Acbagel

Mario said:

I’m not sure if I watch the newest Version, but this edit is really amazing. I like the theatrical Version really much, but this is much better. I think I missed a lot of the changes. All runs really smooth. And I love the a lot of the changes that are obvious. Poes interrogation is much cooler with the voices. Rey see the island in the sunrise is really cool. I love how you change Reys Escape. The death of Han is so much more emotionally and it gives more interpretation for Kylos motive. And I love the fight against Fin and Rey. Kylo is now more powerful and Reys not overpowered. And i prefer that the Star Killer Base fires at the end of the movie. But i like the version of Hal9000 a little bit more. I think it’s more dramatic if the republic will be destroyed seconds before the rebellion wins. And I love your new ending on the island. The original end is too long and that dream is amazing. And the deleted scenes are great. Awesome edit. Love him so much. Perfect if he would be in my language 🙂 Now I saw Reys Sith Eyes at the end of the fight with Kylo. That’s a amazing detail.

Thanks for all the great feedback! Glad you enjoyed many of the changes, and I think it’s a good thing if you don’t notice everything on a first watch, that means it is integrated smoothly. The reason I didn’t have Starkiller destruction setup like HAL’s wonderful edit is that personally I think it is a very tired trope for the “bad guys” to lose mere seconds before they were about to win. This was an awesome, tense storyline decision in 1977 with A New Hope, but we’ve seen that already in Star Wars! With a major complaint of The Force Awakens being how much it resembles A New Hope, I didn’t want that same exact plotline being in here too. I tried to create a more unique version of Starkiller’s destruction so it doesn’t just feel like Death Star 3. I think the way I framed it kept the drama more focused on Rey and Kylo here which is a much more interesting dynamic than another superweapon in my opinion.

Anyways, very happy you enjoyed it as a whole and I look forward to sharing the final release with you sometime soon.

incrediblyhugeoverpoweredman said:

Wait so what legends content do you read/play before this? Or this strictly trying to fit the tone and not trying to fit the story of legends?

Well, personally I’ve read/played like… All of the legends content haha. But as there is no way to directly reproduce that storyline unless I wake up with hundreds of millions of dollars in my bank account, I’ve instead opted to try to recreate the themes and general big picture storylines of Legends. The inspiration for how I tried to adapt the Sequel Trilogy was a merging of two fan ideas The One Canon and The Crucible Canon. This presents a possibility of the previous Legends storylines happening along with this Sequel Trilogy version.

Puterboy1 said:

Change Kylo REN’s name to Jacen Solo. It makes more sense for Luke to name his own son after Ben.

I agree that would’ve been a better version of the Sequel Trilogy, but see the links above for how it works to also have a Ben Solo included in the story.

Hello, OT’ers! I’m back, sort of…

As all fan editors will know, sometimes you have step away from your projects and focus on your mental health for a time. Not that there was anything in particular that I was struggling with, but these sort of projects can become extremely taxing and mentally consuming. Spending hundreds of hours analyzing line by line, scene by scene, looking for all sort of threads in the plot and theme connections etc… I stepped away from my Legends ST Trilogy to work on some other projects. As you can see in my profile, I began working on a Bad Batch re-edit (I do plan on finishing this at some point!), started messing around in the Marvel films to make a saga (I released the first 2 films, but then grew weary of this project and have officially abandoned it), and actually spent a ton of time on a currently completed but unreleased edit of Game of Thrones (edited all episodes into film length, removed gratuitous nudity, minor dialogue and story beat changes, and hugely reworked the final season/ending!). All of that to say I simply needed to take an extended break from OT and my Star Wars trilogy… But after 3 months away I am ready to begin working my way back in.

I should have posted a message about my sabbatical, so I apologize to anyone who has been looking for the workprints and I am appreciative to those of you who shared the links with one another in the meantime. I will be going through all of my unread messages and sharing the edits with everyone who has asked. If you do not receive the links by the end of the day and still wish to watch, just send me a new DM because I probably just missed you in the huge list I have in my inboxes.

So why do I say I’m only “sort of” back? Well, it’s because I don’t have any immediate plans on preparing the edits for their final releases. They are still only in the Beta stage (Episode 9 in Alpha) and I need to slowly start getting back into the editing room, taking a fresh look at my trilogy to see where improvements need to be made. So let’s examine the status of each film:

1. Episode 7: Heirs of the Force - This edit is close to completion, but it’s not 100% there yet. I’d say it’s around the 85% mark. I have gotten a ton of phenomenal feedback on this film’s workprint and there’s not a ton more that needs to be completed. However, I have been very intrigued by some other ideas for this film that I’ve been reading about on other forums and do have plans to integrate some of that into here. I also need to take another crack at color correction on some scenes, another pass on audio transitions etc. So while the main story beats are here, and I love the structure and setup for my trilogy, there’s still a decent amount of new things that I want to add in before final release.

2. Episode 8: Fate of the Jedi - While I am very happy with the primary storyline and how I have transformed Luke into the Grand Master of Legends, I think this film still needs the most technical work and as many of the ideas in here were very experimental (teasing Palpatine at the end, World Between Worlds, etc), it certainly needs another full pass on a lot of the scenes. So let’s say this film is 70% where I want it to be. I’ve gotten a ton of great feedback on this one too, primarily when it comes to Luke and Kylo, but as a whole in this trilogy I need to take another look at what to do with Rey, especially considering how I ended her arc in Episode 9. There is still a lot of potential with this film, and while this is by far the most transformative film of my trilogy, I am not opposed to going even further with how I changed the plot. At the end of the day, it still has a lot of that TLJ feel that people disliked. I want to change that feeling so much that you barely recognize the TLJ from theatrical version.

3. Episode 9: Legacy of the Force - This film has always been a doozy… I could not even whip this film into a Beta version in my original attempt. I got it into an Alpha cut where I considered it watchable and a definite improvement over theatrical, but there were some ideas that didn’t look visually convincing enough, abrupt endings to certain plotlines, a remainder of some of the major flaws in theatrical etc. As I have set out to make this Legends trilogy a completely transformative work, this movie is not yet near where I want it to be. I’ll put this at the 40% mark right now, so while I am very happy with how I altered certain aspects, there are other parts where I know things are missing, or that I altered and have found to not work. I have a LOT to do on this before releasing a final cut.

What’s the timeline, you ask? 2022. That’s about the best I can give right now. I will be going in chronological order with editing here again, but will also be doing touch ups on each film concurrently as needed. I’d say a realistic goal is for me to release the final cut of Episode 7 in late Q3-Q4 2022, with the other films releasing after that. As you know from my changelists, I take a great deal of inspiration from other Fan Editors in addition to my own original ideas, and I watch nearly every ST edit that comes out. Every time I watch someone else’s vision of these films I gain new perspective, new ideas, eureka moments! There are some other upcoming fan edits that I am very excited about as well, people who’ve had ideas that haven’t come to me yet so I am excited to watch their creations before finishing mine. I greatly appreciate the community think tank, and your feedback and reviews have been absolutely essential in me creating the best Legends-esque storyline possible. Thank you for all the support and contributions you’ve provided me, it has been a great joy to share my films with all of you and I look forward to continuing this project in the near future.

(As this was a general update of my trilogy as a whole, I will be double posting in this thread so that my following post is responding directly to the missed comments that have been left in my absence. This one is long enough and not directly related to the comments other users have left.)

Can anyone DM me a link to this? Thanks!

Atom-88 said:

Hi mate, hope you and your family are all having a lovely Christmas.
Ok so as promised I finally gave V2 a second viewing, I found it a big improvement over V1 bit there were things I still didn’t quite like.

(If you haven’t seen this edit yet but plan on watching please beware of spoilers for this edit)

The things I loved:

*Kylo’s presence when Rey’s training.

• The scene of the Troopers landing in Mustafar. I thought it made the battle a bit more impactful by showing this.

• The cut humour about the raid on Pasana.

• The Force Healing of the Giant Worm. For me this one is like a catch 22, If we got to see force healing in the other movies then maybe it wouldn’t feel so forced. But then do we see Obiwan force heal Luke in A new hope🤷.

• Rey not destroying Kylo’s ship on Pasana. Yep very good continuity catch, never really noticed this before lol.

• Hux’s “I’m the Spy” line. This never really bothered me until a recent viewing.

• The extended shots of Rey on the skimmer. Can’t remember seeing this in other versions.

• Kylo on Corasant.
  No reason why but just liked seeing this.

• C3PO not getting his memory back. Hated the scene of him getting his memory restored, it made his sacrifice pointless.

• Lando on the Falcon with Chewie before leaving for Exegol. Just like the extended shots of Rey on the Skimmer I don’t recall seeing this before.

• Lando and Janna scene. Another scene I don’t recall seeing.

• C3PO ending scene. Won’t go into details as I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone else but holy s@#t did you bring A tear to my eye.

Ok so now for the things I wasn’t such a huge fan of.

• Leia heals Kylo.
  I like the idea I really do think it’s an amazing idea but for me it doesn’t work VFX wise, reason being as with you other ST edits you have put it so much work and some really amazing ideas for me it feels because the VFX are not there it lets it down.

• Kylo lives. as mentioned above, if the VFX were there maybe it just doesn’t fit for me personally and like before with all the work you have put in with these amazing edits it just let’s this down.

• I feel the some of the scene’s at the beginning may need some rearranging. We see A star destroyer blow a planet up but don’t see Palpatine til later, similar with Kylo telling the first order commanders about Palpatine. Just feel these could use a little rearranging.

All in all very good work mate👍.

Thank you so much for this feedback, this, combined with your even more detailed notes in the DM is exactly what I needed. I will definitely be going through the two lists point by point to get this film to where I want it. At first glance, I agree with a lot of what you’ve written, and while this v2 was a huge improvement over v1, I still have some work to do to bring it to a v3 that I am fully happy with. We’ve made a lot of progress and the skeleton is there to be a great edit, but it’s only about 75% of what I want it to be right now.

CMMAP said:

Acbagel said:
Hmm, so you’re saying you just don’t like the original shots/vfx work from Disney and want the whole scene not to be included? I also think the original production looks pretty bad, but as a storytelling device for the plot there’s really no way out of it. How else would you explain why Leia is in a coma the majority of the movie?

Yeah, i didn´t liked it at all. I know it´s necessary for your edit. Perhps it would be possible to cut the shot at 32:53-33:06

Not entirely sure what you’re saying here. You’re saying you don’t like the original dialogue in the film? I’m not understanding what you think doesn’t make sense.

Luke: “I can’t save him.” (Ben)
Leia: “I held out hope for so long, but I know my son is gone.” (Ben)
Luke: “No one is ever really gone.” (Mainly a callback line to how Luke saved Vader and even though Luke couldn’t ultimately save him, there’s still hope for change at the end, so he’s referencing Ben’s fate as well. And then he gives Leia Han’s dice as memento of hope to hammer home the point)

I think that’s one of the greatest exchanges of dialogue in the whole film and I didn’t edit anything here. What is confusing to you in this?

Sorry i was in a rush, so my explanation isn´t really sufficient. Yes, i think the original dialogue is at least flawed. Luke says he can´t safe ben, but also tells lea no one is ever really gone? Feels like a paradox to me if he´s also referring to ben.

I didn’t change any of the music as he is walking outside. It’s all the normal theatrical version. In fact there isn’t a single cut from the time Luke kisses Leia until after the AT-AT’s stop shooting so it’s not from me. What are you saying isn’t smooth?

The music transition from lukes mandalorian theme to the original music at 1:55:49/50. I like that you integrated the force theme from mandalorian. they are both so different, that it´s kind of bumby.

Nope, as above there isn’t a single change to theatrical here. It’s just a copy-paste over from the real movie. I’m happy to try to attempt to correct a mistake the actual movie made, but I didn’t notice any. Where exactly are you saying something is different?

1:57:19, that´s music from the original movie? There is also the first dialogue from kylo which feels drowned in the upmix. As 1:57:42 Huxes line “that´s enough”,

Sorry, it’s kind of hard to understand what you’re saying here too. What do you mean “music could come in sooner”? There’s regular music playing underneath the scene the entire time. And which image of Luke are you saying is unnecessary? Timestamps would be helpful so I can review

Still of Luke 2:04:42/43; music transition from 2:05:42/43, feels a bit abrupt. But maybe i´m to sensitive.
Also 2:06:11/12, maybe let the music when kylo enters the mine come in a little bit earlier but quieter

The camera shot is on Kylo, and Palpatine says, “My boy…” What made you think that was in Rey’s head?

I didn´t got the impression that palps is in kylo´s head, because he´s looking in specific direction and i know rey feels kylo in the original, here it feels she can witness what kylo is experiencing (palps talking). Therefore it wouldn´t fit for me afterwards when she´s not thinking of it any further.

You mean the shot of the Sith fleet moving towards the planet? It’s there as Palpatine’s message plays to show that his fleets have arrived and are looming over the galaxy. I feel like most of the shots of Exegol here would be more confusing than anything. It’s too specific of a reference to make any sense as a final scene in the last 10 seconds. Is there a certain scene from Exegol you think would get the point across better than the Star Destroyers over the generic world?

Yes that shot. At least it feels like that this generic planet is something important as three tie-fighter and the star destroyer are flying to it and we´ll see it again. That´s why i thought you want to show exogol. Which wouldn´t make any sense because kylo doesn´t know yet where palps is? Perhaps it could end with kylo staring out f the window? But the ending with palps meassage is great, carries far more weight.
2:08:33 feels also abrupt music-wise.

Thank you for the detailed feedback, I will be going through and implementing the needed audio fixes this week. Aside from these last few technical corrections, the reviews on this film have been really great so I think it’s very close to being where I want in terms of story. I have a few more storyline ideas I am hoping to implement before the final version release later this year, but aside from color correction and a few more editing things I’m getting close to where I want to be with this film.

Knight of Kalee said:

I’d like to check out this as well, sounds promising 😄

Sent!

Also quick update on my project. I am going through each film now with fixes, but with the feedback I’ve gotten on this edit I don’t think there is a need for another version until I move ahead with releasing the final cuts of everything later this year. Any suggestions to this film have been very minor, so at this point I’d say Episode 7 is nearly perfect and the reviews I have received have been incredible. I am very happy with where this film is at and any updates in the future will be mainly in the color correction department.

calisto said:

Would like a Pm for a link for your edit please?

Sent!

Quick update on the project too. I am very happy with where Chapter 1 is at in terms of story. It’s still not perfect on the audio balancing but it’s definitely watchable and enjoyable. Links are ready for anyone who wants it.

I did a full sit through of Chapter 2 last night and while it’s close, it’s not quite ready in terms of the storyline yet. Some of my initial ideas don’t pan out into a cohesive enough way and I find the film drags on a little too long with the side plots, so I’ll be going through some trims and then writing up the thread with the details for that. Should be ready later this week.

I am already well under way for Chapter 3 as well and have the entire structure organized, just need to spend a couple more hours with it going through each scene again and then do a watch through to catch any bugs.

Would love to view this, thanks!

JackNapier said:

This sounds amazing and fun!

Interested in seeing the first film? That one is released for a v1.0 and the second film should be released v1.0 this week too.

stretch009 said:

DM sent. Thanks!

Replied, sorry for the delay over the holidays! Unfortunately, my family was burdened by sickness throughout the last week so it’s been extra hectic with little to no time for my edits, but I should be back in business this week getting everything up to speed.

nmxuci5970 said:

can you also dm me a link to mcu refocused as this is far more.

Sent!

“This is far more”…? What? It looks like you didn’t complete your sentence there, sir

nmxuci5970 said:

Is there a work print available for the mature edit of the bad batch

Hello, not yet, my friend. I have this project on pause as I work on my Marvel project and finish up my Episode 9 edit, but I definitely plan to come back to this and complete it in the new year.

CamSMurph said:

Is a version of this currently available?

Yes, I can send you the workprint. Still need to do some audio adjustments before it’s final release quality but its definitely watchable without many distractions. I’ll dm you

EditModd said:

I’ve started watching your edit and like it so far. Moving the Star Destroyer planet destruction scene to the beginning helped establish the stakes early on. The only tradeoff is the main heroes don’t form an attachment to it, but by making it Corellia that’s destroyed you’ve definitely upped the stakes for Legends fans, which I assume is your main goal with this edit.

Great, it makes a lot more sense if you have seen my Episode 8 beforehand as well, as I introduce Palpatine’s return there. So it doesn’t seem as random and sudden of an appearance in 9.

And yes, I tried to introduce some sensible Legends easter eggs here and there. Did you get the sense that the whole planet of Corellia was destroyed there or that it was just an orbital bombardment that destroyed a city/continent? (was going for more of a Jedha in Rogue One partial destruction feel instead of an all out Alderdaan destruction)

EditModd said:

This sounds super interesting, do you mind sending a link?

Sent! Would love feedback on Episode 9 specifically if you get a chance to watch all of them soon.

Also, one thing I’ve noticed about TRoS is its small scale, smaller than even TFA and TLJ. The only moment that feels of appropriate scale for the finale of the saga is the Galaxy Fleet arriving, but that only lasts for about a minute. The Battle of Exegol feels extremely rushed compared to the Battles of Endor or Scarif which were much more fleshed out. This movie feels the least like a war than all the other Star Wars movies, it mostly feels like a treasure hunt spinoff save for the actions on Exegol. These are problems are pretty ingrained in the film’s story and structure, but I was wondering if you had any ideas how to remedy the scale issue?

Yes, I definitely agree with you on the problem of scale in the movie. The final battle is simply not written well, and the lead up didn’t do much to build up any tension for it either. I would say the main ways I corrected this were by unifying Palpatine’s plan throughout the entire trilogy into something cohesive and sensible, greatly adjusting the narrative of Episode 8 to give a deeper commentary of the themes of the force, and building the villainous presence of Kylo.

There’s no getting around the fact that there simply isn’t much content at all in the space battle, and the land battle has nothing to do with it (aside from Palpatine’s force lightning attack). So I tried to focus more on the drama of the characters themselves rather than an epic battle. Star Wars doesn’t really have any deep, thought out battles like Helm’s Deep, so I tried to keep the priority on the characters throughout the trilogy so that some of the bland battle scenes are at least amplified by more intriguing character development.

I feel I did a better job of highlighting the drama of the balance of the force itself than theatrical, so the main tension comes from what will happen to that state of the galaxy as a result of the force instead of the machines and creations of man in space. As we know, those things are “insignificant compared to the power of the force”.

I know I’ll be releasing a v3.1 for this edit, as on my rewatch I noticed how poorly the theatrical cut introduces Kylo back into Exegol. I need to reorganize those scenes to keep the tension brewing longer, in JJ’s film it is so hopeful for such a long period and makes Palpatine constantly look like an unprepared idiot. I fixed Palpatine’s plan, but I need to reorder some of the exegol scenes to help with the tension building still.

I need a couple more people to do a test watch of this and let me know if you see any bugs, and how you feel the ending works. Let me know if you’re able to do a review, thanks! Hopefully will be sending out links to everyone else within a week or so

T-202 said:

I’m just gonna come out and say, I think this is my definitive version of TFA. First off, I really digged how you opened with new Jakku establishing shots then Rey. Your new scene order on Jakku made a lot more sense to me. Your dialoge cuts were seamless in most cases such as the Kylo Poe interactions, and the “Stay Calm” moment. I was happy to see you use so many of NeverarGreat’s brilliant edits such as the Island Sketch, and the Rey dreaming of Ahch-To was awesome! It was a really neat idea to add Vader at the end of Rey’s vision from the Vader V Kylo Fan Film. I really appreciated the edit’s to Han’s comments on the bowcaster to better line up with Legends. Rey’s use of the force to break free was much better in my opinion. The sith eyes on Rey were perfect for that scene and really sold how she could best Kylo. The dream ending was neat, and overall like I said this is my favorite version of TFA now.

Wow, thanks so much T-202! I’m really happy you enjoyed the film, and that’s quite the compliment. Would love to hear your opinion on my Episode 8 when you get a chance too

26 movies. At the time of writing this, the MCU is the largest movie saga ever created. This isn’t even counting the dozens of seasons of TV shows that accompany this story. In this 26 movie monstrosity, we are gifted some of the most incredible moments to ever grace theaters, and on the flip side there have been some absolute stinkers. As a more casual Marvel fan who has drudged through almost every piece of content released, I would say AS A WHOLE I actually wouldn’t remember the MCU as fondly as I’d like due to the sheer amount of nonsense you have to experience along the way. My feelings towards Marvel are diluted by the many distractions from the main story. There is a ridiculous amount of content akin to the “monster of the week” TV trope of shows dragging on seasons and seasons past where the story should’ve ended. However, at the heart of this Infinity Saga, there is a truly one of a kind story about the Avengers vs Thanos. To me, most of the other side movies with random one off villains are largely a waste. I’m not saying they are bad movies, but many of them are looked at as cash grabs with no impact on the overall themes of the Infinity War aside from an easter egg or two. And some (Hulk, Iron Man Sequels etc.) have virtually no noticeable difference on the main story if you choose to not watch them. I’m here to refocus and streamline what makes the MCU special.

The Avengers was the 6th movie in the MCU, but the first to unite things into a cohesive narrative and so my story begins there. Personally, I am only interested in telling the best Marvel story possible rather than going into every origin story of characters we are all by now familiar with.

I fully credit FireMerkStudios for his Dawn of Thanos idea, and I openly cite some of his content as my source. He has attempted to do exactly what I am working on here, though he cut out MUCH more than I did. Whereas he aimed to do a series of short chapters, mine will be 6 full length movies in a Star Wars saga-esque presentation. In my Dawn of Thanos re-edit, I will be combining ALL Marvel content into one, refocused narrative about the Avengers vs Thanos.

Changelog:

My story begins largely with The Avengers film, but with an extended/alternate opening, and some major narrative changes throughout.

• Hawkeye’s origin story is completely reimagined. No longer is he an ex-SHIELD agent mind controlled by Loki, he is merely a mercenary for hire to begin. After losing to the Avengers at the midway point of the film, he will voluntarily choose to betray and fight against Loki. His entire backstory with Natasha is removed.
• Bolstered by scenes of Nick Fury founding the Avengers in Captain Marvel, and Iron Man 1, the opening of the film is completely reworked to not include anything with the Tesseract… speaking of…
• The Tesseract is no longer in the film. (aside from an easter egg reference that has 0 impact on the main story) This movie does not change one bit if you cut out every single reference to “the cube”. I kid you not, having the entire narrative focused solely on Loki and not this device greatly reduces the distractions and we can nail the plot points so much more clearly without it.
• As there is no Tesseract, Hawkeye mind control, there is also no mind controlled scientist needing Iridium to open the portal etc. The portal has nothing at all to do with the Tesseract anymore.
• Back to the opening of the movie, we see Fury’s initial idea for the “Protectors”, him recruit Stark, roll Marvel intro, then we cut to Firemerk’s scene of Thanos capturing Gamora as a child to present our main villain and threat of the MCU.
• After Thanos, we cut to Captain America waking up from the end of First Avenger. After Fury tells him what’s up (we now have seen Fury recruit Stark and Rogers), we transition to Fury talking to the council about the looming Loki threat and Fury’s Avenger idea. Fury says “We need soldiers” and we cut to the Iron Man 1 scene of him fighting the terrorists. This is to continue showing that Tony has been the under the employ of Fury before anyone else, and while there isn’t currently an Avenger program, he still is fighting around the world to keep the peace by himself.
• As Iron Man flies out of the middle east we cut to the deleted scene of Steve adjusting to the new era. After he talks to the waitress, he takes a motorcycle out to a museum (from Winter Soldier) to catch up on history and continue processing what has happened to Peggy. To deal with the pain, he goes to the VA meeting and meets Falcon for the first time. The scenes are reorganized so that after Falcon asks him, “What makes you happy?” we cut to the scene of Steve running laps around him.
• After this, we now cut back to the Avengers scene of Iron Man flying to Stark tower, but instead of it being from him fixing some clean energy underwater he is now flying back from the middle east as I showed earlier. This scene continues to play out, but I have cut out mentions of Tony previously not being allowed in the Avengers and mentions of the Tesseract. This is now just Coulson getting Tony back on track with the main mission.
• We now cut to a trimmed intro of Black Widow and then her subsequent recruitment of Bruce editing anything for consistency with my main idea.
• After Bruce is confronted, we cut to Steve boxing and continuing to process his trauma before Fury comes in and officially recruits him as well. Again, no Tesseract. This is all general recruitment to be an Avenger.
• Cut to a trimmed version of Loki talking to The Other about the incoming invasion. This is now the first we have seen of Loki in the film as we only saw Thanos earlier. So now when The Other is making the easter egg references to Thanos it is much more relatable.
• After the conversation, we cut to Steve landing on the Avenger base and meeting Bruce.
• On the Avenger base, there’s no Tesseract talk, no doctor/Hawkeye controlled. All about Loki.
• There’s another 50 or so edits in here, but it’s nothing that hasn’t been said already. I am greatly focusing the narrative by adjusting every scene to no longer be about the Tesseract/mind controlled people and 100% about Loki alone. The rest of the Avengers film plays out with this major change in place, so rather than repeating myself 50 more times I’ll just say you should watch it!
• I have also removed a few of the more obvious humor attempts that I felt were way over the top, and also note that as it is a Dawn of Thanos re-edit this movie would be rated R. There is increased profanity through subtitles of foreign languages and such.
• The film still clocks in at 2 hours 8 minutes without credits, so this remains a full movie.

I would love to hear some thoughts from those of you who are at different fan levels of Marvel content. As I mentioned, I am not personally married to Marvel in any way and am solely interested in telling a great story, so I apologize if any of these changes are offensive to more of the deeper Marvel connections that maybe I don’t understand. But this is a retelling of the story and I ask that you give it a chance.

This workprint is released, but I have abandoned this project as a whole and will not be updating this film any further or creating any other projects relating to Marvel.

Hello, would love to view Episode 1 and 2 of your latest versions. Thanks!

arabian said:

I agree that TCW’s intro are bland compared to TBB’s first episode, but have you considered utilizing some of TCW’s stuff as flashback’s maybe? That could work well.

This sounds like a great idea.

I would like to explore the possibility of flashbacks, but aside from stuff with Echo there’s truly nothing worthy of even flashing back to in TCW episodes. And sadly, I think Echo was sorely underused in TBB in the first place so I don’t think there’s any natural place to place flashback scenes.

I took a little break from my edits during the holiday, but at this point I have moved to editing the Episode 0 TCW before continuing the rewatch/trims on episodes after Aftermath. I feel like it’ll give me a slightly better feel for the characters to review TCW episodes first, and also getting that Episode 0 done is a goal anyways so you all don’t feel as much of a disconnect between TCW and TBB.

Would love to watch this!

CMMAP said:

So have watched your recent 3.1 version of this and overall i liked it. Of course your excerpt in the first post is going much deeper, that couldn´t be established in the movie. But as far as working with the source material, it´s a welcome edition to poppa´s edit. I liked it.

Thanks for taking the time to review! Glad you enjoyed it too

Although i have some minor points mosty audio transitions):

• lea in space: the safe by luke is something that makes sense and i liked it, but it still feels akward seeing her in a space vakuum, reached hand and get drawing back

Hmm, so you’re saying you just don’t like the original shots/vfx work from Disney and want the whole scene not to be included? I also think the original production looks pretty bad, but as a storytelling device for the plot there’s really no way out of it. How else would you explain why Leia is in a coma the majority of the movie?

• rey pushes luke with her stick after force connection with kylo in her tent: luke is falling (face-forwards) and we hear an sound that he falls on the ground, despite rey igniting her lightsaber and he saving his fall backwards afterwards

Ah, thanks! I hadn’t even noticed that. I went back in and removed that slight thud sound, pretty easy fix.

• luke lea conversation on crait: “i can´t save him”, lea “…i know my son is gone”, luke “no one is ever…”, despite knowing he´s refering to han (dices) it still won´t fit for me, because ea is talking about ben. So i would either cut luke´s or lea´s line, but tnd to luke´s since you´ll make lea save her son in your TROS edit

Not entirely sure what you’re saying here. You’re saying you don’t like the original dialogue in the film? I’m not understanding what you think doesn’t make sense.

Luke: “I can’t save him.” (Ben)
Leia: “I held out hope for so long, but I know my son is gone.” (Ben)
Luke: “No one is ever really gone.” (Mainly a callback line to how Luke saved Vader and even though Luke couldn’t ultimately save him, there’s still hope for change at the end, so he’s referencing Ben’s fate as well. And then he gives Leia Han’s dice as memento of hope to hammer home the point)

I think that’s one of the greatest exchanges of dialogue in the whole film and I didn’t edit anything here. What is confusing to you in this?

• luke leaving to go outside: music transition could be smoother

I didn’t change any of the music as he is walking outside. It’s all the normal theatrical version. In fact there isn’t a single cut from the time Luke kisses Leia until after the AT-AT’s stop shooting so it’s not from me. What are you saying isn’t smooth?

• kylo firing on luke: new music added? doesn´t feel right for me; dialogue of kylo, hux is drowned in this scene

Nope, as above there isn’t a single change to theatrical here. It’s just a copy-paste over from the real movie. I’m happy to try to attempt to correct a mistake the actual movie made, but I didn’t notice any. Where exactly are you saying something is different?

• world betweens: nice idea, music could come in sooner (but the first image of luke - still - after fighting kylo is unnecessary)

Sorry, it’s kind of hard to understand what you’re saying here too. What do you mean “music could come in sooner”? There’s regular music playing underneath the scene the entire time. And which image of Luke are you saying is unnecessary? Timestamps would be helpful so I can review

• rey hearing/seeing palps: i think it doesn´t fit because she isn´t confused and concerned (not telling anyone) afterwards when everyone is hugging. Or did i misinterepret this scene?

The camera shot is on Kylo, and Palpatine says, “My boy…” What made you think that was in Rey’s head?

• music transition from rebellion to palps message at the end: isn´t smooth enough

I’ll take another look at it, thanks for the feedback

• what´s with the planet shot at the end? do you inteded to show exogol?

You mean the shot of the Sith fleet moving towards the planet? It’s there as Palpatine’s message plays to show that his fleets have arrived and are looming over the galaxy. I feel like most of the shots of Exegol here would be more confusing than anything. It’s too specific of a reference to make any sense as a final scene in the last 10 seconds. Is there a certain scene from Exegol you think would get the point across better than the Star Destroyers over the generic world?

EddieDean said:

I felt like the Bad Batch episodes of TCW could behave as a fairly decent episode zero of that show, since they slow down TCW’s important escalating rush towards its tragic conclusion. But they do feature some valuable Anakin/Padmé content that helps in its current placement. That said, I don’t think they’re as good a first episode as Bad Batch’s episode one, in terms of setting up the stakes and themes of that show, nor the state of the galaxy which it delves more deeply into.

Definitely have a point there about the intros. After reviewing TCW episodes of them it’s just… rather boring as a movie opener. Very generic battle scenarios, no drama, no tension, whereas TBB pilot episode is intense. I will probably reformat TCW episodes into an abridged Bad Batch focused prequel episode 0 as optional viewing like you suggested, but I don’t think it will work as part of a full Bad Batch film.

To give an idea of how I’m going through and cleaning up the content in terms of basic storytelling elements, here’s the changelist for the Aftermath episode.

• Cut some of Captain Grey and Kanan’s back and forth where they are either overly depressed or showing baffling confusion
• Cut the rolling snowball from Bad Batch’s debut scene, now they appear as though they ARE the wrecking ball mopping up the droid forces down the side of the mountain
• Cut battle droid tank commander’s “Huh? Hey, stop that!”
• Cut Tech throwing grenade to tank commander, doesn’t accomplish anything since the tanks are already falling off the cliff and I want to reduce as much battle droid nonsense as possible
• Cut battle droid, “Hey, what’s that?” to Tech’s sticky grenade on its chest
• Cut a Wrecker, “yeAaAhHHH!”
• Cut Tech’s overly nerdy time explanation and Wrecker being a doofus not knowing how many days are in a galactic standard year. Now transitions with, “Kamino… How long’s it been?”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Awwww man, what did we miss noooowww?”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Ooooohhh, it iiiisssss just like you said!”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “We sure don’t!”
• Cut Wrecker’s, “You can say that again!” Filled the gap in the speech with a shot of Omega not on the balcony, so it’s more of a genuine reaction when Hunter notices her the first time, and then sees she’s soon gone.
• Cut Tech’s nerdy analysis of Omega’s age and species
• Cut Wrecker and Tech’s back and forth about him loving to blow things up
• Cut Wrecker forgetting who Omega was 5 minutes later
• Cut some of Tech and Wrecker’s confusion about Omega sitting with them. Replaced it with a shot of Tarkin watching the squad
• Cut some of Omega’s tossing her food up and down
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Oh, I like this kid!” It is an extremely unnatural pause in the conversation, and it makes his standing up to support Omega much more surprising and impactful
• Cut Clone Trooper’s, “That’s it!” and Wrecker’s, “Ohhhh yeaaahhhhh!” Keeping Wrecker as much of a strong, competent warrior as possible is really benefiting his character. He is actually intimidating instead of a total moron.
• Cut Wrecker’s WWE table jump
• Cut Wrecker’s, “You owe me two credits!”
• Cut Wrecker’s utter shock and awe at the medical droid saying he is genetically defective. They are all already well aware of that fact.
• Cut some of the Squad’s goofy comments about Echo’s condition
• Cut Wrecker talking about how much he enjoys food fights
• Cut Wrecker getting childishly excited about getting to be combat tested
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Come oooonnnnn, give us a real challenge.”
• Cut Wrecker’s whining about hating hand signals
• Cut Wrecker’s “Incoming!” and overly drawn out WWE tackle
• Cut Tech’s, “… not going anywhere.” So now it actually appears for a bit that he was legitimately injured in the battle instead of being a joke.
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Whoooaaaaa…!”
• Cut Tech and Wrecker’s back and forth about not liking being used as dummy droids. Now it appears as though Tarkin barges in, agreeing with Crosshair’s statement that they get shot all of the time and it’s no big deal.
• Cut Crosshair talking about how Wrecker cried when he saw the new Imperial armory
• Cut Wrecker’s, “Oh, I’ll make room for it!” Now it appears as though he just ignores Tech and loads up the equipment anyways.
• Cut the whole bit of everyone trying to calm Wrecker down because he is whining about how he hasn’t blown something up in days
• Cut Wrecker almost in tears about not getting to blow up droids
• Cut Wrecker not believing Tech about Omega
• Cut Echo and Wrecker not understanding Tech
• Cut AZ loooooving research assignments
• Trimmed AZ’s exaggerated scream
• Cut Wrecker sniffing the brig cell
• Cut Wrecker acting clueless about how they can get out
• Cut Tech, “Oh, why didn’t I think of it before?!”
• Cut the whole loud explanation of the cell escape. Now it seems like Tech begins to suggest an idea and Hunter picks up on it without having the redundant explanation to the audience.
• Cut Tech’s “ackshually” answer to Wrecker being too big
• Cut Wrecker spilling the beans on the entire plan to the prison guards
• Cut Wrecker, “Hey, friend!” before the punch.
• Cut Wrecker whining about not being able to find his stuffed animal
• Cut everything to do with Wrecker’s wound treatment on the ship. He truly acts like he is 6 years old and snuggles a stuffed animal. It’s horrible.
• Cut Wrecker talking about how tough he is.
• Cut Wrecker’s,”OhhHHhhh yeaAAhhh!” It’s pretty crazy how many times they make him say that…

Still working on integrating everything into a larger plot, but it at least gives me a much more usable short story to work with.

I was able to go through the extended pilot episode and start editing. It’s a very cohesive narrative in and of itself since it’s an hour+ long intro, but I was able to streamline it and trim the fat off the edges. However, it did get me thinking… Is there a benefit to starting this project from the Clone Wars episodes themselves? With the way I’m presenting some of the characters, it will definitely feel like there’s a disconnect between their appearance in TCW and TBB. Wondering if there’s a way to use those episodes as part of the first film somehow.

BrotherOfSasquatch said:

I’d love to get a link to all three of these!

Check DMs

NotFreeman’D said:

Really good writing on the edits i would like a link at your best convinience
also do you still need help with color correction, i have some experience with it

Thanks. I am currently testing the v3.0 release to a small demo audience to bug check. I am assuming I’ll upload a v3.1 with fixes/changes very soon and then I’ll be sending that link out to everyone else who has asked. In the meantime, let me know if you’d like to watch my Episode 7 & 8. It’s meant to be watched as a cohesive trilogy so you’ll get the best experience in 9 if you have an understanding of the story I told in 8.