EddieDean

Oh boy, that latest episode of Ahsoka was such a treat for me. Having spent so much time in this world, with these characters, just absolutely chef’s kiss.

That’s a really slick idea. 👍

God DAMN, I wish I had money.

I’m not sure we should lean into Leia’s darkness as a reason- her struggling with the dark is an unnecessary new wrinkle. Emulating Padmé is grand, but I think the more ambiguity the better here, other than leading into Rey taking on the saber.

Goddamn this is all so exciting!

A friend of mine is a huge old-school Star Wars fan and Original Trilogy purist, enjoyed the first two sequels and was all primed to watch TROS at midnight on opening night until the early reviews started dropping. He decided not to watch it at all. He’s since promised that his first time watching the movie - four years too late - will be v4 of this. I’m really excited to show him the finished product.

Fire me a PM buddy and it’s yours!

I haven’t done much lately since the show does work as ‘complete’ as-is, with no major issues, and because I’ve been busy with life stuff. But I’m still very actively recording all notes, suggestions, and preferences, and am constantly reflecting on the show, ready for when I have more time.

I’d be wary of having Din see the mythosaur, because that’s likely intended to be specific to Bo Katan and the plot might depend on it later.

But more dialogue elsewhere could be very useful, especially to help smooth out changes where we’ve got Din going somewhere he didn’t originally, or to justify his new actions.

Already I can imagine something like “Better go pick up the new ship Peli has for me” in the current book 5.

Yeah that’s pretty sweet, I’ll stick it on the list to give it a try.

That’s a really good point about AI voice lines RogueLeader, especially since there’s LOADS of Mando and Boba dialogue, plus so many of these characters speak with helmets on.

Thanks guys for looking after Patali in my absence! I completely agree - Rebels and Clone Wars work best as series, albeit ones with trims. Patali, good luck, and I hope you enjoy them!

You’re the absolute MVP buddy ❤️

Ooooft. Buddy you know I’ve got a huge amount of respect for you and your work, and obviously you’ve got the complete right to execute your vision however you want, but I have to say that I think that treatment of the Boba content isn’t the right move for what I think your priorities are - or what they started out as. Perhaps your priorities have shifted, but to my mind when you started out it was to include as much good content as possible, in a smoothed-out movie structure. Whereas now, I feel like you’ve got major issues with the pacing and structure of Mando season three that you’re trying to repair (totally fair!) but executed this way would come at the detriment of other content.

You’re arguing, fairly, that Boba doesn’t appear to matter to Mando season three’s plot about uniting the clans, but - does he need to? He’s never been a ‘true’ Mandalorian (his own appearances in Mando S1-2 and his own show confirm that), so he doesn’t owe our characters anything. And just because he’s not present this season, doesn’t mean he won’t return in future, or even get wrapped up in the ongoing mission to retake Mandalore. And if he does, what then? I think you’d miss his earlier appearances.

Remember, this isn’t an ensemble show. It’s many contemporary-set shows which sometimes overlap. Boba isn’t (necessarily) a main character in The Mandalorian (or even The Filoniverse) saga, and neither is Ahsoka. Each show is its own thing - and ultimately the payoff, I’m sure, is going to come from consuming as much of it (polished, if you like) as possible.

Furthermore, Boba’s content is good! As you proved with your own original Boba edits, it’s a show which really lands, when some tweaks are made.

I don’t know. I’m not trying to be difficult here - I’ve had loud opinions in your thread quite enough! I just urge you - completely respectfully - to think and be absolutely sure about what your top-level priorities are for the entire Way of Mandalore project, and see how your decisions align. That sounds patronising but I don’t mean it that way at all - many times during my own project I had to check myself and found my priorities drifting, and had to reign them back in and make tough choices. And hey, if you’re certain this is the vision you’re striving for, of course I’ll respect and support that. I’m really invested in this project, that’s the only reason I’m so passionate about it here!

‘Blast’ has a similar mouth shape to ‘slipped’.

Hal 9000 said:

Wish I’d have thought of doing an alternate audio track without all but the necessary AI lines. I mean, of course I still could, but I’ll sit on that for the moment.

Isn’t that just essentially V2?

You could even, with my proposed structure, take lots of Boba’s dialogue about needing a clan/tribe and make it direct conversations with Din (as opposed to Fennec/others), to help push Din back to the Mandalorians after his original rejection.

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.

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.

I’ll repost a slightly edited version of my thoughts from PM to you, in case others want to chime in:

In terms of BoBF content, I’ve just looked over your Boba movie V1 (from a good while back), and that has 70 minutes of content not including solo Mando or Luke, or the twin Hutts or rancor content (which you used in your Boba movie V2). Realistically I’m sure there’s 90+ minutes of viable Tattooine-only story there. And I think the reason for Din going to Tattooine can simply be because he’s answering the call from Boba at a time when the Mandalorians aren’t ready to reclaim their homeworld just yet. They’re bros now after their last adventure together.

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:

• Movies 1-4 as before. They’re perfect. Din’s lost his ship and his kid. He thinks the Mandalorians are scattered. [Offscreen] he’s ordered a new ship from Peli, but it’ll be a while.
• Movie 5 pretty much just from BoBF, but Din and Grogu DON’T reunite. Mando is back to bounty hunting, listless, no clan. He chases the bounty against the dog-butcher people to find the Covert, meets them, makes a gift for Grogu, and gets kicked out. No mention of redemption - he’s now at his absolute lowest. He goes to get his ordered ship (so he can go visit Grogu as much as use it for hunting) and gets pulled in to Boba’s whole storyline on Tattooine (which becomes the main plot of the movie, happening throughout this storyline). After helping Boba, he heads to Luke’s planet, and gives Ahsoka the gift, but is discouraged from meeting Grogu, who we only see distantly. He’s now realised he really needs a family (thanks Boba) and, without Grogu, wants to give the Mandalorians another try.
• Either at the end of Movie 5 or the start of Movie 6, he goes to the Covert now on the Rocky planet (using more of his original entrance there). THIS time he’s much more desperate - he asks to atone. Only NOW does he learn he can do that at the waters of Mandalore. NOW he has a fresh mission - and still no Grogu.
• Most of your current Book 5 now becomes your Book 6. We don’t have your current content on the ringworld or with Pelli remaking the ship, which removes ~35 minutes (of 2h20) which gets us to the Vane/Gorian Shard plot much sooner. We instead fill that lost time with Luke training Grogu, and perhaps the Mando-birds sideplot. At the end of the movie, we see Grogu making the decision to rejoin Din, and cut to them flying together (using the technique for this you used previously where they blast off together).
• Movie 7: Now follows directly from the aftermath of the Gorian Shard fight, where the Mandalorians have safe haven on Nevarro but Bo-Katan’s been tasked to gather the clans and reclaim their home, and Grogu and Din are with them. We open with Bo and Din going to rescue Axe Woves (they don’t get distracted by the rest of Plazir) and Bo finally takes the Darksaber back. Now we’re ready to lead people to Mandalore. We continue with the two finale episodes, which are a nice straightforward story using all the pieces we currently have in play, but we intercut this with the full Pershing story. The Pershing story fits here most of all because (1) it builds on the current knowledge of the Imperial Remnant and New Republic, but mostly (2) because it ties closely back into the cloning plot and the reveal of Gideon’s plans. The scene of Carson finding that Gideon escaped can come just after it’s discussed by Pershing, to better tie it all together and keep the whole movie on theme.

Also, this way, each movie would come out closer to 120-140 minutes.

Thanks buddy, I’m really glad you’re enjoying it! Trust me on the Maul/witches plotline - it gets VERY good. I was a doubter at first when Savage showed up. But it goes places.

Thanks very much for your nitpick notes! I’ve renamed those capital filenames to lower case. And I agree with your thoughts on Politics of War - I’ve now marked it as a maybe for Skywalker saga, with a viewing note that it suits the prequel era well.

I’ve noted your suggestions for LL too, for when I catch that next pass.

I’m afraid not. I don’t subscribe to any hosting services, so it’s multiple free Google drives.

Yeah I’d definitely let Ahsoka finish before thinking about picking it up. I wouldn’t anticipate that it’ll need interleaving with Mando in quite the same way that the Boba show did.

Besides, I’m excited to see you work on Bad Batch! 😉

Are we back? We’re back!

I think that’s great, nearly perfect - I’d just question the word ‘desolate’, which implies that the worlds are barren and thus not particularly valuable for the First Order to hold. And what are the FO’s goals? Is it to destroy the Jedi? Or is it to restore Imperial rule? Or are they extremists seeking revenge?

Last thought for now. I’ve seen your demo shot of Boba sniping Din as Din leaves the Tuskens with Boba’s armour, and love it. We’ve talked a little here about dialogue for Boba just to sell why he’s not attacking now. Perhaps the word ‘Patience’ would do? (I think he says that in BobF.) The implication would be that he knows he shouldn’t go toe-to-toe against someone in Mandalorian armour (especially shiny new silver armour), further justified when he only attacks Din on Tython when he has Fennec with him (and a sniper shot aimed at Grogu).

Now onto Book 3 (I’m doing a hasty review through with fresh eyes): I know you want to keep Gideon’s presence high throughout the series, but I’d change his appearances in this one. You have him in two main sequences in this movie - the first being the Shadow Council scene (where we learn that the Imperial Remnants are coordinated, get some good context for wider plots including Thrawn, and have Gideon declare he wants to stamp out the Mandalorians), and the second being the tracker scene and Gideon talking about catching Mando and Grogu to continue their cloning.

I think both of these need a little shift, and will try to justify why. But firstly, let me address the fact that I don’t think we need Gideon to have a strong presence in this movie. Yes it’s nice to see him, and to keep him feeling like an overhanging threat. But, so long as each movie at least escalates that threat, I think that need is satisfied. Compare now to your current Book 5, where we don’t see Grogu in the movie until the very end, which leaves us on an interesting development. I think doing the same here would be fine - you still come away from this movie on a punchy note where the Gideon plot has escalated.

So, regarding the tracker plot, I know it’s used here currently to illustrate Gideon’s will and skill to hunt Grogu down. However, the plot about capturing Grogu and his clone relevance really doesn’t continue until your Book 4. I know you’re using it to make the Imperial presence on the Mon Calamari planet more of a trap, but to be honest I don’t think that quite sells, with the dialogue we have. I also don’t think it’s necessary - from Din’s perspective his whole storyline in this movie has been to find Mandalorians, something he finally does at the end. Personal stakes for Gideon don’t add much here (especially as the Imperial resistance is quite weak), so having them as a thorn in his side which helps ingratiate him to Bo Katan’s faction is plenty.

Secondly, regarding the Shadow Council plot, I think that would work better AFTER that Mandalorian-Imperial conflict, as the triggering act behind making Gideon then declare that the Mandalorians must be stamped out. That then leaves our episode on the nice punchy finale (Thrawn reveal, escalation and all), which leaves the threat now overhanging the future movies. It’s the Mandalorians directly striking at Imperials which makes it into a vendetta for Gideon. I would also, as some have suggested, trim the lines about requisitions, as they’ll take now three movies to pay off. (Boba and team have also destroyed the Imperial base on Nevarro, including Gideon’s clones, this movie, so he’s taken a double hit onscreen, further justifying his rage at the end.)

This way, you’d have a straightforward Din-Grogu adventure as they seek Mandalorians, with issues and false leads along the way (and nearly bumping into Boba again), with their actions ending up triggering an escalation of the conflict between Mandalorians and Imperials.

Then, in your Book 4, you could introduce “I’ve placed a tracker” and that subplot just after Mando leaves the planet with that ex-Imperial warlord. We know she’s got ties to Thrawn, and thus the Shadow Council, so it’s absolutely feasible that an Imperial spy could be operating there to report back to Gideon. The dialogue there would reinforce that Gideon wants Grogu - and then he’d strike immediately, on the very next planet, where Din finally meets Boba and the Imperials show up to kidnap Grogu. Again, I think that’s neater, and keeps each movie more focused. You could cut the two elements of the tracker scene around the one of Din on the Crest trying to get Grogu to grab the ball with the force.

A final note on moving the tracker scenes to the following movie - this new suggested ordering would now make more sense of the lines about Pershing’s cloning work being lost, since in this ordering, this discussion would follow the events of Din and co destroying the final Nevarro facility (including clones) the movie prior.