EddieDean

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’.

(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.