So, do you like the Clone Wars cartoon?

[Vympel]

When this cartoon first started, for the most part I didn't like it. Too many things happened that annoyed me, too many childish concessions, and they had two Jar Jar centric episodes in one season. I mean fuck.

However, the good episodes have way outnumbered the bad, and there's some great episodes in it that aren't childish or otherwise idiotic at all, and which you can easily imagine being the subject of a live action show (Lair of Grievous, the Ryloth episodes, the Malevolence arc, etc). So I vote yes.

Season 2's looking better than Season 1. For one thing, it's technically far superior. It's immediately noticeable in the quality of animation for a start. It's much more visually interesting, and they're really expanding their assets.

[Count Chocula]

^ Agree with Vympel. There's more character development, the battle droids' "uh oh" nonsense is toned down quite a bit, the motion animation is less stylized than in Season One, the villains are (1) credible and (2) reveal a deeper anti-Republic conspiracy, and the action seems to be concentrating around the Prequel Trilogy protagonists: Kenobi, Skywalker, and Amidala. All of which are good for continuity.

On the droids, on second thought: the "Uh Oh" throwaway shit was replaced by a pretty hilarious takeoff of the "Who's on First" skit from Abbot and Costello ("Who's in charge? Not me. Not me. I am. Uh oh.) In this case, I liked it.

And no Jar-Jar so far IIRC (if he was there, I don't remember, which is a good thing).

[Darth Wong]

I gave up on Clone Wars after I got fed up with the idiotic battle droids and the cutesy stories. If it's gotten better, I might tune in again.

[The Romulan Republic]

Its not art, and its not The Empire Strikes Back. Its not even on the level of Attack of the Clones.

It is, however, entertaining, and its made some interesting additions to the continuity that have helped counteract some of the stupider-sounding crap (ie, Travis's stuff). I don't think we should expect much more than that from what is more or less just a children's cartoon.

So, voted yes.

[xammer99]

I liked it from the start, though some things bothered me. Such as Dooku & Grevious always being the bad guys, but the disposable tactical droids & Bane have really brought it back around for me.

I was TOTALLY sold on the Mace Windu episode of Ryloth. That was just epically awesome.

[The Romulan Republic]

I liked it from the start, though some things bothered me. Such as Dooku & Grevious always being the bad guys, but the disposable tactical droids & Bane have really brought it back around for me.

Aren't Grevious and Dooku supposed to be the bad guys?

I was TOTALLY sold on the Mace Windu episode of Ryloth. That was just epically awesome.

The whole Ryloth arc was quite strong, I think, though it had some of the same flaws of the show as a whole (dumb battle droids, for example).

[Stark]

Is this an example of the creators changing focus? I saw some early stuff and was turned off by the horrid kids-cartoon feel... but I think most of the audience is SW nerds, so maybe they did market research and changed writing style.

[Vympel]

I gave up on Clone Wars after I got fed up with the idiotic battle droids and the cutesy stories. If it's gotten better, I might tune in again.

Off the top of my head, Lair of Grievous is stand out great, no cutesy crap in it at all, it's a great look at General Grievous, and Kit Fisto as the hero is great - he's an extremely cool Jedi. Similarly the premiere of Season 2 (2 episodes) is awesome, though there is some B1 droid comedy. Rookies is also great for the debut of the droid commandos, who are pretty badass.

Cloak of Darkness as well, for Asajj Ventress causing havoc on a Republic cruiser trying to rescue Nute Gunray, though there is some WTF? moments where the Clones just don't seem to be able to hit anything because the plot requires it (nothing new for Sta rWars).

The finale of Season 1, where Cad Bane takes some senators hostage, is also extremely good, and very dark for Star Wars, including some cold blooded, on-screen killing of innocents (he's like Hans Gruber from Die Hard combined with a villain from a Western).

The three episode arc where the Republic liberates Ryloth are also damn good, including some really bad ass Mace Windu feats (including wiping out at an attacking force of droids with a massive force push).

[Vympel]

Is this an example of the creators changing focus? I saw some early stuff and was turned off by the horrid kids-cartoon feel... but I think most of the audience is SW nerds, so maybe they did market research and changed writing style.

It can be mixed. There is some pretty dark shit for a cartoon though:-

In the last episode of Season 1, Cad Bane takes Senators hostage, and one of them (a Rodian) scoffs and goes to walk out. Bane guts him with a blaster bolt on screen, no cut away. I almost spit my drink as to what I just saw.

In Cloak of Darkness, Asajj Ventress murders her accomplice with a lightsabre through the back of a chair, explicitly.

In Lair of Grievous, Grievous burns through a Mon Cal Jedi Knight with a blaster pistol, again explicitly.

And in the season premiere two parter, Cad Bane tortures a Jedi Knight to death. Dave Filoni's justification was pretty straightforward - Cad Bane's a bad guy, bad guys do bad things, and there's no reason not to show that.

[RogueIce]

I enjoy it. The first season was a bit hit or miss with me, mostly because of the timeline jumping with no obvious clues they were doing it. If it weren't for the discussion thread here I wouldn't have even known they were doing it, other than an odd feeling that something was off about the episodes.

The second season has been stronger for me in that regard. With the whole Rise of the Bounty Hunters thing it gives me hope they'll be more chronologically solid, although I can't say for sure. I don't even know if the latest episode (Padme spying on a Senator) was a jump back in time or not (Ahsoka wasn't around, but then she didn't need to be, so I don't know what the case is).

[Coyote]

I've only seen a couple of episodes, but I heard it totally upended Karen Travis's BS, so that made it worth a "win" for me.

[Knife]

I enjoy it. When it is bad, it is bad; however, when it's good it is entertaining. That and the starship porn is pretty good too.

[Rawtooth]

I think the early episodes were the creators just finding their footing, thus they made the cutesy childish crap. Now that they've got a good grasp on what direction they are taking, they are willing to take risks and push out the darker episodes we are now seeing. Cloak of Darkness onwards seems to be when the show started getting really good in my opinion.

[Tiriol]

I do like the series, despite the fact that idiotic battle droids get on my nerves all the time (and frankly speaking, I don't like Ahsoka that much). It does seem to get consistently better the more it progresses.

[Drooling Iguana]

It does delve into cutesyness at times, has some questionable continuity with the films (I have a hard time believing that this version of Anakin Skywalker is destined to become a Sith Lord) and a lot of the dialogue is stilted and and overly exposition-y (even moreso than the films) but all in all there's more good than bad.

Besides, any series that gives R2-D2 a dramatic duel-on-a-catwalk scene has something going for it.

[VT-16]

The Duel of the Droids was one of the most hilarious duels-to-the-death I've ever seen.

Overall, the series keeps getting better and more in-depth. It's like they finally start to grasp that with all this screentime, they can literally expand the universe more than ever before. Ahsoka's grown so much on me, she's less an annoying gimmick and more an actual character. The character interactions surpass the PT as a whole, although Obi-Wan seems too smarmy for my taste. Even McGregor didn't give off that vibe.

Dooku and Grievous were too prominent at the beginning of Season 1, then they got scaled back when the staff realized seeing them be beaten every single week might not be such a smart thing, so now there's more throwaway villains, even though several are still alive because the crew liked them so they'll be returning (George Takei's character, Mar Tuuk etc.). Grievous and Dooku work more in the background so they won't lose too much credibility. The Separatist also win some battles and the Republic get some more nuanced portrayal, it's not all as black and white, Republic good, CIS bad.

[Vympel]

A bit late, but yeah - it showed awareness of what was going on in the show that halfway into Season 1 they had Count Dooku note General Grievous' numerous failures and Dooku's disappointment with him, and then changed emphasis and introduced new villains so it didn't look like the Separatists were a bunch of pathetic losers.

The "Tactical Droids" (I would've preferred something like "Command" or "Officer" or "General") introduced in Jedi Crash were a great idea in that respect.

[VT-16]

We also have to remember, and this is something I forgot after the episodes, even in the stories where Grievous appears and is defeated (Malevolence trilogy, R2 duology) he manages plenty of victories during them. According to the Complete Encyclopedia, the Malevolence annihilates the entire Republic 4th fleet during its career, and the victories brought about by Skytop Station's intel includes several systems taken, including Falleen.

[Galvatron]

I'm wondering if this series will bother to show "there are heroes on both sides" as mentioned in the opening crawl of ROTS.

[Vympel]

I'm wondering if this series will bother to show "there are heroes on both sides" as mentioned in the opening crawl of ROTS.

That's a good point. So far the Separatists are quite unsympathetic, which is not surprising. No one would call Ventress, Grievous, Dooku, Gunray, Wat Tambor, Poggle the Lesser, etc 'heroes'.

[Stofsk]

Remember that the other part of that line was "Evil is everywhere." Have the Clones or the Republic been shown as less-than-squeaky-clean?

[Darth Fanboy]

Remember that the other part of that line was "Evil is everywhere." Have the Clones or the Republic been shown as less-than-squeaky-clean?

There was the one clone who turned traitor and was helping the Separatists. Anakin pulls a dick move and abandons the Senator Clovis to the Separatists out of jealousy over Clovis's affections for Padme (Clovis was dealing with the Separatists but aided Anakin at his own risk because he used to have a relationship with Amidala, who at the time was poisoned). Then there is the episode "Trespass" which depicts a battle between a member system of the Republic and the Talz, although the Jedi and the system's Senator work to restore peace and make peace with the Talz.

[Transbot9]

Well, this week's episode did features Windu, Kenobi, Anakin, and Ahsoka performing a mind rape on Bane. That's darkside as heck.

[Vympel]

Commentary for the latest episode (I haven't seen it yet):-

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000897.html

I think the visuals really show how much the show has grown, and also the effort that goes into it (and attention from George Lucas). I especially like Ki-Adi-Mundi's troops - they're similarly dressed to how they were on Mygeeto in RotS, but for deserts, I guess.