My apologies if this was posted earlier but the official Star Wars website offered up The Clone Wars Legacy, a section which tells us about unaired Clone Wars stories being adapted in other forms. Some of them are already known like the Darth Maul Son of Dathomir comic Dark Horse published this year and the upcoming Dark Disciple novel that will be published in 2015. The most exciting element though is an unfinished Clone Wars serial taking place on Utapau. Since the animation is unfinished, it's presented in a cruder but not unwatchable form. But it includes full voice work, sound effects, and score. It features some GREAT interaction between Anakin and Obi-Wan. That includes the two of them finally acknowledging Ahsoka's depature. James Hong of Blade Runner fame also features as a guest voice. The serial is excellent and I only hope they allow Filoni and company to finish it one day. http://www.starwars.com/tv-shows/the-clone-wars-legacy
Yeah, I really enjoyed these, even in an unfinished state. Nothing as plot heavy or significant as the Order 66 or Yoda episodes we got with 'Lost Missions', but it was a solid Star Wars adventure throughout, which made the implied Death Star foreshadowing all the more surprising. The idea that the weapon that the weapon that vaporised Alderaan was based on lightsabre technology was oddly chilling. Add to that the idea that such similarly terrible super-weapons have existed in the past and suddenly the two Death Stars gain some context they'd previously lacked. It also helps to explain how easily Kenobi accepted that Alderaan had been destroyed by the Empire, where Solo's initial reaction was disbelief. he knew the technology was out there and that Sidious was actively searching for more crystals. One little touch I was hoping they'd do but never did was; what if Kenobi had kept a shard of that crystal and that is the one Luke would later use in building his lightsabre? A bit of a stretch perhaps, but I think it would have been cool. The Anakin/Obi Wan banter was some of the best out of the whole series and I found it quite telling how Anakin feels like Ahsoka let *him* down by leaving, not so much the other way around. Contrast this with Kenobi's words to Anakin in RotS: "I've failed you Anakin..." It's something the show really excelled at where the movies sadly failed. They managed to keep Anakin a charming, likeable character but still clearly possessed of all the flaws and weaknesses that'd eventually lead to his fall.
Sort of like the recreated Death Star super laser in the "Darksaber" novel being a giant lightsaber hilt ....
So are these canon like the rest of the series? It'd be nice to have a streamlined Death Star origin for once (The "Legends" EU kind of made a mess of things especially since AOTC and ROTS contradicted it so much). Wonder if that will be worked into the new EU Tarkin novel.
I'm looking forward to sitting down and watching this, but it is a little hard to get worked up about animatics. I am deeply grateful they're putting this out there though!
Yeah, they made it explicitly clear that this (along with the Darth Maul comic and the upcoming Ventress/Quinlan Vos novel) is fully canon, as much as if it had actually aired.
^At least as far as the CW/SWR production crew is concerned. Not sure what Lucasfilm's official position is.
I can't get the videos from that site to play smoothly on either of my browsers (Opera or Firefox). Do I need some kind of plug-in I don't have? (I'm having problems with Internet videos in general lately. I tried defragmenting and cleaning up my hard disk to add more space, but it's still not helping. I'm starting to think I just need a new computer. Or maybe I could try watching on my phone and paying the extra data charge for the month if necessary.)
Why would you do that? Is your phone not tethered to your wireless home network? And it may very well be your internet connection, or a browser issue, no real reason it should be a hardware issue if you're having problems watching videos online.
This might help then. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnH1JKr4o_8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4FoXJQE08 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXCcYMNC4wQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZrsVx1dpEQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAe5Ogs6a-c
Yeah, Anakin's views on Ahsoka were surprising but it does fit with a man who is not good with losing people he cares about. Ahsoka was the first one to "leave him" voluntarily. I'm curious how that would have resolved itself. Based on concept art shown on the official site, Ahsoka would have ended up involved in the Mandlore situation with Katee Sackhoff's character. One art piece had Ahsoka contacting the Jedi Council via hologram.
I very much enjoyed these episodes. I wish they'd just go ahead and finish them. But this is better than nothing for sure so I appreciate that they made these available!
Okay, I watched the story reels. Pretty good 4-parter, with some excellent banter between Anakin and Obi-Wan, and a decent bit of implied backstory for the Death Star. I still find it amusing that Kaiburr crystals have become part of canon after so much else from Splinter of the Mind's Eye has been pretty much ignored (although, yes, I am aware that the Kaiburr crystal was based on a Khyber crystal from Lucas's early plot ideas). A lot of callbacks/foreshadowings of the original movie, too. "That's no mound, it's a spaceship!" And Obi-Wan dismissing blasters as clumsy weapons. I'm surprised by how detailed these animatics were, with all the sets and camera moves and action and dialogue and many (though not all) of the sound effects and even the music. Although was the music actually written beforehand, or was this just a temp music track compiled from stock cues? Still, the lack of animation and detail on the characters took some getting used to. It was particularly disturbing the way Anakin frequently looked like his throat had been slashed open. Although it was amusing how Obi-Wan's shoulders were not there and sometimes you could see clear through both shoulder holes. Interesting that Grievous looked far more complete than the organic characters, but I guess that's because he's already made of rigid shapes. Speaking of organics, it was odd that those cyborg quadrupeds -- Pumi or Pudi or whatever they were called -- were called "primitive" just because they didn't speak Standard-Language-That-Sounds-Exactly-Like-English. How can you be a primitive cyborg? While we're at it, I hated the way Obi-Wan referred to the Amani (sp?) as "things." I've never known him to be that racist.
Yea, my Desktop is at least 10 years old, it's got XP on it. I just got AT&T UVerse with 24MB Internet connection, and they read what my Computer was receiving and it's nowhere near the 24MB because Windows XP and the Computer just can't handle that speed (Though the work laptop can handle the 24MB). I'm finding I'm having more and more issues with streaming, so, yea, it's very likely to be your computer, if it's old. (I actually download streamed stuff with a Firefox plugin, and then either watch it on VLC or burn it to DVD and have much better luck with it then trying to watch it streamed)
Hmm... maybe I should've accepted that offer to get a tablet at a discount when I bought my smartphone a few months back. Well, too late now.