Acbagel

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions Kypo! I’m really looking forward to being able to go through it all with the earlier films.

I’ve spent some time going through Book 5 again and trying to plan for 6. I have so many options for reorganizing the story, but I haven’t found one that feels right yet. I am, at this point, seeing if I can get the full Boba Tatooine story in Book 6 and interweave it with Plazir-15 (the not-terrible parts). For some reason, I just really do not enjoy the placement of Boba’s storyline in Book 5. After Din and Grogu separate, I really like the solo Din journey, but I don’t want to lose Boba as a character so I’m still experimenting.

That said, the experimenting has been slow the last few weeks. I recently had Baby #3 and was in the so-tired-I-can’t-think phase again so the editing has been sporadic. It’s been getting better though and I’ll get back to a good schedule soon.

Honestly, I’m thinking about finishing up Books 1-4 with the final updates first too, maybe help give me some inspiration for the final arc of the story after reviewing the earlier films again.

EddieDean said:

You’re the absolute MVP buddy ❤️

No you!

vranir said:

I think someone in this thread (or in another) also proposed keeping the modern Boba Fett stuff intact but moving it to a spot in between the first and second halves of Mando s3. That also seems to have potential in my view. It would slow down the return to Mandalore and also involve contacting the various groups/types of Mandalorians to “unite the tribes.”

The problem is that there is barely any context for Din joining Boba. In BoBF it’s basically, “I have nothing to do rn so why not”. And then there is actually no final scene with Din and Boba. Not one frame where they say goodbye or anything, it’s just battle scenes and then poof Din is in space with Grogu. Sadly, there’s not much to work with on the fan edit side here. I used some AI voice generation for my short ~20 minute edit of Tatooine which would have worked well enough, but expanding this all into a cohesive film in the middle of S3 doesn’t work well. If we want the full Boba story here, Din needs to help because he is purposeless without Grogu. I can’t make that main AI lines about such a different placement of this story.

kypo said:

Also- Have you ever considered adding other fanedit material- like this salvaged Jango Fett scene from Attack of the Clones? Could be a good way to “add” to some of these flashback scenes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gbh08F061A&ab_channel=vanilla

Kypo, first gotta say, absolutely killer reviews. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. I’ll get back to responding to them in detail when I can. As far as the flashback, is there a certain place you’d recommend that? I believe all my Boba memory scenes are in Book 2, are you suggesting putting this clip somewhere in there?

RogueLeader said:

Speaking of which, Acbagel, if there are any other spots where you have caught yourself saying, “Man, it would be great if we had a line here to explain this”, feel free to reach out because I’d be more than happy to generate some lines for you. I had already been wanting to remake Luke’s dialogue in Mando and BOBF to make it sound more natural and like Mark Hamill. It would be a good opportunity to alter his lines to fit your interpretation of the character, if you felt this version of Luke shouldn’t follow the “attachments” rule, for example. Just let me know!

Yes, that will definitely come in handy. I’ve just recently begun experimenting with ElevenLabs myself, but I’ve heard the lines from Ascendent, and some of them are truly amazing! When we finalize a couple lines here I’ll DM you and see if you have any good models for those voices yet.

beachedwhale said:

Is there still an active link for the current day bobf V2 film I have heard circling around? I would love to check it out, I think these edits are amazing and I will continue to follow these posts with great interest!

You’re looking for the old Book 5 from last year (before Mando Season 3 was released and I decided to change the story around Grogu)? If so, yes, DM me and I’ll send that to you.

Darth Muffy said:

Also Acbagel I made a simple project of BoBF series here to fix making Boba back to being a bad ass again. I never got around to refining it after the inital v1 but maybe you could take some ideas from it for this quality project your doing here. Example Boba being a bad ass in battle and not keep taking dirt naps which sounds like you’ve already fixed but it shows we’re on the same page of Bobas Book 😉 : https://vimeo.com/721775369

Nice! I scrolled through some of the changes there and it looks like we have a similar vision for Boba. Are there any changes that were not in my film that you had ideas for me to add?

Thanks for all the posts, everyone! I’ll be able to edit some more later this week so I’ll keep making progress and updates on Books 5-7 whenever I can.

PsyGemini said:

Isn’t it better to wait for the final season next year before going deep with the editing?

Maybe…? But I think I can get the majority of it done now and then do a smaller update after Season 3 if it affects anything in my first few films. There are big events in Season 2 that will make Season 3 probably not contain anything that would alter my Season 1 films so I’m not too worried. I still want to get this done for people who want to watch Season 3 live without needing to sift through some slow episodes that might deter them from experiencing the core story.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I’m currently trying to put together a cut based on Eddie’s post. My original Book 5 in 2022 was received very well so I’m going to try to merge the ideas in that film with some of the new ideas we’ve all come up with in 2023 to try to get the best of both worlds here. I really like the order of events I created in the recent release, but it doesn’t work with a full Tatooine storyline for one movie. I am intrigued by Eddie’s idea to have Din be excommunicated and cut all immediate mentions of his atonement. Then we can experience a full 1.5 movies of this lonely journey he goes on, and further extend the separation of Din and Grogu. Also, as a callback to Book 2, I do still like the idea of us seeing Din and Boba go on parallel journeys. That would fit all in with my initial goals here with The Way of Mandalore. Having him hit rock bottom after seeing Grogu in the distance and not being able to be with him would give him a good motivation to head to his clan and plead for a path to atonement and belonging.

That will indeed mean I need to dig into Book 5 again as I have to completely restructure what I just released. But I don’t see any other way to include BoBF here in its full form. I could release an ~80-minute standalone movie of Boba like some people were requesting with Dr. Pershing’s story, but that has never been my intent for this project. I want a saga of 2-2.5 hour movies in this New Republic time period told from the perspective of Mandalorians. At the end of the day, this isn’t my first foray into massive plot structuring for my films haha. I do believe each time I’ve done this, they have been individually improved to a great degree, as well as created a more cohesive movie saga.

I am still quite torn on Boba not appearing in Books 6/7 in any real manner. Yes, I can get him some easter egg appearances on Mandalore but this new order does leave him out from the main plot thread. I may try and preserve some scenes from BoBF that I can add to Book 7. However, at some point, we will get additional Mandalorian content whether that comes in the form of the Filoni movie or Season 4 first, or maybe even Ahsoka/Skeleton Crew crossover and I’m sure they’ll explain where Boba was and perhaps I can plug that into my saga down the road. Such a missed opportunity to not bring him into Mandalore in season 3, but I can only work with what I have today.

Daiyus said:

I was in many ways hoping you’d expand into the Ashoka content so that we could watch a refined New Republic era with all the various major plotlines intact, melded together in chronological order. Of course, this was entirely wishful thinking on my part and no expectation is implied.

It’s looking like Ahsoka can be turned into a 1-2 movie experience. I believe it is intended to run chronologically concurrent with Mando S3 content? I’ll get to Ahsoka one day, especially if there happen to be any crossovers with Mando. When this site was down I started playing with the first couple of episodes. Combat is much better than other shows, but man even there we’re getting lightsabers flip-flopping directions between cuts and other goofs. Baylan’s hallway scene was very sloppy, but it will be fixed one day!

pableve said:

Regarding your Book 6 plans.
I belive it would be better to make 2 books out of your plan. So the Book 6 would be pretty muvh what you have in act 1 but with all the usable 70 min of Book of Boba fett footage and then have it intersect with Bo katan training Mandalorians.

And then have Book 7 be what you have planed in act 2 and act 3 of your current Book 6 plan.

I think that would be better and insted of having 1 nearly 3h film you end up with 2 films around 1h 40min.

I have a hard rule of thumb that a Star Wars movie MUST be at least 2 hours. No George Lucas film was under that and I won’t go under it either. I should be able to make three 2+hour movies with the new proposed order.

Again, thanks for all the replies. It’s going to take a while to make this all happen. I’m ~30 minutes into the new Book 5 structure, trying to combine two movies into one and save some scenes for future movies etc. Lots of scene and soundtrack juggling to do but at least I have all of the individual scenes edited how I want them (for the most part, which the new order some scenes will need to change) so the hardest work is done. No more frame by frame combat analysis needed, at least until Book 7…

And I will get back to the final updates on Books 1-4!

EddieDean said:

How much of BoBF would that preserve, doing it the way you currently suggest, Acbagel? I don’t think we should be losing too much of the good present-day BoBF content just to mitigate the structural issues with Mando season 3.

My proposed order would use ~20 minutes from BoBF “current” day. That would be Din’s trip to see Cobb, a couple minutes of planning for the battle, and then a trimmed version of the battle itself. No Cad Bane, no Boba focused scenes, really only using scenes that are exclusively Din or ones where Din and Boba are together (which is only the final battle). The purpose is only to show that Din has been doing his part in trying to unite the Mandalorians together, not to give the typical view of how Boba gained respect on Tatooine. Also to show why Boba isn’t heavily involved in the retaking of Mandalore.

Buuuuut… 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:

I like a lot of what you proposed in that message, but it doesn’t address the main reason that I am leaning toward shortening Boba’s solo Tatooine scenes. That being that he is completely absent from Mando S3 and after so much screen time in your proposed Book 5, he is then 100% absent from books 6-7. I am trying to tie him into the main narrative rather than giving him a side story on Tatooine that doesn’t drive the overall theme of my saga.

vranir said:

What you gain by putting Boba Fett in book 6 is that you draw out the whole thing about contacting and building alliances with other Mandalorians. In the vanilla version it’s far too quick and simple. While hanging out with Fett who doesn’t go to Mandalore isn’t actually accomplishing anything, it can give the illusion of connection to the main plot.

Yes, this is exactly what I was going for with this idea. However, I do intend to make it more than just an illusion by also including Boba & Slave 1 in the final space battle as suggested as well as adding him into the final “celebration” clip on Mandalore. He won’t have a large role in this film, but it won’t feel like he was written out of the story for no reason like S3.

EddieDean said:

Agreed, but it gives you fewer narrative challenges to work around. I’m all for radical changes, and Acbagel has always delivered great solutions, but BoBF’s ending works nicely as a third act finale and narrative peak. That might be diminished if it’s cut to fit into a larger narrative about alliances, especially as his earlier appearance in the movie then wouldn’t be delivered upon by, say, a suprise appearance in the movie’s finale which might now be expected.

I’ll restructure the Tatooine battle to be very fast-paced and opening-esque, and I will also include Boba again later on in the film to pay off his early appearance and connection to the overall plot.

Sent to all, and thanks for posting feedback! I’m out of state until Thursday, but I have some ideas working for Book 6. I’ll lay them out below.

DarthMeme said:

Another fantastic edit by Acbagel! Book 5 worked so brilliantly; the removal of Grogu was done really well, I love that you managed to keep the Babu Frik aliens trying to repair IG scene, the action all worked great, having the space dogfight with the pirates near Tatooine was a great placement.
It just works so much better when we have Din be away from Grogu for longer, can’t wait to see how you’ll approach Book of Boba & the rest of the Mando S3 content.

Thank you DarthMeme. The pirate dogfight scene is one that I’ve received 50/50 feedback on. I think it’s cool in concept, but there is something a little odd about it as some have posted. Does anyone have any better ideas on alternative placement or do you think it can just be cut altogether?

honestabe said:

Book 5 was a masterpiece much like your other work. It was hard to notice Grogu missing with the VFX work that was done. You clearly had to put forth quite a monumental effort to get that done. Excellent work. You can really feel quite the time lapse going through the various battles with imperials, pirates, and the adventure into Mandalore. This is a must see for everyone.

The heavy restructuring of the saga by and large flowed rather smoothly.

Wonderful, indeed this was my most ambitious project ever. From the massive plot restructuring to dozens of hours masking Grogu out, the changes are quite radical and I’m glad that it can provide a new watching experience for those of us who weren’t too fond of the original Season 3 or even those who were but just want a fresh journey with it. The major goals of the edit were accomplished and it provides a vastly different viewing experience than the Disney version.

There a few minor issues that may be addressed in a future cleanup, but not really major:

• I thought it was a bit awkward for the New Republic pilots to stop Din for flying next to a commercial ship after he flew back down to Tatooine and back up.

I may be able to change this. I can probably come up with a different reason for him getting pulled over.

==> It may be best to have the flyover moved over to the moment where he leaves Tatooine. You can jump straight to the pirates while he is testing the ship.

• I liked having the pirate space fight outside Tatooine. However, I thought it was a bit strange that they would be there all the way from Nevarro without any explanation considering that is where it originally took place.

==> Would it be possible to quickly slip in some dialogue such as, “We have been tracking you.” One of the pirates can mention that to briefly explain how they knew Din was on Tatooine.

I addressed this scene above, but this is a good idea that might salvage it. Anyone else in favor of this or have different ideas?

• As we approach the ending, the volume of the soundtrack noticeably increased to a point where it became very difficult to hear a few words of dialogue between Ahsoka and Luke.

Thanks, made a note and will address it in the final update.

I know there are still some comments regarding Books 1-4 in the thread that I haven’t responded to yet, so I have those marked to come back to. But for now, I want to cast a vision for Book 6.

Here’s what footage I have left to work with:

• BoBF “current day” scenes. ~70 minutes of footage that I consider to be good enough to be usable
• Plazir-15 episode
• Rockworld Raptor episode
• Dr. Pershing episode
• 2-episode ending of retaking Mandalore
• BoBF E06 Luke/Grogu scenes, ~10 minutes

Book 5 ends with Bo-Katan being assigned to unite the clans, and Din still wrestling with being away from Grogu but being restored as a Mandalorian and able to help his clan. So we end with the two of them apart, but the blind setup for Book 6 is reuniting the clans to retake Mandalore and presumably some additional Grogu content. So this is the general structure I have right now:

Act 1

1. Grogu/Luke trainng
2. Din goes to Tatooine to try and get Boba to join the retaking of Mandalore. I use somewhat of a cold open with the Tatooine battle and a few AI voice lines here to explain the context
3. Bo-Katan is meanwhile training the clan on Rockworld and living the Mandalorian lifestyle by hunting the raptor (edited to remove Din and the abducted child). This is OG Mandalorian shit, warrior v beast as Bo-Katan is given new respect in her role.
4. I have merged the Raptor fight and Din’s alligator kill arrival from S03E01 for a seamless bridge. This brings our protagonists back together from their individual journeys between films.

Act 2

1. Dr. Pershing begins his journey as we slowly learn that Gideon lives
2. Grogu/Luke completes training and Grogu is given a decision about his future
3. Plazir-15 but cut everything to do with the side quest, straight into the Mando content
4. We set the scene for retaking Mandalore, but right before we fly out, Din makes one more visit to Grogu where they finally reunite (on academy world)

Act 3

1. Retaking Mandalore, this flows pretty smoothly as one final sequence.

Indeed, this does conclude The Way of Mandalore (for now, until Season 4?) in Book 6. It gives me ~2 hours 45 minutes of a movie. Thoughts?

yoshif8tures said:

Any further updates on this?

Not yet! It’s #1 priority after finishing The Way of Mandalore though.

Thanks T-202! Glad you enjoyed.

I have uploaded a version with some fixes so if you’re coming back with a broken link just DM me and I’ll get you the new one.

Book 5: The Apostate is officially released!

Well that was unfortunate timing! Site goes down almost immediately before I finished my edit haha. I found some of you on Reddit and IFDB to send the film to over the weekend still, but please make a new comment here if you have not received the edit yet and would like it. The final changelog is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TIVp5tQY9WxxnOe8iRXvG5t4P6vTi1ZCbb8CnxwB_9Q/edit?usp=sharing

Please post some reviews and feedback on book 5 after you watch. It was a massive project so I’m sure some thing slipped through.

Delpheas said:

I’m interested to see how Book 5 plays out and what you give us for Book 6. The stills of removed Grogu are great and I think Grogu and Djarin reuniting later also helps sell the passage of time and give some indication that he wasn’t training for like a few weeks before he left.

Storyboarding Book 6 right now! I’m jostling a few different structures around with the series of events so I’ll start writing on that tomorrow.

If he is going to help Djarin in the fight against Gideon that also feels like a much stronger place to show off his training than BoBF.

Yes, I am leaning toward this idea currently. Definitely thinking an end of Book 6 reunion where we first see his new powers on Mandalore in Book 7.

stevepaynter said:

Hey Acbagel,

Any plans on doing anything with Ashoka series once all episode have been released?

Well while this site was down and I couldn’t access my Book 6 notes, I did indeed start playing around with certain scenes in Ahsoka… I still really want to work on The Bad Batch so I’ve not decided officially on anything but yes there are some editing notes I’ve been taking on Ahsoka that I think would help the individual episodes, but I want to wait for the whole season before trying to cast any vision for it

Greetings!

I live! Lots of stuff happened in my life got busy too much work had another baby blah blah blah sorry sorry sorry.

Anyways. The Way of Mandalore. I’m back at it! Book 5 was so close to being finished before and I promise I’m right there on the precipice. I got some good work on my review done yesterday, and the film is clocking in at 2 hrs 20 minutes and I’m at the 1 hr 25 minute mark on my review. I will have one final mini-changelog to post here because I am making a few alterations based on having fresh eyes on it during the time away. I’m going to do everything I can to have it out this weekend. It really is that close!

Thank you so much to everyone still posting feedback in the meantime. I will definitely go through all of it as soon as I get Book 5 out.

Would love to see this Delpheas! The previous version has been my favorite Episode 3 edit I’ve ever seen.

Darth Sadifous said:

Acbagel said:

Darth Sadifous said:

Between this project and Acbagel’s Way of Mandalore fanedit, “This will begin to make things right. I’ve traveled too far and seen too much to ignore the despair in the fandom.” I know someone mentioned he primarily has updates on discord…anything new to report? I have been following the project on youtube and on here mainly. I am eagerly awaiting its release!

This project is still very much alive, folks! Progress has been slower in June/July because PJ has taken some time off for family trips and also took on additional work responsibilities (something also wrecking my The Way of Mandalore timeline!) for the Shelby Oaks film. He has 2-3 weeks left on that film and then should be free to grind out the last chunk of work on Trials of the Master. He is already done with the large majority of VFX and has shown the currently 2 hour 20 minute workprint to some people already. There’s a TON of content that hasn’t been shown in public updates. Even so, he has this VFX left to complete: “Fortress rescue sequence, one extra Vader throne room scene, lots of removal and paint-outs and several meditation environments.” Then soundtrack work, some touch ups/review, final storyline and scene cut/placement decisions and it’ll be ready. It will be released NLT Q4 2023.

Thanks for the update Acbagel; I appreciate it! Your completed Mandalore project and this one are some of my most anticapted edits in a long time. Also, is that the Shelby Oaks film from Chris Stuckman you are referring to?

Yes, that’s the one! He got some unexpected additional responsibilities for it and just had to take some time off from fan editing until he can get through it. Almost done though and you’ll see some public updates in August!

Thanks for the kind words too, I’ll post in my Mandalorian thread later this week with a release date!

Darth Sadifous said:

Between this project and Acbagel’s Way of Mandalore fanedit, “This will begin to make things right. I’ve traveled too far and seen too much to ignore the despair in the fandom.” I know someone mentioned he primarily has updates on discord…anything new to report? I have been following the project on youtube and on here mainly. I am eagerly awaiting its release!

This project is still very much alive, folks! Progress has been slower in June/July because PJ has taken some time off for family trips and also took on additional work responsibilities (something also wrecking my The Way of Mandalore timeline!) for the Shelby Oaks film. He has 2-3 weeks left on that film and then should be free to grind out the last chunk of work on Trials of the Master. He is already done with the large majority of VFX and has shown the currently 2 hour 20 minute workprint to some people already. There’s a TON of content that hasn’t been shown in public updates. Even so, he has this VFX left to complete: “Fortress rescue sequence, one extra Vader throne room scene, lots of removal and paint-outs and several meditation environments.” Then soundtrack work, some touch ups/review, final storyline and scene cut/placement decisions and it’ll be ready. It will be released NLT Q4 2023.

VulgarisMagistralis said:

For something that was meant to be ready in early May, I think it’s safe to assume this project will see the light of day much later than expected, if at all. It kind of reminds me when I was young and they released Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, and out of nowhere came this ‘Team Gizka’ who declared they were making a The Sith Lords Restoration Project (TSLRP) and it never came to be, except for a leaked torrent. People often have more important things to do and put the project in the background till it’s forgotten…

I guess this fan edit is an example of that phenomenon. I’ll check back on it next year.

This film was never slated for a May release. Some channels on YouTube covered the edit and said it would be cool if it was out for May the 4th but that was never a spoken internal release date. All rumors. Later in 2023 has always been the timeline.

Jar Jar Bricks said:

The guy has clearly already spent a lot of money on the project if you take a look at the behind the scenes video. I think the sunk cost fallacy will ensure we get at least something within the near future.

No sunk costs or anything like that going on. The project will release in full and everything promised will be delivered. There are even extra shots made that might not make the final film cut that will still be made public for other fan editors to use.

leftshoe18 said:

If nothing else I bet we’ll get a reel of the completed scenes he re-shot and did SFX for. But I’m fairly optimistic that we’ll get the completed edit, just a little later than expected.

It’s all good, you’ll get to see the full project in just a few months! Check back in August and you’ll start to see some new previews again.

Sideburns of BoShek said:

Pedro wasn’t in the Season 3 Gallery Doc, other than archive footage from previous seasons. Phil Tippett wasn’t in the doc either, despite being featured in the trailer for it.

It was an hour long commercial really, superficial, and of little interest. It did have a few minutes of the directors talking about their respective episodes. And Favreau and Filoni talking about what they were trying to achieve with season 3. Lots of people in it saying how they grew up with and love Star Wars again. The usual format and talking to camera.

This wasn’t a bad doc, just very bland, and wasn’t really a “Making Of” at all. It is the type of thing you have on in the background while doing something else.

Thanks for the review of this. Kind of what I expected… I don’t think there’s any doubt that the production had some rough patches and that Disney just wants to paint it all with a happy brush. I might still give it a watch in case it helps me with my edits though.

AhsokatheChosenOne said:

Your Mandalorian edits are amazing!! Have you ever considered editing Phantom Menace and Tales of the Jedi together?

Thanks! There’s not much need to do that as EddieDean already has the perfect Clone Wars and Prequel movie experience here: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/The-Clone-Wars-Refocused-COMPLETE-New-Rebels-Aftermath-Movie/id/80467/page/93#1544720

arabian said:

Hey Achbagel, I didn’t want to just bail after leaving so many comments. I wanted to let you know that I think you’ve done an extraordinary job thus far, but after reading your Book 5 (and all the tremendous amount of work you’ve put in–WOW!), I’ve realized that sadly this is no longer going to work for me personally. Separating Grogu from the Din/Bo-Katan journey takes away a lot of what worked in season 03 for me. I feel that bond that Bo-Katan developed with Grogu, that little “family unit” of sorts that they developed with Din is what enabled her to move on and have her ending in the season. I also feel it helped Din get to the place where he was at the end. So to lose that just hurts the overall emotional core, and just moves way too far from “The Mandalorian” itself.

I know many, many, MANY others are loving what you’re doing, and I’m just one person, but I didn’t want to just dip out and disappear. You’re doing amazing work here; it’s just my personal thing. You’re so awesome at this. Thank you for what you do!

I appreciate the heads up, Arabian! I’ve really enjoyed your feedback and having you in this thread. I highly recommend Smudger’s Season 3 edit for a more traditional experience: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Mando-EP4-Return-to-Mandalore-4K-RELEASED/id/103018

I understand my changes are more radical and won’t be for everyone, especially if you loved the D+ version. I view it like my Sequel Trilogy edits where I wouldn’t really recommend them to someone if they loved the Disney Trilogy, but if you have some major problems with it then I go for the more radical alterations. I took the same philosophy for Season 3 content as I personally strongly disliked the original release. I will miss your posts and hope you can continue to enjoy my earlier films!

gurgle1624 said:

I on the other hand believe this is exactly what “The Mandalorian” needed. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and also welcome to create their own vision of what this show should be. I’ll wait until this version is completed and I can see each book as a whole to make a judgement call but the bottom line is its your vision and what makes sense to you and I’m good with that. That’s the great thing about editing, if there’s something you want to change, you can, or even expand on what’s already there.
Really looking forward to seeing your version and enjoying the hard work you put into this project. Sadly some people will not like it and will walk away but that shouldn’t deter you from continuing your personal vision. Make this the project that you want to see and be satisfied with that, don’t worry about us. There will be many versions out there for different tastes.
We’ll be sad to see you go Arabian, I really enjoyed reading your posts. Some of them made me think of this show differently. Good luck too you in the future and hopefully you will return and give some insight in what you think after watching this version.

That’s a great perspective, Gurgle. Thanks for sharing!

I’m back from my trip and planning on doing my final review for this film tonight. Thanks for your patience, everyone.

I am still trying to get some time to do the final viewing and fixes for it, unfortunately! I got slammed with some big projects at work and then my car’s transmission suddenly died this week so I’ve had to go through everything to sell it and get a new vehicle on top of that. I also got scheduled to head out of state on a trip from June 24-29, so we’re probably looking at a first week of July release now. I work in TV advertisement production so when we get a new contract it gets really hectic for a while until we deliver the ad. Sorry for the delay, was making amazing progress for a while and then got crushed by a tough couple of weeks! It’s so close though, as soon as I can get home and make a spare 5-6 hours it’ll be ready for release.

Lifeincontext said:

Anyone heard any updates on this? I’m so stoked for it!

PixelJoker mostly posts updates on his discord channel. Still on track for a 2023 release. He’s had a couple of work projects take priority and then took his family on a vacation so it’s been around 3 weeks since he has posted anything new, but progress is continuing and we will see it release in a few months.

Still reviewing the film, but in the meantime… Check out the trailer!

https://youtu.be/oGjaz-2jc6Q

EddieDean said:

How long is that running to?

~2 hours 15 minutes

In an earlier draft, where you merged the two sets of armourer lines into one scene, I remember a bit of background noise from the rocky planet in some of her dialogue. Have you been able to remove that?

It actually wasn’t the Rock World background. I had just moved around some soundtrack of the Ring World and that track transitioned to the next scene in another part of the Ring station and that’s what caused the difference in background noise. But yes, it is identified and fixed.

arabian said:

Ok, so I haven’t watched Book 4 yet but I wanted to read your changes before I read the Book 5 changes, and sigh, I saw that you cut Din taking off his helmet the first time. This is the same thing smudger did. I’m going to share my thoughts for when he did that as well and why I think it’s such a mistake.

In my opinion, I don’t think that Mando not taking his mask off beforehand works. The idea of it makes perfect sense, right? This way we get the full impact of him taking it off with Grogu, right? However, the full impact simply isn’t there. Look at how it’s written, directed, and acted, how it’s played out on screen when he takes it off the first time… as if Din is dealing with this huge thing of taking off his mask for the first time in front of a lot of people, breaking the code. It’s this huge emotional moment. However, taking his mask off doesn’t effect him even remotely to that degree when he does it in front of Grogu. And that makes absolutely zero sense for a guy who has made such a huge deal about it for four straight “books.”

And, of course, anyone who watched the show knows why… he already DID do that when he took his mask off the actual first time. That time it was hugely difficult for him, he did deal with it, and he realized what mattered was Grogu. So him taking off the mask again so Grogu could see his face was why it was emotionally resonating. That was the beat that hit this time. The first time was about Din and his issues. The second time was all about Grogu and their bond. So cutting that first time takes the DIN character part out. You don’t see Din dealing with all of his mask/face revealing issues when he takes it off for Grogu because it’s ONLY about Grogu now. So to remove the intended first time leaves this gaping character hole. That actual first time is full of heaviness. The second time with Grogu, all that’s left now is the light, the love for Grogu.

Just my opinion

Book 5 sounds amazing.

Thanks for sharing your opinion! Interesting read. I think I have a different perspective on those events though. In the Disney version, Din removes his helmet three times. 1: With IG-11 in Season 1, this doesn’t break the Creed on a technicality of “not in front of a living being”. However, this moment is significant, artistically, because the audience (us) DOES see Din’s face for the first time, and we get a strange feeling that we kind of did violate the Creed by seeing his face. We, as viewers, have now lost the feeling of the mysterious man behind a mask vibe when others in the show still have that feeling. 2. When Din does actually violate the Creed for the first time to interact with the terminal. Other living beings now have see his face, as we viewers have again, and this moment is tense all around, but not necesarrily because his helmet is off. It’s tense due to them seemingly about to be outed as spies. The people who do see his face, aside from Mayfeld who is not a major character in the show, all die immediately as well. Yes, we see Din’s struggle, but it is ultimately not impactful and never spoken of again. 3. When he willingly removes it so that Grogu can see him, also exposing his face to Bo, Cara, Luke, and Fennic. This is by far the most emotional removal scene in general and certainly does carry the feeling that Din doesn’t have any trouble taking the mask off… and that’s the beauty of it.

For 2 whole seasons we have seen Din soften before Grogu as his priorities change. By the time he gets to this moment, it is quite clear that Din cares about Grogu a thousand times more than he does about any oath. He loves his “son” more than anything now and he is willing to sacrifice for him, even his former identity just to be able to look at him with his own eyes. The casual nature in which he removes his helmet “for the first time” in my series is what I think makes this moment so special. It communicates that Din is no longer thinking of himself at all, but solely thinking about Grogu. It also lets the audience exist in this moment from the perspective of Grogu, who has also never seen his face before, which is an incredible experience. My wife watched The Mandalorian for the first time through my edits and she LOVED this moment being the first time she had ever seen Din’s face, and the tears were welling up in her eyes. The unique feeling that we ARE Grogu here is irreplacable, and I do not at all think it removes the emotion because Din doesn’t seem to struggle with the decision like his does in the Imperial base. Again, I think the lack of struggle is the beauty of it all. Din has set all else aside in order to display his unconditional love for his son. As a father myself, that brings emotion into my heart just thinking about it!

I also think it is far more impactful for Din to be banished as an apostate due to him removing his helmet just the once to simply look at Grogu, rather than being forced to in the base. The fact that he chose to violate the Creed and be banished for this one moment that was “optional” per se I think is more significant in terms of his character arc.

I’m finishing a few little touch ups today, organizing the Credits art, and then I’m doing my first full Book 5 workprint watch tonight!

Here it is! I had to summarize a lot of these into just one point or it would be so long it would break the site… but realize when I say “Removed Grogu from Mandalore” that’s like 300+ edits to the visuals and soundtrack. Depending how fast I can bug check and get a little inside feedback, we’re probably within 10 days of release!

Book 5: The Apostate

• Added new Mandalorian Disney Star Wars intro
• While the D+ timeline is pretty confusing with how long Grogu is with Luke before the BoBF reunion, my series of events can play out with a much more logical chronology. Book 5: The Apostate occurs ~6 months after the conclusion of Book 4: The Way.
• New color grading on Ringworld
• The film opens with Din back to bounty hunting and looking for his clan. He has reverted to his state of mind pre-Grogu.
• Cut Klatoonian, “That doesn’t even look like me!” These alien mask prosthetics aren’t the best and sometimes you can see the human mouth inside and it’s really jarring.
• Sped up Din’s reaction to being bit.
• Reduced the number of blaster shots Din takes on his back before responding.
• Trimmed down the shot length where Din walks away from the Klatoonian facility. It is normally cutting to the BoBF title card here with thundering Boba music so I reworked the soundtrack and visuals.
• Cut a bad fade transition in the Armorer talk
• Cut Din jumping off the catwalk like a clown while training with the Darksaber.
• Sped up some of the Armorer’s attacks on Din during training so he doesn’t seem as incompetent.
• Reduced the time that Vizla spends mindlessly looking at the vibroblade Din cuts in half during their duel. Very awkward pause in combat.
• When Din is banished, I have integrated dialogue from their S3E01 talk so that Din has a clearer picture of how he needs to restore himself. He is also the one who now suggests how he can be redeemed, showing that he has knowledge of The Way.
• Cut transport announcer saying they’re flying to Tatooine because in mine they’re about to head to Nevarro.
• Split up Din’s traveling inside the shuttle into two parts, using the first half now and the second half on his way to Tatooine later on.
• New transition for shuttle flying to Nevarro and dropping Din off there.
• Grogu is entirely removed from this planet. (S3E01 content)
• New color grading for Nevarro
• We don’t yet know why exactly Din travels here, but he is quickly set upon by Greef who has all sorts of offers and plans for Din. So Din gets dragged around for a bit listening to Greef’s pitches before the Pirates show up.
• Re-edited the Pirate stand-off so that Greef fires faster to disarm the main one, and also so Din is the one who later kills all 4 of the other guards to further strengthen their grudge against Din specifically.
• Finally, Greef gives Din a moment to tell him why he’s here, and Din explains that he wants IG back. Greef tells him that’s impossible, but Din tries anyway. However, this effort bears no fruit and after all the effort Din is told that he needs to get a different droid.
• To bridge the gap in Din’s journey from Nevarro to Tatooine, we cut to the Armorer swearing in Vizla’s kid into The Way, this also helps establish that the clan has left the Ring World and is now onto the Rock World (which we will visit later in the film).
• Cut some Pelli and Womp Rat nonsense.
• Though it is a great sequence in and of itself, I had to trim over half of the building N1 scene. It just annihilates the pacing, and so I’ve cut it to what is needed to communicate the theme of Din taking pride and ownership in something new.
• Cut out a few lines during the N1 flight test to help with pacing.
• As Din takes the N1 into space during the test flight, he is “pulled over” by the New Republic, but right after he escapes them he is set upon by the pirates from Nevarro who are looking to take revenge on him for killing their men.
• There were SO many VFX bugs in this dogfight… I have fixed everything I could find. From doubled-up frames, explosion lighting coming from the wrong side of the cockpit after blowing something up, blaster fire inconsistency, impossible sequences of events chronologically, ships teleporting all over the place with no real geographical placement etc. Whew. Hopefully, the fight plays out in a way that entertains and you don’t notice all the cover-ups I had to do.
• I have merged the events of Din’s BoBF test flight with the S3E02 landing to get R5 so that these two scenes all play out in one sequence.
• After Din gets R5, he heads to the Mandalore system to begin his journey toward redemption. Knowing that Bo-Katan is in her old world of Kalevala, he stops there first to attempt to recruit her help.
• Removed Grogu from Kalevala with VFX
• After Bo declines Din’s request, he is forced to go to Mandalore alone with R5.
• Removed Grogu from Mandalore with VFX
• Color-graded Mandalore to look more lifeless.
• Din searches through Mandalore Mines all by himself until he is captured by the cyborg.
• Fixed the cyborg’s initial capture of Din. In the original, there are a TON of repeated frames across two different camera angles. I hate that. Now he only gets grabbed once.
• Added a few new wipe transitions throughout the mines to cover up old Grogu scenes.
• Removed Din groaning like he suffered a life-threatening wound after being captured.
• As Din is stuck in the trap, added voice lines from S3E08 where he says “R5, come in R5. I need you, buddy.” This prompts R5 to take off and fly back to Kalevala to get Bo to help.
• R5 goes back to Bo alone and she loads him up in her ship and goes to rescue Din.
• Removed Grogu from Bo’s journey on Mandalore with VFX
• Reordered Bo’s reaction shots to seeing Mandalore’s wreckage during her descent. The original had a glaring bug with her head position snapping instantly between frames, clearly combining two shots that weren’t supposed to go together.
• Reordered shots so that the ship lands, then R5 plugs in to monitor, then Bo leaves. Better logical sequence of events and paces her departure.
• Extended the time Bo looks at the ruined city in the Mines, and then altered the timing in which she puts her helmet pack on. She seemingly realizes she doesn’t have time to reminisce and needs to get to business.
• Rescored Bo’s walk through the mines.
• Removed the weird pause before the ceiling collapses when Bo shoots down the mine monsters.
• Increased the speed in which the monsters attack Bo rather than her missing 5 shots at point-blank range.
• Removed the long shot where Bo shoots the rope to grab the Darksaber but doesn’t pull it back. Now she retrieves it in one fluid motion.
• Cut the tell of the cyborg head not being dead. Din is less injured here and isn’t struggling so badly to speak so I don’t need that extra time anyways.
• After Bo destroys the crab machine, she goes to get Din out as he fades into unconsciousness from the blood loss.
• As Bo pulls Din away, we fade back to Nevarro to see the Pirates begin their invasion.
• After Nevarro is bombed, Din wakes up with Bo at the fire.
• Extended a shot of Bo looking at Din as she is touched by his kind gesture.
• After Bo saves Din from drowning and he is unconscious… again… We cut to Adelphi base to progress the Pirate plot.
• Rescored Din waking up and Bo leaving the Mines.
• Din and Bo now get ambushed quicker, mid-conversation on their flight back to Kalevala. Altered voiceline order and timing.
• Right from Din and Bo jumping to Rock World, we get Teva jumping out of hyperspace to Coruscant.
• Cut Teva “Okay Okay…” not great delivery, and better for his character to not concede.
• After Coruscant, we’re back to Bo and Din landing on Rock World (I’m really upset this planet isn’t named… I hate calling it that)
• Removed Grogu from Rock World with VFX
• Bo-Katan gets accepted into the clan and immediately goes to get her new signet [credit Smudger]
• Teva arrives in his X-wing right after Bo gets her pauldron
• Cut Din telling Bo “it’s up to them now” because that is beyond obvious.
• Altered dozens of voicelines and event orders around the planning Nevarro battle. Changed Bo’s order of the briefing, cut out another “tell the whole plan before doing the plan” segment.
• Fixed some super awkward pacing jumps in the Nevarro battle. Reordered dozens of scenes in order to keep the pace moving smoothly. Typical Acbagel combat fixes that are far too numerous to write down. I’ll let you experience this battle fresh without going into intricate detail!
• After Nevarro is saved and Bo is announced to be the one who will reunite the Clans, Din jumps to go visit Grogu. He is now redeemed, and there is presumably some down time before he will join Bo on her journey, so what better time to go do this?
• Trimmed a few minutes out of Din wandering around watching the droids and such. Nothing wrong with those scenes, but they don’t really fit in this pacing of this epilogue type of conclusion to the film.
• Din waits for Skywalker after R2 shuts off, has his normal conversation with Ahsoka, and we get just the tiniest display of Grogu in training, showing off some new powers. Luke and Ahsoka then talk as we look onto Grogu resting on a rock as I have rescored the ending and… roll credits.
• Unified credits storyline order

This will be my final preview…

…before release.

I’m getting close, my friends. I’m in the last 10% of editing on this. Tomorrow I will have a full working draft and begin looking for the bugs and writing the changelog. Hopefully will have that published very soon, and definitely looking at the full Book 5 release to kick off the summer!

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I now have Grogu completely removed from the entire movie. I just need to go back through and touch up a few spots and watch it all to make sure he didn’t slip through anywhere… But I am very confident this is going to work. These plotlines feel astronomically different without him around. I can’t wait to show you all. We’re in the final stretch! Trying to write the changelog tomorrow. It’s going to be… BIG.

Thanks for all the feedback, I’ll stick to finishing up the final 3 TWoM films and then go back for the final touch-ups on each before going to Bad Batch. I’ll share a Book 5 update at the end of this post.

honestabe said:

• In terms of personal interest, I will join the apparent unanimous agreement to continue with The Way of Mandalore.

This is the way!

• With regard to other edits, I agree with your premise to wait for the PixelJoker edit of Kenobi. No purpose in having to go through duplicate efforts if you already know in advance you want to incorporate portions of his work.

For sure, he is bringing a ton of ideas I had to life through VFX work that is truly next level. Can’t wait for you all to be able to see it!

• Next up I would love updates to the sequel trilogy. A legends compliant version was what I always hoped these would be. I have been wanting to watch your current work prints, but other life matters kept getting in the way.

I’ve grown a lot as an editor since I started working on these 3 years ago. I think I’d be able to have some good updates for it.

• For TPM, do you have any specific ideas? My current favorite edit based on what has been released so far was Cloak of Deception. I am aware another editor is going through VFX enhancements. I still believe there were an avalanche of good ideas in that thread that would enhance the movie. I honestly would not know where to begin on that. However, I do know that somehow Dooku needs to be introduced in that movie.

Yeah, a lot of specific ideas but nothing I want to get into in this thread since it would be too off topic. One day I’ll make my own thread for this when I start working on it. The previously linked community thread has a lot of great discussion though.

• I see you threw in Ashoka. It is far too early at this juncture to discuss an edit, but I was thinking that perhaps those live action shots (to be determined) could somehow incorporate into Revenge of the Sith. While I think it is unlikely, it would be nice to have a non-animated Ashoka fit into the movie in some form.

Mainly threw it in since it’s somewhat tied to my TWoM series. I’m not sure how you’d get Ahsoka series shots to fit into RotS since she is much older in her live action apperances.

DarthMeme said:

Hey Acbagel, thanks for sharing your brilliant edit. I watched it with my family who hadn’t seen the Mandalorian and just wanted to share some thoughts and feedback.

Wow, another first time viewer through my edits! That’s so cool, thanks for sharing all this.

Book 1: Fantastically handled! The prisoner episode happening right after Din gives Grogu and moving the flashbacks was such a genius placement and felt much more emotional. Also love how you actually made the whistling birds rare. Great cuts and pacing throughout however few feedbacks; I noted down at roughly 1:38:55 there was a hiccup in the music audio.

Awesome, glad you liked those changes. The music hiccup comes from the droid corpse landing on the ground at nearly the exact same time as the music track, so it does have a kind of weird rhythm. I’ll make note and see if I can smooth that out any.

At 1:42:30 the jump to Kuiil felt jarring and random I think moving that after Din leaves the rock planet or move it to book 2 would be better.

Yep, definitely agree here! We discussed that a couple pages ago with others and that scene will be moving elsewhere.

Also maybe restore Greer’s survival scene, it felt like his setup of the beskar money in his jacket he showed Mando didn’t get paid off and got my family a little confused XD.

I will do this too. I actually moved it down the timeline by mistake and simply forgot to put it back in…

Book 2: Great thematically paralleled story, loved the build-up of Boba and Mando near encounters. Love how Boba felt more ruthless implying he was going to kill the Rodian! Great use of Kotor cantina music. And I love the decision to stay with Mando and find out the rookie bounty killed Fennic & I like how you implied Fennic already had the cybernetic stomach and Boba patched that up himself.

I’ll be making some new pacing/scene order changes here with some minor improvements, but it’s cool that this one worked out for you.

Book 3: Simply genius moving the New Republic glacier planet encounter after the shady desert planet without frog lady worked so much better. Only thing was at 14:09 I think I noticed the frog lady in that shot.

I love this opener too, one of my favorite changes in my whole saga. But you’re right! The frog is visible for a split second there, must have missed that. I’ll fix it.

Great placement of the Nevarro clone facility plotline, felt less fillery than the original. I do feel that Carson Tega’s Nevarro scene should’ve been moved right after Din leaves Nevarro so it doesn’t feel jarring and then move the Shadow Council scene right after.

Well the reason I moved this was because the chronology doesn’t really line up if the X-wings are immediately to Nevarro. It would take some time for those reports to get out and then their fleet to get there. Maybe it would work to go: Din leaves Nevarro, Shadow Council, Carson lands, Din arrives on Tatooine?

Speaking of which I love that you placed it there made Thrawn’s namedrop in Book 4 feel organic. Only thing is cut the references to Gideon needed Praetorian guards since we never see them till S3.

For sure, that was a main reason why I wanted the Shadow Council moved up. The Book 4 name drop is extremely out of nowhere without the setup, and I thought this discussion in the movie before would really help that feel cohesive and lead into the Ahsoka show. I suspect some of Ahsoka will take place during this time, so maybe there’s a world where I have an Ahsoka edit and you watch one of those films in the midst of my TWoM saga.

Also I love how you made Boba snipe Din that worked nicely though I think perhaps if you can change one of the hired goons line from “grab the child” to “grab the armour” to make it more obvious Boba hired them. Finally love the added music on Traask when Bo rescues Din.

That’s a great idea! That actually might fix this scene. Others had suggested to just have Boba look and then not interfere yet, but that voiceline might make Boba’s presence here feel more impactful. What do others think of that as a solution?

Book 4: Love the use of mix of trailer music in Ashoka’s intro. At 50:45 personally I’d cut Fennic’s line of “the outer rim is under new Republic jurisdiction” since they’re supposed to be in the deep core and I’m pretty sure the ship’s map showed that as well.

Ha! Nice catch, you’re right. Tython is indeed located in the Deep Core so why is she talking about the outer rim? Maybe I can get an AI voice line for Fennec to say “The Deep Core is under new Republic jurisdiction”?

Also at 58:43 I’d cut Mayfield mention of the little green guy, my family got confused to how he knew what Grogu looked like.

Ah, you’re the second one to mention that this line doesn’t feel right. In my mind, since Mayfeld only repeats what Cara just said about “The little green guy”, I intended it to come off as like “The little green guy? Wtf are you talking about?”, but there must be something about his tone and body language that makes people feel his familiarity rather than confusion. I probably will have to cut this if it isn’t communicating the right message.

I can’t wait to see what you got cooking for S3 and Book of Boba!

I’m working on it! This one is taking a LOT longer than normal because I’m doing some heavy VFX, but I promise everyone, I’m making progress! Let’s get some more previews here so you believe me. I have everything done in the Mines through Din getting captured. Now I’m onto Bo-Katan’s journey to rescue Din.

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So look at that, I’m actually doing it! I could spend an eternity trying to perfect each and every shot, but I do want this to come out eventually lol. Near invisible is the goal. There should be nothing distracting that draws your eyes away and makes you notice a bug. So go into this film with fresh eyes, with no preconceived notions that Grogu was ever here!

The Star Wars: The Old Republic video game has a mission called “The Face Merchants” set in the Coruscant underworld where Black Sun has been operating a similar operation. Though the technology back then seems way more archaic as it required invasive surgery from specialized droids/software to reform the faces of the criminals, the concept of altering facial appearances has at least existed in Star Wars aside from this one TCW episode.

https://swtor-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Mission:The_Face_Merchants

As I’ve been working on my Mando Season 3 edit, I’ve run across some very strange bugs in the show. Wondering if anyone has some insight.

What is going on here…? How is R5 already following Din on Nevarro?

That is Season 3 Episode 1, right after they land and walk into town. Din doesn’t even pickup R5 from Pelli until the beginning of the NEXT EPISODE… R5’s texture also looks off, like they didn’t fully touch up his model.

Also, there are a TON of scenes where Grogu completely vanishes from sight. Like one shot he’s hovering right next to Din’s hip, the next he is nowhere to be found.

Again, here is Grogu clearly to the left of Greef.

But then POOF he is instantly gone again.

,

But then in the VERY NEXT SHOT… he is directly behind them walking but his compositing and color looks super wonky as he is very obviously green screened in.

It makes even less sense when you see it play out in video form rather than these stills. I mean there’s at least 5 instances of this where he should be there on the screen based on his previous placement but he’s not, and this occurs not only throughout all of Nevarro, but also later on in the Mines of Mandalore.

Grogu is directly behind Din’s right shoulder -

But then 2 seconds later he is nowhere to be found (Notice how Grogu’s bright flashlight makes no difference on Din’s armor when the light is there in the close up vs when Grogu and the light are missing in the next frame)-

And then 2 seconds after that he is hiding behind a piece of rubble and cave wall that is not seen anywhere else on this set piece -

And it’s not only the visuals that are extremely mixed up, I want you to take a step back and consider if this series of events makes sense to you:

1. After completing his mission and giving Grogu to Luke, Din goes back to bounty hunting for an undetermined amount of time, he tracks down his clan, but it is very quickly discovered that he violated the creed and Din is cast out of his clan as an apostate. He is told his only path to redemption is to bathe in the waters of Mandalore. (Perfect setup for a new and compelling story post-Season 2)
2. Din sulks off to Tatooine to get a new ship, supposedly with the intent to go to Mandalore in it. (This makes sense, if he is going on this new journey, he needs a way to fly to and explore Mandalore)
3. While getting his new ship, he learns that Boba needs help and Din says he will assist, but then suddenly decides that he has to visit Grogu IMMEDIATELY. (Surely, that could’ve waited? Why does he have to go there right this second? This was where the Disney forced reuinion stuff starts to interfere and I start to see evidence of massive plot changes. With no actual urgency in the story, Din tells Boba to wait until he gets back and then rushes across the entire galaxy to check on Grogu. If their reunion wasn’t forced to be included in BoBF for this final battle, there’s no reason at all that this visit to Grogu shouldn’t just happen after the Tatooine battle)
4. Din flies across the entire galaxy to check on Grogu, learns he can’t really interfere and immediately leaves… We then see ALL of Grogu’s Jedi training take place in 20 minutes. (It is VERY confusing how much time passes in these events. How long was Grogu with Luke? Some of the lessons seem like basic Day 1 stuff, so what was he doing with Luke in between seasons? He does all of this training while Din is flying back to Tatooine? I can’t get a grasp on the chronolgy here. I know there’s been a ton of debate about Favreau’s “2 years” comment, but either way, that doesn’t fix the issues here)
5. Din goes straight back to Tatooine to help Boba instead of going to Mandalore (Aside from just zooming back and forth across the entire galaxy for no presented reason and time grinding to a halt, this decision from Din is fine. He already promised Boba he would help him and Din has always been a man of his word)
6. Din fights on Tatooine to stay true to his oath, but WHOA he reunites with Grogu who followed him, and after the battle they jump off to hyperspace. We are left with 0 clues as to where they go or what they intend to do next (We get this whole “solo Din on the apostate’s repentance trail” setup, but then out of nowhere Grogu returns and makes that all seem unnecessary. The first 2 seasons of The Mandalorian were all about how Grogu grows to be Din’s #1 purpose giver, not the Mandalorian clans… So it’s like, wait, does Din even care about being an apostate anymore? He can just stay with Grogu now like he always wanted. Where are they going now? What do they want to do together?)
7. So with Din’s motivations and emotions completely unknown at this point, we learn that offscreen Din meets a Jawa on some unknown planet and that Jawa had already met a random traveler who had somehow made it to the surface of Mandalore and pulled a tome out of the crystal and then sold it to the Jawa and then Din buys that tome… Whew. Then Din, for no apparent reason, goes back to his former Mandalorian clan on their random new rock world hideout, even though he is still a banished apostate, to tell them that he acquired this tome from a Jawa from a traveler who said they made it to the surface. And the Armorer is like, “Ok…? But did you baptise yet?” and Din says no and so is still told to leave, but then he STILL doesn’t go to Mandalore. (Holy crap! This is an absolute mess. First of all, THIS is how we learn that Din still wants to not be an apostate even though he has Grogu again? From an offscreen event? And then Din looks like a complete moron traveling to his old clan to tell them about this third party story with no real information and no actual steps made towards repentance. Grogu is serving no function at all here as he is completely ignored in all of this, so we see that them reuniting changed nothing at all about the plot that was so carefully setup, and learn that Din has reverted back to his secondary motivation of wanting repentance, all through a conversation about an event offscreen.)
8. So now Din goes to Nevarro because he needs IG-11! No other droid will do, that’s the only one he trusts to search for the mines with him. Thankfully, IG-11 is mostly intact, except for one crucial part that would restore his memory. Since no one on the planet has this part, Din leaves empty handed but tells Greef he will be back with the part. (The fact that IG-11 even has any parts usable aside, this is an extremely distracting wrench in the plot structure, and that’s not even considering the whole pirate arc that also gets setup while he’s here. This is where R5 appears somehow, and Grogu is missing from a ton of scenes. This leads me to believe that this whole segment was completely altered in reshoots/post-production.)
9. So Din is apparently now on a mission to search for this part to fix IG before he can go to Mandalore, so hmmm, where will he go to find it? Maybe he will try some scrapyard world like Raxus Pri- wait, what? Why is he suddenly in the Mandalore system? He’s landing on Kalevala from The Clone Wars? So this must be where Bo-Katan is… wait, why does Din think she has or knows where this IG-11 part is? Din lands and… tells her “I’m here to join you in retaking Mandalore”. Uh, ok, that’s new. Bo says no one will follow her without the Darksaber, then Din just says that he is going anyways to explore and he leaves in under 2 minutes. (What the hell is going on? I thought he needed the droid part? Why did he just randomly go to Bo-Katan and want to join her in liberating Mandalore?? Bo-Katan sees Grogu next to him and doesn’t react at all??? Is she not confused how they reunited? Last thing she did with them was that enormously risky quest to rescue Grogu and she saw him leave with LUKE SKYWALKER. Then Din leaves without ever mentioning the droid part and it seems like he is going to Mandalore right now without IG? I am SO lost in this disjointed order of events.)
10. So I guess Din is just suddenly okay with going to the Mines alone without IG since he is already in the Mandalore system and only a few minutes flight away from the planet Mandalo- Oh ok, random scene of Pelli on Tatooine, maybe it’s setting something up with Boba returning to join Din on Mandalore? That would be kind of cool for them to- WHAT?? HOW and WHY is the N1 instantly landing on Tatooine?! Din gets out and tells Pelli he needs the IG11 part…! Wtf is going on?? Why did he go all the way to the Mandalore system to talk to Bo BEFORE getting the droid part if that’s what he still wanted? Now he has to go ALL THE WAY BACK to the system he just came from! But wait! Pelli doesn’t have the part, and the Jawas don’t have it, so she tells him to just take R5 and Din says ok fine. He then flies ALL THE WAY back to Mandalore where he JUST CAME FROM to now go into the Mines with R5 instead of IG… (This is where I gave up on trying to understand what is happening. This order of events is so beyond normal understanding or any form of logical sequencing. And we’re only 5 minutes into Season 3 Episode 2 at this point and we still have an enormous mess of pacing ahead throughout the rest of the season. This is seriously a complete nightmare plot structure.)

Tldr; With those disjointed events that were obviously not intended to be placed in this order and the visual errors showing that R5 and Grogu were originally intended to switch places at certain plot points, it is clear that the reunion was not the original plan and that they had to massively rework Season 3 from top to bottom. It’s like they had originally shot whole planets with R5 and no Grogu at one point, and then re-shot half the scenes again to add Grogu in with a new storyline, but didn’t do a good job as Grogu is still missing from a ton of the new shots and R5 still in the background. This would also mean that Din was supposed to go to Tatooine before episode 2. Din also lands on Nevarro with Grogu still in the bubble instead of the droid port, but then R5 is following him in the next shot… So there are tons of different reshoots and VFX alterations going back and forth and it is a terribly messy presentation. There’s a lot of additional speculation/evidence out there, especially in terms of the S3 ending and some BTS leaks of Gideon scenes that were never used, but wow, from an editor’s standpoint it is crystal clear that this season was so stitched together in post production to become something that is was not originally intended to be.

I found another case of Where’s Grogu? When Din gets captured:

Grogu is right over Din’s right shoulder -

But then 2 seconds later he is nowhere to be found -

And then 2 seconds after that he is hiding behind a piece of rubble and cave wall that is not seen anywhere else -

It’s driving me crazy! You know me, always trying to fix the logical placement of where characters should be. I was able to perfectly correct a few minor mistakes in Seasons 1 & 2 but these are such obvious reshoot scenes or moved around shots that were never supposed to be placed there. It’s impossible to fix!

Thankfully, I’m already removing Grogu from all of this anyways and don’t have to worry about putting him IN where he should be on Nevarro & Mandalore.

Before -

After (this one still needs a little touch up on the structure) -

Before -

After -

Before -

After -

I’ll have some video previews of these Grogu-less mines ready in a few days.