Delpheas

For some of these, like Dark Empire & Hear to the Empire, Rise of Skywalker and MandoAhsoka do feel like adaptations of that material.

But semi-contradictory versions of the same story are still present in New Canon, just see the Ahsoka novel vs Tales of the Jedi-Resolve or Dooku: Jedi Lost and the Dooku Tales of the Jedi episodes, or the Kanan comic and Bad Batch-Aftermath.

All that to say, a semi-canonised version of Dark Empire that is sort of an alternative of the same story sounds fun, same with the Thrawn books.

For me it’s really only because this book is directly trying to setup TCW, and the fact that later during Ahsoka’s Trial Palps is gonna be pushing to separate the Jedi & Military that these points seems genuinely important. Otherwise I’d agree. There’s no point in trying to shoehorn Barriss’ time as a battlefield medic into her TCW story, for example.

So after reading Brotherhood, which takes place chronologically after Refocused Ep00: Dark Forces Rising and before The New Padawan, I wanted to try and include some of the pertinent info from that book in the crawl for New Padawan, namely that the Senate has passed the Jedi-Military integration act officially giving Knights & Padawans ranks that were previously only defacto and that the Jedi Council has decided to forgo the selection process and start assigning Padawans.

so here is a draft:

Conflicts erupt in the early days of the Clone Wars.

Against the will of the Jedi Council the Senate has officially integrated the Jedi Order into the Grand Army of the Republic.

Newly minted Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi lead the 501st Clone legion to defend the world of Christophsis.

Count Dooku’s fleet has forced the Republic’s ships to flee to a nearby moon, causing fears of an imminent invasion.

But having detected the signal of Dooku’s agent, ASSAJ VENTRESS, a priority target, the Jedi rush to capture her.

And the Jedi High Council has plans of its own…

I lost my original work on this edit in a harddrive failure, so I’ll be starting over.

Rather than simply attempting to take the existing material and present it as audio version of the original episodes, I’ll be going through and attempting to craft a The Clone Wars Refocused style story. I’ll post more once I get to working on it and I have a sense of the possibilities.

PMs sent!

Edit:

Version 3.03 is ready!! This is basically final, minor polish may be needed, but my hope is that you could watch this as an alternate finale for The Clone Wars Refocused with no issues.

I think that is probably the best you are gonna get, seeing as all the necessary worldbuilding happens outside these movies. A casual viewer has no idea Leia was rejected by the senate for being Vader’s daughter or that she hates him or any of that. Which is the heart of my frustrations with the movies, there’s NO worldbuilding for the legacy characters.

The Living Force:

My wife and I loved the dream at the start of the episode, that was easily the best editing choice and was extremely compelling.

I also liked the framing around Qui-Gon, but I disliked losing the visual of the Mortis Tho Yor (double pyramid). Making it all a vision makes sense, but I think too much was cut.

Overall the rest of this episode felt so rushed. I get that not everyone likes the mystical stuff, but we lost the establishing lines for the Mortis Gods. The roles of Son & Daughter are just barely established but without their names, and I was left wondering why the DarknSideGuy cared when he killed the LightSideLady.

Three moments I think have to be restored in their order:

We really missed the test the Father had Anakin perform.

Ahsoka getting turned & Ahsoka waking up are necessary moments, imo. This is the last episode before Ahsoka’s Fall, and we lost the emotional moments between her and Anakin. We need to see him choosing not to tell her she was dead.

I don’t entirely hate cutting Anakin turning, but I still miss it.

This is the only episode of Refocused that my wife and I have not enjoyed. The episode feels hollow because the stakes are not established. Why does any of this matter? The Father killing himself came out of no where to us.

I was left overwhelmingly with the question of “Why?”

We ended plugging in the original episodes and watching them because this ended up being a disappointing watching experience. Another issue this raised was how much of Ahsoka got cut, that was arguably the most frustating aspect of the edit for us.

I’m gonna make an alternative version and we’ll see what happens with that.

EDIT:
I did as I said!

Presenting an alternative extended episode that runs at 48 minutes, entitled: The Chosen One.
I used some of TLF’s structure with the following adjustments:

Replaced the opening dream with a dream of Anakin controlling the Son & Daughterin the arena.
Left in all references to Son & Daughter’s names
Restored scene where Anakin accuses Father of being a Sith with minor trims, including a reference to being anchorites and testing Anakin
Restored Ahsoka being turned by Son
After Ahsoka is revived restored Father telling the group to leave
Recolored them boarding the ship from the end of Overlords and crafted a crashing sequence to get into the material from episode 3
Cut Anakin going to the well, instead he has the dream originally used earlier and wakes up in the Monastery to deal with the Son
Everything proceeds as before, but with references to the Son trying to leave intact. Without them being anchorites hiding away this is easily read as the embodiment of the darkside wanting to be free from wherever they are.

The main thing this alternate extended episode does is restore some of the reality of what is happening for those who like the mystical stuff, and leaves as much of Ahsoka’s stuff in the episode as possible. The latter being a necessity imo so close to her last episodes for half a season.

One thing I would like to see is Anakin speaking to Leia as she reaches out to Ben. In the Junior Novelization he talks to her and she finally forgives him. It would be nice to have him more present in this Saga Finale.

Also, since Mike Chen (author of Brotherhood) was trying to honor the 03 Clone Wars series with his novel and leave place for most of it to still be canon-ish, I think a further adjust to the opening of Dark Forces Rising is necessary. In the original Palpatine essentially forces Anakin into the role of Padawan-Commander with Yoda abd Obi-wan disagreeing, and we changed it so that Palps suggests it and Yoda and Obi-wan agree immediately. The original

I’m proposing that we cut that scene completely and modify the crawl to reference the fact that Palpatine had just proposed the “Jedi-Military Integration Act” that formally created the rank of Jedi General and Commander. It was explicitly Palpatine’s idea to put Padawans (often children) on the battlefield as commanders.

Especially since he later desires to “remove the Jedi from as many military matters as possible” it helps highlight how much he’s controlled this the entire time.

Also, if you think they’re up to snuff, or can get there with polish, I’d love to see my RotS/Fall of the Republic episodes be considered as official “alternative” episodes for the finale.

Happy to offer thoughts!

Some additional MicroSeries thoughts:

Windu’s Dantooine stuff would work as a great interlude before Terror of Geonosis, since the Padawans are sent as relief for Windu on Dantooine

The Barriss & Luminara and Yoda & Padme episodes would also work nicely after the Younglings stuff. For one, having Ilum messed up so close to wars end raises stakes, and also doesn’t get in the way of the the younglings getting Crystals from Ilum.
And I think having Barriss get knighted just before she attacks the temple also heightens the emotional stakes.

Temptations & Onderon:

Despite enjoying Ahsoka having a crush the first time I watched TCW, I continue to think it’s executed badly.

The ending scene of Temptations could be trimmed to convey the same emotion without the over the top aspect. I may make a mock up.

I would also cut the zoom in on Ahsoka’s wide eyes when she sees Lux in Temptations and Rebels of Onderon.

Finally, in Kings there is nothing left of the romantic tension from Temptations/Rebels so I would trim it even more in those episodes. Let us get the impression that Ahsoka is simply attached to her frirnd & students, as teaching has become something she has become increasingly invested in. And with her response to Steela kissing Lux, her crush reactions earlier feel weird.

Soon I’m gonna write up my thoughts on Ahsoka’s Refocused arc.

I realize you’re basically considering the episodes complete, so if any of this is too much, I can work some of it up myself.

Younglings:
I think The Gathering could be edited down and potentially paired with the Ilum content from the MicroSeries as a “Adventures on Ilum” Interlude

The Ancient Architect

I think you could cut the younglings trying to rescue Ahsoka WAY down. I would cut them auditioning for the circus, and just go from them saying they want to join to the performance, which needs trimming. Once she is captured too much of this episode is off of her for an arc where Hondo is threatening to sell Ahsoka into (sex) slavery.

After the younglings make their sabers and are heading to the ships, I would cut the two kids doing cool lightsaber stuff, as they shouldn’t really know how yet, by their own admission earlier in the episode

Also, the crawl references Mustafar, which we haven’t been too since the end of S1. Without visuals, this is a really long long time later to call back to it. “Hunted” is way more fresh in a viewers mind, so I would make her motivations a reference to that episode.

Ahhh. Thanks acbagel, I appreciate that.

Presenting:

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: Refocused
Or
Fall of the Republic Part 1: The Phantom Apprentice
Fall of the Republic Part 1: Revenge of the Sith

RotS: Refocused is a new version of my Fall of the Republic edit. For v3 of my edit I have decided to incorporate some of my own changes to the plot and structure beyond what was in the new Canon Cut. I have been inspired by other editors in making some of these choices. (Like HAL9000, CrimsonMaul, and DominiCobb)

The main story focus of this edit is to shift Anakin’s concern solely from ending the war/saving Padme, to saving his entire family (Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, & Padme). To make his motivations clearer, and thus more tragic. New dreams have been crafted highlighting these elements. Additional trims have been made throughout to lessen the film’s singular focus on saving Padme.

The film will be presented as two episodes in the style of TCW: Refocused.

The current version is 3.01, a pre-release version. Watchable but still needing polish.

Let me know if you’re interested folks.

I’m rendering v3.1, which is more than a workprint but still needs polish in some places. Should be ready soon for those waiting for it.

That trailer had me screaming in glee. I have so many questions!

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.

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.

Would love links to all of the books once 5 is ready, thanks!

Some more thoughts on my watch through

Dreams of Destiny:

Watched this with my wife yesterday morning, so here are our thoughts:

The finale tease didn’t work for us at all. Every other time we cut back and forth between FoD & TotJ it’s between pieces of the present, and this finale teaser feels like it is intended to place us in the timeline. I would cut it.

Ending on FoD footage after starting with TotJ footage might also seem weird, but you would end with Anakin telling her he is proud of her after refusing to say anything nice at the start. I edited this for us and we prefer it.

I was also really bothered by seeing Ahsoka’s second lightsaber on her hip in the first FoD clip you used, that FoD episode also has Ahsoka indicate she knows about Anakin/Padme which contradicts a few lines in Politics of War. While also saying that Anakin and Padme are a lot of like, which she says word for word in PoW episode.So I would potentially pick one or the other to trim, or even remove the short.

We see her training with them in FoD clip but it doesn’t cut back to her using them in the TotJ footage.

The FoD footage of her training Yoda ends with a platitude about “taking the training and making it her own” which feels VERY kid show. If you cut out him saying that bit you would have Yoda telling Ahsoka well done and her saying Thank You. I tried it and I think it works.

I also think a better title would be Interlude: Ahsoka. Dreams of Destiny doesn’t work for me.

Slaves of Zygerria:

This episode really felt weird without Kidnapped. I know it would make it longer, but in our opinion the arc and your editing earn that runtime. It is the only time that we really see any thematic exploration of the slavery issue after TPM.

In the Refocused episode as it exists Obi-Wan recognizes the Governor and the Slaver Prime minister recognizes Obi-Wan, both from cut material. Plus the context of them doing all this to save Ahsoka’s people felt like it came out of nowhere.

And the conversation with Obi-Wan telling Ahsoka about Anakin’s past is an important piece of character work imo.

Finally this is the first episode with them all together after the Rako Hardeen shenanigans so giving it the longer runtime feels earned.

My wife and ended up watching Kidnapped anyway because it felt like needed context, plus there are some excellent Anakin & Ahsoka action sequences.

Am I correct in assuming that this is the plan for the Extended Edition? To treat it as a short movie of sorts?

You could trim some of their search for the missing Togruta (but not much because they have some great action to do) and heavily cutdown Kenobi’s negotiations and fight with the slaver guy. We played around with it and the last scene of Kidnapped flows right into the first one of Slaves of Zygerria.

I would also cut Ahsoka asking why she is dressed as the slave(and Anakin’s response), because with “Kidnapped” they have the context that her people have been stolen so the viewer can put together why it is her. Plus it feels like a weird moment of joking about something that he doesn’t joke about AT ALL in the rest of the arc/episode.

Politics of War & Shadow of Geonosis:

Padme’s attitude toward the idea of Clovis working with the separatists feels somewhat inconsistent with her maintaining a friendship with Mina and being willing to travel behind enemy lines to meet with her. At most it seems she would upset about the implications of him working with the seppi military. Because she herself could easily have been the target of Jedi suspicion regarding her connection to the seps, it makes no sense for her to agree to spy on him simply because he may be in contact with the separatists. Honestly it almost seems like it would be better to cut everything before she is briefed by the Council and include the reasoning for her spying in the crawl.

I’m working on something a bit out there, a major refocus of the Saga that requires I use Phantom Menace material in a different way.

I saw a while ago someone had made an edit of TPM that cut it way down to make it into a film about the Sith & Jedi essentially racing to get ahold of the Chosen One. So it cut the opening Naboo stuff , but beyond that I don’t remember how it accomplished its changes and I can’t find it anywhere.

Anyone have some suggestions for a TPM restructure that is focused on the Sith & Jedi looking for the Chosen One?

Continuing to watch through, and recently watched Retribution, and I really appreciated how you tied the Lair of Grievous episode into the Massacre episode, it helped give both more meat I think and give Grievous more menace.

Just finished Like Father, Like Clone. Excellent episode.

And that makes sense. Really glad to see the ToTJ content incorporated too, looking forward to getting to s3.

Just checked back after a little bit and I’m a bit bummed that Tales of the Clone Wars has been bumped, and a little confused as to where your list has its potential alternate placement minus the FoD content. Since the 03 CW scenes involve Barris being knighted and that can’t happen before season 2. So is that just a placeholder number (s2e00)?

I am very excited for this. Finally the third movie in what have should have been the accidental 2nd Prequel Trilogy (Rogue One, Solo, Kenobi)

This edit is including the Ahsoka Clone Wars during Revenge of the Sith! That’s the major goal.

EddieDean has floated the idea of a Phantom Menance TV series edit over at his Clone Wars Refocused thread, so feel free to check that out.

Update: I’m working on some final inclusions and edits for tightness of pacing.

Things that will be new for v3:
I will have both a film version and a two episode Refocused-style version.
The story will start similar to the way that Refocused’s first Siege of Mandalore episode does, by including the “Bad Bad” Anakin-Padme hologram scene. TBD if Padme will reveal her pregnancy here or on coruscant.
Padme will die. Watching Kenobi finally convinced me that’s it is fine.
Ahsoka at Padme’s funeral and her conversation with Bail are included in the epilogue.

I’m also searching for some way to include stuff from this version of the first Vader/Obi-Wan fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p1aw9HN1A4&ab_channel=AnakinSkinwalker

I think that by switching out some of the live-action sequences for animated equivalents will help with the blending of the very different cinematic styling.

Read your thoughts for incorporating Life and Death and Practice Makes Perfect, and I think they are both excellent. (For Resolve I have my own approach to incorporating it into my mixed movie/show RotS/TCW finale, which is to say I only include the funeral sequence and have left the farm planet and inquisitorfight on the cutting room floor as I personally think the Ahsoka novel tells that same story better.)

Looking forward to finishing watching this with my partner, and seeing how your finale edits may bleed into my version (mainly the Bad Batch scene)

Congrats on finishing the whole thing! It’s a monumental achievement and really does take my favorite SW show and make it even better. (Now we just need some brave soul to do this for Resistance…)

Would love a link to this!

Everyone… including himself. As we see in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Rebels he develops this idea that as Vader he killed Anakin Skywalker. So I’m incorporating a bit of fear at his own death as well.