#and then the main point which is the tcw movie but with my plot

[jewishcissiekj]

just realized just how much fic there is to write until I actually get to the part of the AU I started thinking about...

[thimbil]

Having some thoughts about the references and inspirations used for the Bad Batch’s designs.

So Boba Fett is my absolute favorite character and Temeura Morrison was perfect casting. I went to see the 2008 TCW movie in theaters because I was so excited to see him again, even if he was animated. You can imagine my disappointment. Whoever was on screen was not Temeura Morrison. You could sort of see a resemblance if you squinted and didn’t think too hard about it. They replaced Temeura with Racially Ambiguous G.I. Joe. If I didn’t know better and someone told me the animated clones are space Italians from the moon of New Jersey I would buy it. One Million Brothers Pizzeria and Italian Bistro. Not that there’s something wrong with being space Italian, I just don’t think it’s the right choice for the Fetts. The design got slightly improved by season 7 but it still bugs the hell out of me.

I did eventually get into the show later and (of course) got invested in the clones. Unfortunately, they were largely sidelined by the Jedi storylines. Out of the two new main characters created for TCW, Ahsoka definitely got more development and focus than Rex. When they announced The Bad Batch, I was excited to see a show specifically devoted to the clones… at least that’s what it said on the tin. We have all seen what lurks beneath those stylish helmets.

Jango Fett, you are NOT the father.

So who is?

Based on interviews with Filoni, it sounds like the Bad Batch was a George Lucas idea. And like all his ideas, it’s super derivative. The original trilogy directly lifted elements from sci fi serials, westerns, and samurai movies, more specifically Kurosawa films like The Hidden Fortress. For The Bad Batch character designs, the influence is obviously American action and adventure movies.

Now let’s get specific. Bad Batch, who’s your daddy?

Hunter

Sylvester Stallone as Rambo in First Blood 1982. That bandana has become an integral part of the iconic action hero look. You see a character wearing one and it’s a visual shorthand for either “this character is a tough guy” like Billy played by Sonny Landham in Predator 1987, or “this character thinks he is/wants to be a tough guy” like Brand played by Josh Brolin in The Goonies 1985 or Edward Frog played by Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys 1987.

Hunter’s model is closest to the original clone base. If you look closely you will see the eyebrows are straighter with a much lower angle to the arch. His nose is also not the same shape as a standard clone like Rex, including a narrower bridge. It’s certainly not Temeura Morrison’s nose. Remember what I said about space Italians? It didn’t take much to push the existing clone design to resemble an specific Italian man instead of a specific Māori man. The 23&Me came back, and Hunter inherited more than the bandana from Sylvester.

Crosshair

The long narrow nose, the sharp cheekbones, the scowl. That’s no clone, that’s just animated Clint Eastwood. Not even Young and Hot Clint Eastwood from Rawhide 1959-1965. With that hair, I’m talking Gran Torino 2008. The man of few words schtick and family friendly toothpick in lieu of cigar are pure Eastwood as The Man With No Name from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns A Fist Full of Dollars 1964, For a Few Dollars More 1965, and The Good the Bad and the Ugly 1966.

In a way, this is full circle because the actor Jeremy Bulloch took inspiration from Clint Eastwood for his performance as Boba Fett in ESB.

Wrecker

In an interview Filoni lists the Hulk as an (obvious) inspiration for Wrecker. Ever seen the old Hulk tv show from 1978? Well take a look at the actor who played him, Lou Ferrigno. Would you look at that. Even has his papa’s nose.

You could make the argument that Wrecker was influenced by The Rock, an appropriately buff ‘n bald Polynesian (Samoan, not Maori) man. But look at him next his Fast and Furious costar Vin Diesel and tell me which one resembles Wrecker’s character model more.

Tech

Tech is a little trickier for me to place. If he has a more direct inspiration it must be something I haven’t seen. That said, his hairline is very Bruce Willis as John McClane in Die Hard 1988. His quippiness and large glasses remind me of Shane Black as Hawkins from Predator 1987. In terms of his face, he looks a but like the result of McClane and Hawkins deciding to settle down and start a family. Although, Tech’s biggest contributors are probably just everyone on TV Trope’s list for Smart People Wear Glasses.

And finally,

Echo

Oh Echo. Considering he wasn’t created for the Bad Batch, he probably wasn’t based on a particular character or movie. But if I had to guess, his situation and appearance remind me a lot of Alex Murphy played by Peter Weller in Robocop 1987. However, Robocop explored the Man or Machine Identity Crisis with more nuance, depth, and dignity. Yikes.

The exact tropes and references used in The Bad Batch have been done successfully with characters who aren’t even human. Gizmo from Gremlins 2: The New Batch 1990 had a brief stint with the Rambo bandana. I could have picked any number of characters for Defining Feature Is Glasses but here is the most cursed version of Simon of Alvin and the Chipmunks. Suffer as I have. Marc Antony with his beloved Pussyfoot from Looney Tunes has the same tough guy with a soft center vibe as Wrecker and his Lula (also a kind of cat). Hell, in the same show we have Cad Bane sharing Cowboy Clint Eastwood with Crosshair. I actually think Bane makes a better Eastwood which is wild considering Crosshair has Eastwood’s entire face and Bane is blue.

So we’ve established you don’t need your characters to look exactly like their inspirations to match their vibe. So why go through the trouble and cost of creating completely new character designs instead of recycling and altering assets they already had on hand? Just slap on a bandana, toothpick, goggles, and make Wrecker bigger than the others while he does a Hulk pose and you’re done. Based on the general reaction to Howzer it would have been a low effort slam dunk crowd pleaser.

But they didn’t do that.

So here’s the thing. I like the tropes used in The Bad Batch. I am a fan of action adventure movies from the 80s-90s, the sillier the better. I am part of the Bad Batch’s target audience. Considering what I know about Disney and Lucasfilm, I went in with low expectations. I genuinely don’t hate the idea of seeing references to these actors and media in The Bad Batch. I don’t think basing these characters on tropes was a bad idea. If anything it’s a solid starting point for building the characters.

The trouble is nothing got built on the foundation. The plot is directionless, the pacing is wacky, and the characters have nearly no emotional depth or defining character arcs. They just sort of exist without reacting much while the story happens around them. But I can excuse all of that. You don’t stay a fan of Star Wars as long as I have not being able to cherrypick and fill in the gaps. This show has a deeper issue that shouldn’t be ignored.

Why do the animated clones bear at best only a passing resemblance to their live action actor? In interviews, Filoni wouldn’t shut up but the technological advancements in the animation for season 7. So if they are updating things, why not try to make the clones a closer match to their source material? Why did they have to look like completely different people in The Bad Batch to be “unique”? Looking like Temeura Morrison would have no bearing on their special abilities and TCW proved you can have identical looking characters and still have them be distinct. In fact, that’s a powerful theme and the source of tragedy for the clones’ narrative overall.

Here’s Filoni’s early concept art of Crosshair, Wrecker, Tech, and Hunter. (Interesting but irrelevant: Wrecker seems to have a cog tattoo similar to Jesse’s instead of a scar. Wouldn’t it have been funny if they kept that so when they met in season 7 one if them could say something like “Hey we’re twins!” That’s a little clone humor. Just for you guys 😘)

None of these drawings look like the clones in TCW, much less Temeura Morrison. Let’s be generous. Maybe Filoni struggles with drawing a real person’s likeness, as many people do. But he had to hand this off to other artists down the line whose job specifically involves making a stylized character resemble their actor. Yet the final designs missed the mark almost as much as this initial concept. Starting to seem as if the clones looking more like Temeura Morrison was never even on the table. It wasn’t a lack of creativity, skill or technical limitations on the part of the creative team. I don’t think there is an innocent explanation. They went out of their way to make the final product exactly how we got it.

This goes beyond homage. They could have made the same pop culture references and character tropes without completely stripping Temeura Morrison from the role he originated. It was a very purposeful choice to replace him with more immediately familiar actors from established franchises and films. It wouldn’t shock me if Filoni, Lucas, and anyone else calling the shots didn’t even think hard or care enough about the decision to immediately recognize a problem. And I don’t think they believed anyone else would either. At least no one whose opinion they cared about. Those faces are comfortingly familiar and proven bankable. They are what we’re all used to seeing after all. They’re white.

Lack of imagination, bad intentions, or simple ignorance doesn’t really matter in the end. The result is the same. Call it what it is. They replaced a man of color with a bunch of white guys. That’s by the book garden variety run of the mill whitewashing. There’s no debate worth having about it. For a fanbase that loves to nitpick things like whether or not it’s in character for Han to shoot first or Jeans Guy in the Mandalorian, we sure are quick to find excuses for clones who look nothing like their template. Why is that? If you don’t see the problem, congratulations. Your ass is showing. Pull your jeans up.

[blackkatmagic]

You mentioned wishing there was more content of thorn prior to his death, as it would twist the knife more.

That's actually one of my main gripes with the movie/show SW universe. I never feel like they build up the emotional moments enough. If you think about it, intellectually the story is a tragedy, but the lack of character focus means it missed the mark emotionally (for me at least).

That's why the totality of Fives arc was so good. We really got to see the character, then see him fail in a horrible tragic way. The universe conspired against him and it WON. He didn't even (really, at least before season 7 came out) manage to pass on the information of order 66, meaning that his death didn't even spark change. The truest tragedy SW ever told.

Other "tragic" SW events never hit as hard. Alderaan blowing up didn't matter because it's not like we were invested in anyone on the planet, order 66 (before TCW) didn't matter because the clones and the Jedi were largely unknown to us as individuals.

Rogue one is the next best arc after Fives, imo. Jedha blowing up caused the death of characters we knew, and if course the MCs die in the end.

This is coming from a mostly cinematic universe standpoint, so a comics fan may be able to point out good tragedies.

Are there any moments you felt either lacked an emotional impact, but were supposed to, or actually did the emotional part well?

I can definitely get that sort of feeling, tbh. And...I do feel like, Fives aside, with pretty much all of the clones who die, there's an element of that lack of impact. It feels to me like the writers were trying to balance having just disposable redshirts where they didn't have to spend a lot of time on the impact of the deaths - which ends up being particularly jarring in places like the Citadel arc, where you have Obi-Wan losing men and then making jokes a quarter of a second later, because the story can't linger on Charger and Longshot's deaths without losing tone - and having the clones very clearly be their own people. So in TCW at least, there's a tonal imbalance that really lends to the deaths feeling flat, I think.

If you look at characters like Keeli, where there's a whole episode to focus on them, that sort of jarring skip over a death that should be impactful is less noticeable, so I feel like it's definitely down to 20-minute episodes and no room for the plot to breathe.

[akajustmerry]

What are your thoughts on Kenobi?

hiiiiiiiii ❤️ thanks for asking!

so I'm still pretty sick n feverish rn so these thoughts might be a bit scattered. I think it's important to know that I went into kenobi with relatively low expectations. after watching boba fett, the final season of tcw, etc, I don't rlly expect these series to be much more than frilly filler that dismisses it's own source material and let's just say kenobi didn't do much to shift that expectation.

It was a waste of Hayden: despite being a they/them, I am now, forever and since the age of 8, a Hayden Christensen girlie!!! But my mans was WASTED, I understand he was (allegedly) in the Vader suit the whole time but....its a waste. At bare minimum there shoulda been more ani/obi prequel flashbacks woven throughout each ep instead of that one in ep 5. Like they dragged him off the farm to cosplay darth Vader. I wanna know what Disney has on him to make him do this because lord love a duck, this was pathetic and using him so heavily in the press was akin to false advertising.

Individualism is a DISEASE: I'm currently writing a video essay about Anakin so I'm not gonna elaborate a lot on this point here except to say that having Anakin claim that HE HIMSELF killed Anakin Skywalker is an INSULT to how the prequels clearly placed the blame for Anakin's turning on the Jedi on multiple factors, many of which were systemic, to the point where even in the prequels Anakin CONSISTENTLY outloud blames the Jedi for making him this way. That, "I did" line in ep 6 was completely unearned and spat in the face of George Lucas's Anakin characterisation. And for what? all to free obi wan of a guilt he has every fucking justification to feel. Anakin was never EVER solely responsible for becoming Darth Vader. To have him say so just Disney depoliticising star wars, as they've been doing since TFA by making characters into fucking toys.

Leia, I'd kill for you: about the only thing that kept me watching after ep 3, apart from the hope of seeing Hayden, was Leia. Vivien Blair was absolutely adorable and did such a wonderful job emulating Carrie Fishers energy without just imitating. Along with her performance, I appreciated seeing characterised and fleshed out as a main character, rather than a side character in someone else's story. She was perfect and her and Ewan were so lovely on screen I was just 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 the whole time. She was the star of this silly series as far as I'm concerned.

The racism...yikes! I've talked about reva on my blog already so I'm not gonna repeat it, but putting Tala, a brown woman, in Nazi adjacent costuming for the majority of her screen time and then killing her off to save the white dude? Yikes. Also, Sung Kang being inhumanely evil and green? Literally dehumanising. Also, Kumail being untrustworthy criminal grifter? Nope. I was so shocked Oshea Jackson's char lived because the racism in this series was so bad.

The environmentals were appalling: this is a gripe I have with all Disney + content, but the fact that this show about Obi Wan made in 2022 looks more visually bland and flat than movies made in the early 00s is EMBARRASSING. Ani and Obi fought twice in this stupid show and on both occasions the environment was essentially interchangeable!!!! You could not say that about any of the duels in the prequels because they actually have visually compelling narratively relevant settings!

Natalie Holt and John Williams collabing on the score was soooooooo good. Natalie being such a gifted fresh composer combined with John Williams legendary star wars tracks made for the most outstandingly scored d+ show to date. The score made it for me, honestly

A prequel only works as an emotionally driven tragedy: the thing about making something that's sandwiched between 2 establishment events in the story is that your only option to actually making it compelling is to focus on building emotional conflict over plot. Sadly, this show made its central conflicts all plot and hardly any emotion. Every cliffhanger was things we knew the answers to already, yet the show wants you to be worried that Luke Skywalker might die?? Laughable. When Obi says, "then my friend is truly dead" that's what should have been foregrounded as the main conflict for Obi Wan. Not whether Darth will learn of the kids, or whether reva will kill him or whatever the fuck! The throughline for the show should have been obi wan believing there was still good in him, Obi Wan believing that Anakin could be turned back, but we never get a proper sense that he actually believes any of that. Moreover, the actions he takes like protecting leia, burying his saber, the nightmares, his conversations with Reva - they all speak to him already accepting Anakin as being dead and just being Darth. That "then my friend is truly dead" line is so utterly unearned and unnecessary that it's almost funny. That line should have been TRAGIC but it's not because the show never invests in the emotional conflict of it, just stupid plot conflict we know will be resolved anyway.

Padme: I really loved how much this series acknowledged Padme's loss as equal to Anakin's in terms of forces for good lost to tragedy. Truly the only and most compelling emotional arch for Obi in this silly show was him figuring out how to tell leia about who her parents were without imparting the pain of losing them. Again this is one of the few genuinely positive things I can say about the show because it was something actually character focused.

A waste of qui gon - lmao it's hilarious to me that qui gon was literally the guy who chose Anakin to be the chosen one and is essentially responsible for putting ALL THIS into motion, but the forces that be on this wasteful show are like, "let's just have him cameo for a quip at the end". Borderline insulting!!!!!!!! Like qui gon DIED fighting for Anakin to be trained as a Jedi and abandoning obi to train him alone and we don't even get to see them have a meaningful conversation about any of that? Fuck off.

Endless repetition: I literally hate that the so-called iconic moments in this show are mostly just the show imitating what's already been done. Like Darth and Obis 2nd fight is just copy paste Ahsoka and Darths fight from TCW right down to the dialogue and most of the visuals. The whole rescuing Leia from the base is just imitating ANH without saying anything interesting too and sure obi said the "hello there" but Why are people treating that as meaningful when it's just a fucking gag reference?? If I wanted to watch ANH or ROTS I woulda just done that, I wanted something new. God forbid the show purporting itself as a character piece actually....be a character piece.

Anyways, I can't say I fully regret watching it. As I said, elements were enjoyable. But there was nothing in it that really justified its existence to me. Like, this coulda been a really fun star wars novella and I probably woulda been fine with it, but promoting it on the strength of ewan and Hayden returning and mostly wasting their time on screen with shit we already know that's inconsistent at best and shallow fan service repeating what's been done at worst just left a bad taste in my mouth. Those of us who loved and grew up on the prequels deserved better. Ewan was giving really fucking sad, hot uncle vibes though so I suppose it'll always be there for a thirst watch 🤷🏻

[guardianofnightmares]

I rarely post my opinion on anything in particular but I simply could not pass The Book of Boba Fett show. For those of you who’d not watched it, don’t read the text below - it’s full of spoilers. Also, those who love this series should probably not read the text either - it is not a flattering one.

You’ve been warned.

I hate Disney for making constant cameos in all of their movies, series and etc. They’re getting overused to the point that this trick ruins thought through long existing characters. They could’ve easily used ANYONE else instead of Bane. Simply add a new character, describe him with a “wanted” poster or with a data from an archive (etc.) in order to make him look as an intimidating opponent, and it would almost make no difference in the end (if talking about a future of the city Boba’s been fighting for). Both ‘main’ characters (hero and villain, so to speak) needed to be explored in depth. In the end we’ve got this - they didn’t have much of a screen time, and as a result we see almost no exploration of characters. Thus for me the final fight looked very dull. Like… I love Cad Bane, he’s one of my fav SW characters, but even in the show he didn’t look as intimidating and complex as in a TCW show. Yes, you can say that he had been a part of more episodes there (but that’s the point - more of screen time), thus you should know what to expect from him. But what about people who’d not seen TCW at all? It all makes almost no sense to them (I’m talking about characters’ final brawl, it has no weight for such people) or at least looks banal as hell and neither Boba Fett (an illusive and dangerous man who worked personally with Vader from Ep. 5&6) nor Cad Bane (a cunning gunner/shooter who’s been known for hunting on Jedi, a prey so difficult to kill, that I doubt anyone could ever boast about same thing) deserve such an ending. Yes, I highly doubt that there’ll be Season 2 - knowing Disney’s love for profit, they will think twice before investing money in this project.

Also, we needed Din SOLELY because of Grogu and his Force sensitivity in order to calm down the raging rancor. That’s all. Ah, no, they also needed Din to promote Season 3 of The Mandalorian, how could I forget about such an important detail.

Don’t even get me started on cameos of Luke and Ashoka…

Disclaimer: I’ve watched only two last episodes of the show (and not fully), but honestly? I’ve not missed almost ANYTHING from the plot. That doesn’t mean that a show is a bad one because I can’t judge it the same way as those people who’ve watched every episode. But… in my opinion if a person like me’ve predicted an almost whole outcome of the plot (which was not that intricate, if comparing to the first season of The Mandalorian)… well, it means something.

P.S. Despite the fact that Cad’s shown up in a live-action series (which was an interesting experience), his appearance made no sense in a matter of a timeline and had almost no weight to the story. Yes, I get it, Fett and Bane ‘needed’ a final show down but god damn, it could’ve been done so much better in my opinion. The fight was not bad, mind you, and the whole dialogue between them was full of discussions of the bounty hunter’s way of life… but it should’ve happened in different circumstances. The characters were almost blank to me (perhaps “blank” is a strong word but I don’t know how else to describe it). As I’ve mentioned before, personally I got the drift of things between them only due to the fact that I’ve watched the TCW show. Otherwise…

Disney, Stop Exploiting Cameos In Order To Get More Views And To Sell More Merch To Fans.

[eyayah-oya]

Hi! About your answer for D. May I ask, what upset you the most in how fandom and canon portrait the Bad Batch?

This is a good question!

Canon is easier to answer so I’ll do that one first. I’ll put it under a read more so it’s not a super long post.

THESE ARE MY OWN PERSONAL OPINIONS AND ARE IN NO WAY AN ATTACK ON PEOPLE THAT ENJOY TBB AND THE CHARACTERS!! PLEASE ENJOY YOUR IDEAS, HEADCANONS, AND STORIES ABOUT THEM. I RESPECT THAT. PLEASE RESPECT THAT I AM ALLOWED TO HAVE MY OWN OPINIONS TOO.

I’ve always enjoyed shows and movies and books for the characters. To me, plots are secondary to the characters; you can have the most interesting plot in the world but without interesting characters, it would be boring to me. I started watching TBB with high hopes. I generally liked the characters and I was interested to see where the show would take them. (Though I do admit that part of the reason I started the show was because of Echo—he was my hyper fixation at the time.)

Every member of the original Bad Batch is a stereotype of a typical American action movie which I find incredibly boring. The mysterious and badass Hunter/tracker/leader. The snarky and rude sniper who distances himself from others. The muscle who is purely there to show off or be dumb (I hate this one the most). And the annoying nerd who forgets that others aren’t as smart as him.

Now, I recognize that there are a lot of people out there who really like the Bad Batch and the representation they’re given. Hell, a lot of the time I am a lot like Tech: I info dump and show off my knowledge all the time. I used to get called a know-it-all in a derogatory way until I decided to embrace it. It still hurts to get called that though. Anyway, I’m getting off topic. The point is, I’ve seen a lot of posts about how people identify with the Bad Batch, especially Tech. And that’s not my issue with the show and the characters.

My main issue is the development of the characters. Specifically that there was none. None of them changed at all throughout the entirety of the season. We should have seen some development and growth, especially from Echo, but he was barely in the show at all. I wanted to see the Batch worry about Crosshair or try to go and get him back, but he’s almost never mentioned unless he’s actively hunting them in that episode. And then it’s to get away from him. The Batch was hyped up to be this super close knit batch who care about each other above everyone else, including other clones, and yet it seemed like they barely tolerated each other in the show.

Another thing that I struggle with is how the introduction of the Bad Batch takes away one of my favorite themes and lessons in the Clone Wars show. I love that the clones show that you don’t have to be different to be important. You don’t have to have special powers or look different in order to be special. We love the clones. Look at Echo and Fives! They’re fan favorites for good reason. They’re fun characters and yet, besides Fives’s tattoo and goatee, they’re exactly like all the other clones. For someone who has never stood out once in their life, it was incredibly validating for me to see a show where you don’t have to be different to be of worth. The Bad Batch took that away from me. They’re different and because they’re different they’re special, unlike the “regs”. They degrade the other clones and then in the Bad Batch show, the other clones bully them. It never felt right to me, more like the writers were trying to make the Batch out to be pathetic and alone, make others sympathize with them, despite seeing them act the exact same way during TCW. Not to mention, I personally struggle with portrayals of bullying of any kind.

Not to mention all of the blatant whitewashing, ableism, and just idiocy of the way the show was written.

Now on to fanon.

One of the biggest things that I have issues with is the same reason why Anakin apologists annoy me. I’ve found that the Bad Batch fan base tends to write the characters as always in the right. They never acknowledge the mistakes the Batch makes nor do they acknowledge how their actions might hurt someone else. Especially with Crosshair and Hunter. Both of those extremely popular characters made several mistakes in the show, but I rarely saw anyone hold them accountable before I stopped engaging with TBB content.

I also have a big issue with the way people treat Wrecker as though he were a child who doesn’t know anything. He’s incredibly smart. He has to be in order to create the exact kind of bombs he needs or to fire a projectile at something. That all involves complex math and chemistry. He is honestly my favorite of the original batch, but I hate how he’s always portrayed as dumb and childish. I know that maiseey recently got Wookiepedia to change their page on Wrecker and I’m glad about that, but it doesn’t change the way the show and the fan base treats Wrecker. He’s only there as the comedic relief in almost a side show kind of way. And I hate it so much.

I don’t know much about how fanon treats the rest of the batch beyond what I’ve already said. I only really engage with the cloneshipping part of the TCW fandom and I rage-quit TBB before the finale episodes. I don’t think I ever read fanfiction beyond a select few authors who I am friends with. I might not have all of the facts and the fandom might have changed a lot since I last poked at it. If the show was halfway decent (I’m my opinion) I might delve into the fandom, but the show bores, annoys, and frustrates me, so it’s not worth it to me to join a fandom I’m not interested in.

In order to be fair, there are clones from TCW that I don’t like, no matter how much I want to, because of how they’re always portrayed in fandom and fanon. That’s why I took Wooley and made him my own.

Thank you again for the question and I hope I answered it satisfactorily. I’m starting to fall asleep though, so I’m going to end here.

[padme-amitabha]

I’m honestly glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t like Ahsoka. To me she just never fit but also she basically made Padme a secondary character even though she was main female lead in movies. It’s obvious at this point that she is Dave fav and nothing can happen to her

Haha you read my mind anon. Personally I am not a fan of her due to multiple reasons. Firstly, she was introduced in the show as a character that children and young people can relate to. This is a terrible idea to me because a story should not cater to the audience. Kids don’t need to see characters their age to enjoy a story - lots of kids love the SW movies. While Jar Jar was there to please kids, he was still a comic relief not a main character. George wasn’t trying to please fans while writing the prequels; he was just telling a story. Secondly, as you mentioned she is a creator’s pet with plot armor. I have stated this before: when you get attached to a character the story-line suffers from your bias. George doesn’t shy away from severely injuring or killing his characters if it’s necessary to the story. Ahsoka is presented as a child prodigy who is at times wiser than adults, and to showcase her precociousness they make Anakin reckless and irresponsible. While Anakin was gifted from a young age and helped save the day in TPM, it was a joint effort by him, the Jedi, the Gungans and Padme and her team; he only did what he was good at doing.

Considering Mace Windu doesn’t trust Anakin even in ROTS, I find it very hard to believe that the council would let him train a Padawan and risk influencing a young mind with unorthodox values, especially one who doesn’t follow orders in the first place. Not to mention she doesn’t get reproached enough every time she breaks the code while the Jedi are much harsher on Anakin.  

I also find her attitude to be insufferable. She was raised in the order where younglings are taught to respect their Masters from a young age but they made her sort of like a female Anakin who enjoys breaking the rules and not like the other traditional Jedi. Even Anakin in ROTS is still respectful of Obi-Wan and even refers to him as Master though he’s no longer his Padawan. I also dislike that some fanboys sexualise her even though she’s a minor and well her outfits in the first seasons don’t help either. Padme in TPM was 14 too but she was never sexualised in that movie. 

She is also given too much importance like replacing Padme in the show and dueling Maul and later Vader. Politics was just as important as the Jedi in the prequels; in the final scenes in ROTS as Anakin/Vader is slaughtering the Separatists we see Palpatine in the Senate announcing the formation of the Empire and doing the actual damage. Considering Padme herself was a symbol of hope and the Republic, she should have been part of the trio. You can argue that Ahsoka is only in TCW so she is in the limelight but that still doesn’t make her a believable character or make her fit in the Skywalker Saga. Besides, to include her they had to change some aspects of characters like Anakin like making him more friendly and social (when he actually struggled with social interactions in the movies). She seems to have no major flaws and even refuses to kill the Clones out of self-defense, and they also try too hard to make her likable to the audience. All of the other characters have some flaws which become even more prominent in ROTS and they suffer from it. Her relationship with Anakin also diverts attention away from Anakin’s with Obi-Wan which could have been shown more to make their falling-out in ROTS more heartbreaking - TCW was supposed to be bridge the gap between the movies after all; also keep in mind Obi-Wan has raised him since he was nine so he should have had the strongest bond with him. 

I think George initially planned that she would not survive Order 66 which might have somewhat redeemed her in my eyes and even make me feel sympathetic towards her character but now that George is out of the picture Filoni favoritism has taken over and she’s the face of Star Wars now. Then again, Star Wars stopped being Star Wars for me after the prequels ended so I just ignore her. 

[doopcafe]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Seasons 1--6), Final Analysis

Well, I made it through. 

Let’s be absolutely clear: The Clone Wars (TCW) is not good television. For the most part, it’s not even watchable television. The show suffers from serious fundamental issues in nearly every aspect of storytelling. Characters are underdeveloped and inconsistent; the dialogue is expository and contradictory; the tone is disjoint and jarring; and most episodes serve no greater purpose than to be a twenty-minute vessel to house lightsaber fights. 

So I want to put this part of the show to rest before I move on to Star Wars: Rebels (and before returning to watch season 7). 

With two exceptions, the show poorly handles twists and reveals. In the earlier seasons, reveals were spoiled mostly due to telegraphing: Captain Sleaze in Cloak of Darkness, Senator Clovis in Senate Spy, and Yolo (?) in Senate Murders come to mind, but there were others. In later seasons, telegraphing was supplanted by “small universe syndrome” as the primary cause of spoiled reveals. In The Academy, a cloaked figure was seen doing shady, back-alley deals, but his identity could only have been the Prime Minister. During the “Ahsoka framed” series, Barriss was obviously the traitor, simply because her character suddenly reappeared after four seasons and there were no other candidates. 

Probably the most successfully executed reveal was that of Krell, as his assholeness was at least initially masked as military rigidity. But even so, it was so over-the-top that when the reveal finally came to light, it felt more like an overdue disclosure than a dramatic twist. It didn’t help that, by that point in the show, the format of “asshole = upcoming reveal” had been firmly entrenched into the show’s DNA. 

I would argue that the most effective plot twist of the entire show was when the dancer/singer girl shot and killed Ziro the Hutt in Hunt for Ziro. Although irrelevant to the greater story, it was an actual twist because it was strongly implied the opposite would happen (i.e., Ziro would betray the girl). If there is to be a second place, that award would go to Ahsoka’s decision to leave the Jedi Order at the conclusion of The Wrong Jedi. But this leads me into my next point...

Who was the main character of The Clone Wars? If we go by the logic that whoever had the most screen time was the main character, then Anakin probably wins over Ahsoka. But if we go by the logic that the most developed character was the “main character,” then this is a show about Ahsoka. Ahsoka---more than any other character---grows in a noticeable way (from impatient, violent child to impatient, slightly less violent teenager). In contrast, Anakin in Rising Malevolence is the same character as Anakin in Voices (only a little more violent and angry for some reason). 

It’s unfortunate that her major character moments were never capitalized on. Intentionally sacrificing herself for the greater good in Weapons Factory apparently led to no lasting repercussions on her character. Her impatience and disobedience led to the deaths of thousands in Storm over Ryloth, but was similarly forgotten immediately afterwards. Even Ahsoka’s major character moment at the end of The Wrong Jedi resulted in her walking away from the show, never to address the implications of that decisions (although I suppose that’s the subject of Season 7). 

On a different note, the show was riddled by a shameful amount of “references” and fan service, for reasons exclusively external to the story. These “nods” ranged from the obvious “Obi-wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope” (or whatever Senator Jimmy Smits says in Cat and Mouse) to the innocuous design of a droid or background device. 

These “references” are objectively problematic for at least a few reasons. (1) They contribute to the sense that the universe is a really, really small place. Is the Mos Eisley cantina really the only place in the Outer Rim where shady deals go down? Is carbon freezing really the only way to store a person in stasis for transport? How long do Rodians live for anyways? Greedo’s gotta be what, like 80 when Han shoots him in A New Hope? It’s ironic that ultimately, this incomprehensibly large, diverse galaxy actually feels much smaller after watching this series because we keep going to the same twelve places...

(2) “Fan service” is tricky to get right because different people have different memories and impressions of the source material. In result, copying material will oftentimes comes across as a blatant misunderstanding of the original content. For example, to me, Vader put Solo into carbon freeze because it’s what Lando had lying around. It’s not a galactically established method of transporting people. Obi-Wan trained Luke with those laser balls aboard the Falcon because Han had them lying around and Obi-Wan needed to improvise a training exercise to kill time. 

(3) "References” and “nods” usually are just a band-aid for a lack of creativity. Some of the better episodes in the initial seasons were just direct rehashes of famous movies. Seven Samurai, Godzilla, Stray Dog, The Most Dangerous Game, King Kong... I mean, it’d be pretty impressive to mess-up stories like these, but it’s concerning that there were just so many episodes made from other people’s stories. 

These “references” even seep into the most innocuous of scenes. When Prequel!Wan lands on Mandalore to attempt a rescue of Satine from Darth Maul, one of the Mandalorians takes aim at him, only to have their blaster pushed down by their companion who’s shaking their head. This is a direct reference o the Tusken Raiders on Tatooine when Luke went after R2 in the desert. Even if this scene served an important plot purpose (it didn’t), there’s undoubtedly a multitude of ways to communicate the same thing. Instead, a small reference to the OT is interjected into the show, deimmersing the audience from the events shown. Unfortunately, this is just one (very small) example of hundreds over the whole show. 

Let me say something positive. The episodes that worked best (especially early in the show's run) were ones that focused on mortal people, usually the clones. Innocents of Ryloth was one of the first watchable episodes, simply because we didn't have to sit through twenty minutes of unlikable, unrelatable “Jedi” and instead followed around a pair of troopers helping a little girl using their limited abilities. Likewise, Pursuit of Peace was way more enjoyable than it probably should have been, simply because the story was understandable, the consequences clear, and the drama real. Plan of Dissent (when the clones actively rebel against Krell) was also noteworthy for similar reasons: clones we liked must subdue a “Jedi” we’ve learned to hate. 

This isn’t to say that episodes focused on the major characters were inherently unenjoyable, it’s just that none of these characters had any room to grow (with the exception of Ahsoka). Dooku, Grievous, Anakin, Prequel!Wan... They were the same characters as portrayed in Episode II and III. As presented, there was nowhere for these characters to go. Dooku was literally identical at the beginning of the series as he was at the end, and the same can be said about the others. 

But these are false constraints the writers imposed upon themselves. Grievous was not in Episode II and was introduced in Episode III. TCW could have started him however they wanted and then illustrated his change into the character he later becomes. Who was he? What was his motivation? Why did he hate Jedi so much? The show was handed a completely clean slate to deliver a character from scratch, but instead we were immediately shown “Episode III General Grievous” with zero introduction because fans were expected to already know who he was. 

This is partly why the backstory episode to Grievous was so compelling, at least in premise: viewing his home was personal to his story and it represented a chance to learn a bit more about the character and where he came from. Of course, it was mostly mishandled by a reliance on meaningless action, but the high ratings of that particular episode suggest there was room for quality television here, it just was never capitalized on.

Instead, we have completely static caricatures, especially for minor characters from the movies. Admiral Tarkin, Admiral Ackbar, Greedo (among others) were written out of cardboard and their roles in the plot could have just as easily been played by anyone else (there was nothing unique about their roles that required them to be these characters). 

This is a shame because a lot could have been done with the established premise to really focus on Anakin, his motivations, and his relationship to his Padawan. I would have been okay with a lot of backtracking if it meant I could begin to grasp his “fall” to the Dark Side. Instead, I’m honestly more confused than ever about his motivation.

One argument is that Anakin joins the Dark Side because he like, “loves” Padme (or whatever). However, what we’re shown in this show---consistently, clearly---is that Padme and Anakin have a toxic, dysfunctional relationship. He is uncomfortably jealous and rarely trusts her. They argue nearly every time they’re together. Their “love” (or whatever) must remain secret, equating their relationship to something “wrong” or even “illegal” that must be kept secret, even on the verge of death. In a later episode, Anakin orders Padme to listen to him because he’s the “man” and, as his wife, she doesn’t have a say in the matter. This is clearly a broken relationship and the best result is the one that actually happens: They stop seeing each other. Anakin wants to save this woman from a vision? Why? 

This brings up a second point, which is that Anakin can’t stand the pain of losing someone. His desire to protect those close to him may be Anakin’s only redeeming trait. He has a single selfless scene (in the entire show) during the opening of Jedi Crash where he sacrifices himself to delay an explosion and save his companions. I want to stress that any other scene where Anakin saves or helps someone isn’t done because he’s a good person, it’s done because he’s a broken person. It’s done because he, personally, would struggle with the emotional toll of knowing he allowed someone close to him to be hurt or die. In other words, he’s doing nice things for selfish reasons. 

As far as I’m concerned, Anakin has always been Darth Vader. He is given choices between being a Jedi and allowing a lot of people to die, and he enjoys choosing the second. In Ghosts of Mortis, we’re shown that the threshold between “Anakin” and “Darth Vader” is disconcertingly low, requiring only a few choice words and less than a minute to convert him. In short, what I’ve learned from TCW regarding Anakin Skywalker is that he was an unlikable dick, and his “turn” to the Dark Side was just a long-overdue reveal. 

While the later seasons worked towards the events in Episode III in a way that at least made a bit of sense, earlier seasons were focused on adult-themed wacky hijinks. In a way, the show almost would have worked better as a kid’s show, but this was clearly meant for adults: politics, war, slavery, and lots and lots of horrific violence. In comparison, the silly adventures of Star Wars: Resistance worked well because the show didn’t take itself too seriously. It was very clearly, from the start, a lighthearted show about kids going on fun adventures. In contrast, TCW suffered because its themes were adult in nature, but was portrayed as a Saturday morning cartoon show. The humor was misplaced, the tone disjointed from actual events, and the violence excessive. 

Let me say a few words on the “Jedi.” Initially I labeled them as overpowered (OP), because in earlier episodes they seemed invincible and dissolved tension in every scene. Later, we see a slew of them get cut down as plot fodder, even against widely different situations. We see Luminara and others push through hoards of droids only to see “Jedi” Master Yoda-like dude get taken down by a dog. We watch as Fisto *heh* powers through entire battalions and the cone-head guy counting coup against an army, only to watch as pink girl gets shot in the face by a single clone who stands in front of her for several seconds before pulling the trigger. 

It’s nearly impossible to feel tension in these scenes because the metrics for judging the true strength of a “Jedi” keep shifting as a function of the plot requirements. Anakin suddenly forgets how to use the Force when the plot needs his help to fake some drama. Prequel!Wan pointlessly fist fights with a slaver cat for an hour until the plot needs him to get back up again and OP everyone in the room. Even their ships are only as strong or weak as the plot needs them to be. Plo Koon’s fleet is devastated in seconds in order to portray the Malevolence as being a threat; Anakin’s fleet powers through a larger force three times its size because Anakin’s like, really mad about something. 

Secondly, the “Jedi,” in general, were unlikable assholes. They were consistently portrayed as violent and ignorant and I struggled to understand them as real people. Frequently, we witnessed them torture victims, default to a lightsaber to solve problems, and enjoy death to the point of counting coup against sentient life forms defending their homes. Anakin threatened civilians with his lightsaber. Ahsoka was annoyed when she’s asked not to murder a defenseless creature in Jedi Crash. Prequel!Wan and Anakin team up to hurtle enormous rocks into a beaten monster in Dooku Captured. A trio of Jedi Masters mentally gang bang a shackled Cad Bane. They supported state terrorism when it suited their needs, but agreed to abandon their friends for political reasons. 

I mean, these are not good people...

This is a shame, because my impression of true Jedi comes from Luke, Yoda, and Obi-Wan in the OT, as well as the expanded universe novels that take place afterwards. It always seemed to me that being a Jedi was about conquering oneself, one’s fears, and learning to use the Force to selflessly help others and let go of all worldly attachments. You know, like the Buddhists they were originally inspired by. I always had the impression that the Force was extremely powerful and that Yoda was only showing Luke a portion of what was possible. That the Emperor was only using Force lighting to toy with Luke. That Vader only Force choked his officers because it was visually intimidating and kept them in line. 

Instead, we’re treated to some garbage about how a “Jedi” is nothing greater than an actuator to swing around a lightsaber. When Luke enters Jabba’s palace in Jedi to rescue his friends, it’s not with lightsaber swinging, cutting shit up, flipping around like an acrobatic monkey. Imagine Anakin and Ahsoka in the same scene. They’d blaze through the palace corridors before Force choking Jabba as the Darth Vader theme plays. Forget the rancor, these are demigods. They have lightsabers. Have you seen them? They go “woosh woosh.” 

In short, there was little to look up to in terms of a “hero” character. I can see how children can look up to Luke as a role model, someone they want to emulate or play with as a toy, but looking up to Anakin? Ahsoka? Hey kids, wanna learn to become a psychopath? First, you use your power to abuse those who are weaker than you. Then you need to get really really angry and uncontrollably choke someone, preferably your sister or one of your cousins. 

And so, for a Saturday morning cartoon show, it is very unclear who we’re supposed to care about. I liked when Ahsoka went against Anakin because I hated his character so much. I liked everything with Hondo, a pirate. I liked Ventress a little, because she was actively seeking to kill the main characters. I liked some of the clones, but I don’t know which ones because they all looked the same. I cared about Darth Maul because I’m honestly a little worried about him, especially after the loss of his brother. I kinda liked General Grievous just because he hates the “Jedi” and was therefore relatable (even though the reasoning was never explained). And... that’s it. 

At no point did I ever “look forward” to the next episode. I painfully died a little on the inside hitting the “watch next” button every single time.

This “review” is already way too long, so let me summarize by applying my five-star rating system (developed for movies) to each episode. In review:

5. Amazing, classic, culturally important. Something everyone should watch.  4. Great; very well done, no significant flaws. 3: Entertaining with only minor gripes/criticisms.  2: “Watchable,” but suffers from flaws and has some poor parts.  1. Uncomfortably bad; suffers from serious flaws. 0. Painfully bad, would actively fight against being forced to watch a second time. 

The 3-star episodes were: 

Hostage Crisis

Lightsaber Lost 

Pursuit of Peace

Carnage of Krell

The Wrong Jedi 

Hostage Crisis was the introduction of Cad Bane, Lightsaber Lost was the remake of Stray Dog (and the only episode to include a real Jedi), Pursuit of Peace was the random Padme/politics episode that was strangely well-executed, Carnage of Krell was the reveal of Krell as a bad guy and his clones working to apprehend him, and The Wrong Jedi was Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order (and the only episode to include a true character moment). 

Also, I scaled the IMDB ratings of each episode to my ratings and then detected outliers in their overlap. In other words, I wanted to answer the question, “which episodes did I rate the most differently from others?” 

Turns out, I rated every single episode lower except for seven. Those seven were: 

Mercy Mission (+1.853) - R2 and 3PO discover an underground world with ents. This one is universally panned by “fans,” but was a competently handled episode apart from the disappointing resolution. 

Pursuit of Peace (+1.382) - Padme struggles to win support for a Senate bill. Another competently handled episode that focuses on Padme and politics and is ranked low by “fans.”

Lightsaber Lost (+0.6471) 

Weapons Factory (+0.4118) - An average episode with a dramatic scene of sacrifice by Ahsoka and her “friend” Barriss. 

Shadow Warrior (+0.3824) - Grievous is captured during some dramatic moments on Naboo. 

Hostage Crisis (+0.3529)

Front Runners (+0.0882) - One of the rebels episodes, I don’t remember which. 

In conclusion, Star Wars: Rebels is next and I am somehow still alive.

[jbk405]

Story-arcs of The Clone Wars

Yesterday I was talking about Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and how to watch this series (And Rebels) to catch up and understand Ahsoka’s appearance in The Mandalorian.  Since TCW was an anthology series its episodes frequently jumped around in chronological order (The very earliest episode doesn’t come out until the second season, and the pilot movie is technically third) and so there’s a thousand-and-one different “proper” ways to watch the series.  Some say to watch it in straight chronological order so that you get the full story, others say to watch it in production/release order since that’s the way it was meant to be experienced, and some have their own personal mishmash based on story-arcs.

Throughout the series they frequently had three- and four-part story-arcs that formed what were essentially mini-movies (This is what they did for the original theatrical release).  Quite often these were among the best episodes of the series, and they contributed the most to the ongoing storylines that built towards what happened in the movies, what came next in Rebels, and which are now being followed in The Mandalorian.

I can’t give a final ruling on the overall order to watch the series, but what I can do is give an overview of the various individual story-arcs.  My takes on their quality, how accessible they are to new viewers, and where they fit in the story.  I will be covering them in release order from beginning to end, skipping over the standalone and two-part episodes.  I won’t do season seven as it is still recent, and that is the climax to all of these arcs.

So, with no further ado:

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008): The pilot movie, which had a theatrical release.  As I said, this was composed of what were originally the first four episodes of the show, and I find that the enjoyment is a lot better if you view it that way instead of as a single whole.  As an introduction to the series it serves functionally well: It introduces Ahsoka Tano and it features almost all of the main players of the series (Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padme, Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, Rex, Cody, etc.).  Quality wise it’s “Okay”.  I disliked it when I first saw it back in 2008, but when I rewatched it a few months ago it was a lot better than I remembered so it’s possible I was just in whiny “It’s not REAL Star Wars!” mode back in 2008.  If you’re watching it with somebody who doesn’t like ‘cartoons’ or is an Original Trilogy purist this may not be the best place to start since it doesn’t present the best first impression, but if they’ve got an open mind or are interested in the series it could work.

Malevolence Arc (Season 1): Three episodes of the first season revolving around the Separatists’ new superweapon, a powerful ion canon aboard the dreadnought Malevolence.  The first episode shows them discovering the weapon, the second disabling it, and the third episode shows their attempts to finish destroying the ship itself.  There are numerous references and homages to the original Star Wars film and the effort to escape/destroy the Death Star.  This arc has some great character work (Jedi Master Plo Koon is heavily featured and he is a heavy fan favorite, plus a personal favorite of Dave Filoni) and some light debates on the worth of the life of a clone.  However, this early the show is still working out its kinks so there’s a few points where characters fundamentally misunderstand the whole “Jedi shouldn’t have attachments” philosophy, and the supposedly competent military commanders make baseline errors that come close to sabotaging their own forces.  An adequate jump-on point for the series, just bear in mind that it does get better.

Nute Gunray Arc (Season 1): A very loose three-part arc, it follows a different primary cast each episode as one group initially captures Separatist leader Nute Gunray, another transports him, and a third tries to recapture him after he escapes.  Each episode of this arc is very different tonally from the one before, it starts with a semi-comical Jar Jar Binks episode, the middle is a military action story, and the conclusion is a much more intimate military action, almost horror story.  Jedi Masters Luminara Unduli and Kit Fisto appear in parts two and three.  The episodes themselves are good, but I would recommend against this being your first exposure since their loose connection means they don’t really build to anything as a whole by watching them together.

Ryloth Arc (Season 1): Three episodes towards the end of the first season showing the different stages of the Republic’s attempt to liberate the planet Ryloth from Separatist occupation.  Here is where the arcs start to pick up a little bit of steam: Each episode shows a different stage of the invasion and focuses on different characters, but unlike the Gunray arc they are all still the same story.  The first episode focuses on Anakin and Ahsoka trying to break the Separatist blockade so they can reach the planet, the second focuses on Obi-Wan Kenobi attempting to destroy ground-based weaponry so they can land their forces on the surface, and the third focuses on Mace Windu leading the attack on the Separatist capital.  This is the first arc to really try and show the cost and effects of war: Ahsoka loses a lot of men in the first episode and struggles with that guilt when they need to attack again, Obi-Wan needs to circumvent civilian hostages and human shields that the Separatists are using, and Mace needs to ally with the local resistance and try to forge a partnership despite their admittedly not-identical goals.  These aren’t the individually best episodes of the entire season, but it’s probably the best arc of the season.

Children of the Force Arc (Season 2): The three episodes that open season two.  This introduces Cad Bane, a bounty hunter hired to steal a Jedi Holocron so that Darth Sidious can get a list of Force-sensitive children the Jedi have found and can kidnap them to raise as his evil lackeys.  The first episode is a heist episode, the second an action retrieval episode, and the third a chase episode.  I will admit to not liking this arc as much as others seem to, because the main characters keep making ridiculous decisions that only make sense if they have literally forgotten other parts of the story (For example, a Holocron can only be opened by somebody using the Force, so the Jedi initially don’t believe that anybody would bother trying to steal one because it would be useless to them.  This requires them to just forget the existence Count Dooku, a former Jedi who is leading the Separatists and who would love to gain their secrets).  However, despite not being my personal favorite, this could serve as a good intro if you wanted to start here.  Cad Bane recurs in several future episodes so it’s a good introduction, and it features a large portion of the primary cast.  It also has good action, and several bits of character development for Ahsoka, Anakin, and their relationship.

Geonosis Arc (Season 2): A four-part arc (Some people actually include the preceding episode as well to make it five episodes, but I don’t), this is in my opinion the first really good arc and starts to show where The Clone Wars is going to excel as a series.  This follows the Republic re-invasion of Geonosis (The planet from Attack of the Clones) after the Separatists have somehow managed to overwhelm the forces left there after the film.  The first episode is straight military action, often described as being like Saving Private Ryan and other WWII films focusing on the Normany invasions.  The second episode is military espionage, a sabotage mission.  The third (Believe it or not) switches over to a zombie episode and goes straight horror.  The fourth stays horror, but instead of zombies it’s paranoia from spreading mind control.  Barriss Offee is introduced here, and her master Luminara Unduli returns.  The cast semi-rotates throughout the four episodes, with different Jedi ‘sets’ being primary in different episodes.  It gives a perfect highlight of all the different characters and shows some excellent development as well (Including just how much Anakin’s fear of losing those he cares about can cloud his judgement, and how this can push him towards morally questionable actions).  If you want to include the episode prior to this arc as well, that one is a political thriller based on the Alfred Hitchock film Notorious.  As I said, I don’t really count it as being in this arc, but it does set up the plot so others do count it.

Mandalore Arc (Season 2): This arc introduces a whole new faction to the series: the Mandalorians.  The planet Mandalore itself has renounced its violent ways and its leader, the pacifist Duchess Satine Kryze, leads an alliance of 1,500 neutral worlds that want to stay out of the clone wars.  However, there are rumors that the Duchess is actually in league with the Separatists, and apart from the rumors there have also been attacks by people wearing Mandalorian armor, so Obi-Wan is sent to figure out what’s going on.  He and the Duchess have a history that is separated by their opposed political views.  The first episode shows Obi-Wan on Mandalore looking into the subversive group Death Watch, the second episode shows them all journeying to Coruscant to speak with the Galactic Senate, and the third tries to expose a Separatists conspiracy on Coruscant itself.  This is the first arc with Obi-Wan as the primary focus for all three episodes, though Anakin and Padme do join in parts two and three.  This arc could serve as an intro if you wanted to enter the series here, since the Mandalorians will grow into a major part of the series and will intertwine with Obi-Wan’s personal arc for seasons to come.  For those looking to get background on The Mandalorian, this is also where we start learning things about their culture that show up in the live-action series.

Boba Fett arc (Season 2): The three-part finale to season two.  Boba Fett -- still a child keep in mind -- infiltrates a Republic cruiser with a group of clone cadets in a plot to kill Mace Windu in revenge for Windu killing Jango Fett.  He has a group of bounty hunters helping him, and when Windu survives the original assassination attempt things spin further and further out of control.  I honestly don’t have much to say about this arc.  It’s not bad, but I find it kinda forgettable.  It’s got some good character scenes, and a few good action pieces, but other than that....eh.  Despite this, this arc could also serve as an entry to the series since it builds off the Attack of the Clones film more than it does any previous episodes of this series.

Nightsisters arc (Season 3): Here is where the series takes a hard left turn.  This arc focuses primarily on Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku’s assassin.  Darth Sidious feels that Ventress is growing too powerful, and Dooku may be thinking of using her to help overthrow him, so he orders Dooku to kill her.  Ventress survives, and escapes back to her people: the Nightsisters of Dathomir.  They accept her back, and help her try to get revenge on Dooku.  First through a direct assassination attempt, and when that fails they trick Dooku into accepting a new apprentice that they have brainwashed to betray him at their command, Savage Oppress.  This is the first arc to focus primarily on one of the villains (None of the heroic main cast appear in its second episode at all) and when it ends both Ventress and Oppress are alive and working independently as new factions in the plot.  This changes the status quo for the rest of the series, and introduces a new plot thread as well: The return of Darth Maul, the brother of Savage Oppress.

Mortis arc (Season 3): Another three-part arc, this is the first real foray of Star Wars into straight fantasy, and the first attempt of this series to address the Prophecy of the Chosen One.  Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka find themselves on a mysterious planet with properties they cannot explain, populated by ‘Force Wielders’ of immense power and who represent the Light, the Dark, and the Balance.  Almost all of the sci-fi trappings around the Force are dropped, these people are clearly wizards/angels/demons.  It gives a lot of character focus on the three leads, directly addressing their hopes and fears and their destinies.  It’s so different from the rest of the series that it may not function as a good introduction, but it gives such a good presentation of each character I heavily recommend against skipping it.

Citadel arc (Season 3): This is a military rescue arc, with Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan attempting to rescue a Jedi Master and a naval officer who have been captured by the Separatists, and who have vital military information that could change the course of the war.   This is where you can first begin to really see The Empire growing unseen within the Republic, as the officer is in fact Captain Wilhuff Tarkin (AKA Grand Moff Tarkin, the villain of the original Star Wars film).  Throughout the arc Tarkin and the Jedi have several debates about politics, the military, and the current war, as well as what the Jedi’s role should be in all three.  At this point I think we’re past “introductions” to the series, as the series becomes ever more tightly interwoven over the remaining seasons.  Tarkin will return as an antagonist in the future, and the cracks between Anakin (And Ahsoka) and the Jedi really start to widen.

Calamari arc (Season 4): The season four opener, this is a Water arc, which I have to applaud the franchise for finally doing.  The water world of Mon Cala falls into civil war when the Quarren ally with the Separatists against the Republic-aligned Mon Calamari. We get to see Jedi Kit Fisto, an amphibious Nautolan, at home underwater while our air-breathing main cast are in scuba suits and helmets.  Unfortunately, when the underwater fighting spills out of control the Republic needs to bring in the also-amphibious Gungans to fight and I find this part of the story ridiculous (They’re the only other amphibious species with an army?  The Republic has never had to fight on a water world before, so they don’t have any widely available submersibles?  Come on).  Despite this contrivance, I very much like that the series finally addresses how different species require different environments.  The Separatists use shark people on this planet, as they would be useless on other worlds but this is the perfect locale for them.  The arc doesn’t have much of a story impact for later, it’s self-contained action/adventure.

Umbara arc (Season 4): One of the best arcs of the series, this arc (As reviewer SF Debris put it), “Puts the ‘war’ in ‘Star Wars’”.  A four-part arc, the focus is almost entirely on the Clone Troopers of the 501st, who are normally under Anakin’s command but are being transferred to Jedi General Pong Krell when Anakin is recalled to Coruscant.  Anakin only appears in the first episode, and none of the Jedi main cast appear in the other three episodes except for holo-communications with Obi-Wan.  All the episodes are filled with intense action, but the series also finally really digs in to what it means to be a Clone, and the morality around using them for battle.  ALL the props for Dee Bradley Baker who spends all four episodes talking to himself as dozens of different clone characters.  They debate loyalty, duty, training, the values of their own lives, and the value of a system that claims to stand for freedom but which doesn’t offer it to them.  These concepts had been touched before in individual episodes which also focused on the clones, but never to this extent or depth.  I consider this arc one of the stand-out entries of the entire Star Wars franchise.

Slaver arc (Season 4): To be honest, I’ve never quite been able to get a good grasp on this three-part arc.  After a village full of Togrutas (Ahsoka’s people) are kidnapped by slavers allied with the Separatists, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka go undercover to locate and rescue them.  I suppose it’s an okay arc, but it just never clicked for me.  Nobody seems to recognize the problems with forcing Anakin --  a former slave -- to go undercover as a slaver.  The slavers sometimes try to pull a “Slavery is actually moral because the strong are supposed to dominate the weak” speech, but it never comes close to working on Anakin (Again, he is a former slave) so there’s never any tension of “Oh no, will he decide the villain is right and betray his friends?”.  Individual parts of the arc are well done (There’s a hilarious part of the first episode where Obi-Wan is getting his ass kicked, only to reveal that he was just playing along to buy time and just effortlessly mops the floor once he knows he can stop pretending) but as a whole....eh.

Deception arc (Season 4): A four-part arc, Obi-Wan has to go undercover as an assassin in order to infiltrate a Separatist criminal plot.  To do so, he stages his own murder and then impersonates the assassin.  You really see Anakin start to come apart in this arc, he’s a hair's breadth from just executing the ‘assassin’ when he catches him, and he is barely holding on to any of the Jedi teachings in his anger.  Ahsoka is likewise conflicted, and though not as completely overcome as Anakin she likewise questions their responsibilities in this case.  Obi-Wan faces the standard moral quandaries of being undercover: How far does he go to retain his cover when it comes to harming innocents?  How much harm does he let the other criminals do before interfering?  This is one of the arcs where each episode has its own type as they progress, from Prison Episode to Fugitive Episode to Planning Episode to Crime Episode.  Cad Bane returns, along with several other criminal characters.

Ventress/Oppress arc (Season 4): Some classify this is as two separate two-episode arcs, but I view them as one.  The first two episodes focus on Asajj Ventress (No Jedi characters appear at all) as she first tries to re-assimilate to the Nightsisters, but they are soon wiped out by the Separatists in revenge for their plot against Count Dooku in season three.  Ventress escapes with no personal goals or direction, and eventually falls in with a group of bounty hunters.  The last two episodes follow Savage Oppress on his quest to find his brother, Darth Maul, guided by a magic amulet from Mother Talzin of the Nightsisters.  Maul is living in madness on a junkyard planet with a mechanical spider’s body grafted to his torso to replace the legs Obi-Wan cut off in The Phantom Menace.  Obi-Wan attempts to stop their mutual rampage, and Ventress shows up for her own revenge against Oppress, but they are overpowered and barely manage to escape.  This arc mainly serves as set-up for later arcs in season five, which build to the climaxes for the series.

Season five gives a slight shift from the earlier seasons: there are only story-arcs in this season, with no standalone episodes at all.  Five four-part story-arcs fill out the entire season.

Onderon arc (Season 5): The planet Onderon has allied with the Separatists, but there is a pro-Republic underground fighting a guerilla war against the government.  The main cast are sent to Onderon to train the resistance, without involving the Republic forces in an internal matter.  Apart from the bizarre Prime Directive issue (The Republic is literally at war with the Separatists, I do not see any logic in saying they can’t ‘interfere’ in an internal matter of a Separatist planet) the arc works very well showing the main cast working from a very different angle from usual.  They need to focus on being undetected and secret, taking into account public opinion around them and the effect their efforts have on the civilian populace.  They cannot just fight the war themselves, they have to train the locals to take over so that they can leave and return to the primary war.  Saw Gerrera is first introduced here, and Lux Bonteri returns from earlier in the series.  This arc helps lay the groundwork for Ahsoka’s storyline at the end of this season in particular.

Youngling arc (Season 5): A group of Jedi children trainees come together to gather their first Kyber crystals, and subsequently get entangled in pirate raids and the larger war before they can return home.  Ahsoka is present as their chaperone.  This arc is almost “filler” since it really doesn’t have much of an effect on the larger story.  To some viewers it was a fun arc that remembered that Star Wars isn’t just about war scenes.  To others it was a waste of four episodes in a season that was so tightly packed it didn’t have any episodes to waste.  For me...it’s better than a lot TV shows which introduce child characters where they really don’t belong, but I agree that it didn’t need full four episodes dedicated to them.  A two-parter would have worked just as well, with the other two episodes free for another small story.

Droid Commando arc (Season 5): R2-D2 is added to a special droid commando unto being sent into Separatist space.  Despite following this same group for the whole arc, each episode is a very unique and distinct story.  Almost avant-garde for some of them.  Like the Youngling arc it’s not that critical to the later stories, but it tells its own story.

Maul Mandalore arc (Season 5): Here is where, as they say, shit gets real.  Maul decides that if he cannot rule the galaxy as a Sith Lord, he will will take power from the shadows as a Crime Lord.  He and Oppress first try to take over a pirate gang, and when that fails (partially due to Obi-Wan) he joins up with Death Watch, the Mandalorian extremist group trying to take over Mandalore.  Obi-Wan travels to Mandalore to help Duchess Satine against what he thinks is just a Death Watch takeover, unaware of Maul’s involvement.  Simultaneously, Darth Sidious has sensed Maul’s growing power and is unwilling to have another player in his game, so he personally travels to Mandalore to deal with the situation.  This arc is big.  Several long-time recurring characters are killed off, and it had some of the most standout lightsaber duels of the entire series.  This arc, and one other from later in season seven, is probably the most influential towards what happens in Rebels and The Mandalorian.

The Wrong Jedi arc (Season 5): Did I say that the last arc was where shit got real?  Well, now it’s realer.  There’s a bombing of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and Anakin & Ahsoka are investigating.  However, it looks like it may have been an inside job by a Jedi, and Ahsoka herself is framed as the bomber.  As Ahsoka is accused, imprisoned, and eventually a fugitive, this arc finally shows what the audience has known was coming all along: The Empire isn’t just coming, it’s here.  The institutions of the Republic have been corrupted, and with the rationales of “it’s temporary” and “we need security” the freedoms and liberties that the entire clone wars were about have already been wiped away.  Even the Jedi are not free from this corruption (Although personally, I very much disagree with the way the episode seems to accept the villain’s motivation speech as correct.  It’s the only real flaw in the arc).  This arc originally served as a pseudo-series finale since the series was cancelled after season five, and though I’m happy we got more, if it had to end here it would have been monumental.

Season six (Also known as “The Lost Missions”) is composed of the episodes that had been competed before the show was cancelled after Disney purchased Lucasfilm.  It’s about half the length of a full season, and returns to the earlier mix of different-sized arcs.

Fives arc (Season 6): The four-part arc that opens the season, this finally addresses the point that has been looming over the series from the beginning: How could these stalwart, heroic Clone Troopers betray the Jedi they have fought side-by-side with for years when they receive Order 66?  Clone Trooper Tup snaps and murders a Jedi, and this leads to an investigation amongst the Jedi if his is an isolated incident, or some sort of Separatist plot.  Fives accompanies Tup back to Kamino for treatment, and is drawn deeper and deeper in as the Kaminoans seem more interested on covering things up than actually figuring anything out.  The conspiracy widens more and more, until Fives believes that it is galaxy-wide and manipulating them all.  This arc continues several of the moral and ethical questions surrounding the clones from earlier in the series, and moves the series firmly more towards the inevitable film storyline instead of the clone wars adventures themselves.  This is another one of the arcs where each episode has its own tone, from the “No one gets left behind” military mission, to the rogue patient plot, to the paranoid conspiracy pursuit.

Clovis arc (Season 6): This is another one of the arcs that never quite clicked for me.  Rush Clovis returns from earlier in the series in the hopes of reforming the Banking Clan and bringing ‘honor’ back after it has been corrupted by the greed of the clone wars.  However he was previously a Separatist, and despite their explanation of how it’s okay I keep thinking at every scene that they should arrest him for treason, not let him continue to operate in the Republic government.  Plus, when has anybody ever viewed banks as Honorable Institutions with Good Old Ways?  I do believe that it is possible for a bank to act honorably and treat its customers fairly, but not that banking itself is some sort of Ancient Honorable Institution.  Maybe if season 6 had a full complement of episodes I wouldn’t mind this detour, but since it was cut short I begrudge every wasted episode.

Yoda arc (Season 6): Another pseudo-series finale, these are the final episodes of the season and would have served as the end of the series if season seven had not been revived.  Yoda goes on a vision quest to try and parse out so many of the mysteries of the clone wars and the manipulations of the Dark Side.  Like the earlier Mortis arc, these episodes are straight fantasy as Yoda faces the ghosts of people from his past and his own internal demons.  They make an effort to address what it means when people say that the Jedi have become corrupted by fighting in this war, and they try to reconcile their peacekeeper philosophy with serving as soldiers.  The arc ends on the depressed-yet-hopeful note which is the mantra of Star Wars of this era, as the Empire’s rise may be inevitable but there is still hope for afterwards.

[padawanlost]

Why there are people so surprised when it was revealed in CW Obi wan knew about Anakin and Padmé? I don't understand, it had already been established in ROTS. The question is how much he knew, because I'm sure Obi Wan just thought of it as a simple affair. But a wedding? A relationship that Anakin would place above the Jedi order? I don't think so.

Spoilers for TCW 07x02

TBH, I haven’t seen anyone being surprised by the fact Obi-wan knew. Maybe some folks who haven’t watched the movies in a long time or aren’t as obsessed as some of us are about plot details were surprised by it but, in general, I haven’t seen anyone freak about the “reveal”. If anything, I’ve seen people upset about the topic being discussed so openly by the characters (especially by Obi-wan). The audience were told Obi-wan knew about Anakin and Padmé back in 2005 with Obi-wan now infamous “He’s the father, isn’t he?” line. What Obi-wan never knew was the extent of their relationship (marriage), he knew they were together sometimes and Anakin still had deep feeling for her. That was it.

What that particular scene revealed was that Anakin knew that Obi-wan (and everyone else) knew it too. and that created a problem with character development because in ROTS it was established that neither Anakin nor Padmé knew their *secret* relationship was commom knowledge. Because, you see, there’s a difference between everyone suspecting and everyone openly talking about it in front of them. one of the main reasons Anakin refused to talk more openly with Yoda and Obi-wan about his dreams in ROTS was the fear that they wouldn’t understand or flat out kick him out of the Order.

“What about Obi-Wan?”[Anakin] frowned. “What about him?” “You told me once that he is as wise as Yoda and as powerful as Mace Windu. Couldn’t he help us?”“No.” Anakin’s chest clenched like a fist squeezing his heart. “I can’t—I’d have to tell him …” “He’s your best friend, Annie. He must suspect already.” “It’s one thing to have him suspect. It’s something else to shove it in his face. He’s still on the Council. He’d have to report me. And …” “And what? Is there something you haven’t told me?” He turned away. “I’m not sure he’s on my side.” “Your side? Anakin, what are you saying?” “He’s on the Jedi Council, Padmé. I know my name has come up for Mastery—I’m more powerful than any Jedi Master alive. But someone is blocking me. Obi-Wan could tell me who, and why … but he doesn’t. I’m not sure he even stands up for me with them.” “I can’t believe that.” “It has nothing to do with believing,” he murmured, softly bitter. “It’s the truth.” “There must be some reason, then. Anakin, he’s your best friend. He loves you.” “Maybe he does. But I don’t think he trusts me.” His eyes went as bleak as the empty night. “And I’m not sure we can trust him.” Matthew Stover. Revenge of the Sith

Yes, at this point Anakin is isolated and slightly paranoid but there’s a difference between being suspicious and simply forgetting your BFF openly discusses your secret relationship on a busy military base. Anakin was emotionally unstable, he wasn’t dumb.

Ahsoka (and even Rex) knowing the truth and openly discussing it with Anakin is different because they were not there to influence the events of his fall. That’s not the case with Obi-wan. I wouldn’t go as far as call it a plot hole but it’s definitely a inconsistency. Worse yet, it’s one we can’t even claim was always in the cards because thanks to Disney’s release of the unfinished episodes we know that scene was never meant to exist in the first place. Which, I guess, it makes it even feel even less natural. Especially, when it was added for obvious comic purposes and/or a wink at the fans to replace that comic/reveal of pin-up Padmé. I mean, Anakin’s secret relationship is a huge part of the plot and his character developed, and for the show to treat this ‘reveal’ so lightly didn’t feel right. I’m always here for Anidala content but Obi-wan’s “I hope you at least told Padmé I said hello” felt unearned and unnecessary.

[gffa]

Scattered Star Wars Thoughts: - I’m about two thirds of the way through Empire’s End and I’m once again sad that we haven’t gotten anything like this in awhile--stuff happens in these books, the huge, big, galactic-level stuff happens!  The Battle of Jakku!  Rae Sloane vs Gallius Rax!  The bombing of the New Republic ceremony!  Mon Mothma’s struggles to keep the New Republic afloat and her political enemies trying to take her down! Sure, I love the books for the ragtag team I came to know and love, it’s still one of the top tier groups of new characters, but it’s also that stuff happens in this book, I get a good, strong look at the events that shape the galaxy in this era.  I suspect (even though I have no proof) that SW deliberately moved away from this kind of thing, because they were filling up the space too quickly, there soon wasn’t going to be much room left for any kind of big events, between this and Bloodline, especially if they ever wanted to set a show or movie in that era. I sometimes half-wonder if we’re heading for another reboot after awhile, because they’ll want to free up some space or if we’re just going to get more “away from the main action” stories.  Which I wouldn’t mind, if they were more like Spark of the Resistance because that was one of my favorite books of recent times, where it didn’t have to have a big impact, it could be a cute space adventure, but it was about characters I desperately wanted to have more interaction with. I guess that’s what was missing from Alphabet Squadron for me, that the new character stuff was SO GOOD, but Hera’s role really could have been filled by anyone.  Empire’s End is giving us Han and Leia and Mon character moments, but a lot of them don’t have to be about the big galactic stuff, they can be little mini-adventures set between the bigger ones. On the other hand, the comics seem to be filling that niche more than the novels, and the comics are so good that I’m kind of fine with the priority seeming to be on them--even if I don’t think that’s intentional.  (Or maybe it’s just me vastly preferring the comics over the novels, it seems like that’s where the good stuff is happening, imo.) Anyway. Empire’s End.  I really do love this trilogy in a way that, looking back, is a lot sharper than a lot of what I’ve been feeling re: current SW.  I wish Wendig would get another crack at writing SW, whether for these characters or someone else.  And that the Bens would come back and write more, too.  I was skimming over their From a Certain Point of View story and thinking about Join the Resistance! and I MISS THOSE STORIES. - I am doing pretty good at keeping up with my rewatch getting finished before the new season of TCW happens, I’m down to 1.8 episodes per day to reach my goal!  :D Between that and the way I’ve been booking it through other stuff (it’s been so cold out lately that I don’t go out much, so I have more time to watch stuff) that I’m already a quarter of the way through my 2020 Resolutions list! - I just saw Ryan Bergara, Shane Madej, and Steven Lim launched Watcher and have a handful of videos up, so I’ll have those to watch, I also have a bunch of shows (Barry and Patriot mostly) waiting in the wings for when I finish with TCW, and of course more of The Untamed, and, well, THANK GOD SW IS QUIET RIGHT NOW, because it’s getting to be a bit Much.  In a good way, but still!  /wanted to grump - I finished the current season of Grace & Frankie and I really liked the first 3-4 episodes, I got a bunch of IRL LOLs out of them, but about halfway through the season it lost steam for me and the ending just felt weird, like, “Why are we going down this same path again?  What was the point of that sub-plot?” and it just felt unfocused to me. I feel like, by this point, we’re six seasons in, Grace and Frankie lying about stuff from each other feels very, very retread, especially when Grace and Nick have talked about this before, that sometimes she has to choose him, not just Frankie all the time, and this storyline sort of ended up in a place that seemed to contradict that, and it does help to view this through the lens of Grace still has decades of lying and secrets as routine to recover from, she’s going to backslide, and I’m down for that, but I feel like this just didn’t quite acknowledge that it was part of a pattern she’s still working on, rather than ignoring that it comes with context of stuff that’s already happened in the show. I’m also losing my patience with a lot of the romantic partners drama on the show, like, I think they’ve been on a slow drive towards Coyote/Mallory for awhile and I hate it, I really don’t get any kind of spark between Frankie and Jack, Joan-Margaret and the guy she picked to marry didn’t have enough of a spark to make that storyline all that fun, Principal Dan being weird by the end was just *SIGH* (all the more so because I want Mallory to be with someone who Is Not Coyote).  I do very much still love Barry/Brianna, I feel like the show does better at Brianna Is An Onion You Have To Peel Her Back In Layers, so going over similar ground makes sense.  And I actually enjoyed Coyote/Jessica, they’re adorable, but it’s hard to get invested when I don’t think it’ll last.  I actually really enjoy Bud/Allison and their mutual failboating conversation about their first times was delightful to watch.  But I also sort of feel like I’m getting exhausted on Robert/Sol, it didn’t feel like there was any idea what to do with them this season, so they just sort of threw a bunch of things at the wall to see what would stick.  Robert being like, “NO THIS IS A BAD IDEA” while Sol and Allison researched Bud’s family history was hilarious, MORE LIKE THAT, less of them keeping secrets from each other like that entire local theater storyline.  Or even Sol’s health thing, which brought out different approaches to quality vs length of life at their age, that was a much more interesting story. I guess I wouldn’t mind retreading the same ground quite so much, if it felt like they were aware of it being part of a bigger whole, rather than just doing the same thing again, or if it felt like it was going somewhere (I think this is why I liked the Brianna/Barry stuff, it feels like it’s going somewhere), but that doesn’t mean the cast isn’t still delightful and the show isn’t still an absolute delight.  It never feels flat or like they’re Flanderizing the characters, the human moments are still there and very genuine.  (Grace and the other young wives was one of my favorite moments of the season!  It was such a lovely, warm, human resolution.)  The cast still delivers everything beautifully and they’re retreading these stories for a reason--though, I can’t lie, I’m curious to see what the final season has, in the way of a shake-up of the usual dynamics, as well as some more permanent resolution, one assumes. It still remains one of my favorite shows whenever it comes back! Scattered Star Wars Thoughts/2020 Resolutions Update: - Star Wars: The Clone Wars s3e02-20 Current total:  41/260 Scattered Everything Else Thoughts/ 2020 Resolutions Update: - Watchmen s01e01-09 - Bob’s Burgers s10e11 - The Good Place s04e11 - Grace & Frankie s06e01-13 Current total:  86/260 Star Wars Fic Recs 2020 Resolutions Update Current total written:  81/520

[ladililn]

What Rogue One taught me about the Jedi, despite no Jedi actually appearing in it

So I initially started writing this for @rogueoneanniversary last year, and then Real Life happened and I disappeared from Tumblr and then Tumblr disappeared from me and now here we are, a full standard year later, and guess who still has (now very belated) Thoughts she wants to share? This girl! Because guess who still hasn’t gotten over this movie? This me! (Not sure whether @celebraterogueone is the correct place for this now?)

The first time I saw Rogue One, I completely missed the fallen colossus in the sands of Jedha. I just thought it was an overhead shot of some weirdly-shaped mountain. The second time, it took a moment for my brain to register and make sense of the image, and then I wondered how I'd ever missed it.

This one object, one blink-and-you-miss-it set piece, tells us so much about Jedha and the "ancient religion" of the Jedi and themes that run through the entire saga and even, I think, characters who aren't even in Rogue One (there's a reason the fallen Jedi statue looks exactly like Old Ben). It immediately calls to mind Shelley’s Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land 

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 

Stand in the desert…Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies[…]

[…]Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

To return for a moment to Admiral Motti’s “ancient religion” line in ANH—I’ve seen people point that out as a plot hole, or at least an early inconsistency, given that the Prequels show the Jedi faith alive and well a mere nineteen years earlier, which doesn’t seem very ancient. I find that charge specious for several reasons—first of all, “ancient” doesn’t mean “dead." I think you could easily and accurately refer to Judaism or Christianity as “ancient religions,” and both of those are alive and well now. The religion began a long, long time ago; thus it is “ancient.” I’d also argue that we hardly needed the Prequels to belie the idea that the Jedi Order was beyond human memory. We know in ANH that Obi-Wan used to be a Jedi Knight, and although Alec Guinness looked (and was) older than Obi-Wan’s actual age, there was nothing in that movie or the other two OT movies to indicate human lifespans differ significantly in the GFFA.

Still, I see the disconnect. On the one hand, we have a not-that-ancient man who was once one of the “guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.” On the other, you have Luke, who’s never even heard of the Jedi, and Han, who doesn’t believe in the Force. Again, some see these as errors, considering Han was already ten when the Republic fell, meaning the Jedi were still getting up to their incredible and well-documented feats when he should’ve been old enough to be aware and remember.

Explanations for this seeming disconnect can be found across the franchise, and they boil down to two main points: the Jedi’s (relative) lack of reach throughout the galaxy, and Order 66. 

Here’s a fun figure: how many Jedi were there in the galaxy before Order 66? 10,000. Ten fucking thousand. That’s a ridiculously tiny number. A laughably tiny number. A Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale number. An entire galaxy, all those planets and star systems, billions and billions (trillions? quadrillions?) of sentient beings, and you could name every single Jedi in a few hours. Put them all in the smallest NFL stadium, and they couldn’t even fill half the seats. 

Sometimes I find the Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale-ness of the GFFA frustrating (although IMO the “why is this galaxy filled with the same 10 people?!” complaints fans like to toss around ignores the history of the mythic storytelling tradition Star Wars is very much a part of and how the franchise fits into/plays with those genre conventions, but that’s a rant for another day). But in this case, I fucking love how ridiculous a number 10,000 is. I think it’s perfect. Our view of the Jedi’s relative size and stature in the galaxy is warped by the lens through which we see the galaxy; up until Rogue One, we’re pretty much just hanging out with Jedi. Not only that—in the Prequels and TCW, we’re hanging out with the best of the best, the council members and the freaking Chosen One. They’re the elite among the elite. The 1% of the 1%, only more like the .001% of the .0000000000000001%.

There’s an excerpt from the Rogue One novelization that I think illustrates my point perfectly. This comes from a section of the book that’s meant to be “supplemental data [from the] personal files of Mon Mothma,” a document entitled “Short Notes on the History of the Rebel Alliance Navy” (side note: how much do I love in-universe archival material? a whole fucking lot) (all emphasis mine):

What worked in the Clone Wars cannot work again: the partnership of Jedi Knights and Kaminoan clone armies constituted a peerless weapon that no longer exists. 

Consider a brigade of clone troopers served by a Jedi commander: Such a unit might penetrate a world’s orbital defenses and seize control of the entire planet while taking (and inflicting!) minimal casualties… [W]hat blockade could be thorough enough to keep out a handful of determined star fighters and a single clone drop ship? 

...With the Clone Wars’ end, the destruction of the Jedi Order, and the decommissioning of the Kaminoan cloning facilities, the self-proclaimed Emperor and his military advisers determined that the future of warfare was in large-scale naval weaponry—in a fleet of battleships and battle stations that could atomize any enemy, whether on a planet’s surface or among the stars. They rebuilt a military not for precision strikes but for hammerblows… No potential rebellion could dare eschew infantry altogether, but—lacking the elite support of the Jedi or clones—the cost in lives would be abominable…

From an in-universe perspective, the Jedi are OP as shit. Guys, these are a tiny handful of beings with the ability to move shit with their minds! They can run and leap insane distances at inhuman (yeah, I know that’s an impossible term in the context of a galaxy filled with humans and aliens, but you know what I mean) speeds, they can move in ways other people could never imagine, they have the sort of reflexes that allow Anakin to participate in a sport other members of his species, the most populous in the galaxy by far, physically cannot. They can manipulate the environment around them telekinetically. They can manipulate people telepathically. Their weapons can cut through anything. It’s been said before, but it bears repeating: they are literal space wizards. I know this is all obvious, but think about it from the perspective of your average galactic citizen: here is a microscopically tiny group of people who can literally do magic.

Why are there so few of them? Well, the Force moves in mysterious ways. But also, there don’t really need to be more. Talk about casting an outsized shadow: 10,000 people holding the entire galaxy together. Like Mon Mothma says, one Jedi (and their handful of trusty clone troopers) = an entire fucking battle station in terms of military power. And with the Sith so long in hiding (side note: the Rule of Two makes the Order look positively overpopulated), the Jedi have had no real opponent of their own stature and ability level to contend with for a long, long time. (We see, especially in TCW, how difficult it is for a non-Force user to be made into a credible threat for the Jedi in any circumstances. Those plotlines almost always require characters to be nerfed, either by having to hide their powers (because undercover), being restrained by the Code and not wanting to harm civilians (a Jedi’s primary weapon—though obviously not their only weapon—is hard to make nonlethal, or at least non-maiming), or conveniently forgetting most of their powers.)

Now, it could be argued that there do “need” to be more, because are they actually doing such a great job guarding peace and justice? Are they successfully holding the galaxy together? Even before the Clone Wars, we see in TPM that their power doesn’t extend all the way into the far reaches of the galaxy. Of course, you could also argue that the lawlessness of the Outer Rim has less to do with the Jedi’s inability, in terms of sheer forcible (sorry) power, to do anything about it, and more to do with the politics of the Republic, and you could be right. But that’s part of the point. The Jedi are enforcers of peace, not rulers. They’re not supposed to be making decisions on galactic policy. (That “supposed to” is key, but again: a story for another day.)

So my point is: sure, on Coruscant in the year 20 BBY, you’re not going to have anyone blinking and saying “Jedi who?” It’s a Core World—the Core World—and most of the characters we’re familiar with in the Prequel Era are by necessity among the upper echelons of galactic society, or at least moving in circles that bring them into contact with the upper echelons. High-ranking politicians, rulers of various worlds, heads of planetary militia—people who have reason to be interacting with the Jedi. (Even the criminals they interact with are top-level, crime bosses and legendary bounty hunters. You’re not going to call a Jedi to arrest a petty thief.)

99.999% of the galaxy’s citizens have never seen a Jedi in person. (We’re going to leave beside the issue of the media in the GFFA, because that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of, uh, mynocks?) The farther you get from Coruscant, the farther removed you are from galactic high society, the less you probably know about the Jedi. Han, growing up on the streets of Corellia, has no reason to be an expert on Jedi. I’m sure he’s heard rumors, but he is perfectly justified in being a skeptic, particularly once the Jedi disappear seemingly easily.

Which brings us to the Jedi Purge. Here’s the thing: Order 66 wasn’t just about literally killing all the Jedi and burning their Temple down. It was a planned cultural genocide as well. A revision of history. We all know the line from 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Palpatine destroyed the memory of the Jedi as surely as he destroyed the Jedi themselves. We’ve met, in various canon sources, history professors who lost their jobs because any mention, scholarly or otherwise, of the Jedi Order had become verboten. We’ve seen kids studying for their galactic history class in which one of the questions concerns Mace Windu, leader of a “criminal gang that interfered with a legal execution on Geonosis and sparked the Clone Wars.” Talk about revisionist: that goes against everything Palpatine himself said and did during the Clone Wars, a not-insignificant timespan of at least three years of his own personal history he has to revise, but in his role as Emperor, he can pull that off. This is what totalitarian governments do. We already see it begin in RotS, when Palps tells the Senate all about the Jedi Order’s attempt at a coup. And it’s effective! Five years on, Tarkin himself says the Jedi already feel like a distant memory.

And of course it’s fairly ludicrous (though not, I suppose, impossible) to assume that the statue on Jedha fell and was partially buried in sand within the last 19 years. But that’s one of the things I love most about Star Wars, something it’s particularly famous for: its Used Future aesthetic, the continued reminders that this is a galaxy with a history, one as complex and mysterious and tangled in its own legends as our own. That fallen colossus is one of many clues throughout canon that the Old Republic, the Jedi Order, belief in the Force—all were in decline long before the events of the Prequel Era.

Similarly, it’s clear that Jedha itself, once among the most holy sites in the galaxy, was also only a shadow of its former glory long before it got wiped off the map entirely. From Wookieepedia (again, emphasis mine):

As more of the galaxy was mapped, more direct hyperspace routes were discovered. These new passages made the old, winding routes, such as those connecting with Jedha, obsolete. The once-popular Jedha became an antiquated curiosity rather than a relevant destination, a location for those who desired spiritual guidance, a deeper purpose, or to simply exile themselves from the larger galaxy.

It’s typical Imperial excess to take the idea of Jedha’s long-buried secrets lost to the sands of time and literalize it by blowing the damn thing up. Horace Smith’s Ozymandias is less famous, but as (if not more) relevant to our discussion (“The City’s gone,” anyone?), and I leave you with its last stanza:

We wonder,—and some Hunter may express

Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness

Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,

He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess

What powerful but unrecorded race

Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

[blue-mint-winter]

I'm starting to explore the classic EU, specifically the novels, but since there are so many and I don't have the time to read every single one, are there any you would recommend I skip/avoid altogether? (LOTF and anything by Traviss is already on the skip-list)

That’s an interesting question. I have no idea what kind of books you like and dislike. Or if you plan to start chronologically with Dawn of the Jedi novel, or you mean only post-RotJ.

In general, I think everything is skippable if you don’t like the book. Those books aren’t masterpieces of literature, but they can still bring joy to Star Wars fans.

My method for reading was to just read what interested me, I was hopping around the timeline a lot. With post-RotJ EU I just read Thrawn Trilogy, Jedi Academy Trilogy and Thrawn Duology, then dived straight into NJO, because I wanted to quickly start reading about next gen (I was kind of bored at that time with OT heroes. And OT is really their best story, not anything in the books.) After that I came back to read New Republic Era and fill in the gaps and that’s when I realized there were quite a few really interesting books that I skipped the first time around.

Below is the full list of what I consider skippable in all eras:

Dawn of the Jedi: Into the Void - completely skippable standalone that doesn’t affect anything.

The Old Republic Era

Everything is skippable, except Darth Bane Trilogy because it’s awesome.

Skip Joe Schreiber’s zombie books: Red Harvest, Death Troopers unless you like zombies.

Avoid anything by Sean Williams because his writing is super boring.

Rise of the Empire Era (aka prequel era):

Movie novelizations are skippable.

Skip because boring: Rogue Planet, Cestus Deception, Jedi Trial.

Avoid TCW novels, especially Karen Miller because she’s a terrible writer. But Karen Traviss’ TCW novels are decent.

Skip Coruscant Nights trilogy and The Last Jedi by Michael Reaves, because those just aren’t that good.

Lando trilogy and Han Solo Adventures Trilogy (Brian Daley) are completely skippable (but really fun to read).

Don’t read TFU novelizations, it’s waste of time and they’re written by Sean Williams. Better to play the game or watch cutscenes on youtube.

Anything else, read or skip however you like.

Rebellion Era (aka OT era)

I don’t believe there’s anything particularly important in this era. You can skip it all.

Avoid: Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. It’s kind of bad and has nothing to do with the later EU, it’s just a relic, written as a sequel to ANH in case another movie wouldn’t happen.

Zahn books are basically prequels to the Thrawn Trilogy, so without reading it, there’s no point to reading Allegiance or Choices of One.

Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy deals with Boba Fett’s survival which is an admittably important plot point of EU, but it’s very much skippable.

Skip Galaxies: Ruins of Dantooine, it has nothing to do with anything.

New Republic Era

Avoid: The Crystal Star, The New Rebellion, The Corellian Trilogy.

Skip: Scourge by Jeff Grubb, it’s good but it has nothing to do with anything.

Everything else read or skip at will.

New Jedi Order

Okay, this one is the hardest, because all of those form one tight narrative

You can skip ebook novellas: Boba Fett A Practical Man by K. Traviss, and that one by Denning, they’re unimportant.

Agents of Chaos is not that great, but bear with it if you can.

Heretic of the Force trilogy is written by Shane Dix and Sean Williams, which is why it’s one of the weakest entries, but there’s still important stuff happening, so I can recommend to just skim to Nom Anor and Zonama expedition parts or whatever character interests you.

Avoid: Dark Nest Trilogy, it’s just Denning setting up LOTF! It’s not a real part of NJO, they just list it there because of the timeline, but it should already be classified as Legacy Era.

Legacy Era

I can’t recommend this era to anyone. Read at your own risk.

Books outside of the main series were okay to read, but of course they’re skippable because of the same reason.

Millennium Falcon is a must read after LotF in my opinion.

Crucible is actually FotJ part 10.

I hope this helped! Have fun reading EU! :)

[irhinoceri]

I graduated from college the week TFA came out. Literally had my ceremony in the morning on Saturday and went to a matinee to celebrate. I was very stressed and depressed in the semesters leading up to my graduation but one upside of that... to be honest... was that I paid absolutely no attention to the development of TFA. I mean I heard general stuff, like the controversy over a black stormtrooper or the fact that people were concerned about the lack of women, which lead to Phasma being made a woman... etc. But I didn't lose any sleep over anything, right. I was just too damn busy with my real life. Last night I was laying awake in bed at 3 am angsting about whether Finnrey was gonna be canon. I mean... getting back in fandom, reconnecting with my old love of the prequels, discovering TCW and Rebels, starting up writing fanfic, Rogue One, making more friends here on tumblr as I'm more active in a focused fandom (rather than just having a really catchall blog)... it's certainly been fun and rewarding in some aspects. But it's also been exhausting. Mostly I think I have tricked myself into not being able to enjoy TLJ the way I enjoyed TFA. I went in to TFA with few expectations... mostly I really was looking forward to seeing the stormtrooper as expendable background fodder completely turned on its head as the main character was a stormtrooper. And I thought they kind glossed over that... coulda spent more time exploring Finn's life, like even a montage of his day to day duties as a stormtrooper, but you know, I wasn't really going into the movie with a checklist of what I wanted and needed to see. After nearly two years I have so many specific needs for TLJ that I'll never be able to experience it with the simple joy I did TFA. Because I know that I won't get all the plot points and character beats that I want. I'm trying to set myself up for what I consider to be the worst that could happen, for disappointment, rather than just... idk... going on about my life and not letting the speculation and meta and discourse wear me out.

[gffa]

Scattered Star Wars Thoughts: - I was excited to see The Star Wars show was finally back, but I’m kind of bummed that it’s switching to once a month instead of once a week.  I’m really curious about what the decision was there, if it’s because Andi and Anthony are doing other things or if they’re being pushed aside. I like the roundtable idea so far, it has a lot of potential for some of the discussions the show used to have, but I’m sad that Andi and Anthony don’t seem to be as much of a part of it.  ): - I’ve been reading comics (I got a little exhausted after tearing through s4 of TCW and even thought s5 is slightly lighter in tone, I think I need to slow down a bit, so comics!) and the main titles have been really good so far!  I caught up on a bit of Star Wars Adventures and 27-29 (the story with Chewbacca back on Kashyyyk and C-3PO helping the young Duros girl on Garel) and they weren’t bad, but I didn’t feel like much had really been done with them, either.  Maybe it’s because Chewie and C-3PO are harder for me to vibe with?  I’ve liked their other stuff better (that C-3PO oneshot was brutal in the best way and The Mighty Chewbacca and the Forest of Fear! was really a delightful book) but these two just sort of passed me by and they were fine, but I had nothing to say or think about them.  Which made me kind of sad, because the Adventures comics are some of my faves! Speaking of comics being “fine” but otherwise not much, I finally finished off Dark Visions and I honestly can barely even remember them.  While there was some cool art and imagery in issue #5, it felt like a waste of story because people already see Darth Vader as walking nightmare fuel, no need to add hallucinogenic plants to the mix to make him seem more terrifying.  It would have been so much more interesting to explore more Imperial officers working with Vader, how about the Stormtroopers who are assigned to him?  How does Palpatine see him?  The droids Vader works with, and probably murders on the regular? It was hard not to read the issue and wish that we could see what these plants would have done to Anakin had he been scratched by them, what terrors would he see, that’s a hundred times more interesting than some random bartender seeing him in scary demon form, who would already have been pants-shittingly terrified of him.  You can’t compare to how terrifying he was in Jedi: Fallen Order or Rebels or Rogue One with something like that. So, it was fine, but honestly only the first and third issues were really worth reading (but they were SUPER worth reading because the first one is just so Over The Top that it’s perfect Anakin Skywalker and the third one is such a perfect shitpost of an issue that I love it without irony), otherwise I don’t know if I just didn’t vibe with it or if it was rushed out too quickly after Wendig was dropped or what, but eh. - I’m now halfway through Twilight Company, at about 7 hours out of the 14 total for the audiobook and it continues to be fine.  I have trouble tracking the plot and the characters and maybe it’s because it’s an audiobook that my attention wanders (but I’d have twice as much trouble getting through it if I were trying to read it, just because I don’t have the time/energy for most books right now), so even the Vader attacking Hoth scenes just kind of slid right by me without feeling much impact. It might be that I’m just not in the right frame of mind for this?  I kind of feel like NOTHING is hitting me perfectly right now. - I finally got to see Knives Out and it was fine, I guess?  I spent so much time thinking that there was going to be some bigger twist, rather than that it was a pretty straightforward whodunnit story, that the “twist” of it wasn’t meant to be this genre-exceeding thing, so much as a cute, fun story that fit right in with all the other movies like it.  Or maybe I’m just not in vibe with Rian Johnson’s movies?  I remember feeling like Looper was fine, but nothing revolutionary like a lot of people seemed to think, and this was long, long before he was ever involved with SW.  So maybe I’m just not meant to be a RJ fan. - I finished up The Good Place and I very much enjoyed the ending, but I can see how other people might have some issues with it.  The themes of connection and yet being able to let go really hit hard, so I was tearing up (in the way I was meant to) at some points, but I also think the whole Good Place problem was resolved a little too quickly and the ennui of the place was introduced at the very last moment so it didn’t really have time to settle in and they should have had another half a season to explore it, so the impact of the ending landed better. But otherwise, what a show, I’m so glad I got to see it and it was a lovely, earnest messages about how people don’t have to be perfect, just try to keep being a little better every day. Scattered Star Wars Thoughts/2020 Resolutions Update: - The Rise of Kylo Ren #2 - Vader: Dark Visions #4-5 - Star Wars #1-2 - Star Wars Adventures #27-30 - The Star Wars Show 2020.01.30 - Star Wars Resistance s02e03-04 Current total:  91/260 Scattered Everything Else Thoughts/ 2020 Resolutions Update: - Knives Out - The Good Place s04e13-14 Current total:  120/260 Star Wars Fic Recs 2020 Resolutions Update Current total written:  99/520