Star Wars: The Clone Wars S4

[Set Harth]

Yes, sadly I agree.

I wasn't serious.

 

[Christopher]

Fair enough. Although I'd hoped that when the Clone Wars started they would have a plan to approach the 3 year gap between films with some properly thought out timelines. With that mind-numbing chronology that JD just posted it makes me suspect otherwise.

Again that unexamined and ludicrously wrong assumption that the only "proper" way to tell a story is linearly.

Sometimes it is most proper to tell a story out of order. Sometimes that's the best, most meaningful way to present a story to an audience. For instance, the ending of The Empire Strikes Back wouldn't be as powerful if the prequels had been made first and everyone had already known that Vader was Luke's father. That was a case where the "proper" way to tell the story was out of chronological order. So it's bizarre that any Star Wars fan could be so ignorant as to think that linear chronology is the only "proper" way to tell a story.

Indeed, if you actually thought about it rather than just making condescending kneejerk assumptions, you'd realize that it actually takes more thought and planning to present a timeline out of order than to present it in order. It's easy to keep track of a chronology of events if you tell all the stories in strictly linear order. But telling a story out of order requires very careful planning, keen memory, and attention to detail in order to keep track of where all the pieces belong and how they relate to each other. It's a much more challenging way to go about it. So you couldn't be more wrong to assume that a nonlinear chronology is evidence of sloppiness or carelessness.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The first Star Wars film was Episode IV - very nonlinear.

 

[Set Harth]

Sometimes it is most proper to tell a story out of order. Sometimes that's the best, most meaningful way to present a story to an audience. For instance, the ending of The Empire Strikes Back wouldn't be as powerful if the prequels had been made first and everyone had already known that Vader was Luke's father. That was a case where the "proper" way to tell the story was out of chronological order.

But there is no analogous situation in TCW.

 

[JD]

Fair enough. Although I'd hoped that when the Clone Wars started they would have a plan to approach the 3 year gap between films with some properly thought out timelines. With that mind-numbing chronology that JD just posted it makes me suspect otherwise.

It's taken from Wookiepeida's timeline of media. It puts every movie, show, game, short story, book, comic, ect. in order.

 

[Yevetha]

Have the abduction suceed and Palpatine be replaced by Darth Sidious using the same face altering surgery used on Obi-Wan...that would throw everything for a loop. Turns out Sidious and Palpatine were two seperate people!

The outrage from fandom would be hilarious.

They'd never do that, though.

Palps is abducted in the ROTS book which is G level canon.

 

[Christopher]

The first Star Wars film was Episode IV - very nonlinear.

Well, when it was originally released, it wasn't Episode anything (and it was outlined as Episode I). It was while making Empire that Lucas decided that what he was making was the middle of three trilogies, so that film was released as "Episode V," and when Star Wars was re-released a year later, it had the episode number and A New Hope subtitle added to the opening crawl. Now, that's nonlinear for you -- the way Lucas keeps going back and redoing the films he's already made!

 

[Temis the Vorta]

There is no set end date for the series. At Fan Days in Texas last October, I was talking to Tom Kane (the voice of Yoda and others) who told me that the actors were currently recording season five, and that the writers were already working on season six. That's been stated in other interviews I've heard as well.

Understandable - they've got a good thing going, so why slam on the brakes? They could simply incorporate ROTS into TCW by showing the story from Ahsoka's point of view (maybe a two-hour special event episode.) Since she wasn't shown in ROTS, they would have to be entirely new scenes.

The bare events of ROTS would not need to be contradicted, but the new material would certainly enlarge our understanding of what happened in the movie, to make everything synch nicely with TCW, such as its portrayal of Anakin and all the "new" stuff he knows about his role as the Chosen One that obviously wasn't part of the rationale of ROTS originally.

Then subsequent seasons could follow Ahsoka, post-ROTS.

 

[Set Harth]

That's not what extra seasons would mean. The show is called "The Clone Wars".

all the "new" stuff he knows about his role as the Chosen One that obviously wasn't part of the rationale of ROTS originally.

So why the quotes around "new"? Not so obvious after all...

 

[ALF]

Sometimes it is most proper to tell a story out of order. Sometimes that's the best, most meaningful way to present a story to an audience. For instance, the ending of The Empire Strikes Back wouldn't be as powerful if the prequels had been made first and everyone had already known that Vader was Luke's father. That was a case where the "proper" way to tell the story was out of chronological order. So it's bizarre that any Star Wars fan could be so ignorant as to think that linear chronology is the only "proper" way to tell a story.

I guess my ignorance stems from misunderstanding why The Phantom Menace 3D was coming out in theatres this spring, before A New Hope. Was that not Lucas's decision? A few months ago I was digging around the internet trying to find a quote from Lucas stating the his preferred viewing order for the complete saga was 1,2,3,4,5,6. I couldn't find the quotation, suggesting perhaps that he never said that?

And then, Star Wars 3D is announced... and everyone super pumped to see A New Hope in 3D first were likely disappointed to hear TPM comes first. But at least we could finally draw the conclusion: this is chronological Lucas' choice of viewing order.

So an entire generation, the "new" batch of Star Wars fans are going to see the series unfold in such a way that they will know who Vader is and his relationship to Luke.

One major reason I'm irritated by all of this is because when The Clone Wars started I tried to pay attention to what sort of large scale movements were being made in the war (the narrator's open often includes this information) to try and picture how the galactic skirmish of the Clone Wars played out. I felt the series (like most on television) begins and implies an orderly progression.

And when the entire Clone Wars series is over and we can rewatch it from the start, is it in airing order or the timeline order?

I know who might know the answer...

Spoiler: he knows for sure

Supershadow!

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'm assuming Phantom Menace is being released first because it is now the first film in the saga It is currently unknown if the others will be released. I'm guessing that information will depend on the box office for Episode I-3D.

@billcosby if you're interested in what kind of movements are being made in the war I would keep an eye out for the upcoming Essential Guide to War Fare, in April. I believe it is supposed to address fleet movements in large scale conflicts in the SW Universe, including the Clone Wars.

 

[Christopher]

And then, Star Wars 3D is announced... and everyone super pumped to see A New Hope in 3D first were likely disappointed to hear TPM comes first. But at least we could finally draw the conclusion: this is chronological Lucas' choice of viewing order.

Yeah, and Lucas hasn't made a good creative decision in quite a while.


Anyway, it doesn't disprove the point. That's just one example of nonlinear chronology. There are countless others throughout fiction. Many writers have done it, not out of carelessness or sloppiness, but because it was the best way to tell the story. I've done it myself more than once in my own fiction. Heck, I used to be as uptight about linear chronology as you are, but once I actually had to do it professionally, I discovered that sometimes you need to tell a story out of order. Linearity is not a natural way for human beings to think. The mind works by following a stream of associations from one idea to another, and that stream tends to take a winding path.

One major reason I'm irritated by all of this is because when The Clone Wars started I tried to pay attention to what sort of large scale movements were being made in the war (the narrator's open often includes this information) to try and picture how the galactic skirmish of the Clone Wars played out. I felt the series (like most on television) begins and implies an orderly progression.

Well, now you know better, and you have access to information that will allow you to do just that in retrospect. So what's the problem? Just adapt.

And when the entire Clone Wars series is over and we can rewatch it from the start, is it in airing order or the timeline order?

My philosophy is that if a series is told out of order (something which, let me again remind you, is done all the time), then the first time through you should read/watch it in release order, and then you can go back and do it in chronological order. I mean, why settle for just one? There's always value in approaching a work from multiple perspectives.

 

[Admiral_Young]

If Lucas hadn't made the creative the decision to make the Clone Wars, this thread as well as those before it wouldn't exist. Not to mention he made the decision to allow someone else to be the show runner. I haven't agreed with all the decisions that Lucas has made over the years pertaining to Star Wars but I do like most of the aspects of this show. I actually happen to think this show has been one of his better decisions.

 

[ReadyAndWilling]

anyone looking forward to the upcoming ep? surely this can't be the ep where palps is actually taken hostage?

 

[Set Harth]

It isn't.

 

[ReadyAndWilling]

does anyone know the episode where dooku commands one of those 'tactical droids' to pull a ship out and the droid says 'but that will result in our defeat' and dooku responds with 'yes i know and the droid responds 'by your command'.

i can't seem to find it. i know dooku appeared as a hologram

 

[ReadyAndWilling]

could anyone recommend some eps with really great space battles? the effects are amazing and i love it.

 

[DarthPipes]

I read that Ian Abercrombie (Mr. Pitt on Seinfeld and the voice of Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious on The Clone Wars) passed away yesterday at the age of 75. RIP.

 

[Set Harth]

I wonder who they'll get to replace him.

Witwer?

 

[Disruptor]

Well that sucks. I assume there's a few episodes in the can already, but probably not all of season 5.

Tonight's episode Friends and Enemies seemed like filler. Not bad, but still filler.