro feeling a bit worthless since they almost immediately leave to Mandalore anyway
Bo-katan is absent from Book 5, while Boba is pretty absent from Book 6-7. Instead of them both having important side character arcs in 5-7, it feels like they swap places.

So right now I’m putting together a Book 5/6 with the Eddie proposed structure to see how it all meshes, and I like it overall so far. But just wanted to toss out my thoughts and see if anyone has any additional feedback that could spark some creativity.

I have some pretty cool Book 6 scenes setup to keep Boba somewhat involved by utilizing Plazir 15 content + Boba and the Hutts, but again it’s nothing major and more just some easter eggs so he doesn’t feel completely written away like Disney did.