The Future of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Dave Filoni talks about the future of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and even shows a clip of what's still to come.

-GJ

The Death of Jar Jar Binks - The Phantom Edit

This would have made Episode I: The Phantom Menace so much better!

Now though, if they would let me write an episode of the animated series The Clone Wars, my entire episode would be killing Jar Jar over and over and over again. All of which would be made possible by Palpatine who had Jar Jar cloned for just this kind of circumstance.

-GJ

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 5 Episode 1

Warning: The Following Review Contains Spoilers

Finally the new season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is upon us!!!

Episode 1, "Revival", opens with brothers Savage Opress and Darth Maul still out on the loose wreaking havoc on our favorite galaxy far far away; and they seem to have an evil plan up their sleeves.

Unfortunately for Savage, Maul decides to let him in on some very valuable Sith knowledge, which leaves him sprawled on his back and Maul's saber in his face; they are now no longer brothers, but Master and Apprentice.

The rest of Maul's plan consists of building a pirate army to assist in his evil deeds. And where does one get pirates? Well he steals them from Hondo of course.

Now while Maul and Savage build their pirate army (and plan their attack on Hondo himself), Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Adi Gallia enter the system responding to a distress call and hot on the trail of our two infamous Sith.

When Kenobi and Gallia catch up with Maul and Savage they quickly find themselves outnumbered, and have to resort to contacting Hondo to see if he needs, and is willing to provide, assistance.

An epic ground battle breaks out between the Sith and their hired pirates versus the Jedi, Hondo, and his faithful band of men. In the opening onslaught Jedi Master Adi Gallia falls to Savage Opress and Hondo and his men are forced to retreat into a cavern.

Kenobi tells Hondo that he will lead the Sith away while his men set up a trap for his former crew mates. The ensuing battle between Kenobi and the Sith costs Savage an arm and he and Maul are forced to retreat.

Meanwhile Hondo convinces the traitors to once again work for him and they head off to plunder the Sith's ship.

Upon everyone exiting the cavern the pirates find themselves face to face with the Sith. After a verbal exchange between Maul and Hondo it becomes a race to the Sith starship. While trying to run away, Maul takes a perfectly placed blaster bolt to the leg and has it cleanly blown off.

With the use of the force Maul is able to grab hold of the Jedi starship and bring it crashing down off the cliff it was perched creating the needed distraction for the Sith to reach their ship and to escape.

The episode ends back on Coruscant with several of the Jedi Council talking with Chancellor Palpatine in regards to the Sith. Palpatine advises the Council to leave the Sith be since they aren't posing a threat to the Republic and only want to hang out with pirate scum. We end with a close up of Palpatine sitting at his desk and a smile creeping across his face.

Overall this was a really good episode; it contained plenty of action, and a good balance of humor.

There was however one thing that sticks out from the episode that we weren't too happy about; the death of Jedi Adi Gallia. Yes she does die during the Clone Wars, but this was not supposed to be it. The original story had her death happening on the planet Boz Pity and at the hands of General Grievous.

But other than that a good episode and a great way to start off the new season. We can't wait to see the next episode.

-GJ

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5 Trailer #2

-GJ

Star Wars 1313 Gameplay Trailer

-GJ

How Star Wars: The Clone Wars Must End

This post is about the ending of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, this has nothing to do with the fate of Ahsoka Tano (How Lucas Could Save Ahsoka Tano), or of Captain Rex; the decision on their fates will need to have already taken place.

For many, the ending of The Clone Wars series isn't that difficult to figure out, in fact, believe it or not, it's already been wrote and in print for just over ten years now!

Ladies and Gentleman, say hello to Star Wars: Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno (Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Darth Plagueis)

The war is in the end game stages; Dooku, Grievous, and Sidious have played their cards and are now fine tuning their strategy for conquest; the Jedi are spread throughout the galaxy, their numbers running thin.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are off chasing the Trade Federation Viceroy Nute Gunray, and the other Separatist leaders in the Outer Rim, in hopes of finding the mysterious Sith Lord.

Meanwhile back on Coruscant Grievous launches an attack upon the Republic capital and kidnaps Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

Kenobi and Skywalker learn that their on a wild goose chase and that they need to get back to Coruscant, where war now rages.

So let's break this down. We can do two episodes with Kenobi and Skywalker running around in the Outer Rim and Grievous preparing his attack on Coruscant.

Another episode for just the attack and kidnapping. And of course the failed Jedi rescue attempt would be included (awesome battle on a train between Grievous and Shaak Ti).

And a final episode with Kenobi and Skywalker realizing they've been had, and now need to get back to Coruscant.

The series concludes as we watch Kenobi and Skywalker race towards the battle above Coruscant, but just before they reach the battle the screen goes dark and the words "To Be Concluded In Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" appear.

And that is how Star Wars: The Clone Wars must end. That and if you remember those 5 minute Clone Wars shorts, they ended their run along these lines too.

There is a little bit more that goes on in the Labyrinth of Evil novel, but it'd be just as easy to read the novel than to have it adapted over to the animated series.

Can you think of any other way for The Clone Wars animated series to end? Drop a comment below and let us know.

-GJ

Star Wars: Old Wounds - Darth Maul's Revenge

If everyone was so dead set on bringing Darth Maul back, then this would have worked if they hadn't brought him back for The Clone Wars animated series.

-GJ

The Clone Wars Season 4 Review

Caution: Spoiler Alert

Season 4 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars started off, eh.

The first few episodes featured an underwater battle between the Mon Calamari and the Separatists droid army, which though featured a younger Ackbar, also featured an annoying prince and was drug out for far too long.

To make matters worse, the arc also features Gungans; who also get a stand alone episode after the arc, called "Shadow Warrior" where the Gungans try to assist in the capture of General Grievous. The biggest impact here was the death of Capt. Roos Tarpals and really, who's going to miss him?

Whiny prince, too many Gungans, you'd had to believe the season was going to get better going into episode 6. Well you'd be wrong. Episodes 6 and 7 featured C-3PO and R2-D2 and was just a waste of 2 episodes. This early in the season there was no reason for what we would call filler episodes. There was no impact whatsoever on the story, it didn't build the characters, didn't effect the war, only thing these episodes accomplished was wasting an hour of each viewer's time.

Season 4 does a complete 180 for episodes 7 thru 10 however. General Skywalker is called back to Coruscant and General Krell is sent in to replace him as commander of the 501st on their mission to take back Umbara. Krell unlike Skywalker keeps himself from attachments and in doing so doesn't like to call the clones under his command by their names but rather their assigned numbers, and lives by the tactic that clones are simply replaceable so they always take the direct routes through battlefields, often walking into ambushes, and therefore suffering great loses in numbers.

The Krell arc is a very powerful one. We see a different treatment of the clones, clones disobeying orders, clones killing clones, and a Jedi prepared to turn his back on the Republic that he serves. It was nice to see what happens when clone troopers are faced with difficult decisions and show that they can actually make decisions for themselves, no matter what the consequences.

The next episodes focused around an entire planet, Kiros, having it's people kidnapped by the Separatists. Our heroes Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano must now discover what happened to them. The trail leads back to Zygerrian slavers, which causes Anakin to become very angry; having grown up as a slave of course he would hold some hatred towards any slavers; does actually help develop his character as he takes another step on his path to the dark side.

Episode 14 features the return of Death Watch. That's something to be excited about right? Right?!?! Well sure, if it wasn't for the fact that they have their plans foiled and their entire camp destroyed by Ahsoka, R2-D2, and Lux Bonteri it might have been. Seriously a camp full of Mandalorians can't take two teenagers and a droid?

Episodes 15 thru 18 revolve around a plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine. To root out this plot Obi-Wan must first "die", change places with Rako Hardeen (his killer), get himself sent to prison, break out of prison with Cad Bane (which happens via a riot started by Boba Fett attacking Obi-Wan), convince Bane to bring him in on his plan to kidnap Palpatine, fight off Anakin and Ahsoka, survive the trials of the Box, play through the whole kidnapping and keep Masters Yoda and Windu in the loop about everything. Next to the Krell arc this was a very bright spot for the season.

One thing of note in Episode 15 "Deception" when Obi-Wan first checks in with the Jedi Council after getting sent to prison, he starts his communication by saying "This is Ben." Many wonder if this was simply a mistake or Obi-Wan knowing that it'd be safer for him to be using a different name if he got caught; fore being Ben is better than being Obi-Wan while in prison.

In "Massacre" (episode 19), we find ourselves rooting for the "bad guys"; kinda don't have a choice because in one corner we have Dooku and his droids, while in the other we have Ventress and the Nightsisters of Dathomir. Now getting passed the simple fact that Dooku could have simply bombarded the planet from space, thus successfully getting his revenge, the episode does feature a really good fight between the Nightsisters and the droids. The episode also features General Grievous, and what can be classified as "Zombie" Nightsisters. Though Dooku succeeds in destroying the Nightsisters, both Mother Talzin and Ventress manage to escape.

An episode later Ventress is back into action. In "Bounty" Ventress finds herself being forced by Bossk into replacing the bounty hunter she disposes of in a cantina, who was part of a team led by none other than Boba Fett, hired to protect a very valuable piece of merchandise. After the mission goes awry Ventress finds herself alone with Fett, their valuable piece of merchandise, and a man trying to "steal" said merchandise; only here do we get to see how much Ventress has developed, now no longer just looked at as a heartless witch, but someone who can do the right thing at the right time. This is also the first time in The Clone Wars that we are introduced to a younger, slimer Dengar.

Finally we reach the end of the season, episodes 21 (Brothers) and 22 (Revenge), the highly anticipated return of Savage Opress and Darth Maul. Yep, that's right, Darth Maul returned in the Clone Wars. Why should getting cut in half and falling down a long shaft stop anyone right? So Savage's search for his brother finally ends with him finding him, however the Maul we all knew and loved has been turned into a half metallic spider creature and is nothing more than a babbling idiot making no sense whatsoever.

Savage returns Maul to Dathomir and Mother Talzin reappears to help "cure" Maul. After her ritual is complete Maul's spider half has been replaced by droid legs and he no longer babbles incoherently but is back to his old self and knows that all he wants is to seek revenge on Kenobi.

After slaughtering many innocent civilians Maul has finally gotten Kenobi to come him, where he and Savage has set a trap. At the end of Revenge we get the thrill of a great lightsaber fight involving Savage and Maul squaring off against Kenobi and his unlikely savior Ventress. Ventress and Kenobi manage to escape leaving Maul and Savage drifting in space.

End of season 4.

It had it's ups and many downs, but over all out of a 5 star system this season of The Clone Wars rakes in a 4. Mainly because unlike the three previous seasons, this one doesn't jump all over the timeline, everything moves in one nice straight forward motion, no jumping here and this episode needing to go back two seasons, just straight through. A nice change of pace for once.

So what are your thoughts on season 4 of The Clone Wars? Did you like this season, hate it, was there something you'd have changed, and what do you hope to see in season 5? Let us know in the comments section below.

-GJ

How Lucas Could Save Ahsoka Tano

Fans of the hit Star Wars cartoon series, The Clone Wars, often find themselves wondering these days when and how Star Wars creator George Lucas will wrap up the life of Ahsoka Tano; does he simply kill her or is there a way to save her?

A Way To Save Ahsoka

With Episode I: The Phantom Menace returning to theaters this year in 3D, many have speculated that the rest of the saga will follow suit; and chances are that when we'd finally get a chance to see Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Lucas will have probably decided that just modifying the films into 3D isn't working as planned and that additional scenes will help drive more people to the theaters.

Here could be a possible additional scene added.

After escorting Palpatine back to the Republic Executive Building on Coruscant, Obi-Wan argues about how many times Anakin has saved him; right after the line "Ninth time. Cato Neimoidia doesn't count; it was your fault in the first place" the conversation would now include the following dialog...

Anakin - "if Ahsoka was here she'd agree with me."

Kenobi - "well how unfortunate for you that she's out on assignment in the Outer Rim"

And there you have it folks. These two lines of additional dialog could save Ahsoka Tano from what many feel is a certain death in The Clone Wars cartoon series.

How Ahsoka's Life Should End

First, since such a relationship between Anakin and Ahsoka has been established in The Clone Wars cartoon, then that's where her death should take place. Also a nice way to push Anakin a little bit closer towards the Dark Side too.

There are several other characters created for The Clone Wars that also need to be wrapped up; Cad Bane and Captain Rex being two of the most prominent. If left up to us we'd have Bane kill Rex, Ahsoka seek Bane for vengeance, but be unsuccessful and lose her life. Now to close out the Bane story arc, you have a teenage Boba Fett step up to the plate and take out Bane, which establishes a relationship between Anakin and Fett, which obviously becomes useful when we get to Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

What do you guys think? How / When do you feel Ahsoka's story should end?

-GJ

Image of the Day: Cantina Fight

-GJ