#that is literally Ahsoka Tano in live-action up there on that screen that is my GIRL

[martianbugsbunny]

You know those first five-ten minutes of Ahsoka really felt like Clone Wars bc at least three times I pointed at the screen at yelled "That's my girl!"

[gffa]

‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’: Dave Filoni Discusses the Final Eps and George Lucas’s Ongoing Mentorship [x] A long time ago in a galaxy where Disney didn’t have its own streaming service, the future of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” seemed bleak. The fan-favorite animated series, which centers on the conflict that helped shape much of the franchise’s mythology, was effectively canceled when Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney in 2013. Though a sixth season eventually made its way to Netflix, the series was axed before several of its key story arcs were resolved, throwing future tales of spunky Jedi Ahsoka Tano, clone troopers Rex and Cody, and the series’ myriad of other characters into doubt (though Ahsoka and Rex would appear at a later point in their lives in the series “Star Wars: Rebels.”) It took six years, but longtime fans will finally get their long-awaited sendoff when the seventh and final season of “The Clone Wars” kicks off on Disney+ on Friday, February 21. IndieWire recently spoke to supervising director Dave Filoni about the series’ evolution, his role in the expanding “Star Wars” television universe, and crafting a story about the philosophical (and frequently literal) battle between good and evil while keeping things accessible for audiences of all ages. The most immediate difference longtime viewers will notice going from Season 6 to Season 7 is the show’s graphical upgrades. Filoni and his team had ample time to hone their talents and make use of new technologies while creating “Star Wars Rebels” and the results are apparent. While technological advances haven’t simplified the development of “The Clone Wars,” new tools have made it possible for the series’ animators to expand the scope of its action scenes to live up to the galaxy-spanning conflict the show derives its name from, according to Filoni. “It wasn’t simple, it’s not like we just go down and turn the ‘Clone Wars’ machine on again,” Filoni told IndieWire in an interview. “Some things get easier, but you’re pushing the boundaries in other ways. You find ways to be more efficient and achieve things with the number of clones we could put on the battlefield, while some types of effects and rendered textures have also changed. Overall, it’s not easier, but there are more possibilities.” One thing that hasn’t changed is the ever-present challenge of crafting a meaningful story when most viewers already know how things end (spoiler: Things don’t turn out particularly well for the Jedi Order at the end of the Clone Wars). “The Clone Wars” takes place between Episodes II and III of the Skywalker Saga, and though it features plenty of original characters and story threads, the series still needs to fit into the continuity of the franchise’s films. The final episodes of the “The Clone Wars” are less a continuation of Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Padmé Amidala’s stories — though they’re still key parts of the series — and more an opportunity to wrap up the arcs of fan-favorite characters such as Ahsoka Tano and Rex. For Filoni, “The Clone Wars” has always been less about what happens in the eponymous conflict, and more about why things played out how they did in other “Star Wars” media. For example, Darth Maul’s arc has already been wrapped up in “Star Wars Rebels,” but his return in “The Clone Wars” Season 7 gave Filoni and his team the opportunity to delve into the nature of evil and the Dark Side of the Force by contrasting the character with the machinations of Darth Sidious, the franchise’s chief big bad. “I began making ‘The Clone Wars’ right after ‘Revenge of the Sith’ came out and you didn’t know at that time that Anakin had a Padawan, or that Maul was alive, or anything about the personal nature of the clones,” Filoni said. “What happens in the end for these characters? Maul is an instigator for many of the things that happen and we learn things about him that tells us more about the perception of evil and the workings of Darth Sidious.” The series has featured plenty of recognizable characters over the years, while its various arcs fleshed out a dizzying array of obscure “Star Wars” characters and locations. “The Clone Wars” had several plot threads, including episodes that would’ve focused on Darth Maul, that were cut short due to Lucasfilm’s Disney acquisition. Some of these storylines were incorporated into Season 6, while others were released in the form of novels or comic books (such as the Asajj Ventress-focused novel “Dark Disciple”). Plot details about the unfinished arcs were eventually released online, but at the time, it seemed unlikely that they would ever see the light of day on the small screen. “The Clone Wars” Season 7 will finally resolve some of these unfinished arcs, starting with “The Bad Batch,” the season’s first episode. “The Bad Batch” kicks off a multi-episode arc and focuses on an unconventional clone trooper squad of the same name as they team up with Rex, Cody, and Anakin on a dangerous mission to save one of their allies. It’s exciting, kid-friendly viewing, like a Saturday morning action cartoon with particularly high production values, and full of venerated characters, equipment, and locales. In other words, it’s “Star Wars.” Though the franchise has continued to expand and evolve since franchise creator George Lucas sold his company to Disney, Filoni said he still endeavors to keep his “Star Wars” projects in-line with Lucas’ vision and noted that he still occasionally discusses series concepts and other ideas with Lucas to ensure that “The Clone Wars” and other projects are faithful to the franchise’s mainline films and ideologies. “We still talk and if I’m stuck I will bug George for ideas, because he is the canon,” Filoni said. “He created it and I respect that. One of my jobs and purposes is to keep things as intact to what George laid down as possible. It is for kids — George would always say that over the years — but the beauty is that everyone can watch and enjoy it if you get the show right.” As for Filoni, his career has continued to evolve alongside the “Star Wars” franchise. He began working on “The Clone Wars” 15 years ago (Season One premiered in 2008) and never expected the “Star Wars” gig to last more than two or three years. Since then, he’s created the aforementioned “Rebels,” and directed, wrote, and produced two episodes of “The Mandalorian,” the first live-action “Star Wars” series and a key factor in Disney+’s massively successful launch (Season 2 will premiere on Disney+ in October).

[norcumii]

some musings on TCW season 7

One of the things that makes Tumblr difficult is that I really, REALLY don’t want to harsh anyone’s squee. I don’t want to be that person who sails in, sneers disdainfully at what people are enjoying, and then ambling out, having sucked as much joy out of the room as possible.

My brother used to do that about ANYTHING I was watching, and I still resent it. I don’t want to do that to anyone.

Meanwhile, I’ve reached my saturation point with Season 7 of clone wars, and in my own tired, perpetually exhausted way, I want to scream. Thus, kvetching under the cut. In all seriousness, if you’re enjoying Season 7, then please, PLEASE skip this rant. I sincerely hope you continue to enjoy and Season 7 continues to entertain.

I haven’t watched it: I’m practicing that much self care, at least. There’s been lots of meta and gifsets running around, so I’ve gotten enough second hand exposure – along with useful meandering through various wikis and such – that I feel able to comment about it.

It is indeed very cinematic, and I guess if you dig the art style, then it is a very good example of said art style. But from a broadstrokes perspective, the writing?

What an absolute screaming dumpsterfire.

The thing that finally pushed me from “meh” to “nope, gotta rant about this” was a fascinating piece of meta here, about how Maul is the prism character – the lens through which the story is told. Now, that’s my phrasing and not the OP’s, and again, I haven’t actually seen this so I’m taking a lot of things at face value.

It’s a fascinating approach, and makes the angst and despair that much sharper – especially if you apply this post about parallels to RotS, and let’s not forget the very impressive mocap for the lightsaber fight.

My question, however, is why the FUCK would you do that in the first place? (Not the mocap. That’s genuinely impressive.)

First off: you’re putting the audience in the same boat with the villain. Your lens character is the one who frames the story, who puts into perspective how one interprets events. In this case, that implies that what Ahsoka, Rex, and the rest of the clones are doing is in the antagonist's position, which might be part of the whole “nothing is true and nothing is false but everything is fucked” atmosphere that they seem to be trying to foster (see: Ahsoka’s arguments with Obi-Wan. GFFA has some good breakdowns as far as I can tell). So Maul is supposed to be the lynchpin of this story, either as the protagonist or the Sancho Panza to the protagonist.

That’s a damn weird take on this particular story. Is it about Mandalore? Is it about Ahsoka’s journey? Is it about Maul’s journey? Or are we trying for something meta about how it’s how Maul and Ahsoka’s journeys parallel each other’s, and how those contrast with Anakin’s?

Have you noticed yet who’s missing from this equation?

For a show that’s called “The Clone Wars,” there’s been astonishingly little clones involved in the broader plot. So let’s take a step back from this one issue and look at the season as a whole.

There’s been ten episodes so far this season, out of twelve total. Six of them have centered around Ahsoka. The other four have been about Rex and the Bad Batch. Now, let’s set aside the whole very valid debate about having so many female centric characters and stories is grand, and we need lots more. That’s a damn good point, and Star Wars as a whole needs better diversity on all fronts. Not the particular lens I’m looking through at the moment.

There’s been four of ten episodes about clones. In the final season of The Clone Wars. Yes, they show up in other episodes, but that’s not the focus.

Why would you do that?? We got five seasons already where the clones are more background noise with the occasional highlight (The Deserter, the Umbara Arc), and the entire freakin’ war has been named after them. Ok, so maybe that’s to some degree social commentary about how the Republic was viewing them – background noise against which the weird mythical Jedi shit really stood out – and the sixth season was more a hodgepodge of “we have THESE episodes nearly in the can, rush to finish them because this is important shit to get out the door to bridge from this series to the movies.”

They didn’t expect to have the chance to make this season. They could’ve done pretty much anything, since they didn’t even default to just using the episodes that WERE 70% done (if not more) and had been released into the wild as animatics.

So why pick these stories to tell? And moreover, why this way? Why not make the last hurrah that the crew could not have expected be something coherent and about the actual people that the damned show is named for?

Let’s play with hypotheticals, since kvetching without reasonable alternatives is considered uncouth these days. Let’s say one wants the Bad Batch “rescuing Echo” arc (and that it’s not agony porn. To be fair, I’m not sure if it IS agony porn, thus the presumption that it’s an arc to be had). Since we already spent SIX ENTIRE SEASONS beating home the point that clones are individuals and to be respected as such, rather than introducing new clones who are “aberrations” just to drive home hey, they’re clone versions of TF2 characters clone versions of terrible action movie heroes individuals, how about this?

Cody calls in the Bad Batch, a squad that gets sent into the worst situations and honestly, isn’t ever really expected to come out alive. They’re bad clones, you see. Their leader is probably a man named Dogma – he’s a Jedi killer, but damn loyal to the Republic. His second in command – not that either of them are happy about that – is Slick, a Brother Killer and all around asshole. The other two members of the squad are two deserters: Cut Lawquane, who was found and brought back to the army, and Boil, who was caught trying to leave after Umbara. They have a civilian support member, Suu Lawquane (a damn good sniper, and she now has armor as well as actual clothes).

Bring so many of Rex’s issues home to roost. Make that poor man question all his life choices. He’s still reeling from the whole chip arc and Fives’ death. Let him see what the Grand Army does with its too loyal soldiers, how Dogma did the right thing against orders and is now leading others into the meat grinder on the daily. Let him see what the Grand Army does to traitors, like Slick whose hands are red with the blood of his brothers – just like Rex’s, after Umbara. Cut, who left after too much death, and built a life. Boil, who lost so much, who had enough and just wanted to go find the one remnant of good things that he’d ever encountered in his short life.

They’ve got slave explosive implants somewhere – three because they’re flight risks, Dogma because – well, no one can say why, but it’s so. Let Slick shove Anakin’s nose into the fact that the Jedi are still leading a slave army, have Anakin have to confront that it’s not hyperbole anymore, not when the clones have chips in their heads and now these have slave implants they literally don’t know where.

Hell, have Anakin blow up at Cody over this, and perhaps Cody has to pull rank – establish on screen that he’s running so much of this damn war. He doesn’t like what’s been done with the Bad Batch either, but he can only put out so many fires, and keeping this from raging out of control is the best he can manage.

Let the audience see consequences. Let there be fallout as they go searching for Echo, and the Bad Batch’s various past issues bounce against the experiences of Rex and whoever’s along with him.

(For that matter, if you still want to tackle Mandalore and all that, have one of the soldiers going along with be Vaughn – get to know the man for a little bit. See how Random!Clone reacts to all this, not just Jesse and Kix. Someone without the history with any of these men. While we’re at it, Dogma had Kix in the firing line against Jesse. GIVE ME THE REACTIONS, DAMMIT! AND! And does Rex ever have to say to Dogma “you did the right thing, that Jedi needed to die”? How much does that blow EITHER of their minds?)

Show us travel time. Show us what it’s like for a bunch of soldiers to be stuck in a tin can flying through space along with an entire penal squad of brothers who spit in the face of what the GAR stands for – for reasons both good and bad. Show us what the years have done to Dogma and Slick, how Cut and Suu have adjusted from a life of growing things to having to murder things. How Boil just is done, and wants to head to Ryloth (hey, maybe Numa is currently living with her new sibs/cousins/friends/arch-rivals Shaeeah and Jek).

Then add poor Echo into that mix. Echo, who doesn’t quite know what he’s doing anymore, who was in the Citadel, then stuck in a nightmare of battle sims, and now in this new nightmare of a war that dragged on even longer – and no Fives.

Let us grieve along with him. Fives got a four episode arc (gee, I wonder why this season wanted to start with a four episode arc dealing with the last Domino >_>) where he fell, let us watch Echo’s rise and how he deals with all this.

Let him decide he wants to leave some of the more painful memories behind, how he can’t stay with Rex because it hurts too much, but at least now he’s got some fellow exiles to watch over.

Let the last we see of him be Echo using his new abilities to dismantle both the insidious little buzzing chip inside his and his team’s heads, along with the explosives they also have to bear. Fives died because of the chip, let Echo help others to live in spite of it.

Then slide the camera focus from Rex to Vaughn. Perhaps he gets assigned to go find the former Commander Tano (did he know her at all? Or had he just heard about her?). We could follow him across Coruscant, meeting various civilians who had Strange Encounters with that nice young Togruta. Maybe we get a fun montage: Vaughn questioning people, their various reactions, possibly as a nice voiceover to What Really Happened – that also gives a grand opportunity to get people’s impressions of the Jedi and their clone lackeys.

Then off to Mandalore, still from Vaughn’s perspective. Let us watch this poor man’s rise, as he has to be the metaphorical third wheel to The Team’s reunion. He’s the poor uncomfortable bastard in the room, but he’s a good man, loyal and skilled.

(Also, why could we not get the clones receiving patches or decals of Ahsoka’s markings, and play with that? Emphasize the clones’ individuality – some have it on their shoulder bells, some did the helmets, some have the design down the arm, along the leg – just...diversify, dammit!)

Have Vaughn keep up with Ashoka all the way through to the fight with Maul. Have him be hit, have him be disarmed for the fight – all he can do is witness it (for that matter, you can echo the Duel of the Fates, with Vaughn being in Qui-Gon’s position of dying on the floor).

Then let us see Order 66 from the clones’ perspectives. Show us the sieges, show us Bly and his squad following Aayla into the woods; show us Wolffe and the pack separating from Plo; show us Fox patrolling the Senate.

We’ve seen the Jedi die already. Show us the other side, if you insist on breaking our hearts, and show us how the clones go from good men to good soldiers.

Let me see Cody, let me see the aftermath on Utapau. Let me see Rex breaking, or refusing to break, or whatever it is that happens.

Let this season be about clones.

[airyairyaucontraire]

An interesting thing about the whole Star Wars franchise is the way several important characters can’t be clearly associated with one actor. They’re like children of multiple parents. You can simply say that Luke Skywalker is Mark Hamill’s character and Leia Organa is Carrie Fisher’s, but there’s no such correspondence for a character like Darth Maul - is he Ray Park’s? Is he Sam Witwer’s? Does Peter Serafinowicz still count? (Donald Glover counts for Lando Calrissian yet Alden Ehrenreich does not count for Han Solo. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules. Also I have to Google every time I want to mention him to make sure he is not Ansel Elgort.)

Anakin Skywalker, obviously, is the biggest possible mess - which is totally in character - because he’s been played by a different voice and body in the same film, he’s been played by actors of different age groups, and he has one voice actor who’s never played him physically on screen but has probably logged more hours playing him than any of the others, including his most iconic voice actor. If it was a dog-calling contest to find the real master he would just be sitting in the middle doing a confused baroo.

Some characters have different voice and body casting from the beginning - Darth Vader, Mando - and others get that way over time and through productions in different media. The slightly lower pop-cultural status of the animated portions of the story means that it feels like a promotion for a character to move from animation to live action, like Ahsoka Tano is set to do, but it’s funny - when I was thinking about Ahsoka joining The Mandalorian and whether she might bring Sabine Wren with her, it occurred to me, what if we also saw Ahsoka’s oldest surviving friend, Rex? (I seriously had to Google to remind myself whether Rex died at the end of Rebels, because I definitely remember crying my eyes out at the brave, poignant death of an old clone, but I think now that was Gregor, IT’S NOT MY FAULT THEY LITERALLY LOOK ALIKE.) For a moment I was like “Dude! Imagine if we actually got Temuera Morrison playing a clone again!” but then I realised that despite my natural enthusiasm for seeing the daddy of Space New Zealanders again, I really feel that Dee Bradley Baker has a claim to Rex that he doesn’t, as if Tem were his biological parent but Dee were the one that brought him up.

It’s funny.