Clone Wars series (SPOILERS)

[Kurgan]

Just remember... if it sucks, then it was "Just for kids" and you didn't get it. If it's good though, it's "PG-13 animation!" There's always a justification for something Star Wars to make it passable... ;P

Sounds like PR nonsense to me... but I guess TV ratings are different. If you think a bloodless lightsaber through the back of a non-human character is "edgy" then I guess that's all it is.

I was a bit surprised by the movie showing a row of severed heads on a stretcher, but then they were all goofy alien heads, and the animation style looks like wooden puppets, and there was no blood, so I guess that's okay for kids...

[Darth Ruinus]

I just started watching Ep. 5 of this series right now (and I mean right now, the video is playing on another tab) and I really liked the droid hostess.

"This next one goes out to the mudjumpers of the 224th "mucking"(?) it out on Meridan(?) keep your heads down and your suits tight boys"

I thought it was a pretty nice touch, to have a droid hostess on a music station doing that.

[Connor MacLeod]

I enjoy clone wars mainly because I dont come in to it expecting anything too spectacular, but something that's fun and fairly mindless (the same way I would go in to a movie like Transformers.) This may be part of the reason why the prequels were considered such a problem perhaps, too high of expectations (Esp TPM.) Hell you can probably extend that to ROTJ as well (or in some extreme cases, people who complained nothing matched up to ANH..)

[Kurgan]

My expectations for TCW were in the basement when I went to see the movie. I didn't think it was terrible, but didn't think it was anything special either. I gave the series a chance, and I think the three part Grievous arc was actually superior to the film in a lot of ways (though the graphics weren't as polished, as expected).

Should I expect more from Star Wars? I think so, considering how high the bar was set with the Original Trilogy (and I wasn't one of the people who said nothing could touch ANH, or that ROTJ was bad, though I can understand why so many fans prefer ESB). Lucas shot himself in the foot with cranking up the hype machine and then failing to deliver, I'd say, but fans feed into it by justifying it and coming back for more.


I know people are going to disagree with me here, but frankly the disappointment with Episode I was entirely justified. It's simply a dull movie punctuated by contrived sequences of CG mayhem, that makes for an unsatisfying experience. I'd take that killer lightsaber duel and mate it to a better movie, if it had been up to me. And I think that the backlash against that movie directly influenced the direction of the second two prequels. Disappointment with the Prequels in general also seems to have influenced some of the EU works. I notice the deliberate nods to areas of the movies virtually untouched by the prequels have appeared in these works (I'm thinking of the cave in the Tartakovsky series as an example, or Yoda talking about the Force with some clones in this one). Though Lucas plays a hardass who doesn't care if people don't like "his vision" I think the franchise does benefit from that kind of "whining."

Sure, ANYTHING Star Wars can be defended, on the grounds that fans are "too picky" or whatnot, but we just keep lowering our standards so it's always worth our time. The only stuff it seems kosher to bash around here nowadays are the EU novels. Whatever.

As silly as the previous Clone Wars series was, I actually enjoyed that a lot more than this one.

[FSTargetDrone]

Well, that was a well-plotted piece of non-claptrap that never made me want to retch.

Where to begin. Ah, yes. That was pretty fucking gawdawful episode.

Jar-Jar. See, I thought Mr. Lucas got it, that he'd heard the near-universal damnation of his clownish nightmare of an abomination that is Jar-Jar Binks. But no, he had to foist upon us nearly 20 more minutes of pixilated pain.

Normally, I'd say, "Hey, neat, they got the same voice actor from the films to do X."

But I will not be saying that here.

What I want to know from the group is can we please have some sort of selective freedom to purge this episode from canon?

In any case, instead of going on about the absurdity of Jar-Jar's communication with and (doubtless) subsequent love affair involving that giant and many-legged sea slug AND rather than once again decrying the nonsensical battle droid behavior (The Stupid, it spreads...I do believe this episode blessed us with the most unbelievably annoying example of their baffling incompetence--The little duel between R2 and the other astromech last time was more gripping and entertaining), I will concentrate on the few positives.

Whoever is doing the voice acting for Padme, my dear, you are a huge improvement on Natalie Portman. You will likely never be as well-known as she is to the film-going public, but you can rest assured that you have salvaged the character in ways I never thought possible.

C-3PO. You should have taken up a blaster. You couldn't possible have been a poorer shot that your mass-produced opposition. I would rather have an army of unarmed Protocol Droids under my command than an equivalent force of those "battle" droids. You displayed more creativity in dealing with the situation than 100,000 of them could have.

Additionally, as long as we never see an episode centering on Jar-Jar again, I think we can be certain that this is going to be the worst episode of the lot.

[NecronLord]

I thought this was going to be one of the better showings of the battle droids, at first. Then Padme got out...

Also, the clones are as dim as the droids. "He's dressed in a Jedi robe. He must be a Jedi! What are your orders general?"

[TheSpaceman?]

So nobody's read the comic series based on the show? I may pick Shipyards of Doom up soon.

[FSTargetDrone]

I thought this was going to be one of the better showings of the battle droids, at first. Then Padme got out...

Also, the clones are as dim as the droids. "He's dressed in a Jedi robe. He must be a Jedi! What are your orders general?"

I was actually embarrassed for the producers.

[VT-16]

Those clones were obviously not of Jango cum.

[Tychu]

I was waiting for someone to bring this up but no one did so I guess I will.

One I thought the episode was alright

But the biggest thing that I am a little upset/confused/shocked about is that old George has once again went against himself and got Nute Gunway captured. He appears in Episode III with the Seperatist leaders. Maybe we will see another episode about Nute escaping but until then....

[Old Plympto]

I was happily surprised to see Ralph McQuarrie's (or was Joe Johnston's) unused design for the Dagobah slug creature in Art of The Empire Strikes Back here, with new paint scheme.

I liked seeing Rodia onscreen for the first time.

That's about it. Bumbling Jar Jar and battledroid joke were too lame for me this time around.

[The Romulan Republic]

Those clones were obviously not of Jango cum.

Is this true or just a joke? It would be nice to have canon evidence that not all the clones came from Jango. I haven't seen this episode yet, since Space Channel in Canada seems to be airing episodes a week or two behind the times. I just saw the one where R2 gets lost on Friday.

[FSTargetDrone]

I was happily surprised to see Ralph McQuarrie's (or was Joe Johnston's) unused design for the Dagobah slug creature in Art of The Empire Strikes Back here, with new paint scheme.

Good eye! I knew I saw that somewhere before but couldn't place it.

Edit:

Here is the painting (it's McQuarrie):

[NecronLord]

Only seen the first half of the latest one. But competant battle droids are refreshing. And it looks like Ventress may finally succeed at something...

[VT-16]

This episode was great. Big body count, A Treadwell droid gets some screen time, and the bad guys actually win, outdoing the good guys for once.

Also, the preview for the next ep had cool Kaleesh warrior statues adorning Grievous' lair. Nice big of continuity, and they didn't follow the horrible unmasked toy for their heads, phew. Actually, I was almost convinced they were Sith statues at first, with those head spikes, but I notice the Kaleesh also had them, so I assume they're the latter.

[PainRack]

I just caught the first epsiode.... Yay!
Love it. Much better than the movie so far. My only disappointment is.......

1. Droids can't aim, and once again, good guys shoot first, bad guys wait.

[VT-16]

Wait till ep. 9, it's the other way around.

[Connor MacLeod]

One of the theoreis I've seen tossed around (and been considering) is that ship to ship combats under a planetary shield may very well affect weapon accuracy (as well as power), given that shields are a volumetric phenomena. Even if they are "neutralized" to some extent, enough shielding "effect" may remain to affect aim (misses usually aren't by THAT much anyhow.)

[applejack]

But competant battle droids are refreshing.

Well, we've seen SBDs act smarter than the B1s before. In a previous episode, when the protagonists use droid zapper grenades, the SBDs try to shoot the one that got tossed their way while the the grenade that got thrown at the B1s got picked up by one of them who then proceeded to put it up against its “ear” as if it was listening to the ocean…

[Braedley]

Good episode. Ventress finally succeeds in a mission, and the only ally she has to kill is the traitor anyway. (What's up with his hair BTW? It looks strange, even for helmet hair.)

[The Romulan Republic]

Just saw the Jar Jar episode, and I thought it actually started out ok. Perhaps its just that my expectations for this show are lower than for a movie, but Iiked how Jar Jar's stupidity was actually a plot point, with Padme and especially Palpatine mocking/questioning him behind his back and excluding him from the mission. Though the obligatory contrived ending where Jar Jar "pulls a Homer" (succededs despite idiocy) was annoying. Also, cool to see a new world, and the Rodian leader took things in an interesting direction that we hadn't seen much of before.

In the Episode 3 opening crawl says that their are heros on both sides. But we rarely see this with the CIS. All we see most of the time are the Sith plotting, the ruthless if bumbling battledroids, and the worst war criminals like Greivious and Ventris. It was interesting to get a glimpse of some of the reasons why generaly decent people might have greivances against the Republic, and might consider joinging the Sepperatists. It added a bit more much-needed depth to the war and the Universe as a whole.

I haven't seen the new episode, as it doesn't play here until next friday , and I await it with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm a Ventris fan, and the way in which her badassery and skill has been toned down, the way Greivious has taken the spotlight in the new series is a dissapointment to me. And any episode not centered on Jar Jar will hopefully improve on last week.

However, I'm kind of annoyed to see that according to the trailer, Asoka faces off with Ventris again. Let's see, that makes 1 fight with Magnaguards, 1 with Greivious, and 2 with Ventris. Opponents that have given the likes of Anakin, Obi-wan, and Mace Windu trouble. She. Should. Be. Dead.

Actually the following occured to me as a possible explanation for Asoka's escapes, and a very interesting plot twist if the writers actually thought to use it. Is it possible that Palpatine has ordered his underlings to let Asoka live, allowing Anakin to grow more attached to her only to kill her later down the road? It seems like a plausible explanation for Asoka's rediculous escapes, and it would fit Palpatine's goals and established MO reasonably well.

[Darwin]

It's not so bad. Asoka was staying in one piece against Ventris due to her crazy agility and balance, which is to say, she can fight her for under a minute without dying. Ventris had Master Unduli at her mercy after a short fight and was holding up well against the two at once. Ventris made a very good showing in this week's episode.

[The Romulan Republic]

It's not so bad. Asoka was staying in one piece against Ventris due to her crazy agility and balance, which is to say, she can fight her for under a minute without dying. Ventris had Master Unduli at her mercy after a short fight and was holding up well against the two at once. Ventris made a very good showing in this week's episode.

Good. I really liked her brief appearences in the first Clone Wars cartoon, and I guess I was hoping that Ventris would become the main recurring villan for this series.

Regardless, however, Asoka should be dead by now, with her tendency to end up against opponents absurdly out of her league.

[SylasGaunt]

Good. I really liked her brief appearences in the first Clone Wars cartoon, and I guess I was hoping that Ventris would become the main recurring villan for this series.

Regardless, however, Asoka should be dead by now, with her tendency to end up against opponents absurdly out of her league.

I may be thinking of something else but didn't she lose against the Magnaguards? And with Grievous at least she spent most of the fight running away while he spent most of it taunting and toying with her.

[The Romulan Republic]

No, she kicked their asses and saved the day while Anakin was busy fighting Dooku.