Synopsis:

A clever, disparate crew aboard the starship Ghost takes a stand against the Empire, facing new villains and colorful adversaries.

Intentions:

My Goal with this edit is to address many of the concerns fans have had with this series. I’ve been attempting to reduce the overall “kiddyness” of the show. To achieve this, I’m taking out a lot of repetition when it comes to expositions (this was done initially to help younger kids process what was going on) and a lot more of the overly “cartoon” feeling moments within the show. This has lead me to cutting much dialogue between Zeb and Ezra and some of the more out of character reactions to situations. I’m trying to tighten up the overall story and increase the pace of the show where I can. I’ve completely restructured season 3’s timeline of events and generally try to bolster the character of Thrawn to keep him feeling like a constant threat and acting more competently. I’ve tried to preserve character development and moments as much as practically possible. I’ve cut redundant dialogue: e.g. anything repeated multiple times by different characters or quips and unneeded comments. I’ve cut episodes: S01E03: Droids in Distress, S01E06: Breaking Ranks, S01E11: Idiot’s Array, S02E05: Wings of the Master, S02E06: Blood Sisters, S02E07: Stealth Strike, S02E12: Legends of the Lasat, S03E03: The Antilles Extraction, S03E05: The Last Battle, S03E07: Iron Squadron, S03E11: Ghosts of Geonosis Part 1, S03E12: Ghosts of Geonosis Part 2, S03E13: Warhead (mostly, I use a Thrawn seen from it), S03E17: Secret Cargo, S03E18: Double Agent Droid, S04E03: In the Name of the Rebellion Part 1 and S04E04: In the Name of the Rebellion Part 2. So far, I’ve cut over 9 hours from the show. I’ve created introduction texts for every episode written in the style of opening crawls and with the visual appearance like the “a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away” text. These helps me convey story beats, events between episodes, passage of time, plot setup, and some various other things depending on the episode. I’ve also added additional visual effects to Jedi Temple visions/scenes on Lothal as I believe these didn’t feel mystical enough. I’ve removed Sabine from an episode she was previously in. I’ve changed the Bendu’s look when he becomes a force storm so he’s not a giant face inside a storm. Now, he is just a storm until he gets shot down. I occasionally add to the audio by adding sound effects or by removing lines from scenes.

Change List:

Unfortunately, when I first started this project I did not take notes of what I cut and what I’ve changed. From V4 onwards I have taken notes. However, this does not cover the some of the changes I’ve made for the show in the first two seasons. I will have full notes of what’s included for seasons 3 and 4. For all episodes I've created an brand new introduction sequence including a custom Disney style helmet sequence and introduction texts in the style of the "A long time ago" blue text for the star wars movies. These are used to help bridge gaps and story beats between episodes quite similar to EddieDean's The Clone Wars: Refocused. For all appearances of Darth Vader, I have pitch shifted his voice up by a semitone to degage him a bit to better align with the Original Trilogy. For all episodes I have de-"kidafied" the dialogue and shots. This means I've removed repeats of lines from different and the same characters, removed the over explanation of things we can see or should already know and heightened darker themes present within the show. Below is a list of the most notable changes for each episode S01E01: Edit of S01E01-2: Spark of Rebellion Part 1 and 2. - restructured opening so the first thing we see in the show is Ezra - after seeing the Star Destroyer fly above the Lothal sky and Ezra zoom off into town we cut to Vader and the Inquisitor - Wipe from the Inquisitor to Ezra spying on Imperials - New VFX for all shots of Kessel so it matches the look shown in Solo a Star Wars Story S01E02: Edit of S01E04: Fighter Flight and S01E07: Out of Darkness. Expect many dialogue and scene cuts. New introduction and new end credits. - Most of Fighter Flight is cut - Incorporated scenes from S01E06 to bridge the two episodes - Drastically decreased the needless bickering between the Ghost Crew S01E03: Edit of S01E05: Rise of the Old Masters. - Mostly the same episode as the original with minor tweaks - Redubbing the stormtroopers who are guarding the cell is in the works S01E04: Edit of S01E08: Empire Day and S01E09: Gathering Forces. - Again not too much cut or changed here as these episodes were quite good but expect dialogue cuts and minor scene changes. S01E05: Edit of S01E10: Path of the Jedi. - Very minor dialogue cuts for an overall awesome episode. - Visual and Audio overhaul of the Jedi Temple Vision sequences - The first section has recolored the cave to be more reminiscent of ESB with some audio distortion effects over Kanan. - The lightsabers have been done to keep their vibrancy and to make the colors more dynamic. S01E06: Edit of S01E12: Vision of Hope. - Minor dialogue cuts S01E07: Edit of S01E13: Call to Action, S01E14: Rebel Resolve and S01E15: Fire Across the Galaxy. - Minor dialogue cuts - Removed dialogue from Fire Across the Galaxy that reference Rebels shorts which are not included in this edit. S02E01: Edit of S02E01: The Siege of Lothal (1) and S02E02: The Siege of Lothal (2). - Cut the people of Tarkintown surviving to add more gravity to Vader ordering it burnt down. - I reluctantly cut the line from Vader “perhaps Kenobi” in response to the Emperor saying Ashoka could lead to “other lost Jedi”. After the (in my opinion disappointing) Kenobi series, this line feels out of place as Vader knows Kenobi is out there and survived. This makes Rebels fit back into the canon nicer. - Replaced Sam Witwer’s Emperor performance with Ian McDiarmid’s version. S02E02: Edit of S02E03: The Lost Commanders and S02E04: Relics of the Old Republic. - Cut Rex introducing himself as captain as he was promoted to commander in TCW. - Cut Joopa subplot from The Lost Commanders. S02E03: Edit of S02E06: Brothers of the Broken Horn. - Opening scene of the original episode cut completely due to all the needless bickering between characters - Mentions of the inquisitors as they haven't appeared in my edit yet. - Mentions to Azmorigan knowing Ezra are cut, in this edit this is their first meeting. S02E04: Edit of S02E05: Always Two There Are and S02E10: The Future of the Force. - Opening of Always Two there are cut - Cut Zeb and Chopper scenes down dramatically to keep higher tension. - Cut Ahsoka finding the mother of the child alive, this now implies another death in the show. S02E05: Edit of S02E11: Legacy and S02E12: A Princess on Lothal. - Minor dialogue and scene cuts S02E06: Edit of S02E13: The Protector of Concord Dawn. - Minor dialogue cuts - Not much changed here as the episode is quite solid S02E07: Edit of S02E15: The Call. - Minor dialogue and scene cuts - Not too much changed here. S02E08: Edit of S02E16 Homecoming. - Minor dialogue and scene cuts S02E09: Edit of S02E17 The Honorable Ones. - Minor dialogue and scene cuts S02E10: Edit of S02E18: Shroud of Darkness. - Fight choreography tightened up through cutting - Minor dialogue and scene cuts. - Added visual effects in Lothal temple vision sequences. - Changed Kanan’s extra saber to orange instead of red. S02E11: Edit of S02E19: The Forgotten Droid and S02E20: The Mystery of Chopper Base. - The Forgotten Droid has been cut down into a 2 minute opener focusing on the Space battle that leads to the discovery of chopper base. - Cut Ezra and Kanan fighting onboard the Ghost to better blend these two episodes - Minor dialogue and scene cuts for the Mystery of Chopper Base content. S02E12: Edit of S02E19: Twilight of the Apprentice Part 1 and S02E20: Twilight of the Apprentice Part 2. - Minor dialogue and scene cuts. - New visual effects added to the lightsaber Ezra picks up to make it zap before breaking. - Redubbed the Sith Holocron voice and used AI to make this performance sound like Kreia from KoTOR2 (This is so it doesn’t just sound like Asajj Ventress, and furthers the refrences to the KoTOR time period). - New visual effects added to Vader to change his eye color during his battle with Ahsoka to up the drama Full change lists S03E01: Edit of S03E01: Steps Into Shadow Part 1 and S03E02: Steps Into Shadow Part 2 - cut Zeb and Chopper fighting as Chopper puts him down - cut Sabine and Zeb complaining about breaking out Hondo, it’s just not that interesting or needed. - cut Sabine sighing while opening the door - cut “my look how you have grown” from Hondo - cut shot of Ezra, Sabine and Zeb - cut Zeb saying “not really” in response to it being good to see Hondo - cut Sabine and Ezra undermining Ezra’s choices - cut most of the elevator scene - cut “Oh I’m keeping it” in regard to Sabines blaster - cut “is that really Ezra?” “most of the time”, we get it show, Ezra has grown up a bit, let us just see that uninterrupted. - cut Hondo and Zeb asking what Jump means. Like… come on, you know what Jump means. - cut Ezra having a tantrum in his room, we can see he’s upset. Lines have been removed by rescoring and adding back in door closing sfx. - Flipped a shot of Hondo talking to make his arm movements line up from next cut - cut Hondo describing the ship he wants. - cut Hondo being scared about the mining guild prison. - cut the chatter onboard the Phantom while descending to the Imperial base - cut shot of the Phantom flying into clouds from ep1 (as its pretty much repeated in ep2) - cut “hurry we’re losing ships” - We don’t need this audience reminder when the 2 part episode is joined. - cut the extra shot of the bombers being destroyed as it’s not needed when the 2 part episode is joined. - cut goofy shot of Ezra while the Phantom is going down. - cut shot from the Dismantler Droid’s perspective to speedup chopper getting grabbed. - cut dialogue with Titus and Ezra as for my edit this is the first time they meet. - cut “I’m in trouble too” - cut all fades to black - cut all title cards S03E02: Edit of S03E07: Imperial Supercommandos - cut Rau recapping the last episode he was in “you have imprisoned me”, ect. - cut Rau saying his only true allegiance is to Mandalore. This was covered in the intro text and the later dialogue also conveys this same exposition but better. - cut Ezra being awkward with Rau in the Phantom 2 - cut Rebels Logo - added wipe to signify time jump (to replace the time jump from the Rebels Logo) - cut Ezra saying “why would Mandalorians fight other Mandalorians?”, you’ve been around a Mando for 3 season now Ezra! You should know why. - cut “what are those flying stormtroopers?” and Rau’s explanation. Gar Saxon explains he’s Mandalorian later on and this line gives me THEY FLY NOW vibes. - cut fade to black - fixed all shots of Rau bare fist punching the Mando in the Phantom 2 in the helmet The first shot I’ve kept the SFX but removed the Mando’s reaction, so Rau still punches but it doesn’t do anything. the second shot is cut entirely. It’s too unbelievable that a bare fist punch would knockout a Mando in a helmet even if its from another Mandalorian. - cut “Oh he’s in the ship alright.” and the dialogue to set this line up. - Edited the “Oh he’s in the ship alright” shot so Ezra didn’t move his mouth so it could still be included. Just manually copied one mouth and shaped it onto 14 frames differently. - cut shot of Ezra and Sabine looking at Gar Saxon. - cut fade to black. - cut reestablishing shot after ad break. - cut Sabine telling Chopper “Now!” when she clearly gave the mark with “fool” already. - cut shot of Rau in Phantom 2 not going into hyperspace (the episode plays out with higher stakes not knowing that he’ll come back to help) - cut Phantom 2 in orbit to make the reveal Rau stayed more believable as we don’t see him leave Conchord Dawn. - cut ‘make it quick Chop, her evil cousins are coming!’ - cut Sabine needing to ask for help… come on Ezra you’re getting shot at! - cut “cut them off” from Rau as just a hand signal to issue orders is cooler. - made Gar Saxon shoot Sabine faster by trimming and cutting two shots. S03E03: Edit of S03E03 Holocrons of Fate, S03E11 Visions and Voices, S03E20 Twin Suns and S03E14 Warhead - Made the “Star Wars” logo red instead of yellow for this episode - cut “but what if it’s the secret to destroying the sith.” to further emphasis Kanan’s point by having him interrupt Ezra. - cut Kanan’s “who is it” in response to Maul. Kanan is blind but I feel he should know it’s Maul. - Made Kanan stay still instead of turn and talk so I could use the shot where he says “who is it”. (I just repeated the footage from earlier in the shot masked to just where Kanan was standing) - cut “just and old friend master Jedi” from Maul - cut title card - cut “maul you betrayed me” from Ezra. It just didn’t feel right with it in. - cut “No I betrayed your friends but I would have remained loyal to you” from Maul. - cut Ezra and Kanan bickering about the Jedi Holocron - cut Maul chatting about the Ghost ship (it just felt weird to me) - cut Maul and Sabines expository exchange about him ruling Mandalore. It also cuts Zeb’s weirdly animated response to being in cuffs. - cut “is that true” from Zeb - cut the gags with Maul seeing Ezra & Zebs room and Sabines room. - cut fade to black - cut a few shots of Ezra entering the cave and Kanan talking over the comm as it’s not needed thanks to my previous cut. - cut end title card and credits - Inserted footage from S03E14 Warhead to smooth the episode transition and continue to develop the Thrawn plotline through the season. - Started with the footage toward the end of the episode with the droid back in it’s pod flying through space - cut from Kallus seeing the explosion to a shot of Thrawns star destroyer with the flaming stardestroyer in the background. - cut the end lines from thrawn (they have won this battle but not the war). Further justification for its inclusion: It mirrors the Rebellion nicely, as they gear up to strike the Empire, Thrawn gears up to strike them. It helps convey the passage of time better. - cut Sabine and Hera discussing Thrawn (in my edit they don’t know of him just yet)., - cut title card - cut Sabine and Kanan joking together after Hera takes off. It just felt counter to the current mood. - cut Sabine stating she was tracking Ezra (we know this already). - cut Ezra calling Maul’s belongings junk. - cut & trimmed Zeb snoring scenes. - cut “maul’s back” line from Ezra. We know he’s back, that’s the purpose of this whole episode. - cut “I wanna go to Tatooine and check things out” line from Ezra (it does make sense, as he probably got the info from the broken holocrons as we see later but it makes more sense to show the solution over Tatooine rather then name drop the planet beforehand) - trimmed Ezra’s takeoff form Chopper Base in the stolen A-Wing - cut down Chopper and Ezra arguing in the A-Wing - cut a shot of Chopper talking to himself after landing on Tatooine - cut Ezra saying “the sith holocron” yes Ezra, we can see that, it’s red and evil looking. - cut Ezra and Chopper discussing if they should continue through the sands - cut “It’s maul, it had to be!” from Ezra - cut some more Chopper and Ezra arguing about following the holocrons. - cut a zoom out of Chopper and trimmed his decision making about following Ezra I did a lot of reworking for the remaining footage here, I’ve reordered the shot of Maul appearing to take the shot of him being gone. I’ve changed the audio for most shots here. (this was mostly to keep continuity and to cut down on the conversations between Chopper and Ezra) - cut Chopper and Ezra arguing in the sandstorm - cut some shots during the sandstorm to speed this part up. - cut the conversations when Ezra arrives as recommended. That way the viewer can decide what they did or didn’t talk about to anything. This was to help cover up any perceived inconsistencies. S03E04: Edit of S03E05 - Hera’s Heroes - cut “how did they find us” and Cham’s response. This exposition isn’t needed now that the intro text covers the context. - cut Cham being surprised Hera is here as it doesn’t make sense with the story I’ve laid out. - cut Cham and Numa chatting about Hera always being serious (seemed odd) - cut shot of them changing directions (I originally was going to include it but just can’t make it work nicely and be good) - cut title card - cut “you didn’t think that through did you?” from Zeb (honestly, the moment is funnier without any dialogue) - cut “thank you for making this supply run” and " it wasn’t easy getting past that Imperial Blockade" as in my version of this episode Cham has asked for military help not supply aide. - cut “what’s the Tan province?” from Ezra (This is literally exposited MUCH BETTER by Cham later in a moment when saying that Hera and his home is now Slavin’s headquarters) repurposed a previous shot of chopper and Ezra to help make new cuts flow smoothly (reversed and masked Ezra’s face to cover up him being about to speak) - cut Hera saying that the Ghost crew shouldn’t come with her - cut Cham briefing Hera as the actual beginning of the plan covers all of the relevant information conveyed there and it’s far less clunky. - cut “Well, we got their attention” from Kanan (you commentary is unneeded here) - cut fade to black - cut next fade to black - cut “an unexpected” so now Thrawn just says “pleasure to meet you captain Syndulla.” (It’s so stupid in the original this whole thing was an accident!) - cut “I have learned not to underestimate you” from Cham and Hera’s response… a bit of a strange exchange here. See additional notes for more information (I've run out of characters to work with!) In short, a lot has been changed!

Additional Notes:

There are 3 different versions of this edit available to download. 1) A 1080p original color version: This is the original show with my cuts / changes 2) A 1080p recolored version: This is the show with color adjustments however they're not perfect as this was made with the 4K upscale in mind which changes the colors slightly 3) A 4K recolored version: This is the best version (in my opinion) as it has the best visuals and ultimately what I had in mind when making all changes. Full progress and more in-depth list of changes can be found at https://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Star-Wars-Rebels-Recut-A-Fanedit-TV-Series/id/95189/page/1#1489500

Special Thanks:

EddieDean, Honestabe, Admiral Makati, TheDimitrios, The Original Trilogy Community