Acbagel

Hey everyone!

The wait is (mostly) over! After countless hours of editing, rendering, and maybe a little bit of crying over keyframes across the last year, I’m incredibly hyped to finally drop the TWO official trailers for my massive Mandalorian Re-Edit project:

✨ The Way of Mandalore Book 5: The Apostate ✨

This project completely reimagines the events surrounding BoBF & Mando S3, twisting the narrative, adding new VFX/SFX, and exploring what happens when Din and Grogu DON’T immediately reunite.

I’ve prepared two different looks:

🎬 Official Story Trailer: Get a feel for the new plot, the altered character arcs, and the overall cinematic vision of “The Apostate.”
[https://youtu.be/e9gyW7x5JAg?si=4fUB5MyrieExfAxh]

🚀 VFX/Feature Showcase Trailer: A closer look at the insane amount of new and enhanced visual & audio effects work that went into this beast!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkCOwX9-WZ8]

Your support and anticipation have seriously kept me going on this! 🙏 Please head over to YouTube, check out BOTH trailers, drop a Like/Comment (it helps the algorithm!), and Sub if you haven’t already!

Let me know what you think! Can’t wait to hear your reactions to the film!

Full release of the edit is coming…

TOMORROW.

Ibic cuyir te Ara! (This is the Way!)

Looks really cool! I would love to see the change from The Alaskan Sandman unreleased edit where Sidious is the one who kills the younglings. At 2:14 in his trailer here

While I love the animation style and want to see more stories in this format, this feels a bit underwhelming again. Most of Tales of the Jedi was very good, Tales of the Empire I thought was almost complete garbage, and this just has me extremely neutral. Not sure how they’re landing on what characters/eras to focus on… But it seems very random and not in touch with what people want to see.

That said, if we get the Cad v Boba scene finished here, or they (somehow) provide a convincing reason Ventress is even alive right now, Ill take it.

beachedwhale said:

Have been watching out for this frequently and seriously looking forward to it! Have a marathon I’m holding out on specifically for these edits and can’t wait to see what you’ve put together, thought your previous 5 was brilliant and looking forward to seeing how you finalise it all

That’s so cool! I think these films function best for “marathon” rewatches for sure, you’re doing it right! I’ll be really interested to hear your thoughts being able to compare the initial Book 5 draft vs this one. Don’t worry, because the best parts of the previous Book 5 with Boba will now be in Book 6, and I think this one functions so well as it is now. Excited to share.

One of my favorite changes to Book 5 is placing Luke’s academy on Yavin IV instead of Ossus. While I love Ossus as a planet… Luke’s academy being there happens waaay too soon in the timeline here (compared to the EU). It feels authentic to me for this to be on Yavin instead. I’ll get some proper screenshots rendered soon, but if you want to watch me edit the VFX for that section, you can see that HERE!

vranir said:

Super excited for movies 5 and 6!

SAME.

Patali said:

We are ready for book 5!

5 is still on track to release this weekend…! 6 is probably 1-2 months out. Thanks for jumping into the streams, that’s been fun!

aGreatHumanBeing said:

I’ve not watched book 1-4 yet, but I’m still happy that number 5 is right around the corner!

(In my head but this one will be called Mando No. 5 (A Little bit of Grogu))

Nothing wrong with waiting for them all to be released first to start! If I were a fan and not the creator, that’s how I’d be watching these too. More accurate would be Mando No. 5 (A teeny tiny itsy bitsy bit of under 1 minute of Grogu). Book 6 will feature him a little more, but I want us as the viewer to feel like Din feels… Grogu just… isn’t here anymore.

Working through the very final pass right now, hope to get that VFX/feature trailer out within a couple days. Final touch ups are mostly flavor things like adding E-22 blaster sounds into the Night of a Thousand Tears scene, volume balancing all around, and a couple very minor plot points I want to adjust (for example, cutting Din’s mention of the N1 not having a droid port, because he gets R5 WAY sooner in my film compared to Disney’s, it feels odd for him to say that then be putting a droid in it a few minutes later) after watching it all on “the big screen” in my living room. I have a list of ~25 things I’m running through touching up, but it’s very very close… The first act feels SO different with all the Mando’a and Mandalorian history interjected throughout. Makes me feel like I’m back in the Camps on Dxun… It’s definitely got that old school EU vibe.

Ok… Back to work!

And that’s… a… WRAP!

Over a year of brainstorming and work, and finally… FINALLY, I have just rendered a completed draft of The Way of Mandalore Book 5: The Apostate that I am very happy with. It’s the film I always wanted to make, and it’s just about ready to show you all.

I am going to do a final watch through tonight in my movie room, then fix the 20-30 bugs that always reveal themselves in these final viewings, and then we should be ready for release within the next week. I am SO excited to share this movie re-edit with everyone. I promise you, it’s a Mandalorian experience that you will barely even recognize compared to Season 3.

Here’s Trailer #1

Final “VFX and Feature trailer” detailing the main changes coming soon too! And keep an eye out on my pages for details of release!

Faelin said:

This project looks amazing, I love the decision to replace alien dialogue, and add mando’a. I will have to send a message to get access once complete.

very excited. ^-^

I can’t even begin to explain how happy I am with the alien voice changes! COMPLETELY alters the feeling of the characters and the final battle on Nevarro as a whole. We are very close to release of Book 5! Will send out review copies to a couple editors over this weekend and hopefully have it ready for public release next weekend. Change log will be coming soon… It’s extensive!

Mk_9000 said:

LINK TO THE COMPARISON VIDEO:

Please give me feedback. I noticed a few errors in this one, but I’m working at it. as you can tell from the gif above, I put lots of work into these 26 seconds!

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGi2Q1mOFw/iaqMwHeHRr4r3AW3aWX25A/watch

Feedback please!

Peace out, MK 9000

Awesome! HUGE improvement over the original. And I love the Blue in the sky to counteract the previous battle where it was fiery Red. Very nice work

yoshif8tures said:

I was checking the cut list and got really confused as they seem completely different to what I’m watching. Is it out of date now?

Hmmm, depends on what cut list you were reading and what version of the films you are watching! The front page of this project has much older change lists, the updated ones are just posted throughout the pages of this whole project. Books 2-4 were just updated over the last couple weeks. I’ll DM you to make sure you have the latest links though

Super hype for all these amazing changes!! Can’t wait to watch this episode when it’s done. Going to do a whole Rebels rewatch alongside Andor coming up soon. Thanks for all your work

EddieDean said:

You absolute beauty!

Are you doing any colour work on these? I remember about a year back you’d changed the colours on some versions, and finding some of it a bit stark. And are your black levels changing from the original through your pipeline?

Oh, and side question: Are you preserving the resolution shift with the Krayt Dragon reveal in the relevant movie?

Negative on both accounts, I did not do any additional visual quality touch-ups for Books 1-4, aside from the minor VFX work like fixing blasters/graphics that are in the changelog. The Final Update for me was just to get the storyline I envisioned in there. Books 5 & 6 will look much better than the rest.

Collect0r said:

Looks great, would you please share the links to the available chapters?

For sure! On the way.

I’m about 16 hours of review work into book 5, and currently about 14 minutes into the film lol… Long process, but there’s so much more I want to do this time around, especially with the Darksaber. It’s just taking a VERY long time to write and record the Mando’a. 3 hours last night for 45 seconds of screen time! But it’s worth it

Whew! That’s a wrap, The Way of Mandalore Book 4 Final Update is released. Ended up doing an insane amount of work on this last one, and I would say it’s some of my best ever. There is a fine line that separates a good show from a great one, and I’ve done everything I can to elevate this film through the little things. Check out the second half of the changelists, and then the film will be available in a few hours!

• Fixed the scene order on the Tython battle where I had two imperial transports visible on Din’s binoculars BEFORE the second shuttle had arrived. This was a previous error on my part, but the inconsistency is now gone!

• Cut the scene where Din gets shot like 20 times by stormtroopers and is barely phased before Boba arrives. Now as soon as he’s surrounded, Boba drops his bombs.

• Recolored Gideon’s Arquitens-class command cruiser blaster bolt that destroys the Razorcrest from Red to Green.

• Added Din yelling “NO!” when the Darktroopers take Grogu. Felt weird with him staying quiet the whole time.

• First off: Tython is in the DEEP CORE. So why is Fennec saying “That can’t be. The OUTER RIM is under the jurisdiction of the New Republic”? Secondly… no, the Outer Rim is not under NR Jurisdiction right now, not even in Disney Canon. And we were JUST on Tatooine where there is no New Republic presence, same with Nevarro, which is also Outer Rim. This line is plain stupid and the director had no idea about the lore of the star wars galaxy. Fennec now says, “That can’t be. The Core Worlds are under the jurisdiction of the New Republic,” which makes sense lore-wise.

Also, the location where they have Tython marked on Din’s map is waaaay up in the outer rim near Plazir 15.

I have now fixed Tython’s location on Din’s Razorcrest Galaxy Map. DEEP. CORE.

• Oh man… The fight on Morak on top of the juggernaut type vehicle with the locals. I can’t even begin to explain how bad the choreography is and how much work I had to do. I spent almost 4 hours working through this in my livestream. Watch if you want specifics because there are waaaay too many changes to list. TLDW; I acbagel’d it. Blaster shots fixed, TIE’s fixed, gutted the sound to remove the stock SFX they had all over the place, new blaster fire VFX, flipped/cropped tons of shots that were inconsistent, made Mayfeld a more active participant by having him shaking the vehicle to throw the locals off the top rather than their obvious stuntman jumps off the side etc.

• When Mayfeld uses Boba’s Tusken Cycler rifle to snipe the Rhydonium, it doesn’t make the correct blaster sound effect AND they don’t even make a blaster bolt VFX come out of it to hit the tank. The vehicle literally just explodes all by itself, and it’s not even a far away camera shot, it’s a close up, no blaster bolt ever is shown and it just explodes. Fixed it all. New sound, new muzzle blast, new blaster bolt that flies and makes impact leading to the explosion. BOOM.

• On Lafete in the cantina where Din and Boba meet Bo, cut the exposition lines as Bo says “the darksaber can cut through anything” and her posse smirks and go “ALMOST anything” and Bo goes “It cannot cut through… BESKAR.” Very bad deliveries and super on the nose, it’s 4 mandalorians explaining the basic properties of beskar to each other for the sake of the audience. Unnatural.

• Replaced Din’s holo-call threat to Moff Gideon with a different one… I HATE that it’s a word for word copy of Gideon’s speech. How tf did Din memorize that thing perfectly in the moment? I wish I could cut the whole scene in favor of something else, but there is a lot of plot that happens offscreen in between episodes and I have nothing else to pace this section with. Unfortunately, there is a deleted scene with Boba on Nevarro that Disney has never released… Wish I had it for here.

• Readded the scene where Din goes to Nevarro for Cara Dune before getting Mayfeld, can’t even remember why I cut that in the first place, and looking at the galactic map, it makes sense so it’s back in. It fits in better AFTER the Grogu on Gideon’s ship scene though, helps pace the ship travel better.

• Goodbye Dark Trooper Dubstep theme. Hello Dark Forces Dark Trooper Theme.

• Massive combat re-edits for Din’s 1v1 duel with the Dark Trooper. The original is chock full of inconsistencies. And his Spear materializes out of thin air into his hands like he just hit “i” on his keyboard and equipped from inventory. Seriously, watch it on D+, it’s literally not in his hands or anywhere near him and then POOF he has it in the next frame. They were trying to combine multiple takes here I guess but that’s a bad one to merge if you have to CGI a spear in between frames. Also, Din has a vibroblade laying on the ground so they cut parts of this fight in Post too, just sloppy sequence all around.

• Covered up many instances of stormtroopers getting shot and dying but no scorch marks are shown. Still some I couldn’t get fixed though.

• Cut Cara Dune’s “Dank Ferrik, son of a MUD SCUFFER!” Baaaad delivery.

• Rearranged or cut some of Moff Gideon’s explanation about the darksaber rules. I want to make it seem like Din knows the rules already, but just wasn’t thinking about them because his mind was elsewhere rather than like he’s just hearing them for the very first time. To him, this blade should be legend that he knows of but maybe even always thought was a myth. Added some lines from Din to show he simply doesn’t care about the “rules”, he just wants to get on with things for Grogu’s sake. This is part of his character arc to being more of a father to Grogu than a principled Mando.

• Added a Cara Dune smirking shot after Bo-Katan first sees Luke on the cams and says “A jedi…?” Always thought it was strange that she showed no recognition of Luke. This now makes it seem like SHE knows she’s saved while everyone else is confused. Works really well and 100% Cara should know about Luke Skywalker at this point in the timeline as a lifelong Rebel Dropper and now New Republic Marshall. Now cutting back to Moff Gideon’s terrified face right after because HE knows too is chef’s kiss of a back and forth reaction to presence of the GRANDMASTER.

• Touched up a couple clunky shots of Luke fighting DarkTroopers

• Sped up Moff Gideon’s attempt to shoot Bo-Katan and transition to Grogu

• Completely rebuilt the scene after Luke kills the DarkTroopers in the hallway and enters the room. I have no idea why they’re all acting like Luke is a Sith Lord here pointing their blasters at him, ESPECIALLY Cara lol. Wtf is that? Fennec’s line of “Are you crazy?” to Din is the only one that makes sense because I understand why SHE would be scared of a Jedi. But Cara…? No. Changed Din’s line from “Open the doors” to “Put your weapons down,” because he is clearly the one walking to the button to open the doors as he says this and made sensible reactions for each character.

• Mapped the Jarkan Deepfake VFX onto the Shamook one for majorly improved Luke face! Huge credit to both of those guys for their initial work, and the combination of them looks the best I’ve seen of this version of Luke.

• When Din takes his helmet off for Grogu it’s in his right hand, but then instantly the next frame it’s just on the ground, then next frame it’s still on the ground but facing the complete opposite direction… then later in the scene it’s in a different place facing a DIFFERENT direction… fixed all so that inconsistencies are gone. It should now appear that it’s in his right hand the entire time.

Enjoy, everyone! Book 5… Coming Very Soon.

frienca said:

Would love a link to the completed chapters.

Sent!

Updates:

Collabing with g00b for Darksaber storyline synchronization! See post below for details:

https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-Rebels-Recut-A-Fanedit-TV-Series/id/95189/page/27#1633019

Previewed a lot of Books 5 and 6 in my livestream last night, showed more than I ever have and I present the whole vision for it all. Spoilers for sure!

https://www.youtube.com/live/7vagrDWYook?si=UrLAfI5YmTW6U_a4

Book 4 final update is very close, trying for tomorrow release.

Fatbond said:

Seems like this project has a lot of potential as there is a fair amount of filler episodes especially in series 2 which can be removed. Would love to watch it when its finished.

Thanks, though to be honest, this project is on the backburner for the foreseeable future. Wasn’t personally fond of Season 3 and thought the series peaked mid season 2 and it was all downhill from there, so that kind of killed my motivation to work on this. Might pick it up one day, but I would have a number of other edits with higher priority first.

Faelin said:

Acbagel said:

Hello! I began working closer with PixelJoker95 on his edit when I was starting this project, and he could do a lot more on the VFX side of things than I could so I put a pause on this. We collaborated on some ideas and I helped on the writing of some in-person scenes he was filming, so I didn’t want to rush my release when he was bringing so much to life on his end. His edit has been delayed for the past 6+ months, but it’s still going to be released this year so I’m keeping this on hold until his is out. Mine might not even be necessary after his, but I’ll see if I want to make any storytelling changes after that. Thanks for your interest, it was a fun project so I’d like to pick mine up again some day.

As someone who has been following PixelJoker’s project, this is a very exciting piece of information, I look very much forward to seeing what you come up with.
May the force be with you.

His project is taking longer than expected due to some real life challenges for him, but I can assure everyone that everything that I’ve seen from behind the scenes is A+ quality and this film will release at some point. This is a once in a generation quality edit!

Again, I may still release my edit one day with a few of my own ideas interjected, but PJ95 is providing all of his VFX for any fan editor to use so it’ll be a game changer for many edits.

EddieDean said:

Sounds excellent. Have you settled on what you’re keeping of BoBF (present day) and Mando season three?

Nothing new to share on that front just yet, but soon!

Book 4 update has been underway (I have livestreamed a lot of it on my youtube channel if you’re interested), here’s a progress update:

• Replaced town gong bell sound with something much more cinematic as they warn to prepare for Ahsoka

• Cut Ahsoka’s line “I’ve only ever known of one other jedi like him… a Wise Master named YODA.” The Yaddle disrespect is too much. I replaced it with new voicelines for an actual response from her that makes sense for the EU characters and knowledge she would have had access to as a padawan.

• Fixed Lang’s shotgun blasts not matching the amount of laser bolts to impacts. Only 4 bolts come out:

But then 5 points of impact:

So I fixed it:

• Also changed the sound effects for his shotgun to sound more intense and impactful. ALSO increased the speed in which Ahsoka sees the coming attack and jumps away.

• Altered very confusing choreography in the close range exchange with Ahsoka and Lang where she blocks his shotgun blast and then swings her lightsaber at him but doesn’t hit anything but his gun goes flying the wrong direction without any damage and his body completely switches directions that it was facing in between frames… It plays out smoothly now and looks like she blocks the shotgun blast at close range right back into the weapon and with a couple horizontal flips and new scene order, POOF it all works out now.

• Cut a few frames of very bad HK CGI where it flips on the roof and is sliding around like it’s skiing on Hoth

• Altered the Ahsoka v Elsbeth duel in a few areas. First, I altered Ahsoka’s arm motions so some of her attacks have some purposeful attacks rather than goofy looking movements at nothing. Next, there are a TON of instances with inconsistent placements and movements in between frames.

Tip of spear facing backward:

very next frame it’s facing forward.

Ahsoka’s arms down by her side and lightsabers pointing down

very next frame Ahsoka’s arms over her head, Etc.

SO many things like this. I have fixed everything that I could by going through the entire battle and trying to find consistent shots and cuts that can work to get rid of the bad choreography/editing combo. This fight looks much better now.

• Changed Ahsoka from saying “There’s a chance a Jedi will come for him” to “The Jedi will come for him”. I think it works alot better for her character to not just have her leaving Grogu’s fate up to “chance”. She can’t train Grogu herself because she has a different mission, but she KNOWS Luke and knows that Luke will sense Grogu. Ahsoka has an actual plan.

• Changed a few scene cuts to end better synced up to musical notes.

• Changed Din’s line from “That’s why we’re going to try to find you a Jedi” to “This is Tython… where we’re gonna try and find you a Jedi.”

Gonna try to finish the film tomorrow!

xaviercompromise said:

May I have a link please? Keep up the good work!

Sent! Enjoy!

Boom! Book 3 update is done, uploading into the folder now. Here’s the rest of the changelog:

• Every single Quarren voiceline replaced with alien language and subtitles!

• Removed Bo-Katan’s line “Take my hand” after she holds it out there for 3 seconds for Din to grab. Duh, Din, you don’t need to wait for permission, you’re dying. Din just grabs it when she offers in silence now.

• Cut an out of character delivery from Din “THE CHILD!” I still want to show his growing concern for Grogu, so I left in the much better delivery of “Help the child…!” because he’s out of breath from almost drowning.

• Integrated Mando’a into Din’s first conversation with Bo-Katan and make him a lot more standoffish and accusatory. This is now the 2nd time in a row his search for a Mandalorian has led to a dead end of a “pretender” in armor, and he is NOT having it anymore. His cultish loyalties are on full display in a shocking revelation for the audience.

• Rearranged multiple reaction shots to fit the timing of the new conversation order and voicelines.

• Rearranged Bar conversation lines to better emphasize Din’s character.

• Reinserted Grogu eating baby eggs in the Act 2 to 3 transitionary travels, and extended the Grogu babysitter scene as well.

• BoKatan vibroblades a stormtrooper repeatedly and there’s not a single scuff of damage on his armor or blood… I’m not saying Star Wars should have gore, but if you’re going to exclude it, you need to obscure the wound areas so you can’t just see nothing on them. I tried doing some camera movement to cover up as much of the obvious lack of damage as I can.

• Fixed the timing placements for the Mando squad entering the ship, in D+ show they backtrack a few steps from another take.

• Cut Imperial Pilot, “Sir, there are only FOUR lifeforms.” Durr durr durr type of delivery, and it’s better for the Imperials to be overestimating the amount of opponents, as the guy on the radio says “There are 10! Maybe more!” Confusion in the imperial ranks builds the tension here.

Book 4 update in progress!

pableve said:

Can’t wait for the final updates. I would also like links to the updated versions.

stretch009 said:

@Acbagel

PM sent. Thanks!

Sent to both!

Made a ton of progress on the Book 3 update! Probably will be ready for release before the weekend. Only have ~30 minutes of the film left to review. Partial Changelog below:

• Added Greef line about Din’s repairs being taken care of no cost. Thought Din needed just a little extra motivation to be willing to go along with the Imperial base raid.

• Added sound effects for the fight where Din kills stormtroopers off screen at Nevarro base after he throws the first one off the platform

• In the Dr. Pershing recording, removed the overly dramatic and unnatural delay in his speaking, “I will not disappoint you again… MOFF GIDEON.”

• Stormtroopers now ambush the squad with blaster shots after approaching stealthily rather than alerting the team first with their stomping footsteps.

• Remove a few frames where Din draws his blaster a second time for the same moment, just a leftover from them filming multiple takes from different angles, sometimes these little continuity bugs slip through production.

• Removed some frames of stormtroopers firing up at Din jetpacking away because by his speed in the previous scene, his placement is impossibly close indicating he was jetpacking extremely slow when it cuts back to him after their closeup shooting

• Total sound effect redesign on the Razorcrest v TIE fighter flipping dogfight. Lot more cinematic now!

• Added new shot 5 second of X-Wing entering Nevarro system from hyperspace before they arrive to question Greef. Seeing them arrive in space first really helps the pacing of the Act transition rather than the x-wing just instantly being landed on the planet.

• Cut inconsistant blaster grabbing and placement when Cobb kills mining guild in flashback. Also increased the speed of his weapon draw and efficiency of his killing. Lots of dead and awkward frames removed for a deadly and fast exchange like a real shootout now.

• Cut Din speaking Tusken language. It’s awkward sounding and I don’t know how he could possibily know how to speak it so fluently. If it was Boba, yeah, sure, but Din? How? Now he just makes the one animal noise to the massiff’s and the tuskens respect him enough to communicate. Especially because Din caveman talks english to them later on, which why would he be doing that if he had a full conversation in Tusken earlier?

• Replaced a wide shot of the dead Krayt with a new zoomed in 4k image of it. The original shot makes the Krayt looked too small, and I actually cropped a couple other shots in the battle to better obfuscate its size. I prefer the KOTOR-esque Krayt Dragon design to this small worm-looking one, so by only showing portions of it throughout the entire sequence I think it can appear so big now that we’re only seeing its neck and that it potentially has a massive dragon-like body under the sand the whole time.

• Added some camera movement to when Boba leaves the site where he ambushes Din, it just obscures the background a bit more so the scenes blend together smoother.

• ADDED a clip of Fennec also watching Boba’s ambush against Din, now when Boba Fett says “We should wait… Perhaps we’ll learn what’s really going on,” it’s a comm to Fennec that we hear over her helmet radio as she watches Din walk away through her rifle scope. She should be with Boba in the story since they’re partners at this point, and I’ve now integrated that story need!

• Restored some of the conversation with the frog lady in the hangar. A couple reasons why. 1. This film is already the shortest one and can spare some extra time for Act transitions 2. It helps clarify Din’s intentions to find the Mandalorian covert because that plotline is moving at lightspeed and has so many random occurrences in the show, it’s hard enough to follow already without cuts, so adding some of this context back in just helps slow down that plotline. I still don’t like the overall plot structure of Season 1 ending with a very clear goal to find a Jedi, because Season 2 opens with “I need to find a MANDALORIAN to help me find a Jedi” and it’s a completely random addition, then in the show after the failed attempt to find Boba, the random bug at the cantina just happens to know of Mandalorians on Trask…? Just all kind of nonsensical, so I’ve reworked it to seem like Pelli’s system of “contacts” finds the info while Din was out Krayt hunting, then the frog lady happens to be that contact. Whew. Still not simple to follow, but better as at least some of the complete randomness is removed. I have still removed the “I HAVE to travel at sublight speed” plot point, they just fly the most efficient route to Trask. In this extended scene, I have removed all of Pelli’s frog noises though. The frog lady responds directly to Din and then Pelli just speaks in English.

• Added 10 second scene of the Slave 1 following the Razorcrest off Tatooine

• Cannot describe how much I hate the stuffy human voices speaking out of the Quarren mouths. So… I have painstakingly replaced all of their dialogue with the proper alien language from KOTOR 2 and subtitled it.

Just jumping in to say this has been a very interesting discussion and I love the theological side of Star Wars, and also Joy I have been REALLY enjoying the YouTube series. It’s helping me as an editor too, appreciate the time you take to explain your mindset and ways of thinking for framing whole segments.

And we’re finished! Really enjoyed working on this final update, and fell in love with this film again through it. Fun story. New runtime clocks in at 2 hours 29 minutes including credits, and I’m uploading now to the previous folder, so it should be ready in a couple hours and your previous links should still work. Let me know if you need them sent again!

Here’s the final change log:

• New soundtrack and voice lines for the Armorer v Stormtroopers. She is reciting a Mandalorian war chant as they approach and when they disrupt that… Yeah, she’s not happy. (If you want this scene spoiled now… I uploaded it to my channel 😉 )[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thnVh4GUfiU]

• Cut one additional line of Din’s protest against IG self-sacrificing. He doesn’t have to grovel here, I want the audience to feel that Din is slightly hesitant and uncomfortable because his feelings have changed a little for the droid, but he knows this is the right move and isn’t about to whine.

• Reversed the scene order when Din jetpacks over Moff Gideon’s TIE and grapples onto it. In its original format, the timing is impossible and it’s presented non chronologically to show a Gideon reaction shot which disrupts the flow of action, so I now make things happen in real time and then use that Gideon reaction shot for when Din’s grapple line connects with his TIE. Whole sequence just feels smoother now.

• Cut Gideon’s reaction shot and “NO!” yell when Din sticks the charges on the TIE’s wing. It seems extremely improbable that Gideon would figure out what is going on in this 1 second window, even IF the TIE somehow had a sensor alerting him, it’s all just way too fast and not possible, so now the explosion just catches him off guard.

Now… time to dust off Book 3! See you soon

TheDimitrios said:

Just jumping in to say that your work is highly appreciated.

Thanks! Really happy with how this one is turning out, ended up doing a lot more than I initially planned for it but it’s looking really good.

Putting the finishing touches on it right now, completed the Mando’a and only have the final 10 minutes to review, so looking at dropping the final Book 2 update tomorrow! Here’s the next section of the changelog:

• Brand New 4 minute long Nevarro sequence for lava flats, removed previous abruptness for getting into town. In addition to not liking that transition, I also didn’t like how this cut out the line where Greef tells them there will only be 4 stormtroopers because the characters reference that multiple times later. Also, I thought hiding so much of Kuill’s early involvement made it kind of confusing when suddenly he’s rushing away with Grogu when Gideon attacks. So all in all I’ve restored a few altered minutes of context providing scenes and made some trims to Tatooine segments to save the time.

• Trim down initial train attack on Tuskens where Boba is standing around not in cover like a doofus waiting for his head to get blown off.

• Cut a few scenes out of train raid, mostly all the Boba confusion and hesitancy. Don’t understand why his fight in the bar is so definitive and in character and then other times the choreography makes him look like a bumbling noob.

• Rearranged and trimmed some of Boba’s convo with the Pyke leader to remove his seeming softness.

• Cut a few scenes out of Slave 1 recapture. Too much canon fodder without any danger presented, and it looks a lot more badass with Boba and Fennec working in sync without much talking and whining anymore. Two seasoned warriors, some of the best in galaxy, instantly with chemistry and working in tandem without having to speak basic info. Also trimmed some of their talk inside the cockpit, again, they don’t need to constantly say the basics, they just understand each other.

• Trimmed a few lines out of Fennec manipulating Rookie, repeated info that bloated the scene length

• Cut Moff Gideon offering to wait until sundown, doesn’t seem in character or wise to delay so long without a real reason. He makes his demands, then gives them a couple minutes to think rather than seemingly giving them an hour. I get it, “the sun sets fast on Nevarro” from a previous episode, but it doesn’t feel like that to the audience because we’ve been on Nevarro a lot already and we’ve never seen that happen visually. The sun seems to set here at a pace just like anywhere else so I don’t think the director’s intent landed here.

• Mando’a! In the sewers with the Armorer, whole new scene of dialogue, conversation, soundtrack, and meaning. Don’t want to spoil, enjoy!

beachedwhale said:

Glad to hear on the speed of your progress! Really looking forward to having a rewatch of your final releases. I can imagine Mandalorian and Grogu being disappointing when I inevitably have another binge of your fan edits leading into it next year

Haha, man I hope not… But I will definitely be making an edit of that one way or another when it releases so it’s in the right style for my series. And it will undoubtedly need some Mando’a interjected 😉

Book 2 update, still cooking! Upon rewatching, I was really unhappy with the abrupt transition on the lava flats to the crew getting into town. Added a newly edited segment here, and currently working on some trims to make to earlier segments. Probably going to chop down a few Tatooine scenes because I don’t want the film length to be bloated past 2.5 hours. Definitely keeping it under that. Still have to get to the armorer scene too, but this new Nevarro sequence took about 3-4 hours to make so I’m still hard at work.

Down to the final scenes on Book 2! Just need to add some Mando’a into the conversation with Armorer and touch up the ending sequence. Books 3 & 4 will be finalized next week as well!

Kada22 said:

Really good news, Acbagel. What I had already seen from you is almost perfect, I’m very much looking forward to see the end of your vision.

Thanks, Kada! That’s very kind. I am excited to share the final films with you and everyone else soon! I still get 4-5 requests every day on Reddit to watch these films which is wild to me. I’m happy to see a lot of the pacing changes resonate with folks.

On the update side of things, unfortunately I got extremely ill the whole last week and missed 8 days of everything except laying in bed… So I’m a few days behind on Book 2, but still made a lot of progress before I got sick, so I’m about halfway done updating that film, aiming to have it done by Friday night. Heres the first half changelog for updates:

• Fixed aspect ratio bug on a couple early shots

• Added new night sky transition from Grogu to Boba, really like the storytelling beat this adds.

• Deleted Boba wincing and looking away from civilian getting beat by swoop gang, replaced with a different shot of him tactically watching

• When the Village Lady says “I’m sorry” and Mando replies “This is the way” in regards to him always wearing his helmet, I cut Mando’s line and use his silence and nod as a response now. TitW doesn’t seem to fit here, and the line is overly abused later in the series so removing early unnecessary ones helps preserve the impact.

• Added new Din line to Grogu “Stay here”

• Fixed a harsh transition in Sorgan cantina

• Re-recorded a couple Din lines for consistent delivery

• Balanced volume levels after the train raid to be more in line with the previous scene

• Raised volume of Boba speaking to Pyke leadership

• Altered transition between Boba and Din walking around Mos Eisley, the doors are now in sync for a cool looking visual transition between characters

• Lightened Nighttime scenes on Tatooine Fennec attack

__

So that gets me about halfway through the review of Book 2, I’ll post the rest of the changelog on Friday and hoping to drop it then and then get to Book 3 & 4 next week (they don’t need as many updates, so I think I can finalize both of those), then it’s on to finishing Book 5!

That video is in 4k, so I can make an attempt to mask out only Luke’s face and try to replace it. Worth a shot since it is such an improvement.

Finished reviewing Book 1 yesterday, I didn’t have any plans to update that one since I did that months ago, and upon rewatching I’m still 99% happy with it (aside from the lower resolution of these earlier films). Reviewing Book 2 right now, have a week long work trip so probably end of next week for final release of that one!

Sirius said:

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one thing. There is a Youtuber who further improved the Luke Deepfake made by Shamook, at the end of the second season of The Mandalorian. This Youtuber enhanced the movement of the lips, adding a little more emotion to Luke’s “robotic” expression. Personally, I think it came out really well, and it could look cool in your movie, Acbagel. Here is the link:

https://youtu.be/wk_5QP2NSKM?si=0tUYALSKZ5S6t2z2

It is indeed an improvement, but did he ever release those VFX for public use? I don’t see anywhere to download his clip, and that video is extremely cropped and watermarked so it would be very difficult to do anything with it.