StarDestroyer.Net BBS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utlLpz9MaiM

Just a short teaser, but intriguing. Its a bit early to say for sure but several things stand out:

1. Very Ashoka-centric. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, Ashoka was, at the start of the series, one of its weak points. On the other, I actually like what they've done with her character development-wise, and would like to see it expanded.

2. Mostly very dark in tone. Some real Empire Strikes Back vibes towards the end I thought.

3. Looks like we're getting Cad Bane back, but possibly more of that annoying cross-dressing Hutt too.

4. While this is obviously very preliminary speculation, it looks like the writers have figured out which are the strong points of the series and are focussing their efforts accordingly, on character development, longer story arcs, and darker content. I am optimistic.

I have to admit the trailer has me intrigued.

Considering I actually like character of Ahsoka I think more expansion of her character will be a very welcome thing on my end. As for the darker tone we will have to see if they actually carry it out throughout the next season or weather it is just trailer hype. If they do make it a bit darker, so much the better it could use a little "grim dark" dose to better reflect the reality of the ongoing war. (ie named good guys actually dieing for once)

Question: how can you call member a hermaphroditic species a cross-dresser when they ARE both genders?

This has been on SW.com since before Season 2 finished a while ago. I was hoping it would be a new one

There's an extended camrip from Star Wars Weekends. I might as well post it. Warning, really shitty visuals, this was just recorded in a crowd. Some little gems here and there. Spoiler

Did the battles seem a tad bigger there? It seems to me they're increasing the scale every season.

An attack on Kamino? I wonder if they'll reference the one from the Dark Horse comics.

Shit I was like just about to tell him off.

All hail Lord Dalton.

Vympel wrote:This has been on SW.com since before Season 2 finished a while ago. I was hoping it would be a new one

Sorry. I don't frequent SW.com any more, so I guess I missed it.

VT-16: while Spoiler isn't it a bit early in the timeline for that?

SapphireFox wrote:Question: how can you call member a hermaphroditic species a cross-dresser when they ARE both genders?

Fair point. Conceded. The character's still painfully annoying though, at least to me.

Srelex wrote:Did the battles seem a tad bigger there? It seems to me they're increasing the scale every season.

One can only hope.

It's apparently stated in the new TCW novel thatSpoiler New secret videos with Dave Filoni are up on CN.com: Spoiler The most interesting detail for me is Spoiler

I tried to watch the original "movie" that led to this, but I honestly couldn't get past about 15 minutes in. Something about the stupidity of the battles and the goofy droids (and Ahsoka's personality) just bugged me.

Is it worth trying to watch any of this? Where should I start, if it started getting stronger later? I really do like the CGI style.

Molyneux wrote:I tried to watch the original "movie" that led to this, but I honestly couldn't get past about 15 minutes in. Something about the stupidity of the battles and the goofy droids (and Ahsoka's personality) just bugged me.

Is it worth trying to watch any of this? Where should I start, if it started getting stronger later? I really do like the CGI style.

There are many episodes that were quite good. IMO the three best arcs are Ryloth (season 1 episodes 19-21), Mandalore (season 2 episodes 12-14), and Boba Fett(season 2 episodes 20-22). Although I personally did not like these episodes some liked the Cad Bane episodes as well( season 1 episode 22, season 2 episodes 1-3) Additionally there are several single shot episodes worth watching, Rookies(season 1 episode 5), Hidden Enemy (season 1 episode 16). Also it is not really necessary to watch these in any order.

Molyneux wrote:I tried to watch the original "movie" that led to this, but I honestly couldn't get past about 15 minutes in. Something about the stupidity of the battles and the goofy droids (and Ahsoka's personality) just bugged me.

Is it worth trying to watch any of this? Where should I start, if it started getting stronger later? I really do like the CGI style.

The first movie is a bit of a mess in that they were really trying to find their feet and they didn't have as many assets as they do now.

Re: your complaints.

* Goofy droids:- they remain goofy. The exception are B-X Commando Droids.
* Ashoka's personality:- considerably less annoying as the show goes on.

Where you should start? Seriously, all the episodes I've seen are worth at least one viewing. The only one that I thought absolutely sucked was S1E8, because its a stupid Jar Jar episode. Stand out awesome Season 1 episodes are the Malevolence arc (2-4), R2 duology (Episode 6 and 7), Ryloth arc (19-21), Trespass (Episode 15) and the superb Lair of Grievous (Episode 10).

Season 2 is much improved over Season 1 in terms of sophistication of animation, so look out for that.

But yeah, there is no overall continuity outside of obvious episode arcs, so you can watch in any order.

All right, thanks for the advice! I guess I'll see if I can find a copy of season 1 and get started on this thing.

Molyneux wrote:I tried to watch the original "movie" that led to this, but I honestly couldn't get past about 15 minutes in. Something about the stupidity of the battles and the goofy droids (and Ahsoka's personality) just bugged me.

Is it worth trying to watch any of this? Where should I start, if it started getting stronger later? I really do like the CGI style.

I would recommend the Season 2 episode Landing at Point Rain. That is about as close to a Normandy Beach Invasion as we are likely to see out of Star Wars. The two follow up episodes are not bad either but more like Alien movie ripoffs, not that I consider that bad. The second follow up episode also has one of the only and best Anakin foreshadows Vader moments in the series so far too.

[quote="Lord Insanity"][quote="Molyneux"]I tried to watch the original "movie" that led to this, but I honestly couldn't get past about 15 minutes in. Something about the stupidity of the battles and the goofy droids (and Ahsoka's personality) just bugged me.

Is it worth trying to watch any of this? Where should I start, if it started getting stronger later? I really do like the CGI style.[/quote]

I would recommend the Season 2 episode [i]Landing at Point Rain[/i]. That is about as close to a Normandy Beach Invasion as we are likely to see out of Star Wars. The two follow up episodes are not bad either but more like [i]Alien[/i] movie ripoffs, not that I consider that bad. The second follow up episode also has one of the only and best Anakin foreshadows Vader moments in the series so far too.[/quote]

There are three follow up episodes: Weapons Factory, Legacy of Terror, and Brain Invaders. Only the second two involve the Alien ripoff.

Something new on the Kamino arc: Apparantly a Siniteen bounty hunter is hired by the Kaminoans to train clone troopers, and they apparantly clone him to get more instructors as well. One of them is Sergeant Bric, who I assume is the guy training some clones in these trailers.

So much for the clones being trained by Fett's uber-mando coalition.

Another nail in Traviss' coffin.

Actually, it's possible to fit him in, but I hope they conveniently "forget" all about it. And apparantly I messed up, he's not a clone per say, that's just said because he wears clone armor and instructs clones. I think there's also an Arcona in the background of the new trailer with him, so go, old school SW aliens!

While traviss specifically tried to imply that the bulk of the clones (if not all) were "Mand'o" trained in her books, that idea never gained wider acceptance in the larger circles (indeed some seemed to back away from that idea, like the CW stuff or the comcis) and the pre-Traviss material certainly didn't imply any of that (like the DK books.) Even traviss' earlier stuff as I recall only implied that the "Mand'o" training was part of the larger scheme of things - whether she tried to change that in later books I don't know.

But as things stand now, you're only going to see the "Mando training" representing a part of the larger Clone army, for whatever its worth.

As far as I know, Traviss only had the whole "uber Mando training" applying to ~3/4ths of the Commando units; in fact, IIRC the line clonetroopers tend to be rather sceptical of the Mando stuff.

That is actually something of a interesting dynamic and a good use of the whole mandolorian thing, to have the special forces units bcome indoctrinated into this strange warrior cult with strange, insular traditions as compared to sterile simulation training and brainwashing of the regular clones. The subsequent interactions between the line guys and the special forces when they are inevitably forced to work together in close proximity for a long period of time due to plot could be made very interesting. I don't imagine anything like that was ever explored?

I wonder if they're going to keep being vague on the specifics of cloning as it stands 'now' in terms of the show's timeline. Or it may be these Sinteen clones for training purposes were raised up before or at the same time as the original army.

open_sketchbook wrote:That is actually something of a interesting dynamic and a good use of the whole mandolorian thing, to have the special forces units bcome indoctrinated into this strange warrior cult with strange, insular traditions as compared to sterile simulation training and brainwashing of the regular clones. The subsequent interactions between the line guys and the special forces when they are inevitably forced to work together in close proximity for a long period of time due to plot could be made very interesting. I don't imagine anything like that was ever explored?

For some reason it sounds like a parallel (stretching, and of course viewed from the outside) to real life "general purpose forces" and SOF, albeit a more extreme case; Black Hawk Down (and Blackhawk Down the book) showed that the "subsequent interactions" issue could come up even with different SOF from the same military. The attempts to bring some of the "ARC benefits" to general purpose force commanders in turn reminds me of such moves IRL.

Personally I was sold on the show's concept after hearing that apparently the writers' own kids know Star Wars through TCW instead of the movies, so (as of some point) they [are/were] in the dark about Anakin's future or Darth Sidious/Palpatine's dual identity.

There's a new trailer available on the front page of the official website. And yes, the battles have indeed got awesomer.

Not to mention Spoiler

Not so sure on the brother thing--his name is really goofy, even by SW standards. I also wonder what that big space battle was about. Kamino?