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The Edit that started it all as my first attempt into video cutting & videography in January of last year before doing a second version in June of last year, right before my “Sidequestless Edit” of the Mandalorian seasons 1 & 2.
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I did this because the show had 2 glaring issues. The first is having what I called “’The Eternals’ problem” where the story is split into two parts in past and present to try and make up for lost time, and often when one portion only just starts to build traction and get interesting, there’s a time jump suddenly which cuts off the momentum and is very unsatisfying. The second issue of the season was having half of the story taken over by someone else, with a horrible decision made in the finale narrative-wise.
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This edit is actually the second version of the project: the first version in January ’22 split the first four episodes into past and present, but I got very unsatisfied with that because that meant all the present portions were between 14 and 31 minutes each, which definitely felt too short per episode, lost traction within themselves as stated, and half the present parts were left on cliffhangers with the original episode ending in the past twice. This version of the project no longer exists I’m afraid, the work files are all gone.
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This, the second, version of the project is spread across 9 episodes – 4 in the past covering the episodes’ flashbacks, and 4 in the present, and 1 in the present acting as an overall epilogue:
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4 ABY: After the Battle of Endor - 20 mins, all of the flashbacks of the pilot episode, with a custom episode card I made and the musical notes of Episode 6 playing during, like the title cards of all of the flashback episodes because I liked it and it felt like it was a shame to lose it since Episode 6 was heavily reworked later.
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6 ABY: 1 Year after the Battle of Jakku - 34 mins, all of the flashbacks of “The Tribes of Tattooine” and a custom title card like above. This flashback episode is stated to take place in 6 ABY but, once again, it’s just a personal headcanon of mine to help pad out the story for two reasons. First is; the first three lots of flashbacks all look like they could take place within days or weeks of each other before suddenly jumping 5 years after RoTJ, which is pretty jarring so hopefully this alleviates that – secondly, there’s been little-to-no detail on specifics in the 5 year gap before ‘The Mandalorian’ started, so this just helps to fill out the timeline a little (hence why I don’t have the first three episodes’ flashbacks as 1 giant episode in itself).
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8 ABY: The Deals Run Sour – 7 mins, the short and single flashback of “The Streets of Mos Espa” that wraps up everything Tusken and follows the same card, music and headcanon rules as the first two episodes.
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9 ABY: Reclaiming The Past - 30 mins, all of “The Reckoning” as it first appeared, with a custom title card for the edit like the other episodes and 1 clear change to the story. I always disliked Fennec being the one to kill the Sarlaac because it felt like Boba should do it – for obvious reasons it would be a much more personal and satisfying kill for him to do it instead, so I changed it around so she reaches and misses as usual and he flicks the switch to do it now and gets his revenge – no talk of her touching his buttons since that now didn’t happen.
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Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land - 45 mins, the present portions of episodes 1 and 2 with a few changes in the story. It starts off six weeks after the finale of The Mandalorian season 2 (headcanon for story placing reasons) and begins with the Cobb Vanth portion of Episode 6 with the Pykes – this immediately ties the story into the wider shared universe, especially as it’s happening on the same planet we’ve visited many times now and frames the Pykes as the main overarching threat of the present story straight away. It goes to the beginning of Episode 1 right after with Boba in the bacta tank having his dreams, but in lieu of the first flashback we get the episode title card instead. The rest of the first episode plays out as normal with the other changes – the line about needing a protocol droid is gone because it makes them lacking something that basic seem woefully unequipped for anything, much less taking over a whole criminal empire – with the Gamorreans, Fennec doesn’t ask if sparing them is a good idea, she just runs with it rather than openly showing little confidence in her boss – and when they’re accosted in the streets by the assassins, Boba doesn’t start the fight with a wrist rocket (because why WOULD you fire a rocket point-blank when you’re both right there? Seriously, it was always stupid), this does create a small discrepancy with Boba holding his helmet and then suddenly it’s gone, but it’s a lot more liveable than the missile.
It then blends seamlessly into the present of Episode 2 after Boba’s rescued by the Gamorreans and put back in the bacta tank and has no other changes to the story until the end of the events of Episode 2, once the Hutt twins appear in the streets and lay claim to Jabba’s territory while Boba gets a veiled threat for refusing and meets Black Krrsantan.
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Chapter 2: The Streets of Mos Espa – 40 minutes, the present portions of Episodes 3 and 4 with some more changes. It begins with Episode 3 as normal with the former Jabba captains and their respective turfs being explained before the water monger appears with his disrespect and scam, Fett goes to investigate the Mods and ends up recruiting him when learning the monger was the real villainous party, then comes the title card. Boba dreams of Kamino in his bacta tank before Krrsantan breaks in and tries to assassinate him and the rest of this Episode’s events play out as normal until they see go to see the mayor. I’ve shortened and greatly reworked the speeder chase with footage from Episode 7, now it unfolds like: the major-domo flees -> the Mods go after him without Fennec telling them to which shows more initiative on their part (plus if they all went there together, they were probably clued in on the plan anyway) -> there’s the shot of the protocol droid in the street nearly getting hit which shows the major-domo’s recklessness as he tries to escape -> the red and yellow bike Mods sidle up to the speeder and use their augments to try and stop the speeder (so they’re useful) but the major-domo gets rid of them (no yellow bike crash) while the blue bike Mod watches on -> Boba shoots at the speeder from the air which draws the major-domo’s attention skyward, and manages to shoot the right engine, spinning the speeder out of control and it crashes. The rest of the Episode’s events plays out as normal with the Pykes arriving, but the line after keeping an eye on them is gone – it felt unnecessary and like Bala-Tik’s Scottish accent in The Force Awakens, the voice and the “Mate” just sounds too jarring next to everyone and everything else.
It blends right into Episode 4 and kicks off with the bacta tank but only shows the flashback dream of killing Bib Fortuna and taking his throne before waking up and having the dinner with Jabba’s former captain’s above the Rancor pit.
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Chapter 3: Return of The Mandalorian – All of Episode 5 with annotations as usual, and only some minor changes that only take place at the end of the episode. When Din is approached by Fennec, he keeps the money (because he just forked out on a new ship and a man needs to eat – him agreeing to stand and fight when it’s literally none of his business in any way IS his repayment for Boba’s help with Grogu against Moff Gideon in TMS2) and he doesn’t say he’s going anywhere first, because now there’s no giant segway in the middle of the season and he helps Boba straight away to try and keep the Boba show focussed on Boba and Boba’s business in Boba’s city. All of the Luke/Grogu portions were good, but they felt incredibly badly out of place in a show that isn’t a Luke show or even a Din show, so they don’t appear anymore here.
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Chapter 4: The Storm Breaks – Some of Episode 6 and all of Episode 7, and this is the main event of the series edit since the finale is where I had the biggest problem, and the Mandoverse kind of definitively went in the toilet IMO – what with the second season of the Mandalorian becoming pointless, having it so straight away since it’s the first show released since then, and ‘Rangers’ being cancelled in Feb 2021, 10 months before this released, so a lot of the following stories are probably rewritten in some capacity to compensate for this, like Mando S3 as a prime example.
It begins with the Episode 6 portions of Tattooine – Din arriving at the palace in his new N1 before offering to help with reinforcements by going to Mos Pelgo to recruit Cobb Vanth and his town. In a way, it’s a nice bookend for the present parts of the series – Vanth is there at the start of the first episode and now he’s back at the start of the last one, with the Pyke threat looming over both. Talks end in a stalemate and he leaves before Cad Bane shows up just before the Pykes bomb Garsa’s sanctuary. There’s the Chapter title card and it goes into the beginning of Episode 7 with Boba and Fennec at the bomb ruins. The rest of the episode plays out as normal except for a few changes with the Mod twirling on the spot to take out some Pykes after saving Krrsantan (because what was that in the first place?), Din and the Rancor to make him less superhuman with being thrown and bashed and through rock buildings, and having a several-tonne war robot coming down on his leg and not breaking a single bone. And, of course, the main point of the edit: No Grogu. He and Peli are completely absent from the episode so the reunion never happens and Boba’s Rancor goes down after its rampage in front of an exhausted Din by basically tiring itself out through all the destruction it causes (it’s still a baby, after all).
I changed the title because Din’s line about them dying in the name of honour against the Pykes is gone – it’s been very clear Din is struggling with his decision to give up Grogu and wants to see him again. Him being comfortable on any level with dying before either reuniting or letting go completely doesn’t 100% track with me, so it makes more sense that he’s willing to fight for the cause, but he’s not going to want or try to fall in any way until his business is done given how much Grogu affected him and his life, even in just a short span of time.
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The Mandalorian Season 3 Prelude: Difficult Choices – Lastly, as I stated above; the Din/Luke portions weren’t necessarily bad in any way, they just felt incredibly out of place, so I put them all in an epilogue episode that now takes place after the business on Tatooine. I put it as a prelude to the third season because I figured it would be actually relevant TO the third season, given how much of a big deal it was capping off the second one the way it did, but clearly that didn’t shake out beyond a single mention.
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Like my edits of ‘The Mandalorian’, I went back after “Andor" was finished November last year and added annotative text for locations the first time it appears in the season for the viewer - which, considering he Mandoverse has been shallow and underdeveloped as hell since the start in my opinion - it works fairly well to fill in the gaps nicely. Though they’re a bit different this time: some of the annotations for the Mos Espa city appear twice – the first one telling where a location is in relation to the wider city in Chapter 1, and in Chapter 2, those city locations are annotated again, this time reiterating which crime family it belongs to – to spell out the make-up of the city in terms of the actual criminal empire the series is about building and maintaining.
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It’s a Mega link like the rest again
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Footnote: I am in no capacity a professional editor or VFX artist, so some areas are visibly mostly good as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it. If you do have any particular notes and feedback, feel free to give me your thoughts, but please be constructive and don’t be an ass about it.