EddieDean

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.

EddieDean said:

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.

LepidusIII said:

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.

s01e06 - CHILDREN OF NIGHT - THE NIGHTSISTERS ARC - RELEASE VERSION RE-RELEASED

(Fixed the pops in audio)

s02e01 - THE BLOCKADE OF RYLOTH - SUPPLY LINES/STORM OVER RYLOTH - REVIEW VERSION RE-RELEASED

(Accidentally deleted it but it’s back now)

s02e02 - DUCHESS OF MANDALORE - RELEASE VERSION RELEASED

(For a treat)

Delpheas said:

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.

• A few trims for cringe/silliness throughout, and to make the episodes flow better.
• The first episode, Holocron Heist, is well structured and good fun throughout. I might trim a bit of TODO-360’s dialogue where it gets a bit too silly, and I might trim some of the breaking in sequence which isn’t so interesting.
• The second episode, Cargo of Doom, covers LOADS of plot in the opening narration, which is a challenge. I might need to end up cutting there just so I can put in my own intro text alternative, if I can’t find a clean way to bridge them. Smudger had an idea for this I might check in case it makes sense to steal it.
• Also, there’s this weird thing where Bane needs both the Holocron AND the “Kyber Crystal”. Firstly, in the canon now, Kyber crystals are more explicitly lightsaber crystals and/or Death Star laser things, not data storage devices. And secondly, having the Holocron and the Kyber crystal just makes it a bit overcomplicated, especially since Bane gets the crystal offscreen. I’d like to remove all references to that as smoothly as possible.
• The first episode ends on “find master RuPaul who has the Kyber Crystal”, then the second begins on “Bane’s got the Kyber Crystal from RuPaul and is torturing RuPaul to open the combination Holocron/Kyber crystal”, which is too complex. I think I’d rather that they’re just chasing Bane in order to get the Holocron back, which is the only thing with the Children’s names on it.
• The second episode has some good moments, especially a cool zero-G climax and some good scenes with Ahsoka (points in favour), though it’s very slow and action heavy, so even after finding a good transition into it, it would need some heavy trimming.
• The third episode, Children of the Force, really whips by, in contrast to the prior episodes, and a lot of plot happens. You could probably skip Rodia entirely, and just have the visions of the kidnapping be Naboo, and have Anakin and Ahsoka ready to capture Bane there more quickly, before moving onto Bane’s base and then the Mustafar finale.
• I’d trim Sidious’ motives to make them less explicitly about making ‘force spies’ and more implicitly whatever he’s now been seen doing in Rebels and the Mandalorian.

None of this stuff is egregious, though, so if I can’t achieve it all that’s fine.

Delpheas said:

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:

• Keep both instances of disobedience, using something in the intro text to make it clear she’s on thin ice after the first instance, or something.
• Cut the second, recontextualising the discipline scene from this into the punishment for her behaviour in Ryloth.

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!

Right, I’ve finished the popping sound issue so my Nightsisters episode is now fixed nice and easily, so that’s rendering now and will be up soon.

Ooh, I feel all productive!

Aw man, I just had a fantasy that I know’ll never happen: Imagine if Disney re-rendered all of the episode video with the lighting shader they currently use. That’d be so lovely.

I still have all of Smudgers’ episodes available, PM me for details.

RELEASED - EVERY SINGLE EPISODE

Not really, but I want to make an important point here.

If you’re someone who just wants to get The Clone Wars digested RIGHT NOW, either as background for Mandalorian or for the imminent Bad Batch show, for example, you can do that RIGHT NOW.

With the removal of the worst episodes and the reordering to make the whole show more focused, you have my recommended viewing order. And importantly, the weakest part of the show was always the start, which had necessary but crap episodes, and that’s the part which has already been polished up to a far better standard, which will get you into the meat far more comfortably.

What you’ll miss out on in this is all of the presentation polish of the episodes I’ve not yet edited (opening text, credits, different music etc), so it’ll feel a little less coherent. And of course, you’ll also miss out on any edits I make to unwelcome elements in the remaining majority of episodes, which will include a few small niggles, quite a lot of restructuring to better pace some of the longer arcs, and about four instances of me making a major change to a more egregious element. There will also be two or three places where this introduces continuity errors where B comes after A, though these should be minimal.

But my point is, if you really want to get this show seen before more Mandalorian or the Bad Batch, and you don’t mind the tradeoff, I’d recommend that you can do that from now onwards.

Check my tracker spreadsheet, download the episodes I’ve completed, then for the incomplete episodes refer to column L to find which original episodes to watch instead.

Hm, that’s an interesting one. Release order was Bad Batch > Martez > Finale, but production and chronological was Martez > Bad Batch > Finale as you say. I’m tending towards BB > M > F because Bad Batch isn’t really important to the rolling plot (beyond setting up the spinoff), and because the Mauldalore elements of Martez Sisters can serve to build anticipation for the forthcoming finale. You could possibly ignore it - maybe Padmé wasn’t aware that Anakin’s been local recently, and an implicit time gap between episodes is fine. But I agree that the scene of Anakin sensing Ahsoka is worth preserving.

There’s a third option, which might emerge after the Bad Batch show kicks off, and that’s turning the Bad Batch episodes of The Clone Wars into episode zero of the Bad Batch TV show (flashing back to pre-rise of Empire). Though the obvious negative would be losing the impact of the good Anakin/Padmé scenes and the hints Obi-Wan knows, which I think is additive to the Clone Wars finale and RotS.

I like your idea for the title, Delpheas. I think you’re right that the emphasis should be on Anakin’s knighting since that’s the one main takeaway from the episode along with Ventress’ existence. Could maybe go with KNIGHT AND ASSASSIN though that’s a bit bland. The other option I’d thought of, since Tartakovsky’s a bit more light, is going a bit cheeky with it. Something like BEGUN, THE CLONE WAR HAS. But I don’t think that’s quite right either.

Speaking of episode titles, I’m now thinking about the Holocron arc, and had been considering emphasising Cad Bane (because he’s so much fun), with either CAD BANE: BOUNTY HUNTER (because that tells the new viewer we’re getting some bounty hunter fun) or the even schlockier CAD BANE AND THE HOLOCRON HEIST, which is just pulpy fun.

(Usual caveats about coming back to polish all prior episodes notwithstanding…)

So, I’m now in a good solid run of easy edits, so my output should increase for a while.

The next episode is my s02e02, Duchess of Mandalore. I’m barely editing this episode because it’s great. This is also the first time that we get the return of what I’m presenting (via reordering) as one of our show’s core themes, so this one should serve to say “this anthology show still has a core”. To be honest, I think it really works. Now that it’s not back to back with the prior two Mandalore episodes, watching it solo now feels to me like the show’s committing to having strong connective tissue. It might just me, but I feel like watching this one ‘clicked’ something, reinforcing the prior Mando episode and itself more than if you saw all three episodes as one arc.

Plus, it’s a great episode. We get more Mandos being threatening, our first sight in TCW of Padmé without it being boring, our first sight of Palpatine and Coruscant, including Coruscant’s underworld, and some good politics that’s different to the binary Republic/Separatist conflict and everything that’s happened before. It’s slow paced but still gripping and strong. We also get some scenes set in locations originally designed by Ralph McQuarrie during the production of the Original Trilogy, back when Coruscant was known as ‘Had Abaddon’.

I don’t think I’m going to edit this episode at all, in which case I think it’s appropriate that I only take a ‘Presented by’ credit, because all the work I’ve done begins and ends at the presentation aspects, there’s been no actual fan editing.

You could possibly argue that there’s one slightly silly moment, and that’s that apparently the galactic senate building only has two guards, who can be easily distracted. But you kind of need this, I think, because otherwise it’s not really explained how they got the unedited video file to Padmé. And the tension of Satine turning herself in is quite good, even if it’s immediately undone.

Edit: Scratch that, I’ll preserve the plan to distract them but then just show Satine’s distraction without the Obi-Wan shots, leaving him to implicitly break in in a way that’s cooler in our heads. That counts as an edit!

Shouldn’t take long at all to spin this one up, then it’s on to the Holocron arc.