Knight of Kalee

regularjoe said:

My concern with Cad Bane is that they pull a Walking Dead with him where they introduce a heavy into one part of the franchise and then kill him off in the next episode. Even though I am not a TCW fan it would be a real slap in the face to that part of the fanbase if they did that…and the way things are going I can see that happening.

They sure are smart enough to not do that. I predict he’ll face off with Boba in the finale but will survive. Cad Bane could very well serve as an overarching villain if there’s a season 2. He has ties to both Boba and Fennec that go way back (TCW and Bad Batch series).

ZkinandBonez said:

Slight canon break, so small in fact that I don’t really care, but figured I’d mention it either way. Yoda’s lightsaber was technically smelted down by Mas Amedda in a ritual show in the first issue of the Darth Vader comic by Charles Soule, but I suppose Yoda could have made a replacement during his years in exile. Or I suppose there could have been other small lightsabers found at the Jedi temple.

The saber’s appearance in the comic was itself a retcon. Originally it was established by a reference guide that Yoda kept his lightsaber at his Dagobah hut, then came the comic and had the saber destroyed by Mas Amedda. I think one of the guys from the Story Group suggested that Yoda had multiple sabers or the one Amedda burned was a fake.

I really liked the episode and the fan-service did it for me. The only thing detracting from it was that again Boba felt like an extra in his own show. It was OK to switch the focus to Din for one episode that acted as an interlude of sorts. But two back-to-back episodes? I hope it doesn’t end up acting in detriment of the story, cause I feel Boba’s personal stakes are a bit weak at this point considering we’ve got one chapter left. I hope they can handle a satisfying climax and not lose track of Boba’s story. After I watched this I thought to myself “They’re really doing a second season. No way Boba only was in for 5 sevenths of his own show”.

Back to the stuff I liked.

The ROTS flashback left me agaze. Seeing the Jedi face the 501st clone troopers kind of made me wish the actual ROTS film focused more in the Jedi Purge itself and had more scenes set during the fall of the Temple.

The soundtrack for this chapter was amazing. Cobb Vanth’s theme was back and the Grogu training scenes featured some nice mixes of the classical Force theme, Ludwig Goransson’s “Force theme”, Grogu’s theme and Luke’s new theme.

The CG for Luke was sooo much cleaner, thank the Force.

I kind of expected Cobb Vanth and Luke (though that didn’t diminish my enjoyment of their appearances) but I was truly speechless when I got to see Ahsoka, and almost fell off my chair when I recognized Cad Bane. I’m still getting accustomed to his live-action design but I’m glad they kept Corey Burton to perform his voice.

I’m very intrigued by the Ahsoka-Luke interactions. When and where did their first meeting occur? What’s their consensus on Anakin Skywalker? Will Luke show up in the Ahsoka miniseries?

That’s an impressive and very insightful OP, thanks for your dedication!

I got introduced to Star Wars franchise in the chronological order and in Latin Spanish dub. That always influenced my view on the prequels on 2 main aspects:

• Much like EddieDean said, much of the character introductions, worldbuilding and perceived coincidences seem far less contrived when the trilogy is viewed as the actual first set of films instead of prequels. On the other hand, TPM doesn’t delve that much into what the Force is, and it’s unfortunate the earliest explanation for it involves the midichlorians.
• Some of the dialogues and particularly most of the line delivery and voices are far less obnoxious in the dub (the improvement is pretty noticeable with Hayden Christensen’s dialogue in the later two films). So for me the dialogue issues were hardly relevant until I saw the movies in their original language.

This influenced on me never having strong feelings against the prequel trilogy and despite their flaws I consider them enjoyable movies, of course never reaching the OT’s level.

I’d probably post a more thorough review when I have more time, but here are a couple of abridged thoughts about TPM.

• I do find Jar Jar annoying, but not irredeemably hateful. I’d be interested in a fan-edit that redubs him. On the other hand I admit to liking Boss Nass in a guilty pleasure way.
• Overall this film looks much more naturalistic and pleasant to the eye than the other prequels.
• I do think TPM benefits from going immediatly from meeting Jar Jar to the arrival on Theed, but I’d hate to lose the visuals of Otoh Gunga. At least the Submarine breaking down and the second pair of fish could be excised seamlessly.
• I’ve never had problems with the droid dialogue either on this film, the later prequels or TCW. I find them funny.
• The identity of Darth Sidious should be better concealed in his holographic appearances, like having his face or voice distorted. We don’t need the explicit Senate references or anything that links him too soon to Palpatine other than the funeral shot. This would benefit the audience for both the chronological and release viewing orders.
• Maul was severely underused, but I don’t see a way to remedy this sticking only to TPM.

I think the final verdict will depend on the quality of the last two chapters. If they’re anything like chapters 2 or 5 this series will be looked back with much more favorable eyes.

ZkinandBonez said:

I also think it’s possible that Rodriguez isn’t used to directing on a TV budget and/or schedule, though at the same time isn’t he known for being a quick and cheap director? I don’t really know his work all that well, but based on his episode of The Mandalorian I get the impression that he’s more of a “fix it in post” guy, and while this might work for movies like Sin City or Alita it can cause a lot of trouble on TV series, especially since the volume require extensive pre-production work, the reverse of most movies these days.

Rodriguez is sort of a Swiss army knife, besides producing and directing his films he also uses to perform camerawork, editing, and oversees the score, sound design and visual effects. So yeah he puts most of his effort in post production. He clearly hasn’t performed all of those tasks for BOBF, but I wonder what grade of imput does he have into them.

Either way, BOBF seems to be, at least for season one, a smaller-scale adventure, so it’s not that surprising most of Lucasfilm’s attention and effects budget is set on limited events like Obi-Wan or Ahsoka.

Man, Bryce Dallas has for sure come a long way since her first Mando episode. She already upped her game for her S2 episode and now is giving us a contender for the best episode of BOBF.

Sirius said:

It even seems like a high budget episode, while all of the first four episodes of BOBF seemed to have a really low budget, with pour effects and bad action scenes.

I think that has mostly to do with the directing and stylistic choices. Bryce directed Chapter 5 and it shows. The second episode had also solid direction and cinematography. On the other side, Rodriguez’s episodes looked the most simplistic and “cheap” both in choreography and camerawork, they also have the most notorious goofs.
Also this is the first time we left Tatooine in this show. Tatooine has typically been brought to life with enhanced practical effects and sets, while the showrunners likely secured part of their CG/Volume budget to convincingly depict this place.

Seeing Mandalore and the Great Purge onscreen shocked me. Also I can’t believe we saw the destruction of Tipoca City and now Sundari in the span of less than a year. Truly the Empire was no good for fan-favorite cities with weird yet iconic designs. The scene with the KX droids and probes finishing off the survivors of the nuking was shiver-inducing and looked as it if were pulled straight from Terminator (in the good sense).

I had a grin from ear-to-ear the entire time they repaired and flew the N-1 starfighter, one of my favorite ship designs ever. And I fell in love with the BD unit brought into live action.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Mando and Grogu’s reunion, but I also hope Mando’s own arc doesn’t detract too much from Boba’s story, considering there are only two chapters left.

With the bacta treatments done don’t think there will be any more extensive flashbacks, or they will change the narrative framing device for them. If they want to depict how Boba knew Cobb Vanth got his armor, they could have Boba meet Cobb in present time and then have a short flashback.

I also think Boba has some kind of retrograde amnesia from being hit on the head by a Jawa and the overall stressful situation he found himself into.

I’m not sure Bo will appear given that we don’t know if she and Din are even on good terms at this point. But I’m really looking forward to seeing Din with the Darksaber. Maybe we could catch a glimpse of a new starship for Din?

Well that was a nice comeback for the show after the middling chapter 3. This was much more engaging and the direction and cinematography were a lot more competent. Unfortunately it seems Robert Rodriguez directed three episodes so there’s one left among the upcoming three.

Chapter 4 is my second favorite, after 2. First of all I loved Fennec Shand getting both more character development and action scenes this time around.

I was surprised the flashbacks caught up so soon with the timeline of The Mandalorian.

I liked the little references to the Clone Wars series (the ratcatcher droid and the four-legged Gonk droid).

The mods and their retro aesthetic felt less jarring this time. Maybe cause their scene was set at nighttime.

The little Rancor moment at the Godfather-like meeting was great!

I’m thrilled by the possible return of Din Djarin, and it would be such a wasted opportunity if they didn’t bring Bossk into the mix. They could even set a sort of arc for Black Krrsantan, as they established a little backstory for him and his hatred for Trandoshans. I hope as well any surviving members of the Tusken tribe come back for the finale.

regularjoe said:

Mrebo said:

A very good episode. I was almost giddy seeing the Hutts. The CGI has come along enough and it not being Jabba helps immensely. I still don’t like the lame minor characters who try to be funny, like at the mayor’s office, but more concerning Max Rebo’s trunk is too thin, isn’t it?

I am amazed that with the money and tech that Lucasfilm/Disney has at its disposal that so many of the casually seen aliens look like borderline rubber masks.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets had more convincing looking aliens!

I wish they touched them up a bit with CGI, if only for allowing some smoother motion. It’s nice to recall the simpler OT aesthetic but sometimes the alien characters act so unexpressive that it feels jarring, reminds me of the poor lip-syncing of the Neimoidians back in the prequels.

On the other hand some of the animatronic work they’ve pulled off is amazing, such as the Frog lady in Mando or the Ithorian mayor in this series.

Did someone else notice that the second half of the end credits theme (From 1:48 onwards) features a melody that’s suspiciously similar to the Crimson Dawn theme from Solo?

I’ve also found out that the parkour-ninja guys kind of resemble some Crimson Dawn thugs seen in recent comics.

Could they (and maybe Qi’ra) turn out to be the main antagonists for the season?

Liked the pilot, only wish it was a bit longer to cram in a more developed hook for the the present-day storyline which was left very open-ended. The flashbacks of course compensated for this. I was overjoyed to see a few seconds of the Kamino cloning facilities and the Geonosian arena.

Overall I’m glad they prioritised character work over action for this pilot. The flashbacks were the ideal route to go, as one of the most interesting things about post-ROTJ Boba is what events led to his more humbled and affable demeanor. The EU always zigzags on whether Boba had an honor code before, so I think the show would do the right thing by having the Sarlacc incident and Tusken captivity be the events that bridge the ruthless and the honorable depictions of Boba. Speaking of the Tuskens, seeing even more of their customs after The Mandalorian did a lot to humanise them was very welcome and I’m intrigued to see how they factor in Boba’s personality shift to the one we meet in Mando S2.

It was really interesting to see a different kind of Tusken tribe. Besides the different attires, they seem to be more nomadic and more progressive, as apparently there isn’t segreggated clothing for women and younglings among them (as there was in AOTC).

The Kraken-like monster was a fine addition to the rather implausible levels of Tatooine biodiversity. I liked the old stop-motion feeling conveyed by its movements, though its somewhat humanoid face veered a bit into the uncanny valley for me.

As always, the small easter eggs and connections to other Star Wars media are welcome. It’s so refreshing that Mando and Book of Boba feature so many familiar aliens like Twi’leks, Trandoshans and Rodians after they were conspicuously absent from the sequel trilogy. The Cantina song variant, the 8D8 torturer droid at the palace and the Tusken gourds were also nice details. One thing that left me scratching my head however was the depiction of Mos Espa. Yeah I can find it likely the city grew considerably in the span of 30 years since it was last seen in the prequels, but I don’t remember Mos Espa being built in the middle of a valley surrounded by huge cliffs (and reaching beyond them as well).

The end credits theme song is growing on me and it kind of reminds me of Viking music. Could the chanting also be a reference to Tem Morrison’s Maori background?

Maybe you could use two frames of the Sith Star Destroyer emerging from hyperspace (from the Kijimi destruction scene that has been removed). Or hopefully something more interesting 😄

I’d like to check out this as well, sounds promising 😄

Looks nice overall for me, particularly the sun. Though at the end, the added light to Endor kind of passes through the dorsal fin of the Lambda.

Also at the beginning I think the exterior of the Home One ship looks too dark. For a moment I thought the white light spots on its underside were stars 😄

Hi there! Does someone know if that clip made of a Darth Nihilus statue on Exegol was ever made available?

Can I have an updated link to your content Hal?

And congrats to you and everyone who has worked hard this year to accomplish this. For me, Ascendant V2 is canon.

Ooh, I’m interested in this!!! I’m really looking forward to book edits.

Since I’ve read the original Darth Plagueis I would like to have a summarised list of changes!

CaptainFaraday said:

People seem to agree that only the first Sors line should be in the final edit; yeah?

Is there any way you can send me the scene including the extended bit where Sors’s second line would have been? I’d like to try implementing another Jedi such as Plo Koon in there.

For AotC, I would really like if they went and finished the extended talk between Obi-Wan and Jocasta Nu, where they discuss Count Dooku before he left the Order, his similarities to Qui-Gon and the ideological reasons why he quit. That, along with the Geonosis scene with Padmé and Dooku, would do wonders to flesh out the Count as an antagonist who had a point to be made.

I would leave Anakin’s line “What was that about?” intact. To me it feels he’s just teasing Obi-Wan, rather than being actually confused. You know, typical bro banter.

The inclusion of Ahsoka’s scene is great, and don’t mind if it’s the only time we see her in this episode. The original CW episodes had an habit of doing this often (example: Ventress or Dooku having a single context-providing scene each in the episode where Savage finds Maul).

I’m going to take a look at it and see how it goes!! Great job overall

Version 1 reads more TCW-like, and I stand by vranir’s suggestions. I don’t know if Satine should be name-dropped in the crawl though, feels a bit abrupt (or at least have her full name and title for better context). Maybe just hinting that she’s a particularly close old friend would do.

I’ll see if I can take some time to rewatch Malevolence and see how much it has improved since the last time.

Greetings!

Yeah, one would have to remove Han´s “Leia doesn’t want to see me” when he talks to Maz and later when Han and Leia talk about each other’s looks when they meet. Hopefully their reunion doesn’t feel too rushed with this removal.

G&G-Fan said:

Anakin Starkiller said:

Any idea how we could give Han and Leia something to do in RotJ?

Wdym they had a lot to do, that shield generator didn’t self-destruct

It’s not that they didn’t do anything per se, it’s just that their development arcs are the weakest in ROTJ, particularly Han’s.

Hal 9000 said:

It’s a little weird that everyone else is the old age at which they died, but eh.

If we go strictly by in-universe logic, then Anakin’s Force spirit should appear as either Hayden or Sebastian Shaw in his mid-forties, since Anakin died at the age of 45.

For me both Shaw and Hayden are equally valid. My personal best choice, much like Burbin’s, is an aged up Hayden like the one we currently have in Ascendant. Hopefully a similar Anakin could be digitally put together to replace the admittely bad Hayden shots in the ROTJ special edition.

But anyways, if even Anakin’s accent changed that much then making himself look as old as Obi-Wan should be no issue for his spirit haha 😄