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An outsider's thoughts on the Clone Wars series...

Gaith

Gaith

Vice Admiral
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From the three or four eps I've seen, and what I've read besides, it's definitely better than the PT - deeper, better-written, and with acting not that much more wooden than the photographed humans. :p

But, in my SW heart, the Clone Wars will always have clones on both sides. (Though I might accept, at the very least, only antagonist clones.) No matter how well-done (this series, Attack of the Phantom), heroes vs. droids just doesn't cut it dramatically, and the PT-era droid fighters will always be too advanced for the my personal OT-centric canon.

Also, a stylistic quibble: why does CG animation so rarely try to pretend it's regular film? Because of its nature, it can provide roaming cameras to stupendous effect, and while this could of course be overdone, I think it's generally underused. There's just an aesthetic beauty in gliding around many aspects of an environment, West Wing-style.

Finally, at this rate I wouldn't at all mind to see the animators tackle Shadows of the Empire - maybe even with the original voices ? - now that could possibly be truly awesome.
 
gaith1 said:
Finally, at this rate I wouldn't at all mind to see the animators tackle Shadows of the Empire - maybe even with the original voices ? - now that could possibly be truly awesome.
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I couldn't agree more about SOTE. In addition, I'd LOVE to see animators tackle Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy" or even do an animated OT series, perhaps set between ANH and ESB. I'd absolutely DIE if somebody adapted NJO or LOTF. Whether any of those things are likely to happen.............:confused: There's just so much untapped potential out there IMHO. Frankly, I didn't really see why Lucas wanted to return to the PT for Star Wars: The Clone Wars but so far I've rather enjoyed the current series.
Unfortunately, there's probably no way the original actors/actresses would sign on for any more Star Wars projects (at least not anybody other than perhaps Daniels, McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, and MAYBE Hamill). That actually wouldn't bother me too much since they've been able to find good vocal talents for the PT characters and I've listened to post-ROTJ radio dramas (Dark Empire) that didn't have more than one or two of the original actors and the new ones sounded like perfectly decent replacements, so it certainly CAN be done.
 
Well, SOTE wouldn't need even need Ford, so there you go. ;) I'm not at all sure I want to see them try the Thrawn trilogy, however. I think SOTE might work because it's just trashy enough to be animated without losing too much of the emotional quality, but I don't think any animation, particularly Clone Wars-style CG, could do justice to, say, Mara's conflicted emotions of C'Boath's insanity. Nope, don't think so...
 
gaith1 said:
From the three or four eps I've seen, and what I've read besides, it's definitely better than the PT - deeper, better-written, and with acting not that much more wooden than the photographed humans. :p
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Which isn't saying much. ;)

But, in my SW heart, the Clone Wars will always have clones on both sides. (Though I might accept, at the very least, only antagonist clones.) No matter how well-done (this series, Attack of the Phantom), heroes vs. droids just doesn't cut it dramatically, and the PT-era droid fighters will always be too advanced for the my personal OT-centric canon.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Also, a stylistic quibble: why does CG animation so rarely try to pretend it's regular film? Because of its nature, it can provide roaming cameras to stupendous effect, and while this could of course be overdone, I think it's generally underused. There's just an aesthetic beauty in gliding around many aspects of an environment, West Wing-style.
Click to expand...

I think that it's partly because some people get freaked out a bit by it, and partly because it essentially drops a lot of the limitations that you speak of, so it then behooves the animators to be a little more loose with stylizing it more than they could a live action production.
 
I admit that I was prepared to dislike the series at first.

But it has been much better than I was expecting.

They really need to work on the music score though. Where is the bombastic Star Wars soundtrack???

The music seems very dull to me.

I want to hear Duel of the Fates, Battle of the Heroes, the Imperial March, the Asteroid Field theme, etc...
 
I posited this question on a Star Wars board, and I'll ask it here too:

Am I the only one who is becoming increasngly torn about the clone troopers as the series progresses?

On the one hand, they try so hard to make the troopers fully human, individual, and sympathetic.

On the other, there's the foreknowledge that 99.999% of these characters we are coming to respect are going to turn on the Jedi without so much as an eyeblink when Palpatine executes Order 66.
 
Spaceman Spiff said:
Yes, that makes the coming tragedy and betrayal that much deeper.
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It's a pity such an important element wasn't used in the actual movies.

Has this series answered any real important questions like who the Sith are, why they want revenge and why we're supposed to like the Jedi?
 
darkwing_duck1 said:
On the other, there's the foreknowledge that 99.999% of these characters we are coming to respect are going to turn on the Jedi without so much as an eyeblink when Palpatine executes Order 66.
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Again, in my SW heart, RotS is very much non-canon. The clones wouldn't turn on the Jedi like that willingly; only mind control could do the trick. Palps can't possibly be strong enough to mind-control all those clones so far away, even if they do have similar minds, and even if he could, there'd be no reason to call that act "Order 66". What, is Order 66 genetic? Did he personally hide it in every single clone's mind? Didn't think so. :klingon:

To me, this Clone Wars series is non-canon, but it's not quite as stupidly non-canon as Rots.
 
darkwing_duck1 said:
I posited this question on a Star Wars board, and I'll ask it here too:

Am I the only one who is becoming increasngly torn about the clone troopers as the series progresses?

On the one hand, they try so hard to make the troopers fully human, individual, and sympathetic.

On the other, there's the foreknowledge that 99.999% of these characters we are coming to respect are going to turn on the Jedi without so much as an eyeblink when Palpatine executes Order 66.
Click to expand...

Ultimately, their loyalty is to the Republic, not to the Jedi.

Order 66: In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established.
Click to expand...
 
Hermiod said:
darkwing_duck1 said:
I posited this question on a Star Wars board, and I'll ask it here too:

Am I the only one who is becoming increasngly torn about the clone troopers as the series progresses?

On the one hand, they try so hard to make the troopers fully human, individual, and sympathetic.

On the other, there's the foreknowledge that 99.999% of these characters we are coming to respect are going to turn on the Jedi without so much as an eyeblink when Palpatine executes Order 66.
Click to expand...

Ultimately, their loyalty is to the Republic, not to the Jedi.

Order 66: In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

And of course, these allegedly fully sentient, THINKING human beings are simply gonna frag their Generals without even stopping to think about it just because Palpatine says so. These Generals they have fought beside for almost 4 YEARS. Whose lives they've saved and (for some) whom they have been saved BY. Not to mention the non-combatants and trainees (many of them just little 7-8-9-year old kids still using "safety" sabers).

No hesitation, no question of "why". And when things get worse afterwards (suspending the Rights of Sentience, whole planets conscripted for labor, crushing taxes and numerous atrocities) they CONTINUE not questioning, even after it becomes clear that everything the Republic ever stood for is being taken apart at the seams.

There is an irreconcilable difference between the "human" clones of the Clone Wars movie and series and the "organic battle droids" from the LA prequel films.
 
^They're not ordinary humans, though. They're artificially aged clones of a ruthless, highly skilled bounty hunter.
 
More than a few of the clones did question the order and some even ignored it completely and instead helped the Jedi. Including at least one hardcore special ops team.

More than likely the ones we see working with the Jedi are amongst those numbers, whereas the others who only see them in passing will have little problem going with their preprogrammed command to -- as the order states -- quell the Jedi who are trying to destroy the government in a coup in a pre-emptive strike.
 
I thought that "Order 66" was built into the clones and that they didn't really have much of a choice?
 
They weren't droids. They have free will. They were just taught contingency orders to prepare for during their growth and training. The order itself was rather innocuous, which is why it slipped past anyone who may have read over them. If Order 66 was given, the clones -- trusting their commanders -- were effectively told that the Jedi were traitors and that they needed to be removed by lethal force.

I believe Wookiepedia has a pretty decent write-up on it if you're interested. I'll see if I can hunt it down.

Order 66
 
darkwing_duck1 said:
There is an irreconcilable difference between the "human" clones of the Clone Wars movie and series and the "organic battle droids" from the LA prequel films.
Click to expand...
Not sure what the "LA prequels" are, but QfT anyways.

Are we also Ep. III-like clones, or do we have free will? Can we take the idea of Star Wars into our own hands, and disown Ep. III like the farce it is? I for one am not a clone! Anakin Skywalker didn't build Threepio! And Luke and Leia's mother didn't die of a &*^*&#! broken heart!

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91 Reasons to Hate Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Reason #54: Order 66
On the surface, Order 66 appears to be an order where the clones are to shoot Obi-Wan Kenobi in the back for no apparent reason, but it turns out to be so much more: Order 66 is apparently the super secret code for the order to kill all the Jedi. This plan had been on the table for well over a decade, if it was part of the Clone army's initial plans. One would think that a code so obviously sinister would be better encrypted than simply being named "Order 66." This is especially true considering every single soldier in the entire army seems to have a total understanding of Order 66. No one raises any questions; they just dutifully slaughter the Jedi one after the other. "Oh, Order 66 already? So this is where we kill all the Jedi, is it? Right ho."

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The best argument against a Shadows movie, though, would probably be that GL would cram all sort of prequel references into it. :scream:
 
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