Star Wars The Clone Wars Season Five News and Discussion

[Drago-Kazov]

So we will get an SEC episode. The political issues will be dealt with the usual heavy handed fashion madated by Lucas. I don't have such a huge problem with the fact that he has a different ideology then me, it's the fact that it's rarely more subtle then Chris Matthews which is my problem.

 

[Saul]

So 3 more episodes of these Droids? **Groan**

 

[Booji]

So 3 more episodes of these Droids? **Groan**

nope. it was a one-off

 

[Mr Light]

I'm surprised nobody liked the droids episode. It was Artoo infiltrating a Seppie command ship, what's not to like about that? I just wish Artoo took a more starring role. And thank god it's a single episode

Also, tonight's episode featured a special cameo by that old character we used to see sometimes, whathisname, Anakin something? I think he was in Season Four.

 

[lennier1]

Meh, after the three trilogy movies about some annoying whiny brat I'm glad when at least the TV show offers something else for a change.

 

[Christopher]

I'm surprised nobody liked the droids episode. It was Artoo infiltrating a Seppie command ship, what's not to like about that? I just wish Artoo took a more starring role.

You just answered your own question. Artoo was a bit player in a story that was mostly about two annoying comic-relief characters, the tiny colonel and the bumbling "Wac" droid that I assume we've seen before but that I'd mercifully forgotten about.

What would've been cool was if we'd gotten a whole episode about astromechs, with almost all the dialogue in untranslated bleeps and whistles. That would've been an interesting stylistic experiment, kind of like making a silent film.

 

[Marc]

So 3 more episodes of these Droids? **Groan**

nope. it was a one-off

Nope - next week's preview shows it's about what happens on their way back.

 

[Saul]

So 3 more episodes of these Droids? **Groan**

nope. it was a one-off

Yeah!

Nope - next week's preview shows it's about what happens on their way back.

Sh*t!!!!

 

[Booji]

well, that sucks. in that case i take solace in the arc not being 4 eps!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

What would've been cool was if we'd gotten a whole episode about astromechs, with almost all the dialogue in untranslated bleeps and whistles. That would've been an interesting stylistic experiment, kind of like making a silent film.

That's too thoughtful for LucasCronies Ltd. With each new version of Star Wars starting with Jedi, the push to make one incidental comic relief take center stage has dealt serious blows to the credibility of the franchise.

For every minor R2 or little Death Star robot in A New Hope, now--especially anything from the prequels-forward, there's too many moments of muppet-like CG bickering, battledroid slapstick/one-liners, and other sight gags that were far and few between in episodes 4 and 5.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I'm just waiting for Ahsoka to meet her end, so we get 10 episodes of Anakin being mad/dark/resenting the Jedi methods (you know that's coming), only to force LucasCronies to explain how none of that played a part in his behavior/turn to the dark side in Revenge of the Sith, where his only concern was trying to prevent a dream about Padme from coming true (like the one about his mother--the only people the films suggests he cares about).

That's what happens when a franchise retcons too much; established productions (dare I say the movies are the real story) end up looking like a mess of contradictions because it told its story without all of this new material shoehorned into the chronology.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

Did the guy who put the upgrades in scream Droidsexual!!!!!!!!!!! for anyone else?

 

[Christopher]

That's too thoughtful for LucasCronies Ltd. With each new version of Star Wars starting with Jedi, the push to make one incidental comic relief take center stage has dealt serious blows to the credibility of the franchise.

For every minor R2 or little Death Star robot in A New Hope, now--especially anything from the prequels-forward, there's too many moments of muppet-like CG bickering, battledroid slapstick/one-liners, and other sight gags that were far and few between in episodes 4 and 5.

I really think you're underestimating how much of a sense of humor the original film had about itself. I was watching some of it just the other week, and was struck by how much of it was an affectionate comic deconstruction of its own genre. Luke actually said he couldn't see a thing through his Stormtrooper helmet -- that's as meta as anything on Robot Chicken today. And the way Luke and Han bumbled through the rescue and then the princess proved to be thoroughly unimpressed was a great way of deflating and lightly mocking the conventions of the adventure genre.

And I should remind you that C3PO and R2D2 had more screen time than practically any other character in the first reel or two of the first movie. The comic relief was always center stage.

Honestly, I'll never understand Star Wars fans who act as though it was meant to be some great serious epic and that treating it with humor is a betrayal or something. It was meant to be a playful pastiche of Saturday matinee adventure serials. The original three films worked because they didn't take themselves too seriously, because they remembered to be fun.

 

[Worf2DS9]

That's too thoughtful for LucasCronies Ltd. With each new version of Star Wars starting with Jedi, the push to make one incidental comic relief take center stage has dealt serious blows to the credibility of the franchise.

For every minor R2 or little Death Star robot in A New Hope, now--especially anything from the prequels-forward, there's too many moments of muppet-like CG bickering, battledroid slapstick/one-liners, and other sight gags that were far and few between in episodes 4 and 5.

I really think you're underestimating how much of a sense of humor the original film had about itself. I was watching some of it just the other week, and was struck by how much of it was an affectionate comic deconstruction of its own genre. Luke actually said he couldn't see a thing through his Stormtrooper helmet -- that's as meta as anything on Robot Chicken today. And the way Luke and Han bumbled through the rescue and then the princess proved to be thoroughly unimpressed was a great way of deflating and lightly mocking the conventions of the adventure genre.

And I should remind you that C3PO and R2D2 had more screen time than practically any other character in the first reel or two of the first movie. The comic relief was always center stage.

The difference is none of that humour comes across as dumb, slapsticky or geared specifically towards the 7-year-old mind, which seems to be what a lot of the humour in the prequels & beyond seems to be (like that cringeworthy stuff between R2 & the droids in the hanger bay at the beginning of ROTS). Lucas says the original movies were geared towards kids too; but I can still watch the OT and not feel like I'm watching a live-action kiddie show, which a lot of the PT felt like at times.

 

[Christopher]

^See, that's a valid distinction to draw. Both trilogies had humor, but the OT handled it better. The mistake is in talking about Star Wars as if it's some grand serious thing that's corrupted by any humor whatsoever.

 

[JD]

Did the guy who put the upgrades in scream Droidsexual!!!!!!!!!!! for anyone else?

Yeah, he was pretty creepy.
One other thing I forgot to mention before, was that I found it a little disturbing that (IMO at least) nobody seemed to bothered by the fact that they seemed to be pretty much lobotomizing the green droid so the Colonel would have somewhere to hide.

 

[Retu]

Am I the only one who thought that the colonel looked a lot like Fester Blatz from Space Quest?

http://spacequest.wikia.com/wiki/Fester_Blatz

 

[Dantheman]

I really think you're underestimating how much of a sense of humor the original film had about itself. I was watching some of it just the other week, and was struck by how much of it was an affectionate comic deconstruction of its own genre. Luke actually said he couldn't see a thing through his Stormtrooper helmet -- that's as meta as anything on Robot Chicken today. And the way Luke and Han bumbled through the rescue and then the princess proved to be thoroughly unimpressed was a great way of deflating and lightly mocking the conventions of the adventure genre.

And I should remind you that C3PO and R2D2 had more screen time than practically any other character in the first reel or two of the first movie. The comic relief was always center stage.

Honestly, I'll never understand Star Wars fans who act as though it was meant to be some great serious epic and that treating it with humor is a betrayal or something. It was meant to be a playful pastiche of Saturday matinee adventure serials. The original three films worked because they didn't take themselves too seriously, because they remembered to be fun.

I also think this had to do with George Lucas having read Mad Magazine growing up, because he hasn't been shy about its influence on his work (He wrote an introduction for a book that collects Mad's Star Wars material, and always spoke highly of their parodies of his movies).

 

[DarthPipes]

^See, that's a valid distinction to draw. Both trilogies had humor, but the OT handled it better. The mistake is in talking about Star Wars as if it's some grand serious thing that's corrupted by any humor whatsoever.

Agreed. I've found some in the sci-fi fandom to have no sense of humor whatsoever. It's not just the fandom though, sometimes it's the films. Terminator Salvation for instance had to be the most humorless big budget franchise film I've ever seen. I understand, it takes place in a grim future. But still, it's a movie about killer robots who like to time travel. A franchise whose most successful film (T2) had humor in it. Playing it deathly serious was a mistake.

 

[Christopher]

I'd say that was the least of Terminator Salvation's mistakes...