What if they’re only droid bodies, but have brains inside? A sort vat-grown Grievous?
That would be interesting for sure.
I like Temuera Morrison as Boba in ESB (but his lines should be replaced with those from Battlefront, the delivery is much better).
Luke and Leia’s kiss on Hoth should have been removed from the SE onwards.
Rogue One could dispose of the first and second acts and be great.
I’m not very fond of the original butthole-looking sarlacc. I wish someone could redo the SE effects for it.
I rewatch the films in chronological order.
I think I’m on board with almost all your decisions, though I would consider the Order 66 arc more vital because of its implications for the finale (the crucial “Find him…Fives” line can make the moment fall flat for someone who’s not up to date), and I’d include Bounty in at least the continuity cut, since it shows the beginning of Ventress’s bounty hunting career.
I’m on the camp that likes the Citadel arc though I don’t believe it’s necessary for the Mandalorian cut. But it has to bee in all the remaining ones since it has more of Ahsoka, introduces Tarkin, features Echo’s presumed death, etc.
In general I’m glad we’ve similar thoughts in this! I think I’ll be checking out the chapters you want to review to see how they can be merged or edited into any of the existing cuts. Greetings!
ROTJ was my favorite SW film as a child and I’d say it remains in my top 5. I’d still say it’s the weakest of the OT, specially coming after the impressive heights Empire reached, but it’s still one of the most entertaining to rewatch. I concede that the plot doesn’t make too much sense (specially at the beginning) and sadly many characters get sidetracked, but when it’s good, it’s really great. The space battle of Endor remains my favorite and the relationship between Anakin/Vader and Luke really sums up the emotional core of the saga.
Some parts are better than others, but all of Star Wars is good.
Right now is the best time to be a Star Wars fan.
The future of Star Wars is bright.
Glad to see another sentient being on the same page of positive feelings for SW as me.
David Prowse should have played the unmasked Anakin Skywalker in the theatrical cut of ROTJ.
The Republic Era is the most interesting one.
Obi-Wan and Maul’s 1-vs-1 duel in TPM is the single greatest lightsaber action in the 9-film saga.
I don’t mind Yoda using a lightsaber.
Most of the old EU (Legends) wasn’t actually that great (despite some excellent content such as KOTOR and 2D Clone Wars).
The Clone Wars and Rebels have some bits of very bad stuff, but the good parts are so consistently great it’s forgivable.
If they were going to resurrect Palpatine for the end they should have started with him in TFA. No Snoke, etc.
The Last Jedi gets way too much flack for it being “bold” despite pulling back most of its subversive ideas at the last second (Luke’s heroism notwithstanding).
Qui-Gon didn’t actually leave, though. He just treaded the fine line between following the Code and listening to the actual will of the Force.
Though yeah, the portrayal of the Jedi in the prequels has given place to this revisionist, critical approach to a overtly dogmatic Order. Personally I’m fine with it, it makes sense how Palpatine preyed on the Order’s weakness to wipe them out, and I liked to see this referenced in The Last Jedi. The perceived hipocrisy of the Order also feels like a more reasonable reason for Anakin’s turn to the dark side (since it made Ahsoka leave, among other things). Honestly I would have liked to see this pay off with a reformation of the Jedi ideology in the sequels
Maybe influenced by the teachings in Luke’s ancient texts, Rey could have gone on to found a new kind of order to correct the wrongs of the old one after Luke failed to do so. Instead the situation was left fairly ambiguous and there’s no sort of assurance that another Jedi revival (or a third Republic, for that matter) won’t repeat their past mistakes.
Lovely poster.
I don’t think it will be answered anytime soon, but my main question at this point is who got Grogu out of the Jedi temple before order 66? I wonder if it’s someone we know, or someone new?
My bet’s on Jocasta Nu. She survived the earliest phase of the purge and dedicated the remainder of her life to preserve key Jedi artifacts and information in order to (eventually) rebuild the Order and train a new school of Jedi. We know that she didn’t survive in the end but she could have taken Grogu with her when she went into hiding.
If Starkiller Base is merged with Exegol maybe it could be turned into a kind of Star Forge that would explain how the giant fleet came to be.
I also want to check out these! I’d like to get a link.
I don’t mind the narrator myself but I agree this refocused approach would be served better for a more dramatic opening and end credits.
Ideally the end credits theme would have a bit of Ahsoka and the clones’ themes. They aren’t only the core protagonists of the series, but also victims of the war. If you are considering Samuel Kim tracks I’d say you could add a mix of these two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTGo9RNVs8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrdRHO7ekU4
Yoda’s appearance in TLJ was spot-on and served as a emotional book-end to Luke’s Jedi path. Anakin should have appeared to Kylo, not to Luke.
I guess Jedi aren’t necessarily celibate as long as they don’t form attachments…
I love how they have kept us in the dark regarding what’s to come in the show so we literally can expect anything. I already decided to set aside my theories for the moment and just enjoy the ride.
Ahsoka mentioned the temple on Tython was on ruins so I’d say we can expect something similar to what was portrayed in TLJ.
The sisters themselves aren’t that bad. A little annoying, sure, but not as bad as countless other, worse characters in both this series and franchise. I guess their worst “sin” is their plot-mandated idiot mistakes which contribute to the padding, rather than the concept of the characters themselves (how they challenge Ahsoka’s perception is one of the nicer elements of the arc). And also I remember many people were expecting arcs such as Son of Dathomir to be adapted, so quite a few were left underwhelmed it got excluded in favor of Bad Batch/Martez sisters.
Did people really hate them because of their haircuts? What a stretch, though after seeing similar unfounded criticism for sequel characters such as Rose or Holdo it doesn’t surprise me how toxic some people can be.
Yeah, I’ll be hitting over a couple of the more frustrating points quite quickly. There’ll only be one prison break, for one thing.
Good to hear that! The arc was good on paper but it overstayed its welcome by the end.
I believe Ahsoka is done for this season but she’ll eventually appear later as a guest star. Or feature her in any of the spin-off live action shows that have been rumored. Maybe the Rebels sequel isn’t animated after all?
Now Bo-Katan I can see her coming back for the Season 2 finale or whenever the storyline catches up with Moff Gideon.
Yay! Great to see you back! I love how that remastered deleted scene looks.
Since we’re talking about a little reordering of episodes, I thought about the clone armour. The Phase I armour (which appears in episode 2) is used up until the Citadel/Mon Cala episodes, where it appears alongside the Phase II (which appears in episode 3), which then becomes the main armour.
Oddly, Phase II does appear in ARC Troopers (not a suprise, that was originally set a little later), but it also appears in Clone Cadets, which I thought was early in the war. I really think we need those episodes up first.
Canonically, the armour had a phased rollout, so I don’t personally have a problem with the idea that the Clone Army was launched in the Phase I armour, whilst they gradually upgraded the forces with Phase II throughout the clone wars, but I can understand if people have an issue with it.
We really should open with the Rookies arc though - it gives us some meat for Ahsoka’s light intro, makes us care for the clones, and also makes sense that the Separatists would target Kamino early.
I always got the idea that Phase II armor was worn only by ARC Troopers during the earlier half of the war and later spread to all the ranks in the clone army as the war progressed. For example, in the Citadel arc Fives and Echo, after they become ARC, are the only ones who have Phase II armor while all the non-ARC ones wear Phase I. So having the Domino Squad at the beginning of the series wouldn’t create any continuity issues.
Maybe turn it into Garel, which is purple.
I’m also interested in checking out your edit!
I loved this episode. The Yojimbo-inspired theme was neat and a good example of how this series, even though it’s a space western at its core, can successfully pull off diving into other genres for certain episodes.
Filoni took a huge gamble by revealing Ahsoka so early but I think it worked. Ahsoka’s white lightsabers look beautiful and Rosario Dawson’s casting was on-point. She has a reasonable resemblance to the character’s look and also nailed her mannerisms, so it was like watching the same Ahsoka we all know and love. The only thing that threw me off a bit was the length of her head-tails and horns, specially when the concept art showed they could have been bigger.
One think I used to love about the score is how it avoided most well known music themes, but I have to admit I got all emotional when I heard Yoda’s theme and especially Ahsoka’s theme from TCW.
I can spend hours and hours thinking of possible stories of how Grogu (I’m confident the name will grow on me) survived Order 66 and if he did witness other key events.
So hyped for Thrawn. Is he going to be a tease a for a spin-off series or will he eventually become a main antagonist for Mando? Also loved the Old Republic references.
A Jedi just needs to be knighted to take on an apprentice. For example Obi-Wan at the end of TPM. The rank of Master is conceded to a knight who succesfully trains a Padawan.
I’d say Bounty should be kept in. It’s the episode which introduces Ventress to bounty-hunting and also serves as context for why is she on Tatooine competing with other hunters for the prize on Savage (in Revenge), and later on Coruscant willing to capture Ahsoka in exchange for payment (in the fugitive Ahsoka arc). Besides, the train action scene is pretty fun and sometimes even brutal.
Both Massacre and Bounty could be moved up a few episodes as long as they come after Deception. In Massacre in particular, with its current place in the timeline, doesn’t make much sense why Ventress takes so long to get back to Dathomir or why Dooku takes so long to get revenge on the witches.
Anakin’s theme sounds super! Since “A new home” theme is gone maybe it should play over the sabers being buried, as a book-end to the story of Anakin.
I really like that concept art Chase Adams. Hopefully something similar could be incorporated into the movie.