daveybjones999

Just listened to the clip and think it’s pretty much seamless. The only line that feels slightly out of place is C3PO calling Exegol a “Hidden Temple” but it’s not too noticeable, and it’s really only those 2 words. The scene also feels less rushed than the original scene and it feels like it has enough room to breathe unlike in the original where it felt like they were just rushing the exposition because they had no time for it.

I’ve been way more positive on the recent Star Wars shows than other have been as despite their issues I greatly enjoyed Mandalorian season 3 and Ahsoka, but the trailer for this doesn’t inspire confidence. Its clear from the poster and trailer it wants to go for a darker, maybe even horroresque tone, but it does a poor job of portraying that. Others have mentioned the lighting as an issue, but more than that the fight choreography us somewhat lacking. I’m not sure what it was but the first fight that we see doesn’t seem as intense as it should be. I’m really hoping this is just a really bad trailer as I love the High Republic era and the premise is genuinely intriguing but the trailer just doesn’t work as it should.

I kind of understand where people are coming from with this, it would be cool for Darth Vader to show up for more than 2 scenes and actually get to do something, but I don’t think they’d really be able to sustain it for an extended period of time. If there is one thing that is consistent in the Star Wars TV Shows and Movies, it is that Darth Vader is used sparingly. He only shows up for a total of 37 minutes in the original trilogy, he gets around 10 minutes in A New Hope, 13 minutes in Empire, and around 14 in Return. In Revenge he only gets 2 scenes, he only appears for one scene in Rouge One, we get the epilogue scene in The Clone Wars which is only around 2 minutes, and he only appears in 3-4 episodes of Rebels for a grand total of 10 minutes. He gets 22 minutes in Obi-Wan, but that shows around 4 and a half hours long so it’s technically consistent with previous entries. I actually really like that because too much Vader I think would not work that well. Sure there have been comics and books where he’s the main character and focus of the story, and there’s a chance it could be cool, but I just don’t think it would satisfy anyone.

I’m excited about this. Season 2 was a big improvement on season 1, and season 3 looks to be even better, also the Ventress reveal has gotten me hyped for the season. Personally, I think the CG animated series are the most consistent branch of the Star Wars franchise. Sure they all start off not being all that well regarded, partially because of it being targeted more towards kids, and partially because of some weaker storytelling, then they get more mature and the more child-friendly aspects start to diminish, and then the final seasons have some of the best material in the franchise. Hopefully, the Bad Batch continues down this trend and continues the improvements made by season 2.

act on instinct said:

If the writer’s strike had an effect on this I wouldn’t be too surprised, though I can just as well believe the finale would always be this way, they already experimented with episodes in select theaters and this sounds like a suped up special.

This studio is so trapped by short-sightedness, it’s shockingly predictable, maybe this is their best bet back into movies, but something still feels cynical here, like they decided on it with a calculator more than a script. Do the masses still care about Grogu at this point? I’ve only heard about waning interest, how many times can the baby button be pushed? It’s not like baby groot kept going forever. Maybe I’m underestimating Mando but as safe as they’re playing this I think they might be in for some hurt again. Either way as someone not very interested in the adventures of the mandalorian even if it’s entertaining it still feels like the same holding pattern until the next one, I’d prefer to move on at this point. No more cliffhangers and empty promises, it’s tiring.

People say that, but according to the Nielson charts when season 3 was airing it was consistently the 3rd and 4th most-watched streaming show in the U.S. and it did better than both Book of Boba Fett, and Obi Wan in terms of minutes viewed. Season 3 was consistently around 800 to 1100 million minutes viewed while Bobba Fett was only around 500 million minutes (although it did make it to 800 million minutesa few times) and Obi Wan around 400-600 million minutes. It also did a lot better than Ahsoka which again was between 400-800million minutes. Sure critically Season 3 was considerably less well received, especially by fans, than previous seasons, but in terms of the amount of views it still mostly held up. I mean it did have less people watching than season 2, which was consistently around 1200-1300 million minutes , and I think its lowest week was around 800 million minutes, but again Season 3 did make it to 1100 million minutes viewed once or twice as well

Yeah, it’s annoying how she makes one innocuous comment about being the first female to direct a Star Wars movie, which by the way is an indisputable fact, in a fluff piece interview for New Years THAT WASN”T EVEN ABOUT STAR WARS. You know what the interview was actually about. Her documentary filmaking in her home country of Pakistan, which netted her two Academy Award wins by the way, and about how she’s inspiring, and financially supporting, the women of her country to become filmmakers like her. Like to everyone complaining about this, grow up. I mean come on, she didn’t mention any kind of political agenda or message other than, wow there hasn’t been a female who’s directed a Star Wars movie before.

Also to everyone wondering why people think you’re sexist when you complain about stuff like this let me enlighten you. The stuff about how they’re too focused on putting a message into the film and not enough time into making a good story is something that I think most people would agree with, (Heck I agree with it) if you just say that most people will probably be like, yeah they should focus on making a good story messaging is secondary. The stuff making people think you’re sexist is all this talk about the “Leftist Agenda” and calling ‘Gender equality a leftist media spewed myth” is the issue. Pretty much all of the people I see online who use this rhetoric are far right racist, sexist, homophobic, assholes who just don’t want to see women, people of color, or non straight people in main character roles. If your problem is that they’re not focused enough on telling a good story just say that and maybe don’t use sexist talking points in your comments.

Finally got around to watching it last week and left a full review on IFDB. My short thoughts after I watched the Rey Nobody version, was that I loved it. It’s completely salvaged the final movie for me, I still have my issues with it and stuff I wish was cut out, but it no longer ruins the trilogy for me, so thanks for the edit I can finally fully enjoy the sequel trilogy. Can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with for V5.

Mostly enjoyed the edit, I think this is a really good condensation of the sequel trilogy and I really liked the reordering of the stuff from Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, as well as the stuff that’s included from Rise of Skywalker. Most of the worst stuff from Rise of Skywalker is gone, but not much of the overall narrative from that movie has been changed. Still removing the worst stuff does make that section way more tolerable and because episode 9 is a whole lot shorter, and because both episodes 7 and 8 have been shortened a lot as well, it doesn’t feel as disappointing. I also like what was done with Leia a lot more than what they did in the theatrical cut. Some of the transitions are a bit abrupt, I noticed a few, but for the most part, the edit flows pretty well. If you were dissatisfied with the sequel trilogy, I think this is a pretty good replacement, especially for an edit less than 3 hours long

This sounds really good. Could I get a link?

One of my favorite horror franchises is the Halloween series and in honor of the holidays, I decided to create a combined edit of Halloween and Halloween 2 This edit isn’t just a stitching of the two movies together, but wholly re-edited to work as a single stand-alone 2-hour horror movie. To facilitate this I’ve cut large swaths of material from Halloween 2 and also a bunch from the original Halloween. For the first Halloween movie, I’ve heavily reduced Lynda’s role in the film. I’ve cut her and Bob completely from the final act of the film, and have her disappear after her first scenes in the movie. This necessitates some audio editing as well as the removal of her and Bob’s bodies from Laurie’s discovery. For Halloween 2 I’ve completely removed Dr. Loomis and Sheriff Bracket wandering around Haddonfield trying to find Michael Myers and Ben Tramer’s mistaken death. I’ve also completely excised the Karen and Budd romance and death from the movie to shorten and heavily focus on the Hospital section of the film. I heavily debated this next aspect but decided against removing Laurie being Michaels’s sister. The final act just doesn’t quite work as it provides a reason for Dr Loomis to go to the hospital.

PM me for the link

Cutlist for Halloween 1
16.24-18:35 Removed scene of Tommy being bullied by the other kids.
22.18-22.43 Cut the plans with Lynda and Bob.
52.19-53.16 Slightly trimmed Annie’s walk to the car, she doesn’t go back inside for her keys in this version she has them so immediately gets into the car.
58.27-68.20 Removed Scene with Laurie the kids and the Jack-O-Lantern and removed Bob, Lynda, and all scenes referring to them.
Trimmed Laurie’s walk to the Wallace house to remove mentions of Bob and Linda
Slightly trimmed the chase sequence to remove Laurie going to the house that ignores her
Cut Laurie’s first attempted kill of Michael because it’s not the climax of the whole film anymore

Cutlist for Halloween 2
0-7.18 Cut opening recap and titles
9.12-9…28 Remove confirmation of 3 dead bodies
10.08-14.18 Cut random girl getting murdered and Laurie being brought into the ambulance and the conversation between Jimmy and Bud
17.24-19.58 Cut out the stupid killing of Ben Tramer
22.01-22.15 Cut out mention of Michael being killed
22.39-25.35 Cut out the rest of the scene between Loomis and the police and the introduction of Karen
26.47-30.35 Cut out a bunch of hospital stuff and go straight to Jimmy walking down the hallway as Michael goes down the stairs
31.12-32.13 Cut out Karen and Alves
Heavily trimmed Security Guard Death Scene
43.45-53.55 Cut out more Ben Tramer stuff, Bud and Karen, and Laurie’s dream about Michael
57.15-57.19 Cut out close up on Dr Mixter.
57.34-5736 Cut out Close Up on Janet’s Eye
60-62.31 Cut out Laurie and Michael Cat and Mouse

The full edit is 2 hours and 2 minutes

PM’s Sent

I agree that Sabine using the force to push Ezra is too much, but I disagree that she shouldn’t use the force at all and that the series has consistently shown this. Some people are misremembering Rebels. It was never stated by anyone that Sabine was unable to use the force. In fact, Kanan only said that anyone with enough practice could use the force and that Sabine couldn’t do it because she was emotionally blocked because she felt betrayed by her family, and then in the very next episode they go and resolve that issue but then Sabine leaves the show for the rest of season 3. She was never stated to be unable to use the force or having no potential in Rebels. Also throughout the entirety of Ahsoka, she was only stated to have the worst potential Huyang had ever known, but it was never stated she had no potential. Also in Ahsoka, we see her practicing all season and basic storytelling conventions should tell us that by the end of the season, Sabine should use the force, and she does. The only issue though is her being able to push Ezra. I have no issue with her using the force to grab the lightsaber as that’s a smaller feat and both Luke and Rey are able to do that without much training so it makes sense that Sabine needs to use tons of training to just be able to do that. It’s just that pushing Ezra is a bit too far. I get what they were trying to do, they were trying to show that Sabine could use the force but was just blocking herself and that after she uses it to get her lightsaber her block is gone, but the two events still feel way too close together for it to be believable.

I’ve finally solidified my thoughts on the entire show. Like The Mandalorian Season 3 before it, I really like half of the show, but the other half is just really underwhelming. After a really disappointing and slow first episode, the show immediately picks up with episode 2 and for the next 2 and a half episodes, up until the midpoint of episode 5 is great. While I do have some issues with the pacing of episodes 2 and 3, I find them big improvements over the first episode. Despite not much really happening in some of the episodes, the content of them is done well enough that I don’t mind too much. The midpoint at episode 4 was definitely the best of the show. It successfully managed to pay off on most of the elements that were built up after the first 3 episodes. Then starting in episode 5 the show starts to stumble. The first half of the episode is fantastic, but the rest of it is a boring slog that just seems like it’s wasting time, and that continues to be an issue throughout the final 3 episodes. Exploring Peridia in episode 6 is really cool and Balon continues to get more interesting and we finally get to see Thrawn’s glorious return, but something about it feels off. Like episode 5 it really feels like it’s dragging its feet. This feeling continued throughout episode 7 which while I liked the whole episode, and it had lots of great action throughout, not much actually happened in the episode. After the last episode, the show just didn’t feel complete, despite episode 8 having some of the best material in the entire show. It really felt like they intentionally dragged out the material so they could get another season. It leaves the series feeling like it was only a setup and not an actual complete story. While I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the show as a whole the entire thing ended up feeling completely middling as a show because of how much was left unresolved. Ahsoka unfortunately is completely reliant on a season 2, resolving the plot threats that the show left up in the air for it to feel like it was worth it as a whole.

My edit is completed PM me if you want a link.

I’ve been watching Ahsoka since Episode 3 aired, and while I’ve mostly been enjoying the series, it has several major flaws running through it. First off the pacing, conversations last way too long, and sometimes nothing happens for large chunks of time, the acting, especially early on, has the tendency to be quite stilted, the New Republic is constantly shown to be completely incompetent, and Hera’s subplot is the biggest waste of time I’ve ever seen. So I decided while it was airing that I wanted to make my own movie edit of the series. Before the final episode came out I was considering making this a two-movie edit, but I’ve decided against it because there really just isn’t enough to justify it after how the finale ended up. I’ve been working on this since episode 4 was released, and updating it every time a new episode came out This is currently still a work in progress as I haven’t yet added episode 8 and right now the edit is running at 2 hours, and 33 minutes for the first 7 episodes. I’m currently in the middle of going through the edit as is to clean up transitions between scenes and decide if I need to cut any more before I add in episode 8. Right now it’s looking like the edit will probably land at around 3 hours and 10-15 minutes. Below I have detailed the changes I’m making to the series. I only have timestamps for half of the episodes, because I forgot to make them for some.

Update 3 The edit is now complete and fully rendered. Send me a PM for the link. The movie runs at 3 hours 8 minutes and 36 seconds.

First off I felt that the best way to make this work was to heavily trim the first few episodes, so I made the decision to focus more on Sabine cutting out most scenes she’s not in. This allows me to remove large chunks out of the first 2 episodes.

Episode 1
1.43-5:00 I shorten the opening scene to make the New Republic look less incompetent. After the establishing shot on the ship we immediately cut to Shin’s attack on the bridge so we don’t see the captain being an absolute moron.

6:32-22.32 I cut out Ahsoka finding the map, Hera informing Ahsoka about Morgans’ escape, and the ceremony on Lothal All of these scenes are extremely slow and feel like they go on for just short of forever

I start with Sabine’s introduction on the speeder.

27.30-30.01 I also cut out the scene of the villains landing on the temple planet and merged Sabine’s 2 scenes in Ezra’s house together so after she watches the recording it immediately cuts to her sleeping and waking up to hear about Ahsoka.

After Sabine and Ahsoka meet up I made some small trims to their conversation. The first episode has a really bad tendency in dialogue scenes to cut to a character and then having 2-3 seconds of dead air looking at them before they speak, so I edited it so that, unless a character is clearly in deep thought, when the scene cuts to them they immediately start speaking.

39.25-39.53 My next cut is that after Sabine leaves Ahsoka and the tracking droid sees Sabine, I cut out the shot of Shin getting the information and cut immediately to the establishing shot of Sabine’s house.

39.55-43.20 I cut out the entirety of the scene of Sabine setting up to decipher the map, and also the scene of Ahsoka and Hera talking to each other. Because again they’re really slow and drag the pacing down

After the establishing shot of the tower, I cut to the overhead shot looking down at Sabine right before she stands up to get a drink. She deciphers the map and the droids attack her. I slightly trimmed Sabine’s fight with Shin so she doesn’t get stabbed through her side with the lightsaber with this I managed to cut the first episode down to 25 minutes

Episode 2
Despite liking episode 2 way more than the first episode, I cut way more out of this one than the first episode because much less of it actually affects the overall story. I kept the opening scene and I combined the 2 scenes of Balon, and Shin together, and Morgan opened up the map on the altar and removed all references to Corelia. The entire subplot of Hera and Ahsoka going to the shipyards is also removed, which includes removing the scene of Ahsoka finding the droid and the second hospital scene, and instead after the scene of the villains, we cut to the third hospital scene with Sabine talking to Huyang and immediately transition into her cutting her hair and visiting the mural. Only 13 minutes are left of this episode making it to the 38-minute mark

Episode 3 I cut out the republic subplot as it just makes all of the characters look stupid. I also cut out the first part of the training, with the staff, and opened on the discussion about the force. After Sabine tries to use The Force to grab the cup, when she’s called into the cockpit I cut out Hera mentioning that she won’t be joining them after Sabine asks when they’re arriving. Her communication with them immediately cuts out. I also trimmed the space battle, the first half with the dogfight doesn’t happen. When they arrive they immediately see the ring and we cut to the sequence of them approaching it attempting to scan it for information. From there on the episode doesn’t have much in the way of cuts, but some small trims here and there. I managed to cut this episode down to 15 minutes and it ends at the 53-minute mark

Episode 4 I cut out the opening scene so the first scene is Sabine and Ahsoka talking outside. I removed the cutaway to Balon and Elsbeth, and went right into the droids finding Hyuang. I also cut out the conversation inside the ship between Ahsoka and Sabine and cut immediately to the droids attacking Hyuang and then them saving him. I cut out the scene inside the New Republic Ship hanger and Hera and Jayden on the Ghost before leaving. Now we see the New Republic Ships the Ghost launches from it and all references to this mission being unofficial are removed. So now the audience can just assume Hera got the proper clearance. I slightly trimmed the pre-fight conversation between Baylon and Ahsoka. This episode is now 26 minutes and ends at the 1 hour 19 minute mark for the first 4 episodes.

I’ve decided to edit episodes 5 and 6 so that the film intercuts between the 2 episodes to imply they’re happening at the same time.

Episode 5
I cut out the opening scene of Hera finding Hyuang and started immediately with Ahsoka in The World Between Worlds with Anakin

18.19-21.21 After the first flashback ends I cut out the scene of everyone searching for Ahsoka

28.25-30.33 After she gets rescued I cut out the scene of her waking up on her ship

32.29-33.20 I cut out most of the shot circling Ahsoka so she finds out what happens to Sabine quicker

33.40-36.37 I cut immediately after Hera says they need to go after Sabine to the ship leaving

37.52-39.15 I cut out a bunch of shots of the whales and Ahsoka standing on top of the ship

39.19-42.58 I completely removed the scene of the New Republic even showing up so Carson doesn’t have to try and stall them

43.31-43.55 I cut the scene of Hyuang asking Ahsoka if the Purgill know where they’re going

44.07-45.25 I cut a bunch of shots of the republic ships being passed by the Purgil as well.

Episode 6 cuts
0-4.2 Cut out opening scene it’s good but unnecessary

11.39-11.55 + 15.00-15.50 Cut out Sabine being put into the prison and her trying to escape it.

23.53-26.09 Cut out Sabine’s fight with the scavenger’s. I really like the scene but I want to keep the movie around 3 hours so there’s the need to cut more judiciously

26.2-29.18 34 Also cut out Thrawn and Elsbeth’s conversation about leaving Balon behind as well as the scene of the creature coming back to Sabine since they never got attacked and he never left

32.37-33.26 I cut out Sabines conversation with the group of turtle creatures. Now after the one of them sees the Rebel sign on Sabine’s shoulder the other’s wake up and we immediately cut to Sabine following them

33.59-34.08 Cut reference to Sabine surviving the remains of the raiders, now it’s implied Balon killed them

The way these two episodes now plays out is as follows. I start with episode 6 with Sabine waking up in a cell on the ship and continue with the episode until Balon and Shin’s conversation on the roof. After we cut to Sabine in the cell, she says Ahsoka’s name and we cut to episode 5. I continue with episode 5 until the end of the first flashback to The Clone Wars. I then go back to episode 6 until Balon and Shin go after Sabine who’s gone off to find Ezra. I then cut back to episode 5 to finish that episode which ends around the 2 hour 1 minute mark. I then go back to episode 6 which ends at the 2 hours and 13 minutes mark

Episode 7 I forgot to take note of the time stamps for my changes so we’re back to more broad changes and I was ultimately able to edit down the episode into 20 minutes. I removed the opening scene with the Republic, like all of the other scenes from this plot line it is largely unnecessary and incredibly flawed. I also removed Ahsoka’s training on her ship. We start with the wide shot of the Purgil traveling through hyperspace before cutting to Ahsoka and Huyang in the cockpit. I merged the 2 scenes of Thrawn in the control room so now instead of ordering the pilots to withdraw he immediately orders them to fire after Ahsoka goes into the debris field and we cut to her getting fired upon and then leaving the field without her stopping. So There’s no scene of the troops getting recalled Ahsoka scanning for Sabine, and therefore the first scene with Ezra and Sabine is removed as is the first scene of Balon and Shin. I also lightly trimmed the battle scene for there to be less stopping and starting. This episode ends 2 hours and 33 minutes into the film

Once I add in episode 8 I’ll update this post.

Update
I’ve gone through my first pass of episode 8 and have inserted it into my edit. I still have to complete my first full passthrough of the movie. I’ve gone through 30 minutes and have managed to cut down a further 3 minutes out of the movie.
Episode 8
0-1.39
I trimmed Elsbeth getting her gift to be slightly faster as it moved a bit too slowly for my liking in the original cut.
15.11-18.16 Most of this stuff just feels like filler, we don’t really need the scenes of Thrawn going to the Great Mothers to prepare something, Elsbeth’s ordering of the stormtroopers, or the scenes of Ahsoka, Ezra, and Sabine riding away from the ship and Ezra telling them about the tower. After Ahsoka says it won’t slow them down I immediately cut into the action sequence of them trying to make it through the doors.
22.55-24.10 I cut out the scene of Thrawn and the Great Mother’s ordering Elsbeth to stay behind. I change it so she makes the decision of her own volition without her being asked as I think it makes her arc stronger and helps cut down on runtime.
From here on out I try to trim everything so there’s much less starting and stopping of fights I tried to make it go a bit faster.
Overall 10 minutes have been cut from this episode leaving the movie currently at 3 hours 11 minutes and 54 seconds long.

Update 2

Additional Cuts
From episode 3 I removed Ahsoka and Sabine powering their ship and Huyang down while Shin and Marrow Pass them by
From Episode 4 I removed Hera leaving the fleet,
From Episode 7 I cut out the scene of Thrawn ordering the 2 gunships to assist Shin and Balon and the gunships leaving the Star Destroyer and go immediately into the chase sequence after Shin transmits the location as well as another Thrown scene that also breaks up the action.
All of these additional cuts bring the edit down to 3 hours and 8 minutes.

For my more in-depth thoughts, I do think the ending works decently well as an ending for some of the characters. Ahsoka and Sabine succeeding in getting Ezra home but getting trapped in the Galaxy while Thrawn escapes into the main galaxy to, assumably, be the main antagonist in a continuation, all that stuff works. The Storm Troopers turning into Zombies and Asoka’s fight with Elsbeth is also fantastic. Unfortunately, two of our main villain’s character arcs remain almost completely unsolved. We’ll never know what Balon was after, unless they recast, and Shin’s arc is also left up in the air, although at least that gets somewhat of a resolution. You could argue that she gains power by being the new leader of the Raiders, but it still feels really unsatisfying, like why didn’t she return with the other Storm Troopers to Thrawn?

In fact, it could have been easily solved if they hadn’t decided to save Shin and Balon’s character arcs ending for another season. I think what they should’ve done in hindsight, given Ray Stevenson’s death (RIP), would’ve been for the final fight to be Ahsoka vs Balon, and Sabine vs Shin to resolve that rivalry, and Ezra vs Morgan Elsbeth. Then you could have the same ending and the villain arcs would feel complete. Or they could’ve just had Sabine and Ahsoka make it back as well and then I wouldn’t mind as much that Balon and Shin’s arcs don’t end at least it would feel more complete. Honestly despite liking the episode this really just downgrades my thoughts on the show as a whole. If they had focused on telling a complete story rather than just setting stuff up for more content the show would’ve been a lot better and I would’ve been way more lenient on some of its flaws like the awful Hera subplot and the glacial pacing, but right now for the show as a whole, I’m leaning more towards like 6/10.

Since it’s only been 2 hours since the episode premiered I’m going to start with spoiler-free thoughts and give a more spoiler-filled reaction tomorrow. I honestly don’t really know what to think about it. There were elements that I absolutely adored, but it also felt somewhat anticlimactic. First for the positives, until the final 10 minutes, I thought the episode was fantastic, we got some resolution to Sabine and Ashoka’s relationship, and the fight to get to Thrawn was really well done. We get some cool callbacks to The Clone Wars and the final fight between Ahsoka and Morgan Elsbeth was fantastic and had the best fight choreography of the season. My problems come with the ending. While it works decently well as an ending for Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra, everything else feels almost completely unresolved. I don’t have any issue with how Thrawn’s stuff is resolved, but the other villains don’t have any resolution. Some of this stuff I fear will remain forever unresolved as well even if we get more. My biggest complaint is that it honestly was more interested in being set up for a future show or movie, than in being a complete story. I think with 1 simple change it’d be much better, but with how it ended now, certain plot elements will be completely unresolved even if they get a season 2. So right now I remain conflicted, on how I feel about the show as a whole.

That runtime has dashed all hopes that it can resolve all of the plotlines it’s introduced. Like I didn’t expect them to defeat Thrawn, but I thought there might be some battle between them. It’s definitely setting up for another season or Filoni’s movie. I hope I’m wrong and it does manage to have a satisfactory resolution while setting up for more stuff, but 49 minutes doesn’t seem like enough time.

Maybe it’s just because I really like episode 2, but I wonder if it’d be possible to just mostly cut episode 1 out of the show, and tighten up episode 2 for it to take up less screen time. What if instead of opening on the breakout sequence we open on Sabine unlocking the map? You could establish in the crawl that Ahsoka found a map to Thrawn and reconnected with Sabine for help opening it, and also establish that 2 former Jedi freed Morgan Elsbeth and are after them. Then you could open with Sabine opening the map and getting attacked by Shin and that could be the opening scene of the movie. Then you could make various cuts to episode 2 in an attempt to have it take up less screen time. That’d help to make the opening feel much faster-paced.

Before the final episode airs on Tuesday I kind of want to solidify my thoughts on the show thus far. I don’t have any glaring issues or problems with the show as a whole in terms of writing quality. The plot and characterization have their issues but there’s nothing I feel that crosses the line into making the series bad. However despite overall liking it there’s something unsatisfying about the whole show, and the issue is that these little minor issues I have with the world-building and the characterization add up even in episodes that I mostly enjoy. Like episode 6 was good, but I still in hindsight feel like there was something missing that’s stopping me from loving it. The show has 2 main issues and the first one is the pacing, in that the episodes are way too long and that leads to the episodes being kind of dull. Episodes 1 and 5 are the episodes most guilty of this issue. Episode 1 is mostly set up, but the pacing is really slow, like there are either scenes that don’t feel necessary, or they’re necessary but they’re shot in a way that makes them drag just short of forever. Episode 5 is the most emblematic of this issue that I think the show has. The first half is really well-paced, but the second half is really dull and boring. It’s pretty clear that they spent a lot of time on the last half of the episode trying to make the Purgil look really good, but the issue is that nothing really happens when they’re on screen.

Either that or the pacing is fine, but it feels like not enough stuff actually happened in the episode episodes 3 and 7 are guilty of this. Episode 3 is mostly well-paced, but it has 1 sequence that just drags the rest of the episode down because we don’t really need it because we already had a dogfight and we’re about to get a second one. And with episode 7 it was never boring or dull, but not much really happened in the episode. The main thing that happens is that Balon Skull separates from Shin Hati, and Sabine and Ezra reunite with Ahsoka, so even though the episode is packed with action, nothing really happens. The only episode I had almost no problems with is episode 4 which is not only really well-paced, but it feels like enough happens in the episode to move the plot forward that I don’t feel dissatisfied. I think the issue is really the format of the show. Unlike Obi-Wan, I don’t think this is just a 2-hour movie that’s been stretched out to 6 hours, but I feel like 8 episodes were way too much for the series. I think if this show was only 5-6 episodes long it would be a lot better paced.

When I first read the 2 sentence plot blurb for episode 7 I felt a sense of dread, that ended up being unwarranted. It made it seem like the episode would be half focused on Hera and the New Republic but they resolved it within the first 7 minutes. Deus Ex Organa is what I’m calling the resolution to the dumb and stupid plotline, but I’m fucking glad it’s over. Just having 3P0 show up on behalf of Leia who lies about the mission being sanctioned just proved how much of a stupid conflict this was in the first place. The only thing this mission does is waste time and unless that 1 senator ends up being a part of the imperial remnant it should be excised from any fan edit of the series.

The episode actually starts with Ahsoka training with a recording of Anakin and some more emotional resolution from Ahsoka. Rosario Dawson is way more expressive as well which is really good. Now this is the Ahsoka I remember from Rebels and the Clone Wars and she continues acting this way through the entire episode. It looks like it really was an intentional choice for her to act wooden in the first half for a character arc, but it doesn’t excuse those first 5 episodes of her acting so reserved. We either needed more moments like this throughout the first 5 episodes, or they should’ve made it clear it was her trauma causing her to act this way.

After the opening, the action barely lets up. We get a flight out of a minefield, and a dog fight through the debris of dead Purgil. A chase scene, a fight between Sabine and Ezra vs. the Raiders and Shin, finally a fight between Ahsoka and Balon, and then Ezra, Sabine, and Ahsoka vs. Shin and Thrawn’s forces. This episode also did a good job of showing off Thrawn’s intelligence. He realizes the fighters have no chance of finding Ahsoka through the debris field and will only end up getting killed, so he pulls them back to save some of his forces. He uses the Nightsisters to pin Ahsoka’s location and sends troops after her and Sabine/Ezra. After they reunite he realizes his forces lost so instead of letting them all die he has them retreat because they did what he needed them to do, keep our trio distracted, and buy time for the transfer of materials.

I thought it was interesting how Balon separated from Shin after giving her one last piece of advice. His goals definitely do not align with Thrawn or Shin who seems to want to get power and favor with Thrawn. I fear this is a subplot that might be doomed to not be fully resolved because of Ray Stevenson’s tragic death. The action is a step above what we’ve previously seen from this series with the Ahsoka and Balon rematch being even more fast-paced than their first fight, and we get a cool chase scene with Ezra and Sabine before they fight against the raiders and Shin. Seeing Ezra fight without a lightsaber and just using the force was really cool and finally getting the reunion between Ahsoka and Ezra was great. I wish the entire series was as well-paced as this episode because it shows that this could’ve been a much better show than what we ended up getting. Still, this gives me hope it can stick the landing.

Now that there are only 2 episodes left here’s what I’m hoping to see in the final 2 episodes. I’d like to see another appearance from Hayden as Anakin, either during a flashback or having him return as a force ghost. I think that’d be a great scene for both Hayden and Rosario to act out a reunion between the 2 characters where Ahsoka gets to directly confront Anakin about becoming Darth Vader and getting an explanation from Anakin. I don’t need this but it would be really nice to have.

Next, I’m hoping Thrawn finds out that Darth Vader was Ashoka’s Master and has a confrontation between those 2 characters about it. I also want Ezra to get a lot of really cool moments, and have the show clarify what relationship he and Sabine have (are they going to keep them as having a brother and sister type relationship or are they moving them into romantic territory as Rebels flirted with that concept earlier on before deciding against having a romance subplot between them. I’m not too worried about getting a bunch of cool action sequences, but I’m wondering if the show is leading up to either Balon betraying Thrawn, or Shin turning to the light side as there are a lot of moments in this series of her appearing conflicted.

Next, I want Hera to escape her subplot with the New Republic by the end of episode 7 and convince them to actually ready a fleet against Thrawn. I’m also hoping that they’re unable to stop Thrawn from returning to the galaxy. Finally, I want a full Star Wars Rebels reunion for all of the surviving characters. That means finding the budget for Zeb to appear in the final episode, either as an off-battle cameo or with Hera asking him for help with Thrawn. They managed to have him appear in Mandalorian Season 3 so I don’t see why they wouldn’t be able to at least have him appear here. I really want to see Ezra and him reuniting as they had a close bond on that show. It’d be so cool if the final episode had a complete reunion on the battlefield between the surviving cast of Rebels. I’d also love to get a cameo from Freddie Prince Jr. as Kanan either via flashback or Force Ghost. I’m pretty confident that we’re not going to get a complete resolution to the Thrawn plot to set up for Filoni’s movie. But so far I’m quite enjoying Ahsoka I don’t think it’s a perfect show I think the first and 5th episodes specifically had really bad pacing problems, but I’m confident the show can stick the landing especially since the final episode is being directed by Rick Famuyiwa as he’s proven to be the best live-action director that Star Wars has for TV (Outside of Andor)

Yeah, episode 3 is a bit tricky because of the spacewalk and Ashoka’s change in outfit. I think the only way to make it shorter is instead of removing the space walk you’d have to remove the dog fight instead and have them immediately find the ring and jump into that sequence and completely remove the fight with the 6 fighters. I also suppose you might be able to shorten the descent onto Seatos as well. Another way to save time in the episode is to 100% remove Hera’s subplot about disobeying orders and cut out the scene with the Senators. It’s also mostly easy to remove that subplot from episodes 4 and 5 as well, by only including the scenes of her leaving to help Ahsoka and removing all dialogue about it being an unsanctioned mission, in episode 4, and it’s mostly possible to cut around the New Republic stuff in episode 5, but you might have to wait on episodes 7 and 8 to see if the subplot is able to be fully removed.

Vladius said:

I don’t get why people are saying “oh people are going to hate the turtle aliens for sure!” They are easily the least offensive, most normal thing in the show lol. I loved the porgs in TLJ too. I’m much more concerned with everything else going on.

For me it’s because it happens a lot with Star Wars. People complained about the Ewoks in the OG trilogy, people complained about both the porgs and the caretakers in the sequel trilogy, and people complain about a lot of the things targeted at children in both the Clone Wars and Rebels, despite both being kids shows (eventually incredibly mature and well done kids shows but a kids show nonetheless) so I’m just assuming people will be complaining about the turtle people. And I do enjoy the Turtle people. I also agree that there are much bigger problems in this show like the really bad and slow pacing and the god awful Hera and the republic subplot.

Episode 6 First I rewatched episode 5 and it just solidified my thoughts that it just wasn’t very good. The 2nd half didn’t feel any better the second time, it felt just as slow and plodding as it did the first time. In fact, you can easily cut 15 minutes of that episode and lose nothing of value. It could’ve been a short 30-minute episode.
This episode in comparison, while still a little slow was a big improvement. We get a lot of reveals about Balon and his apprentice, the return of Thrawn, and Ezra and Sabine’s reunion. I’m pretty sure a lot of people are going to complain about the creatures that Sabine finds, but I found them great, and a big part of why I felt this episode was paced much more effectively. The episode felt really focused on reintroducing Thrawn and exploring the new planet and Galaxy they’re in. Still, it didn’t really feel foreign enough to be another Galaxy. However, I still can’t help feeling like the past 2 episodes should’ve been condensed into 1, even though this episode was much better it was still too slow I think they could’ve trimmed 10 minutes by cutting out some superfluous scenes or combining some of them into 1. These past 2 episodes easily should’ve been 1 big hour-long episode and that would solve pretty much all of the pacing problems with the 2 of them as a whole. Still, I get the feeling that the final 2 episodes might be really interesting as it’s really hinting at some kind of huge power on the planet they’re on, and I could see Balon potentially betraying Thrawn. Also, eventually, Exra will learn that Sabine teamed up with the enemy and I’ll be interested to see how that develops.