Acbagel

T-202 said:
Honestly this works pretty well, sure some of the AI is a little lifeless but I think the lines work well. It gives the story a little more room to breath and helps better explain why Mando is on the planet and how he got to the village. The only thing that weirded me out was the changing aspect ratio but that was probably just to hide something I can’t remember off screen.

The pacing is needed and some lines sound a bit better than others, but I didn’t have any music/sfx blending completed in that preview yet so it should feel much more natural in the final cut. I also didn’t fix the aspect ratios yet, this was just an idea concept draft.

kypo said:
I like this addition. The AI is pretty good here and it makes total sense for this stage of the story. This addition lets the characters breathe, and the double night scenes with Boba helps show time pass for every story thread. It sounds like the bounce back and forth will help hold tension on Boba’s narrative.

Great work, ACBAGEL!

Kypo approved, it’s locked in! I did some more touch-ups on the lines and background sound and also changed some of the AI dialogue to have a better delivery/tone, so I’m happy with the overall inclusion now.

Patali said:

Was the AI those first lines “need to do some maintenance” ?

Because if so, that sounds GOOD. I was critical of the example you were testing for the first movie (in the Werner Herzog scene), but this one really works. The fact that I was questioning it at all, you got me.

Yes, that line is all AI. Some lines in the clip sounded better than others, but there are a few that even I can barely tell which ones I created! I don’t want to use AI lines much throughout the saga, but the potential to occasionally buff up a scene is something I don’t want to pass up on.

Also a quick workload/life update. I haven’t been editing nearly as much as over the summer/fall, and I won’t go into details but I have completed the personal project that was taking up so much of my time previously. Work-related project that has nothing to do with fan edits, but I am hopeful to get back into focused editing again on Monday. The time off here also came with a very enjoyable dive into the Witcher series where I read all 8 books, all the comics, 2 games (currently playing the 3rd for the first time), etc. Man, I wish I could edit that Netflix series to be anything watchable, but holy crap that thing is an actual abomination… Anyways, The Way of Mandalore lives! I am about 33% through the update on Book 2 and plan to have that released next week. Then onward full speed. I’m excited to get into the Bad Batch at some point soon too.

I believe everyone who asked for the new version has it now, but let me know if I missed you!

I am working through the Book 2 update right now. The main task was to get more of a balance with Din scenes in Act 1, and possibly make some better “connective tissue” between the transitions and story beats with Boba. So I had the main benefit of being able to get Din’s Sorgan landing sequence in this film instead of Book 1, but I also wanted to extend that out a little more for pacing balance. I have a little mock up scene here (still unpolished in A/V editing) that helps lengthen the landing sequence rather than having Din immediately make it into the fishing village for lodging like my previous Book 2. Let me know If you think any of this works and I’ll finish it up!

This occurs ~6 minutes into the film after Boba is dragged away by the Tuskens for the first time.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1saXqaYV0VQfxkviqTs54D2g6yheM_2IF/view?usp=sharing

Updates are completed on Book 1 and the film is exported. I decided not to go with any additional AI voice lines as I couldn’t get anything to feel natural. I have some placed in later films that I think work much better. Onto Book 2 now! Going through some older posts to find the consensus on a few scene changes.

hinventon said:

Simple poster I made with the end card logo to use on my plex server:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nvUpNH5TRzNDl68yLW2IGu2Wc2iUmY9z/view?usp=drivesdk

Excited for the next updates!

Love it! Movie posters are something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Would love to be able to release a unique one for each film for all the Plex users out there.

Patali said:

Acbagel said:
Yes, I agree on that. Tough to replicate gruffness in an AI voice model… I’m trying out some different effects to see if I can make it work. Din actually loses a lot of the gruff sound in his tone as the seasons go on, but early on it’s definitely present.

So, I’ve been watching your first movie and I’ll post notes later (been sick this weekend so I couldnt do it in one sitting, Im gonna start it over and watch in one sitting later this week).

But I will say, for this particular scene, it’s a cool experiment that I think could be useful elsewhere, but for this scene it’s totally unnecessary. How in your current version Din just says nothing… It’s fine. There’s nothing to fix so I think it would only be detrimental in this particular case.

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah maybe it isn’t needed. Was trying to get in that “thesis line” that Kypo talked about, but maybe it isn’t necessary. I think Din comes across as the lone wolf warrior without needing to actually state it. I think I’ll render the update and ship as is!

Patali said:

EddieDean said:

Heck yeah! Bagel’s back, baby! Love those final tweaks to movie 1. Lock 'em in! As someone commented on your AI voice line, I agree that it could be a touch rougher, but it does work.

I left the comment on the yotube channel, and yeah that is the only thing I feel is lacking is the gruffness, and it just moves a little fast. The first line sounds good but the second line when he is getting up, something about the line and its diction, combined with that shot of him getting up, just isnt working for me. But still I like the idea of incorporating AI for Din, since him wearing the helmet makes it such a ripe opportunity.

Yes, I agree on that. Tough to replicate gruffness in an AI voice model… I’m trying out some different effects to see if I can make it work. Din actually loses a lot of the gruff sound in his tone as the seasons go on, but early on it’s definitely present.

bagel, can I get links to your mando movies? I am interested in checking them out

Sent!

Well well well… I have mastered the father of 3 life. Baby is now 3 months old and sleeping great, and so am I! I’ve missed working on my edits. I’ve done sporadic editing on random scenes in Book 6 here and there, but nothing substantial on getting it all together. Time off always helps bring fresh perspective too. Since I still have a lot of work on the next film, I wanted to go back and drop the final releases of some of the previous films that didn’t have too much left to do, as well as start to respond to some of Kypo’s incredible reviews that have been posted.

Starting with Book 1:

There weren’t too many fixes/updates to make on this one that I’m tracking.

1. Make a snappier cut from Blue Guy Bounty “warm or cold” line to the ship flying overhead cantina. Thanks, EddieDean for this suggestion.
2. Move Kuiil rebuilding the IG-11 scene between Mando getting his new armor and going back to see Greef. Thanks, Arabian for this suggestion. It works well here I think for the reasons you mentioned, and also because as we see the cuirass being forged, I now fade that shot into the destruction at the mercenary camp which fits great thematically.
3. Added in Greef’s surviving blaster shot scene after Din enters hyperspace with Grogu. This was something I overlooked in the last version, just forgot to include it and it felt weird later on in the series when we suddenly see Greef is alive.
4. Change the ending to conclude at the Grogu ball–>hyperspace, saving the village entrance for Book 2.
5. The soundtrack when Din walks around Nevarro and finds Grogu’s carrier in the trash wasn’t working to convey what I intended. I was hoping it would point to Din’s emptiness in his absence from Grogu, but it didn’t seem to communicate that. It was too sweet sounding for the moment, especially coming right after the mess Din just goes through on the prisoner job. Here is a new soundtrack test, think it works better? https://youtu.be/eJOmByfJcpQ

And then I have one more test scene below in response to one of Kypo’s comments.

kypo said:

Hey! I want to introduce myself and share some of my feedback. I have written multiple screenplays, and I’ve worked on small productions for stunt acting. I am certainly no expert so take all of my feedback for what it is- my enthusiastic SUGGESTIONS to help you improve your awesome project. All of my notes come from a fellow big Star Wars fan who loves and appreciates your edits!!

I have never checked out your edits as I am a big fan of S1 and S2 of Mandalorian and felt that I personally do not NEED a shorter edit. Then Boba Fett came out. Then S3. Then Kenobi (thanks PixelJoker!). This led me to your edits, and the way you assembled the story requires that I watch ALL of them. So I will watch all of them and give my input as a fellow film enthusiast. Not all of my notes will be actionable, but sharing is the least I can do!

Thanks again for writing these for the films! I am taking advantage of all your time to improve upon my releases.

BOOK 1 EDIT

One of the things that makes movies FEEL like movies is a THEME LINE in the early parts of the movie. It’s one of those classic screenplay rules that belong in the first 5 pages of a script. It operates like a thesis in an essay- what statement of belief will be challenged by our hero’s experience? This is a tough thing to accomplish as the shows you are working with do not necessarily give great lines to an overall plot structure (They are building a short episode, not a full film). In Book 1, a theme line would happen around his talk with Greef Karga. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really deliver a line that works. Then our protagonist receives the “quest” from THE CLIENT. No thesis. Then the Armorer, but here it’s very late in the story… and while she offers wisdom the lines are geared at exposition, not giving theme to our movie. I am not sure how to improve it as you’ve only got what you got. Perhaps a new V.O. with the Armorer stating Book 1’s thesis more clearly when she accepts his payment- but I don’t know how feasible this option is. Or perhaps a new MANDO line to The Client stating his intent to always travel alone.

I definitely agree that a thematic thesis line would serve Act 1 very well! I have been experimenting with AI voicelines the past couple months and have a pretty good Din model made. Do you all think this line fits well here and sounds right? https://youtu.be/srQCZc-4AIY

The Fight scene edits = A+
I can see these fight scenes are punchier, shorter, quicker, and have less chaff getting shot by good characters to help raise the stakes. Fewer misses at the good guys. More tension is kept. Great work here!

Nice! Love to hear it. I probably spent more time fixing combat sequences than anything else in these films haha.

Small suggestion- perhaps after the Warm or Cold line you can cut to carbonite in the face blast. Could be a shorter/punchier scene to jump straight to the ship.

Yep! Was recommended by some others as well and I have it updated as indicated above. A quicker cut right to one good exterior of the ship flying so we can actually see what the Razorcrest looks like and that’s it now. No more journey across the ice lake.

Overall, I am very impressed. The problem to me personally is this cuts from the show when its at it’s best. Later Books in this series will have the advantage of cutting garbage (Looking at you, S3!). This book has the disadvantage of cutting relatively successful material. Much harder to do!! (And I am very impressed at what you created here!)
This gives me a LOT of hope for these next chapters and I cannot wait to review them.

Thank you for the kind words! I believe this is the shortest movie in my saga, and also the one I cut the least from which is interesting… Ends right at 2 hours now, but I think the pacing worked out so I’m happy with that.

I think I’m also going to try and run the film through Topaz to see if that helps with the lower-quality footage at all. So if I can get feedback on the two scenes above, I will probably have this re-released by tomorrow evening!

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

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

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

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

EddieDean said:

You’re the absolute MVP buddy ❤️

No you!

vranir said:

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

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

kypo said:

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

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

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

RogueLeader said:

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

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

beachedwhale said:

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

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

Darth Muffy said:

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

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

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

PsyGemini said:

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

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

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

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

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

Daiyus said:

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

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

pableve said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

EddieDean said:

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

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

Buuuuut… maybe there’s a less radical ordering here, where you can get both the most out of the Boba story AND extend out the time that Mando and Grogu were apart, which I know is a (sensible) priority for you. So how about something closer to the ordering of the original release, but just using your Book 5 edits to keep Din and Grogu apart for longer:

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

vranir said:

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

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

EddieDean said:

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

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

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

DarthMeme said:

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

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

honestabe said:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Act 1

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

Act 2

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

Act 3

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

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

yoshif8tures said:

Any further updates on this?

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

Thanks T-202! Glad you enjoyed.

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

Book 5: The Apostate is officially released!

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

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

Delpheas said:

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

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

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

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

stevepaynter said:

Hey Acbagel,

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

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

Greetings!

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

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

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

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

Darth Sadifous said:

Acbagel said:

Darth Sadifous said:

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

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

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

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

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

Darth Sadifous said:

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

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

VulgarisMagistralis said:

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

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

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

Jar Jar Bricks said:

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

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

leftshoe18 said:

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

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

Sideburns of BoShek said:

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

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

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

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

AhsokatheChosenOne said:

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

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

arabian said:

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

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

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

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

gurgle1624 said:

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

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

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

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

Lifeincontext said:

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

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

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

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

EddieDean said:

How long is that running to?

~2 hours 15 minutes

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

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

arabian said:

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

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

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

Just my opinion

Book 5 sounds amazing.

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

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

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

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