Star Wars The Clone Wars Season Five News and Discussion

[DarthPipes]

I just rewatched the pilot movie. The action scenes were great, but there were quite a few embarrassing elements. I'd forgotten how annoying Ahsoka was when she first appeared...

I'd also forgotten how the initial episodes of the series were always Obi-Wan/Anakin fights Grevious/Dooku/Ventress

Yeah, the movie definitely had its flaws. It felt like three episodes put together. The main storyline involving the kidnapping of Jabba's son wasn't big enough for a SW movie. They might have been better off giving it a more limited release too. But I enjoyed it and they actually got Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee to voice their characters in it.

One of my favorite episodes was from Season 2, Landing at Point Rain. I was very impressed with the Private Ryan/Longest Day war scenes and it was intense as hell. Only in Clone Wars, an animated show, would have you have a scene where Ki-Adi-Mundi tells the clones to get the flamethrowers to burn the Geonosians. Filoni and the Netflix VP talked about how dark and intense the show could be. They did stuff on it that you didn't see in the SW movies.

 

[Mr Light]

They would have been better off using the "The New Padawan" episode (Ahsoka and Cristophis) and then the Malevolence trilogy rather than the Castle trilogy which they did use. I would imagine the few scenes in the first 25 minute referring to Jabba's baby were added to the original pilot episode.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, the movie definitely had its flaws. It felt like three episodes put together.

That's exactly what it was. Quoth Wikipedia:

George Lucas had the idea for a film after viewing some of the completed footage of the early episodes on the big screen. Those first few episodes, originally planned for release on television, were then woven together to form the theatrical release.

 

[cooleddie74]

The original 2008 movie has gotten marginally better with subsequent viewings but it's still one of the weaker TCW storylines written. I imagine it'll become gradually more popular as time passes and new audiences watch it for the first time as fresh eyes want to seek out the movie that launched the long-running TV series and see the first adventure of a character like Ahsoka.

 

[RoJoHen]

Maybe it's just because my expectations were low, or because I chose not to view as a movie but rather as a TV pilot, but I think it's just fine. I didn't find Ahsoka annoying at all, and I was quite impressed with the visuals.

I suppose I might have been disappointed if I had actually bothered to see it in the theaters, but knowing it's really just the pilot episode for a TV show made it a lot easier to take.

 

[cooleddie74]

They did get Sam Jackson and Christopher Lee to reprise their roles, and that's always been an impressive stat in the film's favor. Their presence in the movie certainly helped sell it.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Maybe it's just because my expectations were low, or because I chose not to view as a movie but rather as a TV pilot, but I think it's just fine. I didn't find Ahsoka annoying at all, and I was quite impressed with the visuals.

I suppose I might have been disappointed if I had actually bothered to see it in the theaters, but knowing it's really just the pilot episode for a TV show made it a lot easier to take.

I *did* see it in the theaters ... and while it had its flaws, I enjoyed it for what it was at the time. Looking back on it now, knowing how the series developed, gives it an added bit of nostalgia for me. Not only that, some of my major critiques (such as the character design or Anakin being given a Padawan) ended up becoming irrelevant because the storytelling was so good.

 

[PsychoPere]

For all those folks who were talking about a chronological order, Lucasfilm has released an official breakdown.

 

[cooleddie74]

^
Very useful and will come in handy for a whole lot of us. Up until now the precise story order has been pretty murky to say the very least.

 

[Set Harth]

For all those folks who were talking about a chronological order, Lucasfilm has released an official breakdown.

Been there, done that...

 

[PsychoPere]

Ah, sorry. I've been reading the thread, but missed that.

 

[Christopher]

I'm a little surprised they put the Clovis 3-parter in its broadcast order in season 6 instead of in season 4, given that it was postponed.

 

[cooleddie74]

That's the one aspect of the timeline I take issue with and would change. Clearly it was meant to fall into the continuity of a preceding season on Cartoon Network and the events don't take place after the new Order 66/Fives arc. There's already been some lengthy debate about this over on other sites.

 

[Cato]

This is great! Over the weekend I went on Netflix for the first time in a week or two to see if anything new had been added, to my surprise, I found Star Wars:The Clone Wars is there. I did not expect that at all. I have only seen a few episodes here and there over the years. I am usually working when it's on and for the past two years, I dropped my cable. I have cable now only recently and still never got around to watching the series. I didn't want to buy the blueray because of the money, but I have been interested in watching this. Having it on Netflix is great news. Over the past few days, I have been watching marathon runs of the show.

I'm only halfway through the first season, but I'm really loving it. It's really nice seeing the mix of the old style Star Wars with the prequels. This is what the prequels should have been like. They should have started with the Clone Wars and forget TPM. Also, this fleshes out Anakin's character better than the prequels as well. I'm so happy to be able to finally watch this series.

I do have a question though. Does anyone know where the writers get the proverbs at the opening of each episode? Do the writers make them up or are they from a specific source? They seem like sayings that Yoda would teach to the younglings or something.

 

[Mr Light]

They're made up.

Enjoy the show, it just keeps getting better! Well, aside from half of Season Three...

 

[Christopher]

That's the one aspect of the timeline I take issue with and would change. Clearly it was meant to fall into the continuity of a preceding season on Cartoon Network and the events don't take place after the new Order 66/Fives arc. There's already been some lengthy debate about this over on other sites.

Sorry, why is that clear? I don't recall Fives or the murdered Jedi showing up in the Clovis arc, so I don't see any continuity issue there. Sure, Palpatine's voice is different, but that's a real-world difference rather than one meant to exist in-universe. And both arcs involve Palpatine/Sidious's successful machinations to advance his long-term plans, so they sort of go together in that sense.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

So have we discussed how this can still tie in with the Genndy Tartakovsky bits, or has it been concluded that there's no real way to fit them together? At least the other series has a final storyline that dovetailed directly into ROTS, no?

Mark

 

[Christopher]

^Didn't someone say earlier in this thread (or somewhere) that the Filoni series could fit pretty well into the narrative gap at the start of season 2 of the Tartakovsky series?

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

I haven't read this, but I do recall some people saying that some events aren't reconcilable (not sure where though). Obviously there are big thematic differences between the two series, and TCW uses 120+ episodes to build quite a large universe versus 3-5 minute clips at a time. However, in terms of plot, I think we're still in the green...

I haven't seen the Tartakovsky series since their DVDs came out, but while they obviously don't resolve all the hanging plot threads, at least it does segue directly into the opening act of Episode III. TCW doesn't NEED to - the "kidnapping" of Palpatine is expositioned just fine in the opening crawl - and episode 6x13 ends on a thematic point that works for me. But Ashoka, Maul, all the Mandalorian stuff, etc... Come on, Rebels, you KNOW you can give us a ton of closure once you get going.

Mark

 

[Christopher]

I'm not sure, but I think there's a discrepancy between the two series about whether Anakin ever met Asajj Ventress prior to graduating to full Jedi and cutting his padawan braid.