Wow! This is awesome. I’ve already downloaded and skimmed the rest of Season 1 - it’s far and away the best this content has ever looked. I can’t wait to get a look at Season 2 and beyond!
The real test will be if the episode “Dax” actually looks good; the DVD source is notoriously poor quality.
Looking good! Next one up is a good one.
Archbagel (who has previously done the entire Mando/Boba Fett series into movies), has some ideas that he’s talked about in his thread. I’m not sure that he’s started anything yet though.
Excellent. Keep them coming please.
I just took a look at Emissary. This is a tricky episode that I am very familiar with from the various iterations that you have done and that I have done on my own. This is far and away the best version I’ve seen! I specifically checked about a half dozen trouble spots, and all have either been completely resolved or made significantly less awkward.
Very well done! I really hope that the rest of the series is able to follow this time.
Thanks again for the feedback, Matt F.
Yes, I have most of the third movie ready because of where I chose to break the story, but I need at least one other storyline to jump between. I’m really hoping that we get a good emotionally-resolved chunk of the Gandalf vs the Dark Wizard plotline in season 3, because I think that would be an ideal way to wrap up this trilogy and to provide victory alongside the fall of Eregion.
Excellent feedback! Thank you.
I look forward to your take on “Udun.” It’s got a pretty strong theme of loss throughout, which ties it together in ways that I think were less evident in the source material.
I’m certainly going to revisit my whole film set once season 3 is out. I’m hoping for a cohesive trilogy, plus enough material for most of a 4th film.
I still love your edits and would love to hear that Deathly Hallows is back in process to finish the collection as we move into the fall/winter months and the coming of the new Harry Potter TV adaptation.
If the movie material needs to come after your prior edits, then yes, I think your idea is the way to go. That said, I hope that this isn’t truly the last outing for Mando in live action. If that turns out of the case, you’re going to have significant rework.
I think you could place a hunting Imperial warlords (and Dr Pershing) movie in between movies 5 and 6. We already ended with Din helping vs pirates, we saw increasing issues with the Imperial remnants near Mandalore, and we saw his growing connection to the New Republic fighter pilot. Now, doing this might require again cutting Grogu out of content, since you would be keeping the reunion to later, or maybe you’d add the reunion to the end of this hypothetical movie.
With that idea, you’d have movie 5 being about fighting pirates and redeeming himself in the face of the other Mandalorians. Movie 6 would be hunting Imperials for the Republic (the Hoth-lite guy and Janu), reuniting with Grogu, and building toward something bigger vs the Empire. Movie 7 would be the Boba Fett stuff and the retaking of Mandalore.
The Hutt stuff could then either be part of Movie 6 vs the Imperials (closer to the vanilla movie plot), or an epilogue as you suggested, maybe a reprecussion of events set in motion in Movie 6 when Mando brought in Janu.
Well, I just watched The Mandalorian and Grogu. I think this is your biggest challenge yet, Archbagel.
General Thoughts (minor spoilers, but no specifics I think beyond the trailer):
The movie holds up okay as a combo of about 3-4 episodes. It feels like they essentially did what you strive to do in your edits, knit a group of episodes together into something that makes sense, but it also doesn’t feel like the content was necessarily meant for that type of format.
The amount of action and creatures in the movie feels like overkill, especially in the first half (and even more in the middle third), where nothing has been built up. I would hope that any edit scales the action down and lets things breathe a bit more. The battles need to feel earned.
Rotta the Hutt. Wow. Interesting idea, but it’s hard to take him seriously. And all the English - I’m not sure it will work if you turn it all into Huttenese, but there’s just something off about it as-is. I do like the idea of his character in opposition to what we know of Hutts.
Speaking of Hutts, I did like seeing the Hutt homeworld. It was more rural than I expected, as the EU had always kind of implied that it was more of a seedy industrial world, but I still liked it. I also really like their use of leftover prequel droids. Nice worldbuilding.
One of the biggest issues you’re going to need to deal with is that this all comes after the epic conclusion of your 6th movie. It’s just anticlimactic in comparison. One of my first thoughts was to re-arrange content to place it between movies 5 and 6, but there might be too many continuity issues to deal with - the new Razorcrest, again Grogu being there, etc.
If you split the content of this movie up and blended it with other content from the series, I think that the hunt for Imperial warlords might go nicely as a parallel story to the cut content about the Doctor on Coruscant.
Anyway, best of luck. I really do look forward to whatever you come up with going forward.
I’m always interested in new possibilities, but what exactly is new with this clip? At a quick glance, it looks pretty vanilla to me (I readily admit that I haven’t spent nearly as much time with these films as you have).
Any chance of finishing the Deathly Hallows for the previous edit series?
Any May the 4th update on Book 6?
I’m interested in the movie, but mostly because it means in another 1-2 years, I’ll get to see what Archbagel and others can make from the footage provided.
MAJOR UPDATE
Version 2.0 released for Picard season 1 and season 3 (now called season 2)
PM for links
To me, the single biggest downside of this edit vs the original series is the movie vs episode length. All the changes here are excellent, but the longer format makes it a harder sell, especially for new viewers who might be more open to a series of 30-40 minute commitments until they get hooked.
My ideal plan is to recut these edits back into episodes for my own use, but I have no idea about when or how well that would work.
What if you did a pre-credit sequence with the Titan intercepting and/or rescuing the Crushers, maybe using a spliced together version of the real opening for episode 1 and/or episode 2, along with shots from the actual rescue sequence in episode 2. That way, you get the idea that sometime prior the Titan ran into them, and then you get the title, and we assume that’s why Picard and Riker show up after the title.
Cool ideas, especially for the sequence of events in the wrap-up. I was really close to finishing my own 9-episode edit of season 3, but I tried to break the final 2 episodes into 3 and got bogged down trying to find a few more minutes of content to add to the middle installment (basically after Jack runs off through the reveal of the Ent D). I was thinking of maybe using some version of the cadet flashback from episode 4.
Anyway, I still love the core of the Picard show for all of its faults, and it’s always refreshing to see a new take on it.
Checking daily ever since Thanksgiving - don’t rush it, but I can’t wait to see the finale.
Ooh, exciting! I can’t wait to see what you did with the more recent material.
I’m floored by these new sequences. Can’t wait, and primarily because of your work, I also can’t wait for The Mandalorian and Grogu. More raw content!
Man, I am so looking forward to this edit! I love the additions you’re making.
Do you have any plans to make a final edit based on Rogue One?
What I mean by that is that in the Silmarillion, the Elven rings were created by the Elves as their own idea in order to counter Sauron’s rings. In the show, they were created first under Sauron’s inspiration and at his suggestion but without his literal involvement. Anjohan decided to experiment with keeping the book’s approach but still have the Elven rings come first; in his most recent version, the Elven rings basically inspire Sauron to make the other rings.
My edit keeps the show’s order of events, but changes the order of scenes to synch things up in ways that I think feel more natural. We both trim what we consider unnecessary filler and awkwardness, but not always the same things. Anjohan trims more Harfoot stuff; I trim more of the Southlands. We both trim a lot of the Numenor preparations in season 1. We also both use similar micro-trims to make Galadriel less argumentative. Anjohan keeps the use of tunnels to channel water into Mount Doom; I cut that out and imply that the sword-key acts magically to erupt it.
I should also note that Anjohan’s edit currently is one movie that ends at the eruption, while also having the creation of the three rings and the opening conversations about Dwarven rings. My edit is two movies that cover all of season 1, as well as the Numenor, Southlands, and Harfoot stories of season 2. I have a partial edit of a third movie that is waiting on season 3 Harfoot/Stranger content to get filled out.
Good question. There’s a lot that matches between my edit and this one. Anjohan and I actually went back and forth contributing ideas to each other in PMs while creating/fine-tuning our edits.
Anjohan’s edit set itself apart early by being very tightly focused. His opening prologue, for instance, was amazing, and mine is very closely modeled after it. My use of a Sauron vision to open the second film and direct Galadriel toward Eregion is also directly lifted from something Anjohan did.
Overall, Anjohan’s edit has evolved to experiment with/solve the story in more radical ways than mine has. For example, in the current version, I believe he has moved the creation of the three Elven rings to the prologue of the story, with the intent of making them less tied to Sauron and more in line with the books.
My edit, meanwhile, maintains more of the vanilla storyline, but with more of a focus on chronology/trying to line up day/night cycles and keeping plot threads feeling in-synch, even if they technically aren’t. I also keep the Harfoot story as a main thread (even the heart of the series), where almost every other edit reduces them significantly as a grudging side story.