We suffered heavily at the beginning of the series with the snooze-a-thon story arc "Onderonian Conspiracy" then moved up a bit when it got to the "Younglings" story. That arrow of entertainment continued to climb with Col. Gascon and the D Squad story arc (my favorite of the season) and reached it's height with Darth Maul's "Shadow Conspiracy" story.
The bottom fell out with the "Ashoka on the Run" series finale however.
Terrible. Boring. And makes NO sense with already established Clone Wars TV story lines. Let's take a look:
1) When Anikin last saw Ventress he swore he'd take her in to custody and arrest her for working with Dooku and the Seperatist. Well, he found her, questioned her and...nothing. I know they have different directors for each season but GEEZ! C'mon! I know she's not with the Separatist anymore but I'm pretty sure getting double-crossed by the bad guys does give you a free pass on your past crimes.
2) Barriss Offee is a renegade Jedi who betrayed Ashoka because she see's the Republic and the Jedi Order being corrupted! Oh wait... she also dies during Order 66. I hate it when the writers want to give you a "twist" but can't come up with a good story line for it that makes sense.
First off, Barriss is NEVER portrayed in this way at all in the series. Are we to believe she just flipped one day and that was it? Guess between now and Episode 3 she had a change of heart when she died during Order 66....awkward.
Now she joins the same category as Even Piell does in the Clone Wars stories. Even was featured in Episode 2, supposedly dies in 3 but way earlier before his death was announced in the Clone Wars, Lucasfilm had a book out telling how he survived the Clone Wars?!
Don't worry though EU. The newest book to come out "Last of the Jedi" will explain it I bet and I even think I know how they're going to do it too. It's a simple fix that would make sense. But since I haven't read the book yet I can't reveal it just yet.
3) Ashoka, after all she's been through, quits the Jedi Order?!?!?! Sure they Counsil was mistaken but looking back thru the series this wouldn't have been the first time they were wrong. So why's she so angry with them?
Well, Ashoka's story HAS to end. We know she's not in Episode 3 so we all knew when the Clone Wars series started she would have to be written out of the story. Thing was, myself (along with all you dark-minded beings) was hoping that would mean she'd die.
Unfortunately, the writers took a less grim path and went the less-violent way here by having her walk away. Is she done with the Clone Wars TV show? I doubt it. But now the writers don't have to respond to questions from myself and others about when they're going to kill off Ashoka in the series.
Overall, I liked the season with the exception of the first and last story arc. I really hated not seeing more stories on the Clones themselves. Those stories always seem to be the most interesting to me.
Oh well, there's always....SEASON 6!?!?
6 comments:
I stand corrected! Seems Barriss Offee's death was a DELETED scene in Episode 3 and presumed cannon but never was. So she would fall into Shaak Ti's category of a deleted scene from the movie not being fact. Still, she is shown in the clone wars cartoon as fighting in the final battle with the Jedi in the beginning of the invasion of Coruscant so I guess she has a change of heart by then.
If you didn't understand anything I just said I'm sorry. I'm a big nerd and can't help it!
First off:
You liked the droid arc!?!
That arc seriously tested my patience, especially with the pint-sized colonel constantly reminding us that droids suck.
Thirdly, this final arc was one of the best of the season imo. Aside from showing a growingly impotent Jedi Council, this arc for the first time really let me see more of Anakin's point of view for his resentment of the council in Episode 3. More importantly is the opera speech Palpatine tells Anakin is true! The council only cares about losing their power, not the greater good of the galaxy. Pretty strong stuff if you think about it.
Oh, the 2D clone wars cartoon is now pretty much non canon, as it was working on a previous version of the Ep.3 script. Lucasfilm has essentially buried it next to the Holiday Special. So hold your DVDs of it close, as it's likely never to be released again.
How can we both be at odds every time? Lol! I'll be honest, I played games on my iPad while the last story arc was on, it held zero interest for me. The droid arc was fun! I like a little break from the big stories. That's why clone stories are always my favo rite. It's only about the mission not something "epic" like Darth Maul's story (which I thought would be your favorite)
Oh well, we'll see what happens next season.
I can get behind "mission" arcs, I think that's what made the early seasons so enjoyable. Where the focus is on doing one thing, like taking out the Malevolence ship, or infiltrating Grievous' lair. I think that's where the strongest storytelling has come from. But I LOVE the overarching "mythology" stories, that dovetail more with the films. I'm definitely more of a Jedi fan than a clone one.
I mean you're making heroes of the guys who slaughter the Jedi (Anakin included), shouldn't Obi-Wan be more the front-and-center hero?
I did love the Maul arc, and it probably was my favorite overall this season, my second would be the young Jedi. I didn't care much for the Onderon one. I think the Droid one might've worked better maybe 2 episodes shorter, it just seemed overly drawn out.
I wish they would do more of the "Maul" like story arcs and start wrapping this thing up. Clone Wars has gone on too long in my opinion and it's time to see if they can take Star Wars TV in another direction.
How about something with Rebel Pilots fighting the Empire? OR dealing with the Old Republic? There's plenty of room for creative story telling in both catagories.
Well, I've heard rumblings that Season 6 is not a sure thing. Yes they've continued production on it, and stuff is already finished, but Disney may not air it any time soon.
On that note though, I would definitely love to see other animated series in the Star Wars universe. A Rogue Squadron series, animated adaptations of the (good) EU novels. Perhaps finally make the movie for Shadows of the Empire to go along with all the merchandise they made back in '96. And they could release them all like Warner Bros. does their direct to DVD animated stuff, so there'd be lots of diverse styles, and they don't have to worry about ratings, or pleasing specific demographics.
If there is a season 6 to Clone Wars I would hope it would be a race to Episode 3, where they kick things into high gear and its action all the way to the end. Wrap it up, and lead right into the battle of Coruscant.
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