EddieDean

I’m currently away from my machine, Peon, but I’ll get them over to you ASAP.

Agreed. 567 and then a little feedback pass of the whole. Though I’d love to see what you can do with Bad Batch.

Just looking over the remaining content if you go with that plan, the existing Boba content plus Grogu with Luke runs to about two hours. I think that makes a movie on its own. For the second one, I’d cover Pershing into the last few episodes of season three.

I didn’t quite have the vision beforehand, but I do now. It sounds great.

SpenceEdit said:

EddieDean said:

Spence, if you’d like, I’ll do a scene-for-scene comparison of yours against Hal’s v8s, to highlight anything that worked for his that you might want to consider?

If you’d like to do that, I’ll shoot you a link.

For those that got the workprint link, if you haven’t downloaded it yet, I’m uploading a newer version. Should be up later, I’ll send a new link out.

I’m down!

Spence, if you’d like, I’ll do a scene-for-scene comparison of yours against Hal’s v8s, to highlight anything that worked for his that you might want to consider?

In that shot above where you’re removing C-3PO, one of the greebles does have a bit of a ghost to it - the item on the desert from R2’s plate, to the right of the domed item. It looks a little fuzzy when it’s moved next to the vaporator in Padmé’s plate.

Yeah but the poisoning storyline suuuuucks. It’s extremely dull, and gives us no value for our main characters. If the line about Maul killing children is a direct reference to that, I’ll trim around it.

Thanks honestabe. I think I’ve settled on the middle ground - Recommended, Filoniverse, and Skywalker content is all in chronological order - but the extra ones just focused on random bonus characters or ‘at least this episode isn’t the absolute worst’ I’ll keep beneath.

Another question for you guys:

How should I be ordering the spreadsheet? Currently, I’m treating the ‘Recommended’ cut as the absolute master, putting all those episodes first, then the extras start appearing at the bottom of that list. But with the release of Citadel, maybe I should be having the whole thing appear in chronological order, and let users rely on the ‘Choose how to watch’ checklists to know whether or not they should skip?

It’s really a question of what is clearer. I want the Recommended Cut episodes to be the most clear, because that’s really the ‘true’ edit, so essentially I’m asking whether the checklists make it clear enough that not everything is for everyone.

(And I’m also still interested in feedback on whether the ‘Skywalker Saga’ cut covers the right episodes)

Great feedback, thanks! I really appreciate it. I keep notes of every bit of feedback I get sent, however small, and consider absolutely all of them. I (admittedly slowly) work through all of the changes suggested.

Specific responses:

• It might be worth me opening up discussion on s01e05 again. Back in the day, the thought process was that the Domino Squad arc was paced kind of oddly - they’re terrible, then ‘best clones ever’, then assigned a backwater job, then made 501st for surviving, then save Kamino, then are made ARC troopers for that. I’d thought that it was best (and snappier) to have a more sensible arc of fail > bad posting > succeed. But perhaps something closer to the original is wiser. I don’t think we need two failed training sessions before they succeed, but maybe we could have more of the Rookies episode (just with one training session and a bit less adversary) and end nearer success.
• For s02e03, s03e04 and s04e07, I agree with adding back those few key scenes.
• I think I’m still happy with keeping the Mando/Maul content starting early. I know the art style is slightly different but I don’t think it’s radical enough to be obvious unless you really know, and the feedback on this approach of making them the spine of the show has broadly been very positive.

Thanks again!

And I’ve just fixed Dreams of Destiny’s errant frame.

I’ve gone back to polish up the Lair of Grievous/Massacre episode. For those of you who don’t know, I combined those two - now, Ventress leaks the location of Grievous’ lair to the Jedi, as a way of getting back at Dooku and his war, which then causes Grievous to directly seek the massacre of Dathomir. It means the weaker Grievous’ lair content has a better purpose, and it makes the massacre of the Nightsisters more personal for Grievous, and a bigger source of guilt for Ventress.

It worked OK before, but the dialogue to bridge the two was quite stilted, with both plots being referenced kind of out of order. Now, via polish and some AI lines, it’s much smoother.

At first, Grievous is dealing with the Jedi, then gets a call from Dooku:
“I understand the Jedi have infiltrated your lair. My former assassin has gone too far. The nightsister cult can no longer be tolerated; mobilise your fleet, and deal with the Jedi - quickly.” - so, he’s tied the plots together more, but still got Grievous focused on the Jedi for now.

Then, after Grievous fends off the Jedi:
“Count Dooku, the Jedi have been defeated.”
“Victory over the clones and the young Jedi was expected. I have learned Ventress has returned to Dathomir. Go there, and wipe the witches out.”
“The time to exact vengeance has arrived. Raaaargh.”

Then, to pad the scenes between Grievous in his lair and his arrival on Dathomir, I’ve added more Dathomir establishing shots, but first, reintroduced the scene of Kit Fisto reporting back to the Jedi temple - but with modified dialogue from Yoda to tie in to the new episode’s overall plot.
“What of your former padawan?”
“His heart was in the right place, but he tried to answer Grievous’ power with his own.”
“To answer power with power, the Jedi way, this is not. When we fight, a danger there is, of making new enemies.”
[cut to Grievous dropping into Dathomir space]

I’ve still got some work to do, but it should be ready in a few days.

bojangles said:

In Dreams of Destiny there seems to be an extra frame between 5:07 and 5:08. I can’t seem to grab it at the moment without putting it into DaVinci to go frame by frame. Side note, I’m not sure I like the way you changed aspect ratios, I feel like cropping it would probably look the best. One final criticism is that I feel like the ending is out of place if the intent is for this content to be watched in chronological order. I could understand the perspective of seeing it as a cliffhanger tease but it just doesn’t work for me. Both of those are just my personal preference and I’m sure others feel differently. Overall, I love what you’ve done with those pieces of content.

Good catch on that frame, I’m re-rendering now.

This one’s a bit tricky, since the sources here have two different framerates. I’ve done what I can to minimise it, but there is a little interpolation in the FoD content that might be noticeable. Hopefully most of it will look like normal motion blur.

As for the aspect ratios, since the episode is inherently weird with the mixing of styles, I think I’m more inclined to lean into it than try to mitigate it. I think it’s more respectful to the original content this way. If I were to do anything with aspect ratios, it would be to zoom the final scene, so that that moment of Ahsoka with Rex has the ‘dreamlike’ aspect of the other shorts, adding to the mystery of whether or not it’s real.

As for the inclusion of the last scene, it’s a tricky call. It does spoil that Ahsoka survives most of the Clone Wars, something that was much more of a mystery throughout its run (and into the finale of the first season of Rebels). However, (1) it’s kind of necessary as a capper to the bridging story, and (2) with all the current Ahsoka content (and a show coming out called AHSOKA), I think that horse has bolted, and we’re going to have to accept that she’s a known survivor. I think mitigating it via having a viewing note warning of a minor spoiler is the best middle ground.

EddieDean said:

Hm. That’s an interesting one, and I’m surprised I hadn’t thought of it! But I should be able to pull something like that together. I’ll have a think.

Let’s see, what are the key bridging stories?

• Anakin’s development, dissatisfaction with the Jedi, and relationship with Sidious.
• Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan and Padmé
• Yoda and the Jedi’s investigation of Sifo-Dyas
• The mystery of the clones and Order 66
• At the very least Ahsoka joining and leaving Anakin.
• I don’t think Maul or Mandalore need to be major plotlines

Is there anything else?

I’ve added a new ‘Decide how to watch’ category, “I ONLY want a focus on bridging the movies and relevance to the Skywalker Saga”. I’d appreciate feedback on this, especially anything you think I should include or exclude.

Currently, I’m including:

• The Dooku episodes of TOTJ, for great value and context for the movies
• Ahsoka’s introduction and leaving but far less focus on what comes between
• For Obi-Wan, only the Mauldalore stuff that adds to his value, and the Rako Hardeen arc (though if we don’t care about Obi-Wan’s relationship with Satine, we could drop almost all of this and not feature Maul/Mandalore at all)
• Anything about Sidious’ interest in force sensitive kids
• The Hunted by Trandoshans arc (for Chewie)
• The Boba Fett arc, the Geonosis arc, The Citadel, Slaves of Zygerria, Onderon Rebellion
• Scipio (Padmé, and good politicking for late in the game)
• Lightsaber crystals arc (for Grievous and padawan training), 2003’s Nelvaan Crisis (with Anakin’s visions of Vader)
• All of the Order 66/Sifo-Dyas stuff

And I’m currently not including (but could be convinced):

• More Padmé stuff - her Assassination attempt, Heroes on Both Sides, A Friend in Need, Scipio
• More 501st/clone-heavy stuff (especially Rex/Cody)
• More Grievous/Dooku stuff
• The droids arc
• The Siege of Mandalore (‘The Lawless’ apparently takes Maul and Mandalore off the board)

Please feel free to check the spreadsheet and help me think through this (and for other viewing options, too!)

OK, that last episode is available now.

(RE) RELEASED - S03E06b - The Citadel Rescue (v2.1)

• RELEASE VERSION.
• This is a BONUS episode that is NOT part of my recommended viewing order! It belongs in what I call the ‘Continuity’ cut, for people who want the most connections to other content.
• This is numbered as episode 6B of season three - fitting between s03e06 and s03e07 if you want to watch it.
• Comprising the original episodes The Citadel, Counterattack, and Citadel Rescue.
• Running 49 minutes.
• DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
• Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

By popular request, here’s the Citadel arc, added into TCW:R. You can read about my issues with the original episode (and difficulty editing it) here, but thanks to community encouragement and some great work from bojangles, I’ve returned to this and made a number of significant trims, bringing the episode down to 49 minutes and vastly improving the pacing. The key elements (Anakin/Tarkin, most of Ahsoka’s arc, and a key character moment that’s relevant to the Bad Batch), are still preserved.

I don’t think it’s an incredible arc, but I’m very pleased with how it’s now paced and the story it now tells. Thanks for encouraging me to stick with it.

Noteworthy changes:

• This episode is titled ‘The Citadel Rescue’. Like the other well known arcs, I wanted to keep the key word (‘Citadel’) in there.
• Regarding placement, I think it belongs here, in the middle of Ahsoka’s journey to independence, but before her more extreme trials later this season.
• I used the opening crawl to essentially replace the original newsreel and the very first scene. The first scene is exposition, and repeated a lot of content from the newsreel anyway, so I killed two birds with one stone and just covered that initial plot, so we can kick off the episode with Ahsoka wanting to join.
• I also, in the crawl, mentioned the special security droids - hopefully that explains why we see some very competent droids here that we won’t see again.
• Sped up the overly drawn out scanning section.
• Removed some of Osi Sobeck’s scenes, mainly redundant ones or ones where he gives exposition for the audience. He appears more competent now, though still cruel, and still fearful of Dooku. He’s less stupid too, making fewer mistakes and fewer dumb decisions (like shooting a droid for saying the word “escaped”).
• Trimmed the electromines sequence. They get through it quicker now, and without being suprised that a locked door “wasn’t in the plan”.
• Removed most of the other goofy traps in the Citadel (energy field, magnetic ceilings, bisecting doors). With the sentry system and the advanced droids, we have more than enough - and there’s very little jeopardy here. The prison’s security is in its remoteness, hostile environment, lifesign scanners, and defensive fleet.
• The team still split, and Kenobi’s diversion works, but then we see very little more of Obi-Wan while he’s travelling, keeping the focus on Anakin/Tarkin and Ahsoka.
• Removed the dead-end wall sequence, and the commando droid attack here (they have enough presence - and better threat - elsewhere).
• Trimmed R2’s storyline quite heavily, and the scenes which made people suspicious of their craft. Now, they pass the lifeforms check, set the team down, wait, then head to pick up Obi-Wan.
• Obi-Wan’s team don’t get captured (or subsequently rescued). There isn’t a trap, and he doesn’t expect one, since they all expected the R2 droid squad plan to work - and it did. Instead, when he gets close to the landing platform, we also see R2’s team successfully land (“we’ll pick up Obi-Wan”), then instead of calling Anakin, Obi-Wan calls R2, and receives affirmative beeps. They meet up (offscreen) then fake a prisoner transfer to try to trick some guard droids into letting them back on the ship. It’s only once the alarm is raised due to Anakin’s actions and Sobeck working out their plan that it all kicks off.
• I’ve made less of a point about plan A failing (since Obi-Wan isn’t captured). Now, the only real issue is that Obi-Wan was a little slower than expected, and switching to plan B (meet at the landing pad) is a much more casual switch, one that they’d clearly considered a likelihood.
• After the fight on the platform, and retreat, the fleeing Jedi call the Jedi council, for just one scene. We assume that the backup extraction point is well-known by all characters as part of the plan.
• We then cut a whole load of the good guys just milling about talking about how bad the situation is (but with no jeopardy), and a lot of mindless combat. Instead, Sobeck’s immediate reaction is to send out the Anooba hunting dogs (sensible!), which quickly track the party down, and are our only real combat in this section until Sobeck catches up with his larger force.
• Trimmed about a minute of the final combat, so the focus is on where the story is.

OK, thanks to all your feedback, and bojangles’ work, I’ve got a rough cut of a properly edited Citadel arc.

I got through my edit-blindness for this episode by using a key editing principle: When in doubt, edit from back to front. I’ve been working through from the end to the beginning in ten-minute chunks. Much easier to decide what’s necessary and what’s not.

The start and end are relatively unchanged, and I kept all of the Anakin/Tarkin content and most of Ahsoka’s story, but I cut a lot of action (especially after they escape the landing platform; you can remove about ten minutes and it keeps the pressure way higher), and I removed the cutaway to Obi-Wan being captured and rescued, most of the Citadel’s weirder defenses, and most of the battle droid silliness.

I’m much happier with this now, and the pacing is far better.

I’ve got to polish and finish it but I’ll have it to you all soon.

(RE)RELEASED - S03E00 - Dreams of Destiny (Interlude) (v2.3)

• RELEASE VERSION.
• An all-new interlude episode bridging seasons two and three.
• Comprising the original Tales of the Jedi episode Practice Makes Perfect, and the Forces of Destiny episodes Unexpected Company, The Starfighter Stunt, The Imposter Inside, Teach You, I Will, and The Padawan Path.
• Running 22 minutes.
• DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
• Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

This is an experimental little interlude I’ve had cooking for a while, that I’m very proud of. It satisfies a few important goals:

• It contains the final content from Tales of the Jedi that I hadn’t yet included in TCW:R
• It contains the Forces of Destiny episodes featuring Ahsoka during this timescale
• So, now, we have 100% of Ahsoka’s story (that’s available in video format, and set in this timeframe) within this edit, in near-chronological order.
• It bridges Ahsoka’s costume change (seasons two and three in TCW:R) nicely
• It highlights her journey so far, through her early appearances and maturation, and hints a little at her destiny without spoilers

What I’ve done here is compile a story out of both sources of content, elegantly using the fact that Ahsoka is frequently stunned to unconsciousness in TOTJ’s Practice Makes Perfect episode as a framing device for the FoD shorts. This ‘unconsciousness’ device also works nicely as an excuse for why the animation style and tone of the FoD shorts are a little different from what we’re used to from TCW.

It’s a little odd, a little experimental, a little fun, but it’s also got a suprising amount of valuable content in it for what it is - most notably Anakin training Ahsoka to resist Clones, and Ahsoka becoming aware of Anakin and Padmé’s relationship. This content doesn’t really work on its own, but combined I think it heightens both and makes a worthy episode.

The ‘Ahsoka’s dream’ format also givs us some flexibility over the timeframe and reality - are these events a little earlier, recent, or during this timeframe? Are they exactly real, fantasy, canon, or not canon? This allows the viewer to take only what they want from this.

In terms of the FoD shorts, I begin with the episode where Ahsoka learns of Anakin and Padmé’s relationship, which leads nicely into Ahsoka deciding to spend quality time with Padmé after. We then see Ahsoka using and training with her second lightsaber (also a feature of her season three CG model update), around the time in the framing episode where she switches to using it too.

The final FoD short is Ahsoka’s formal rise in rank, and Yoda and Anakin’s pride, showing her maturity. But this is in FoD style (is this now reality?) I like this, because I then decided to include a CG-style glimpse into her future (is this now the dream?) as we see her and Rex preparing to walk through a door together, with his gun to her back, reflecting back on her training. I cut away before the door opens (unlike the original version of this), so it doesn’t spoil what’s within - hopefully that’s the right balance between flash-forward and force vision/dream, and a tease without actually spoiling what’s going on there.

Noteworthy changes (new changes in bold):

• This episode is titled ‘Dreams of Destiny’, as a nod to its Forces of Destiny origins, and to play up the dreaminess.
• Regarding placement, as stated, it naturally fits here.
• No opening text as it’s a special episode - more on that in the following post.
• Structurally it’s a simple intercutting using fade-to-white, with the transitions smoothly polished.
• NEW: I’ve made the fades-to-white now also shift the aspect ratio, to make the transitions that much smoother.
• NEW: I’ve flipped two of the FoD episodes by popular demand, to slightly improve the flashback ordering in terms of Ahsoka’s double lightsabers. (That means that she starts using them in the flashback while she’s still using a single lightsaber in the present, but perhaps you just headcanon that she wasn’t confident enough with two to bring them to her clone trooper training yet.)
• The final fade - to the flash-forward, is a traditional fade to black, to add more mystery.
• As stated, the final scene remains, with the spoiler of what’s behind the door minimised. I felt I needed to keep this scene because it pays off the present day training plot - albeit with a tease.

(This also brings the total number of episodes required to tell Ahsoka’s story, and the story of the Clone Wars, to 50, which I find very pleasing.)

And for those keeping track, that does make my ‘Tales From the Clone Wars’ mini anthology of Tartakovsky leftovers a bit more moot now (since it used to host the Forces of Destiny shorts) - but I will eventually include that episode in the ‘very least important’ category.

(RE)RELEASED - s01e02 - MALEVOLENCE (v2.5)

• RELEASE VERSION, now brought up to my more polished 2.0 standard.
• Our second episode of the first season.
• Comprising the Malevolence arc (Rising Malevolence, Shadow of Malevolence, and Destroy Malevolence).
• Running 30 minutes.
• DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
• Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

This is a very radical restructure of the Malevolence arc, using the Plo Koon escape pod content from Rising and the bomber attack from Shadow, finished off with a few shots from Destroy for the conclusion. It’s not a great arc at all, but it gives us some good exploration of Ahsoka which pays off throughout the show, so it deserves inclusion. My priority was to focus on the emotional value in the episode, and get through it as painlessly as possible - in particular by cutting the scenes in Destroy where they board the Malevolence and it all gets quite cheesy.

Noteworthy changes (v2.5 changes in bold):

• The episode is titled ‘Malevolence’, mainly since that name appeared in all episodes of the Malevolence trilogy. The ship is called ‘The Malevolence’ too, but dropping the ‘The’ also highlights the malevolence of Grievous here too.
• I establish in the opening text that Grievous in the Malevolence has been destroying multiple medical stations, and we join our protagonists on the hunt for him as they manage to identify the rough sector he’s in at the moment. (Later in the episode they get the clue which tells them where he’ll strike next).
• (I refer to these events in the opening text as an ‘emergency’, connecting it back to our previous Christophsis episode, where an off-planet emergency features but doesn’t appear. [In the original movie the emergency was Jabba’s son being kidnapped, but that’s not a plotline which appears in TCW:Refocused])
• We retain and highlight all of the important early development of Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship.
• To enhance the emotional stakes and the threat, I’ve pulled the scenes where Grievous is pursuing the next medical station throughout the whole episode, so the entire episode is much more of a race against time. Now, any delays due to the hunt for Plo might cause more lives to be lost as Grievous remains free to attack medical stations, and the dialogue fits this nicely.
• I also recontextualised and trimmed a fair amount, to make Grievous more of a competent and cruel strategist, who’s not in conflict with his master, Dooku.
• I’ve rearranged scenes to make the Malevolence itself feel more powerful and threatening, especially helmed by Grievous. Its ion cannon VFX was extremely goofy, I thought, so we never see it fire in this episode - though we still get a feel for quite how devastating it can be.
• I removed a lot of scenes which undercut the core message/character growth of the episode.
• I’ve reordered a good number of scenes for narrative flow, to keep the plot smooth, and to minimise jumping around.
• NEW: I’ve smoothed out the awkward transition where Grievous growls.
• NEW: I’ve added some shots, originally (and bafflingly) used in the newscast opening from another episode, showing baby Ahsoka meeting Plo Koon. I’ve used these during the scene where Ahsoka reaches out through the force and becomes certain that Plo is still alive. This serves three purposes: Firstly, it finds a sensible home for that lovely brief scene which fills in a little of Ahsoka’s backstory. Secondly, it gives us a lovely moment, making it seem like Ahsoka’s drawing on that strong memory to make the connection, emphasising their bond. And thirdly, it replaces a very awkwardly cut scene, which I always found quite clumsy.
• I cut the space whales in the nebula - bombers go into shortcut, bombers come out of shortcut.
• I heavily trimmed the assault on the Malevolence, reordering a good few shots to make the attack tighter and clearer and give Anakin more of the lead role.
• Nobody boards the Malevolence, and Padmé does not appear in this episode. It’d be good to see Anakin and Padmé together so early, but all of the scenes inside the Malevolence are so cringe, they cheapen all of the characters involved.

This episode is the one I’ve spent the longest on. It’s not amazing, but it’s necessary, and at least it’s in a good place now. It really whips through, but I think I’ve got it as clean as it can possibly be, for the beats it needs to cover.

Lifeincontext, bojangles, I agree with you. Good feedback, thanks. I’ve taken out the shot of memory-Plo’s face, to give the other shots more room to breathe, and the remaining shots still tell the same story.

Voila! I’ll get a v2.5 rendered soon.

Changelog sounds great. Are you also making the common changes made by the current leading edits (Hal’s, L8WRTR’s, etc)? Do you have plans for an alternate opening crawl?

C-3PO’s removal from 1 & 2 is understandable - are you likely to make any other similar deviations from canon? I’m asking here more in the sense of other media which reference events of those movies, whose references might not make sense now. Coming at this from a Clone Wars angle (naturally), C-3PO appears in that as a previously known character, for example.

Speaking of C-3PO (but irrespective of my last paragraph), his inclusion in TPM does introduce a nice connection - if you cut the lines where one of Padmé’s aides (posing as Padmé) assigns Padmé (posing as an aide) to clean up R2-D2, it’s implied that she’s essentially assigned herself that task. And if Padmé’s just naturally interested in working with droids (or at least working with her hands) it makes sense that she’d be impressed that young Anakin has made his own droid - something that might add a nice first step in their relationship.

I always found the world shrinking to be much less noticeable/offensive when the movies are watched in chronological order, but I understand the objection, and the priority to keep these movies tight and ask fewer questions, which may override that.

Do you have a (tentative) changelog for AOTC? Very curious!

Actually, overnight I had a little idea for how to improve it, and made a few orderings:

• Version 1 (the original one, above)
• Version 2
• Version 3
• Version 4
• Version 5

I think #5 is best, using zoom levels of the camera to connect them.

I had a play around with including the scene of Plo meeting baby Ahsoka in the Malevolence episode at the point in time where she connects with him using the force. I tried a few iterations of the various available shots, and this one tells the best story.

Here’s a clip. I think it works really well, and makes it a really poignant moment.

The shots are arranged so that the story it tells is that Ahsoka, to seek Plo, digs into her most precious memory of him - he feels it too, and her eyes open in shock as she feels him connect. In her memory (perhaps now a shared vision), he reaches out his hand and she takes it, completing their connection.

Check it out! I’ll render the full version of the episode shortly - and extend out Grievous’ awkwardly cut off growl.