EddieDean

Right! Of my Onderon arc, the first part (Rebels of Onderon) is rendering now, and I just need to put the presentation polish on the second half (Kings of Onderon) so that shouldn’t be far behind.

I’m glad, because in the end I did manage to find some trims to my second episode:

Firstly, I sped up the transition between the rescue in the royal square and the arrival back in the wilderness, so that now having saved the King the rebels immediately flee the city, rather than conducting a few more operations within it first over a number of days. The action now happens over a single day, with King Rash immediately pursuing them into the wilderness with his full force, so it feels a lot more tense.

Secondly, as much as I love Hondo, I removed him altogether. Previously the attack on the rebel base was conducted in phases, with enough downtime during them for Ahsoka to call Anakin, Anakin to fly to Felucia, Hondo to fly to Onderon, and Ahsoka to distribute the rockets. This added implied hours to the battle. Now, the rebels already have the anti-air rockets, and once their own assumed air superiority gets challenged by the new droid airships, they quickly move to fetch and distribute the guns. It’s no less tense, and this worked out suprisingly smoothly. There’s still a good amount of battle though since it’s a visually interesting one in an otherwise quite political episode.

As always in line with my editing goals, I strove to retain all of the emotional beats and character work, whilst keeping the jeopardy high and the pacing quite tight.

Good progress on the Onderon arc today, it’s nearly done.

I’ve finished the cuts for the first episode, getting the meat down shorter than expected to about 30 minutes. Since the first of my episodes contains the first two episodes of the original arc, we didn’t need the scene where they get attacked to prove their growing skill, as they successfully carry out the strike on the power generator now in my first episode’s second half. I’ve preserved almost all of Ahsoka’s jealousy, except for one scene I had to trim just to get the rebels from finishing their training transitioning into their move on the capital city. I also cut Saw being jealous of Steela - instead, when she’s voted as their leader, he celebrates.

The second of my episodes will probably remain quite long, since I can’t really find any content that needs cutting. I’m not a huge fan of this because I think the quality of the content doesn’t quite warrant a 50-minute runtime, but I don’t think I have an option here.

The main change I’ve made between the original presentation of this arc and my own is that I’ve moved all scenes of the kings into the second episode only. So the first episode purely focuses on the training and first success of the rebels, and will thus be called REBELS OF ONDERON. I’ve then moved the kings into the second episode, with a bit of dialogue modification, so that one then focuses entirely on the kings and their generals (and the rebellion), and will thus be called KINGS OF ONDERON.

I’m not sure exactly when I’ll have this finished, but it should be earlyish next week.

(Reposting from quite a few pages back)

I’d also prefer to not have to use opening text, since it’s not exactly a modern convention, and it’s always better to “show, don’t tell”. But I think I have to, for a few reasons:

Firstly, even in the original versions of some episodes, the newsreel at the beginning carried important exposition that the episodes didn’t cover. Dropping the newsreel - which I think is the right move to mature the tone and give me more editing control - means losing that expositon, which means needing to find an alternate home for it. A good example of this is the holocron arc, where the plotline of Cad Bane finding master Ropal actually happened in the newsreel between two episodes of the arc.

Secondly, sometimes in order to better pace or restructure an episode, I want the ability to cut exposition sequences from the episodes themselves. A one minute text description up front is better than many boring minutes I may have to keep in order to preserve a bit of explanation. A good example of this is my Christophsis, where I can get the main characters onto the planet and establish their mission and relationships without any faff, meaning we only have entertaining content to enjoy.

Thirdly, sometimes I want to recontextualise something that’s going to appear in the episode. In my Domino Squad episode I felt like my big change to make their initial failiure send them to the outpost could have done with more clarity, so I used the intro text to emphasise that they risk lesser duties if they fail. Or in my Holocron episode, to intercut Holocron (Bane + shapeshifter) with Hostage Crisis (Bane + posse), I used the text to emphasise that Bane’s a guy with a network of specialist associates.

Fourthly, I can use it to make causal links. My original Christophsis left the matter of a mole in the Republic open, and reminding the viewer of the Republic mole in Cloak of Darkness encourages the viewer to infer that it’s Argyus, since he matches that role. Mental niggle now removed - and implicitly now the viewer will be more comfortable with any elements not answered in a given episode, trusting it will be addressed later. (Note: I dropped this specific example more recently, but it was useful at the time and I may use this technique again.)

Fifthly, I can also, for example, highlight characters or events a bit more directly, so that the viewer is a little more likely to pay attention to the elements of the episodes that I think are the strongest. Emphasising the Satine angle in our first Mandalore episodes means we treat her as less of a single episode character, and pay particular attention to her. I’ll be doing the same with the political situation in the next Mandalore episode, since it’s important to the later Mauldalore arc.

Sixthly, I can use it like a “previously on The Clone Wars”, like with the Maul arc.

And finally, when I’m not using it for those purposes, I try to use it as an opportunity to keep the viewer on top of the ‘state of the galaxy’, and give a bit more of a sense of the ebb and flow of the war, and keep the whole feeling cohesive. In my first season I tried to emphasise that all of the Separatists attacks were against strategic targets - making them more of a competent threat - but that the Republic during that season successfully established a foothold. In the second season, it’s the rise of scum and villainy, etc.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that while these may be boring for the preexistent Clone Wars viewer, who knows all the necessary context, for the new Clone Wars viewer this infodump may be important to their understanding and enjoyment, therefore a more engaging way to start the episode than it would be for an existing one.

In conclusion, I think it’s more valuable to have it than not. That said though, that’s not me trying to shut down discussion on this, because I think it’s a worthy topic. If I’m missing the bar on any of that, it’s definitely worth discussing. If there are elements of the intro crawls which you guys think I should change, or apply better to achieve the above goals, or additional things I should use those crawls for, I’m all ears.

(I should emphasise here, when I share things like this, it really isn’t to shut down discussion - it’s just to “show my working” and share my thought process on the raised subject. I don’t ever want the fact that I’ve thought about something a bunch to make people feel like I consider the matter final. I can expand on any of this stuff, and there’s nothing in this process or these episodes that I wouldn’t welcome other people’s input on.)

In terms of the format, obviously text gives me the most flexibility - I don’t really have the ability to use any other format, and modifying the newsreel would be too limiting. Luckily, Star Wars as a franchise uniquely has a tolerance for text crawls, so if you can get away with it anywhere, you can get away with it here. Much like wipe transitions, it’s very much a dead medium, but this particular franchise grants a lucky amount of leeway.

My goal, I suppose, is to make this show as good as it can be - even if that ultimately means it still doesn’t pass the modern bar for quality. Because people will always love Star Wars and want the fuller picture - especially now that so much is calling back to TCW - and TCW doesn’t deserve to be the black sheep that people feel they have to avoid or resentfully trudge through. I can’t remove all the imperfections, and sometimes I’ll have to replace one imperfection with another, but ultimately every judgment has to be made against the goal of making the entirety of the experience I produce as palatable as possible - which might incorporate an up-front minute of boredom per episode. I’ll always continue to encourage discussion though, not least because you guys will have new ideas which help me bring up that quality level and minimise those imperfections.

(And if it’s a maths game, you may be pleased to know I’ve already shaved off fourteen hours of almost universally absolute dreck in those thirty episodes released to date alone, and the final 50 episodes should be saving you about 17 hours total.)

Del’s a woman, but yes! OK then, I’ll take a look at refining Dark Force Rising a little further. I’m still split on the inclusion of Bail, but I think what I might do as part of the next polish pass is release some alternate versions so everyone has an A and B to compare to.

Goddamn, Delpheas, that’s some wonderful feedback and ideas.

I LOVE your idea for the hybrid Tartakovsky/TCW:R intro.

And I really, really appreciate that level of detail on the feedback. This is real actionable stuff, and makes me excited about another polish pass. Please keep it coming.

I’ll respond in full soon, I just wanted to get that out here.

Artan, you’ve hit the nail on the head there with the audio transitions - that’s (generally) as they were. That said, if any in particular are jarring I’ll definitely see what I can do.

Delpheas said:

Their isn’t really a contradiction regarding Anakin’s position on the council. Amongst the Prequel Jedi, there are four 4 rankings any Jedi can achieve: Youngling, Padawan, Knight, and Master.
After graduating from Padawan, one is a Knight, many Jedi probably stay at this rank, but those who successfully train a padawan all the way to knighthood are granted the rank of Master. And only Masters can sit on the council. Since Ahsoka left before she was Knighted, Anakin technically didn’t finish her training. Which only adds to his bitterness about being given a council seat, but not a new title. Cus it was the council’s own BS that caused Ahsoka to leave.

Just a thought on this to help clarify. The formal rankings are Youngling, Padawan, Knight and Master. However, when a Knight trains a Padawan, the Padawan would still refer to the person training them as ‘master’. So there are ‘masters’ in the training sense, and ‘Masters’ the formal rank.

Anakin was Ahsoka’s master, but he was never a Jedi Master.

Regarding the 03 Clone Wars footage and the convo from crystal crisis, neither are going to make an appearance in this edit. Both are going to be used in EddieDean’s The Clone Wars: Restructured in some fashion however, so check that out if you’re interested. I’m kinda considering this the movie version of the TCW:R finale.

Wow, I just popped in to check on progress here, I wasn’t expecting to hear that! ❤️

Delpheas said:

Anyway, I was considering waiting until I had watched all of S1 before offering my thoughts, but I figure I’ll give 'em as I go.

Keep 'em coming! I love detailed feedback like this. After season three I’ll do a polish pass of seasons one and two, and I’ve had good indepth feedback from you and at least two others recently, so I’m looking forward to doing a nice batch of refinements.

0100 Dark Force Rising

I know you already stated your reasons for not formatting this episode as part of the series proper, but I would love an alternative version with at least the TCW:R logo for the opening.

Ah, perhaps I should then, for s01e00 and s03e00. Wrap them in properly.

This episode just feels so necessary to me. Though in a single episode like this the long sequences without dialogue and just fighting really drag and could use a trim.

I would consider trimming down and/or cutting the instances of Obi-wan berating Anakin and verbally doubting his readiness for assignments. By the end of the episode he’s giving Anakin a supportive speech about how much he’s grown and matured as his padawan and it doesn’t feel like something Anakin earned over the arc of the episode, it just feels abrupt. And it’s a retread of their dynamic from AotC. It feels especially weird when in the next episode he’s suggesting Anakin is ready to submit for a padawan of his own.

I wasn’t intending to do anything radical to the Tartakovsky content, even though it’s a little jarring compared to TCW, since ultimately Tartakovsky’s gonna Tartakovsk. It’s such a stylised thing that I always felt like it was best allowed to remain in his signature style - other than the elements I always found particularly conflicting with the canon. I’m not married to that decision though and I could take it further if there’s popular support. I’d be interested in specific lines/elements which people think should be removed.

0101 - The New Padawan

Love the opening stinger. It immediately caught my attention and made me curious about what’s going on.

I really like it too. To my mind, it’s part of the “promise” of TCW:R as opposed to TCW. It’s TCW:R saying “This show’s going to emphasise Maul and the Mandalorians, it’s going to bring them together, and oh hey look here’s the Darksaber and Bo Katan.” I also think there’s value in putting it right up front during what I think are the weakest parts of TCW:R - the very start - to generate some momentum that might carry a viewer through it.

That said, people have a valid objection to it, which is that (while we do get our hints of Maul and Mandalore in season one,) we don’t get back to this scene ‘in real time’ until mid/late season three. And there’s certainly a good argument which says “don’t promise something you don’t deliver on for three seasons”. Does knowing that change your opinion on its worthiness?

Admiral Yularen says he’s gonna drop off the “message” at 07:45. The transition was weird. Noticed this in a few other places in other episodes too. Where ibwaa expecting a wipe, there was fast fade to Black and then the next scene.

I’ll review these.

When Ventress makes her entrance, is there any instance of Anakin saying “Ventress” that could be used here, instead of Obi-wan saying it? Any Anakin line that could be used to express disbelief that she’s alive?

Obi-wan flirting with her at all feels out of place, not because he’s never met her, but because last he knew, Anakin had killed her and it was that victory that proved he was ready to he knighted.

To my mind, they learn that Ventress survived offscreen, hence why they’re tracking her in the crawl. Anakin doesn’t need to have killed her to earn a knighting - simply ‘defeating’ her should suffice. I borrowed Smudger’s audio here to at least refer to their original meeting. I will look for an Anakin line though - they don’t actually meet that much in TCW but the Kamino episode might have the line.

I know we’re going to see her again in later episodes, but I missed having any kind of scene where she reported to Dooku or something. Her just vanishing felt odd.

Weirdly enough this is kind of how it is, if I remember right. I don’t think there’s a Dooku conversation, she just talks to that horrible Scottish general then fucks off. My read on this whole situation is that she kind of drew Anakin and Obi-Wan to her mainly so they’d be in the building with her whilst the Separatists were dropping a landing party, at which point it was job done. Though I agree it doesn’t really make much sense.

At 19:24-25, there is an abrupt audio cut and click as it goes from Kenobi to Anakin and Ahsoka

At 23:30 we here Yularan say “reinforcements should be landing in a moment”, but there is no one in frame when he says it and it is unclear who it is directed to. Would be less odd to me if the sound of the shuttle we hear as he’s speaking didn’t cut out abruptly and faded into the shot of Rex. This would help it feel like a connected audio moment.

Noted on these!

Regarding Bail thanking Anakin for his help, a verbal “Your Welcome Senator” or “Of course Senator” or a “Just doing my job Senator” from Anakin would help it feel less out of place. As it is, the only problem I have with this bit is it feels like Bail’s being ignored, so he feels like he was just added in.

I agree that this inclusion just doesn’t quite work. This is how it was originally, Bail says “thanks” and then we cut immediately away to some other clones without any response from Anakin. I really don’t know what my options are here though. Definitely the inclusion of Bail’s three scenes is something I’m still on the fence on. I’d love to keep him since Bail’s good value, “you served my father in the clone wars”, and ultimately his presence here slightly ups the stakes, but it does feel a little disjointed. There is certainly an argument for trimming him entirely just for the sake of getting through this first episode as smoothly as possible in order to build confidence in the project.

I think you should keep Rex introducing Ahsoka to the boys in “The New Padawan” it’s a fun moment which is also important for the all her interactions with the clones and it sets up the finale. In Malevolence, if the viewer hasn’t seen Ahsoka meet the clones, it is odd when one just recognizes her. Sure the viewer can assume they’ve been introduced, but why leave that to an assumption when it can be shown?
Plus ending with Ahsoka gently ribbing Anakin in front of the clones is great setup for their dynamic.

I’ll check this!

01E2 - The Death Watch

This episode was strong, well paced, and enjoyable. Good job. Not much else to say here. You removed the most egregious parts of the episodes seamlessly.

Woop woop! I’m dead pleased with the removal of the conveyor belt, that scene remains the most technical single scene edit I’ve done.

S1E3 - Malevolence

At 2:14-15, as the clone watches the ship crash into him through the window, there’s a rogue frame.

At 7:44-45 the audio transition could be smoother. The whole cut felt a bit abrupt from the clone talking to the ship in hyperspace.

At 22:9-10, another rogue frame.

Thank you!

I do miss seeing Anakin go out of his way to rescue Padme in the Malevolence arc, but I do also like seeing them together less as it helps sell the issues they experience later on. And not seeing her until the “season finale” works well.

The Anakin/Padmé scenes in Malevolence were fine, maybe even cute, but I felt I had to cut them because (1) the contrivance to get them into that situation cheapens quite a few characters, (2) the action on the Malevolence is particularly goofy, with the trains and the droids in particular, (3) It completely throws off the pacing of the arc. But I agree, waiting until the S1 finale works (with a good “it’s been ages since I saw you” scene), and then we get more of her later in the show.

Season 1 Thoughts, So Far:

This is a marked improvement over the original first season, notably the first episodes, with much of the gunk removed and the good stuff uplifted with tighter editing and excellent rearranging.

That’s the goal, so I’m super happy that’s your takeaway!

One thing:

The intro text for “The Death Watch” sets up that Anakin is off somewhere WITH Ahsoka, so I was really thrown when he showed up in this episode without her. It doesn’t feel narratively satisfying to have the next time we see him after he gets his padawan, for her to be missing. Especially since we haven’t really had an opportunity to watch them grow into their new roles at this point. He literally just decided that he isn’t gonna pawn her off on Obi-wan.

I think Malevolence would make a better episode 2 than “The Death Watch” as it has Anakin with Ahsoka, gives us more time to absorb her as a character, and ends in such a way that it doesn’t feel odd to not see her in the next ep. “The New Padawan” ended with them going off to check on the fleet, and the Malevolence stuff is entirely focused on that. And so it kinda felt like it was continuing on from where New Padawan ended.

And a quick glance at the opening crawl for “501st Legion” shows that it would work just fine with Ep 2 & 3 swapped.
Though I would still want TDW’s crawl wording to be less confusing regarding Ahsoka if possible.

Yes, I intend to reorder some of season one, I think. Imhotep (I believe, sorry if I’m wrong) suggested a good reordering for season one which fixed the matter of Ahsoka’s early absence plus made the development of the villains, and particularly Ventress, flow really well.

P.s. I love the titles you came up with for the 03 sections of Tales from the Clone Wars. So much fun! Which is what this ep is gonna feel like, a fun bridge between 2 & 3.

Good fun eh!

Edit: so just musing about how to present the series finale, cus having watched RotS-NCC on its own, Siege of Mandalore on its own, and then my combination edit, I have a hard time imagining getting to the end of the series and not watching the full ending. If it’s just Siege of Mandalore then about 20 min in you lose two of your main characters and only see one of them 1 more time, and there’s no context for Vader’s appearance. Whereas RotS-NCC on its own just feels incomplete. You wonder the whole time, where is Ahsoka, Rex and Maul?

But 3 1/2 hrs is a lot, and I’m wondering if splitting into two or episodes might not be a bad idea?

No need to respond to these musing atm, I know S5 is a ways off. 😃

I’ve thought about this a little. In the most simple case, I might place the first two(?) Siege of Mandalore episodes before ROTS, leaving the second two to be played afterwards (rather than interspliced). But I might also do something more radical, and chop ROTS into episodes too, so the whole thing can flow a bit more naturally. I’m not certain yet.

RogueLeader said:

If you couldn’t make a “dream” sequence work, perhaps you could do something similar to the politics of war episode, where you put audio over Padmé walking the streets of Coruscant, illustrating what is currently going through her mind. You could probably trim that fireside conversation down if necessary as well. Perhaps you could have a scene of Anakin brooding, but also cut to flashbacks of Ahsoka leaving, of Obi-Wan, etc, to extend the moment a little as well.

Yeah, something like that could also be possible. If there are quiet moments I’ll try backing them with “memory” audio. I can’t remember what episode it was in, but I think there’s a quiet scene of Anakin sitting in his dormitory(?) in the Jedi temple at some point, which also might work.

I haven’t rewatched that arc in awhile, so I can’t think of a particular moment where it could fit. Are you including the Trace and Rafa arc for Season 7?

Yeah. Quite heavily trimmed around the middle, if I remember right. It’s ultimately a strong arc, it’s just that the two middle episodes have quite a lot of repetitive or redundant content which whacks the pacing right off.

RELEASED - s03e00 (v2.0) - TALES OF THE CLONE WARS

33m16s.
This is a bonus episode, part of the Continuity Cut (for those who want maximum connective tissue), but not vital.
Comprising the Mon Cala, Dantooine and Ilum plots from the Tartakovsky microseries (as in v1.1), but now including five Forces of Destiny shorts: 104 Padawan Path, 106 Imposter Inside, 111 Teach You I Will, 112 Starfighter Stunt, and 202 Unexpected Company.
Most notably it features some key steps for Ahsoka that bridge my seasons two and three, and builds on the relationship between Ahsoka and Padmé.
Idea by Delpheas.
Notes as above, link in the tracker spreadsheet (a bit lower down so scroll down for it), PM for access to the spreadsheet.

Next up, Onderon to complete season three!

I think so. I’m limited in my options, but certainly the audio over some imagery. Perhaps the new CG version. Perhaps just a crackling fire in the sand. Perhaps some sort of dreamy VFX over it. It’s totally not something I currently have much skill at, if any. I’d be interested in ideas.

I just feel like pairing the “memory” of discussing Ahsoka’s loss with the imagery of Anakin being jealous and violent is the best we can do with what we have.

RogueLeader said:

one of these anthology episodes might be a good place to include that animated short someone did of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s fireside conversation from Crystal Crisis.

Well, if you’ll recall, my intention is to merge that fireside chat with the Scipio arc, so Anakin’s wrathful/jealous behaviour there might be interpreted as his only onscreen (over/)reaction to the loss of Ahsoka.

I hope your Dad enjoys them! I agree that these Tartakovsky/Forces of Destiny bits aren’t super important, but that they’re just little nibbles between meals. It won’t quite work as one per season, but eh, we take what we can get. These will never be Quality Cut, but I think this episode will be Continuity - worthy for those who care about the connective tissue of the franchise.

Right, that’s rendering now! I hope I got the right render settings - it’s been a while since I did a Tartakovsky edit so I’m not sure I’ve got it all right this time. [EDIT: Video was fine but the audio’s fucked, so don’t expect it quite so soon]

I ended up going with the idea I had above, of splitting out Mace Windu’s episode. I couldn’t think of an alternative way that wasn’t jarring, since Padmé and Yoda appear in so many of these. This way, it almost feels like it could flow over roughly a couple of weeks, though I don’t know if the pacing might take a little hit here.

I kept the Tartakovsky Clone Wars opening titles and credits (because I want it to still say ‘I’m something a bit different’), though since Forces of Destiny gives each episode its own little title and I didn’t want to cut around them, I opted to add FoD-like titles to each Tartakovsky arc. Which is a bit cheeky, but good fun. RogueLeader will like them at least 😉 (New names in bold)

The episode is now 33 mins long and plays out like this:

1. Teach You, I Will (FoD 111) - gives Ahsoka her second lightsaber
2. Ocean Commotion - the Kit Fisto/Mon Calamari Tartakovsky arc
3. Impostor Inside (FoD 106) - shows Ahsoka and Padmé bonding over a little action
4. Danger on Dantooine - Mace fights droids, with a cliffhanger as he gets surrounded
5. Starfighter Stunt (FoD 112) - shows Ahsoka and Padmé’s relationship growing as they deliberately do something fun together
6. Destruction on Dantooine - Mace destroys the droid smasher
7. Unexpected Company (FoD 202) - Ahsoka tries to join her new buddy Padmé, inadvertently deepening their relationship in a direction they didn’t intend
8. Crystal Crisis - the complete Ilum arc, thus named as homage to the lost TCW episode. Here we assume it’s some time after Unexpected Company, since Padmé is now accompanied by Yoda, but what can you do. At least the part where Padmé and Yoda enter the plot is after we’ve been following only Barriss and Luminara for a while, so stuff can happen in that timeframe.
9. Padawan Path (FoD 104) - where Ahsoka gets her longer braid, transitioning us properly into season three.

I agree. Of all of the spinoffs from the Tartakovsky Clone Wars onwards, only the CG Clone Wars had that haphazard approach where every arc existed very much in isolation. There were throughlines, and world and character development, but as you say, there was very little attention paid to flow between this arc and the next.

And only the CG Clone Wars had such a radical range of tones. Tartakovsky’s CW had the humour in the animation and some ludicrous power scaling, Rebels was a little childish, Resistance was a little ‘HEY KIDS YEAH WOO!’, but only in TCW did you have a beheading during a military coup in one episode, and Jar Jar pretending to be a bombad general the next.

I’m going to eventually put some thought into what polish Rebels and Resistance might need, but IMO it’s always been TCW that REALLY needed a good tightening.

Feedback here’s been quiet lately, which I’m taking as a good sign, though I’m still very eager to have any and every decision challenged - especially regarding the episodes I am or am not including, and the flow between them. It was good arguments from the community early on which caused me to include some I’d otherwise not have, like Ryloth, Umbara, and Onderon. But maybe there are good arguments for episodes like Dooku Captured? Who knows?

Anyway, I’m working on Tales From the Forces of the Clone Destiny Wars now, and will probably have that done today!

Artan42 said:

The cut itself only went a bit sticky after the sudden zoom into Dooku’s hidden base and the sudden introduction of the rest of the crew and Bane’s takeover of the mission with Eval not sulking about it despite his massive ego (still present in the cut).

Thanks Artan. Can you expand on this a little please? When you say ‘a bit sticky’, do you mean that those establishing shots don’t quite work? Or something graphical? Or are you referring to the story regarding the introduction of the full crew?

Do you think that excluding the introduction of the additional group members constituted a narrative hole, or do you think it was forgivable? If a hole, do you think it would be patched by mentioning Bane’s established ability to quickly pull together a crew in the opening text, or does it feel like more is needed?

szopman said:

Do, why didn’t you decide to do one 60min episode out of 5x14,15 and 16? I mean, it’s a one straight story.

This was an option I could have chosen because they have at least small timeskips between each episode, rather than being explicitly back-to-back.

I did choose this option for the following reasons. I believe that one of the strongest parts of TCW was the Maul/Mandalore plotline (composed of brilliant episodes/arcs and paid of wonderfully by the season finale). It’s also something that I think would be most interesting to the new viewer of TCW, who may be familiar with The Mandalorian (and therefore be interested in additional content there) or to the viewer who only knows the prequels and expects that a TV series would simply take us from AOTC to ROTS in a straightforward way (in which case the introduction of these new wildcards and third parties not mentioned in the movies may show that there’s an unexpected, and therefore more interesting, story to be told here). Furthermore, originally the Mandalore plot was quite sparse, and especially the Maul plot only kicked off very late in the story - the last 40% of the series. So I wanted to turn the Maul/Mandalore plotline into more of the ‘spine’ of my show, having it begin earlier and develop progressively over time - kind of in the way that Moff Gideon doesn’t appear in EVERY episode of the Mandalorian, but in each appearance the threat of him grows and continues to hang over the show even in his absence. To achieve this kind of ‘maximum throughline’, that meant splitting the Maul/Mandalore content into more smaller chunks, rather than fewer larger chunks.

When it comes to Ahsokas trial, I’d leave 5x17 as a separate one, since it’s has a different, more chill csi spoof, vibe and then present the 3 other episode as one story

That sounds eminently sensible. If you’re familiar with my tracker spreadsheet you can see that some future (and previously some past) episodes have been listed as e.g. s03e08/09, indicating that I’m not sure if I’ll split an arc into one or two episodes. I ended up putting Umbara and Rako Hardeen as a single episode, whereas it looks like Onderon and Yoda’s Quest will become two. I expect to conduct the same review process for Ahsoka’s Fall, and will likely end up splitting it out as you suggest.

Updated the OP a little for clarity and detail.

RogueLeader said:

I wasn’t sure about adding the Forces of Destiny stuff at first, but it does give you more Padmé content. And Padmé and Ahsoka teaming up regularly helps build up their friendship in their Clone Wars episodes. I think it makes sense that Ahsoka would kind of know about Anakin and Padmé, so I think it would benefit to include that implication.

Also, I LOVE the new Revival title, Pirates of the Outer Rim.

I think Del’s idea to include the FoD stuff would upgrade the current Tales from the Clone Wars episode to at least Continuity level, since it fills in a few gaps, and with the added focus on main characters it’s a bit more important now. And as you say, Ahsoka/Padmé is a good pairing, and this episode would fit nicely between their first kind-of-joint-mission on Mandalore and their larger friendship in The Politics of War.

I thought you’d like Pirates of the Outer Rim! 😉 It’s got that nice pulpy feel, while also being totally appropriate since the episode is about two groups of pirates.

Delpheas said:

That might work!

Edit: Also, your version of “Lightsaber Lost” has a crawl that references having just faced off with Hondo, yet where your episode order places it, they haven’t met him yet. Did I miss an update about that episode that you haven’t gotten around to yet?

Good spot, thank you! I’ve reordered it.

I think one of the cool things about including the FOD episode where Ahsoka learns that Padmé and Anakin are romantically involved is that it then kind of enhances why Padmé and Ahsoka want to spend more time together (e.g. with Padmé teaching Ahsoka about politics) - from Padmé’s perspective she’s got someone she can confide in, or at least someone who understands that part of her; and from Ahsoka’s, it’s almost a bit of a family thing.

Delpheas said:

Narratively not having it though, almost gives the proposed episode a nice flow, that that episode would interrupt. Part of me wants to say maybe leave it out, despite what it might add. Idk.

I could maybe break the Mace Windu episode, that is two parts with a brief beat in the middle.

Ohhhhh that line is a real value add then if it DOES get that payoff. Good spot. You’ve got a great memory for all of this detail.

Delpheas said:

So I’m still working my way through what you’ve put out so far and typing up my thoughts, but I did have a few thoughts I wanted to share.

Regarding your “Tales from the Clone Wars” microseries episode, I would suggest giving it an episode number that places it somewhere in/after your production season 3, since it includes Barriss and Luminara, which a) helps re-establish Barriss before we see her again at the end of your season 4, and b) has Luminara congratulating her on finishing her training as a padawan, which helps explain the lack of Luminara’s presence in the Ahsoka’s Fall arc.

Additionally, there are five episodes of the Forces of Destiny webseries that feature Clone Wars characters, mostly Anakin/Ahsoka/Padme. Specifically they show Ahsoka training to use her shoto and and her being given her longer Padawan beads. I was considering editing them into a “Tales of the Padawan/Jedi” anthology episode that I could contribute to this project and could be a suggested episode right before “The Politics of War”

So, back to thoughts about this! (I’m having a very productive day!)

You’re quite right about my Tales, in that it formally concludes Barriss’ padawan training, meaning it really should fit somewhere between the end of my season 2 (Geonosis) and the end of my season 5 (Ahsoka’s Fall). And earlier in that timeframe feels better.

And equally, those five episodes of Forces of Destiny (5x3 mins) are great fun, and add a few nice moments which are additive to a canon run of TCW. As you suggest, they fit between seasons 2 and 3.

So here’s an idea: How about combining both my existing Tales From the Clone Wars and the Forces of Destiny shorts, into episode zero of season three, a cartoon bonus episode? I’ve always intended that the Geonosis arc’s nice trauma with the worms was a maturing point for Ahsoka and led into the costume change, so it’d be cool to have the episode immediately following it showing both Ahsoka and Barriss progressing formally in their training.

In terms of the ordering, I’m not quite sure what’d work, because you’d ideally avoid having the same character back-to-back with themselves and there’s quite a lot of Ahsoka/Padmé/Yoda in these. But perhaps something like:

• FOD11 (Teach You, I Will) - Ahsoka trains with Yoda and Anakin with her second lightsaber (which appears in other FOD episodes)
• TFTCW1 - Kit Fisto defends Mon Calamari
• FOD6 (Impostor Inside) - Ahsoka guards Padmé at her home and defends her from a shapeshifter
• TFTCW2 - Mace Windu defends Dantooine
• FOD12 (Starfighter Stunt) - Ahsoka takes Padmé flying and Padmé ends up saving them both from a droid
• TFTCW3 - Barriss and Luminara are trapped, before being rescued on Ilum by Padmé and Yoda (who arrive later so at least it’s not completely back-to-back)
• FOD4 (Padawan Path) - Ahsoka fights a robot and receives her braid from Yoda and Anakin

The last one’s a bit tricky though:

• FOD18 (Unexpected Company) - Ahsoka tags along on an Anakin/Padmé transport mission, and pretty explicitly works out that they have a secret romance.
  I’m a bit torn on this one because Forces of Destiny is such a fringe bit of SW media that most people are unlikely to have seen, and it feels a bit extreme to me that she knew for all of that time. Hm…

Interested on thoughts for this!

Right then, that’s the Onderon arc reviewed. This’ll become the finale of season three, also bringing the Lux mini-arc to a close. I don’t think it’s a super strong arc, with fairly low emotional stakes for our main characters, but it does wrap up a few themes of this season, and the presence of Saw Gererra and the initial seeds of rebellion give some value, especially since we revisit Saw’s rebels in the Bad Batch.

Each episode is split from the others by a time skip, so there were a few ways to cut this, but I think thematically it works best as two sets of two episodes.

In my first episode, we’d have the Republic secretly training the rebels, up until the point where the rebels destroy the power generator and begin to win popular support. I think I’d trim out the droid attack in the jungle, the entrance to the city, and a little of the montage sequence, just to get us from training to the first (clumsy) rebel action in a bit more of a streamlined way. I’ll keep all of the training since it’s decent character work and one of the main things referenced in the Bad Batch. This’ll probably end up around 40 mins.

In my second episode, we’d have the conflict between the two kings, the popular uprising, and the separatist attack on the rebel encampment. I think the split works well here because at the start of episode three of the original quadrilogy the rebels appear much more competent. There’s not much to cut here, though I will look for a few trims because to me this episode does feel a bit slow. I’ll shuffle around the scenes of the Separatist king a little between my first and second episode, so that it’s only this episode which has the focus on the Separatist angle and the internal politics, and to remove a little redundancy. I’ll trim one scene of Hondo where we see his base, because in my chronology it’s destroyed (or under repair) at this time and I don’t want to mention that in my opening text as it’ll spoil his suprise arrival. That scene can be cut without impact though, as it’s explained in dialogue around it exactly what’s happening/happened. This’ll probably end up around 50 mins.

Oh and for fun I updated the spreadsheet so now it tracks how much time I’ve cut. As of today:

• I’ve produced 30 episodes
• The main version of TCW:R, my Quality Cut, is 63% complete
• I’ve released 17h11m of content
• I’ve cut 14h12m so far from the original TCW

RE-RELEASED - s02e06 - MONSTERS

Just a new version of what was s02e06 The Return of Maul, with the name changed in the file and the video track too.

Onwards to the Onderon arc!

RE-RELEASED - s03e02 - PIRATES OF THE OUTER RIM

Just a new version of what was s03e02 Revival, with the name changed in the file and the video track too.

I’m now re-uploading a new version of The Return of Maul with the name changed to ‘Monsters’.