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jeriendhalSummary: Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, aided by his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi and his jailbait young padawan Ahsoka, fights his way across the Galaxy to combat the evil Separatists led by Count Dooku. Along the way he’s aided by the brave Clone Troopers, who form the backbone of the army and work selflessly to defend the Republic and their Jedi commanders.
Review: The great idea behind The Clone Wars (not to be confused with Genndy Tartakovsky’s earlier animated shorts) is that we get a wide spanning, animated space opera style series of the sort rarely produced domestically in the States, but which Japan pumps out on a regular basis. And make no mistake, it is very good. As much as the producers comment on the budget compromises they had to make (in-between polite mentions of “George told us to do this…”) you wouldn’t know it from seeing what appears on the screen. The show looks beautiful, the action is breathtaking, it’s tightly written, and for a Star Wars product the characterizations are quite good.
That last part is part of the problem really. Because of course we’re rooting for A) Anakin, who at this point in the prequel timeline has already slaughtered a village of Sand People and is well on his way to becoming Darth Vader, B) The Clone Troopers, destined to become the Stormtroopers, which Ani’s son and his friends will slaughter by the thousands in Episodes IV, V & VI, and of course C) All of the Jedi, Ahsoka presumably included, who die like dogs near the end of Revenge of the Sith. So there’s just a teensy bit of viewer dissonance going on as we watch.
To the producers’ credit though, they know this, and even play with it a little. Many of the Jedi (notably, Anakin isn’t among them) are a little disturbed by the Clones’ willingness to die for the Cause, especially when many of them (mostly personified in Captain Rex and Commander Cody) show individual personality traits. It’s hard to reconcile seeing a trooper take off his helmet to calm down a frightened alien girl in one episode, to the fellows who mercilessly mow down jawas and Luke’s family in A New Hope. At one point a traitorous Clone even points out that basically they’re all slaves, doing the Jedi’s bidding and dying at their whim.
But then something explodes and you get drawn back into the action, and presumably George Lucas is hoping you’ll see them as faceless mooks again by the time you want to re-watch the Original Trilogy.
Review: The great idea behind The Clone Wars (not to be confused with Genndy Tartakovsky’s earlier animated shorts) is that we get a wide spanning, animated space opera style series of the sort rarely produced domestically in the States, but which Japan pumps out on a regular basis. And make no mistake, it is very good. As much as the producers comment on the budget compromises they had to make (in-between polite mentions of “George told us to do this…”) you wouldn’t know it from seeing what appears on the screen. The show looks beautiful, the action is breathtaking, it’s tightly written, and for a Star Wars product the characterizations are quite good.
That last part is part of the problem really. Because of course we’re rooting for A) Anakin, who at this point in the prequel timeline has already slaughtered a village of Sand People and is well on his way to becoming Darth Vader, B) The Clone Troopers, destined to become the Stormtroopers, which Ani’s son and his friends will slaughter by the thousands in Episodes IV, V & VI, and of course C) All of the Jedi, Ahsoka presumably included, who die like dogs near the end of Revenge of the Sith. So there’s just a teensy bit of viewer dissonance going on as we watch.
To the producers’ credit though, they know this, and even play with it a little. Many of the Jedi (notably, Anakin isn’t among them) are a little disturbed by the Clones’ willingness to die for the Cause, especially when many of them (mostly personified in Captain Rex and Commander Cody) show individual personality traits. It’s hard to reconcile seeing a trooper take off his helmet to calm down a frightened alien girl in one episode, to the fellows who mercilessly mow down jawas and Luke’s family in A New Hope. At one point a traitorous Clone even points out that basically they’re all slaves, doing the Jedi’s bidding and dying at their whim.
But then something explodes and you get drawn back into the action, and presumably George Lucas is hoping you’ll see them as faceless mooks again by the time you want to re-watch the Original Trilogy.
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Date: 2010-07-07 01:20 pm (UTC)The first thing that happens after the events of Revenge of the Sith is that the Empire destroys Kamino.
Storm troopers are not clones - they're recruits and sometimes conscripts.
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Date: 2010-07-07 02:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-07 04:45 pm (UTC)That said, according to what I've read from the Extended Universe, the clone troopers we see in movies 1-3 aren't the same as the Stormtroopers that show up in films 4-6. Soon after the Clone Wars officially ended, there was a revolt on Kamino. The cloners tried to engineer a batch of clones that would be loyal to them. Palpatine sends the troops in, and the Kaminoan facilities are ruined. After that the Stormtroopers start recruiting non-clones, though the 501st ("Vader's Fist", the legion we see destroying the Jedi Temple in Revenge of the Sith) stays all-clone to the end of the Empire.
But I agree on the creepiness of the whole engineered warrior slaves thing. Are we supposed to believe that absolutely NO ONE in the entire Republic thinks their own nation/government is worth fighting for? Again, in the Extended Universe, esp. in the 'Clone Wars' series of graphic novels from Dark Horse, this is brought up on several occasions, with various Jedi wondering about the morality of the Senate and Council's decision about the clones. And we see some local fighters aiding the Jedi and Clones against the Seps.
Apparently the problem was/is, the Republic had "outlawed war" 1000 years before the movies. No army, no real navy, nothing but the Jedi and some local defense forces. But when modern weapons and ships began to mysteriously show up in the hands of various outlaws and slavers, the Republic refused to build its own military for defense because militarism is all evil and such. So groups like the Trade Federation began building their own massive "security forces" simply to defend themselves, and it began snowballing from there.
And with Padawan
JailbaitAhsoka Tano, I'm ashamed to say that I see her as somewhat sexy. Enough so that I still plan on writing a Fanfic set after the Clone Wars in which an embittered and in-hiding Ahsoka hires/allies with a bounty hunter to get the women who she "just knows" is responsible for everything that's gone wrong -- Asajj Ventress.no subject
Date: 2010-07-08 06:04 am (UTC)I still enjoyed it but the maturity is gone.