Clone Wars

And there are "defective" clones, which I thought was an interesting touch.

That one with the deserter is one of the top ten or so best episodes. It really touched on a lot of the more interesting aspects of the clones.

I just finished the four-episode arc where Obi-Wan goes undercover as a mercenary. I thought overall it was pretty good, but there was one thing that bothered me. Obi-Wan is never shown outright killing anyone, but there are several instances where his fellow mercenaries (notably, Cad Bane) straight-up murder innocent people, like some prison guards, and then later a mechanic on Naboo. Obi-Wan never does anything to stop it. I realize that doing so would blow his cover, but Obi-Wan is never shown wrestling with this issue. The violence goes totally unexamined. Seems like a missed opportunity there to give the plot some depth.

One thing the show has driven home is just how fucked up the concept of the Jedi Order really is. Here's this unsanctioned, independent quasi-religious-military order sitting square in the middle of this democratically-elected government. As far as I can tell, they answer to no political authority. Everybody's just supposed to trust these super-powered dudes that they're all good and noble and self-sacrficing??? Are they soldiers? Police? And everybody's okay with all of this?!?!? Riiiiiight.

joebot, interesting point on the Jedi. In the Mass Effect universe, there are these super-solider-police guys known as Spectres. They are universally respected and feared. I thought that they were better explained and contextualized than the Jedi were. I assume the idea is supposed to be similar. Jedi are above the law and are the strong-arms of the republic.

Joebot wrote: One thing the show has driven home is just how fucked up the concept of the Jedi Order really is. Here's this unsanctioned, independent quasi-religious-military order sitting square in the middle of this democratically-elected government. As far as I can tell, they answer to no political authority. Everybody's just supposed to trust these super-powered dudes that they're all good and noble and self-sacrficing??? Are they soldiers? Police? And everybody's okay with all of this?!?!? Riiiiiight.

YES. This is so strong in the show. The creators of the show have managed to contextual why the Empire would be a completely acceptable alternative for the public/elites. As opposed to this unaccountable group of mystical enforcers.

The best analogy I can think of for the Jedi is the Templars, the military monks of the middle ages.

A group of religious warriors operating outside of normal authority and law. Answerable only to the pope. Started with humble goals but became increasingly powerful and arrogant. Their wealth made them targets and their arrogance made them vulnerable. The King of France took them down and stole all their stuff.

The Jedi order is the Star Wars universe equivalent. They are answerable in theory to the Senate, as they say a number of times, but are really only answerable to the Jedi Council. They even have a vow of chastity (No attachments). Their eventual destruction by the Emperor is akin to the French King's purge of the Templars.

The order itself has the same strange dual nature as the show itself. On the one hand they are ruthless enforcers of the will of the Republic with no compassion or empathy for the millions dying around them. On the other hand, the Jedi are supposed to have a respect for all life and such and sometimes they play that card when it suits the story but for the most part it's ignored.

As is the more mystic side of the Force. We see it used constantly for telekinesis but hardly ever for the meditative and spiritual. Hell even Darth Vader had a meditation chamber and Yoda used it to try and see the future. Not in the Clone Wars though. It's all about pushing a dude off an energy bridge or crushing him under a boulder.

A side question: Yoda, in Empire Strikes Back, makes it quite clear that the size of objects does not matter when using the Force. So why then do all the Jedi in the Clone Wars look strained when lifting large heavy objects as opposed to smaller ones?

Yoda is an expert, you dick.

Repo made a lot of good points. Totally agree about the stupid "bad feeling" line.

I'll back off of the sci-fi racism thing. I said it to be inflammatory, but it does bother me. Not every Jamaican has dreadlocks, nor does everyone with dreadlocks have a Jamaican accent. That's Fisto's head, not dreadlocks, and there's no Jamaica in space. It bothered me. It's not as bad as Trek's "Everyone from this planet behaves this way" crap.

I definitely appreciate the writing on the show. You can tell it's done by fans of the universe, since they ignore midichlorians and such.

Oh yeah, one other thing that bothered me I just remembered: Sexbots! Every once in a while there will be a couple of slender, buxom droids attending another character. There's no reason for droids to have gender, let alone gigantic tits.

I kinda wish they'd explore the droid thing a bit more. Do droids like C3P0 and R2 care about this war? Are they like Southern slaves, rooting for the emancipation by the Separatist North? If the droids had gone into open rebellion, it would explain the bartender's line in A New Hope: "We don't serve their kind in here!"

Have any of you watched the previous Clone Wars series? The one that was done in a flat, more cartoony, hand-drawn style. Is it worth watching?

How about that...with a stroke of a pen (well, blog entry) yesterday, Lucasfilm pretty much declared everything EXCEPT the OT, Prequels _and Clone Wars_ (!!!) to be non-canonical. They pretty much just cleared the decks. Dark Forces, KOTOR, the Thrawn trilogy...all of it is now officially not official!

But Clone Wars is IN. The upcoming Rebels show is too.

The Genndy Tarkosky Clone Wars is really good- very different. It's shorts, so it's very fast-moving and action oriented. There's some neat stuff. I believe it's the first appareance of Grievous and Asajj Ventress. Highly stylized, some of it was actually used as visual reference for Clone Wars.

Joebot made a great point, looks like we all agree...the templar thing, I think, is very specific. Have a look at Obi-Wan's armor- it very clearly references the templar costume.

The animated ones are very short, less than 15 minutes if I remember right, but they are really entertaining and definitely worth watching.

Of course they were made by Genndy Tartakovsky, the modern genius of animation, so it's to be expected.