EddieDean

(RE)RELEASED - s01e01 - THE NEW PADAWAN (v2.0)

• RELEASE VERSION, now brought up to my more polished 2.0 standard.
• Our first ‘true’ episode.
• Comprising the Ventress content from Hidden Enemy, and the Christophsis content from the movie.
• Running 21 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 radical recombination of all of the Christophsis content into something which basically serves to get us through Ahsoka’s introduction as quickly as possible. The movie was terrible, and its prequel episodes added little meat to them (beyond Ventress’ re-introduction, and the traitor clone plot I’ll use elsewhere), so this was really just case of making some necessary introductions as coherent and painless as I could.

Noteworthy changes:

• The episode is titled ‘The New Padawan’ to highlight that this is Ahsoka’s introduction to kick off TCW. As a cute bonus, this is actually the original title of the Christophsis episode from the original TCW movie, before it was cut into a movie structure by adding the Hutt Baby content, so it works as a nice homage to what was.
• I’ve trimmed the setup heavily, including the opening text, to streamline and clarify the plot.
• Christophsis now has crystal factories which produce energy shields. This is the planet’s strategic importance, and goes some way to explaining the ugly crystal aesthetic. Now, when the Separatists deploy an energy shield later, it’s implicitly because they’ve managed to acquire that tech, making the reveal a bit more punchy.
• Anakin and Obi-Wan are defending the planet with only a small force, but a large Separatist fleet has blockaded the system and forced the Republic fleet to flee to a nearby clone medical station (used as a staging area), which isolates them from their support and leads to fears of an invasion.
• They’d be about to take preventative measures, but have just detected Ventress’ signal on the planet. She’s a priority target, so they rush to apprehend her - overland, since they have no air support. As they travel, and unbeknownst to them, the Separatists trigger a comms blackout.
• Because this mission distracts and delays them, and because the comms blackout means they can’t scan the planet properly, the Separatists use this opportunity to land their ground forces unimpeded. Our guys think it’s a trap, but realise to their shock that it’s a distraction, and rush back.
• Meanwhile, Yoda and Mace want to contact Obi-Wan about an emergency. The blackout impedes that, so they send Ahsoka (in a small ship which implicitly can bypass the blockade) to the surface, carrying the message. Obi-Wan doesn’t respond, since they have an emergency of their own, which is fine. Ahsoka has a method to contact Yoda (which is a bit flimsy, but again pretty much fine since the connection is spotty anyway), leaving us uncertain about whether or not our guys will get support.
• (The emergency, we will reveal in the next episode, is the destruction of many clone medical stations by the Malevolence - a good thing to treat as an emergency. And having had the Republic fleet flee to one [which I also show onscreen], that’ll feel a bit more punchy next episode too.)
• We continue on with the main Christophsis plotline, with slight trims to dialogue to remove some annoyances but maintaining the early tension between Ahsoka and Anakin/Rex (since that’s a foundation for their growth), until Ahsoka and Anakin’s plan saves the day, and they start to work together.
• I removed the ground forces which are originally fought in the movie’s opening scenes. Now, the ONLY force is landed by the Separatists, then approaches under the shield they’ve captured (to defeat our long-range cannons). So there’s a lot less mindless action this episode, though we still get highlights of Obi-Wan and Rex, and of the ‘street fighting’ going south to add jeopardy to Anakin and Ahsoka’s attempts.
• I’ve removed General Loathsom, who was a dud villain. As much as Obi-Wan’s war crimes were good fun, he was super goofy, and I wanted to keep the focus this season on our big three villains.
• We end with Anakin leaving with Ahsoka, whilst Obi-Wan leaves alone. This fits nicely with their roles in the next episode, Malevolence.
• Unlike prior versions of this episode, Bail Organa no longer appears. I like him a lot, and want to see him in his active role, but it didn’t quite work here nor add the jeopardy I’d have hoped for.
• Unlike prior versions of this episode, I’ve removed the cold open, where Maul meets Mandalorians (and we see the Darksaber). The advantage of that scene was that it builds great anticipation for the series and shows you it’s going to be more than you know, and tie in with the wider Filoniverse. But the disadvantage was that it was a scene disconnected from this episode’s plot, and we only get our first hint of Maul later this season. I’d be very interested in how you guys think that lands now, with our first episode not setting that up. Does it feel weaker as a season premiere? Mauldalore IS our central plot.

I nearly renamed this to MASTER AND APPRENTICE, but I think at this point it’s important that we just tell the Audience ‘Anakin’s getting a new Padawan, get over it’ and nudge them into focusing on her character this episode.

Hooray! This episode is finally finished, and uploading now.

Having just watched it for quality control, I’m extremely pleased with how this has come together. The narrative flows and my scene ordering enhances it, the pacing is tight, and the sound is far smoother. There’re maybe a couple of beats that would prefer to linger a little longer, but I think it’s all as smooth as I can get it given my options. This episode has been my bane for a long time, so I’m very glad to have it in a state I can feel so comfortable with.

Looking forward to sharing this one with you all.

Right, well that’s nearly finished, and I don’t have anything in the way of getting it complete tomorrow.

I’d hoped to get it done today, but I’ve absolutely burnt out my brain by tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition and tweaking the same audio transition.

Either way, the narrative is complete, the transitions are 99% complete, everything is in place. I’m rendering myself a QC copy I’ll watch tomorrow before putting any final touches through, then I’ll render the final version and watch it one last time before upload.

This one’s essentially the same story as the version already released, only without Bail. So it’s still not amazing. The first quarter is slicker, and now there’s only ONE army (the one that Ventress’ distraction helps land) so I cut a lot of fighting out of the middle, but most importantly, all of the audio is way way smoother, so it should feel way less choppy. Still not perfect, I don’t think, but as good as I reckon this episode can get.

Right, good editing session today, and I’ve got a couple more good opportunities this coming weekend too, so I hope to finish this next episode then.

I’ve been working on the v2.0 polish pass for s01e01 The New Padawan, which is my Christophsis episode (and the first proper episode of the series).

That one was already only barely holding together, but now that I’m a more capable editor, I’ve actually restarted the entire episode from scratch, including reviewing the original content for useful scenes and shots. It’s more work but totally worth it, and I’ll be very pleased to finally finally have this episode put to bed. I’ve gone through the first five minutes, which is actually nearer 70% of the effort for the episode, and it’s already far more polished now, with smoother audio, and the narrative makes far more sense.

Bail Organa didn’t quite work in this episode so I’ve taken him out, and for now I’ve cut my special cold open where we see Maul meet Mandalorians, which I’m not sure about but I’ll let you guys see what you think.

The crawl will do some heavy lifting to give context to the simpler start to the episode, establishing that:

• Christophsis produces ray shields (explaining its strategic importance, and since we see them use ray shields later, that moment is now a bit more punchy since it shows their plans worked).
• The newly-knighted Anakin and Obi-Wan are stranded on the planet, barely holding off the Separatists with only a tiny clone force and some heavy cannons defending their base.
• The Separatist blockade has forced the Republic support fleet to retreat to a nearby staging area, which combined with a comms blackout (that the fleet is unaware of) is leading to fears that the Separatists will land a full army and take the planet.
• Anakin and Obi-Wan should be taking preventative steps against invasion, until they detect Assaj Ventress’ signal at the Sep HQ on the dark side of the planet, so they pursue her as a priority mission.

We open the episode now seeing the Republic fleet flee (it’s our establishing shot before we join the ground action), then Anakin and Obi-Wan’s pursuit of Ventress IS the distraction which enables the Separatists to land ground forces. As they fight her, Yularen gets the call from Yoda and Mace saying they need to speak to Obi-Wan, but he informs them of the blackout. We cut back to Ventress, but after Anakin and Obi-Wan have dealt with that, we return to a second Yularen call where he’s told that, since it’s urgent, they’ve sent a messenger (who implicitly can bypass the blockade since it’s just one ship, to get around their comms blackout). I use some nice alternate footage to actually show Ahsoka arriving, so this is all nice and smooth. We’ll learn in the next episode that the urgent issue was the destruction of clone medical stations by Grievous, which Obi-Wan takes point in.

It’ll kinda be two stories at once, but it’ll be worth a try at least. Won’t break any other episodes, in the worst case.

Hmm.

Thoughts on a possible episode to fit into season two, to give a bit more character balance in a season that slightly needs it:

I’d considered the fun romp of Zillo Beast, despite having some problems with that episode (a useful ion weapon never seen again, plus Palpatine’s malice), but on review it doesn’t feature Ahsoka so it doesn’t satisfy the goal of what I’m looking for in this slot.

The other that I’d considered was Innocents/Liberty of Ryloth, which gives us a bit more tie-ins to later media but isn’t super strong on its own. That doesn’t feature our main guys BUT-

I’ve always liked the crash from Jedi Crash (on Maridun). It’s a great action sequence, Anakin gets injured, and Ahsoka looks after him. That’s a nice bit of growth, though I’d want to trim the episode heavily and mostly ignore the natives (and definitely skip the following episode with the goofy separatist attack). Thematically it would fit with season two, where the impact of the war hits the further corners of the galaxy.

I wonder if I could merge the above two? If I do, it’d definitely end up as two parallel plots, rather than two related plotlines, but it’d give us all our focal characters, and the jeopardy for both storylines could be enhanced by the implicit absence of the other characters. Perhaps the skies that the Jedi cruiser crash in are the skies of Ryloth, with the emergency escape jump that Anakin and Ahsoka take taking them off that battlefield and to a neighbouring planet/system. Then Obi-Wan’s and Mace Windu’s actions would be implicitly strained by the absence of the reinforcements. I might need to do some work to tie the plots together a bit more tightly though, or at least have them reference each other.

I’m not certain this idea is workable, but I think it’s the only worthwhile idea to pursue to potentially satisfy a couple of goals that I have for that part of my series. Worst case, I’ll find I can’t do it, and I’ll just retain Innocents/Liberty as a bonus episode.

I’ll check it out (far later).

(That said, am I moving too far away from established canon by using some of these ideas? I don’t want people to consider TCW:R too deviant to consider it a viable ‘true’ alternative to TCW. I’m not trying to produce ‘an experiment’ with this series, I’m trying to produce ‘TCW if it was made today and with hindsight’)

Hm, yeah, the file itself does look fine to me. I rendered it on the right settings, and watched it on my TV as a raw file before release in 1080 without noticing a stutter.

As CMMAP alludes to, it’s always best to download first rather than streaming from Google Drive.

Ooh, here’s another one:

Lair of Grievous isn’t an episode I’m looking to include in any major way, but its two strengths are (1) showing Grievous’ home lair, and (2) some of Grievous’ viciousness, especially when he kills Nadar.

I was wondering if I could incorporate any of that somewhere - perhaps as a scene to precede a Grievous-heavy episode, and one that follows him taking some damage.

One place it could potentially go is at the start of Massacre, where he’s very fervent about destroying the Nightsisters (even though he’s not encountered them onscreen and their main rival in the show thus far is Dooku). You could establish that, in revenge against Dooku, the Nightsisters have leaked key information to the Jedi order, including the location of the hidden base of Dooku’s top General, Grievous. The Jedi have tracked and attacked Dooku, and now pursue him as he flees. That justifies Grievous seeking repair, and we can get in his furious attack on Nadar. Now, his vengeance on the Nightsisters is also personal. This leak could also be the reason that the Jedi peacefully meet with the Nightsisters later after Maul’s return, which I could also play up. It could also help explain why we don’t see the Separatists much in my season two, if they’re responding to a few implicitly major leaks.

Minor idea:

As part of my restructuring of the first season, I’d been toying with the idea of bringing the scene where Ahsoka gets reprimanded for failing her military command and assigned to Guard duty (for her Felucia failiure at the start of the Holocron arc) to a little earlier - maybe the preceding Duchess of Mandalore episode.

However, I’ve realised that I could use it in context to conclude her Ryloth episode, where she also has a major command failiure. It would help justify why we don’t then see her for a couple of episodes too.

I’ll check that out when I get near.

Hi Vidmaster.

I remember! Your insights would be most valuable. I’ve sent you a link to the tracker spreadsheet so you can see the progress and have access to the download links.

The current status is that I’ve completed three seasons out of five, that’s 30 episodes out of 50, to version 1.

Practically, that means that you could choose to start watching now, and you’d have a good few ahead of you.

However, I’ve just completed the planning and started the execution of a fairly large ‘polish pass’, editing all completed episodes up to version 2.

For the vast majority of episodes, they won’t need much polish. Mainly it’s just light cleanup. However, two things to note:
(1) There are a few early episodes which might need more in depth improvement (Christophsis, Malevolence, and Ryloth), which you might decide are best to see in their v2 form as they’ll be ‘more final’ then.
(2) As part of this polish, I’ve also reordered some episodes. For the most part this shouldn’t matter too much, BUT some of their opening crawls reference each other, so until I’ve gone through and polished up all of those crawls, they might feel a little out of order. As I go through the crawls I’ll also be adding some extra useful information to tighten up the seasonal narratives, which again, you might get more value from if you wait.

So it’s totally up to you of course. I think, if I were in your position, I’d choose to wait for the v2s of each episode. Whether you choose to watch each v2 as I release them, or decide to wait until I’ve released more v2s so that you can binge a few in order, is your call, but your reviews will be most welcome either way.

I’ve just released the first episode to v2 standard (episode zero, DARK FORCE RISING) if you feel like kicking off now.

sade1212 said:

Not to be too Testing about it - and I know there’s been a “FanFix” category of fanedits since time immemorial - but can we collectively stop referring to completely subjective changes as ‘fixes’? Fixes are what Adywan does when he corrects an accidental visual mistake or continuity error, not what’s being done when an editor consciously moves a film away from what was originally intended. Both are totally valid, and half the fun of being in this community is seeing everyone’s very different takes on what can be made from the same material, but surely if there’s anything that’s apparent from the discussions on this website, it’s that there’s a wide variety of opinions about what people do or don’t enjoy or “want to see” in each Star Wars movie.

+1 for more inclusive language

It is a weirdly direct way of asking the question. “Rey whOOo?” It’s aggressive.

That’s why I’d like to remind everyone that we do have the right audio in the right tone to have her snappishly answer “None of your business, that’s who!”

I see what you’re saying. Yoda narration scenes instead of intro text, then smash into TCW:R logo, episode title, then opening scene on coruscant. Worth a play.

Oh, that’s great that you thought the Yavin clone removal was clean, that was definitely the most technically difficult fix I’ve ever had to make. He’s responding to different stimulus originally, there’re some minor clothing changes I needed to mask, I had to zoom a shot to hide the absence of an object in it, the audio needed to slide all over the place, and then after working that out I needed to grab the audio I’d created, export it, add new sound effects which I had to time right, and reinsert it. A proper surgical operation!

I’ve started editing with the audio coming out of my TV (with soundbar) at max volume, rather than my PC speakers, so that I can pick up on the audio a lot more clearly, and ensure it’s high quality even when someone views the episode with high volume.

It is a rather flat opening, you’re right, and I do see the value in maintaining the Yoda intro, both for its charm and as a bookend. I’m interested to see what people think here, but to me, the overriding value in cutting it was that this episode really is now a part of TCW:R, not a standalone thing. It’s here to be tonally consistent with TCW:R and to focus on TCW:R’s characters - not Mon Cala, Dantooine, etc. Those cut shots exist to say “There’s a war on many fronts”, but now that this is episode one of a longer show, we actually see many fronts in the war in our first season.

Perhaps it does feel a little jarring though because we start right in the office - maybe at least a Coruscant establishing shot might ease us into it a little more smoothly.

We also really need to see the droid army really doing damage to Theed (and its people). As it stands, there’s like one tank and about five droids that we see there. The final conflict in TPM should have been in Theed, not in the featureless fields. The entire Gungan plotline is skippable.

I totally respect that perspective, it’s certainly the least important scene of the episode.

The reason I think it’s worth keeping (in that position) is twofold:

• Firstly but leastly, because it shows Grievous being “trained in your Jedi arts by Count Dooku”
• Secondly and mostly, because in it, Dooku tells Grievous to use fear, to break the enemy before he engages them. And then, on Hypori, that’s exactly what Grievous does, to great effect. Now, Grievous did that because he was taught to, making him the well-trained warrior, and more importantly, Dooku is the calculating, smart, tactical commander. I think this pair of scenes is additive to both characters.

This is very much a side thing and way lower priority than anything else, but I’ve also been playing with the idea of turning both Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones into TV-length episodes as a season zero. So essentially this show would emcompass the entirety of the prequel era, as an accessible mixed-media episodic show, that was consistent with (and additive to) canon, but focusing on telling the highest quality coherent story.

The huge advantage of this approach is that chopping into episodes and maintaining my opening text means that I can keep certain plot points offscreen and recontextualise and clarify more of the movie content, and allow us to focus only on the best and most necessary content.

That said, I’d fit all of that around the existing show, rather than the other way around. I don’t want that to be mandatory, and I’d far prefer if my TCW:R allows the viewer to slot in their preferred versions of the movies.

Right, just done a bit of extra thinking on the structure of my last couple of seasons. A bit of shifting I think really tightens up the whole of TCW into neat, digestible, thematic arcs.

• SEASON ONE: “Conflicts erupt in the early days of the Clone Wars.” Focus on the bad guys’ initial strikes, and the Anakin/Ahsoka relationship. This set of ten episodes is nice and tight, as previously discussed.
• SEASON TWO: “The Clone Wars spread chaos and instability across the galaxy.” Focus on the scum and villainy emerging as the war becomes a long war. We don’t see the Separatists much until the finale. (Also, I realised I have to rename my Boba Fett episode to ‘Like Father, Like Clone’.) This set of nine episodes is also fairly tight. It does have a space for one more, and while I don’t want to force it to be ten episodes, that one more could maybe be:
  • Nothing, because it already works just fine.
  • My ‘Return to Ryloth’ episode, where Obi-Wan and Mace deal with Cham Syndulla and Orn Free Taa. These are all, however, secondary characters, in a plot that’s not amazing, in a season that’s already a little light on our main characters.
  • Zillo Beast. I’d want to remove certain elements like Palpatine’s scheming and the ion bomb (which, other than releasing the Zillo Beast, is a great weapon that they really should use again but don’t), but this is a big silly romp with all our main characters that’s a fan favourite. If it has good Anakin/Ahsoka stuff then it’s a strong frontrunner as we need that at this point in the season.
  • I don’t think I want to use Lightsaber Lost or Assassin (both quite redundant and now butchered for parts), nor Grievous Intrigue (and its follow-up from The Deserter) because it’s not a main character story (though there may be something that can be done to merge Grievous Intrigue with the lovely crash from Jedi Crash). There’s nothing else I’d really consider from the episodes with Ahsoka’s original model.
• SEASON THREE: “Shades of grey emerge as the Clone Wars grow more complex.” Focus on the war escalating and testing our characters, and a lot of temptation. We return to quite a lot of Separatist plots. I had said on the previous page that I needed to reinstate Citadel to balance out the season, but actually I’ll use Kadavo instead. I like Kadavo a lot more, and it also fits well with the shades of grey theme. (Citadel will have to be a bonus episode.)
• SEASON FOUR: “Conspiracies abound as the Clone Wars spin out of control.” Focus on unpredictable events and mystery. We don’t see much war, but we feel its effects very strongly. This structure now differs from my original plans. It’ll now be ten episodes, NOT NECESSARILY IN THIS ORDER, OR WITH THESE NAMES:
  • SHADES OF REASON, where Maul takes Mandalore. Opening on Maul, not our main characters, emphasises his ascension and the focus on the Mauldalore plotline.
  • MORTIS, now a dark herald of what’s to come.
  • THE LAWLESS, where Maul rules Mandalore and Palpatine cleans house. I’ll probably put this a little later.
  • AHSOKA’S FALL (two parter), which, you know.
  • SCIPIO, which follows Ahsoka’s fall, and incorporates the ‘fireside chat’ to emphasise Anakin’s dark actions here as related to Ahsoka’s Fall
  • ORDER 66, our fourth and final ‘just clones’ episode, neatly bringing Rex’s journey to where it needs to be for the finale.
  • SIFO-DYAS, where Yoda and Mace learn how fucked the whole situation probably is.
  • SON OF DATHOMIR, closing the Nightsisters plotline, and putting Maul back on the board.
  • YODA’S QUEST, a nice dark study of the mysteries behind the war, and more. Probably a nice finale too.
• That fourth season is now not just light on Ahsoka but also light on Anakin, but that’s OK. We’re in the endgame now, and all of that stuff is tight. It’s almost like the fall of Ahsoka is the show pulling the handbrake and going into an uncontrolled slide. You don’t know what you’re going to get as the focus shifts, but it’s all great. I’m glad this batch doesn’t include the Ventress/Boba episode, which is too weak, nor the Younglings/Ahsoka episode, which is redundant this late in Ahsoka’s story and not dark enough for this point in the war.
• SEASON FIVE: “Darkness falls on the galaxy as the Clone Wars draw to a close.” The fifth season changing structure is what enabled me to redesign the fourth. Realising that Revenge of the Sith is a vital part of the Clone Wars journey, means that the final season will be about eight episodes worth of volume, and lets me shift some other fifth season episodes backwards into the fourth. The fifth now is:
  • MARTEZ SISTERS gives us the welcome return to Ahsoka after a long absence, and sets up the season’s plot. Edited more tightly, this’ll be far more fun than it originally was, and be a fine premiere (since Ahsoka is our MAIN main character).
  • BAD BATCH (two episodes) gives us our final Anakin/Obi-Wan/Rex/Padmé content before the finale(s). This is technically your fifth ‘mostly just clones’ episode too, if you like. I’m quite pleased with how that’s all ended up.
  • REVENGE OF THE SITH is our penultimate arc (and is about three or four episodes long by volume)
  • THE SIEGE OF MANDALORE is our conclusion (and is two or three episodes long)
• For the Revenge of the Sith / Siege of Mandalore overlap, I’ll give the viewer two options.
  • Option 1) Watch RotS (one movie) then Siege of Mandalore (two episodes)
  • Option 2) Watch a chronological intercutting of RotS / SoM I’ll produce as 6/7 episodes.

There we go. Five seasons. Pretty much bang on ten episodes each, without having to force it. Tight, thematic seasons that flow right, and fit into and develop the wider war. A balance of characters each season, and tight character development per season. The best plotlines set up early and constantly developed throughout. Optional bonus episodes. I think this is it.

Love to have your feedback when you do!

Yeah, Nelvaan and Palpatine’s kidnapping really are quite secondary to the plot of TCW, so a far lower (and thus later) priority. And more likely I’ll be just presenting those scenes in order, rather than anything fancy.

(RE)RELEASED - s01e00 - DARK FORCE RISING (v2.0)

• RELEASE VERSION, now brought up to my more polished 2.0 standard.
• Our special ‘episode zero’.
• Comprising the Muunilinst, Yavin and Hypori arcs from the Tartakovsky Microseries.
• Source video is Numeraljoker’s upscaled version, used with permission and credited.
• Running 51 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.

The microseries is great, but features characterisation that doesn’t quite align with TCW’s refinements of the characters. It’s also something of an anthology, with quite a few side plots (which I cut here, but you’ll optionally see later in my show). I focused on the characters and elements which best support and enhance the remainder of my Clone Wars: Refocused show, so that this can be viewed as a pretty necessary episode zero. This episode doesn’t feature the TCW:R opening text that the other episodes in my edit will use, instead allowing a hybrid incorporating the microseries’ initial narration to lead us in.

Noteworthy changes:

• The episode is titled ‘Dark Force Rising’, as a bunch of ‘dark forces’ rise: The Clone Army is the Republic’s Dark Force, Anakin is drawn to the darkside in his battle with Ventress, and of course Palpatine’s dark plan is coming to fruition, causing the whole force to fall out of balance towards the dark.
• Anakin is a major focus, highlighting his strength, relationship with Palpatine, and hints at his darkness, and with far more faith from Obi-Wan bringing their relationship far closer to how it appears in TCW proper. (Thanks Delpheas for a lot of the inspiration here.)
• Dooku’s machinations are the secondary focus. We see him train Ventress (far earlier, for balance, focus and story flow) then send her to challenge Anakin, then we see him train Grievous (from the second part of this microseries) then send him to Hypori to kill Jedi and spread fear (as Dooku taught Grievous in their sparring session).
• The remaining focus is on showing at least some clone competency, focusing on their training and hardware, and the elements we’ll see later in TCW. I tended towards favouring the more grounded action, like we see outside of Tartakovsky’s eccentricities.
• The whole is quite radically reshaped, so that it flows nicely and feels more like a single narrative, with the Republic reacting to Dooku’s bold moves. We intercut both a little more and a little less in places as felt appropriate and natural.
• The clones no longer follow Anakin to Yavin, with the scenes there reworked so that Ventress simply removes his escape, forcing their conflict. Obi-Wan doesn’t send the clones - partially due to having to wrap up matters on Muunilinst, and partially due to trusting Anakin despite his (now reduced) disobedience, which is more in line with his later trust.
• I moved the shot of Yoda having an “oh shit” meditation moment to right after Anakin’s just completed his rage-fueled attack on Ventress. Now in context, he’s reacting to feeling the darkness rise in Anakin. A viewer could choose to imply that it’s this feeling which compels him to agree to Knight Anakin and later grant him a Padawan, in the hopes of keeping him on the right path.
• No Dirge/Lancers, since they’re not referenced in TCW again and feel aesthetically very different.
• No TPM Anakin/Qui-Gon vision, since it had no place here and I’ll use some of its dialogue in other episodes.
• No Dantooine/Ilium/Mon Cala, because they distract from the core narrative. (These have been included in a ‘Tales from the Clone Wars’ bonus episode, s03e00.)
• No Nelvaan or kidnapping of Palpatine, because they are set later in the war. (I may eventually turn these into later bonus episodes.)

The episode is now wrapped in (most of) my usual TCW:Refocused trappings, the first of the ‘2.0’ versions. It has a variant ‘Clone Wars’ microseries logo and a slightly alternative approach to the end credits, hopefully straddling the middle ground between being part of TCW:R and respecting that the source content was its own thing.

Finally all done with Dark Force Rising. Phew. That’s rendering now, though I will watch through it once more before uploading it, because I’d like to hand it to you as final!

Sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve output something guys. I’m not managing your expectations well - nor my own - and have found less time lately than I was expecting.

That said, I’ve got a good chunk further through s01e00 Dark Force Rising today. I ended up making far more changes than I anticipated.

I went for my option 3 above, as it’s a lot cleaner. Anakin lands, Ventress sabotages his escape, Anakin’s angry, they fight. No clones on Yavin.

I’ve got two small audio enhancements to make that rearrangement work, then two simple trims elsewhere, to have this finished off.

I’m sure you’ll all enjoy the final result, I’m just sorry it’s taken so long!

Yeah for some reason that’s really additive.

I’d love a link please!

This is an idea I’ve had percolating for a long while and become really passionate about.

Let’s consider the value of making Iron Man 3 follow Age of Ultron:

• Firstly, thinking about the Avengers story. Working chronologically, phase one gives us all of the individual Avengers solo, bringing them together in the first Avengers movie. At this point, they’re a super-team who have handled Earth’s first galactic threat. That’s pretty huge. Why do they not then handle all of Earth’s domestic problems? Well, because fairly quickly, in Captain America 2, it turns out that SHIELD, who are tied to the US military and brought the Avengers together, were really Hydra, the resurgent Nazis. Age of Ultron continues and concludes this thread, implying that the Avengers have been focused on tracking and defeating Hydra in the intervening time. That’s a good, large-scale (offscreen) focus for the Avengers.
  • Age of Ultron also concludes with Rhodey (who was still aligned with SHIELD/Nick Fury/US military) joining the Avengers.
• What follows Age of Ultron? Most importantly, tension between the new Avengers and Tony Stark, where he leaves the Avengers since he created Ultron. Then a few more solo origin stories, but primarily, Captain America 3: Civil War. A few of the new solo players get roped in here and/or expanded on later, but in terms of the Avengers and Iron Man, Civil War comes next, followed by Infinity War/Endgame.
  • But also importantly, in Civil War, Rhodey has actually switched back from the Captain America Avengers to the side of the US military/regulation, apprehending the Avengers after the Lagos incident (where the Avengers caused collateral damage, triggering the Sokovia accords).
• So ulitmately, in Civil War, which establishes that the (new, Captain America-run) Avengers HAVE been focusing on more serious international threats, both Tony and Rhodey end up on the side of “superheroes need to be regulated”.
• So, now let’s consider Tony Stark’s story throughout these films. Iron Man 1 & 2 give us his formative solo missions. The first Avengers movie, via the attack on New York, gives him both his first Avengers gig and his first realisation that the alien threat is huge and real. Then Nazis pop up, so sure, that’s an easy bad guy to decide to fight. But in Age of Ultron, we see that (quite rightly) he’s still obsessed with the alien threat. He wants “a suit of armour around the world”, so he invests in his AI, building his network of drones.
• Then discovering the Mind Stone’s AI mind, he egotistically tries to merge it with his Jarvis AI to create Ultron, his intended super-AI to defend the world, which becomes genocidal, and takes over his AI drone network, becoming a global threat of his own creation. He gets lucky with the birth of Vision, a combination of Wakandan vibranium, Jarvis’ AI, the Mind Stone, and Ultron’s own design, (and Thor’s, uh, lightning?,) but ultimately Ultron remains a huge fuck-up by Tony.
• Now following this by the Iron Man 3 story, Tony’s huge guilt over Ultron (and rejection by the Avengers after Age of Ultron) has forced him to go solo again. He still fears the alien threat, and now AI/drones also, so instead he’s invested in only himself, creating dozens of custom Iron Man suits. He’s anxious, and without friends, and over-planning for every possible threat, because he knows what’s out there, and he knows the Avengers aren’t focused on it. (He is, of course, proven right by Infinity War, where the alien threat wins, and as Steve Rogers so sanctimoniously told him, “we’ll lose together too”, which they actually do apart.)
• So Iron Man 3 gives us the opportunity to show not just a Tony Stark scared by the events of the original Avengers, but also (from his perspective) scarred by the rejection of his friends in Age of Ultron. Across Iron Man 3 he comes to accept that he is just one man, destroying his multiple suits, removing his arc reactor, and ultimately becoming Iron Man - just one guy.
• Doing it this way explains a few things:
  • Why didn’t the Avengers get involved when the Mandarin was terrorising the USA? Because they’d cut ties with the US military after the reemergence of Hydra, going more independent/international under Captain America’s guidance after Age of Ultron.
  • Why didn’t the Avengers get involved when Tony was in danger? Because they’d just kicked him out of the Avengers for the Ultron incident and weren’t taking his calls.
  • Why did Rhodey join the Avengers in Age of Ultron but then hunt them in Infinity War? Because as soon as they started acting independently/internationally under Captain America he defaulted back to US military (since Hydra/Nazis were defeated), formented by a legitimate threat to the US president, in time to start sympathising with Tony/regulation again.
  • In Iron Man 3, Tony has a positive relationship with a technically and morally competent child. When we see him next, in Civil War, he’s invested heavily in a similar child, Peter Parker AKA Spider-Man.
  • In Age of Ultron, Tony is still with Pepper. But in Iron Man 3, she goes through some real trauma at Tony’s hands. In Civil War, they’ve broken up. In this order, she’s got a far better reason to have split from Tony.
  • In Iron Man 3, Pepper successfully uses the Iron Man armour. They’re split for a time, but when they’re together again in Infinity War/Endgame, he’s built her the Rescue armour.
  • In Age of Ultron, Tony invests in AI/drones, to disastrous effect. In Iron Man 3, Tony invests in multiple suits, which is overcompensation that he realises is unhealthy. What’s the next natural development? A single suit with multiple functions. In Civil War he hasn’t made a major change, but by Infinity War, he’s built the nano-suit - all suits in one, and only he’s in control. To Tony, this is (psychologically) very different to AI/drones or multiple suits.

So, what would it take to achieve this change? Well, a lot, but it’s not unachievable:

• You don’t need to make any changes to Age of Ultron. It does feature Tony’s multi-part armour, which appears first in Iron Man 3, but not in a major enough way to appear as a successor.
• You’d need a voice actor to replace Jarvis with Friday in Iron Man 3. Jarvis is quite generic here, so you could ultimately just re-record all of Jarvis’ lines with a good imitation of Friday’s voice.
• You’d also need a Tony voice actor in Iron Man 3 to replace every time he references ‘Jarvis’ with ‘Friday’. There’s quite a few of these, but thankfully both words have the same mouth movements, at least.
• You’d want to add a little to the references to ‘New York’ as Tony’s trauma to also include ‘Ultron’/‘Killer Robots’/‘AI’
• You’d have to cut the fact that Tony’s narrating to Banner, since Banner by this time has left in the quinjet to star in Thor: Ragnarok. But you could still have the narration as a frame.
• You’d probably want to use the opportunity to change Tony’s opening narration, to establish something like:
  • “A famous man once said ‘We create our own demons’. Well, I tried to create a guardian for the world and sure enough, I created a demon. I called him Ultron. Ugh… I need to start again. Let’s track this from the beginning, back when I really was a villain.”
  • [Killian/Maya opening, where Tony’s a dick to Killian, triggering his personal vendetta]
  • “So anyway, where am I now? I joined the Avengers, fought some aliens, tried to defend the world, made a demon, and for that? Got kicked out. At least Rhodey’s still got the sense to play both sides, but Cap won’t even take my calls. So I turned back to the only people who’ll have me, and the only thing I was ever good at.”
  • [Back in the garage, building the new Iron Man suit]
• The end narration you could tweak too, but it’d be more minor, since it already wraps up everything fairly well.

What do you think? Is there anything there that I’ve missed? Anything there that doesn’t work? Anything that would need fixing?