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Smudger9's Clone Wars Movie Series [Siege of Mandalore WIP]

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Hi all,

This has been an awful long time coming, but I’ve decided to dip back into the Clone Wars.

I’ve always wanted to do something with the last 3 seasons because they had some fantastic stories and the animation really improved, particularly with the final season.

I still have my live action and Bad Batch projects to continue, so the Clone Wars project will have to fit in around them and I’m not going to do things chronologically. I’m going to start with the final season, largely because the thing that actually triggered me to dive back in was the Tales of… series, which have arcs that fit in and around the final season. So here we are:

Episode IX [The Siege of Mangalore]
Includes:
Clone Wars: S7E2 and S7E5 to S7E12
Tales of the Jedi: E5 & E6
Tales of the Empire: E4

I have completed my second cut and the audio editing is about 80% complete so I should have this released by the end of the month.

Brief Outline: (Runtime 2h34)

Act 1 (53 mins)
The movie opens on Coruscant with the first 2 scenes of Tales of the Jedi: Practice Makes Perfect as a flashback prologue. This shows Ahsoka’s test at the Jedi Temple and the first part of her training with Anakin and the 501st. This serves 2 purposes, firstly as a way of having Anakin and the 501st present in the first act and secondly to open on a scene that is relevant to the finale.

We then cut to Ahsoka on her speeder and she meets the Martez sisters.
The Martez arc is included and essentially becomes the first act. It’s not my favourite arc by any means, but its essential as it shows us how Ahsoka is surviving following her expulsion from the Jedi order and it provides the inciting incident for the movie - Ahsoka discovering the location of Maul and Bo Katan asking for her help.
The plot for the arc has been heavily condensed so that it totals just 45mins.
This act also includes the Anakin/Padme holo chat from the Bad Batch arc. This acts as a spacer scene to replace cut elements from the Martez arc, it maintains Anakin and Rex’s presence in act 1 and its just a great scene with relevance to ROTS.

Act 2 (52 mins)
The Siege of Mandalore and Maul’s capture play out as the second act with minor trimming and the addition of the next training segment of Practice Makes Perfect as a brief flashback for Ahsoka as she is reunited with the 501st.

Act 3 (49 mins)
Order 66 and Ashoka’s escape with Rex play out with minor trimming as the base of act 3.
There are 2 further flashback scenes using footage from Practice Makes Perfect. One just before order 66 and one as Ahsoka and Rex are walking to the hangar bay.
During the order 66 sequence I have inserted the first scene from Tales of the Empire: Devoted where Bariss is looking at the Jedi Temple from her cell.
After Rex and Ahsoka escape in the Y-wing the rest of Bariss’ recruitment to the Inqusitorius from Resolve is intercut with the final 2 scenes of the Mandalore arc and the Naboo scenes from Tales of the Jedi: Devoted.

If anyone is keen to see what I’ve done so far here is a completed 20minute segment. This is the Order 66 segment which includes one of the flashbacks and the first Bariss scene. I’d be grateful for any feedback.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fj9nDM14p-L4YtVsL0aH8I8_Fnlnzsck

Current Project:- Bad Batch EP3: Shadows of Tantiss

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I get the temptation of adding Barris in there, but I think her scenes will feel a bit lost between all the other stuff.

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 (Edited)

I like this structure. The Martez arc should lead into Siege, Anakin/Padme from Bad Batch should be included, and Practice Makes Perfect always deserved to have something ‘interesting’ done with it, so wrapping it round an Ahsoka introspection arc (and the one with its payoff) makes a lot of sense.

I agree with Dimitrios though, that Barriss doesn’t really belong- perhaps instead that should be paired with the Tales episode showing Ahsoka’s CW aftermath.

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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I agree with you both that it could be jarring to suddenly have Barriss appear and take on a major story role right at the end. I have thought about combining it with Ahsoka’s final episode in Tales of the Jedi. It would make a great episode in a TV show format but not as a feature. I think I’ve managed to produce something that works as an epilogue to the movie.

I have put the first Barriss scene during the order 66 sequence, so she doesn’t appear from nowhere and I will mention her in the opening crawl. In terms of the rest of the Barriss content.
The Siege of Mandalore arc already has an epilogue of sorts with Vader finding Ahsoka’s lightsaber. What I’ve done is use that scene, a condensed version of Barriss’ recruitment to the Inquisitorius and the Padme funeral scene to create the epilogue. It plays out in chronological order with small time skips and shows us what directions these characters are going in as we head into the Dark Times and also hammers home that dark times are ahead.

Here is the sequence. Let me know what you think.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OaSO65TfzCiXSPZDmHsTI78g8X90877o

Current Project:- Bad Batch EP3: Shadows of Tantiss

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Hm. The idea does have merit, and technically it works fine, but it’s a long and slow-paced epilogue where Barriss is a main character out of nowhere. And because it’s long, you lose that lovely heavy momentum at the end where everything feels like it’s sinking sadly with Ahsoka, the Clones, and later Vader. I feel like your best and most tonally appropriate option here would be a far more truncated (like 90% truncated) montage of those few things, with the theme of ‘the galaxy sadly descends into a dark, uncertain future’.

I’m talking almost single shots, without dialogue, over a piece of music that leads into the final Vader scene. Something like:
[Sad, slow, ominous music]

  • Barriss in prison
  • Barriss’ hands unshackled
  • Ahsoka and Rex burying the dead
  • Fortress Inquisitorius under construction
  • Barriss at FI
  • Grand Inquisitor before students
  • Barriss and other inquisitors bow to GI
  • Vader at FI
  • Padme’s state funeral
  • Ahsoka at Padme’s funeral
  • Bail Organa gives Ahsoka a comm device
  • Ahsoka flies away
  • Final Vader scene

The Clone Wars: Refocused | Andor: Movie Omnibus

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I think the epilogue (as well done as it is on a technical level) feels off pacing wise. The montage idea would also just work for repeat viewings. A first time viewer would probably not quite get it, because they are not familiar with what the Inquisitors are.
Adding Padmes funeral is super nice, it is actually on my ToDo list to make a little edit that inserts that scene into the last episode of CW:Refocused. So all thumbs up for that. I think my biggest problem with Barriss is 3 things:

  1. It suddenly brings a character front an center that had no real role in the movie before
  2. It is different tonally from the rest of the rest of the material. We go from Ashoka burying the clones to Padmes funeral to Vader visiting was is supposedly Ahsokas grave. That kinda makes sense. Having footage in there of a new Inquisitor fortress being built clashes a bit, at least for me.
  3. Both Padmes funeral and Ahsoka burying the clones are relatively close to the end of the rest of the story. Then comes a big time jump to Vader finding the wreckage. Story gets concluded -> Timejump to bookend with a nice image. That feels clean to me. Having several little timejumps of different size in there makes it feels a bit muddy for me.

Love a lot of your work, so thats where this feedback is coming from. 😃

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I’m super happy you decided to revive this project 😉

Can’t wait to see how you deal with the Maul/Shadow Conspiracy arc!

Do you think you could consider removing the whole clones’ chip (order 66) stuff? I’ve always found it such a terrible retcon ; /

Also, I think that the Barriss scene from “The Devoted” could serve as a great post-credit scene to the Ahsoka/Conspiracy movie.

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Honestly the Chips were kinda neccessary. Keeping it a secret that there is a standard issue order to kill all the jedi that every Clone Trooper is aware of… is a bit weird.

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The chips have become such an important part of animated canon. We have the arc in Clone Wars season 6 and it continues into Bad Batch.

Current Project:- Bad Batch EP3: Shadows of Tantiss

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Keeping an eye on this. I like what I’ve seen so far.

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 (Edited)

Thanks Glogus. It’s sooo close to release. Just a few music transitions to sort out. I’ve got another project on the go at the moment that I’m prioritising, but this will be done by the summer. Then onto season 6.

Current Project:- Bad Batch EP3: Shadows of Tantiss

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 (Edited)

smudger9 said:

The chips have become such an important part of animated canon. We have the arc in Clone Wars season 6 and it continues into Bad Batch.

I definitely see your point, but I do agree with the other user. I think the chip was inserted because Filoni was creating all of these sympathetic clone characters, and to him it didn’t make sense for them to know about Order 66 but still be sympathetic. But to me, it was kind of a cop out, and made O66 less powerful.

I think a better option would be that it was only known to the very top brass of clones, and even then it wasn’t considered something that was /going/ to happen, but rather a contingency plan, “just in case” kind of thing is how they would justify it to themselves. And you could say that there were other orders for similar contingencies against the Senate. And you could still have the plot of Fives discovering it and questioning everything, and being killed for it.

But thats just my fan fiction I wish had happened. I think the chip removes character agency so no I don’t like it at all.

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Hello, did you finish this project? Your idea of edit is something I am looking for

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I’m polishing this edit off at the moment. It’ll be released in the next few weeks.

Current Project:- Bad Batch EP3: Shadows of Tantiss