S05E16 - The Lawless - Vital

Let’s not spoil this one. You could almost cut this about halfway, and the prior episode about halfway too, because there are a couple of points which take a breather. But that would turn this and the last episode into four ten minute episodes, which I think is pushing it. If I ever made the show more serialised, (which probably isn’t super possible, but either way would be one of the last things I did), I’d think about taking those ten minute chunks and compiling them with other episodes. But for now I think we have enough ‘units’ of Mauldalore to allow its presence to be felt throughout.

Do you have a detailed changelog, OutboundFlight?

S05E15 - Shades of Reason - Vital

Maul and Deathwatch take over Mandalore. We’re deep in awesome territory now. We also end on a breakpoint that accounts for a time skip, so we can break the arc here too. This is all really helping us split out the Mauldalore timeline across the show.

I also had a thought about getting us up to this point - the second Mandalore arc puts Almec in prison, but it isn’t necessary up until now. So it can come at any time in the timeline before here, meaning our second Mando episode can be Ahsoka and Lux on Concord Dawn.

S05E14 - Eminence - Vital

Maul teams up with Death Watch to take over the major crime organisations. Hell yes.

The nice thing about this is that it ends with the intention to start taking over Mandalore, but no strict timeline, so we can split this off from the episodes that follow for yet more pacing.

Continuity wise it kills Don Corleone Hutt, but I think he’s fairly minimal (in this edit, and in the latter half of the show) anyway. Kinda wish I’d taken more detailed continuity notes like deaths as I went through this watch now - please feel free to chime in with any other major ones folks and I’ll retroactively add them to my reviews (since I’ll be leaning on these reviews as I rebuild the show).

Presentation of the show will be important, and I’ll make a larger post about that later.

I don’t want to get too radical with this show, because I think that’ll put people off. But since there’s a degree of presenting this as worthy of your interest if you’re a fan of Mandalorian, what do you think of adding a single scene right at the top of our first episode: One where armoured Mandalorians, wielding the Darksaber, come across Maul frozen and near death in an escape pod, and ask “What are you?”, followed by the text FOUR YEARS EARLIER (or whatever’s appropriate for the chronology)? I think it’s the ideal scene to frame the show - but only if it’s a good idea to frame it that way.

S05E01 - Revival - Vital

Obi-Wan catches up to Maul and Savage as they’re attempting to take over Hondo’s pirate gang. Lovely. In terms of continuity, this follows the Younglings arc, and it also features Adi Gallia’s death.

I’d be quite tempted to have the episodes between Maul’s last appearance and this one not feature Obi-Wan, to imply he’s been permitted to hunt Maul. I’ll see if that’s possible.

This episode can’t wait too long until it’s followed by Eminence, because in the intervening time we have Maul and Savage injured and freezing in space.

Yep, completely agree. I might keep a little of the first Christophsis episode - Trench is actually quite capable (and shows up later), and I’d like to show Bail being involved in aid missions. But then, yes, right to the point. On the Troopers story, the first episode is a little paint-by-numbers, so I will look for places to keep it tight, but it’s important to that overall arc.

There are a couple of technicalities in there, but the Important thing to know is that they make it work.

All of the elements that are new for TCW compared to ROTS are handled extremely carefully- the questions asked by their presence will be answered by the end.

There’s a reason people are so passionate about this show and a lot of it comes down to the fact that it absolutely delivers on Ahsoka.

Wexter, that’s what I’d like to achieve too. That constant presence and ongoing development. I think the problem comes from the fact that we get very little armoured Mandalorians, and zero Maul, until about the 60% mark.

I could pull them forward- you could probably put Nightsisters before the model update since I don’t think Ahsoka appears in them until far later (though you have to get all the ventress episodes out of the way first), but if you do that you’re left with less meat in the second half.

Then again, we are slightly making this something it’s not. The emotional heart is Ahsoka; Maul and Mando were always far later focuses of the show.

Perhaps if I lay out a line with just the Maul/Mando content in its best order, then string Ahsoka’s best episodes across it, then fill in the gaps with well paced choices for important and desirable elements, then take note of the excludable ones’ positions, we’ll get our answer.

Knight of Kalee, bear in mind that they’re all staying in unless they’re actively difficult to watch episodes. And MAYBE some of the skippable episodes may be looted for parts by the more important ones. But I’m not proposing their exclusion*- only that if you were only watching the core, or the most important/fun episodes, that you wouldn’t need to watch them to keep context.

I was on the fence about that one, but I could be convinced.

*I’m using the word “excludABLE” to imply that one MAY exclude them. Not that they ARE excluded. “Skippable” is perhaps a better term… But there’s no such thing as a VIDSO.

OK, here’s a far more important question:

What’s more important? That we get to the Maul/Mandalore bits soonest, or that we spread them out (but mainly across the second half of the show)?

Whoops, I edited my previous comment instead. Wexter’s responding to my question about whether or not to spread arc content between episodes to create more flow, but on reflection I think this’ll be far easier to edit and present optional approaches for if each episode is kept standalone.

S04E19 - Massacre - Important

Not vital, since this is the branch of the Nightsisters storyline which doesn’t follow the return of Maul.

It’s great though, robots versus zombie witches as part of Sidious’ move to clean house and take a rival force wielder wildcard faction off the board. And we see some nice dangerous Grievous, and the continued fall of Ventress.

You could move this closer to Witches of the Mist, I don’t think Ventress needs this long on her own.

S04E20 - Bounty - Excludable

I nearly called this Important, for two reasons:

1. It’s got Boba in it - but it’s not important to Boba’s growth to see that he was a fairly ineffective Bounty Hunter when he was starting out
2. It’s got Ventress in it - but it’s not important to her growth to show that she took a stint as a Bounty hunter and was slightly morally unsure about it. We’re going to get more shades of Grey with Ventress later in the fall of Ahsoka, so we don’t need it here, and we learn she’s been bounty hunting in her next appearance.

This isn’t a particularly strong episode, it’s mainly a bunch of action on a train.

S04E21-22 - The Return of Maul arc - Vital

This is really the only bit of this quadrilogy that’s the Maul arc - the other two episodes are other things.

It does have to follow Massacre though, since Talzin acknowledges that the rest are dead, as it currently stands.

I’m not a big fan of the goofy worm thing, but it’s relatively unavoidable. We do spend a little too long getting to Maul, which could be trimmed. I also think it’s a bit silly of the council to allow Obi-Wan to go alone to fight Maul, but I understand that we need it for the story. Everything else is super though. By this episode the theoretical new viewer will definitely be feeling the tension of Maul’s presence.

I’ll be taking a look at some other approaches taken too, to see about smart trims and reshaping.

If you were going to watch it, I’d probably space it further from Massacre, to imply some time had passed. That said, I’d really like to get us to this point as quickly as possible.

Noted and duly updated, thanks! I think that makes it one of the weaker Important episodes, but I think you’re right that it should be included in any watch through other than one where you’re just racing to the finish.

S04E15-18 - The Rako Hardeen arc - Desirable

Probably the most purely fun romp in the whole show. Obi-Wan goes undercover as the “guy who killed Obi-Wan” in order to infiltrate a plot to capture Palpatine. It’s pure dumb fun, with a prison break, Cad Bane, some underworld scuffling, the bounty hunter competition, and then a kidnapping attempt with subterfuge. Super fun.

It ends with some tension between Anakin and the Jedi which isn’t particularly earned, nor particularly valuable to the story, though we do get a little more of the relationship between Anakin and Palpatine - which I now realise we haven’t actually seen much of in this show to date.

S04E14 - A Friend in Need - Vital

Lux! Mandalore! Death Watch! Bo-Katan (helmeted)! The Darksaber! Flamethrowers! Droid body horror! A bit of charming R2 action!

It’s also clear that Mandalorians are really going through a major culture crisis, which is pushing them to variety and extremism, which will help viewers coming from the other shows understood that they’re not quite what you’re used to.

Great episode. Worth shifting earlier though, to get those helmeted Mandos in play sooner.

S04E11-13 - Zygerrian Slaver arc - Desirable

This is a good detour into the horrors of slavery and an accurate look at some of the ways power is misused in order to break someone’s will. It’s heavy, and for a family show, really quite brutal. But that’s important! Let your kids see the horrors in a cartoon so they’re ready to fight against human horror in real life should they have to!

I digress. It’s a strong arc for our big three, where they all get well tested and get a good excuse to bend the rules a bit.

It’s a little visually disinteresting, but it’s good. (One of the issues with the show shifting to longer arcs is that we tend to end up staring at a single colour for an hour at a time.)

The tie in to Sidious’ interest in involving slaving in his future empire is an interesting thread.

The first episode can probably be cut down to about five minutes so we get to the meat quicker.

As an aside, I’m really feeling Maul’s absence in this rewatch. Originally he doesn’t come into play until episode 88/141, which is arc 43/61. That’s crazy late. I think we should get him in play as quickly as we can after the Nightsisters arc - with a brief delay to account for finding him - so that his presence can be felt.

It could go anywhere before they mention it in the Yoda arc, really. Wherever fits.

S04E07-10 - Umbara arc - Desirable

This is only an inch away from Important, but I think it belongs in any watch through either way.

Everybody loves this arc because it’s absolutely stunning. It’s a neon-hued fireworks display, but which features some of the most visually interesting land and space battles of the franchise. We also see some cool new technology from a third party fringe faction.

Story wise there’s a lot of good stuff: Fives and Tup in focus, more good morality vs orders testing for Rex, and the manipulation by Dooku of a (morally) fallen Jedi extremist to create a real bastard of a clone-hating villain.

I’m not a big fan of how Pong Krell is such an overt prick right from the start- I’d maybe trim his earlier dialogue so it merely seems like he’s an overreacting hardliner up until the point he demands the team’s execution, so he’s not so obviously a traitor.

I’d trim the whole for focus a little though- 80 mins is a long time for the ratio of plot to just pure good looking bits- to focus instead on the character drama and the very best battles and visuals.

It’s quite a red arc, so I’d maybe pace it away from the Dathomir ones, but I think it belongs early to get us that good clone texture.

And on the point of others editing as part of this project, I absolutely welcome that. It’d be amazing if we generate enough momentum where people can continue to have input on the presentation of the whole, and of individual episodes, even after their initial release versions are done.

That’s a good point. I really hadn’t picked up on Morai throughout Rebels. Of course, if some major part of the canon suddenly leant heavily into Mortis/Morai in future then of course I’d have to bite the bullet and acknowledge it more heavily.

I wonder if there’s a compromise approach, where the whole arc can be cut into something more like a shared force dream by the trio, incorporating the existence of these characters and the outcome we walk away with (including Anakin using Sister/Morai to heal Ahsoka), but without the overt elements which imply Mortis is this mega force hub and that the family are the personifications/manifestations of the force, and as much of Anakin dominating them?

As a “dream”, the later appearance of the Morai and the image of the family would then be interesting hints that legitimised the dream and added a layer of mystery?

Would there be interest in that? I’d probably still not approach this project until after the other important ones, though.

Regarding output, I’m not sure yet exactly what order I’ll follow, though if people would like a biweekly or weekly episode I’ll probably go chronological through the vital, important, and select desirables. (Then polish up the rest at a more leisurely pace.)

I’ve produced edits before (my Hobbit TV series) but I’ll wait until I’ve got some content produced and a feel for the effort required before I commit. But since a lot will just be repackaging existing episodes and the odd transition it’ll be easy to get ahead of the watch point, I reckon.

I very much like the idea of having a regular audience all watching it in the same way, whose feedback I can roll in as soon as it comes to reissue new versions. What a good way to refine the project to make it even better for future audiences!

Respectfully, I’m still not convinced.

• Yes, seeing Qui-Gon is nice, but it’s not nice enough to commit us to a 60 minute arc.
• The Ahsoka fight is cute, but it’s so dependent on preserving the whole (unless you keep it as part of a vision)
• Healing Ahsoka isn’t, in my opinion, really a tough choice or a powerful moment for Anakin since Sister has just conveniently handed him that power for free - there’s no personal cost, so for me it’s as emotional as administering available medicine.
• Other force stuff- Agreed that the more you add the more it legitimises other stuff. (But is it good?) Yoda’s stuff was good and added texture to the force (though I do have a similar problem with “WE ARE FIVE LITERAL BEINGS OF THE FORCE”, etc).
• I was wary of the World Between Worlds, and still am, because time travel is a risky thing to introduce to an established franchise. But to date the one time it’s been used it’s been used to very important emotional effect. I think the WBW is helped by the fact that Sidious was involved, which to me helps legitimise it as an extremely secret secret.
• Noted that the World Between Worlds was linked to the door with the Mortis family mural. But to me I’d rather that be some weird hint at a wider context, rather than a reminder of a context I think does the opposite of add value.

Still, at least it’s a very available arc that needs no editing (if you do want to watch it), so nobody should have a problem viewing it if they want to. I just wouldn’t recommend it to someone who wanted more SW after watching the Mandalorian.

S04E05-06 - Nomad Droids arc - Excludable

These were supposed to be spiritual successors to the old Droids cartoon.

R2-D2 and C-3PO go on a few goofy adventures. The weirdness is fine if you’re into twee 80s Saturday morning cartoon style adventures, but it doesn’t suit what we’re going for here.

But you might want to check this out to evoke those childhood memories!