Explain why I should care about the Clone Wars please.
January 24, 2018 4:29 PM Subscribe
Star Wars (Prequels/Clone Wars) question inside (below the fold for spoilers).
Okay. After many years I broke down and watched Episodes II and III (terrible) and am now on Season 2 of the Clone Wars animated series. I’m mostly enjoying how the show rehabilitates the characters of the prequels. But I’m really struggling with how I’m supposed to believe in the “good guys” in the conflict of the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatists. We know that Chancellor Palestine/Darth Sidious is basically calling the shots on both sides. So what’s the point? Is it just that the “good guys” are fighting for the Republic, which is assumed to be worth defending, and their actions are for that reason admirable even though they are acting under the direction of Palpatine ultimately in service of his goal of undermining the Republic? Please give me a way of thinking about this that makes the plot seem to matter.
Okay. After many years I broke down and watched Episodes II and III (terrible) and am now on Season 2 of the Clone Wars animated series. I’m mostly enjoying how the show rehabilitates the characters of the prequels. But I’m really struggling with how I’m supposed to believe in the “good guys” in the conflict of the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatists. We know that Chancellor Palestine/Darth Sidious is basically calling the shots on both sides. So what’s the point? Is it just that the “good guys” are fighting for the Republic, which is assumed to be worth defending, and their actions are for that reason admirable even though they are acting under the direction of Palpatine ultimately in service of his goal of undermining the Republic? Please give me a way of thinking about this that makes the plot seem to matter.
The band is playing as the Titanic sinks, but the audience can still appreciate how well the band plays.
Plus if you like Asoka, her character arc is pretty great.
posted by BeeDo at 5:54 PM on January 24, 2018
Plus if you like Asoka, her character arc is pretty great.
posted by BeeDo at 5:54 PM on January 24, 2018
I've long held that the Clone Wars (and Rebels) are probably the best version of Star Wars for a couple reasons:
1) you get time to stretch your legs and really get to know that world, and those characters.
2) the Clone Wars and Rebels are carrying the workload of giving much needed texture/complication to what started off as a pretty one note and often nonsensical story.
Both series are arguably really Ahsoka's story. She starts off as a naive side player, and ultimately becomes both the canary in the coal mine in terms of Luke's realization in Last Jedi that the whole order were a bunch of fuck-ups as well as a missing critical piece in Anakin's backstory. How do we get from the yippee kid in Episode 1 to Darth Vader killing machine in Episode IV? The movies certainly didn't take you on that journey in a satisfactory way. You see much more of how that happens in Clone Wars/Rebels, and that story goes through Ahsoka Tano.
If nothing else, Clone Wars catches you up on what you need to know to appreciate the Rebels season 2 finale, which might contain the best 10 minutes in the entire cannon.
Put another way: Disney doesn't have to complicate this story at all - it's going to make money. They should play it safe. But they're ultimately doing much more ballsy things in terms storytelling in the side properties like Clone Wars/Rebels and the Marvel Vader comic book that you really didn't see in the main movies until TLJ. If you like Star Wars at all, you owe it to yourself to watch both Clone Wars/Rebels.
posted by NoRelationToLea at 6:34 PM on January 24, 2018
1) you get time to stretch your legs and really get to know that world, and those characters.
2) the Clone Wars and Rebels are carrying the workload of giving much needed texture/complication to what started off as a pretty one note and often nonsensical story.
Both series are arguably really Ahsoka's story. She starts off as a naive side player, and ultimately becomes both the canary in the coal mine in terms of Luke's realization in Last Jedi that the whole order were a bunch of fuck-ups as well as a missing critical piece in Anakin's backstory. How do we get from the yippee kid in Episode 1 to Darth Vader killing machine in Episode IV? The movies certainly didn't take you on that journey in a satisfactory way. You see much more of how that happens in Clone Wars/Rebels, and that story goes through Ahsoka Tano.
If nothing else, Clone Wars catches you up on what you need to know to appreciate the Rebels season 2 finale, which might contain the best 10 minutes in the entire cannon.
Put another way: Disney doesn't have to complicate this story at all - it's going to make money. They should play it safe. But they're ultimately doing much more ballsy things in terms storytelling in the side properties like Clone Wars/Rebels and the Marvel Vader comic book that you really didn't see in the main movies until TLJ. If you like Star Wars at all, you owe it to yourself to watch both Clone Wars/Rebels.
posted by NoRelationToLea at 6:34 PM on January 24, 2018
Best answer: It’s about the people, why they fight, their bonds, and why it matters to them, even if the galaxy as a whole is caught in an unwitting series of proxy wars that are really meant to disenfranchise everyone.
Lucas’s framing is clumsy, and the Jedi end up questioning by the end (especially Yoda, in the coda-like partial season released after the Clone Wars series) whether their ideals have been compromised. It’s put in basic terms, cynically, in The Last Jedi — who profits from war? It’s never the soldiers or the idealists. War in itself is a way of containing or expanding reach. So it’s the poor people of the galaxy and how they gain a little autonomy, or the Mandalorians and their will for self-governance, or even the people of Dathomir and their will to be instruments of power but not owned by it.
Battle is the backdrop and the flashy scenes of conflict are alluring but it’s the internal conflict of the characters and the eventual loss that makes it an interesting story. It’s the idea that victory can be absolute, or that victory can exist over compromise, that wrecks everything.
posted by mikeh at 9:58 PM on January 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
Lucas’s framing is clumsy, and the Jedi end up questioning by the end (especially Yoda, in the coda-like partial season released after the Clone Wars series) whether their ideals have been compromised. It’s put in basic terms, cynically, in The Last Jedi — who profits from war? It’s never the soldiers or the idealists. War in itself is a way of containing or expanding reach. So it’s the poor people of the galaxy and how they gain a little autonomy, or the Mandalorians and their will for self-governance, or even the people of Dathomir and their will to be instruments of power but not owned by it.
Battle is the backdrop and the flashy scenes of conflict are alluring but it’s the internal conflict of the characters and the eventual loss that makes it an interesting story. It’s the idea that victory can be absolute, or that victory can exist over compromise, that wrecks everything.
posted by mikeh at 9:58 PM on January 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
The previous answers have spoken very eloquently about why this series is important in the Star Wars canon. Ultimately, yes, it is all futile and tragic, because we know the Empire "wins". But there is a lot of beauty in this journey, and honestly I feel that this series and the "Rebels" series contain some of the best Star Wars anything.
On a more concrete note: with Season 3, the animation quality picks up markedly. Scuttlebutt has it that Lucas provided funds from his own fortune to increase the budget. Many of the story "arcs" that fans consider essential are in Seasons 3-5: the Umbara arc, the Mortis arc, the Kadavo arc, Ahsoka's arc. Stick with it! Seasons 1 & 2 are generally held to be ones that you bear through to get to the good stuff in the later seasons. I think by the end -- including the "Lost Missions" that comprise the finished part of the cancelled 6th season -- you will consider it a journey well worth taken.
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 5:49 AM on January 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
On a more concrete note: with Season 3, the animation quality picks up markedly. Scuttlebutt has it that Lucas provided funds from his own fortune to increase the budget. Many of the story "arcs" that fans consider essential are in Seasons 3-5: the Umbara arc, the Mortis arc, the Kadavo arc, Ahsoka's arc. Stick with it! Seasons 1 & 2 are generally held to be ones that you bear through to get to the good stuff in the later seasons. I think by the end -- including the "Lost Missions" that comprise the finished part of the cancelled 6th season -- you will consider it a journey well worth taken.
posted by The Nutmeg of Consolation at 5:49 AM on January 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
Seconding TNoC's comments above. The Mortis arc, the youngling training arc, and Yoda's arc at the very end are great if you're like me and interested in the practical and metaphysical arcana of the Force and Jedi.
The Onderon rebel arc is a big favorite of mine as well; It's an interesting story about the Jedi acting as covert advisors in a homegrown guerrilla war on a nominally Separatist planet. One of the featured characters introduced in this arc is the younger version of Saw Gerrera, the renegade rebel leader played by Forest Whitaker in Rogue One. It's one of the better examples of the expanded universe adding dimensions to the main film canon, and worth watching if you enjoyed Rogue One.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:52 AM on January 25, 2018
The Onderon rebel arc is a big favorite of mine as well; It's an interesting story about the Jedi acting as covert advisors in a homegrown guerrilla war on a nominally Separatist planet. One of the featured characters introduced in this arc is the younger version of Saw Gerrera, the renegade rebel leader played by Forest Whitaker in Rogue One. It's one of the better examples of the expanded universe adding dimensions to the main film canon, and worth watching if you enjoyed Rogue One.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:52 AM on January 25, 2018
Response by poster: Thanks for all of the responses. I am looking forward to the character arcs and definitely like Ahsoka. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something about the nature of the military conflict that would make it make more sense. It sounds like not, and that’s part of the point. Thanks!
posted by rustcellar at 9:50 AM on January 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by rustcellar at 9:50 AM on January 25, 2018 [2 favorites]
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