Acbagel

Hey, folks! I have successfully recovered and relinked everything from my SSD upgrade and drive reorganization. Nothing was lost and the project is back in action. As I began structuring the Battle of Mandalore, I made the Executive decision to cut Dr. Pershing. I put a lot of work into that episode so I still plan to release it sometime, might be a good “short film” watch to do between Books 5 & 6 in the future. But I desperately needed the runtime and it was way throwing off the pacing in general, so I feel much better about keeping Book 6 either right at or under 3 hours now. Going back into “full-scale” editing mode next week to get back to finishing this saga!

I will bounce back and forth between finalizing the Special Editions of the earlier books (this is simply enhancing SFX, double-checking colors, and adding Mando’a/consistent story elements as I alter Book 6), re-releasing Book 5 to match the events of Book 6, and completing Act 3 of Book 6 so I can prepare for the final release. Still waiting on some elements from the other artist I previously mentioned, so I want to tie at least the final Book 6 release into that and call this project COMPLETE! … at least until 2026.

In the meantime, if anyone has thoughts on how to improve Mando S3 E07 & E08 (the final two episodes), the time to share is now. Will be going frame by frame through everything over the next couple of weeks and completing this edit. So let me know if you have general or specific ideas for improvement. Once I have a solid game plan, I’ll drop my big-picture idea for it here as well.

Finally, I have gotten a few DMs about if I’m going to do an Acolyte edit. I will say, maybe. I think the show is begging for one, and I’m sure at least a dozen other people are going to jump in the mix to do it. So it depends on the timing, my interest as the season goes on, and if anyone else steps up to execute the same ideas I’ve had for it. I know I don’t want to touch it until we see more of the show’s episodic structure between the past and present because flashbacks could really change the plans in my head for it all. If you’re interested in my thoughts or reviews about the show, I have been writing detailed reviews of its lore and cinematic attributes here: Episodes 1/2, Episode 3.

Fullmetaled said:

What’s the latest on this, the project has been radio silent for a while now.

March 9th: "I’m not giving regular updates because I’m at the point where I’d like to wrap things up and prepare for the next stage. So, all I’m doing now is dialogue removal (a.k.a., making the actors not talk to match the cuts better), creating alternative shots and reactions, and removing blinking in case of reversed shots. It doesn’t seem too bombastic, but there are almost a hundred of these shots throughout the film. I’m just more focused on actually working on the film than announcing anything or engaging in discourse online.

I wish I were a millionaire with an unlimited budget and time to work on TOTM only, but the reality is far different. I’m one of the VFX artists who unfortunately lost their job due to recent strikes, so I have to take on a side project now and then just to survive and take care of my family." (a post on YouTube)

May 12th: Someone asked if the project was canceled in a YouTube comment, “No, no worries of that. I’m just quiet while working on the final VFX shots.”

June 8th: Someone asked on a YouTube comment, “Is this thing dead?” Pixel answered, “No!”

Thanks for the great review and feedback! I definitely agree with a lot of those points. This edit is ~3 years old now and I’d do some things differently now, so when I get back to re-editing my ideas I’ll be making many of the changes you suggested.

This is a difficult episode to break down. On the one hand, I barely even want to try because we clearly do not have enough information to explain the sequence of events, but on the other hand, the way these mysteries now hang in the air comes off to me as more confusing than intriguing. Overall, if asked, “Was this episode good for the show’s plot, and was it good for the larger mythos of Star Wars in general?” My answer to both of those questions would be a no.

Many fans didn’t like it, and while some can at least peer through the surface-level cultural criticisms and see the foundation of a mystery that might eventually have an interesting revelation, this show does not appeal to the masses and it will not be seen as a critical or financial success. Whether you enjoy it or not, the viewing numbers are not good for the premiere. 11.1 million viewers over 5 days is an abject failure. Ahsoka got 14 million over the same time with about half the budget of the Acolyte, and Disney wasn’t even satisfied with that performance. Yes, it’s D+'s “biggest premiere of 2024”, but have you looked at the competition? This is only their third show to launch this year, the others were “Echo” and “Renegade Nell”. That news line is an article title spun to create misleading good press for a D+ streaming platform that is hemorrhaging money and sprinting toward another quarter in the red. Iger has stated that their model failed to meet their goals, Star Wars has massively failed to bring in the money they expected it to, and we are seeing a product of that overall planning failure in the Acolyte. That does not at all mean that The Acolyte itself is “the worst thing Star Wars has ever done!!!”, I only preface this review to say that Disney tried something with many of these shows and it didn’t work financially. After Skeleton Crew and Andor S2 (maaaaybe Ahsoka S2) which are products of the old/current D+ model, we should expect to see something very different going forward for Star Wars.

Anyway, I want to focus on analyzing the episode itself now. I thought that some of the introduced ideas were fun to explore on paper, but in the episodic structure of this show, the execution of communicating such ideas was a mess and did not generate increased interest or emotion in me, and perhaps did the opposite.

Pacing and Structure

I was excited upon seeing the 44-minute runtime, as the brevity of the premiere was my primary criticism. I thought the overall pacing of Episode 3 was superior to the first two, however, even though I do generally prefer slower stories, I was actually left feeling sort of bored with this episode until the Jedi showed up. I’ll explain more in another category, but I was having trouble knowing who to empathize with or relate to in this opening 20 minutes, so the slow pacing left me feeling quite lost as to the intended direction of the plot. Overall though, I was actually pleased that this 44-minute episode felt like it had a story to tell in this designated timeframe, and it performed adequately at pacing the events throughout. I would have preferred a driving action at least 5 minutes earlier because the Witch stuff was somewhat offputting and made me feel uncomfortable, but once the Jedi walked in I could understand some of the setup.

The structure of the episode was a bit confusing. They left out scenes (intentionally, I believe) and presented situations that didn’t make any sense due to the information we were missing. Perhaps you can say this is an effort to generate intrigue for future episodes, but I would say that the sequence of events that unfolded did not make me more interested in learning what the revelations are, but rather they simply annoyed me because they seemingly painted other situations as nonsense. For example:

• Why does Mae hate the Jedi so much when it seems like they were quite willing to negotiate and Sol showed great empathy?
• Why does Torbin feel so much guilt when Mae was clearly the initiator of the violence?
• How did all of the Witches die so suddenly in the same place?
• What were all of the other Jedi doing during this very quick fire/destruction?

I fully expect answers to all of those questions and suspect our Sith figure has a significant role to play in all of this, but even brainstorming possible solutions with that in mind… I struggle to come up with answers that would justify all of these events. There would need to be some extremely high-quality writing to deliver on all of this setup and mystery. I feel worried about potential shallow and unsatisfactory revelations more than excited about the answers. I don’t think that’s an unfair caution I have, because thus far, none of the show’s revelations have given me any reason to think anything groundbreaking/mind-blowing is coming. We are ~38% through the entire show and I still have no idea what the direction is. Full flashback episodes are distracting in nature in general, and this seemed like it was intended at one point to serve as Episode 1, but then moved to Ep 3 due to anticipated backlash if it were to lead as the premiere. It felt very out of place in the episodic structure of the show as a whole.

Dialogue and Writing Quality

The dialogue quality took a complete nosedive in the episode. I would go as far as to say it is the worst dialogue I have heard in any singular episode of a Disney Star Wars show. The poem Mae and Osha repeat is extremely on the nose and awkward to listen to (we have heard it multiple times now, and it really violates the “show, don’t tell” rule), the Witch chant “The power of one! The power of two! The power of maaannnyyy!” was truly painful to listen to, and the worst offender in the episode, “You can’t stop me.” “Yes, I can.” “How?” “I’ll kill you.” was so poorly written I was completely 100% taken out of the scene. I understand a huge theme of the show is this dichotomy of light v dark represented in Osha v Mae, but the dialogue is so beyond elementary it is insulting how simply they are trying to communicate that to me. “The Jedi are good.” “The Jedi are bad.” “It’s not about good or bad…” This is middle school theater writing. I know that outside of Andor and some scenes in the OT, Star Wars has never excelled in this area to begin with, but this is a different level of low quality than even PT criticisms. As Mae and Osha stand on a collapsing bridge, the lines legitimately go, “What have you done?” “What have you done?” “What have you done?” Three times in a row back and forth… The rest of the episode was simply quite bland in this department, and certainly not enough to cover up the smorgasbord of poorly written and delivered lines.

The writing in this episode left us with way more questions than answers, which is strange for a 44-minute flashback. Usually, that is done to reveal mysteries, not create new ones. As I prefaced this review, this is the hardest section to cover because I genuinely cannot critique or praise many of the events because we have no clue why or how they happened. Things like the dead Witches, the character motivations, the Jedi guilt, Mae’s anger, how the fire spread so quickly, why the Jedi were even there in the first place, etc. are all unanswerable. I will leave these open for now and return when we have the proper context to address them as revelations unfold in future episodes. For now, let’s focus on three newly revealed storyline details.

• A sect of outcast force users (seemingly, EXTREMELY powerful/in tune with the force) band together to form a Witch “coven”. Some seem to have roots and history with the Nightsisters of Dathomir (hinted that they were exiled?), while others in the coven seem to have joined seeking refuge/safety as they delve into practices the “galaxy” doesn’t approve of. It is unclear if all of the women are force-sensitive, or if some are merely there in support of others who are. I find it hard to believe that so many force users went undetected as children and then all banded together in an extremely powerful coven without the Jedi intervening prior. We see humans, Nightsisters, Twi’leks, and some sort of rat-like lady in this coven, so for whatever reason these people have banded together without a common geographic origin. They aren’t Nightsisters themselves and with various species intermixing, I’m not even sure why they are all women. All we know is that together this group was apparently “hunted, persecuted, and forced into hiding,” however we are given no idea as to who did that. The Jedi…? Where/when/why was this randomly assembled coven shown to be such a threat to the Jedi? The Jedi never historically cared about the Nightsisters. As long as they stayed out of the way, they were free to practice whatever cultish beliefs they wanted to. Nightsisters traditionally worshipped “Spirits” rather than the force, rejected the light v dark dichotomy, and believed they communed directly with the beings of Mortis and drew their “Magick” from them rather than having a connection to an all-surrounding force presence. Obviously, they had a somewhat incorrect interpretation, but they still had great power, perhaps some even possessing power greater than the Jedi or the Sith (we saw this in TCW and the Jedi game series). Nightsisters were having their own biological children the entire time with the nightbrothers, and the Jedi weren’t preying on their entire species/people group, so I just didn’t understand where all of this “persecution” to “the brink of extinction” was coming from. Certainly not the main Nightsister clans, because they would never chase this group around the galaxy like the Mother indicates. I really don’t know what could be going on here. The Mother states that they have hidden away because “The galaxy does not welcome women like us.” Again, I was utterly baffled at this idea. The “galaxy” doesn’t give a shit about the Nightsisters or tiny sects of isolated Magick users… They never have. They have always let them live in isolation and practice their rituals in peace as long as it doesn’t disrupt the Republic. On top of this, the Mother is immediately previously shown very peacefully interacting with the local towns in peace, seemingly very welcomed by “the galaxy”. Not only was that oddly phrased, but certainly the persecution had nothing to do with them specifically being women. I am going to avoid the 2024 cultural discussion entirely, but I understand why people feel that they can read modern Earth politics into this. A simple, lore-accurate alteration to avoid this entire drama would have been, “The Jedi do not welcome into their Order Witches like us who use powers they consider to be ‘dark’.” Boom, done, none of the distractions are included, it’s true to Star Wars history, and it’s understandable why they wanted to leave the Republic where the Jedi commonly patrol. I don’t doubt Jedi would be uncomfortable around Magick users and conflict could potentially arise, but this “hunted to the brink of extinction” idea, I just don’t know where it’s coming from.

• The Mother has a unique perspective of the force, and I have no problem with primitive cultures like this coming to alternative understandings of the force, but I don’t understand what their philosophy even is. She claims that the Jedi “use” and “wield” the force, and portrays that as a negative way to commune with it. She then contrasts that with her Thread theory in a positive light, saying by “pulling it” you can “change everything”, “tie you to destiny”, and “bind you to others”. To me, that sounded exactly like “using” and “wielding” the force… Perhaps I am missing the future context of her beliefs, but I saw absolutely no difference between the two viewpoints and it came off as a different, yet equally exclusive and dogmatic belief. If anything, I would say that her views more closely align with the dark side than the light, as Jedi do not pull the force to intentionally “change everything” and “bind to destiny”, they commune with it in peace with all living things and work toward mutual good and order (ideally, speaking). Either way, Osha and Mae are trained in this alternative understanding of the force and we can see the results. Both are left unbalanced and struggling to maintain inner peace, which is not a good quality to have in Star Wars.

• Somehow, in a presently unrevealed manner, the Mother created life and implanted twins into her partner’s womb. It’s hard to comment specifically on this yet as we have no clue as to how she accomplished this, but what we can say is that this is beyond anything we have ever seen in Star Wars. It is a power always thought impossible. This is the time period in which Plageuis was experimenting with such powers and attempting to do this to create the perfect apprentice, but he failed. The force itself created Anakin to restore balance as it was, at that time, unbalanced due to the many manipulations and attempted usages of it for purposes it did not will for. So Osha and Mae being directly conceived by the Mother purely through the force is… confounding. We need more information to properly understand what happened here, so I will just say this has the potential to be problematic to lore, but not necessarily depending on where they go with it.

Overall, with these strange new practices and beliefs, I found the writing to be confusing and trying to seem complex when it truly wasn’t. It came off to me as pretentious and not building anything good upon Star Wars mythology. I love the Nightsisters and their religion of Magick, I love alternative beliefs about the force (the ancient Sith, the Rakata, the Zakuul), but this episode was just not well written in communicating a cohesive new understanding of the force in my opinion.

Production Quality and Creative Direction

The episode opens up on a beautiful and colorful setting. It invoked in me a sense of wanting to travel there and experience the galaxy full of mysteries, so I appreciated the design. I thought the sky and atmosphere looked great during the Witch ceremony, dark and purple hues definitely set a voodoo-like tone. The Witch coven building was nothing special, but it wasn’t intended to be. It gave off abandoned dam or mine vibes. The costumes here were okay, I thought it was a little strange for this persecuted and on-the-run group of Witches to have such perfectly coordinated and pressed robes… But I suppose one of them there is an excellent seamstress and they value having noble appearances and jewelry. Nothing wowed me other than the initial garden, but that old rat lady Witch was shockingly poor CGI. Looked absolutely atrocious. I would say that is unacceptably bad for a $180 million budget. I forgot to comment on it in my first review, but I am very disappointed by the soundtrack thus far. I have heard no standout tracks, and while it’s not distractingly bad or anything, I would say it’s the weakest I’ve heard from D+ Star Wars shows. I think TRoS had the worst soundtrack, and I’d put this in the same category of bottom-tier Star Wars music. I hope when the Sith shows up he will at least get things moving musically.

This episode was very focused on beliefs, culture, and identity, so I covered a lot of the creative direction in the Writing section. I would usually cover the combat and choreography here too, but there was none. Strange for the longest episode to not have a single fight scene, and even the only action at all was the 2 minutes of a fire spreading at a confusing rate. I think this episode was bogged down in trying to show the inner workings of the coven and the relationship between Mae and Osha that there wasn’t much room for anything else. I didn’t see anything here that stood out as expanding upon the High Republic era.

Performances and Characters

Again, Sol was the standout in the few scenes he was in. His actor portrayed great ranges of emotion and he continues to be the star of the show whenever he is on. The main Mother did a decent job with her voodoo-inspired performance, as well as translating her love to her children. Unfortunately, this episode was very bogged down by a distractingly poor performance from young Mae/Osha. I absolutely hate having to critique child actors, but this stood out to me as very badly acted and I have to point it out. From the lack of communicating Mae’s emotions believably, to the utterly confusing facial expressions and actions Osha was making at various events (the “I will kill you” and ensuing fire escape gave me major kid Leia in the forest vibes), I was unfortunately pulled out of believing the scenes due to some poor performances. No one else had enough screen time to even evaluate.

Finally, I want to address the characters from a perspective of who I felt like I should empathize with because I think this is one of the biggest missing components of this episode.

• Osha - She was the clearest person we can relate with here. She doesn’t like being boxed into having no personal choice, she wants to blaze her own path, and others keep pressuring her to conform. However, I was very much not understanding why she was so set on wanting to be a Jedi. Surely, for the past 8 years, she has been told that the Jedi are not her friends, so I don’t know how she got the motivation to leave her mothers and sister and family to join a group that she has been told hates her…

• Mae - From minute 1 of this episode, Mae is giving major child serial killer vibes. She is immediately shown to be torturing animals, extremely controlling and possessive of her sister, not free thinking and seeking approval of others, desiring personal power and respect, etc. She then tried to murder her dear twin in cold blood by locking her in a room and burning her to death. It’s beyond psychotic behavior. I thought this was a very strange route to take with her character, and this episode destroyed any sort of sympathy I had for her as an adult.

• Sol - Even though the Jedi aren’t portrayed in a great light here, we can empathize with Sol because he shows genuine love to the children. He is depicted as the Jedi with wisdom and care in this group whereas the others appear cold and stoic.

• Mother - I suppose we can empathize with her love for her children, but her wielding seemingly dark powers and creating life out of nothing is not something I empathize with. Everything I know about Star Wars lore points to this as a morally bad practice and one that the force itself will harshly rebel against. She leads a very black magic-inspired cult with incorrect views of the force and is just as intolerant of the Jedi as they are of her. If anything, she comes off as true neutral to me because she possesses basic decency toward others and is not entirely self-centered as we expect from Dark side users, but she isn’t someone to cheer for either. She seems to enjoy being worshipped and respected by her cult and speaks as though her word is truth, except only to her daughters.

Conclusion
Rating: 2.2/10 (I’d call it “very weak”, but not “horrible” or “unwatchable”)

Pros:

Another standout performance by Sol
Attempting to explore other views of the force
The worlds in day and night looked great

Cons:

Plot threads left open in a confusing, rather than intriguing, manner
Worst dialogue I have heard from D+ Star Wars yet, combined with bad deliveries
Newly presented ideologies are not internally coherent and do not align with the larger mythos of Star Wars

Best scenes:

1. Sol giving Osha his lightsaber
2. Sol testing Osha
3. Opening garden scene (purely for the setting)

Worst Scenes:

1. “I’ll kill you” Mae attempting to burn her sister alive (horrendous dialogue and awful characterization of Mae)
2. Witch “ascension” chant (extremely goofy looking, felt like a corny fantasy b-movie)
3. Bridge collapsing and dead Witches (these events were very confusing as they were playing out, and I was looking for any sort of explanation until the episode inexplicably ended with Mae in the garden looking for Osha. I know it’s a mystery, but mysteries have to be structured so that each clue and subsequent next question is a satisfying process, not a frustrating one)

Vladius said:

Acbagel said:

Watched the premiere last night, I think I called it pretty well to my expectations. The set design, color palettes, and feel of the worlds exceeded what I saw in marketing, I was pleasantly surprised with the environments, VFX, and characters for the most part, but there are indeed some glaring issues holding it back from being great. I think it will end up being a fine show, but unfortunately, Star Wars does not need fine. In fact, I would say fine hurts Star Wars at this point. They need big wins to restore some brand image. Is it fair to place that much pressure on The Acolyte? Probably not, but it’s reality, something has to come out to unify the fanbase if we want to see Star Wars stay at the forefront of the mainstream.

Why do we want that?

I made a number of different points here, so I’m not sure which one you’re asking about. Assuming the final sentence about Star Wars being at the forefront of culture, I think when it does that it’s proof of its outstanding and well-liked content. Star Wars has gone through many different periods of being a cultural phenomenon and it’s always produced great content in those eras. As a big fan, I want that to return because it means good shows/movies/games/stories and increases the probability of getting new and better content in the future.

The audience reviews for the Acolyte are very low so far. I disagree with a lot of what’s being said against the show, but overwhelmingly negative waves of reviews aren’t good no matter which way you frame it. That doesn’t bode well for investors pulling the trigger on future High Republic era shows or an Acolyte Season 2. Even if the criticisms aren’t fair and aren’t a direct critique of the Acolyte itself, but are instead a general protest against Disney, the money movers don’t make that distinction. They see: “Acolyte got bad reviews and had bad word of mouth online, it didn’t make enough money, scrap related future projects” compared to “Acolyte got great reviews, positive reception on social media, got us x # of new Disney+ subscribers, give us a season 2”.

I want Star Wars to be good/stay good. I think the Acolyte premiere was good, but a lot of people don’t (again, much of that is for alternative reasons, but money talks). I’d personally like Disney to focus on projects that have a higher chance of unifying the fanbase and possibly bringing Star Wars excitement into the mainstream of culture once again. I think the Acolyte is intriguing, but it’s not the project that will do that. Skeleton Crew is not going to do that. The Rey movie isn’t going to do that. Even Andor brings in only a segment of fans and won’t do that. I think a very faithful Old Republic adaptation story would (original Tales of the Jedi/KOTOR comic series), a post-RotJ Legends Luke animated show would, live-action Clone Wars movie with Hayden/Ewan/Ariana would, Darth Bane trilogy novel to film adaptation etc.

Maybe some people enjoy Star Wars becoming a bit more niche and having a split fanbase? If they do, I wouldn’t hold it against them if they are happy with how things are going and like the majority of content that’s released. But I’d like to see a return to widespread excitement. What project do you think would do that?

Watched the premiere last night, I think I called it pretty well to my expectations. The set design, color palettes, and feel of the worlds exceeded what I saw in marketing, I was pleasantly surprised with the environments, VFX, and characters for the most part, but there are indeed some glaring issues holding it back from being great. I think it will end up being a fine show, but unfortunately, Star Wars does not need fine. In fact, I would say fine hurts Star Wars at this point. They need big wins to restore some brand image. Is it fair to place that much pressure on The Acolyte? Probably not, but it’s reality, something has to come out to unify the fanbase if we want to see Star Wars stay at the forefront of the mainstream. The Acolyte does not appear that it will be that thing, but it’s certainly not a terrible show.

Pacing and Structure

The most glaring issue with The Acolyte is its pacing. The hyperspeed paced episodes seem crammed with short-form content, leaving little room for the story to flow naturally, for scenes to breathe, or for us to grow quick attachments to characters. It certainly has that “things are just happening” feel. This series’ potential is being massively held back by rapid and frequent cuts between A and B plots. Scenes often last only around 60 seconds before switching, which feels jarring and disjointed. This approach I suspect is an intentional move by Disney to maintain the action sequences and avoid the viewer drop-off experienced by previous series like Ahsoka and Andor, which received complaints of being “boring” or “slow” (not from me), but here in the Acolyte with a new timeline setting and brand new characters and an unfamiliar storyline, this rapid cut pacing ultimately disrupts the storytelling rhythm. I truly think that each episode was originally ~50 minutes and was chopped to hell in post-production to cut down to get to the action. I really do not like this kind of editing.

The structure of the premiere overall was poorly done in my opinion. Especially the endings to each episode feel extremely tacked on and do not flow whatsoever with character arcs. Very bad forced “hooks” that barely even function as hooks. This show does not want to be 30-minute episodic format, but I believe it was forced to be in Post.

Dialogue and Writing

The dialogue in “The Acolyte” is a mixed bag. While it does not fall to the level of being objectively terrible, it fails at delivering impactful and memorable lines. Fans of Lucas’ dialogue (I find myself strongly in this category, highly recommend watching this video to learn why: George Lucas: King of Wooden Dialogue) may find some nostalgic charm at times, but I absolutely understand why others might find it lacking in the depth that Andor possessed. At the very least, I am happy that this series avoids the contemporary lingo that plagued The Last Jedi and some of BoBF, but the lines here also don’t quite capture the epic feel that Star Wars dialogue is known for. It’s not a standout, but it’s not distractingly bad.

The writing of the plot is intriguing enough to keep my interest piqued, but not enough to impress me. Compared to some of the best show premieres (GoT, Lost, The Boys, House of Cards), this is nowhere close to being called “incredible 10/10!”, nor is it “absolute trash, 1/10!”. It’s a very middle-of-the-road plotline. It’s a simple murder “mystery” where we already know the murderer and some of her motivation, though I am positive there will be some twists here. The element of how the Sith play into all of this is the greatest hook the show has. We had some decent moments teasing this aspect, but it failed to build any tangible tension. I am interested in seeing where this goes, so it’s not bad writing, but I am certainly not on the edge of my seat wanting to rewatch and anticipating next week with great excitement. The prison escape on the ship, the crash, and some of the “infiltration” into the Jedi Outpost in episode 2 was quite weak in terms of writing, but there is at least intrigue with the relationships being developed, the Jedi investigation, and the looming Sith presence. However, someone watching this with no context of the timeline or what the Sith are will be feeling extremely bewildered I would imagine.

Production Quality and Creative Direction

Despite having a significant budget, The Acolyte still feels constrained creatively. There’s a palpable sense that Disney’s marketing team heavily influenced the production, resulting in a cautious approach that prioritizes accessibility over depth. The potential for a more mature and well-crafted narrative is evident but remains unfulfilled. This cautiousness likely stems from Disney’s desire to avoid another significant failure for the “Star Wars brand”, which is currently at a critical juncture for its profit margins. This leads me to feel like a lot of the creativity is stifled and stale. The VFX is good, not outstanding, but serviceable to bring you into the world. I was hoping that this era would feel more distinct, but I am at least pleased that I can say some of it felt like Star Wars. Props to the crew for being able to invoke a feeling that is extremely difficult to replicate. The costumes look a bit stiff, and I think that’s part of the point, but it doesn’t translate well for the point they want to make. You can make the Jedi give the vibe you’re going for without having every robe look like it’s oversized and pulled right off the press. Have to highlight a couple of great designs like the hyperspace droid chairs, the starship models, and the appearance of the Jedi Temple. I will say “No comment” on the pudgy Jedi…

Hope to see more of the High Republic’s uniqueness expanded upon in future episodes, but for now, I think we’re missing the worldbuilding needed to get people interested in these hundreds of years of potential storylines. The style of combat selected for creative purposes does seem to be at the forefront, and I was neither blown away nor disappointed by it. I prefer it to the absolutely atrocious fight choreography and shaky cam in BoBF, Ahsoka, and Kenobi, but it’s still nowhere close to Prequels combat scenes or even other large Hollywood productions (this show had a Dune-sized budget… it has to be judged at a high level). I dislike the constant pausing in the fights, that feels very unnatural, grabs a leg, freeze, lock eyes, start next sequence of choreographed moves. Nick Gillard was so intentional about making attacks look like they are intended to harm/kill, and the threat just doesn’t feel there at times in this show.

Performances and Characters

On a positive note, some performances, particularly by Sol, really stand out and add a ton of value to the series. He is a great actor and his emotions translated well to his character. He reminds me of an emotional Qui-Gon. Of course, Yord is not a character we are supposed to “like” per se, but I enjoyed his presence in the story and for an annoying character, he is the good type of annoying. Jecki is kind of just there, but also not annoying. Not sure if this is just me, but I thought the weakest character in the show was Osha. Found her to be quite bland and I am not at all invested in where her character goes yet. Indara dying so early felt like a bit of a waste…? I understand the deaths of these Jedi is the premise of the whole show, but it’s hard to build memorable characters when each new one is dead within 10 minutes of appearing for the first time in a 30-minute episode. We really, really need some preliminary worldbuilding before characters start dropping or beginning their main character arcs. Other characters like Vernestra, Mae’s accomplice, Torbin, not much to say… I think it’s a waste that we miss out on the depth of development for side characters. The best shows make you care about side characters and even create whole individual scenes around them. Again, this goes back to the bad pacing because you’ll never accomplish this in 30 minutes of total screentime. We need 50 minimum.

Conclusion
Rating: 6.6/10 (I’d call it “pretty good”, but not “really good” or “great”)

Pros:

Standout performance by Sol
Visually pleasing environments that feel alive
Retains elements of “Star Wars” charm

Cons:

Poor pacing and way too frequent cuts
Feels creatively constrained by forced mass appeal
Lack of depth to the main characters and a simple storyline

Best scenes:

1. Sol at the Jedi Temple (great emotion in the performance, resembled a true Jedi with his demeanor)
2. Mae’s interaction with the Monk Jedi (interesting power dynamic, creates intrigue for Mae’s revenge)
3. Confronting Mae’s accomplice (decent tension here, unsure of what would happen)

Worst Scenes:

1. “Sith” hook at the end of episode 1 (worse than 0 budget fan films I have seen)
2. Intercutting of Mae’s crash landing and Jedi coming to rescue her (A/B plots moving WAY too fast)
3. Osha’s vision of Mae (dialogue was WAY too on the nose and expository, “Brendok!” “Hello, SISTER!” the rhyme about them being twins. Show, don’t tell, people!)

rocknroll41 said:

My enthusiasm for this show keeps fluctuating, but the new cast interviews popping up have reignited my excitement, thankfully. Seems like a lot of passion was put into this.

I am experiencing this too. My excitement has jumped up and down week to week from a 3/10 up to a 7/10 or anywhere in between. Really not sure what to think. My suspicion is that the show will be better than the marketing material which hasn’t been a great depiction of the tone/setting. Usually, trailers/teasers/marketing get handled by a completely different team and the director has little to no say in what goes out, and the tone is lost in translation. I think that’s happening here. But I’m with you that I do believe we have a genuine love of the source material and story from the director and actors. That has been missing in past Disney Star Wars productions and was noticeable.

I am currently expecting this show to release decently well and have a 7.5-8/10 review, landing somewhere better than the below-average releases we have been getting recently but not peak Disney Star Wars.

Darth Sadifous said:

I know I would like to personally see a “completed” book five while you tinker with book six if you don’t mind. I think we all understand it may not be the final “product”. However, release things when you are ready and let us know if you need any suggestions in terms of structure or what not for book six. Anyways enjoy the rest of your weekend and may the force be with you!

I think I can manage to get Book 5 ready for release soon. It’s just one scene I can’t say I’m 100% certain on yet, but it might just be a couple of lines of dialogue I’ll change in the future so I’m going to move forward with prepping for release.

I needed a new local storage drive to contain all my files, and unfortunately, I messed up some of my source footage placement… I don’t believe I deleted anything permanently, I just didn’t realize where certain files were linked from and I “lost” them on the drive. As in I simply can’t find them. One of Boba’s segments I forgot I had exported separately and then reimported, so I’m trying to reconnect everything. I definitely needed more space and better organization, so this new drive was necessary, but I have been recently tied up trying to relink everything.

Other than that, not a ton of new updates on Book 6. The only major news to share is that I am now leaning toward once again cutting Dr. Pershing’s content. This movie is just getting too busy, and his story is such a distraction (though it’s individually well done) and every time I’ve reviewed an Act, it always interrupts the flow of the Mandalorians. By Book 6, I have too many characters as-is that need satisfying conclusions. Din, Boba, Bo-katan, and Grogu all get a spotlight in this movie, so to introduce Dr. Pershing AND conclude him here… It’s too much. I am heavily leaning toward cutting it, especially considering this movie is trending ~3 hours already, adding him in there is holding back the flow of the main characters. I may release the mini-film of his episodes as we’ve discussed here before.

Other than that, I have completed audio on a couple of previous scenes, but the next step is an intense dive into the Battle of Mandalore. I have to analyze this thing from top to bottom and see what I can do with it. Disappearing fleets, a base layout that shatters the space-time continuum, and plant-filled symbolic caves, oh my!

PS: What did you think of Tales of the Jedi/ Empire?

I disliked it. Episode 4 and the beginning of 5 were great, Grevious and Thrawn looked good, but other than that… Big no from me. Don’t want to bog down this thread as it’s off topic but I posted my review here: https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Tales-of-the-Empire/id/116495/page/1#1588394

Hope The Acolyte is good! I haven’t read any of the High Republic material, so going in pretty blind. The marketing material has been hit and miss for me, but excited to give it a fair chance.

It’s a decent idea Starkiller, but I would say it doesn’t work fully because with a proper understanding of the force, we know that the future is always in motion. For Luke to have such confidence in Kylo’s future violates a very foundational aspect of what we know of the force, and I think this dialogue reads as Luke simply acting like an arrogant dolt who doesn’t understand how the force works rather than him being forced into a legitimate moral dilemma.

Him just saying that he knows Ben’s fate is sealed comes off as him being in great error about reading the force vision, which Rey immediately corrects and she seems in the right. I don’t think this fully solves the problem of Luke still being presented out of character.

TheDimitrios said:

Always good to see this is making progress!

Regarding Bad Batch I hope we get a show that follows up on those plot lines. If Barris happens to be in it as well, there could be a nice way to do a Dark Times fan edit of BB, TotE and that new show.
Fingers crossed.

Honestly, a film or two of “The Dark Times” based on some animated plot lines with TotE and TBB might be pretty cool. Would be a hell of a task to pull off, but I do think it’s possible to have a movie or two about the Republic --> Empire transition that doesn’t solely focus on TBB squad. Something to mull over perhaps. Want to keep focus on TWoM here, but feel free to post in my TBB thread if you have other thoughts on a structure for that.

Final update, I have been working with a professional artist on slightly updating the logo for this series and creating a very well-designed movie poster for it as well. Not necessary of course, but I have put so many hours into this project over the years, it felt appropriate to create that for the final release coming soon.

Darth Sadifous said:

Hey Acbagel, how are you enjoyed bad batch? Have you done anymore tinkering with the final book yet or taking a needed pause to recharge? By all mean take your time, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I can’t wait for the final book this series (at least for now)!

Hey Darth! I did have a little bit of a break, took the family on vacation, had a huge event at work, and then have been working on two editing side projects as well (one relates to The Way of Mandalore and I’ll announce below). I also did indeed watch all of Season 2 and Season 3 of The Bad Batch + Tales of the Empire over the last three weeks, so that was a lot of spare time consumed but I like to stay relatively up to date with ongoing Star Wars stories. To be honest, I thought The Bad Batch peaked in Season 2 Episodes 7/8, the senate ones about the clone conspiracies. End of Season 2 was great as well, but I thought Season 3 went absolutely nowhere and didn’t wrap up any of the plots I was most interested in (Project Necromancer, the developments in the senate, the Clone Rebellions, Rex/Cody/Wolffe etc). So I was quite let down by the conclusion and ended up feeling like the whole series is a little bit pointless. I didn’t connect with the Batch or Omega at all, so I know they got a good story together but I thought they were by far the least interesting part of the series. Oh well, still might try to complete a movie edit one day…

So Book 6 update, I have spent a few hours going through Act 3 which is the battle on Mandalore. It’s not good, there was a lot of criticism about the nonsense structure of the base, starfighters completely disappearing, and very poor pacing, but some of the scenes are well made too (jet pack battle comes to mind). It’s been a lot to sift through looking for solutions. The first 2 hours of the movie are pretty much ready for a final polish check, but that last hour of the film is still a doozy to work out. I could release Book 5 updated right now, but I am somewhat worried I am going to have some idea in Book 6 that makes me need some scene from Book 5 or at least make me need to change a line or two so I’ve just been sitting on it… I might just drop it though as I’m still at least a month+ away from Book 6.

beachedwhale said:

I can see why it can be seen as a bit wordy, but as it is such a short scene I feel this takes the edge off of it. When imagining this taking place between two scenes I can see it not being so overbearing and giving it some substance as it is just a “travel” scene, but either way I think it’s a good job. The AI for Din is unbelievably great here! I like to keep the Skywalker inclusion as it shows with everything that’s going on Grogu is still on his mind.

I think there are a couple of instances where I can cut a word or two out, but I think we have to realize how much Din’s character is presented by season 3. He is VERY talkative compared to “peak Din” in season 1/2 that most people have in their minds. Not as many people have rewatched season 3 a lot, but he does indeed speak 2x-3x times more than in previous seasons. I look at it as part of his character growth in developing real relationships with people. As far as the mentioning of Skywalker, I have it integrated throughout the film that Grogu is still always on his mind and he’s constantly checking his pings to see if anyone from the academy has reached out because he wants to be with Grogu.

ildiem said:

Darth Sadifous said:

I like what you are doing with Boba, trying to integrate him into season three. The audio exchange isn’t completely there yet, but I definetly see what you are going for. I think less may be more. It seems a little too wordy as I know you are trying to sell the new plot through dialogue and insert in some legend’s material. Also, I would let the subtitles for the mando language stay on screen for slighly longer, they are a bit abrupt.

“Sorry, I can’t join you (just) yet. The Hutts are (already) showing interest in my territory. But I will be there when you need me.”

"Check again for a ping from Skywalker('s acedemy on Ossus).

I was thinking the same thing actually, no need for some of those words and phrases.

Acbagel, I feel like I remember seeing this somewhere, but have you already/do you plan on integrating Mando’a into your earlier movies? I can imagine it being pretty jarring otherwise, especially for someone like Boba to speak it since he hasn’t typically lived alongside Mandalorians.

Yes! So, announcement time… I have also been working on “Special Edition” releases of Books 1-5 with integrated Mando’a where appropriate, as well as tossing in more easter eggs throughout (akin to the ones I shared in Book 5/6 previews) plus adding new SFX in a number of scenes. Examples of that include recreating the SFX of the Armorer working on Din’s new armor in Book 1 (previously her hammers never made any sound, so I have reconstructed that whole scene’s audio track to make it actually sound like a sci-fi blacksmith), recreating the audio for Din’s final “flashback” of the Mandalorians saving him as a child etc.

Book 1 Special Edition is released now and in the folders I have previously sent. Will release the Special Editions of the others soon. Just been also trying to rewatch the whole series and make notes of little improvements to make. Also helps me brainstorm the right way to end the saga in Book 6 (for now). Post/DM if you want to see the films and do not have them.

The other side project has been starting my movie saga of The Boys, but I won’t go into detail about that here. I finished the first film of that, going to watch over the weekend and then make a thread and release that next week.

Thanks for checking in, hope to share more soon!

Keyan Farlander said:

The same for me, the new trailer was a solid improveemnt. I hope we get something like a 5-10 minute background video for this explaining what the whole series is about, the tone, before it airs. Something like, but for all the characters, or maybe an overview video from Headland herself?

This 2 minute YouTube video is from the official Disney+ Korea channel:

The Acolyte | Master Sol Lee Jung-jae Special Video

Honestly, this was the best trailer I’ve seen yet for the show. Wish we could get more character previews like this or what you mentioned as well. I think we are missing the background intrigue for this show, like we don’t even have a timeline placement for it yet. I guess it’s possible that could be a spoiler somehow that they’re keeping hidden, but part of the announcement for wiping away the EU was that Disney had a new plan for an organized and structured canon. We certainly didn’t experience that with the ST, no one (not even the directors) understands the chronology or placement for The Mandalorian/BoBF, and it seems like they’re just releasing projects flippantly without trying to work them into the star wars chronology.

The Acolyte has huge potential to bring interest into a structured High Republic era. I don’t like how the HR has gone with the out-of-order Phase 1, 2, 3 to begin with, but I think some background and structure would really help bring the interest in before release. I really, really want this show to succeed, I think it could launch a ton of interest into unique storytelling for this era. Just think the promo for it has been lacking a bit, but I like a lot of what I have heard from Leslye Headland in regard to Legends and her desire for character growth (though I am also concerned for just as much on the flip side for some of her comments). Either way, it’s all coming down to execution in 3-4 weeks. I am excited mostly for the concept of a new show in a new era, but very, very cautious with getting my hopes up.

daveybjones999 said:

So the new trailer for this show has dropped and it’s way better than the first one we get a much better sense of the stakes and the scale that the story is going to take place on. The action we see here looks better than the previous trailer as well. Also, it seems like the color grading is a bit better and we’re seeing scenes with more desaturated colors and a better sense of characterization. So the trailer makes me way more hopeful for the show, but there’s still something that feels missing and I’m not sure what it is.

Agree on this one, new trailer did a much better job than the first teaser. Made me a little bit more hopeful for this project. I disagree with a lot of the criticism online about this, and while I don’t think it looks great, I remain slightly optimistic about this story. Something does still feel off about it though! I don’t feel “High Republic” setting when I watch. It looks like a very sterile hollywood production, but I’m open to being wrong about that once we start seeing full episodes.

Very disappointed by the storyline decisions this time around. To the point where I was actively hating every second of watching Episode 6.

Visually, they have mastered their craft. The art style and thematic depictions are top-notch, probably the best we’ve ever seen in Star Wars animation.

Nothing wrong with Elsbeth’s episodes, other than I find them to be somewhat… pointless? I guess it provides a little bit more context for her appearance in Mando, and some of her attitude in Ahsoka. But when you have an entire universe of characters to choose from to tell 40 minutes of high-quality visual storytelling, I am not exaggerating when I say I could name 200 other characters I would have rather seen get the spotlight than Elsbeth. Her arc here just doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day. Grievous was the highlight of her episodes, followed up by Thrawn. Overall, very mediocre plot with great visuals and thematic presence. 6.2/10

Episode 4 starts incredibly strong with Barriss adjusting to a new life in the Empire. The pacing was as good as it can be in a 15-minute timeslot, and everything here was pure setup potential. Episode 5 appears to start to deliver on this with a very dark and compelling opening scene, but wow does it go off the rails. All of the setup from the previous episode gets tossed out the window, and we get example #100 of dark sider turns good. I just really can’t fathom how that decision makes sense in the second half of the episode. Then 6 just completely lost me from the very premise, to the point where I actively disliked watching it anymore. The Sister gets just as much focus as Barriss, the stupid stab through the chest doesn’t kill people trend, she ALSO turns light, Barriss looks 50 years older but the Sister hasn’t aged a day? And what a tease of Vader for absolutely nothing. That was by far the most interesting premise in the entire show, yet we don’t get anymore than the trailer. Visually still looked great, but I strongly disliked the storyline choices to the point of not even enjoying watching it and now having to try to wipe it from my mind, so a 2.3/10 for me on this arc.

I was a huge fan of Tales of the Jedi, but Tales of the Empire really, really dropped the ball for me. The title of the show barely even makes sense… The Empire was not the focus at all, and at least half the show is set in a time period where the Empire doesn’t even exist. Just very confusing directing decisions, and I left feeling like at best this is simply not worth watching because it adds nothing to the saga other than an improvement in visual effects, and at worst feeling like I disliked it so much I’m going to pretend it doesn’t exist in my headcanon. It gets a 3.1/10 overall from me and I would not recommend it to anyone unless you view it as a tech demo for what the future of Star Wars animation could be.

This final episode of Season 3 in the “Bad Batch” series certainly had its moments, but as a conclusion to the season and the entire show, it left much to be desired.

Throughout Season 3, we were treated to an improvement in storytelling compared to previous seasons, with intriguing subplots hinting at deeper narratives and a lot less random unconnected filler. However, Disney’s tendency to wrap up entire arcs in single episodes rears its head once again, leaving many of these promising storylines unresolved.

From the repetitive rescue mission involving Omega to the lack of consequence for the Bad Batch members, the show as a whole failed to deliver the stakes it initially set up, and this finale episode kind of embodied that. Despite the illusion of danger, no significant character deaths occur, and even Crosshair’s injury feels inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. We are barely even given a moment of him dealing with it, physically or emotionally.

The subplot involving the Kaminoans and their supposed contingency plan is introduced but never fully explored, leaving me wondering about its significance. Similarly, the rushed resolution of Project Necromancer feels forced, with Disney’s insistence on including it seemingly motivated solely by retroactive continuity for the sequel trilogy.

The appearance of characters like Wolffe, Cody, and Rex teased potentially compelling storylines that are ultimately left unfulfilled. Their lack of involvement in the finale feels like a missed opportunity, especially considering the setup for their inclusion earlier in the series.

Even beloved characters like Scorch are given lackluster exits, further adding to the disappointment. Tarkin’s sudden authority to shut down the Emperor’s project feels out of place, and his decision to reallocate funds to the Death Star’s construction contradicts established canon.

While this episode may have its merits on its own in terms of great tension building, incredible visuals, fun action sequences, and ultimately an emotionally happy ending, as a finale to Season 3 and the “Bad Batch” series as a whole, it falls short of expectations, leaving many loose ends and unresolved plot points in its wake. 6.7/10 finale episode, 6.3/10 for the series as a whole.

Sirius said:

Hey Smudger, I’d like to make a suggestion. Do you think it would be a good idea for you to “create” an ending for this third film that had more of an ending feel? Perhaps it is possible to produce an ending that gives at least some kind of answer to all the unresolved plots, even if they are vague answers, repurposing scenes that were discarded from its three edits. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, just something that gives a sense of conclusion.

For example, from what I understand, you will cut the Teth arc. But maybe it would be good to show a scene from this arc at the end, just to imply that Rex’s clone cells are still organizing themselves and will continue fighting against the empire, or something like that.

When Omega, as an adult, looks at Tech’s glasses, just before leaving Pabu, maybe it would be cool if she had a flashback at that moment to something Tech taught her, maybe even something that was motivating her to fight for the rebellion. Or maybe at this moment, make her have a touching memory with all the members of Bad Batch, as if it were her actually saying goodbye to the group. Since you left a lot of filler scenes out of the three seasons, perhaps this would be a good time to use one or more of those scenes that are inspirational, something that makes her remember fondly the moments she spent with them.

Maybe some changes like these will give the ending more impact, I don’t know.

I definitely support this idea too. Honestly, the ending was so simple and standard it makes the whole lead-up adventure barely seem worth a watch, unfortunately. It really needs something more if it’s going to pack any sort of punch. Lots of dangling plot threads, characters introduced and leave for no reason, even the whole premise of the final arc being rescuing Omega for the 27th time in this show… Kind of disappointed. It wasn’t bad by any means, but not good either. Would be in support of a radical re-edit for the ending.

Thanks for the in-depth reviews, Patali! I will respond to those soon. Sent links to everyone else.

Editing progress has been a little bit slower as of late, I’ve actually been using the majority of my free time catching up on The Bad Batch. I still hadn’t even watched through all of Season 2, so I had quite a bit to view. And I have also been distracted finally reading Star Wars: Supernatural Encounters (You can actually find my name in this book 😉 ). So I’ve been consuming rather than creating lately, but I had some technical stuff I was working through for the edit and it was just taking a lot of time and focus. The rotoscoping and soundtrack recreation is quite extensive here.

I have one new scene to share, this is a first demo of Boba’s AI voice and a snippet of how I plan to tie-in Din and Boba’s storylines through Season 3 material. Not final scene yet, but it’s getting there. I have completely rebuilt 100% of this audio from scratch, not one single noise is from the original, this is like 20 brand new SFX mixed together to create an entirely new scene here so it’s been a lot of work, but it’s a plotline I need to communicate so it’s been worth it. Still have some blending to do on some of this, but just wanted to share so you all have an idea of why these things take so long at times! Let me know what you think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfmMulMeovg

beachedwhale said:

Have just finished another Star Wars rewatch including your fan edits and it never gets old seeing the back and forth with Din and Boba!

For some reason Boba taking the shot against Din on the speeder sticks with me the most, it adds further context to why he plans ahead with the Grogu hostage situation after seeing him in action, such a minor addition but I love it.

Unfortunately I do not have any criticisms or prompts to assist with, I’ve been following this thread for so long and like the others am really eager to see how it all caps off, it’s fair to say everybody has opinions on S3 with the lack of Boba and Grogu jumping back in.

That’s wonderful, glad you had a good time with the series! I look forward to showing you the conclusion soon.

Appreciate it is the wrong thread, but can I please get links to your sequel trilogy? Been having a read through and I am pretty keen.

Haha sure I’ll DM you!

In the meantime keep up the amazing work and I will continue to watch your career with great interest!

Thanks! I didn’t get much editing time this week as I had to travel out of state for work, but I got one new scene done that required an extensive audio rebuild.

Having a little bit of a narrative challenge with how freaking fast the clans leave Nevarro to Mandalore. No time to breathe at all… Two total scenes from the time they land on Nevarro to when they leave, it’s not fun to work with. The difficulty is with placing the Grogu-IG walker scene, since I have their reunion so much later it’s just tough to fit that in. Working on moving some stuff around but there just isn’t a lot of content here to deal with.

Sent! I haven’t worked on these edits in a couple of years, but they are moved into a new folder with easy access for anyone still interested in watching. So feel free to keep asking for them! I would like to go back through these at some point in the future for updates, but it will be a while.

I just watched the first film of Smudger’s series here and I have to say, for what you set out to do (Season to movie adaptation), this edit was seriously done perfectly. I don’t think there is any way to break down this whole season into a better movie than how you did it. From the editing tricks to making the storyline make perfect sense from start to finish, to the added worldbuilding through Echo’s flashback, indistinguishable small uses of AI lines, and more, I was never left confused about the overall structure of the plot.

Technically, the edit is in a near-perfect state as well. No distractions from soundtrack changes, the quality was great, and I didn’t see any visual bugs. The only tiny thing was I thought some of the added wipe transitions were a little fast, the one that stood out the most was when they’re traveling back from the snow world in the opening scenes, I believe the original was a slow fade to black but here it was changed to a quick wipe. I think I noticed a couple of times where the transitions were altered and the wipes flew by too quickly, but this was quite minor overall.

If you are looking to consume a season of the Bad Batch in one sitting, this is absolutely 100% the best way possible to do it. You don’t need an episode guide flow chart, or timestamps to skip to the ends of certain episodes when the main plot moves, just watch Smudger’s edits! You will get the series’ core storyline in the best presentation possible.

While I do think that this is a 10/10 for accomplishing a quality Season-to-movie goal, I do have to point out that there are some inescapable narrative challenges with such a format. Particularly in the development of relationships between characters, there is just no possible way to show their bond grow over time when considering the need to tell this story in ~3 hours max. Omega’s relationship with the Batch did not initially feel like a natural growth, as obviously, Smudger has to cut a large number of side adventures in order to preserve this single movie format. I could definitely tell as a viewer that I was missing something because Omega bonded with certain members of the Batch way too quickly and it felt like I had missed the reason why. For example, since we primarily jump from Episode 1 almost immediately to Episode 8, we’ve missed about 2 hours of stories where Omega connects with certain members of the Batch through these side adventures (and yes, many of these filler episodes are indeed boring and do not impact the events of the main storyline whatsoever, but they do serve to pace out the bond formed between characters as each episode does usually contain a moment or two of growth). So when we jump through half a season, Omega suddenly out of nowhere shows extreme care and concern for Wrecker when he is getting his chip removed and calls him “My friend”, even though they have not shared any character moments together and appear like strangers to a new viewer. This is again noticeable when Omega says to Wrecker, “Can you show me how to arm this kind?” as she points to an explosive, referring to a previous episode where Wrecker and Omega go through a trial in disarming a bomb together, but since it’s a filler episode that was cut and we don’t see it in this movie, this character moment is lost but as a viewer I can still tell she was referencing something I never saw. Again, this isn’t Smudger’s fault, it’s an impossible challenge to solve in a Season-to-movie format, but for people watching TBB the first time through this edit, you should be aware that characters do have quite a bit of bonding that occurs outside the main storyline that you won’t be able to see. I noticed similar trends with the pacing of which Crosshair searches for TBB as well, but these missing character moments were the only storyline distraction as the actual events of the main plot work perfectly in the way you’ve structured it.

With that said, I do again want to stress this is seriously a 10/10 edit for the goal it tries to accomplish. You cannot edit a season into a better movie than how Smudger has done it, so for anyone looking for a single sit-down TBB experience, or wanting a refresher before watching Season 3, this is 100% the perfect edit for you. Thanks, Smudger, for all the hard work! It was perfect for what I needed as a recap as I tried to catch up on this show.

Wish they’d just adapt the Dawn of the Jedi novel/comics from the EU. I really want to see Disney Star Wars attempt a genuine and faithful EU adaptation to live action, and the Old Republic/Dawn era is a perfect place to experiment with this.

Darth Sadifous said:

Seems you are hard at work and have a roadmap laid out for the final book at least until the Mandalorian movie comes out now in 2026. I am eager to see the conclusion as Season Three of this show combine with the Book of Boba Fett are the original source material I had the most issue with like many others. The prolonged Grogu/ Din reunion and Boba Fett being semi involved in the final season of The Mandalorian will definetly make this my go to version for rewatches. Also a dedication to Carl Weathers at the end would be a nice touch!

Thanks, excited to share this film with everyone sometime this spring! Just finished rotoscoping Grogu out of the final Nevarro scenes as I have the reuniting occurring between the fleet landing on Nevarro and before they leave for Mandalore. I am working on another The Way of Mandalore project on the side too… Will announce that soon.

But yeah, cool that the Mando-Grogu movie (I really hope that doesn’t end up being the actual title…) has a release date! I think that will be easier to make a fitting fan-edit of for this series compared to the TV show. Or maybe it’ll be so good on its own that it won’t even need an edit 😃

Do you take any stock in the fact that Giancarlo Esposito recently floated his idea to return again as the clean shaven Gideon who met his demise is a clone theory. I’d rather him stay dead at this point. It is like if they had brought back Captain Phasma for TRoS. I think we would be entering into the “you killed Kenny” territory.

Oh boy… I think the writers intentionally left it open for future options as they didn’t know during filming how Season 4 vs the Mando-Grogu movie was going to pan out. They left it open to bring Gideon back or just leave him dead, but I absolutely hope he is dead and gone. Quite fatigued of people dying but not really in recent star wars. His character arc was trashed enough in season 3 so I don’t know what other intrigue the character brings. Certainly, there are better options for new antagonists.

Hey Smudger, would love to watch these when you get a chance. Haven’t seen Season 3 yet but want to binge before the end, and could definitely use a refresher on previous content. This seems perfect for that!

Tobar said:

Acbagel said:

Grievous on Dathomir killing Nightsisters…?? Son of Dathomir adaptation perhaps?

This looks to be a retelling of the battle in Massacre from Elsbeth’s perspective. I don’t think this has anything to do with Son but I still hold out hope that we’ll see that and Dark Disciple adapted as miniseries some day.

Ahh, you may be right… Man, would’ve been a great time to make DD or SoD. Hope to see those brought to life one day.

Grievous on Dathomir killing Nightsisters…?? Son of Dathomir adaptation perhaps? I am intrigued by that and the Bariss storyline. The Elsbeth background storyline, not so much. Thought she was really wasted in Ahsoka, and I don’t think delving into her family history and revenge storyline is going to make me care about her any more.

Overall, this is a nice surprise of a show to be added. I am shocked it was kept under wraps so well! I like the idea of these anthology animations covering the different factions. A lot of potential there. Tales of the Old Republic someday…?