Essentially a renamed s02e17 Bounty Hunters.
(See above post for details)
PM for access to the tracker spreadsheet which contains the links to download.
It took no time at all to turn around my episode s02e05, which was originally called Bounty Hunters.
This episode I’ve barely touched, just removing the scene where the trio see large monsters stomping through the fungal forest, since those monsters aren’t a part of the episode. I’ve kept a little of their sounds since it’s OK for the planet to have fauna (just not explicitly ones that are bigger than rancors, if you’re not going to use them).
I’ve uniquely added ‘in memory of Akira Kurosawa’ in red to the title card, which was included (also in red) at the start of the original episode. I’ve renamed the episode ‘Seven Warriors’ to better emphasise the episode’s homage nature, even though normally I don’t rename episodes I’ve barely edited.
In the opening crawl, I very lightly remind the audience that Ahsoka kind of fucked things up on Felucia, as covered in my Holocron Crisis episode (which, sure, I haven’t yet released.)
This is quite a light episode, but it serves a few functions:
That’s also rendering/uploading now.
(See above post for details)
PM for access to the tracker spreadsheet which contains the links to download.
Slight change of plans. I had the motivation, but not the mental capacity to handle the Holocron episode, since that one has a lot of possible approaches which are going to need real focus to pin down. So I’ve skipped it for now until I can give it a proper crack. I’ve jumped straight into the following episodes, since they require a lot less brain.
First up is Massacre, which barely needed any editing. The only thing I changed was borrowing Smudger’s idea to remove all references to the extra witch who resurrects the dead Nightsisters, allowing Talzin to be the one who does that. I think I’ve improved on Smudger’s idea slightly, editing some dialogue to make Talzin explicitly state that it’s her who’s going to do it (though to be fair it was already fairly explicit in his version).
This one’s definitely at the extreme end of what the force can do, but it’s fun - zombies versus robots - and it continues to show us that Nightsisters can do weird shit, and that there are more layers to the force. It also explains - nice and soon after you’ve just had the Nightsisters introduced for the first time - why they’re not major galactic players for long. It’s also a good bit of context if you’ve played Jedi: Fallen Order.
That was an easy one so that’s rendering now and should be up in a few hours. If you choose to watch it bear in mind that “officially” you’ve just watched the Holocron arc, which features the Republic and Jedi reacting to Cad Bane stealing a holocron containing the identities of force sensitive children on Sidious’ behest. Next up is Bounty Hunters, which I think is another straightforward one.
I appear to have mistaken Chase’s message!
Hey gang.
Regrettably Chase Adams has told me he’s going to be unable to produce animated concept art due to personal commitments, which is a shame. So we’re back to static art, unless anyone else would like to pick up the mantle. Alternatively, if anyone knows the tools and techniques to produce art like that, (or can point me at the resources,) I’d be eager to learn myself.
It’s only been twelve days since I last released an episode, though it does feel like longer. I was quite stumped on the Holocron arc, though I’m going to try to crack it today. I should perhaps steer away from estimating how long things will take, because I don’t want to disappoint you guys. But my motivation hasn’t dropped, don’t fear!
If anyone has any feedback on the comments or episodes in the last couple of pages it could be really useful.
I still have all of Smudgers’ episodes available, PM me for details.
I think that hits the nail on the head, Sade.
Weird. I was paying attention the whole time, must have just slipped past my mind. Either way Hal, and all collaborators, you’ve managed to squeeze a few extra percent of quality out of an already solid movie to leave it in its best state yet.
Ah, maybe I did!
I just watched this last night and really enjoyed it. Definitely my favourite structuring of Rogue One’s scenes to date, and those improved deepfakes really help too. I really liked the focus on Jyn’s POV, especially the removal of Cassian talking to Draven.
For my two cents I’d trim out the planet title text, since Star Wars tends to avoid them, but that’s super minor.
I think the only thing I missed in this version was the hint at “hyperspace tracking”, I thought that was a nice nod forward to TLJ.
Is it a clone? I thought it was now canonically Palpatine’s spirit inhabiting a Palpatine clone body? So, functionally the original Palpatine reborn.
It’s moot anyway I suppose, I think there’re two valid schools of thought here.
Red Lightning absolutely has to stay. Not only does it work aesthetically, but it shows that Palpatine is at his strongest and “all the Sith”.
But, respectfully, I’m kind of arguing that “I’m even MORE strong” doesn’t really up the stakes. Just like “Starkiller base is even BIGGER than the Death Star” didn’t either. It didn’t add any emotional value for us.
What’s the more emotionally powerful moment- the massive fleet of strangers showing up at the end of TROS or Han returning to shoot Vader away followed by Luke’s one-in-a-million shot? One’s bigger, one features two great character beats that wins the day.
A starship that can destroy whole solar systems is not more exciting than one that can blow up planets, and a monster who can lightning a fleet isn’t more exciting than a monster who can lightning a person.
Emotional stakes come from relevance to the characters we care about, not from power levels. The relevance of this scene is Rey’s conflict with the temptation of darkness, and her need to protect her friends.
I’d propose that “I am all the sith” be removed instead, because it’s emotionally meaningless to add a new complexity to sith lore at this point that doesn’t add any value beyond power levels. It feels like an attempt to set up Rey’s “I am Iron Man” moment, which doesn’t need to be spoken when using jonh’s wonderful Jedi spirits shots.
The things that WOULD add value are anything which helps explain Palpatine’s return beyond “unnatural somehows”, for example putting Palps in the tanks instead of Snokes, and for my mileage, hints of unfamiliar magics (preferring green for the Nightsister angle).
Blue lightsabers on a red background give a good “last flame of good in the environment most representative of bad” vibe.
I’m really against red lightning though, I don’t think we need a colour change to represent a higher power level like in a videogame.
If anything along those lines, I’d lean into the green mist which implies new, weirder magicks.
Oh, that’s a huge relief CMMAP, thanks for saying. I’d lost my ability to judge it, so it’s great you think it works. I’ll take a look at that and any other technical issues raised.
(Fixed the pops in audio)
(Accidentally deleted it but it’s back now)
(For a treat)
So regarding Dark Disciple…
Nice! Sounds like you have a good handle on the episodes. Since it’s an audiobook and not a vital part of the story, people aren’t forced to watch it, but can embark if they want that Ventress conclusion. In that case, they should be fairly tolerant of length. But good luck finding the right breakpoints and trims if you intend to make it more digestible!
I’ll be happy to include it wherever it fits in the chronology - and to listen to it, since i haven’t yet!
My numbering has misled you, it’s not intended as a season finale. Those season numbers really just represent production blocks, as I was working to pace the whole thing. They’re not really intended to be public facing in this context, except to help identify the rough ordering. Once I was done with the show I was going to think about whether it should be presented as seasons, and maybe change the numbering for public consumption. Bear in mind the original show also had no sense of season finales either, the seasons never really built to a conclusion like a typical TV show should.
That said, we’ll see Maul in about six more episodes time, and see that scene from the opening episode a few more episodes later, if that helps judge whether or not the stinger belongs.
Hell yes to Dark Disciple’s inclusion! I’d love that, Ventress’s conclusion is sorely missed.
And great idea about using Sidious’ audio ambiently somewhere in the Yoda arc (some of which I’ll also be recontextualising as a vision since again, for me the force planet is too on the nose).
So, more thoughts on the Holocron arc. This episode I think is a good example of why aggregation of episodes isn’t always a net gain, because it’s weirdly paced. It’s a good episode, but there are a lot of variables here to think about, so I’m not settled on my approach yet.
None of this stuff is egregious, though, so if I can’t achieve it all that’s fine.
Blatant disobedience because she thinks she knows best is absolutely one of them.
Yep, agree, I think I’ll just emphasise that she’s on thin ice, then this cool scene can be the thing that tips her behaviour into needing discipline.
Maybe make it a cold open? That could help with the pacing.
Worth looking into for sure, it makes a better cold open than the one I used in The 501st.
That actually reminds me, do you have any thoughts for making it appear Ahsoka has, even only briefly, some PTSD thanks to dying on Mortis?
I have a real problem with Mortis, I was going to exclude it altogether until convinced otherwise by contributors of this thread. I’m instead going to recontextualise it into essentially an extended force vision, where those characters aren’t the literal representations of light, dark and balance (too demystifying), so nothing that happens there will be literal. I’ll have her die, in the vision, and Anakin do something something lightside to preserve her, in the vision, which’ll still have the effect of tying her to Morai. But I really don’t want anything in that arc to be explicit, so I shouldn’t expect to need to give her PTSD.
Another thing is, I just realised Padme doesn’t appear in your S1. That’s something that bothers me from the perspective of her being one of the four main characters of TCW, and one of three of the PT.
She’s a main character in TCW, but she’s not a main character in TCW:R, mainly because she has no arc across the show, and unfortunately doesn’t have many great episodes. Her decent episodes and appearances will be preserved and highlighted as much as possible, but ultimately TCW did her a disservice and I don’t want TCW:R to strain itself to make her a feature at the cost of overall quality.
And the finally, an Ahsoka question. Will you be trimming/removing the Ahsoka/Lux flirting?
I’m not sure yet, I haven’t thought much about this. Originally I didn’t like it so much, but contributors here highlighted that it serves he quite well by the end because it shows that unlike Anakin she does have the capacity to let go. I’ll keep it in mind as I progress.
Sorry, I know my thoughts jump around from one place to another…
Not at all, this is perfect! I really do want everyone’s thoughts on any topic, even if it’s something that’s already been discussed to death, or a conversation we’ve moved on from. It’s always valuable.
(Once again wishing that the final Cad Bane and Ventress arcs had been fully produced…)
Here’s hoping the Bad Batch adapts a few of those lost plotlines…
I think if you flip it you end up with the same issue, expounded by the fact that she’s just been disciplined and then she’s gone and done the same thing. I think option 1 is best too.
So, I’m doing some planning for my next arc, s02e03 now. This is Cad Bane and the Holocron Crisis.
It’s pretty super, but I’m just thinking about one particular issue at the start.
It opens on Felucia, where Ahsoka disobeys some orders as they’re getting evacuated, which subsequently results in her getting disciplined by the jedi council. It’s a gorgeous looking scene, too, with some great colourful combat.
However, in the Ryloth episode we’ve just had Ahsoka disobey some orders, causing far more loss of life, and get told off by Anakin but no larger discipline.
So there are two options:
Pro of keeping it is that it’s a lovely looking scene, and maybe emphasises her disobedience that much more.
Pro of removing it is that it saves us a bit of time for pacing, and makes a bit more flow between episodes, which is something I’m eager to achieve.
Oh nuts, I’ve deleted it by mistake while reuploading Nightsisters. I’m uploading them both again now, but it’ll be a few hours after this post until they’re up properly.
Hey! This is really great, thank you for this!