Board 8 > Watching Clone Wars (CG TV series) for the first time (no unmarked spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I can't tell if it's good or not. I'm halfway through season 1.

I'm not sure if Ventress is supposed to be the same character from the Genndy Tartakovsky mini-series (which I thought was good). One of the things about the GT webisodes was that the villains were far more threatening. Grievous in that show was a cold Jedi killer and now he's like borderline comic relief.

Ahsoka seems like she could be good, but also it's weird that there hasn't been any explanation about her at all besides "surprise Anakin padawan." Curious to see where she goes and how they retcon her out of episode 3.

Anakin seems like how a lot of fans probably "wished" Anakin was like in the movies. But also he's like... too good/heroic now?

Could not care less about the clone soldiers. My favorite episode so far is the Jedi Jar Jar ep. He could've been a good character if Phantom Menace had an actual script.

Tag, love TCW. Release or chronological order?

and yes thats the same Ventress, although the Tartakovsky show is no longer canon since the Disney takeover.

JonThePenguin posted...

Tag, love TCW. Release or chronological order?

I guess release? I watched the movie and now I'm just going to watch the series in order on D+.

I found the movie to be pretty much just 3-4 episodes stuffed together. The movie at least hints at Anakin doing a murder on the tusken raiders, but that's really been the only whiff of Psycho-Anakin at all. Didn't care for the Jabba family stuff.

Early on it can be a bit meh but it gets really fucking good

colliding posted...

I found the movie to be pretty much just 3-4 episodes stuffed together.

Yeah thats exactly what it was

The movie is horseshit. The shows starts out kind of weak, but "Rookies" is the first episode that shows what the quality will tend to be later.

And the moment Cad Bane is introduced, you will have the best time.

Ahsoka isn't tremendous early on - very blank slate - but she gets REALLY good.

The final four episodes of season 7 are one of the best Star Wars media. So damn good.

A few random thoughts:

episode 1: "Ambush" - Yoda centric and an extremely weird "first episode." I didn't know first episodes could be filler until now.
episodes 2-4: "Malevolence arc" - Really really good. Probably the most I've ever liked the prequel characters.
episode 5: "Rookies" - Clone soldier centric. I'm gonna pass. This episode reminded me of hanging out with a bunch of JROTC military nerds back in high school.
episodes 6-7: "R2D2 is Missing" - An average 2 parter. Pretty much called that the gold R2 unit was a spy immediately.
episode 8: "Bombad Jedi" This one ruled. And it actually featured Anthony Daniels and Ahmed Best reprising the movie roles, so it seems like they put their best foot forward. This did more to redeem Jar Jar as a character in 30 minutes than it had any right to.
episode 9: "The One with Luminara" This did not make an impression on me at all.
episode 10: "Grievous's Lair" - featuring KIT FISTO. Meh.
episodes 11-12 "Dooku Captured" arc - Dooku, Anakin, AND Obi-Wan all manage to get captured by a group of idiotic smugglers. Fun premise, but it doesn't quite make logical or narrative sense.
episodes 13-14 "Pacifist Planet" - Stopped short of making any interesting arguments about Pacifism. Perhaps my least favorite episodes so far, but I'm still watching so the show is doing something right.

Miscellaneous

• blasters have never been more useless
• the quotes at the beginning of the episodes kind of suck
• I still don't really understand the reasoning behind the separatists... at all... besides just simply t's all a setup by darth sidious to justify fascism. Or alternatively because "taxes" . Even then I don't understand why the Republic even cares if planets want to secede.
• i have a bad feeling about this

Afaik the point of the separatists is Sidious set them up by having dooku convince them to rebel, and that gave him an excuse to start the clone wars, which was itself a pretext to use order 66 to wipe out the jedi and give him emergency powers to create an empire.

So basically your first one, yeah.

Tbh that you liked the Jar Jar episode bodes poorly but I'll reserve my cruel judgment of you until you finish the first season.

Last 4 episodes are great, with the last one being a home run.

He's been less good in the episodes since. Perhaps it was mostly just the Jar-Jar/3PO comedy duo that I enjoyed moreso than Jar Jar himself.

Season 1 complete! Some more quick thoughts:

episode 15: "Trespass" - A pretty basic allegory for racism and colonialism on a civilized planet's non-civilized ice moon. Good episode.
episode 16: "The Hidden Enemy" - A surprise prequel of sorts to the film. Not a bad ep, but could feel my attention waning.
episode 17-18. "Virus Arc" - These were weird and felt decidedly "un-Star Wars." I don't know how else to explain it besides saying it felt like I was watching Batman and Robin, not Obi-Wan and Anakin. The thought of a bad ending where Jar-Jar in his biosuit is surrounded by the corpses of Amidala, Ahsoka and a platoon of soldiers is kind of funny in its own way.
episode 19-21."Ryloth Arc" - An interesting triptych of episodes, one focusing on Anakin/Ahsoka, another on troopers and a third on Mace Windu. We get to see Windu go ham, so what more could you ask for?
episode 22. "Hostage Crisis" - Here's Cad Bane. He's okay I guess? I don't like his hat. He's a competent villain, which sets him apart from the vast majority of villains we've seen. This definitely one of the better eps of the season but not sure I'd call it the best. I see season 2 starts with more Bane so I'm open to learning more.

I was going to do character rankings but I honestly feel like it would just be a bunch of equal signs. I feel like I don't know enough about Ahsoka yet to make a good appraisal. Obi-Wan is this weird blend of 50% extremely likeable and 50% absolutely insufferable stick in the mud. In this way he is actually well-translated from the films.

Anakin is extremely good, but also really makes me think this cannot be actual SW canon because he's far too patient, intelligent, affable, and well-adjusted to go full-on Youngling Slayer. The prequels sort of beat you over the head with the idea that Anakin is a traumatized child who can't control his emotions, and this is why he succumbs to the Dark Side. This totally changes the way we understand Anakin's descent - potentially in a good way - but in a way that seems so incongruent with the films that I'm extremely curious to see how they do it.

What I'm worried is going to happen is that Anakin will just disappear in the series and it won't be addressed at all. Fingers crossed that isn't where things go!

Favorite episodes: "Bombad Jedi," "Malevolence Arc," "Hostage Crisis"
Least favorite eps: "Virus Arc," "Cloak of Darkness"

Anakin is the main character of the series. Hes not going anywhere

so a weird thing that happens in the first few seasons is that episodes are largely not in chronological order except within their individual arcs. I wouldnt recommend watching the chronological order, but it may be worth looking up where each episode takes place when you watch it because otherwise some episodes are straight up confusing.

There's a fan theory that the Anakin from the movies who becomes Darth Vader is a clone, and the original Anakin present in the Clone Wars cartoon got killed off at some point.

It's not as good a theory as Bigger Luke.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Anakin is the main character of the series. Hes not going anywhere

so a weird thing that happens in the first few seasons is that episodes are largely not in chronological order except within their individual arcs. I wouldnt recommend watching the chronological order, but it may be worth looking up where each episode takes place when you watch it because otherwise some episodes are straight up confusing.

yeah there's zero chance I start doing that now. if it's confusing it's confusing. that's fine.

glad anakin isn't going anywhere. I had a feeling he and the classic characters might disappear mid-way and then it becomes the ahsoka show.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

There's a fan theory that the Anakin from the movies who becomes Darth Vader is a clone, and the original Anakin present in the Clone Wars cartoon got killed off at some point.

It's not as good a theory as Bigger Luke.

If anything it would make more sense that "Clone Wars Anakin" is the clone! A clone who went to therapy.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

There's a fan theory that the Anakin from the movies who becomes Darth Vader is a clone, and the original Anakin present in the Clone Wars cartoon got killed off at some point.

It's not as good a theory as Bigger Luke.

Wow thats a worse theory than Sidious and Palpatine are two different people

colliding posted...

glad anakin isn't going anywhere. I had a feeling he and the classic characters might disappear mid-way and then it becomes the ahsoka show.

To be fair, Ahsoka + Rex is the best pairing of characters in the show. But you'll probably get to thinking that on your own.

I'm progressing slowly through Season 2. Write-ups to come.

For now I'll simply ask, when George Lucas crapped out the line "Roger, Roger" for the Phantom Menace script, did he know then that he'd essentially doomed the droid army to never be taken seriously? These droids could be and probably are committing war crimes, but who cares since they're so darn cute.

Season 2 thoughts...

episodes 1-3. "Cad Bane Returns." In this storyline he is the bane of kids. I like him even more here. He also doesn't wear his hat as much! I liked in the first episode how he blew up his own comic relief droid sidekick. Season 2 isn't afraid to get dark(ish)!

episode 4. "Padme honeypot episode." Padme tries to "seduce" an old flame of hers to get Separatist secrets or something. Anakin gets jealous. Very soap opera. It begs the question of how old Padme is supposed to be here and how old she was in Attack of the Clones. I always thought she was like sixteen Phantom Menace, but wikipedia says she was 14, which would make her 24 in AoTC. Eh, I guess it's feasible she had a senator boyfriend before then.

episodes 5 -6. "Return to Geognosis arc." The gang (Obi Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Luminara) return to the planet from AoTC. It's actually a pretty cool setting. One of these episodes has a really cool battle sequence that ends in the destruction of a giant wall. Good stuff!

episodes 7-8."Brainworms!" The gang picks up some brainworms from the Geognosian queen. The latter episode in particular is a fun homage to horror movies.

episodes 9-10. "Grievous Intrigue" and "The Deserter." Okay, now this is what I'm talking about. Both of these eps are choice. The first is action-packed, the latter has the show finally applying a little bit of pressure to the ethics of the clone army. I'm not sure if I'll ever love Rex, but he is a more fleshed out character here for sure. He still sides with the Republic here, which sucks, but I'll wait and see where it goes. It still feels a bit icky to hear the clones say things like "you pledged an oath" when they were basically bred to be weapons/slaves and indoctrinated into war. Basically, I'm ready for the mass clone soldier revolution is what I'm saying.

episode 11. "Ahsoka loses her lightsaber." A fun little ep where Ahsoka partners with the oldest Jedi in the world to get back her stolen lightsaber. I get the feeling we'll see the lightsaber thieves again.

episodes 12-13 "Welcome to Beautiful Mandalore." Episode 12 might be my favorite so far. It's Obi-Wan centric and introduces us to planet Mandalore, which is an extremely cool setting. We also meet the Duchess, who seems like an important and intriguing character. This ep also is (I guess) the first canonical appearance of the darksaber which I remembered from The Mandalorian. It also grapples with pacificism and the Jedi ethics in a more interesting way than the monkey planet in Season One.

Some interesting general remarks about season two: There's a surprising lack of Ahsoka in this season compared to the last one. She has her lightsaber adventure and she also is prominent in the brainworms arc, but in season one this felt like "her show." This season kind of feels like the villains are the stars. It is also far more serious and less humorous, for better or worse.

Important notes:

Cad Bane is amazing
Rex is amazing
The deserter is a cool character - returns in Rebels.
Obi-Wan fucks.

And yeah, what Clone Wars does well - Anakin is generally a great guy and shit, especially a great teacher/father, but man is he a bad romantic partner. I think that suits things well for RotS. Also, Ahsoka and Padm have the undertones of a great connection. It's really cool, or it's a ship. Your choice.

Ahsoka isn't good yet.

Oh yeah, also the show has been doing a bit more with Anakin in terms of showing his proclivity toward the dark side via violent rages, torture sessions, and nonchalantly murdering bad dudes in the middle of their monologues, so kudos to the writers for remembering he's not supposed to be Captain Coruscant

boy I dislike these boba fett episodes. the more star wars tries to tell you about boba fett the worse he gets. seeing him as a pouty ten year old is seriously the worst.