Yeah, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’d need to land right every single episode, which must be close to impossible. Let’s call it “a second pass at the absolute earliest, if at all”.
That reminds me though, something I could do with more feedback on from anyone please: I’ve said ‘episodes should be whatever length they need to be’, but swinging from 22 minutes to 90 minutes might feel a bit much. I can solve this mainly by releasing four-parters as new two-parters, which is basically harmless for the binger but helps the person who wants them to be more digestible - plus every episode break is an opportunity to use the new opening text to recontextuailse anything I need to. And I’ve also said that simply laying one episode on top of another in other edits doesn’t quite work for me - HOWEVER, is it worth doing in order to balance our characters across the show? As if we’re always following Ahsoka, Anakin and Obi-Wan even if they’re apart from each other? I think this might help it feel like more of a show with a single unified cast than an anthology show, but on the other hand it might introduce the same issues I’ve found with other movie edits in the past.
Here’s an EXAMPLE that I haven’t put much thought into - so don’t interrogate the logic too much, just the feeling here:
Oh boy, ask and ye shall receive. There’s nothing quite like waking up to great helpful feedback like this! ❤️
@Hal: on timings: Obviously any indication of release is going to produce a rod for my own back - there are still a few unknowns and a weekly release is a lot more pressure than a one-off. I really want to get it out as soon as possible though - and ideally before any new show starts airing though I think the first season of Bad Batch will hit sooner (though that’ll probably help focus this if needed). There are ~45 episodes, so potentially this ‘TV show’ runs for a whole year. Since you guys seem up for that, I do think it’ll be really useful, as I’ll be able to refine by episode as we go rather than getting much more limited ad-hoc feedback on the whole. Either way - I do have a good amount of free time right now and I’m super motivated, so I’d hope to get the demo episode out by mid Jan, and the first episode of the weekly series out by the end of Q1. I’d rather release without rushing, but also I think the ‘live’ show will be treated as an opportunity to refine, (so bear in mind it may contain the odd issue.)
@Sade: I think ‘months earlier’ for the cold open works best. Originally Eminence was near the middle of the three year clone wars, but I’ve brought it earlier. I don’t want to get as specific as quantifying the months because that’ll just remind people in the know that I’m breaking things. “Months” could be 2, 3, 13, 18, so I think it takes the pressure off the audience to think about it too much.
I think I will keep Domino together then. I think I won’t merge it with Ahsoka’s intro though - I think that 22 minute chunk will just stand alone to get Ahsoka in play soonest and simplest, then give us more fun episodes after to explore her properly. I’ll probably put Domino Squad at the end of my ‘season one’ chunk since it’s a bit less focused on our main characters.
@Sade: REALLY like your idea to merge Deserter/Gregor. It’d split up the visual dullness of Gregor nicely, and bring out the best of both. I had thought Deserter/Hidden Enemy, but they both actively have Rex in so can’t be intercut. This ‘episode’ is one where I think the merge is sensible, since they’re thematically linked and the Deserter bits of Deserter are only 10 mins.
Agreed that Onderon needs a trim, the Utapau conversation has to appear, and that it’s a shame Bad Batch has to come so late, because it really suits earlier in the show. (When that show comes out maybe we’ll see if we’d all prefer to call these episodes just Bad Batch S01E00?)
@Sade, KnightOfKalee, CMMAP: Message received on Bounty. I’ll try to include it, albeit later (so she’ll already technically be a Bounty hunter by the time she joins the Boba crew). We can always find on the watch-through that you all agree with me or vice versa 😉
And regarding Ahsoka’s appearance ‘out of order’, yeah, I’ll totally be cutting around that - it’s an easy cut and I always thought that diner scene was a little out of place anyway. In terms of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s appearances, as far as I’m concerned they become guys who simply have two outfits they alternate. Speaking as a person who changes their clothes daily as opposed to annually, and wears the same outfit more than once, I think this is acceptable. It’s just Ahsoka you can’t have grow and shrink.
Yep, I’ve just been doing some final planning but I’m about ready to produce my universal elements and tests. I don’t know how much backlog I’ll want to produce before I kick off the weekly watches but I’ll see how fast I can churn out the easier ones and get a sense for how long the more tricky ones feel. Definitely interested in feedback on any of the outstanding thoughts in that post though!
Also Rik, I don’t know what the “Official” answer is via comics, books, etc … but I am sure Kennedy’s response of “The Force is Female” is probably the answer. ;P
What?
Right, I think the ordering is just about nailed. This is for the Quality cut - we’ll forget the others for now, so for the purposes of this post please consider this the project for all intents and purposes.
I know I’ve been doing this for ages now. Recall that ultimately, the main challenge that I’m trying to solve with this full series edit is getting us from the variable quality anthology show that it started out as to the powerful and tightly focused show it ended up as. I’ve framed this a few times as “making TCW relevant to the Mandalorian audience”, but ultimately saying that is a shortcut to explaining that Star Wars has always been developed as one coherent whole, and that at its best it’s presenting powerful and emotionally resonant moments against the interesting and ever-changing backdrop of large scale good vs evil conflict, and that with a little refocusing TCW can absolutely deliver what we now recognise as the quality standard for Star Wars.
And one important part of that focusing is allowing the heart of the show to clearly be Ahsoka, the tension of the show to be our third parties and wildcards (Mauldalore++), and the backdrop to be the inevitable galactic tragedy of a manufactured proxy war.
To achieve this, I believe we need to get the Mauldalore plots started sooner and treat them as a slow burn rather than a big bang (because the finale is the biggest bang and totally pays it off), and to trim our episodes around the powerful and emotionally resonant beats. Having the ordering in mind for editing will help identify necessary trims where I have to break the odd bit of referenced chronology (I’ll be gentle, I promise) and also help me write my episode intro text (which will replace the newscaster narrator guy).
The reason that the ordering has taken so long is because I’ve wanted to take input from all of you here, consume other resources like online articles and videos around character arcs, and rewatch certain episodes. Where I disagreed with the majority I’ve gone with the majority voice, since this belongs to you all, not me. I’ll still be largely editing by my own taste (e.g. making Mortis less on the nose), but I’ll continue to keep this as transparent and community led as possible.
Now, just for ease of breakdown, I’m considering this as eight ‘seasons’. I might not release it that way, but it’s helped for the sake of cutting it into chunks and visualising the flow of the show. I’m presenting it all here in this way in case you want to have a think about the pacing, to try to visualise it all as clearly as possible.
There may be further minor shuffling, but without further ado, here’s where I am now:
(Optional Tartakovsky prologue), COLD OPEN of Mandalorians finding Maul then ‘MONTHS EARLIER’ text, Ahsoka’s intro on Christophsis, Death Watch on Mandalore arc, Cloak of Darkness, Rising Malevolence, Domino Squad arc, Nightsisters arc.
In this season Ahsoka is introduced, and Anakin reluctantly accepts her as padawan. Dropping into Cloak of Darkness we explain that he’s kind of pawned her off on Luminara straight away, and we see her being both competent and flawed - but far less annoying than in the original show. We then hit Malevolence to understand her strong heart, with more good tension with Anakin as they start to grow together.
We get Mandalorians on the scene ASAP for a new layer to Obi-Wan, the Domino Squad arc for new layers to the clones, and finally the lovely darkside conflict of Nightsisters ending with the hint of Maul.
My outstanding question here is what to do with the Domino arc. I could pepper it throughout, cluster it, or merge it with Ahsoka’s intro (like Smudger did). I think I am tempted towards peppering it, since it does feature time skips, and this way most of the episodes this ‘season’ are one or two parters until the Nightsisters finale, which I think makes it a bit more accessible.
Storm Over Ryloth, Duchess of Mandalore, Holocron Crisis, Massacre, Bounty Hunters, Lightsaber Lost, Brothers
Ahsoka’s arc in this season is about her beginning to learn and grow. Again we lose the most frustrating episodes and moments, but we still see her mistakes (especially in Storm), and her actively paying attention to her lessons. By the end of this season, we’ve hit the point where the audience started to grow to really like her, with less of the abrasion and cringe of her earlier appearances, but hitting all of her most significant beats. She learns command, more compassion, how to teach, and patience.
We also get more Mandalorians, Sidious’ plan for force sensitive kids, more Sith infighting, the introduction of both Cad Bane and Hondo, and finally, the kickass return of Maul. Hopefully by this point the skeptic is now confident they’re in for a fun and worthy ride.
This season is the shortest, almost all one-parters, but again that gives you a good balanced and accessible bite of the show, and it gets us Maul’s return as quickly as you can without rushing, I think.
Boba Fett arc, Corruption on Mandalore, Battle of Geonosis, Revival
Here we see Ahsoka’s relationship with Anakin solidify, and she starts to demonstrate solo competence. We see Boba Fett, essentially ticking off the final subject of interest if we’re fans of the Mando TV show, we get a huge cool land battle, and finally we see the Maul Bros discovered by Mandalorians, bringing us up to speed with that cold open and setting up the Mauldalore threat which will hover over the rest of the show.
Heroes on Both Sides, Assassin, The Citadel arc, Trandoshan arc, The Deserter, Friend in Need, Eminence
Ahsoka and the audience get further shades of grey as we encounter Lux Bonteri, and she demonstrates boldness (as opposed to her earlier disobedience) and extreme solo competence and leadership. We get the introduction of Bo Katan and end on Maul really shaking up the underworld and building a power base.
It would be really nice to not show Obi-Wan in any of these episodes, since that way you could imply he’s been tracking Maul down exclusively since Revival, though I’m not sure if that’s doable or if you’d need to shift some episodes into and out of this season.
Here we get our first episode focusing on Rex’s relationship with orders. I’ll be cutting the traitor clone from the initial Christophsis arc because I think it’s not a good idea to have clones turn traitor (for cash, no less) right off the bat. I may return to that episode if I can later on, but it’s also got Ventress as Dooku’s pawn so I think you’d have to cut all that, leaving only ten minutes of meat. Anyway, this is a bit of a late placement for The Deserter, but that’s deliberate. Rex is a presence throughout this show, but his development comes in only three main episodes, so I opted to place them all later in the show so Rex only really ‘emerges’ as a character later, in the run up to Siege of Mandalore. The Deserter also has a B plot it doesn’t need - Obi-Wan versus Grievous AGAIN - so I’d like to cut it down too, but again, that only gives us ten minutes. These both may be candidates to intercut with other episodes; I know I’ve said ‘whatever the length’ is sensible but I feel like there’s a lower limit of diminishing returns.
Kadavo arc, Rako Hardeen arc, Umbara arc, Shades of Reason
This is a fairly Ahsoka light season, but we’ve had a lot of her by now. Instead we get a focus on Anakin versus slavery, more layers to Obi-Wan, and Rex’s big challenge on Umbara. We end on Maul taking Mandalore.
Chunks start to get a little longer here, as we have more four-parters, though I’ll likely still cut them down fairly heavily so the pacing will likely remain similar to the prior seasons.
Onderon arc, Jedi Younglings arc, Missing in Action, Overlords of Mortis, The Lawless
So. Two strong Ahsoka episodes - she’s first leading a rebellion, then training the next generation of Jedi. Then we have the Gregor episode of the Void arc, Mortis, and finally Sidious coming to Mandalore to put his house in order.
There’s a lot of editing to do here. Onderon I know I want to trim, Younglings will need some real attention (yet more Grievous and its tone is a bit wobbly), I’ve got to carve the Gregor plot out of the yucky Void arc, and I’d like Mortis to be more mystical and less overt. I might switch some of this with season five to better balance both - interested in opinions here. But the tone of this season definitely feels all over the place.
Ahsoka’s Fall, Scipio, Order 66, The Lost One, Son of Dathomir audiocomic
A little longer than the others, but I’ll be trimming Scipio and O66. But also, we’re in the endgame now. Maul and Ahsoka may be temporarily off the board here, but everything else is escalating very quickly, and we’re leaning into the upcoming tragegy before the rereturn of Maul.
Why Scipio this late? So, firstly, you may be aware that Scipio not only comes a little earlier in the official chronology, but it’s also often put even more early in fan chronologies. The reason for this being that it was originally planned that way, and has an earlier voice actor for Sidious plus implicitly puts some pressure on the war in a particular direction. However, I want to put it here, for what I think is a good reason: As it stands, we don’t see Anakin deal with the loss of Ahsoka. She left the order then the show got cancelled, and when it came back, we picked up closer to the end of the war. I feel like we need to pay off the growth of their relationship and see Anakin reacting to her loss. And there’s no explicit way to do that, but there is an implicit way. We use the Scipio episodes - where Anakin mistreats Padmé, beats up a rival for her affection, and ultimately lets his rival die. But, bonus, I’ll take the audio from the unfinished Utapau arc where Obi-Wan and Anakin discuss her, and play it over black at the start of each episode, as if these reflections on Ahsoka are in his mind as he violently lashes out during this issue with Padmé. I think that’s worth the cost of having it earlier.
The remainder of Yoda’s Quest, The Bad Batch, Martez Sisters, Siege of Mandalore.
The first three arcs will be trimmed to focus on the meat, and in Yoda’s case to keep his journey a bit more of a vision quest than so on the nose.
Again we feel Ahsoka’s absence, before her solo adventure and return. Anakin’s had time to patch things up with Padme, though acts cold bloodedly to a villain in Bad Batch. Then it’s a clean ride to the brilliant ending.
While this reorders things, I don’t think it breaks any established continuity (though I will of course check and welcome your input), except for thing I have to actively break: Ventress’ Bounty Hunter escapade. In this ordering, it can’t work where it originally fit. In terms of continuity, two things happen in that episode.
Firstly, Ventress, under Talzin’s guidance, has gone to find her own path, and ended up in a bar where she’s met some bounty hunters. She’s gone on this mission, and on it decided to ‘do the right thing’. In the original placement, she’s then - still as a bounty hunter - gone on to hunt Maul and Savage. However, I don’t think we need to see her choose to become a bounty hunter in order that when we see her and she’s a bounty hunter it makes sense. I think we can accept she’s fallen into bounty hunting without needing to explicitly see it.
Secondly, Boba is featured in this episode. Originally, the first time we see him he’s after Mace Windu (a good first thing to see him doing), then he’s broken out of prison accidentally by Rako Hardeen, then he’s a bounty hunter again in this episode. But in my new ordering, this appearance would be before the other two, which firstly doesn’t work from a story perspective, but also, it’s a different older character model. So it’s just not happening here.
Best solution for inclusion here would be to accept that Ventress became a bounty hunter offscreen in time for her to hunt Maul and Savage, then place this episode later in the chronology but modified to not have it be her first bounty hunt. But I think it should be cut altogether. In all of Boba’s other appearances he’s SUCH A BADASS, but in this episode he’s super soft. I know he’s just finding his feet, but in this he’s scaredy and uncertain, whereas in the other two episodes he’s firstly vengeful and calculating and then unafraid of instigating a prison brawl, both of which are far better ways of portraying him as a badass-to-be.
Right, just for reference:
Excluded because they’re actively painful to watch
Huttlet crisis arc, Supply Lines/Ambush, Downfall/Duel of the Droids, Bombad Jedi, Blue Shadow Virus, Sphere of Influence, the Ziro arc, the rest of Droids in the Void, the Disappeared
Excluded because they’re not important and they soften our focus (to be included in Complete Cut)
Cat and Mouse, Dooku Captured, crash on Maridun arc, Trespass, Zillo Beast, Grievous Intrigue, Mon Calamari arc (to be included in Continuity Cut also), Shadow Warrior, Mercy Mission, Bounty, Tartakovsky Nelvaan episode, Utapau arc, Tartakovsky Palpatine Kidnapping episode
+1
Very good to have you with us, danieldubb!
No, I thought the Leia exchange felt really natural where it was. I think it was mainly the Finn and Poe sequence where it started to feel choppy, perhaps because it came on the back of (good value) intercutting of other scenes, so by then you’re mentally juggling a lot of information. That scene was high on chaotic action but low on context so it might not be totally necessary? Perhaps a wipe might imply time passing to bring us to the falcon’s arrival at ajan kloss?
But yeah, nice opening and intercutting, and the opening crawl was miles better than the original too.
I’m not sure if you’re looking for feedback on this here, but I just started watching this. I really liked the way it opened- on Rey, intercut with Kylo, straight to the wayfinder in the book- all really good stuff and a far better opening. But I thought each individual shot in that sequence, and the following sequence of Finn and Poe shooting through Kijimi, felt very short.
I can’t remember the original version of all of this, since the last time I saw the movie was on launch, so I don’t know quite what you’ve got to work with, but I’d throw my vote behind spending a little longer on each shot and switching shots a little less.
I don’t want that to sound too critical, because it really did hit a LOT better than the original did.
I’d love a link to batch 3 please if you’re actively distributing them!
That’s exceptionally useful information, thanks so much for putting all of that to paper.
Agreed with you both.
Ultimately we have the Maul episodes we have, so either it’s chunked together (in which case we don’t get it very often) or it’s spread thin (in which case we only get smaller doses). On my recent rewatch I did feel like each later Maul episode, while short, packed a lot into those 22 minutes, so I think it’ll still feel ‘meaty’ enough. Of course, when it’s watched through, if we feel like we lose something it can always be shifted around. Bear in mind Sade that it’s not a ‘super dose’ of Maul near the end - there will be other episodes in between those, just not those which are Mauldalore or Ahsoka, so the frequency of Maul episodes should be equal throughout. (I might release a different order for the Mando cut but right now my main focus is Quality)
Similarly, with Ventress, we lose that impression that she’s a present threat for longer. Unfortunately, due to the way the story plays out, you either have Maul for longer or Ventress, and ultimately Maul is the larger part of this series and the wider franchise, so I think she’s a necessary sacrifice. It does make me feel like it’s probably worth keeping her Bounty Hunter episode though, just so she’s not forgotten. One advantage of this though, is that it makes Sidious’ ‘correction’ of her presence come a lot sooner, which works nicely with the theme of him being pretty proactive against wildcards, third parties, and known threats in this show.
Sade, I’m glad you think moving Mandalore Plot up front is a good idea. It was floating around that area for a while until I realised that it was an option to just have it right after Ahsoka’s intro. It might suprise the familiar viewer but it doesn’t seem unwise. It doesn’t actually feature Ahsoka so it could almost be our episode one. One other option I’ve considered is even merging it with her Christophsis intro. Episode one would be Ahsoka meeting Anakin whilst Obi-Wan investigates Deathwatch, then episode two could be Obi-Wan and Anakin bringing Satine to Coruscant while Ahsoka spends some time with Luminara on her own escort duty. This is probably a far later (second pass) option for if I do start merging episodes to make whole seasons flow like more of a typical drama than an anthology show, which I’ll only do if the whole show can work this way, which is unlikely. It would also let you do things like wrap Lightsaber Lost into an Anakin/Obi episode, to give each a bit more character balance and allow everyone’s presence to average out a lot more. Like I say though, that’s for a ‘phase two’ I’d only consider after the current project is complete.
Oh, you absolute beauty! I had the impression you weren’t going to produce a third batch, but that’s fantastic news! They all look lovely, especially the richer colours you’ve been drawing out.
One thing I noticed while watching your edits which might be challenging for my own, was that in some places where you’ve joined two episodes together you’ve introduced a little overlap, in order to keep the transition smooth. Obviously that’s eminently sensible since you’re aiming to present the arcs as complete units, but it does mean that the odd shot or two that sits around the transition point may not be used in your cuts, and therefore may not have been upscaled? I may find that the ideal case would be to include one such cut shot, in which case I assume I’d have to rely back on the original Bluray rip version rather than your upscaled/recoloured version - unless you are doing your upscaling/recolouring in advance before cutting episodes together and could make those edits available?
One other question: Have you made any changes to the sound mix? Clone Wars is relatively easy to edit in its original form because its voice/SFX and music are in different channels, so you get a lot more flexibility with cuts. Have you passed through the audio unchanged?
Either way, I’m hugely in your debt, so thank you for this! It was your edits which sparked the original idea for this project, so without yours, this wouldn’t exist.
Thanks for thinking it through. I can’t remember which Cad Babe arc that happens in - he’s only in three, and I’m only excluding the Ziro one. I think that line happens in the early Holocron arc, which I’m keeping.
On elements like that good line which may be in the bad Ziro arc, I will be going through (over and over again, most likely) and combing through anything which I’m not using in full, to see what good value I can take and squeeze in elsewhere.
And yeah, I missed off Mortis by mistake. You could imagine it where it currently sits in the chronology, though I’ll probably end up settling it somewhere nearer the end once their bond is stronger and stuff is getting more mysterious, because the development in that episode is more about setting up Morai than growing Ahsoka, so it’s a bit more flexible.
I thought it was an interesting wrinke to the character. In TFA you basically had “Palpatine, but again”, whereas showing him in gold in TLJ implied that he was opulent and showy, as if he was narcissistic and wanted to present himself as ostentatious. I don’t see any good reason why a Sith wouldn’t choose to show off in gold, especially since they’re not doing the ‘hiding in the shadows’ thing any more. Compare to Ludo Kressh: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/swtor/images/f/f5/318991-36149-ludo-kressh_large.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/340?cb=20130527154330
I’m still working on the ordering. I don’t want to rearrange too much, but I have the following goals, in this order:
We are locked to the following breakpoints:
Every early Ventress episode > Nightsisters > All remaining Ahsoka episodes before the model update > Heroes on Both Sides > A Friend in Need > Remaining Mandalore episodes in order
We have about 40 episodes in this new show. Looking at JUST the Maul, Mandalore and Ahsoka ones (the ones we need to pace well), we have eight Maul ones, which means about four episodes between each Maul. If I then evenly spread the remaining Mandalore ones, and then spread Ahsoka’s arc across the whole in the current chronological order (about two episodes per Maul, though more Ahsoka earlier), we end up with the following.
(Bear in mind there’d still be four episodes per Maul, so where the Mauls seem close together, they’d be spaced with other non-Mando/non-Ahsoka episodes)
How does that feel, read in that order? That would be essentially the Mandalorian Cut of the Clone Wars: Refocused project. Does it feel like this meets our stated goals? (Are those goals sensible?)
Yeah, exactly. Both Grievous and Dooku should be background strategists first, and extreme threats if they ever appear on the frontline. We already know they survive the Clone Wars so there’s no tension seeing them on the battlefield against other characters we know survive.
Well this sounds rather damn fantastic! I don’t know if you discussed this elsewhere on the forums so it’s come out of nowhere for me, but it sounds great. I haven’t seen TROS since it appeared in the cinema - I was waiting for a Rey Nobody cut or the broken lightsaber VFX for Hal’s, but the cuts you describe sound very well thought out, so think it’s about time I give this a shot. Please PM a link!
Yeah, Hal I think we all felt that way before (and during the early seasons of) the Clone Wars. It needed to justify its own existence- and by the early midpoint it had done that. And by the finale it has absolutely created a net value add, with near zero incongruity.
I know you’ve put years of work into your prequel edits but I have to say I agree with Sade- TCW (at its best) is so strong that I’d personally have ROTS bend over to match TCW than the other way around.
Yeah, that’s fair. I’ll certainly account for feedback on ideas like this. I wouldn’t want to break canon where there’s a chance it gets referenced again in other core media - i.e. it damages the franchise’s cohesiveness. But in this case I was considering both sources as fair game since it feels like Malevolence and Trench are both ‘siloed’ plots unlikely to be revisited. But you’re right - there has to be a call made on where things land on the spectrum of quality versus purity. The ‘purer’ alternative would essentially just be a heavily trimmed Malevolence. Which would be fine.
I suppose this comes from an intention to creatively preserve the best elements of otherwise not particularly good episodes - nice if it works, because then you get nice lumps of quality. But potentally messy of course, and as you say, technically non-canon, though I wouldn’t want it to cause an actual canon conflict.
On the other hand, this stuff’s all optional either way. This edit would definitely be way down at the low priority end of things, one that could be toyed with long after the initial Malevolence trim were produced. (I’m just thinking about it now while I focus specifically on Ahsoka.)
I’ve just watched Cat and Mouse and I think using Trench with Malevolence would give us the best of both. The Trench scenes in C&M are either him being quite malicious and capable, or Yularen talking about how much of a threat he is. The stealth ship feels a bit out of place (especially early in the Clone Wars) and while it shows off Anakin’s tactical skill, that isn’t exactly new texture to his character.
I think the best use of these four episodes is basically to frame it as some new Separatist general who’s devastating Republic ships and taking no survivors. It’s believed Plo’s fleet has been hit the same way - we don’t see how (it’s implied to just be a regular battle against overwhelming odds/strategy), we just see Plo trying to save the lives of the clones, as Ahsoka (under Anakin’s wing) breaks the rules on a hunch to save him. After the save, Yularen goes back to his terminal and realises it was Trench. Yularen and Anakin agree immediate aggression is a good idea, at which they track and destroy his ship. I might see if I can do something to imply Trench’s survival so his presence can hang over the series.
This should pay off nicely later too, since ultimately he attacks more clones in the Order 66 arc, and then is killed face to face by Anakin in the Bad Batch arc.
I think the only thing left from those episodes which is any good is seeing Bail working on relief efforts, which doesn’t make an episode in itself. That might be able to work with Ahsoka’s intro episode, or the theoretical ‘return to Christophsis’ episode where we see the defector clone (which just doesn’t belong that early in the series either).
As a reminder, we really should crack through this one as quickly as possible if at all, because it looks like shit.
So, I’ve rewatched the Malevolence arc.
-That’s right bitches, Eddie’s rewatching the Clone Wars yet again and making YOU read about it for a second time!-
This time I’m doing a deep dive into the episodes composing Ahsoka’s arc, since that’s the emotional core of the shwo. So I’m just looking at where the value is and what makes the best complete story. Interestingly, she’s only a main character in 18 arcs of ~60.
While the Malevolence arc ends really poorly, the first episode is really good, especially for Ahsoka. It has light Snips/Sky Guy, which is far less obnoxious, but a good plot about Anakin teaching Ahsoka how do disobey orders the right way, and both of them demonstrate good instincts and a care for those around them.
The second episode retreads a lot of the same ground in terms of Anakin/Ahsoka and Ahsoka/Plo, and frankly very little of importance happens in it - except for some good shots of the ship starting to explode, which could get you a lot of the way towards just cutting right after the first part.
The third, where the ship’s infiltrated, contains a lot of the worst bits of Clone Wars. Cheapened Padmé, cheapened big bads, and goofy C-3PO moments. The infiltration and exfiltration scenes are serviceable, and there’s some good cheering and 'job well done’s at the end to cobble together an ending.
I think the whole arc would be stronger, though, if we don’t see the weapon fire (it’s goofy and not used again), instead allowing it to be a far more ominous mystery, with the escalation/threat really being that they’re targeting escape pods and the emotional impact on the clones and Ahsoka. I’d also take Grievous and Dooku out entirely (since it’s yet another easy win), instead using the opening text to make it either simply a “Separatist Weapon” or maybe something to do with Geonosians.
Ultimately, it’s a pretty damn good Ahsoka episode if the focus is taken off the Malevolence itself. I think there’s a very serviceable 30 minute episode in here, and switching Trench in for the other villains and making his whole thing that he’s pod-killing survivors makes him more malicious too when we see him later in the Order 66 and Bad Batch episodes. Our options for an ending are as follows:
I couldn’t tell you where, but he definitely says it a few times.
I think that’s more likely Palpatine after becoming Emperor, I think it’s really likely that this show’s setting is going to be the immediate formation of the Empire, starting around roughly day one of the change. Which is really cool, because it’ll be the first major canon deep dive into that time period, before the Dark Times had ‘bedded in’. It looks like an immediate successor to The Clone Wars, with Zygerria etc, so it might follow up on a few of the open threads (and hopefully adapt one or two of the more exciting sounding unmade TCW episodes if they can shift their place in the timeline).
I don’t plan on rolling that into this project for a couple of reasons. Firstly, since it looks like it’ll be a successor but still definitely its own thing. And secondly, because I doubt any Disney era show will ever be nearly as swingy in quality as TCW was. Rebels could do with maybe a little tightening, and Resistance is pretty much throwaway, but I’m pretty sure all the main shows will be absolute bangers from here on in.
