EddieDean

S04E04 - Shadow Warrior - Excludable

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!

S04E01-03 - Mon Cala arc - Excludable

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.

S03E21-22 - Ahsoka hunted by Trandoshans arc - Desirable

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.

S03E18-20 - Citadel Arc - Important

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.

S03E15-17 - Mortis arc - Objectionable (but bear with me)

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.

S03E11-12, S02E15 - Heroes on Both Sides / Pursuit of Peace / Senate Murders - Important

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.

S03E12-14 - Nightsisters Arc - Vital

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.

CLONE WARS WEDNESDAYS?

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.

Well, that’s a good place to summarise.

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.

Importantly though: Guys, please feel free to challenge me on anything I’ve mentioned in this thread.

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.

VITAL ARCS

• Christophsis - for Ahsoka’s arrival (this’ll probably be packaged with Domino Squad)
• The first Mandalore arc - for actual Mandalorians and the state of Mandalore

IMPORTANT ARCS

• The Tartakovsky Muunilinst/Hypori Arc - for Ventress’ introduction and Anakin’s knighting
• The Domino Squad arc (probably packaged with Christophsis)
• The Holocron Crisis arc - for an early variety romp where Sidious is after force sensitive kids
• The Second Battle of Geonosis - great battle, good character growth, great fun
• The Second Mandalore arc - reveals Almec as corrupt but not particularly meaty for a Mando episode

DESIRABLE ARCS

• Tartakovsky’s Mon Cala, Dantooine, and Ilum arcs - not sure where to put these, but they’re good fun
• Cloak of Darkness - for some solo Ahsoka vs Ventress fun, Luminara lessons, and some shades of grey
• Bounty Hunters - some fun new characters, training of rebels, and a better Hondo intro
• The Deserter - for some good clone value
• The Boba Fett arc - for some good quality focus on the less vital characters

EXCLUDABLE ARCS/EPISODES (“SKIPPABLE”)

• The earlier Christophsis episodes - which don’t add to Ahsoka’s introduction
• The Malevolence arc - superweapon, a setting that looks bad, and a poor ending
• Lair of Grievous - slightly interesting, a bit more menace, but ultimately not much added value (best included elsewhere)
• Dooku Captured arc - introduces Hondo but is a bit too goofy and reliant on Jar Jar
• Jedi Crash arc - boring peaceful natives need rescuing in a plot that doesn’t do anything new
• Trespass - boring savage natives need respect in a plot that doesn’t do anything new
• Battle of Ryloth arc - The best of the excluded set, but the things it does are better elsewhere, and it’s a long arc for all that
• Zillo Beast - fun but unnecessary, and asks some weird questions
• Grievous Intrigue - A Jedi master gets captured and rescued with no change to the status quo
• Corruption - the first part of the second Mando arc, but one that’s not needed at all, and not fun

OBJECTIONABLE ARCS/EPISODES (NOT TO BE INCLUDED)

• The Huttlet elements of the original movie - Baby Jabba and the worst Ahsoka
• Downfall/Duel of the Droids - horrible graphics and a plot that makes all its characters seem smaller
• Bombad Jedi - Jar Jar-heavy story that’s high on goofiness
• Blue Shadow Virus arc - an absolute mess of an arc, the worst of the whole show
• Supply Lines / Ambush - unnecessary additions to the Ryloth arc that’re heavy on Toydarians and have silly plots. Some elements of Supply Lines may be salvageable.
• Sphere of Influence - George Lucas hunts down Greedo to save his daughter. Yuck.
• The Ziro the Hutt arc - Ziro’s really abrasive, and this cheapens the Hutts a lot

YOUR INPUT HERE IS WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED

S02E11 - Lightsaber Lost - Excludable

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.

S01E17-18 - The Blue Shadow Virus Arc - Objectionable

I know I’m watching through the early mop-up episodes but I’m already getting burnt out on the volume of the shite ones. It’s episodes like these which are what put people off this show.

Padme and Jar Jar go back to Naboo because separatists have been seen there. We’re immediately presented with featureless grasslands (reminding us that episode one featured featureless grasslands even in live action), we get goofy costumes and more goofy gungans and a goofy villain with a dumb motive (he’s got a German accent so you know he’s an evil scientist), and the plot about a virus is handled in an extremely boring way. Plus, a lot of the plot points depend on Jar Jar’s antics so they can’t be cut around.

There are two gorgeous shots of Naboo.

The second episode has them contract the virus and have 48 hours before they die, so they go to Iego (reminding us that Anakin thought Padme was an angel from Iego in some of his worst dialogue) where they meet a goofy kid who’s hacked a bunch of battle droids who helps save the day. Add in some carnivirous plants behaving like animals and an energy net in space and this is just an absolutely horrible mess. We see Anakin obviously care for Padme over most other things, but again, that’s done elsewhere. The Iego angels are also fairly interesting, but it’s like one shot and one line. It’s not worth preserving.

This is also the arc where Padme and Ahsoka are first seen together (other than briefly via hologram), but they don’t acknowledge it at all so you lose nothing by cutting this. I guess it’s just implied they got to know each other in the interim.

And look, I know some people like Jar Jar. I know there’s no right way to enjoy Star Wars, a lot of variety for a lot of tastes, and I don’t want to gatekeep it for people. I’m not a prequel hater or an episode one hater. I just feel like the parts of Star Wars represented by this episode are far removed from the Star Wars that makes your spine tingle at key moments like when Mando’s speeder makes its long run across the Tattooine desert, when Luke looks out across his homestead at the Twin Suns, when Ahsoka walks away from the Jedi order, or when Luke shows Rey how to feel what the force really is on Ach-To. I’m not saying this edit will be anywhere near that quality, but I feel like that’s the side of Star Wars I want to be swinging this edit towards.

S03E04 - Sphere of Influence - Objectionable

This one loosely follows the prior episode I watched, Trespass. It starts with a trade blockade and its negotiations, and then we get to meet the characters which represent George Lucas and his real kids, so you know you’re in for… no fun whatsoever. There’s a bit of light intrigue in this, but the politics are ultimately super boring, the characters are charmless, and it adds nothing. It has Greedo in it, in another example of how just showing something that exists somewhere else in Star Wars does not equal quality. I’d call this Objectionable but I think you only really cringe if you know it’s George’s actual family. Which you do now. Actually fuck it, I’m changing this to Objectionable, Jabba’s baby has just shown up and I don’t want to have to try to edit this.

As an aside, just looking at the data, it looks like the following things I find most objectionable:

• Gungans, in particular Jar Jar
• Hutts played for jokes in a way that cheapens their menace
• Toydarians
• LOL I’M WACKY humour, done most with Jar Jar
• LOL I’M DUMB humour, most frequently seen with B1 Battle Droids
• Bland alien designs
• The worst looking locations

S01E15 - Trespass - Excludable

Seeing snowtrooper clones is cool, but otherwise this is a very paint-by-numbers story about mistaking natives for savages and a bit of selfish corruption. It’s fine, and the snowy setting is a bit interesting, but there’s nothing fresh and no value add here.

S02E17 - Bounty Hunters - Desirable

This is one of the better one-off episodes. Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka crash land on Felucia (pretty!) and decide to help the locals, who have hired some bounty hunters, to defend themselves against Hondo Ohnaka’s gang of pirates. It shows the limits of the republic, some of the little folks’ lack of faith in it, and Anakin being required to train locals to fend for themselves, as he will do with the Onderonian resistance.

This makes a good alternative intro to Hondo, since he talks about how he, Obi-Wan and Anakin “go way back” without giving any more detail, and he also demonstrates his usual strange version of honour, so this is a good episode to introduce him in place of Dooku Captured, which is a far more problematic episode.

I might look to merge this one with The Deserter, since that one’s short if you focus on the meat, and they’re both thematically similar but not too tied to the main plot. You probably couldn’t imply it’s the same crash, but a bit of up front text could present it properly.

S01E13-14 - The Battle of Maridun (Jedi Crash and Defenders of Peace) - Excludable

Pretty crappy episode here. Aayala Secura and Ahsoka crash on a planet inhabited by utterly boring pacifists (especially worthless when compared to Satine’s Mandalorians) and a boring Neimoidian comes and decides to test the a weapon which only destroys organic matter like Clones - a too-powerful weapon not to appear again*. Anakin is injured and Ahsoka seems committed to helping him, but that’s not a particularly interesting bit of character development. It’s just not a valuable episode.

(* Yes, I know the defoliator reappears in Massacre but they’re not armoured opponents so it’s not implicitly so strong, also it doesn’t fire)

It does have an excellent opening scene (the crash itself) which I might see about using somewhere else.

S03E05-06 - The Second Mandalore arc - Important

Right then, next up is the second Mandalore arc. Thankfully the second episode isn’t dependent on the first.

The good of the first episode is that we get more Satine, and that Padme gets some good non-politics action and her strong character comes out. There’s also some good focused dialogue that reminds us where they stand in the war.

But, the bad: It’s boring as hell. Especially if you’re expecting to see Mandalorians doing their awesome thing. It’s about internal non-Death-Watch issues. Kids getting poisoned by drinking cheap drinks just isn’t an interesting plot. And in no Star Wars media should we hear the line “The schools have received adequate government funding!”

This one has to remain 4. Excludable.

The second though, is the important one. It’s not vital, because the changes it imposes on Mandalore can be worked around in other ways. But it gives us some kids who’ll eventually resist Maul’s rule, and shows us Almec’s machinations.

It’s not a great story but it’s not terrible. It’s good to see Ahsoka being a competent teacher and making wise decisions, but it doesn’t add much to her character by this point.

I might see if I can get some of the good Padme moments from the prior episode into this one, and I’ll probably trim the dialogue around the Jedi mind trick.

The other problem with this episode is that it doesn’t feature any proper Mandos being badass. But there’s no way around this.

I might upgrade this one to Vital if later episodes come to depend on it more - but preferably it wouldn’t be so key.

Onwards to the mop-up episodes from before the character model change. I reckon I’ll get through them all tonight!

Watching Smudger’s Mandalore/Geonosis movie now.

Smudger trims a good amount from the second Mandalore episode, where I might have kept some more of the dialogue, including the scene where Anakin kills in cold blood with a smile on his face while Obi-Wan and Satine both hesitate. I still got the feeling that the first two episodes should be split in time from the third.

He also trims some of the nice Anakin/Padme romance from the Geonosis arc, which I think should stay. I also think the Clovis elements have a little context missing right off the bat, which I’d reintroduce - though I understand why he found himself pressed to keep the episode trim.

This movie barely interlaces the two arcs, essentially just playing Mandalore then Geonosis, with only the last and first episode of each arc intercut. He also uses some intercutting to imply that the destruction of the Geonosis factory is one of the reasons that Dooku can’t really back the Death Watch invasion of Mandalore, though this doesn’t quite land for me. It’s a fine way to consume these arcs if you want to watch for two hours, but I think it supports the idea that his first movie was able to take advantage of some particularly lucky opportunities.

There is also one odd part in the first Geonosis episode where the background music cuts out- but I’m not here to criticise these things.

Smudger’s interlacing of the two Geonosian worm-zombie episodes is fantastic. Especially the beginning, where what’s happened to the troopers is kept mysterious and ominous, and the way that it’s uncovered by each of the two parties in different ways. I’ll probably steal this wholesale.

It’s a valid spot. Certainly that’s the most problematic of the arcs I’ve presented in the list above, because as you say it’s a mashup, something I’ve said I’m against.

The issues it solves are that firstly, as you say, the Domino Squad arc does have a little implied time jumping. This is almost entirely solved by dialogue trims and intercutting. And the Christophsis arc has content that’s (1) interesting but not vital, then (2) good but not great this early in the show, then (3) vitally introduces Ahsoka but is not very good. So the solution there would be to intercut it with something good.

Smudger spotted this, and his movie really works. It includes some elements I’d trim, but I think it’s the best way of presenting both arcs- I suppose my project’s first rule isn’t so much “no movies” as “best presentation”, and I think in this case Smudger found the best.

Also, since this episode would be Ahsoka light, I think that justifies it being followed by the Holocron arc rather than Mandalore.

Let’s return to the idea of ordering and pacing. In the era before the character models are updated, if we look purely at Vital or Important episodes, I think we’re looking like this:

1. The Battles of Muunilinst and Hypori - Anakin helps win some early victories, including fighting the new sith assassin Ventress, then gets knighted. Some people have an objection to the Tartakovsky show so I think it’s right to keep this one trim so we can cover off all the key points. I wouldn’t call this skippable but if someone chose to they wouldn’t miss out too much.
2. The Battles of Christophsis and Kamino - Domino squad are tested while Anakin meets Ahsoka, then they all return to defend Kamino against a competent plot from Grievous. It’s good to focus on the clones so early, and makes sense for the Separatists to target it as early as possible.
3. The Holocron Crisis - Cad Bane steals a holocron from the Jedi temple in order to kidnap force sensitive kids for Palpatine. This arc often gets overlooked but it’s fun, vibrant, varied, and features good character moments for almost all of our main cast. It’s a very well rounded episode (more so than the Mandalore arc) and lets us spend time with Ahsoka after her introduction, so I think it works best before it.
4. The Mandalore Crisis - The Death Watch are revealed as active on Mandalore’s moon, and thanks to Obi-Wan and Padme, fail to gain power on Mandalore. This introduces all of the Mandalore elements for the show, as well as the idea of neutral factions and third parties, so it’s good to get in up front.
5. The Second Battle of Geonosis - Padme and Clovis cause issues for Anakin, Geonosis is a decent battle, and we get some good development for Ahsoka both in the battle and after when we fight brain worms.

Look at that fivesome! I think that’s an excellent introduction to the series, if I do say so myself. The key character relationships are all well established, we get a lot of good development, and they’re a varied and balanced set.

In terms of introducing the other good episodes which belong in this block, I think I’d put them after the Mandalore arc, because I think the audience would prefer to get to Mandalore quickest. We could follow that with Cloak of Darkness, which is Ahsoka heavy, having not had her in the previous hour. The Deserter, Boba Fett arc, and attempted assassination of Padme, would also fit nicely in this block, for some good variety. (The second Mandalore arc would also fit here, but I haven’t reviewed it yet).

Super. I appreciate I’m not actually producing anything tangible right now, but I think it’s important to let the whole thing grow in my head (and yours!) first.

S02E12-14 - The first Mandalore Arc - Vital

Our first Vital episode other than Ahsoka’s intro, so we’re having this whether we like it or not.

Luckily, it’s meaty, and carries especially good weight if you’ve seen the Mandalorian show. It’s visually interesting, and has one of the show’s major developments for Obi-Wan. It also has some nice reflections on the Jedi in their new role as warriors as opposed to peacekeepers, and it’s a fun twist to have Palpatine revealed as part of what caused Mando culture to start to revert to its warlike ways.

As a bonus, it’s also our first major arc to explore more of coruscant, with some designs which are Ralph McQuarrie art from the original trilogy back when the Republic capital was known only as Imperial Center.

I might trim the part where Obi-Wan is caught in a factory, if possible, though this might need some tricky cuts. The second and third could probably be tightened a bit too.

You could also split this into two episodes, since the third doesn’t immediately follow the second.

Ahsoka does not appear in this arc.

I think this episode belongs early in our new ordering, for a couple of reasons:

• Within the context of the real world in which peoole are choosing to pick up the Clone Wars because they enjoy other elements of the franchise, it’ll tell viewers of the show who are coming into this that they’re going to get content relevant to the Mandalorian and/or the popular finale of the show
• Within the context just of this show, introducing third parties early generates some interest that this isn’t just going to be battles between clones and droids with no real jeopardy. Each third party introduces a new wild card.

The only real negative here is that following the opening episode with this one would mean relatively little Ahsoka.

Yeah, something like that. Though I haven’t yet finished the review, I think we have 16 vital arcs. These will be ordered around each other for best pacing, then importants and desirables will be fit around those.

As I start watching the first Mandalore arc, I’m reminded of a particular metric people are going to be judging this by if they’re coming from the Mandalorian TV show, which our first Mandalore episode must maintain in order to keep peoples’ interest:

Mandalorians are badass.