EddieDean said:
I suppose our difference of sentiment/approach here is in our reactions to the fact that, as you point out, there’s little Mando-Grogu meat in Season 3. You say ‘…and therefore I’m doing all I can to fix it’, which is absolutely a valid approach, and if you can pull it off (which is likely!) the whole will end up all the stronger for it. Whereas I’m more saying ‘…and therefore I’ll accept the lesser focus and take a solid Season 3 movie version which simply doesn’t have a lot of Mando-Grogu’. For me, both Mando and Grogu took more of a backseat in the season compared to Bo Katan and the Mandalorians, and I’m OK with that. But, arguably, it is Mando’s show, and he and Grogu should be more prominent.
This makes a lot of sense! It does just come down to a “director’s decision” of whether I want to keep the focus of the movies on Din/Grogu or morph it into a bigger-picture story about various Mandalorians as the D+ show itself did. While I do like seeing the growth of Mandalorians in general, I don’t think it was executed well and seemed like a production adjustment rather than the actual plan. For my edit saga, I would prefer to sacrifice a few Pershing/Boba recruitment scenes in favor of keeping the narrative focused on where it started, and the incredible adventure between a Mandalorian and a force-sensitive baby in an era where the galaxy looks down upon both of them. I want to give Boba his due and complete his arc in a satisfying way, I want to let Bo-Katan get her spotlight (and I am really enhancing this!), and I want to let our main characters stay as our main characters. It’s simply too jarring for me to rip out my two primary protagonists in my final film. I just don’t think that’s quality storytelling, which has been my goal since Day 1.
I’m still very, very eager to see you succeed here. I think you’ve got what it takes (strategically and technically) to pull off your ambitious fixing.
I can already tell the hardest part is going to be figuring out what to cut… Realistically, I have ~3.5 hours of usable footage to sift through, and I need to cut out 30-45 minutes to make a good movie. It’s making me sweat!
I kinda came around on the idea of a Pershing Minisode. If it comes without the Way of Mandalore branding.
I’m okay with this idea in general, but I just don’t know what exactly I can improve upon to make this a worthwhile effort. I’ve edited various scenes in some ways, but outside of integrating it into my main TWoM movies, there is just not a ton that I can do creatively here. What would you say needs fixed in the original release in order to make it into an interesting disconnected short story?