Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008-present)

jedi472 · **on:** December 02, 2009, 07:04:28 PM

Yeah, if you're even a casual Star Wars fan, you probably know about this little project. Conceived in 2008 as a 90-minute film designed to promote a TV series of the same name, this project has pretty much devastated the Star Wars community. While the movie is universally regarded as trash, the TV series is holding its own with roughly a million and a half viewers a week.

Now, not many people enjoy the new series, but I've been following it and thought I'd point out some of it's better aspects. The visuals have been steadily improving and are now pretty spectacular. While a good portion of the episodes seem to regress the Star Wars story and feel to something less than it deserves, the episodes that are good really stand out, and are great to watch. The plots have slowly become more complex, and even the trashy dialog has improved. Overall, it's looking promising.

However, that isn't to say I fully approve of this series, even with it being Star Wars. The fact of the matter is that it is too destructive towards previous works in the Star Wars canon, the first and greatest offense being the creation of Ashoka, Anakin's never-before-mentioned Padawan, who, while having become a somewhat interesting character over the course of the series, simply does not fit in to the established Clone Wars mythos. The Clone Wars was a period that had already seen dozens of stories injected into it, and the new series has already denied the existence of some works (mainly everything in the year 22 BBY) and is threatening others. Karen Traviss' Republic Commando novels are no longer considered true canon because of a plan to redesign Mandalore as a peace-loving planet that is recovering from an environmental war. This even goes against the backstories of characters in the films, like Jango Fett, and make no sense in the overall picture of the Star Wars saga. It should be noted that several authors, including Traviss, have broken off from all Star Wars-related work in protest.

I understand that George Lucas does have all rights to the Star Wars universe, and that it is his, but still, I find it hard to believe that he would destroy whole story arcs in the continuity of the saga, works that represent tens of thousands of hours of artists' work, just to create a new TV series. I sincerely hope that, at the end of this series, a decision will be made that labels Star Wars: The Clone Wars either secondary canon or non-canon. No offense, George, but it's just not working, and I guarantee you'll regret it in the long run.

So yeah, does anyone else have an opinion?

Malte279 · **Reply #1 on:** December 02, 2009, 07:46:45 PM

While I am sure that my awareness of Star Wars does not come close to that of the real Jedi's of our board it still is above the average of people around here as I am a bit into reading all the Star Wars comics and some of the novels I can get my hands on (luckily the local libraries and a star wars fan friend of mine provide quite a few

).
As for the movie in 2008, I was neither extremely expressed nor extremely disappointed. It was entertaining and some of the animation was quite cool. I found the character Ashoka an interesting supplement to Anakin and I am curious about what further influence there may be in the seasons of the series that are yet to appear.
I suppose my enthusiasm for Star Wars differs quite a bit from my enthusiasm for LBT and one of the consequences may be that I am less annoyed about the aspects which whole-hearted Star Wars fanatics (no disrespect whatsoever meant with the term) are annoyed about.
You are undoubtedly right about Ashoka not fitting in well mostly because she was not mentioned in episode III at all. I wonder if perhaps there is yet to come some explanation for this? I consider it more likely than not that towards the end of the series there will be something about the "fate" of Ashoka that would explain her absence in episode III.
The Anakin of Episode III came across as quite different from the reckless late pubescent of Episode II (I am not refering to his transformation into Darth Vader but still to Anakin) and perhaps being faced with the responsibility for a Padawan of his own contributed to those changes.
It would be very unlikely for Ashoka to be just fine and alive in Episode III and just never mentioned with the assumption of her being one of the victims of Order 66 or the like.
Maybe she is to be killed in a later season? Her death would probably be a severe blow to Anakin and further enhance his fear of being unable to save the people dear to him (the fear most distinctly shown by the loss of his mother so far). It would still not really explain why Ashoka would never be mentioned.
So maybe there is the chance that she is going to turn to the dark side and be killed as a consequence? If Anakin herself had to kill her (maybe in a situation without other witnesses) this sure would be tough to swallow for him. What if perhaps at some point it is "presumed" that she turned to the dark side while in fact she became aware of Palpatine's plots and was libeled and killed through his actions? In any case any thought that she might have fallen to the dark side might make mentioning her kind of a "taboo topic" in Anakin's presence. It would be obviously an "explanation of necessity for some explanation" of course.
Or maybe something entirely different could happen. We see those gifted with the force end up as Jedi's or as Sith choosing the dark or the light side and sometimes walking somewhere between. But can Jedi's "resign"? Could horrible experiences in war and exposure to the force, doubts in the sense of the fighting, and frustration with what seems to be a never ending fight cause a Jedi to leave the order and try to get just as far from everything as possible? Would such a decision be tolerated?
I am sure there are many more possibilities and I am curious about what they are going for (probably something entirely different from the possibilities I came up with). This curiosity as well as a general satisfaction (not overenthusiastic, but still quite pleased) with the plots, characters, and animation all contribute to have this series in my "good books".

It sure is by far better than the short animated Clone Wars series of 2003 which I found was just too much hacking and slashing without much of a real plot or memorable characters.

jedi472 · **Reply #2 on:** December 02, 2009, 08:42:09 PM

I actually enjoy the character of Ashoka, now that her dialog allows her to be portrayed as more than just some girl who follows Anakin around and makes stupid comments. I actually believe that her death, when it occurs, will be the end of the series, and will be Anakin's final step in becoming a true Jedi Knight, in that by dealing with her loss he will have transcended revenge and hate (although he should come very close to the "moral event horizon", just so that the event does not contrast too much with his deeds in Episode III) She's not the problem I have.

My problem is that the series is throwing away perfectly good canon that, quite frankly, was there before it was. I mean, they're going to have an episode with Mandalore as a pacifist planet. I'm not too much of a fan of Mandalorian's, but if a pacifistic Mandalorian isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is.

To answer your question, yes, Jedi can resign. A Jedi named K'kruhk did not fight using clones, as he realized the gross moral issue behind the use of what was basically a slave army. This allowed him to escape Order 66, and he is shown as being alive as late as 137 ABY.

I thought the 2003 series was very good, for the most part. While the story wasn't very character-driven, the art was incredible, and I found that by telling the story through the art, the series achieved its goal of showcasing the Clone Wars in all their glory and destruction. I also remember the characters being much more fleshed out by their actions in the series than in anything seen in Episode II, making it a great companion to the film. Perhaps it wasn't the most intelligent of shows, but it did showcase the incredible action that we all knew the Clone Wars contained, and it did its job spectacularly.

Paradise Bird · **Reply #3 on:** December 02, 2009, 09:06:08 PM

I missed the fights from the old star wars clone wars cartoon. If their fights were better that would make it great!

The Great Valley Guardian · **Reply #4 on:** December 02, 2009, 10:25:23 PM

Okay, for starters when I first heard about this movie, I was teetering on the fence for quite some time boarding on boycotting the movie and series completely or sucking up my Starwars pride and just watching the movie for what it was. Indeed eventually I took the latter option and saw the movie, and although the animation was a bit shoddy in my opinion I have to admit the addition of Ahsoka made me think twice about the series as a whole. As such I've seen all of the first season and indeed to what Jedi472 mentioned earlier, the animation has steadily increased as well as the plots behind the episodes that air. However now I too am concerned about not only what happens to Ahsoka in the event of Order 66 but now upon hearing several of the best read novels have been discounted as canon is rather unsettling, as the book Order 66 was one of my favorites in recent memory. However with Master Lucas owning starwars it is indeed his world to command, so for us fans we just have to wait and see.

Kor · **Reply #5 on:** December 02, 2009, 11:03:06 PM

He can say what is officially canon, but each fan can decide for themselves what is canon to them and what is not and what they will ignore. It won't be official, but that may allow one to enjoy something like star wars then if they blindly accept only official canon.

metadude1234 · **Reply #6 on:** December 02, 2009, 11:04:41 PM

i actually like the clone wars but it has so many flaws....

Paradise Bird · **Reply #7 on:** December 03, 2009, 05:11:09 AM

Darth Sidious is a joke in it.

thebigdeal · **Reply #8 on:** December 03, 2009, 10:58:08 AM

Season 2 is scarier than Season 1

Malte279 · **Reply #9 on:** December 03, 2009, 12:22:16 PM

Quote

To answer your question, yes, Jedi can resign. A Jedi named K'kruhk did not fight using clones, as he realized the gross moral issue behind the use of what was basically a slave army. This allowed him to escape Order 66, and he is shown as being alive as late as 137 ABY.

Now that you mention him I should have remembered him from several of the comics as well

I am glad you liked the 2003 series better than I did. I saw some good moments in it too, but personally I found it just lacked a plot too often. Too often I found there were just minutes and minutes of scenes in which Jedi's (e.g. Mace Windu) trashed up hundreds and thousands of robots without much context being given to the respective battles. I think that many of the characters remained much more anonymous than for example in case of the comics as it was mostly shown what excellent fighters they were with too little in addition to that.
This is just my opinion of course and I absolutely don't want to convince anyone of it. I'm just explaining why I was not so fond of that one myself (and for the improvements in the respective fields fonder of the new series).

jedi472 · **Reply #10 on:** December 03, 2009, 05:05:32 PM

I understand, Malte. I guess I just wish that this new series could be a bit more original. I mean, why do they have to redefine places and droids and other canonized things? Why can't they just make up their own planet or droid? Besides, haven't they realized that the Clone Wars has been done to death?

jedi472 · **Reply #11 on:** December 05, 2009, 11:03:36 PM

One thing I actually really like has been this latest Geonosis story arc. I thought I would hate it, but it's been polished so well, I can't help but enjoy it.

Belmont2500 · **Reply #12 on:** December 05, 2009, 11:24:28 PM

the show is good indeed but there are times I felt they should have had it set during the original trilogy or afterwords.

Paradise Bird · **Reply #13 on:** December 06, 2009, 12:53:40 AM

I guess the clone wars is a topic for kids which lucas wanted to attract.

jedi472 · **Reply #14 on:** December 06, 2009, 12:59:54 AM

True, but kid stuff hasn't ever worked too well with Star Wars, as seen in the Ewok and Droids cartoons.

Belmont2500 · **Reply #15 on:** December 14, 2009, 08:03:49 PM

exactly.