Patali said:

Is Ahsoka pointless without Rebels? Because my wife and I really don’t want to sit through it, and I can’t find anyone who has condensed it significantly via edit. I mean I see edits, but I want to get the highlights in like 1 or 2 movies. Just whatever is relevant to Ahsoka

Rebels has too much going on for an edit like that. There are some filler episdes, but overall the show is a pretty plot driven from a single point of view.

This one might be helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/83h6z6/made_quick_episode_guide_for_rebels_for_those_who/

There are some audio issues here. At times all voices come from the right instead of the center.

The sillyness is kinda baked in. But it at least provides a little bit of context on how the first order gets systems to join them.

Maybe there could be a normal and an extended cut? Just throwing around ideas.

TDS91939 said:

Would it be a bad idea to AI replace majority of the voices with their live action counterparts?

Yes. A lot of work to make the dialogue sound worse.

Some people consider it political to give minorities representation or to call out racists.

Sad world.

Allright, another scene from Episode 5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwu4TVsUjoY

I always missed a scene that solidifies the Master & Apprentice connection between Kanan and Ezra in the Jedi Temple. They learn individual lessons, but dont share a moment there.

Taking a scene from Rise of the Old Masters I added one such moment in the end. (Improving a scene that felt a bit “meh” imo anyway)

Really would love some feedback, be it good or bad! 😃 Currently thinking about adding a dreamy effect to the vision sequences, whats the general opinion on that?

Allright, I need some opinions.

This is the beginning of my episode 5, which takes Kanan and Ezra to the Jedi Temple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=549ctq1xw90 (Visual glitches fixed)
In case you have not watched the show in a while: This is right after Ezra has tapped into the Dark Side and Kanan apologized to him for not teaching him what he needed to know.

Kanan is way more supportive towards Ezra in my Cut compared to the show, where he constantly doubts him and even voices those concerns. (Sometime between the lines) Keep that in mind for context.

Empire day already had a lot going for it, so only relatively minor tweaks here. Episode uploading.

Episode 4 - Empire Day

Runtime: 41:53 min

Footage from

• Empire Day (Main Story)
• Gathering Forces (Main Story)

Changelist (chronological)

• REMOVED Ezras comment on killing the Loth Cat. That was just one step too far.
• REMOVED an on the nose convo between Kanan and Hera during the TIE-reveal.
• REMOVED a lot of the Empire POV during the TIE-incident, which also keeps the presence of the Inquisitor a secret for a bit longer
• REMOVED a comment by the Inquisitor that implies he has met Ezra and Kanan before. (Because in this cut he has not)
• REMOVED bickering between Chopper and Zeb.

Ok, first off: I accidently uploaded stereo versions a few days ago. These are getting replaced right now in the folder. (Like really, my preset got f’d up again)

Episode 3 finished, this one covers 4 stories total and builds the groundwork for Empire day while paying off some stuff from the last episode.

Episode 3 - Missions for Fulcrum

Runtime: 33:16 min

Footage from

• Fighter Flight (Cold opening)
• Out of Darkness (First mini-story)
• Forces of Destiny - Hasty departure (Interlude Micro-Story)
• Breaking Ranks - (Second mini-story)

Changelist (chronological)

• CHANGED Fighter Flight into a cold opening of roughly 3 minutes. We start in medias res and see Zeb and Ezra running from the Empire. They get seperated and Ezra voices concern for Zeb, who tells him to keep going. Ezra continues to escape via the roofs, while Zeb gets into the Tie Fighter. Zeb then picks Ezra up and they fly into the sunset and have a heart-to-heart. No bickering, no fruit chases. Just a little escape scene that sets up the Tie for later and shows their relationship growing after the last episode.
• REMOVED everything before shuttle takeoff from Out of Darkness. So there is no bickering between Zeb, Ezra and Chopper and also no irresponsible behaviour by them that causes the fuel issues.
• REMOVED some of the conflict between Hera and Sabine, but not all. It is important for Sabines character to voice concerns about Fulcrum.
• CHANGED the scene when the Ghost is informed about the problems. Bickering of Ezra and Zeb is gone, Kanan now actually senses the problem via meditation before his friends tell him about it, giving him a little moment to shine in an episode where he gets sidelined a bit.
• REMOVED a lot of redundancy in the fight scene, which gets to the point way quicker now.
• REMOVED any dialogue in the end hinting at irresponsible behaviour by Ezra and Zeb.
• REMOVED some bickering from Hasty departure. This little segment acts as a divider between Out of Darkness and Breaking ranks. The different animation style hopefully helps to make clear that these are not one continuous story. It also acts as a little progression of Sabine and Hera, since it shows them understanding and trusting each other.
• REMOVED lengthy introduction from Breaking Ranks. We go right into the first test, hopefully making a first time viewer wondering “Is that Ezras voice?”
• REMOVED a few instances of the Crew bickering and/or not trusting in each other.
• REMOVED the repeating tests in the pit. Seeing that once is enough.
• REMOVED the sidestory about the recruits winning the walker-ride as a price. Walker training is now just a normal part of training.
• REMOVED the in-person apearance by the Inquisitor. This way we see him in Hologram twice and then on Empire day in-person for the first time.

Reasoning

I try to have a nice flow between episodes. Episode 1 ended with Kanan promising Jedi training, episode 2 startet with Jedi training. Episode 2 ended with Bail finding the Rebels and Zeb rethinking his attitude towards Ezra, Episode 3 starts with Ezra and Zeb growing closer and the introduction of “Fulcrum”.
All in all these stories all show the Crew saving each other in dire situations and working together efficiently.

Next up: Empire day!

Yeah, Star Wars is broken beyond repair. If nothing else, Acolyte has shown me this.

How people can say that this episode destroyed the canon and at the same time praise Obi Wan is beyond me. My best guess is that they only want to watch flashy images that seem familiar without thinking about it.

Then there is the corner thet gets upset if there are not enough white Cis males in the material… There has been so much wrong with these productions… If this is your leading argument all the time… thats really telling.

And then theres the corner that just praises everything… Which kinda feels like a cult looking at it from the outside…

We watched the first 3 episodes and do like it quite a bit overall. Really nice play with the title of episode 3, clever!

The only thing that did not quite work for us was the scene with the trolls. There wasnt enough stalling from Bilbos side to make that moment work, seemed a bit rushed.

I think this episode shows very nicely where I want to go with this cut. PMs go out for the people who requested access. 😃 Oh, and an updated episode 1 is also available.

Episode 2 - Growing Pains

Runtime: 26:16 min

Footage from

• Droids in Distress (main story)
• Fighter Flight (added scenes)
• Rise of the old masters (added scenes)

Changelist (chronological)

• ADDED Training scene on top of the ship and discussion afterwards from Rise of the old masters
• ADDED abbreviated scene of Ezra, Chopper and Zeb getting at each others throat from Fighter Flight
• REMOVED intro action scene and following conversation from Droids in Distress.
• REMOVED all dialogue throughout the episode that mentions Ezra not getting jedi training yet (cause he does now!)
• REMOVED moment where Sabine and Zeb are winking at each other in the most obvious way while in the public transport.

Recontextualisation

Ezras training now starts right away. It is enough of a character flaw that Kanan is a bad teacher, we do not need him to instantly go back on his promise. This change gives Kanan’s stupid grin at the end of the episode (when Ezra does a force push) a nice new meaning. That moment is now about him realizing that he is not completely incompetent as a teacher. Also, the moment has a different meaning for Ezra now. Through the scenes from Rise of the old masters and Fighter Flight we saw him failing to use the force twice before, now the third time around it finally works. (Holding true to the rule of 3s! Yay!)
It also works out quite nicely that Zeb taunts Ezra for not being able to use the force in the beginning and then gets saved by Ezra using the force in the end.
This episode is also about the crew growing together, even originally. By taking the scenes of characters in conflict from Rise of the old masters and Fighter Flight we reinforce that theme. We start out with a lot of conflict, have some off-handed remarks towards Ezra during the episode and at the end the Crew shares a nice moment of silence as a unit (since the jedi training dialogue has been cut out of that moment), rounding things off. I know many people do not like to see the main characters in open conflict that much, but here it makes sense story-wise. Future episodes will not forget this payoff though and cut conflicts when possible to make the crew look more like a unit to make this episode feel impactful.

I think a lot of the recent content was only watchable in Fan Edits (or might be in the future)

BoBF, Kenobi, Mando S3, Bad Batch, RoS, TLJ, Solo… It adds up and I think the damage done is not reversible.

So Star Wars will either die, be rebooted or become a more niche franchise. (Or multiple of those after each other)

Less content with less budget would probably mean more creative freedom and also force the creators to be a bit more creative and focus more on story than on action. Not the worst outcome. A reboot is risky, but it is what corporate thinking dictates when things keep getting worse. Personally, I would be ok with a new, streamlined and more coherent version of the Skywalker Saga. The mainstream might also respond to it if the last Star Wars content was long enough ago. There would definitely be backlash though and it would not be a sure hit thing.

Let’s just hope for the best. Honestly the franchise had lost me and then fan edits of these last releases that improved the material is what brought me back in. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t bother with Star Wars anymore.

What was it with the cutting of these?

Did they just give it to the Intern or what happened? I really hope this is not a sign of what is to come.
I don’t want my movies and TV shows to feel like TikTok.

Short Update: Had to redo the sound for Ep1, now the 5.1 works correctly and the transitions are smoother.

Since G00b upped his game, I also redid Kessel. New Version of Ep1 and Ep2 coming soon.

Honestly the Chips were kinda neccessary. Keeping it a secret that there is a standard issue order to kill all the jedi that every Clone Trooper is aware of… is a bit weird.

I think I need to up my game! xD

Looks great!

that looks legit great! Thanks for sharing!

Shaving off a third of the runtime seems about right. So after wasting a lot of time with trying to make a bonus episode out of the shorts, including TotJ Resolve and whatever, I am now making rapid progress, since the direction is clear. Episode 1 is finished. I basically shaved 3 minutes off and added 3 minutes of new footage. The next 2 episodes will then save a big chunk of meaningless watchtime for the viewer. They will also fundamentally restructure Kanan’s character arc. Excited to see how people will react.

Episode 1 - Spark of Rebellion

Runtime: 44:54 min

Footage from

• Art Attack Promotional Short (additional scenes)
• Spark of Rebellion Part 1 (main story)
• Spark of Rebellion Part 2 (main story)

Changelist (chronological)

• ADDED the “Art Attack” Short as a cold opening, because it establishes Sabine’s phoenix graffity (which is part of the Intro) and it is called back to at the end of the season. It also shows that her methods are evolving. Here she puts an explosive on top of the graffity, later in the episode the graffity IS the explosive.
• REMOVED the opening scene of the Inquisitor talking to Vader. Neither character plays a role in this episode and the ending of this episode functions very well as an introduction for the Inqusitor anyway. It is one of those instances where they spelled it out for the kids, making for a very clunky experience.
• REMOVED the scene of Ezra standing on his tower and leaving for the town. If you remove the Rebels fanfare (and the title screen) there is not much left there and it does not flow very well into the next scene, because we get 2 establishing shots right after each other, but there is nothing really happening in the first location.
• REMOVED the on the nose dialog by the Jogan trader. We do not need a character spelling out that it was better before the empire. He instead gets instantly arrested, without discussion. Makes the empire look even worse, but without having a character basically turning to the camera and saying “The empire is bad, you know?”
• REMOVED the first instances of Kanan Tap-Signalling when Ezra watches them getting ready for their ambush. So instead of him going around and tapping his pockets repeatedly (and suspiciously), Kanan now walks towards Zeb, stops for a moment (WITHOUT tapping), Zeb gets the hint and gets ready, Kanan then continues ahead and taps when reaching Sabine, who confirms via tapping and proceeds to set the plan in motion. This makes the Crew look more discrete and therefore more competent. Another instance of the show spelling it out for the kids.
• REMOVED Zebs on the nose comment when Kanan tells him to fall back with his speeder. We know he is angry at “the kid” (Ezra). It really does not need to be spelled out.
• REMOVED an awkward looking shot (from the side in a weird posture) when Ezra jumps onboard the Ghost with the crate.
• REMOVED the line of Zeb specifying that “throwing out” means “mid flight”. It really does not need to be spelled out.
• REMOVED banter between Hera and Kanan that establishes again how special Ezra is. This has been established enough already at this point. Removing these improves the pacing of the still ongoing chase.
• REMOVED a lot of redundant dialogue to bridge the gap between episodes 1&2.
• ALTERED the appearance of Kessel in an establishing shot to better resemble it’s appearance in SOLO.
• REMOVED the little moment where Ezra emerges proudly between the Wookies after setting them free. We get that this was a heroic action without this shot.
• REMOVED the lines regarding Ezra “passing a test” when he gives back the Holocron. Opening Holocrons was never established as being “a test” anywhere in the lore. Plus we don’t need an explanation here. Ezra opened the Holocron, which can only be done by using the force. No further explanation needed.
• ALTERED the appearance of Kessel again to fit better with SOLO.

If anyone wants to take a look, just shoot me a PM.

I think the epilogue (as well done as it is on a technical level) feels off pacing wise. The montage idea would also just work for repeat viewings. A first time viewer would probably not quite get it, because they are not familiar with what the Inquisitors are.
Adding Padmes funeral is super nice, it is actually on my ToDo list to make a little edit that inserts that scene into the last episode of CW:Refocused. So all thumbs up for that. I think my biggest problem with Barriss is 3 things:

1. It suddenly brings a character front an center that had no real role in the movie before
2. It is different tonally from the rest of the rest of the material. We go from Ashoka burying the clones to Padmes funeral to Vader visiting was is supposedly Ahsokas grave. That kinda makes sense. Having footage in there of a new Inquisitor fortress being built clashes a bit, at least for me.
3. Both Padmes funeral and Ahsoka burying the clones are relatively close to the end of the rest of the story. Then comes a big time jump to Vader finding the wreckage. Story gets concluded -> Timejump to bookend with a nice image. That feels clean to me. Having several little timejumps of different size in there makes it feels a bit muddy for me.

Love a lot of your work, so thats where this feedback is coming from. 😃

I get the temptation of adding Barris in there, but I think her scenes will feel a bit lost between all the other stuff.

The Bad Batch came and went… and it did not leave much impact at all. Project Necromancer was set up, only to be shut down. The Batch itself has been written into retirement.

The most relevant stuff seems to be the side content, much of which is left unfinished story wise. (Rex’s Clone Underground, the senate storyline etc.)

So this thread is meant to brainstorm together if we can salvage these side stories (assuming another show will finish them) without focus on the Bad Batch.

My 2 Cents:

Baseline:

1. Omega is not special. The Empire is not hunting for her specifically, but is experimenting on Clones in general.
2. Project Necromancer is not named, we only know the Empire is doing experiments regarding Clones.
3. The Bad Batch is a bit like the A-Team in this. They get called in to help, but for the most part the story is not ABOUT them.

Season 1

Episode 1

We take episode 1 of the show, trim it down and remove anything that hints at Omega being anything but a normal clone that happens to be female. We intercut with the Kamino scenes from episode 14, which show the Kaminoans being worried and planning their escape as well as the evacuation of the facility. After the Batch has escaped, we go right to the destruction of Kamino, the presence of the Bad Batch during the destruction is completely cut.

Episode 2

We see the Ryloth conflict from the perspective of Hera, the Bad Batch only shows up as side characters (like in “Tales of the Rebel” by G00b)

Season 2

Episode 3

Crosshairs Journey from season 2, ending on him being captured and put into the brainwashing program, which sets up the Clone Assasins for the next Episode and the Stormtroopers.

Episode 4

The senate storyline from season 2, also without focus on the batch. They only come into the story when Rex calls them in to retreive the recording of the destruction of Kamino. We end on the note that the age of the stormtrooper begins.

Episode 5

We start wth episode 2x14, where clones are being freed. There, we get the setup for Hemlock and Tantiss in the data that Echo gets out of the computer. Crosshair is still just being programmed to be an assasin. We see the infighting between Hemlock and Tarkin. The Empire has no special interest in Omega, they are doing only doing experiments with Clones in general. The attack on Tarkins Station plays out like it does in the show, just cut down. Omega is captured, just because she is another test subject among many.

Season 3

Episode 6

Now this is where it gets tricky. The show would need a cold opening structure or something to make this work. We take the scenes of Crosshair getting himself free and trying to send a signal in 2x14 and recontextualize. Instead od trying to send a message, he is trying to get out. We show basically everything (Crosshair taking out guards) but the last bit in the communication room (where he gets caught again) as a cold opening, cut to the Intro and imply that he escaped offscreen.
From here we go to the reunion from 3x04 and cut Omega out, some wide shots would need to have her painted out. We go directly into the crew getting Hemlock free (that episode can be cut down to 2-3 scenes) and the attack on Tantiss plays out. We see Nala Se destroying her research, Hemlock die, Tarkin taking over, the clones freed and also see the Batch retiring. Especially in this episode it might be difficult to play off Omega as just another Clone, but it might be possible.

The thing missing from this is setup for the Zillo Beast.

But all this just to get the conversation started. I know there are many people with great ideas here. 😃

Always good to see this is making progress!

Regarding Bad Batch I hope we get a show that follows up on those plot lines. If Barris happens to be in it as well, there could be a nice way to do a Dark Times fan edit of BB, TotE and that new show.
Fingers crossed.

Reworked Intro post. Here a few more impressions.

The Andor-inspired Intro in a few pictures. In motion it is clearly visible that the planet is Lothal. So the intro combines Sabine’s phoenix with the world that is the main focus of the show.

Update to the look of Kessel