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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Shadow Warrior is the best Jar Jar episode. It’s so good (for a Jar Jar episode) that it’s not even Objectionable! It’s merely not worth watching. Wow!
A gungan with magic powers (ugh) has mind controlled (ugh) the leader of the Gungans into going to war with the Naboo. A bunch of gungans beat up Grievous. Anakin is beaten by Dooku in a duel (interesting) and has to be saved by prisoner exchange.
Don’t watch this episode.
As a weird bonus, there’s a scene in a secret base on Naboo where Sidious tells Dooku that “it’s a shame about Grievous” and “we’ll lead them into a trap”, both of which could work nicely with the Lair of Grievous episode. I’d also be able to use those couple of gorgeous establishing shots from Blue Shadow Virus!
This one’s easy to judge as Excludable because it’s certainly not Vital, it doesn’t add value to anything beyond itself so it’s not Important, and its bad isn’t cringeworthy so it’s not Objectionable.
The plot is essentially that all of the major aquatic races and characters have a big fight, which you’ll enjoy if that sounds fun to you. The bad guy is obviously a shark.
It has a few bits visual interest in what’s mainly not too attractive, and no growth for our main characters since they’re focused on teaching a fish kid how to be king.
It’s not great. It would maybe be better with some tightening.
In reviewing the previous episode, which starts on Felucia, I noticed that Bounty Hunters has our main trio stranded on Felucia, and the Holocron arc starts with a rescue from Felucia. There might be a nice merge there, which I’ll look into.
They also both have Hondo - with plenty of time for him to have gone from A to B between appearances - which is a nice way to introduce him.
I’ll see if this makes for a stronger episode.
This episode looks absolutely gorgeous. It also features one of the best natural landscapes in the whole show.
It’s interesting too- what looks like it’s going to be a standard combat mission becomes an episode about Trandoshans hunting Ahsoka and some other younglings.
Ahsoka’s character is decent any time you see her really (after her initial jarring intro), so you’re not particularly dependent on her solo stories to get the sense of her as the emotional core of our series, but for standalone episodes, this is a strong one, focusing on both her skills and her inherent goodness and heroism. It ends on a lovely beat that really emphasises how well Anakin and Ahsoka have grown together.
This episode also features Chewbacca, and while I usually feel like internal references like this only add “false value”, it’s neither cheap nor damaging, and it leans into his strengths as an engineer, so it’s fine. It does, I suppose, introduce the same problem as seeing him in ROTS where he knows Yoda, which makes you wonder why Han doesn’t believe in Jedi when his buddy has first hand accounts, but eh. I’m interested in thoughts here.
As a minor note, the original episode features a fan wipe from star field to star field, which is an extremely weird effect.
In terms of pacing, it doesn’t suit being near the citadel arc since they contain a lot of the same characters. But it probably works fairly early, before too much starts kicking off.
This is a perfectly decent arc, with some good moments, but it does drag a bit.
The mission to save Even Piell isn’t too interesting but it’s fine. It gets far more interesting near the end of the first episode when Tarkin gets involved, though the action and the ebb and flow of the story are fairly bland.
The hacked droids are an OK idea, though maybe belong later in the series to better explain why we don’t see more of this sort of thing.
I’m not a fan of the carbonite infiltration. So what, Carbon freezing is a known and safe technique at this point? Empire implies that it’s extremely risky, and it leaves Han blind for ages. Mandalorian implies it’s got a little safer, but still mentions eyesight damage. But I think you could just cut around this.
The villain, Osi Sobeck, is a little goofy, but mostly fine.
Tarkin is the highlight, and he’s well done here. His relationship with Anakin is nicely explored, and sets up their future. We also see more of Fives, plus some development for Echo which is important later.
This episode probably needs quite a few trims in order to give it a stronger focus and a better pace, but it’s harmless.
I’m sorry guys, I’ve got a real problem with the Mortis arc, I really don’t think it fits with Star Wars.
You’ve got this huge space diamond that connects to a force conduit containing a magic planet full of extremely powerful entities with unique powers (teleportation, shapeshifting, and literally changing the timeline) who are directly representative/manifestations of the light and dark sides and must be literally kept in balance.
It’s just too much! It’s overwrought and ham fisted, and its imagery and attempt to be metaphorical are just way too on the nose. CHOOSE BETWEEN ANGEL BIRD AND DEMON BAT!.. YOU HAVE DEFEATED THEM BOTH!.. TAKE THE BLADE WHICH LETS YOU CONTROL THE LITERAL PERSONIFICATION OF THE DARK SIDE! THE LITERAL LIGHT SIDE HAS JUST SACRIFICED HERSELF TO STOP THE LITERAL DARK SIDE FROM KILLING THE LITERAL BALANCE! -Ouch. Imagine Luke playing out this plotline in Return of the Jedi.
That said, I’m aware I’ve said we should lean into the Nightsister uniqueness, and I know the series does get a little more mystical, and Rebels also introduces new mythology which is quite radical for Star Wars. However, here’s the key argument: There’s no emotional value to Mortis. Without it, you wouldn’t notice a character behaviour shift. Nothing emotionally meaningful happens within it.
There’s also a scene where Anakin sees his future evils, including the Vader mask, and then actively gets dark side eyes and attacks Obi-Wan, recognising that “the Jedi will stand in the way of peace”. We like our future hints, but again, this is just extremely overt and on the nose, and really just amounts to notifying the audience that Revenge of the Sith will happen. It also just kind of fades out with a free memory wipe resolution from the Father character.
I have to call this episode objectionable in its current form. It’s present if people want to watch it, but a part of this full-series “edit” is about presentation and recommendation. I can’t in good faith recommend it to our hypothetical first time viewer who’s coming to Clone Wars from other SW media.
It’s great to see Qui-Gon (especially voiced by Liam Neeson), and he hints at his life after death angle. Anakin gets a good vision of Shmi, though why he’s happily just gone to bed in a weird monastery on magic planet is weird. She also mentions “Nobody really dies”, which evokes TROS’ “No-one’s ever really gone”. Ahsoka’s vision is less interesting but it’s fine. Qui-Gon also appears in the third episode to guide Anakin, which could be trimmed into more of a vision.
I think, if this episode is to be preserved in any way, it would be just the nice visions, somehow intercut into other episodes. I’d also probably put them later in the series, as the focus begins to shift to the mysteries.
The first episode is probably the best politics episode in the series. With almost no action, it’s still tense and interesting. Padme and Ahsoka’s secret meeting with separatists is interesting and makes our opposition far more than cackling villains and faceless armies. And the terrorist attack is a great step for the Republic on the path to Empire. It also introduces Lux, who’s important later to the Mandalorian storyline and gives Ahsoka some more development. Important.
The second is less interesting because it’s more about banking negotiations, votes being short of a majority, and buying more faceless soldiers. It’s nice to see Bail but his character trait is basically “does the noble thing” which isn’t fascinating. Padme gets targeted by bounty hunters hired by Dooku but this just isn’t very interesting, and she behaves quite unwisely too. We also see Palpatine (not Sidious) being villainous, which I’m not a fan of in advance of the reveal. Excludable.
In the second, Padme does give a fantastic speech at the end, which I’d like to preserve, but I think it’d fit nicely connected to some other episode.
The third focuses on Padme’s friend Onaconda, who I’ve never found interesting, and starts with another big speech, which is weird after the prior episode ended on one. It also features that obnoxious investigator character. These three episodes in total are way too heavy on politics and also kind of muddled in their political direction, which I think continues to justify that we only keep the first.
I don’t think we need to care that Onaconda dies in this episode. He was always very minor, I’d just happily let him fade back into the background.
We get some Mon Mothma in episode three, and I would like to see some of her in the clone wars, to be followed by her presence in Hal’s Ep3, the upcoming Cassian Andor series, and Rogue One. But she barely acts here. She’s better in the earlier episode where Ahsoka helps save Padme from Aurra Sing- which also might be a good place for the second episode’s speech.
Excludable, though I’d almost call it Objectionable for that investigator guy.
I think the first episode belongs right after the Nightsister arc, so as soon as all of our major plots are in play, the central politics of the war deepen and as an audience we realise there’s going to be far more to the show than battle after battle.
Onward to the when the show starts getting more consistently great.
I’m opening with this arc because i think we want to hit the Maul plot as early as possible. It’s vital to set up lots of what comes later, but luckily it’s also fantastic.
Bad guy on bad guy action (in about four different flavours), a villain made sympathetic, the introduction of the Dathomiri factions. All great.
The only issue I can see someone having with this is, if they’re a real purist, the idea that it introduces these Nightsister magics which behave quite differently to established force powers. But you really have to roll with it (and at they’re great fun in the story and visually) so it’s best to accept them. The reasons we don’t see more of these kind of powers later is also dealt with within this series.
The first episode starts with a great space battle and a continuation of Anakin/Obi-Wan/Ventress sass, which has always been fun to watch. Ventress’ fall is super, and the stealthy attack on Dooku is fun- but the fact that he forces them to rethink is good too.
The changed plan, which introduces Savage in the second episode, is good- though you could probably trim some of the combat trial in the middle. At first I was less of a fan of Savage but he really is brutal and I think it’s very effective at evoking Maul plus adding in another good wildcard to an otherwise known storyline.
The third episode shows Savage’s training and early kills, and Anakin and Kenobi’s investigation. It moves incredibly fast, though I don’t know if you’d want to slow it down with any interruptions. The only negative here is the Toydarians, but this is unavoidable. We end on an incredible five-way fight with changing allegiances all over the place.
In terms of the pacing, you could imply Savage works for Dooku for a little longer than just one episode- though I think getting to the Maul hint is more important.
You could also put the opening battle at the end of a prior episode, to imply that Ventress spends longer in space, if that could work.
In terms of this episode’s usual fanedit presentation, it’s often merged with the arc which follows a season after (and after Savage’s implied search), with the actual return of Maul. Obviously that serves a specific purpose and is a perfectly valid way of doing things. But for the purposes of this project, two observations: Firstly, this episode moves FAST and a LOAD of things happen in it- it’s not overwhelming but keeping this pace up much longer might be. And secondly, for an audience wanting their Maul, this ends on the mission to get him, plus by now you’ve had some solid third parties introduced to make the Clone Wars interesting on its own merit.
Ahsoka isn’t in this episode so her radical character model update doesn’t require consideration here. But Anakin’s and Obi-Wans basically just strip off their armoured overlayer in favour of full Jedi robes - which I think does give you some leeway in the ordering. You wouldn’t flip Ahsoka ‘across the line’ but I think you could get away with the others.
KoK, you’re spot on that it’s the first two and a half seasons (up to production code 3.06) where the chronology is wobbliest (hell, check out the production codes on Wikipedia compared to the release/chronological orders before and after this point). So it’s really this early period that needs the most work. And after that point, there are very few one episode arcs, so absolutely minimal merging to do.
Cloak/Lair would definitely be the most straightforward way to present Lair, unless there’s a way to integrate its best elements with a more Grievous-focused episode.
As for the chronology, I’ll respect canon in terms of the idea that all these events happened as written, but I think for the theoretical audience of this project, so long as there are no obvious causology errors presentation must come first. That said, I don’t expect to break anything.
People are going to come into this show wanting to see Mandalore and Maul, so I think it’s really important we get those plotlines running early, and keep their presence felt throughout.
I think this best serves the audience who are coming to this show now. Of course, on the issue of chronology, this is merely a matter of presentation, so people like yourself with other preferences will simply be able to reorder episodes.
I think any merging will be minimal, mainly because there are so few opportunities where it does add value, but Smudger’s first is certainly the best, and it’s at the point where the show needed it the most (in place of that shitty intro movie) so it gave us so much value.
But I’ve kept notes on the few “loose” scenes as I’ve been going through.
One other thing I’ve been thinking is that, once I’ve properly got going with this, I can probably output at least one edit a week (since I have a good amount of available time, and some episodes won’t require much at all, and some will be untouched [but placed in a recommended order] so I can kind of queue them up) - what do you all think about doing ‘Clone Wars Wednesdays’ where I’ll release one every Wednesday? That way we can all watch and feedback, and it’s both a small weekly commitment where feedback can be given in a focused way, plus a simulated weekly release cycle so helps us to judge the pacing of the show as a whole? It’d help me pace myself too, and keep the momentum up.
That’s me gone now through each of the episodes with the older character models to review them, which is also a bit of a turning point for the show’s overall focus. Due to the models changing, it’d be preferable to keep pre-change episodes on the pre-change side and vice versa, though I don’t think I should be beholden to that if it improves the story. I’d certainly like to get Nightsisters, which comes after the change, in as quickly as possible, so I might be encouraged to dump the good-but-not-important episodes on its other side, for example.
I’m fairly confident with a lot of these decisions, but I’m absolutely open to being convinced otherwise.
With that in mind, let’s look at the current categorisation, in rough chronological order by category.
This episode lands an absolutely cracking “something fishy” joke about an aquatic species. Ahsoka learns from a wiser Jedi archivist to slow down - though that’s the whole lesson.
This one’s tricky. It’s a solo adventure with a bit of growth, and another Ahsoka in the underworld episode, much like Lethal Trackdown (where she travels with Plo), the arc where she leaves the Jedi order, and the Martez sisters arc. It’s not Important growth, for sure. I just don’t know if it has enough value to call it Desirable. I think I’m tending towards calling it Excludable, because I don’t think we want to overdo Ahsoka in the underworld. I don’t know, it’s fun to explore the city, especially to have someone basically just do parkour over the whole thing, but I think I’ll return to this judgment after watching more of the other similar episodes.