Acbagel

Everyone, get hyped for the Twilight of the Apprentice update! I’ve seen the draft version and it’s absolutely a gamechanger for elevating the content. Can’t wait for you all to see it too!

Also g00b, what do you think about replacing the dialogue of Mon Mothma’s speech in S3E18 (not sure where in your series that falls) with the speech from Andor last night? There’s an odd lack of continuity between them now, but I don’t think it would be too hard to bring the Andor audio into that holotransmission to fix that!

TheDimitrios said:

Personally, I thought the design was close enough. The Inquisitors in Kenobi were in desperate need of fixing, some people did not even recognize the Grand Inquisitor, so that was work well spent for Trials of the Master. Investing big amounts of time to make Bane look 10% better is not worth it imo.

Thanks everyone for the feedback on Bane! I’m at least pausing on it for now, will decide later on if I want to come back and do it. There are also multiple other editors just starting work on it so I’m trying to coordinate with some about each of us doing certain parts of it so we aren’t all repeating work.

I haven’t been posting as many updates on this thread since I’ve started livestreaming updates on my YT channel, but we are making great progress on Book 6! I just passed the 50% mark on the final passthrough, so it’s definitely looking like it’s on pace for early summer.

Sirius said:

Live action Ahsoka is shit, unfortunately

Artan42 said:

Sirius said:

Live action Ahsoka is shit, unfortunately

Nope. It’s great.

Can I take a position in the middle on this haha? I really liked the first 5 episodes but thought it completely fell apart and dropped the ball in the last two. Haven’t rewatched it start to finish since first release because of how much I disliked the ending… Definitely a possibility for me to edit it in a way I’d like though! It’s a candidate for a future acbagel Legends edit for sure, but I might want to wait for Season 2 to come out first so I have a better picture of the grand scheme.

I think that works great in your scene edit! And I completely agree with your explanation post that it’s a powerful moment that should be included. I hope to see people start using this in their Andor edits in the future. Great work.

You could try just using Fiona Shaw’s delivery of the line where she says “F*** the Empire” in an interview with Variety. I’ve had it saved on my computer forever. Not sure if the tone of her delivery would work, but it’s worth trying since it’s an authentic delivery. Here ya go!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FDEE0U0ZL9hYIRSO032Jhdt3HGKuMmU6/view?usp=sharing

Made a mockup below adjusting Cad Bane’s color and head shape to closer resemble The Clone Wars… Should I spend approximitely the next month ONLY doing VFX to fix Cad Bane’s appearance?

TheDimitrios said:

One thing just came to me: Will the scene of Grogu seeing the space whales be in there? It is just so damn beautiful. ❤️

Yes! Love that scene too. It is now placed after Din picks up Grogu from Yavin for the reunion and flies en route to Mandalore for the final battle. It works SO well thematically there.

That’s an awesome first draft! Great ideas, so much can be done in a non-purist version of this film! Good work

Patali said:

So my wife and I watched, and we loved it! We were not bored at all. I have seen Boba Fett, but not season 3, and my wife hasn’t seen any of the series.

Awesome! I have been really looking forward to getting to show you guys specifically, because that’s such a unique position to be going in to see this content for the first time through my format.

When Paz stood up and gave his speech in support of Din, my wife got so excited. Same with seeing Grogu at the end, and the Mythosaur. My wife doesn’t know names of stuff, but she was like “That’s the animal their helmets are designed after!”

I thought this movie was the first time I felt the story delivered on the premise of “The Mandalorian”. This feels like the first fully focused Mandalorian story.
I asked her if the Mandoa was too much at all throughout the movie, and she said it was not.

Haha love that! I totally agree with what you mean about the premise and name of the show. I think it is actually a great pivot point for the series after the emotional personal journey for Din and Grogu, to now move into showing Mandalorians in general. Glad that theme carried through as I intended!

She couldn’t really give me specifics, but she did have feedback of “Parts felt a bit choppy.” Take that for what you will, maybe you can sus out what she means. She loved it overall.

I thought the pacing was excellent. The only minor nitpicks I have are, I don’t feel like Din would necessarily explain to Peli Motto that he is trying to redeem himself etc when asking for the droid that detect the toxicity or whatever it was.

If I were to guess, I’d say the “choppy” feeling probably leaked through from the cuts back and forth to the Nevarro pirate plotline. Those are the main transitions I still am not 100% happy with, as it’s a little jarring to leave the Mines and go there, but I tried experimenting with those scenes in SO many other places in the film and they were all worse. Definitely open to ideas here though!

Regarding Din, I do understand that. I thought it was somewhat in character because he was going around to everyone telling them about his failure and plan for redemption. Mandalorians aren’t shy about that stuff, they preach the religion so to speak. While reserved and focused to some degree, they are a blunt and honest culture.

The other thing is, I think the Mandoa works, my wife thought it was great. But I think if a line sounds great in basic/english, it should be considered to be swapped in for special circumstances. The one I’m thinking of is “Have you removed your helmet?” More that the actress’s delivery was really good on that, you could feel the weight of it. I am wondering, maybe she could say it in Mandoa first coming out of that conversation, but then the second time she says it in basic so the line really hits, that’s the one where the actress’s delivery really sells it. Idk if that’ll work but something for you to consider.

Good point! That’s a line that would make sense to transition back to basic anyway. Have that noted, thanks!

Otherwise, we really loved it. I told you in your chat, I was considering doing my own cuts of the series, which would essentially be like yours but cut in half. So your first 4 movies, would only be 2 in my version, which I’m still interested in. However, after watching this one, I might just leave your last movies 5 and 6 as is (depending on how 6 goes), because I thought this one was great! There wasn’t really anything major I wanted to cut.

Very cool man, thanks so much for sharing all of this. Can’t wait to show you Book 6 in the coming months! Production is going well, ~15% through the final review.

Edit: OH! I forgot our biggest want… WE WANT BOBA FETT!!! We love Boba. I hope his modern story is a significant part of your Book 6, can’t wait to see how you handle that material.

I give the people what they want. Trust me, Boba will be a huge focus in Book 6. His character deserves it.

AUREK said:

Su´cuy gar, Vode! I would love to have access to this project! Sound wonderful and would love to watch it someday!

Sent, hope you enjoy! Would love to hear any thoughts you have on any films in the saga edit

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Book 5 has been my most downloaded project by far, lots of requests for it coming in still. Appreciate everyone’s patience for the time it took me to get it right. Please let me know if you have positive or negative feedback that I can use on a future bug fix release!

I haven’t missed a beat and have been totally locked in on Book 6 since last week’s release. I needed to accomplish a few things for the Ragnar adoption ceremony for my new placement in The Way of Mandalore Book 6. It can’t lead to Ragnar’s abduction, Din Djarin needs to be there, the sound effects and soundtrack need replaced (the original was very underwhelming), the characters need to speak Mando’a, and Ragnar’s mouth movements need to match that Mando’a…

First draft looking pretty good I think! What do you all think? Any suggestions? Ideas?

https://youtu.be/IJegBwAcDSI

Thanks everyone! The film is now RELEASED, post here or DM if you’re interested in seeing.

I will be doing one final minor “touch-up” render after a couple weeks of feedback come in, so please leave your thoughts of what you thought did or didn’t work well in the film. Appreciate you all!

Book 6: Officially back in production.

Support from me too! The demo scenes were awesome, would definitely follow this project as you develop it more.

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.