EddieDean

(Edited previous post)

RELEASED - s03e07 - The Shadow Collective

Comprising Eminence.
Please be aware of the note on reordering the episodes in this season.

I made no changes to this whatsoever, so credit myself only as ‘Presented by’.
I did think about trimming out the Nal Hutta content because I think Don Corleone Hutt is goofy, and wanted to avoid overusing Nal Hutta and Embo this season, but with the restructuring of the season I thought it best to preserve what is otherwise a fairly enjoyable scene.
Download links in the tracker spreadsheet, PM for access to the spreadsheet.

I’m now re-uploading a new version of Revival with the name changed to ‘Pirates of the Outer Rim’.

You’re right that it’s fairly minor, I just figured I’d rather give her character a bit of time to breathe.

I had thought about including The Box as a bonus episode, but you’re right that making an extended version is the best choice. I can do that fairly easily, so I’ll consider it seriously. I don’t want to get into the habit of creating too many extended versions though, as it means making two sets of change for every one. But I’ll certainly consider it, and I’d be interested to know what elements people would like reinstated for extended episodes. I can have extended versions in my Canon or Complete Cuts, to replace existing Quality Cut episodes where viewers prefer. But I’ll only produce them once I’m sure I’ve finalised their parent version.

RELEASED - s03e05 - HUNTED

Comprising the Trandoshan arc.
Please be aware of the note on reordering the episodes in this season.

I made no changes to this arc beyond aggregation and the removal of Sugi. Sugi in this episode only has a single line and is seen in five shots, she’s the bounty hunter hired as a taxi service for the wookiees. Since she appears in my later s03e07 ‘The Shadow Collective’, I cut her from this mainly so we don’t see her in two very different jobs in such a short space of time.

Download links in the tracker spreadsheet, PM for access to the spreadsheet.

s03e07 The Shadow Collective is uploading now and will be available in a couple of hours.

A GENTLE RESTRUCTURING

Please be aware I’ve just made a light restructuring to season three. I’ve brought forward the Trandoshan arc from its planned place in my season four, and jiggled round some of the others. There were a few good reasons for this:

1. This season needed more Ahsoka, especially some Ahsoka story regarding more than just her relationship with Lux Bonteri.
2. The Trandoshan duology is also very similar to the Younglings arc, which also appears in my season four, so it made sense to split them.
3. This gave us more padding between the earlier and later Lux episodes (all appearing in this season), where he appears a bit more mature.
4. The Rako Hardeen arc covers a few locations and characters also covered by the Maul Shadow Collective episode, so I wanted to pace them out a little. (Nal Hutta, the Hutt with glasses, Embo)

So now, season three is structured as follows:

1. s03e01 - The Politics of War (from Heroes on Both Sides) - no change
2. s03e02 - Pirates of the Outer Rim - no change in positioning, just a renaming from ‘Revival’, which is not a theme of the episode.
3. s03e03 - A Friend in Need - formerly s03e04
4. s03e04 - The Death of Obi-Wan Kenobi (from the Rako Hardeen arc) - formerly s03e05
5. s03e05 - Hunted - from the Trandoshan duology - rendering now.
6. s03e06 - Dissent on Umbara (from the Umbara arc) - formerly s03e03
7. s03e07 - The Shadow Collective (from Eminence) - rendering now.
8. s03e08/09 - The Onderon arc, which I’ll be working on later today and tomorrow, and get to you ASAP.

If you have already downloaded those episodes, you need to do the following:

• Rename ‘s03e02-Revival’ to ‘s03e02-Pirates of the Outer Rim’ (and/or wait for me to upload a new version of it with the correct title)
• Rename ‘s03e03-Dissent on Umbara’ to ‘s03e06-Dissent on Umbara’
• Rename ‘s03e04-A Friend in Need’ to ‘s03e03-A Friend in Need’
• Rename ‘s03e05-The Death of Obi-Wan Kenobi’ to ‘s03e04-The Death of Obi-Wan Kenobi’
• Await the next three episodes eagerly!

Of course!!! Forces of Destiny! What a brilliant idea! I’d be happy to produce that myself or to include it if you create it, whatever works for you.

A little update on my current plans: I was going to refine a little more of S2 following feedback before sticking my teeth into S3, but I’ve really got the momentum up again right now so I’m veyr eager to spend that momentum on what feels more like forward progress.

So my plan is to finish S3 before returning for more polish on S1 and S2. I also noticed that my S3 is quite Ahsoka-light, so I’m going to pull her Trandoshan arc into S3. That’ll also give us a bit of necessary pacing regarding Nal Hutta, the Hutt Council, and Embo, all of which are needed in this batch of episodes because of the Maul episode I’ve placed near them. So I may do a little reordering.

I’ve got the next Maul episode (the Shadow Collective) almost done. I was thinking I’d trim the Nal Hutta content (for balance and because it’s the weakest and most redundant part of that episode) but I didn’t want to turn this into our shortest episode, and I think it’s fixed by being paced a little further from the Rako Hardeen arc. So I think I can just finish that off quickly tomorrow. The Trandoshan arc shouldn’t be far behind either, as it’s a straightforward aggregation that doesn’t need much work. And that just leaves the Onderon arc, which is a four-parter where a LOT happens but which retreads a lot of ground, so that one will definitely require a lot of careful thought.

Excited to share them and have your feedback, Del!

I agree that I would have liked to see Krell in a modified role. I was never a big fan of the Umbara arc, mainly because I felt like Krell was too much of a cackling villain who was offensive for the sake of it. I’ve tried to reduce that as much as possible, but I found that there was a necessary balance with having him be a hardliner versus still being a legitimate foil for the main characters, so settled on making him already in league with the Separatists and reducing a lot of the more cartoonish mannerisms.

Ultimately though, the purpose of his character is to represent ‘evil order’, which is the final step on Rex’s journey learning about his relationship with orders in preparation for Order 66. And there isn’t much more material that could be used to recontextualise his character.

Released - S03E05 - The Death of Obi-Wan Kenobi

Comprising the Rako Hardeen arc. Details as above. Download link in the tracker spreadsheet. PM for access to the spreadsheet.

And that’s rendering now. Should take a while as it’s my longest yet, at 55:45.

I’m really pleased with how that came out. As fun as The Box episode is, I think this way it plays as a much more focused episode that’s tighter on Obi-Wan and especially refocused on Anakin’s tension with the Jedi and his relationship with Palpatine.

I added a couple of nice touches I was pleased with too - firstly, I relocated Dooku’s Naboo base to the one he uses during other episodes, using establishing shots from Blue Shadow Virus (horrible!) and Shadow Warrior (the best JarJar episode; still horrible!).

Secondly, I added reference to Quinlan Vos as the Jedi who hunted down both Cad Bane and Moralo Eval. Whilst he doesn’t appear in my TCW:R, I thought this was a nice way to give him a nod (and inline with his canon appearances). Plus, one scene I’d hoped to include but ultimately had to cut was his fight with Cad Bane, so I think this is a way of flirting with some version of that fun scene, even though it’s not a part of TCW:R.

Really excited to share this one with you guys, it’s a great romp.

I’ve got a bunch of free time right now so I’ve decided to keep my momentum up in order to tackle some of the more challenging upcoming episodes. First up now is the Rako Hardeen arc, which I’ve just reviewed and taken notes on.

What a fun arc! It’s one of the purest fun Star Wars arcs in the series, I think. Just a complete romp from beginning to end.

This arc has four episodes:

1. Obi-Wan’s death and the Coruscant prison break
2. Obi-Wan, Moralo Eval and Cad Bane being pursued on Nal Hutta
3. The Box on Serenno
4. Moralo’s plan being enacted on Naboo

I have one big choice to make, and that’s whether to release it as 2x2 episodes or 1x3 episodes, based on whether or not I include The Box episode. Points in favour of the Box are that it’s very fun and with good action. Points against are that the arc is already fun and action-packed, and that nothing that happens in the Box is vital, it simply shows some of the decision making behind the crew makeup for the job. It also has little jeopardy, since the characters are either known to survive beyond this point or new. Further, taking out The Box makes this less of an Obi-Wan solo story and more of an Anakin/Obi-Wan Ahsoka story, which I think is a slightly more valuable focus in the long run. The Box also muddies the water a little by making the plan seem less well coordinated and more ad-hoc:

• is it Eval’s plan or Dooku’s?
• Doesn’t Dooku putting Eval in danger risk destroying his own plan?
• Eval betrays Obi-Wan, which seems an unprofessional act for someone so committed to getting this mission right.
• Dooku puts Cad Bane in charge. Why overrule the existing plan? There’s even dialogue in the final episode where Cad Bane and Moralo argue about the fact that it was Moralo’s plan which Cad Bane executed for him.

So my default here will be to remove that episode, fun as it is.

The other cuts I intend to make are as follows:

• Silence a line when Rako first enters the bar about “midichlorians”.
• Otherwise play the entirety of the first episode, with Obi-Wan’s death and the Coruscant prison break
• Swipe transition from the escape from Coruscant’s airspace into Nal Hutta’s arrival, and play the vast majority of the second episode with their pursuit on Nal Hutta by various people including Anakin
• Remove from the second episode the scenes of the first ship purchased by Obi-Wan, his getting kicked out of the group, the tracker, Obi-Wan’s capture by the authorities, the destruction of the first ship, reconciliation, and the purchase of the second ship. We’ll just have Obi-Wan buy the second ship offscreen. We don’t need all that tension between Obi-Wan and Cad Bane since there’s already plenty more elsewhere, and it’s verging on TOO suspicious here.
• Assuming the above, remove The Box (except the scenes where Anakin is pissed off at the Jedi), instead transitioning from the escape from Nal Hutta into the direct planning on Naboo.
• Play most of the final episode, skipping an initial raid on a warehouse (which adds little), and ending after the assassination attempt is resolved and Anakin and Obi-Wan talk about their issues with these events, rather than playing out the full epilogue.

I think I’ll be calling this episode THE DEATH OF OBI-WAN KENOBI, which all viewers will know is untrue, so I figure its boldness will produce some good curiosity here.

I’mma go do all that!

Hm, that’s a valid concern, thanks Hal. I wonder if someone who’s more familiar with the source material could chime in on that one. Given the cuts I’ve been making versus the original episodes, should I sometimes be keeping content in, in order to let the plot breathe a bit more? Do I have that option given the existing content?

Hal 9000 said:

Don’t have much to say but I recently watched a few episodes and appreciate having this series, WIP though it be.

There’s never any pressure to review if you don’t want to, but I’m curious what a new viewer’s thoughts about the existing episodes would be! What’s strong? What’s weak? How’s it pulling together as a whole?

Released - s03e04 - A Friend in Need

This is the first episode I’ve not edited in the slightest other than adding all of my usual opening and closing content, so I’m crediting myself only as ‘presented by’. I did think about trimming the R2D2 droid stuff, but it’s good body horror and it’s the good side of plucky/noble R2.

Great episode though, tying our season three opener to the ongoing Mandalorian plot.

Link in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access to the tracker.

I’m going to do the Maul Shadow Collective episode next as it’s another low-to-no edit and I’ve got the wind in my sails.

RELEASED - s02e05-B - ASSASSIN

This is not part of my Quality Cut, which is my recommended way to watch the series. Instead this episode is just part of the Complete Cut, for people who want everything except for the most objectionable content. I’ve edited this episode now because I stole one of its scenes to use in a more important episode in my Quality Cut, so I’ve trimmed it out here just so the two episodes don’t clash. I also trimmed the ending with Ziro the Hutt since he doesn’t appear anywhere else in TCW:R, so instead it ends on ambiguity as to who’s behind the assassination. But since in my s03e01 we see how many political enemies she has, we can simply assume it’s one of them.

Link in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access to the tracker.

My s03e04 - A Friend in Need is also done and rendering right now!

Oh boy, such usable feedback! Thanks so much guys.

Assassin (without Ziro, leaving the ending ambiguous) is uploading now. Then I’m going to do A Friend in Need, since that should be fairly easy, then work through all of the feedback to date. We should get a good burst of activity these next couple of weeks.

T-202 said:

I was watching The Blockade of Ryloth and noticed at around the 29 minute mark the audio is very out of sync with the visuals, It happened on both my laptop and phone.

I’ll check that, thanks.

djonesed said:

corruption on mandalore is labeled s02e05 and v1.0 in the spreadsheet but the linked file is named s02e04…(v0.1)?

Yes, I’ve decided to reorder those (just to better spread Ahsoka’s presence across the season) but haven’t got round to actually doing it yet. I’ll make that all clear in a specific post for it soon - probably with a bit of reordering to season one too, based on the earlier about developing Ventress.

Imhotep, I won’t give a detailed response to each of your points, suffice to say they’re all noted and I’ll run through them with my polish pass, but to be specific about a couple:

• I’ll do something extra with the bomb droids
• I’ll slightly switch up the imagery whilst Padmé walks alone
• Nice idea Imhotep (and Artan!) on the Tekla dialogue reordering.
• I know what you mean about Pursuit of Peace, I liked some of the drier politics too, but I think generally they’d put people off and that we probably should be a bit more punchy.
• I think I’ll stick with the truncated start to Umbara, even though those early fights are pretty, mainly because popcorn isn’t true sustenance! Since they’re the only real content cut, I figure that if someone really objected, they’d probably prefer the entire original quadrilogy over my edit.

Peonthegrate said:

I’ve just started watching and am a few “episodes” in. Really am enjoying it so far.

I have a few things of note though that I’m not crazy about.

In the first episode where ahsoka is introduced, I find the the bail organa scenes feel to me very out of place compared to e everything else.

Also a mino personal preference complaint for the rookies set if episodes, I like all the changes that were made, but I personally miss the droids asking if they take prisoners and heavy saying “I don’t”. I normally am not crazy about one liners like that, but for there I think it fits.

A few people have mentioned that about Bail, I think I’ll try a no-Bail version.

Noted on the Domino Squad trilogy, I’ll think over that scene some more.

Keep it coming! 😃

RogueLeader said:

I like option 1 a lot more. I think the ambiguity would give viewers something to chew on.

Yeah, I think that’s probably cleanest, especially since we do return to Padmé quite soon after this episode.

Here’s to 9,000 more!

Hmm. I’m just coming to polish up my s02e05b Assassin. Much like Lightsaber Lost, this isn’t one of my Quality Cut episodes (my ‘recommended TCW:R canon’) but it is one that I’ll include for people who want as much SW as they can get, whetever the quality. I used a scene from Assassin in my Corruption on Mandalore episode, so I’ve trimmed that out of this version so the two episodes don’t clash, and that’s basically all I planned to do here.

But I’m faced now with a dilemma. Ziro the Hutt doesn’t appear in any version of TCW:R now, with all of his episodes either relegated to being completely ignored, or in a couple of places chopped up for spare parts and used elsewhere, like my Cad Bane arc. But Assassin ends with the reveal that Ziro was behind it all.

I have two options here:

1. Just end on Ahsoka’s return to Coruscant and the beat of “we don’t know who did this”, with some context in the opening text to vaguely imply Padmé’s many enemies (which’ll be developed later in my s03e01 The Politics of War episode) EDIT: I’m going with this one
2. Maintain the Ziro ending, but have him not appear before or after this episode, so he’s implicitly just some minor criminal with a grudge. I could use the intro text to give a bit of that, though getting explicit would give away the ‘reveal’ and it wouldn’t be very impactful.

I don’t mind too much either way, since this isn’t an important episode to my edit, it’s just one I’m including as a bonus for people who already know they like this one.

What do you guys think?

RELEASED - S03E02 - REVIVAL

Details as above, link in the tracker spreadsheet, PM for access!

S03E02 - Revival - is uploading now.
This was an easy one, with just two trims. I cut Palpatine’ sneer at the very end, since in TCW:R I don’t want it to be explicit that Palpatine is malevolent for the sake of a chronological watch.

The other trim was removing the references to Hondo’s base being damaged by Grievous. You may recall that due to my restructuring to make Maul more of a constant presence in this show, this particular episode (Revival) was the one which had the most impact on the plot when it was moved. Adi Gallia dies in it, which is fine since her other appearances are trimmable, and also Hondo’s base isn’t destroyed till the Younglings arc, which originally aired before this one. This was quite easy to fix - I just reference in the crawl that rival pirates have raided the base (explaining its destruction here), and then when we next see Hondo’s base in TCW:R I’ll explain that he’s rebuilt it with the funds stolen in this episode from Maul’s crashed ship, which we even see them recover.

This is the most radical change to the canon that my edit makes, and I think it’s very minor for such a high reward (that of Maul’s constant wildcard presence). I’d hope you’ll all agree!

I’d like to have given this episode a different name, because nothing in this episode relates to the concept of revival in any way, but I don’t feel like I have the right to rename episodes when they’re basically as-is.

Next up I’m going to quickly release a version of Assassin which removes the scene I’ve used elsewhere (even though Assassin isn’t one of the recommended episodes in my Quality Cut), then a little polish to the end of season two before I’m on to s03e04 - A Friend in Need.

I have literally nothing to add but I can’t restrain myself from outpouring huge support and admiration to all of the collaborators in this discussion and especially those producing this wonderful new collateral. This is absolutely inspirational stuff and I goddamn love this community.

RELEASED - s03e03 - DISSENT ON UMBARA

Details as above, link in the tracker, PM for access!

I hope so! A lot of what I’ve cut is the nice shiny graphical stuff, because that was mainly the neon-on-black fauna and the neon-on-black Umbaran military hardware. And I can see people objecting to their removal even though they don’t carry any story. But there’s still loads of eye shiny to look at in this episode - the jungle, the tank fight, the aerial combat, the space combat, and then back to the jungle.

It’s taking a little longer to finalise for you guys because the audio is playing up. I think I’ve got some kind of memory or soundcard issue because while I was editing it the sound would turn off, and I’d have to play sound from another source to ‘reset’ it??? Either way, that carried across to the render, which is concerning, but I’m trying a fix now.

Dissent on Umbara (s03e03), aggregating the whole Umbara arc, clocking in at 52:07, is nearly finished.

While I cut a lot, I feel like I haven’t really changed the plot at all, as this one contained a lot of redundancy or filler. I don’t think you’d miss the excised half hour at all.

Key edits:

• Throughout, I trimmed most of Krell’s hatred of Clones, making it seem (at least early on) more like he’s just a hardliner with extreme tactics.
• I massively trimmed the combat-heavy opening where Anakin’s leading the clones. Instead we get one scene of Anakin, Rex and Dogma, before Krell arrives to take over. Now the majority of the plot happens around the airbase.
• To streamline the early plot, I removed almost all fauna combat and almost all combat against Umbaran military hardware from the first couple of episodes. Also to streamline things, I only had Krell send the clones on one suicide mission (versus the walker tanks) rather than also in a straight line against the capital. You get all the key story beats this way, just in about a quarter of the time.
• I trimmed a little of the infiltration of the airbase as well as some of the surrounding combat and discussion.
• After the clones take the airbase, I trimmed some of the discussion there, most notably removing the scene where they test and crash the aircraft, because it doesn’t change the status quo.
• In the final episode, I preserved the majority of it, mainly just cutting down the hunt for Krell in the forest to remove his evil villain speech and to speed up his capture, while preserving a lot of his physical threat. I also slightly trimmed his jail dialogue to imply he’s already a Separatist rather than just doing this all on the hope he’ll get recognised.