Acbagel

Here is a v2 attempt at making an emotional Din voice model for the Darksaber scene.

“The darksaber, much like the mask of Mand’alor, is more than mere tradition. It’s a symbol, a beacon of leadership and unity. Mandalore was not lost because this weapon was accepted as a gift. Our downfall was due to our divisions, our ceaseless conflicts among ourselves. It’s not about the method of acquisition. It’s about belief… Belief in our leader’s vision for Mandalore. We stand here not as adversaries, not as foreigners, but as kin, bound by the soil of our homeworld. If the Darksaber truly is a symbol of our unity, then it should be a gift, passed from one Mandalorian to another. You have fought for Mandalore, bled for it. Your dedication to our people, to our home… You deserve to lead us. If this blade is to be wielded by the leader we believe in most, then I ask you all… Would it not belong to her? Would it not belong to her?”

I think this one is a marked improvement over the first attempt, maybe a few lines in there that could be replaced, but what do you guys think? How do you compare it to Din’s original explanation/delivery?

Patali said:

I like the writing, both yours and Dimitirios versions, but… this would probably be the biggest monologue Din has had in the series, right? To me, that is too much weight to give to AI, it will come off flat compared to what the moment should be. I think it has to be a lot shorter unfortunately. Narrow it down to 3 or 5 of the best lines yall can come up with. Thats just my opinion.

(I think the AI did good on that line “It’s about what you stand for Bo Katan”. Which is funny because it does it with a less serious voice than the rest of the monologue, but yet that managed to sound more natural as a result. Not saying that should be one of the lines, but js it did sound good imo).

Edit: Just to be clear, the idea of Din standing up and making these decisions for his people, and having a big monologue, I think is cool and great development for him. But I just doubt these AI models will be able to pull off the weight that is required for ab extensive monologue, for what should be one of his biggest character development moments.

I watched a video of Gary Oldman recently talking about Chris Nolan. And he said while they were filming a scene in batman, after one of the takes Nolan gave him one piece of direction which was “There’s more at stake.” And that was all Oldman needed to turn the notch up on the emotion and the weight needed for the scene. I feel like that’s what I want to tell this AI lol

Yes, this would be one of the longest speaking sections for Din, so perhaps it’s just too out of character for him to deliver a speech in the first place? Though compare this test to the original scene. I don’t know if I’d call that “emotion” in the first place, I guess you can say he projects his voice out like yelling more, but it’s so short and still quite monotone. I wish I could replicate a mixture of this in my model though, I think just that extra oomf in the delivery would make the difference. But here’s the script of the original scene:

BK: It’s not a gift to be given, no matter how well intended.

DD: It’s not a gift. While exploring Mandalore, I was captured, and this blade was taken from me. Bo Katan rescued me and slayed my captor. She defeated the enemy that defeated me. Would this blade then not belong to her? Would it not belong to her?

AW: It would.

DD: I return this blade to its rightful owner.

Yikes! Not great… But if we want to keep a similar depiction of stoic but somewhat emotional Din, that’s all the time we have to work with. How do we devise a compromise here where we can still communicate a sensible story without needing Din to go out of character by talking too much?

TheDimitrios said:

How about this (needs more “pathos”, more about the general idea):

DD: Your people believe it is to be earned in combat, i know. But you did not loose Mandalore, because you accepted this weapon as a gift. You lost Mandalore because our tribes were splintered, caught in a cycle of fighting each other. Mandalorians have fought over beliefs, grudges and… this weapon. If the darksaber really is meant to be a symbol of our unity, we must not fight each other over it. It shall be a gift, given from one Mandalorian to another… one tribe to another… Because we are one people. Exiled from our home. Wouldnt it be our best chance to retake our home… together?

I think making the “rules” behind the darksaber a parallel to the Mandalorian infighting of the tribes has some potential. It also sets up the lesser importance of the weapon, making the unification of the tribes Bo Katans claim to fame.

I like some of the ideas in here, just gotta figure out a way to get the delivery to feel right now too. Season 3 had so many technicalities for plotlines that were barely discussed, and they even did it again with “Din Grogu” at the very end. So, so many conversations about bending the rules with barely a sentence or two to explain why it’s happening. Kind of frustrating.

edit:
As to the resolution of the Mandalore storyline. Since there is a good Armorer Model around, maybe a few scenic shots of Mandalore with a voiceover of her could do the trick? She could talk about how after the retaking of Mandalore and the destruction of the darksaber the tribes united in the belief in the Mythosaur and Bo Katan (who bears his symbol). It breaks the “show dont tell” rule, but since we have to work with what we got, it might be worth considering.

I really like this idea too, and there is room for it in some scenes during the final sequence. Maybe to even replace some of that “Din Grogu” technicality. Not to get rid of that name or anything, but they get all the way up to Grogu about to be baptized and then have a mini argument and bend another rule at the last second… Just a tiring trend so I’ll look at cleaning up that sequence with some Armorer lines too.

Patali said:

I think it sounds a lot more natural. Though your model for Din is not as strong as the one you have for the Armorer. But that’s less of a shot against your other models and more of a testament to how good her’s sounds, it’s really good. I imagine it’s something in the way the actress chose to deliver the Armoer’s lines, the AI is able to use that specific inflection more easily than the more general dialogue of someone like Din.

Agreed, I think many of the Armorer lines are nearly undetectable, but sometimes the Din model works and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve tried a lot of different models for him, and I still can’t quite get it perfect (I have a new attempt below for you to check out though). Part of the challenge is how differently the character speaks in Season 1 v Season 3, Pedro really evolved the character’s performance over time, and once he started recording audio not on set it sounded different again. Sometimes Din speaks in an extremely monotone way, and sometimes he has emotional inflections slip in, but the models struggle to know when to do that naturally.

I like the mythosaur line. Only thing I noticed, idk how your subtitles for the in universe languages work, if its baked in or not. But it felt like I had to read that subtitle really quickly.

Oh, gotcha. Yeah, I can alter the timing of that and see if it helps.

TheDimitrios said:
A thought that crossed my mind: The normal Mandos have the belief in the darksaber, the CotW the belief in the Mythosaur, both indicating the true leader of Mandalore.
The darksaber gets destroyed, but Bo Katan still is accepted as a leader. Not knowing your exact plans, maybe it is possible to do something with this thematic connection to resolve the darksaber thing which was kinda brushed aside in the show?

You already established that belief in the Mythosaur is belief in Mandalore. So what if the normal Mandos kinda also make a step towards the beliefs of the CotW. Mandalore has been retaken despite the darksaber being destroyed, so apparently (in their eyes at least), it was not the signifier they thought it was, so they accept the Mythosaur as a representation of Mandalore and the justification for Bo Katans claim to leadership.

This way each side would move a little bit towards the other. The CotW are less dogmatic about the helmet thing and the normal Mandos take on a core bit of belief of the CotW, with both groups now having a newly established common ground they can build upon, giving the Mandalorians as a people some nice growth.

Hope this was not too convoluted.

I definitely agree that there should be a clearer communication of newfound unity between the various factions of Mandalorians that precedes their reclaiming of Mandalore. The difficult part is finding places where I can drop in new lines that sound believable and tell the right story. I still don’t comprehend how the D+ version did this, with the whole “She defeated the enemy who defeated me” nonsense, the confusion about the Armorer’s “She walks both worlds” lines, the destruction of the Darksaber having no impact on any of the characters/factions, etc. Something else needs to happen with all of this if we want a satisfying conclusion to many of the Mandalorian lore plot threads that were set up over the previous content.

So this is with a new Din AI model (all Din lines here are 100% AI), but the writing itself was done prior to some of the recent work I did on the other scenes, so I’ll probably rewrite some of this to be more in line with the ideas we’ve been discussing recently. I had only remade all of the audio, I haven’t put the visuals on this yet, so you’ll just have to listen and read along for now, but this was an idea to occur during the Din-to-Bo Darksaber handoff scene. Audio here!

Script:

AW: The ruler of Mandalore must possess the darksaber.

DD: Then she shall have it… This belongs to you.

BK: It’s not a gift to be given, no matter how well intended.

DD: The darksaber, much like the mask of Mand’alor, is more than mere tradition. It’s a symbol, a beacon for those who would lead. It’s not about the method of acquisition. It’s about belief… in true leadership. This darksaber, the mask of Mand’alor, they’ve guided us, yes, but they do not define us. We follow the one who leads, not because they hold a symbol, but because we believe in their vision for Mandalore. We stand here not as adversaries, but as kin, bound by the Creed and the soil of our homeworld. Mandalore thrives not under the rule of the mightiest warrior, but under the guidance of the one who unites. It’s not just about wielding the darksaber or wearing a mask. It’s about what you stand for, Bo-Katan. Your dedication to our people, to our home… You have fought for Mandalore, bled for it. If this blade is to be wielded by the leader that we believe in most, I ask you all… Would it not belong to her? Would it not belong to her?

AW: It would.

DD: Then I give you this blade and decree you, Mand’alor te Solus (Mand’alor the Unifier).

Some of that should be altered with our recent ideas, so… Dimitrios, you’re up 😉

Darth Sadifous said:

I liked the idea of Din’s exchange with Fennec, but will the final cut do more to mimic the actor’s lips when delievering new AI line? The reason I ask is because it is obvious in some places Fennec’s mouth is not moving when the new AI lines are delivered to Din.

Yes, when she says “We need help dealing with the Pykes,” it’s obviously too long of a line considering her mouth movements, so some of the lines will be tweaked to match the lip sync. Usually, when I work, I try to build the whole film from start-to-finish with the story in mind first, maybe making a few rough drafts of audio/visuals, then once I have everything story locked I go back scene by scene and try to work on the technical aspects. Since this last film is a lot more to deal with than the previous ones, and I am taking way more creative liberty to attempt to address some of the common criticisms with Season 3 material, it’s taking much longer to get a functional story in place before I even get to the technical aspects. There are still a number of scenes I need to roto out Grogu from too in this one.

TheDimitrios said:
Yeah, if I could reccomend, I think shortening some of Mando’s lines would make it more in line with his character and help with the model not sounding so stilted (“What. Is. This. Bag. Of. Credits. For.” or instead just “What’s this?”)
…
You’ll have to review the timing to let me know if these would work, but I think overall it would be an improvement. Din’s not the kind of guy who’s gonna fly there “hoping” to speak with Boba. He’s going to speak to Boba.

Okay, I like those suggestions. Try this!

vranir said:

I think fewer non-English lines from the Armorer when they are outside would help. She doesn’t often speak in the Mando language in other scenes.

Hmm, it’s only 2 lines over a 90-second scene. Which one of those sounded excessive? There is a lot more Mandalorian culture in this film, and I am planning on going back to integrate more Mando’a through the series too.

Otherwise, this is very good. I’m not a professional, but this sounds quite passable to me. I love that this pays off the small eye-contact interaction from the Mythosaur encounter that the vanilla show made very little of.

Thanks, lots of good community ideas helped! I’ll keep working on it and tinkering in the meantime.

TheDimitrios said:

The Armorer Convo is getting close.

The beginning of line regarding the fallen Forge being her grave is not clearly audible I think. (The first 2 or 3 words), but the conversation itself flows nicely now in my opinion.

Sweet, yeah the line reads themselves aren’t the goal yet, some sound good and can be used but some are just placeholders until I find the actual dialogue script writing to finalize and then I’ll generate 100 different takes until it makes a read that I like. I’ll wait for another review on the writing itself before trying to finish up all the audio quality.

With the Mando scene in Tattoine a few exchanges sound tonally disconnected. If you happen to have a script for that as a basis, I could toss some ideas around. 😃

Keep in mind that on this scene we are a bit more limited as some of the lines have to match Fennec’s mouth movements well enough to not cause a distraction. The show itself dubs over people on many occasions and not every viewer notices it as they try to disguise it, but it has to be done in a way that feels at least somewhat natural.

P: Well…How is it?

D: Purring like a Loth cat.

P: Oh, hey Grandpa…

D: I’m here on business.

P: Oh, are the Hutts back? You checking on Boba Fett?

D: Actually, I am looking for him.

P: Boring! Oh, by the way an old friend of yours dropped by. Said she was looking for you.

D: A friend of mine?

P: Don’t worry, I told her I didn’t know where you were then I locked her out and engaged The Hanger security system.

D: She tell you her name?

F: Fennec Shand!

P: I thought you said that the hanger security system was up? Don’t get away from me you come right back here…

D: Fennec Shand.

F: By any chance are you looking for work?

D: This is an unexpected surprise.

F: I was looking for you.

D: What is this bag of credits for?

F: A job offer. We need help dealing with the Pykes.

D: I was hoping to talk with Boba about Mandalore.

F: I’m sure he would consider it.

D: You can keep the credits. Tell him it’s on the house, but also tell him that I’m going to need a favor from him in return.

The Star Tours easteregg is not too obvious, had to listen to it twice to actually get it.

Perfect! That’s just how an easter egg should be placed.

Patali said:

I have not watched season 3, so some of that is going over my head, but on the other hand, having not watched it I think it gives me a good perspective.

Oh, interesting! That does give a very unique perspective for analysis here. Yeah, you might be confused by the discussion as you’re jumping into one of the final scenes from that movie here, but you’ll be a good judge of if it makes sense in a vacuum.

First off, assuming a lot or most of those Armorer lines are AI… they sound really good. And the dialogue itself from her I think sounds well written.

Yes, 100% AI there. I’ve rewritten some more in a draft #2 I’ll share below.

Bo Katan’s responses, I assume from the real show in a different context, something sounds a little off, it doesn’t quite sound like she is responding to what the Armorer is stating. There is a different emotional level, I can tell the context is different there. But to be honest, if I was just watching the movie I probably wouldn’t notice it much.

Yes, maybe it was a little bit off. I’ve tried to use Dimitrios’ suggested structure this time around which should hopefully make her reactions feel more natural.

TheDimitrios said:

I tried a few things here, primarily to gibe additional reasoning to the armorers decision to choose this moment to make a helmet exception
…

Thanks! Some of that isn’t totally possible to use in its entirety as I’m limited by the available timing between the real lines, but I’ve uploaded a new preview to combine some of your ideas with a little rewrite on my end as well. Let me know what you think! Bo-No-Helmet Demo 2

Also working on a Fennec AI model to help as well, so give me some feedback here if you don’t mind. Almost all of Din’s lines are generated as well. Fennec AI Model test

And finally, I’m trying to go all out to make this last film full of little legends references and really want to let some creativity shine here. So I have tossed in a bunch of fun easter eggs throughout, here’s just one example of something in the background soundtrack: Easer Eggs Galore

TheDimitrios said:

That was quick.

The dialogue still needs some tweaking, but overall I,think it works!

Yeah, I think as a proof of concept it has a lot of potential to fix the problems I had with this scene. I’ll just have to spend no less than 15 hours audio-mixing everything once I lock in the dialogue… But it could be worth it. Here’s the full written script if anyone wants to make edits to it:

"BK: You wished to see me?

A: This place was once the heart of our strength. Now it serves as a reminder of our vulnerability… You once sought to reclaim Mandalore from the clutches of our enemies.

BK: That dream has never died.

A: Our history is a tapestry of triumph and tragedy woven by the hands of leaders who understood the way. It is said that a true leader can endure the Gaze of a Mythosaur and emerge unscathed, their eyes reflecting the beast’s Spirit. You claim to have seen a Mythosaur. A claim as bold as it is rare… Prove it. Remove your helmet.

BK: But…?

A: If your eyes hold the truth then you shall lead us, but deceit will make this Fallen Forge your tomb. To claim such an encounter is to assert a connection to the very soul of Mandalore. It is to claim a right to leadership, to the guiding of our scattered people back to unity.

BK: This is the Way.

A: The punishment for deceit is not simply death, it is Scorn. The erasure of your name from our history and the declaration of your lineage as traitors to Mandalore.

BK: I understand.

A: Then look into my eyes and let me see the depth of your claim. Reveal Your Spirit to me here and now and face your destiny… Don’t show me your eyes, show me her spirit… You stand on a precipice, Bo-Katan. Show me now or everything you have ever bled for will be forgotten.

[Music, scene change]

A: Brothers and sisters! Mando’ade! Gather around, anade. Bo-Katan Kryze is going off to bring other Mandalorians in exile to us so that we may be one people again.

PV: But she shows her face…

A: The Mythosaur has fixed her gaze upon Bo-Katan. She has been chosen to walk both worlds. (The Spirit of the Mythosaur IS her helmet now.) (The burden of this responsibility has been placed on Bo-Katan’s back.) To liberate our people from the past… And to restore our future… So that our children will know the glory of the Way. (We shall return to Mandalore as one people!) We are going home.

Darth Sadifous said:

Look in my eyes, what do you see? A cult of…

Damnit… I knew I forgot something, I didn’t include the guitar riff in the background.

Sorry, I actually like this idea a lot and adds more weight to her taking the mythosaur pauldron as well. I too was not happy with the writing in season three with it feeling like the armorer (possible turncoat) was setting Bo up for failure, only to never pay off on that. I do question how the armorer knows for sure if Bo saw the mythical creature or not by just looking into her eyes though. Overall though, I cannot wait to see what everything looks like polished. You are doing a great job; keep up the amazing work!

Great, thanks for your thoughts. I think it’s been shown that the Armorer has steeped herself in Mandalorian history to the point of being somewhat of an Oracle of the clan. They follow her every word as she keeps the Way perfectly, and mysticism has always existed with the people of Mandalore and their dedication to their homeworld. The Mythosaur itself is a being that is seemingly attuned to the ebb and flow of life/the force. It is a plausible idea that it can “imprint” upon someone in a way that such an Oracle could “see”. Or maybe it is all total bullshit and the Mandalorian clan is indeed just a cult, but that’s the fun of it all. That’s how most of the galaxy perceives Mandalorians in the first place.

I’ll keep working on other parts of the films while we sort through some edits here, but I think this is a worthwhile task overall.

Thanks for the discussion and ideas! I made a quick first draft of some dialogue based on the ideas above. Try not to get distracted by the lack of audio mixing/soundtrack and background noise balancing/couple wonky ai generations, I don’t want to spend hours on all that only to need to change a bunch of it anyway, so focus solely on the writing of the lines themselves.

Does the writing itself hold up here and provide a sensible reason for why Bo-Katan is chosen to “wall both worlds”?

Scene Demo

NFBisms said:

Andor excluded of course, it’s so 70s right down to formally being the grimy thrillers Star Wars '77 would be analyzed as cultural antidote to. The writing is timeless, the mullets and moustaches, even the Niamos beachwear feel so in line with ANH’s time period. And don’t forget the junky analog tech! Machines are big and unwieldy; Dedra has to do what’s basically an archive search by asking an attendant to collect those files from giant tube computers. There are illegible glass interfaces of lines ala Yavin and Hoth, tons of tactile knobs and switches and buttons, etc. Modified AK-47s as the symbolic weapon of revolution circa the 70s is loaded imagery, just like the modified StGs and Mausers in the OT evoke WWII. I was hyped as hell when Cassian was sentenced to prison by a 70s credit card machine.

And it makes it thematic. Nemik has a whole right-to-repair bit about technology being lost or forgotten; one of the many ways Empire imposes its will is through centralized uniform technology, moving populace away from the different lines of communication and information they maybe once had access to. Seperatist projects like tactical droids with databases in their head, Techno Union touch screens, or Umbaran bubble fighters fall by the wayside in distinctly important ways. It’s great!

Stuff like that really puts us right back into the space A New Hope is in. Whereas, yeah, it feels like a lot of other Star Wars stuff recently just conceptualizes “Star Wars” as anything that’s been in the movies before. Fair game for inclusion at any point, regardless of its faux-historical context. Aside from looking like a very modern Disney+ show in lighting and costuming, I wouldn’t be surprised if there isn’t any real technological difference between High Republic and Mandalorian eras in Acolyte. I would have loved design that feels more historical than just “cool” for the characters.

Definitely agree here, those ISB meeting scenes had all the right acting demeanor for the cultural transition to 70s/80s Empire. The tech looked great, the locations were vast and alive, it didn’t look sterile and flat, the technology matched the era, etc. Absolutely phenomenol production. Aside from the lack of aliens, it’s interesting how the least “Star Wars” story looks and felt the most like Star Wars out of any live-action production we’ve seen so far.

I think some sporadic earlier episodes of The Mandalorian had the right vibes too, but it’s been something that the selected directors have consistently struggled with. Hope it gets identified and addressed soon!

screams in the void said:
…Even with older stuff like the look of the old republic games , I felt the tech and look could have been more unique to reflect those much older time periods , instead of showing ships and armor etc , that didn’t look much different at all from later time periods . What I would love to see is a show that goes much further back in time and has a look akin to the original Tales Of The Jedi comics as drawn by Chris Gossett . Now that would be unique .

For sure! I’d say out of any potential project, I want to see Disney try to very authentically adapt the Tales of the Jedi comics into a movie saga/show. Not remake them for modern audiences, but really, really try to adapt them in the style that they were originally created.

Community Request!

Just want to try something together here, so as I have a very solid Armorer AI model, I’ve been looking into altering her explanation of why Bo-Katan is suddenly allowed to remove her helmet. I found the original D+ reasoning to be quite unsatisfactory and left me feeling confused about the Armorer’s intentions, leading many viewers to think she was an Imperial spy/traitor. All that fizzled out though and it just happened to be poor writing. I want to change that!

Does anyone want to take a crack at rewriting the dialogue in that scene on Nevarro in the forge where Bo-Katan speaks with the Armorer? This originally occurs in S03E05 ~31-34 minutes. Bo-Katan really doesn’t get a chance for many lines here, so we have to work around her reactions and dialogue, but we have a great opportunity to rewrite the Armorer’s reasoning. If any of you are writers and want to try your hand here, I’d love to see it. If you aren’t comfortable writing a full word-for-word script, then feel free just to leave your overall thoughts on some improved reasoning.

This scene takes place at the end of my upcoming Book 5 edit, and I want it to really tie into Book 6 as well so we want to have a sensible plot thread going on. Feel free to ask questions about the upcoming story if it would help too. I have a drafted scene written already, but I want to compare it with some of what you all might have in your heads. Feel free to post here or DM me your scripts!

TheDimitrios said:

any chance at least the dark/night scenes of book 1 and 2 can be updated quality wise? The stuff in daylight is totally looking OK.

It has tempted me a few times to replace some of the source footage in the worst-looking scenes, Book 2 night Tatooine comes to mind… But it would take very long as I would need to remake every single cut from scratch and I haven’t had the passion to do that yet. I’ve commented on some of the quality faults on the early Books a few times on this thread already, but I’d like to continue working on the ongoing story for now.

Speaking of… Few more scene demos to share!

First, here is another chunk of the scene with Din and the Armorer that I shared last time. Again, not final, I am sharing after just a first pass on production, not after spending a ton of time audio mixing yet. Since we’ve been talking about Boba’s storyline placement, I wanted to share how we are going to end up on Tatooine in Book 6… Din gets a mission

Next, I wanted to share more of this scene because I’ve got a great conversation made where Din talks to the Ugnaughts about the Resol’nare… But I’m still busy trying to fix some Disney production errors here. Just look at how obvious of a flub this is. They’re using two different takes, or cut part of the scene and covered it up with a Din dub (kind of like I’m doing… 0_0) but the Ugnaught’s hand placements are all wrong and out of whack! I’m trying to fix it by altering shots and angles, but just wanted to share because yes, sometimes the errors come from fan editors, but most of the time we’re working with stuff like this that looks like WE made a bad cut but it’s just baked into the original source material and we’re doing what we can to actually fix it. Major props to all the overworked editors in the real film industry though, it’s brutal out there… Not always their fault. Investor timeline problems. Editing error example

And finally, at the risk of sharing one that’s not even ready to be shared as a demo in terms of overall quality yet… it’s got some cool ideas that I want to show. I absolutely despise the original English voice lines dubbed over the aliens in this scene (as well as the content of the original scene itself) so I’ve taken the liberty to completely alter everything about this. I’ve used voice lines ripped from The Old Republic video game for the aliens and restructured this whole storyline to keep Boba involved. The gist of it is, he defeats the Pykes, but the Hutts start pushing into his territory. Meanwhile, Boba is staying busy hiring the Mandalorian clans to take bounty contracts, so the Night Owl clan is working a job for Boba as Din and Bo-Katan are stuck on Plazir-15 dealing with the imperial plotline. I love the transition from the Quarren vessel to Boba’s palace as well, so I wanted to share some of these ideas. Boba-Plazir tie-in

RogueLeader said:

Acbagel said:

5.5/10 trailer for me. Feeling pretty neutral about the show in general, but remain a little bit intrigued. It didn’t match the tone of the poster though…? I don’t know, I’ve watched the trailer 5 full times and something felt a little off or shallow with the trailer itself, but it certainly wasn’t bad. For some reason, the lighting/presentation of the sets still doesn’t fit with the “feel” of a George Lucas set/lighting/background/costumes. I know they can’t really perfectly replicate it with the differing technology nowadays, but there has to be a way to resemble the grand scale of a Lucas set piece. Do the shots still feel… flat or like they’re missing something? Even with this, I am interested to learn more about the show and will follow with cautious optimism.

This is a great question. This is the kind of thought that makes me want to make a Star Wars fan film, even if it was more of a proof of concept film, that was just about trying to replicate that Lucas/Original Trilogy look. There may be fan films out there that do this but I feel like I’ve never seen it. Instead of things looking clean and modern, go for the aesthetic of an older era.

Since I watched this Acolyte trailer, I’ve actually been thinking a lot about how why most of the time Disney Star Wars doesn’t “feel” like Star Wars, and one thing that I concluded was that I think that the production teams are totally missing that the eras of in-universe Star Wars history need to match the real-life decades of which they were originally produced. For example, any OT Empire vs Rebels content should have a '70s-'80s feel in terms of dialect, speech patterns, hairstyles, and costumes, whereas your prequels era content should have a '90s-'00s vibe with all of those things. Everything Disney produces, no matter the placement in the Star Wars timeline, feels like the real-life present day with modern lingo and fashion. Star Wars culture evolved in universe in a different way than our world due to how George filmed the movies non-chronologically, but Disney has been completely unable to replicate that.

The High Republic should’ve tried to replicate like a 1920s America vibe, or since it appears to have a bit of Eastern influence and design perhaps a 10th-11th century Japan vibe, or just base it on some other era of the real world that gives this whole High Republic era in Star Wars a distinct feel rather than just another 2024 Hollywood replica. Instead, we get another Black male character with the modern-day “Killmonger cut”, and if you’ve read any of the other High Republic content it’s got multiple female characters (one black and one white) with the half-shaved head + combover hairstyle that modern Hollywood loves to depict “masculine” females with. These aren’t overall design choices that make The Acolyte and the High Republic era feel unique. I think without George, the Star Wars production teams have been missing the value of having the eras of Star Wars feel unique in and of themselves, as we now have Sequels content and OT content and High Republic content that all feel like ~2020 America.

TheDimitrios said:

It’s honestly not so much about what can be fixed and more that it feels disconnected as part of the Mando/Mandalore Story.

That disconnect would not feel like one if it was It’s own little thing.

Understood, and that’s something I am aiming to solve by placing it in Book 6. It will feel disconnected no matter what unless it leads directly to Gideon’s return in a sensible manner.

Patali said:
To me this sounds perfect. If the content can sustain it, a 2 hour and 45 minute epic film would be an awesome finisher. In truth, across Mando and Boba we have 3.5 to 4 seasons of content. Cutting that into 6 movies sounds great. Cutting into 7 or 8, I am starting to wonder why Im watching it instead of just the show.

I would watch it anyway because of your great structuring, I just think it has the potential to be so much stronger pared down into a big event film. 6 is perfect to me.

I think so too, that’s the plan! I’d love to get Book 5 updated out ASAP, but I am still working through some conversations in Book 6 that are altering some dialogue/scenes in Book 5 so I have to work ahead before I can finalize the events leading up to it.

Edit: Also I do have a question, bagel. I haven’t watched Ahsoka yet. But I am wondering your opinion. I commented before on stretching out that time of reuniting Grogu and Din as much as possible. How do you think it would work/feel to watch Ahsoka (lets say a movie cut of Ahsoka), after either your movie 4 of this series, then jumping back into your final 2 movies after that (or after movie 5)? I am just wondering if that might help the separation even better, add another movie of content (with a character reintroduced in your movie 4) to add even more spacing between Din and Grogu’s reunion.

That’s a good question, here’s how I understand the timeline to work… The showrunners vaguely wanted the timeline to occur over the course of the “real life” production timeline, ie Season 2 occurs ~1 year after Season 1. As I’ve merged a couple of shows together since their events overlap, certain scenes in TWoM are not directly chronological and some are. For example, Book 1 is a very chronological story that all takes place within the span of a few weeks. However, in Book 2, while Boba Fett seems to be escaping the Sarlacc and training with the Tuskens concurrently with Din’s travels to Sorgan with Grogu, that’s not the case chronologically. As “The Mandalorian” show itself takes place much later than when Boba escapes the Sarlacc in 4 ABY, some of Boba’s past events are simply shown next to Din’s scenes to symbolize the journey that he and Din went on individually before crossing paths chronologically. This type of thematic storytelling occurs again with Grogu’s training with Luke, so while we will see them training in Book 6, these are simply non-chronologically placed scenes that showcase a few instances of lessons Grogu had with Luke during the ~1.5 years he was on Ossus. So let’s glance at the overall structure and get Ahsoka into the mix, assuming we start TWoM on Year 1 Day 1:

• Book 1 - Year 1-1.1 (Din’s hunt for and subsequent rescue of Grogu occurs over the span of a few weeks)

• Book 2 - Year 1.1-1.25 (While Din and Grogu’s travels take place over the course of a few weeks/months, Boba’s early Tusken scenes take place years before meeting Din & Fennec on Tatooine which happens in the “present”)

• Book 3 - Year 2.1-2.25 (Din’s journey to find Grogu a Jedi takes 8-10 months of wandering the galaxy together, and we pick up on the tale end of that to see snippets of their adventure in this film)

• Book 4 - Year 2.25-2.5 (Din meets Ahsoka, and the mission with Grogu concludes chronologically over a few weeks/months)

• Ahsoka “Movie 1” - Year 3.5-3.75 (The Ahsoka show is supposed to run concurrently with general events in Mando S3)

• Book 5 - Year 3.25-3.75 (Din has been traveling solo for a long time when we see him on this random bounty contract through Mines/Nevarro, Grogu is with Luke but we don’t see it yet)

• Ahsoka “Movie 2” - Year 3.75-4.5 (The finale of Ahsoka is technically supposed to occur after the finale of Mando S3, but overall events of the shows overlap)

• Book 6 - Year 4-4.25 (Din and Bo-Katan reunite the clans, we see non-chronological snippets of Grogu’s training that occurred over the past 1.5 years, Mandalore is reclaimed)

So while you won’t get a perfectly “chronological” experience no matter what you do as the shows weren’t filmed in such a way (I also haven’t done a deep dive into the Ahsoka series yet to fully analyze the events/timeline) this is roughly when the events would occur. The Mandalorian story is intended to occur over ~3 years, and the Ahsoka story runs concurrently with the last year of that story and concludes after the end of TWoM. So perhaps, yes, watching parts of the Ahsoka show between Books 4-6/Mando Season 3 could help us mentally make the timeline gap “feel” longer, since I do not think the shows themselves did a good job of communicating the passage of time to the audience.

EddieDean said:

Ahsoka, while it’s clearly part of that world and time period, absolutely stands alone for now. It’s set after Ahsoka’s appearance in Mando and the Dark Council meeting where they reference Thrawn, and there are light references to the New Republic and Mon Mothma, but it’s got no natural overlap with any of the focal storylines of Mando.

Right, it certainly doesn’t belong in “The Way of Mandalore” saga in any official capacity, but it works well enough with what I described above to add to a watchthrough of this era of Star Wars. I hope to have an Ahsoka edit out one day, but it isn’t a priority and will probably come after Season 2/the next New Republic-Mando movie.

5.5/10 trailer for me. Feeling pretty neutral about the show in general, but remain a little bit intrigued. It didn’t match the tone of the poster though…? I don’t know, I’ve watched the trailer 5 full times and something felt a little off or shallow with the trailer itself, but it certainly wasn’t bad. For some reason, the lighting/presentation of the sets still doesn’t fit with the “feel” of a George Lucas set/lighting/background/costumes. I know they can’t really perfectly replicate it with the differing technology nowadays, but there has to be a way to resemble the grand scale of a Lucas set piece. Do the shots still feel… flat or like they’re missing something? Even with this, I am interested to learn more about the show and will follow with cautious optimism.

EddieDean said:
I suppose our difference of sentiment/approach here is in our reactions to the fact that, as you point out, there’s little Mando-Grogu meat in Season 3. You say ‘…and therefore I’m doing all I can to fix it’, which is absolutely a valid approach, and if you can pull it off (which is likely!) the whole will end up all the stronger for it. Whereas I’m more saying ‘…and therefore I’ll accept the lesser focus and take a solid Season 3 movie version which simply doesn’t have a lot of Mando-Grogu’. For me, both Mando and Grogu took more of a backseat in the season compared to Bo Katan and the Mandalorians, and I’m OK with that. But, arguably, it is Mando’s show, and he and Grogu should be more prominent.

This makes a lot of sense! It does just come down to a “director’s decision” of whether I want to keep the focus of the movies on Din/Grogu or morph it into a bigger-picture story about various Mandalorians as the D+ show itself did. While I do like seeing the growth of Mandalorians in general, I don’t think it was executed well and seemed like a production adjustment rather than the actual plan. For my edit saga, I would prefer to sacrifice a few Pershing/Boba recruitment scenes in favor of keeping the narrative focused on where it started, and the incredible adventure between a Mandalorian and a force-sensitive baby in an era where the galaxy looks down upon both of them. I want to give Boba his due and complete his arc in a satisfying way, I want to let Bo-Katan get her spotlight (and I am really enhancing this!), and I want to let our main characters stay as our main characters. It’s simply too jarring for me to rip out my two primary protagonists in my final film. I just don’t think that’s quality storytelling, which has been my goal since Day 1.

I’m still very, very eager to see you succeed here. I think you’ve got what it takes (strategically and technically) to pull off your ambitious fixing.

I can already tell the hardest part is going to be figuring out what to cut… Realistically, I have ~3.5 hours of usable footage to sift through, and I need to cut out 30-45 minutes to make a good movie. It’s making me sweat!

TheDimitrios said:

I kinda came around on the idea of a Pershing Minisode. If it comes without the Way of Mandalore branding.

I’m okay with this idea in general, but I just don’t know what exactly I can improve upon to make this a worthwhile effort. I’ve edited various scenes in some ways, but outside of integrating it into my main TWoM movies, there is just not a ton that I can do creatively here. What would you say needs fixed in the original release in order to make it into an interesting disconnected short story?

EddieDean said:

I’m still a big advocate for using as much content as possible though (suggesting three movies), and there are three remaining ‘strong endings’:

• BOBF’s big final fight
• Gorian Shard battle
• Mandalore finale

I agree here, but the problem I’m facing isn’t with the endings, it’s with the lack of beginnings. I have 3 good endings, but only content to sustain a beginning and middle for 2 films. This is why I was considering moving the BoBF fight into an Act 2 conclusion of a 4-act film in Book 6.

So here’s (yet) another suggestion:

• Movie 5: As you propose. Mando and Grogu apart. Lovely arc focused on Mando’s loneliness post-Grogu, apostasy, redemption, and establishment of Nevarro as a staging ground. End on the tag of Boba taking the throne.
• Movie 6: Your excellent current BoBF movie 5 as the core. Grogu’s training with Luke and eventual rejoining Mando. Mando’s scenes on Plazir early on, and the general mobilising and prep for the Mandalorians in the background. (Presumably you already have decent voice lines to explain why the Mandos are still using Rock World while also staging out of Nevarro.) End the movie on Boba committing his help to the Mandalorians, and ideally something about the Mandalorians being ready to retake their planet. Reveal Gideon’s escaped his prison ship.
• Movie 7: Main focus on Pershing (initially) intercut with Boba being delayed by the Hutts. Into the finale two parter and your inclusion of Boba in it too, for that Avengers moment.

That way, you get the big bombastic finales, and more time to breathe and use more of the good content. It also gives you more time with Grogu away from Mando, more time for the Mandalorians to establish on Nevarro before retaking Mandalore, and more time for Boba to both take the throne and get established as Daimyo. And each movie brings the Mandalorians closer to retaking Mandalore.

I would love to do this, but that proposed Book 7 doesn’t have the Mando-Grogu content to sustain it. I structured every single remaining unused scene, and I wrote in a previous post “If I combine all of Dr. Pershing, all of my unused BoBF scenes focusing on Boba, and the whole assault on Mandalore, I can indeed make a functioning 2-hour movie. But Din and Grogu are only the focus of like 10-20% of it, and most of that is them fighting. They barely get any dialogue or development and it feels terrible and jarring to watch.” They aren’t the main characters of that proposed film and as I watched the scenes play out, it was extremely anti-climatic, especially coming off watching their reunion at the end of Book 6, you’re expecting this incredible story with them as the focus again and it’s the complete opposite. I don’t have the content even to move storylines around like I did in Seasons 1-2 because even though Din and Grogu are reunited in the Disney show, Grogu goes away for all of the Plazir-15 episode, Grogu goes away for all of Raptor kid rescue episode, Grogu/Din are pretty much not in the Pershing episode, and for some reason Din and Grogu are not the narrative focus of the assault on Mandalore and are mostly side characters in a larger storyline. So even without me VFX’ing Grogu out of the mines, I already have about 40% less footage of them together to work with in Season 3 compared to earlier seasons. I have some touching moments in the N-1 that I haven’t used but those are going in during their trip to retake Mandalore and are only ~2 minutes, but there really aren’t many other options for additional scene movements, the base content just doesn’t exist in Season 3.

If you think I’m missing something there with your Book 7 idea, I’m very open to solutions to it. So while I can make a 2-hour movie with your plan, Grogu and Din are only the focus of ~20 minutes of it, and that makes me uncomfortable for the saga concluding film. It would never make it to a theater like that, so I am not too fond of doing it here just for the sake of maxing content/runtime.

lantern51 said:

Anyone know when this might be finished?

From PixelJoker as of March 9: "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."

At one point recently he also mentioned possibly utilizing the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc release of Kenobi to improve some shots for his VFX, and that comes out on April 30th. So my guess on release would be sometime this summer, maybe 3-4 months away? But he’s always been someone who works in spurts based on his profession, sometimes he’s been able to work on this edit very quickly and other times he has to take weeks off, so release predictions have been difficult on his end.

Very safe to say it will come out eventually though, he has invested an enormous amount of time and effort into this.

Thanks for all the comments, folks! It definitely looks like a consensus on making a longer high-quality Book 6 conclusion, and perhaps reevaluating in a year or two once we see the status of a Season 4/Mando movie. I am full steam ahead on this grand finale film.

EddieDean said:

It’s tricky. When I edited Clone Wars, there were times when I just had to include certain content, even though it was weaker. To my mind, since Season Three is weaker, I’d make that compromise, and have its movies just be the best I could make them. Your AI lines are excellent, and I think that gives you the best options here for improving season three’s movies. And I think your latest Book 5 is just so, so good. So for me, I’d stick with your book 5, and focus on doing what you can for Book 6/7 with the season three content.

You’re definitely drawn to your current approach - it’s where you ended up when you watched season three originally - so there must be merit to it. Instead of arguing my existing stance further, I’ll suggest a middle stance here instead, for your consideration:

• Book 5: Remains as it is right now. Mando and Boba focus, with Grogu absent.
• Book 6: A single movie from ALL of season three, trimmed, plus the remaining Grogu-Luke content. Perhaps you drop the vast majority of the sidequests from season three, including Gorian Shard’s pirates and perhaps even the rocky planet covert (using instead the movie 5 ringworld covert to set up the redemption). Have your Groguless redemption, almost directly into the hiring of Axe Woves and giving Bo Katan the darksaber, intercut with Grogu’s training and return to Mando, and then straight into reclaiming Mandalore since he’s just discovered it’s unpoisoned. That way, Mando’s arc is about redemption and reclaiming Mandalore all in one, and Grogu’s is about returning to Mando. Character focus amongst the large-scale conflict.

Looking at that proposed structure, the main challenge is that I need the Nevarro scenes with Bo-Katan and the Armorer. Those are quite essential, and I am currently re-voicing the Armorer here so that her reasoning makes a little more sense for Bo-Katan to remove her helmet and unite the clans for the sake of Mandalore, as I thought the original lines were quite confusing and vague. If I cut out the whole Nevarro-pirates arc, I lose why the Mandalorians use Nevarro as a staging ground. I am also altering Greef’s lines so that he doesn’t gift it to them as a home, he now thanks them and says he appreciates that they have moved past their rocky history together to a brighter future. Same with the Rock World scenes, I need a lot of those to drive forward main pot points regarding Bo-Katan.

At the end of the day, Boba Fett doesn’t have enough content to be a major player in both Books 5 AND 6, he can only shine in one of them. I think it makes a little more sense for the focus of Book 5 to be on Din rather than Boba, as we have just had Din go through such a transformative event by giving Grogu away and it’s a huge hook to see what he’s going through. I always thought he kind of helps Boba Fett for no reason in the D+ series and it was just forced so Grogu could join them, but if I structure this story into Book 6 instead, he has a big purpose for aiding Boba… He is buying himself a favor so that Boba is freed up to join the battle for Mandalore. I quite like bringing Boba back in Book 6 for a full story about trying to maintain control of his territory and contributing to Mandalore’s aid. I think we did a great carving out a high-quality Boba story to utilize, so I want to keep that intact but just shift it back to making him an integral part of the conclusion rather than having him drop off the map for Book 6.

In my outline above, Book 6 we see Din find belonging in his clan and serve a purpose in reuniting Boba and the Night Owls, he sacrifices and gives Bo-Katan the darksaber (in a new, revoiced speech that I think is MUCH stronger reasoning), he reunites with Grogu, and is a key figure in reclaiming Mandalore. So he gets a great arc in both Books 5 & 6 this way.

As far as the Pershing interlude idea, I just don’t think there’s that much I can do to improve it as a standalone story. I can make some very minor edits, but it is what it is… It’s just an out-of-place storyline that hogs the spotlight and doesn’t lead to much, but it’s well-produced for what it is. I am leaning towards utilizing several scenes in Book 6 to lead to Gideon’s return as my outline post above shows.

Will post some more preview scenes next week!

Hey, folks! I’ve still been working on this a ton and want to share some updates and receive feedback on a few things. (Scene demos at the bottom of the post if you don’t care to read a lot)

I have a good working cut of Book 5 that I need to do a watch-through review of now so that one is getting close to being ready. Most of my time has been spent on the next film, which has been quite enlightening as it’s my first time really deep-diving into this part of Season 3. In fact, it is my first time rewatching it since its release. As I attempted to fully flesh out Books 6 and 7, I’ve primarily discovered that the narrative of the final two episodes of Season 3 is extremely light on an impactful plot. In fact, these episodes are 80+% mindless action, and much of it is poorly choreographed/edited (“ARRGHHH MY CLONES!”, random break in plant cave “life just finds a way”, and the overall confusion of the layout of the base and order of events occurring). The Mandalore battle needs some drastic TLC to even function as an Act 3. In addition to this, there are almost no character moments for Din or Grogu leading up to the battle. Let’s think through the content I have access to after I already used the Mines, Pirates, and BoBF. I have:

1. Raptor takes Vizla kid (this seems very silly to spend time on before heading to Mandalore after we just experienced the weight of events regarding Grogu’s return and Bo-Katan getting the darksaber. This episode doesn’t work to serve as a backbone of an Act of a movie as it’s WAY too short in and of itself at only 18 minutes from capture to rescue. And especially in Book 7 to conclude this whole adventure… Imagine going to the theaters after waiting years following an awesome ending to the previous film, only to spend the whole first Act chasing a bird and running out of jetpack fuel. I have used a few minutes of this episode for a new scene, but it’s not an actual story that can carry an Act, it’s just a scene.)
2. Plazir-15 (Again, mostly a nonsensical sidequest and I struggle to show Lizzo/Jack Black here as they’re so incredibly the wrong tone for the “epic” I have tried to tell, nothing against them personally, but this is especially not something to do in a movie. It was a social media traffic engagement decision for weekly TV. However, I have indeed repurposed a ton of this episode for a decent Din/Bo-katan adventure leading up to Bo getting the darksaber, but this has to happen in Book 6. And it looks nothing like the D+ version as it primarily surrounds a mysterious imperial sympathizer and Boba Fett… More on that below)
3. Dr. Pershing content (I will be using some of this, but he will literally outshine Din and Grogu if I include it all as he has more scenes than them. I want to utilize some of this to lead up to Gideon’s return, but I can’t make Pershing a main character that gets more screen time than Din in this last film…)
4. The assault on Mandalore (Again, this is extremely light on story, and there is not a build-up to it before they launch. They have a 60-second dinner as Bo-katan rallies the troops, then they fly to Mandalore. There is a little bit of a character moment on the “hoverboat”, but it’s just a couple of minutes, and I promise you that having the assault on Mandalore start so fast in this movie feels awful)

If I combine all of Dr. Pershing, all of my unused BoBF scenes focusing on Boba, and the whole assault on Mandalore, I can indeed make a 2-hour movie. But Din and Grogu are only the focus of like 10-20% of it, and most of that is them fighting. They barely get any dialogue or development and it feels really terrible and jarring to watch. Look at how I’ve built TWoM up until now:

Book 1. ~50% of Season 1

Book 2. ~30% of Season 1 + ~30% of BoBF

Book 3. ~50% of Season 2

Book 4. ~50% of Season 2

Book 5. ~30% of Season 3 + 30% of BoBF

So for Books 6 & 7, that leaves me with:

~70% of Season 3 (but realize the majority of content of that 70% is Dr. Pershing, Raptor kid, and Plazir) and ~30% of BoBF (but realize the majority of that content is stuff I decided NOT to use anyway for Boba as it isn’t very strong). All of that to say… I’m having huge problems making a Book 7 that actually focuses on Din and Grogu. There just seriously isn’t the normal Din-Grogu content there that I’m used to, because for some reason Grogu goes away for all of Plazir-15, for some reason Grogu goes away for all of Raptor kid rescue, and for some reason Din and Grogu are not the focus of the assault on Mandalore and are mostly side characters in a larger narrative.

The only solution I’ve found is a longer 4-Act structured movie in Book 6 to conclude this saga, akin to Endgame. I think the Assault on Mandalore does work fine as a final battle after a bunch of character development for Din, Boba, Bo-katan, AND Grogu, but it doesn’t carry anywhere else.

If you’re still around, check out my proposed structure here:

Book 5 - The Apostate
Act 1: Set-up
EXT. RINGWORLD - from BoBF E05 - Din Djarin collects a bounty in exchange for information on the covert’s location, and uses the Darksaber but injures himself in the process
EXT. RINGWORLD - from BoBF E05 Din returns the bounty; Din finds the covert and Paz heals his wound; Din, Paz, and the Armorer discuss the Darksaber; the Armorer forges the beskar spear into chain mail; the Armorer lore dumps about Bo-Katan and the Purge; the Armorer and Din spar; Paz duels Din for the Darksaber; Din confesses and becomes an apostate; Din takes a commercial vessel to Nevarro
EXT. NEVARRO - from Mando S03 E01 - Din goes to Nevarro to get IG-11 repaired; Greef offers Din a place on Nevarro, but he declines since he has other things to attend to; Din and Greef run into pirates and fend them off; Din and Greef take IG-11 to the Anzellans, who say they can’t fix him; Din and Greef part ways for now in (added new scene from the end of S03 E08)
EXT. TATOOINE - From BoBF E05 - Din flies to Peli to get a new ship; Din and Peli repair and modify the N-1; Din tests the N-1 through Beggar’s Canyon; Din runs into Gorian Shard over Tatooine with (new AI line about being tracked), fights his snubfighters, and escapes, Din heads back to Pelli to get R5, then jets to Mandalore system after encountering X-wing patrol in orbit
EXT. KALEVALA - from Mando S03 E01 - Din travels to Kalevala to join Bo-Katan, learns she has been abandoned by her people, and tells her he will go to Mandalore
Act 2: Confrontation -
EXT. MANDALORE - from Mando S03 E02 - Din enters the Mandalore system, breaches the atmosphere, and lands; Din deploys R5 to take atmosphere readings; R5 disappears on the scope and Din leaves the ship to find him; Din gets attacked by Alamites, fends them off, and finds R5; back at the ship R5’s data reveals the air is breathable
EXT. MANDALORE - from Mando S03 E02 - Din goes to explore the Civic Center ruins in search of the mines; Din gets trapped by the cyborg crab thing and taken to its lair; Din sends a distress signal to R5 to get Bo-Katan; The N-1 arrives at Kalevala, Bo-Katan notices the empty cockpit and tells her droid to download R5’s data to figure out what happened; Bo-Katan ventures into the ruins to find Din; the cyborg puts Din in his cage on a holder and starts to drain his blood; Bo-Katan encounters Alamites on her way down; Bo-Katan finds Din and kills his captor using the Darksaber the cyborg took from him; from Mando S03 E05 - Pirate King Gorian Shard arrives above Nevarro and begins to assault the town, Greef Karga and his townspeople flee, Din wakes up as Bo-Katan prepares a soup for him, Din and Bo-Katan set off for the Living Waters; Din bathes in the waters but falls under the surface; Bo-Katan rescues him and sees the Mythosaur. from Mando S03 E05 - Carson receives distress call from Greef at Adelphi base and leaves for Coruscant;
EXT. MANDALORE-KALEVALA - from Mando S03 E03 - Din wakes up redeemed, Bo-Katan asks him if he saw anything alive, he says he didn’t; Din and Bo-Katan leave Mandalore and are ambushed by TIE Interceptors; Bo-Katan flies to Kalevala, Din drops to pilot the N-1 for backup; Bo-Katan evades the Interceptors through the canyons; Din and Bo-Katan eliminate the Interceptors; TIE Bombers destroy Bo-Katan’s castle; a bunch more TIEs come into play and Din and Bo-Katan escape, Carson arrives at Coruscant and asks for permission to help Nevarro, encounters Elia, and leaves unsuccessfully;
Act 3: Resolution -
EXT. ROCK WORLD - from Mando S03 E03 - Bo-Katan lands next to Din in her ship; Paz confronts Din, Din tells him he has been redeemed, Paz doesn’t believe him; Din brings vial of the Living Waters to the Armorer, who verifies it, Din is redeemed along with Bo-Katan, the Armorer takes Bo-Katan in to have her pauldron replaced; the Armorer makes a new pauldron with a signet of the Mythosaur, per Bo-Katan’s request; Carson finds the covert and requests them to help Nevarro since he can’t without abandoning his post; Din asks the covert to aid him in saving Nevarro, adding that they could relocate there before they retake Mandalore, Paz then speaks and gives his support, and rallies the rest to the cause;
EXT. NEVARRO - The covert sets off for Nevarro; the N-1 arrives, followed by Bo-Katan’s ship; the covert fights the pirates and successfully gets rid of them; Bo-Katan is given a task to lead the effort to reunite the scattered clans so that Mandalore can be reclaimed
EXT. OSSUS - from BoBF E06 - Din goes to Ossus to give Grogu his chain mail (R5 is in the droid slot of the N-1); R2 leads Din to the construction site; Din waits and meets Ahsoka; Din and Ahsoka talk about Grogu, and he expresses his desire to give him the chain mail; Din gives Ahsoka the chain mail to give to Grogu and leaves
END (2 hours, 9 minutes)

Book 6 - The Return (Scene order & Act 4 not final/finished)
Act 1: Stasis -
EXT. OSSUS - from BoBF E06 - On Ossus, Grogu meditates with Luke and uses the Force on a frog, Luke disapproves; Luke lifts several frogs; Grogu fails to train properly and Luke teaches a lesson
EXT. ROCK WORLD - from Mando S03 E01 - The Armorer forges Ragnar’s helmet and inducts him into the creed( saying his full name out loud and speaking Mando’a), The Armorer summons Din and they discuss reuniting the clans to reclaim Mandalore, Din voices distaste for having the darksaber but the Armorer wants to stay to tradition, Din states that he wishes to travel to Tatooine to see if Boba Fett is interested in joining them, Drom Mando S03 E04 - Din discusses this with Bo-Katan who expresses hesitancy to work with a Crime Lord
EXT. TATOOINE - From BoBF “present day” Boba scenes - Boba experiences intense dreams due to the weight and stress of being Daimyo, he travels into Mos Espa to look for the absent Mayor, only to discover an impending Pyke invasion of his territory, he prepares for war
EXT. OSSUS - from BoBF E06 - Grogu continues to train with Luke and starts to improve and see success in his efforts
EXT. TATOOINE - From BoBF “present day” Boba scenes - Boba is briefed about the gang and family movements in his territory and meets with the other family leaders to broker a truce, Fennec suggests recruiting more troops as Cobb Vance fends off the Pykes spice trade
Act 2: Thesis -
EXT. TATOOINE - from BoBF E05 - Din arrives at Peli’s spot to look for Boba Fett, but Fennec is already there; Din tells Fennec he was just looking for her, asking if he can talk with Boba, she counters saying they could use his help, mentions that he initially came to see if Boba would like to join the rest of the Mandalorians to retake Mandalore, Fennec assures Din that Boba will consider this, from BoBF E06 - Din lands at Boba’s palace; Fennec holds a strategy meeting with Boba and his allies regarding the Pyke Syndicate, where Din offers to help find footsoldiers; Din goes to Freetown to talk with Cobb Vanth about aiding Boba , which Cobb says he’ll consider; Cobb tells the Weequay to gather the fight-eligible townspeople; Cad Bane approaches Cobb at Freetown, threatens him, and shoots him; Cad reports the the missing Mayor who is revealed to be a traitor
EXT. TATOOINE - from BoBF E07 - Boba and Fennec setup a lookout in old ruins; Din enters and reports on him getting Cobb to gather soldiers, as the Mods convince Boba to wage the war on the Syndicate from the ruins; Din, Boba, and Fennec wait for Freetown’s reinforcements in the cantina, and discusses strategy as the Mods patrol and the rest of Boba’s team is stationed across Mos Espa; Boba is requested outside the ruins by Cad; Cad reveals he’s eliminated Cobb, and Boba and Cad reveal their backshooters; Fennec warns Boba to back off; Boba and Cad back off; The Mods call in to warn Boba that the families of Mos Espa laid a trap; the families attack Boba’s team; Boba sends Fennec to Mos Eisely to eliminate the head of the Syndicate; the Pykes surround the cantina; Mando tells Boba he intends to stick with him
EXT. TATOOINE - from BoBF E07 - Din and Boba fight the Pykes but become overpowered; the people of Freetown rescue Din and Boba; the Mods arrive and join the fight; Krrsantan arrives to join the fight but gets injured; the Pykes fall back, Din spots two Scorpenek droids; the people fire on the droids, their shields are too strong; the people flee as Din and Boba take the droids on; Boba goes to get reinforcements as Din continues to distract the droids; Din continues to lead one droid away, runs into Peli, the droid keeps coming so they flee; Boba returns, riding his Rancor to provide aid; Boba weakens one of the droid’s shields, which Din takes advantage of, chopping at the droid with the Darksaber; and Boba on the Rancor finishes the job; the other droid continues to attack the others, but the Rancor arrives and destroys the other droid; Din arrives and fends off the rest of the Pykes with the people and the Rancor; Cad shows up and gets rid of Boba’s Rancor, which runs off; Boba and Cad fight, and Boba kills Cad; Fennec eliminates the families and the Pykes; Boba and Fennec take in their town as it rebuilds, and as they talk about the bacta tank Cobb is seen with a Mod preparing over him; Din flies away and discusses with Boba over comms about joining Mandalore, Boba explains that he will lend a hand a soon as he deals with the Hutts who have already begun closing in on his territory next
Act 3: Antithesis -
EXT. CORUSCANT - from Mando S03 E03 - Dr. Pershing, now part of the Amnesty program, gives a talk on Coruscant, and is overwhelmed by the public outside the opera house, Pershing arrives at his Amnesty Housing and listens to a news report about Gideon’s war tribunal as he receives a mysterious Imperial gift
EXT. ROCK WORLD - from Mando S03 E04 - Bo-Katan leads a hunting party to kill a monster as she proves herself to be the leader that people expect her to be; they climb the mountain on ropes; they reach the summit, Paz is attacked by the raptor and the Mandalorians pursue as the raptor takes off; the Mandalorians subdue the raptor and it plummets and is eaten by the sea crocodile nearby the training grounds, the new monster charges the training grounds, from Mando S03 E01 - Din arrives back from Tatooine just in time to blast the monster to bits.
EXT. OSSUS - from BoBF E06 - Luke helps Grogu remember his past; from Mando S03 E04 - in his memories, Grogu is rescued from the 501st storming the Jedi Temple by Kelleran Beq; from BoBF E06 - Grogu wakes up, and Luke consoles him saying that the Galaxy is a dangerous place
EXT. CORUSCANT - from Mando S03 E03 - Pershing joins fellow Amnesty members in the courtyard for a drink, and sees Elia again; the officers drink together, Pershing struggles with the monotony and restrictions of life in the New Republic and tells Elia that it’s time to take action
EXT. ROCK WORLD - from Mando s03 E04 - Din reports to the Armorer about his mission with Boba, Bo-katan interrupts to say that she has tracked down the Night Owl Clan and briefs the others on the situation inside her ship, the Armorer tasks Bo and Din to gather the Night Owls for Mandalore
EXT. PLAZIR-15 - from Mando S03 E06 - Din and Bo-Katan arrive at Plazir 15 with the goal of uniting with the Night Owl clan before taking Mandalore; Din and Bo-Katan board the transport to meet with Axe Woves, but their ship is mysteriously hijacked and redirected to a landing pad, the attempt to reach Axe Wobes through the tram system, but are once again redirected to an an underground facility, Din communicates with the Ugnaughts to get the information they need about their mysterious hacker and the Ugnaughts give him information about a nearby warehouse; Bo-Katan asks Din about how he knew how to communicate with Ugnaughts, Din and Bo-Katan go to the loading docks to investigate, and find a battle droid parroting imperial orders and regulations; Din attacks the droids to provoke them to revealing more, a B2 droid runs away as Din takes it down, Bo-Katan finds the spark pad leading to The Resistor, Din and Bo-Katan investigate The Resistor, and learn about “The Machinist”, an imperial sympathizer who is reprogramming the planet’s droids to serve the imperial remnant
EXT. CORUSCANT - Pershing prepares for something serious and lays out his uniform as he psychs himself up; Elia and Pershing go to the train station, and sneak onto a train; Elia and Pershing arrive at next station and walk to a junkyard and find a Star Destroyer; Elia and Pershing express mutual respect before Dr. Pershing willingly steps into a secret room with a mindflayer, he gladly sacrifices himself as it is revealed that he had hacked the New Republic systems to discover Gideon’s location, but had mental blockers in place from the NR rehabilitation program and needed the mindflayer to rip the location out
EXT. PLAZIR-15 - Din and Bo-Katan go to the droid morgue to investigate where The Machinist is operating from and discover that he is a former ISB officer, Axe Woves takes a bounty contract for Boba Fett and captures Prince Jun from the Quarrens
EXT. TATOOINE - From BoBF “present day” Boba scenes - Boba Fett is confronted by the Hutts as he is threatened for getting too involved in Mandalorian nonsense and should focus on his business as Daimyo
EXT. PLAZIR-15 - Din and Bo-katan confront the ISB officer and neutralize him, now free to reach Axe Woves, they travel to the landed Mandalorian fleet, Bo-katan and Woves fight, and Din convinces everyone to follow Bo-katan as their Mand’alor
EXT. CORUSCANT - In orbit, it is discovered by xwing pilot guy that Gideon has escaped, and Elia checks in with Gideon to report on what he missed
EXT. NEVARRO - The mandalorian fleet arrives on Nevarro, unified
EXT. OSSUS - Din and Grogu reunite
Act 4: Synthesis -
EXT. TATOOINE - Boba deals with stuff and gets delayed
EXT. MANDALORE - Attack it

Would love to hear thoughts on any of that from those who are crazy enough to make it this far!

Finally, I want to share a few scene previews I’ve been toying with. None of these are final by any means or are 100% going to be in the film, just wanted to show some stuff that I play around with.

If you read any of the drafts above regarding Pershing’s scenes, this is something new I’ve been working on here. I replaced the crappy “This is coruscant, it’s a big city” thing that Pershing was listening to and replaced it with a custom-created news segment. I also tried to reframe the gift he receives to show that someone nearby still believes in the empire as he does. Not sure if the music works, but it feels flat without it too… so let me know what you think of this idea. Pershing demo scene

Relied heavily on AI lines for this, but kind of wanted to see how far I could take it. Some sound much better than others, but again this is just a very first test. The Armorer’s lines in the beginning are also AI and I think they for sure sound really good. I wanted Ragnar to get a namedrop, and I’m also trying to incorporate some Mando’a into this film.Din-Armorer demo scene

Another experiment with totally recreating some droid voices from scratch. Part of my effort is to reframe the Plazir story. This one is in the roughest state audio-wise, but you’ll get the idea. Bar Droid demo scene

Well… That was a lot! Feel free to launch a discussion about any of this, would love to talk and hear some feedback.

Darth Sadifous said:

Acbagel, I am excited to see what you are cooking up. I love this series and your passion! I expect the final product to be nothing short of spectacular.

Definitely my most creative work yet! Goes a bit back to my earlier books in terms of over structure, this book 6 reminds me a bit of Book 2/3.

Interested to see how the removal of the mod & krrsantan recruitments goes. I did not have an issue with them in your last edit. It was just how the water monger’s complaint lead to the recruitment of the wookie that seemed a bit of a logical leap. Also, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the Hutt Twins intro in the show as it lead ultimately to a nothing burger in the original serries, so I will be interested to see how their intergration in this edit has meaning.

I just think the recruitment scenes are a bit unnecessary when you aren’t showing Boba’s rise and how he’s trying to build from scraps. We jump into his storyline ~6-8 months after we last saw him, so he’s already got a decent power structure. And the mods play such a small overall part with only a couple lines anyway, I think it easily presents as that they’re just his bodyguards. Same with krrsantan, he’s more of an easter egg character that’s working for Boba in the background.

The Hutts will be the cause that delays Boba from helping on Mandalore in full force. All I’ll say is that the underworld and the imperial remnant will be in cahoots.

g00b said:

A look at the orange lightsaber in action: https://youtu.be/UXmOPrF6hyA

Fuuuuck man, you gotta warn people about that Yoda before they click xD

Orange saber looks fantastic though, great work!

stevepaynter said:

Ohh, would definitely be interested in “The Boys” - Acbagel movie saga.

I’ll wait and see if Season 4 holds up, but it’s a project that intrigues me. I was going to do The Witcher… but I seriously think it’s unfixable. I’ll wait 15 years for the HBO reboot…

No pressure, but do you envision Books 6 & 7 being completed by Easter (29th of March). I was hoping to do a binge water over the Easter Break with my fam.

Hmm, I can definitely say the new Book 5 will be ready, but the nature of 6 & 7 requires them both to be pretty fleshed out before either will be released. I haven’t gotten into the nitty gritty of bringing book 6 to release quality, and haven’t even started individual scene edits on 7. I can’t make any promises on if they’ll be ready by then, sorry!

TheDimitrios said:

This does sound amazing!

Thanks, super excited to share. I almost have Book 5 ready for my final review watch. Have new titles for the last 3 films now as well.

Book 5: The Apostate
Book 6: The Foundling
Book 7: The Return

EddieDean said:

Well, I trust your judgment, this could be a really great telling of the story! It gives you an opportunity to shift the scene of Boba taking the throne too, to make it a proper tag.

Maybe! Think it needs more fleshed out than just the dream snippets? There will be a little bit more setup of Boba already in the crime lord role this time around. As far as cuts/adds go for his scenes, I’ll be adding both of his Hutt confrontations and cutting the mod & krasanantantnt recruitments. He will already be more established by the time book 6 rolls around, so the whole plot of him trying to build from scraps is altered to him dealing with challenges to his already established authority.

Patali said:

Please send me updated links!

Sent!

EddieDean said:

Oooh, very curious about the changes coming to movie 5!

Made a ton of progress on everything over the past 24 hours. Still planning to post outlines by the weekend, but I now have my re-updated Book 5 (I promise, this is the last time aside from any bug fixes) in the beta stage and Book 6 fully organized into a ~2 hour film and in the Alpha stage. The complexity of all this also requires me to get the right scenes for Book 7 laid out too, so I have worked in there and am getting close to the right runtime (but the scenes are not entirely organized and still quite out of order) so I’ll say that’s in pre-alpha.

To give a brief summary, I am looking at going back to the base structure of Book 5 being like the 2023 “Groguless mines” release, but don’t worry! Boba will still get his dues, I’m not doing the “cut BoBF and make it a 6-movie saga” idea I had tossed around previously. I am confident that I have a solid plan in place to pace out Boba’s rule through Books 6 AND 7, plus the Dr. Pershing story fully integrated.

I have Grogu’s reunion in a good place at the end of Book 6, using a combination of Dazman’s initial vfx efforts (thank you so much for being willing to share your behind the scenes files, huge credit to you for all the groundwork you laid here) plus some new scene restructuring and my own personal touches. This reunion will happen on Ossus at Luke’s academy, as I have successfully split up Din’s visits into 2 entirely unique scenes. Can’t wait to share more! The passion is definitely back and I’m having a lot of fun staying up into the wee hours of the morning working on this.

Though… I am also really excited to work on the Bad Batch one day. After that, we shall see. I do want to tackle The Boys at some point… Big fan of that series and I think it’s begging for an acbagel movie saga too, but I’ll wait for the new season to conclude this summer.

Just another quick update, I have ~70 minutes of a rough draft for Book 6 so far. I’m working some things around for Books 5-7, so expect another update on that film too. Sorry…! But I do finally have a solid vision of how I want to complete this saga, so I’m going to finish organizing some scenes through the rest of this week and make sure Book 6 can stick its landing. It’s going to take me a while longer to release the film as I’m trying out some VFX for the Grogu reunion placement and want to make sure I get that right. I’m cooking, people! Give me a few more days and I’ll present the Book 5-7 outlines. I have the 3 movies scripted out pretty well now and I like a lot of what I’m seeing. I think more of my original vision is coming through and working this time. I have a better AI model made for Din’s voice too which is helping supplement a couple of lines. Will share more in a few days!

Thanks for the reviews, everyone! Getting through a stomach flu this last week, so haven’t been super active in editing. Mostly just moving segments around and creating a few individual scenes to be slotted in down the road. I have so much footage to work through and conceptualizing to do, that I’ve started using a movie script beat writing template to get it all in place on paper before trying to get it in video form. I’m looking at a lot of options here, so give me a few more days to recover and brainstorm and I’ll get some updates out for you!