Star Wars : The Clone Wars

[Triforcer]

Phantom Menace was actually the best of the three new movies.  It wasn't apparent at the time, but watch them all now and you'll see it. 

[Merusk]

Unfortunatly, Tri is right.  The weakest part of TPM is Jake Lloyd, the rest was pretty good.

I'd show them with the older ones first.  In fact, that's all I'd show for a while, since the newer ones are flashier and have a slicker modern look.  I quickly found that my son enjoys them more than the classics because he's a kid.  His favorite is Revenge of the Sith, and it didn't leave the DVD player for a month once it was released, despite my attempts to get him to watch ANY of the others.  Even now it takes a little work to get him to watch Empire (his 2nd favorite, he likes Vader and Yoda) over Sith.

[Thrawn]

Uh, you do realize that charging across an open area into a hail of heavy gunfire is a valid tactic when you can deflect that gunfire, right?

Doesn't do much for the troops to your left and right I'd imagine.

Maybe I just caught a bad episode, I'm a big Star Wars fan and when I watched the new Clone Wars I thought it was terrible.  I remember the episode had little Togruta girl facing off against Grevious, which in and of itself was a big laugh.  That fight should of lasted about 2 seconds before she was chopped into bits.  In fact, the more I think about it almost everything I hated about the show revolved mostly around her.

[DLRiley]

Uh, you do realize that charging across an open area into a hail of heavy gunfire is a valid tactic when you can deflect that gunfire, right?

Doesn't do much for the troops to your left and right I'd imagine.

Jedi "Guns up LETS DO THIS!! LEROYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JINKINS!!!!"

[Evildrider]

Phantom Menace was actually the best of the three new movies.  It wasn't apparent at the time, but watch them all now and you'll see it. 

Midichlorians & Jar Jar.

[Triforcer]

0% Hayden Christiansen.

Your move. 

[Surlyboi]

Natalie Portman's nipples and six pack. 

[Riggswolfe]

Phantom Menace was actually the best of the three new movies.  It wasn't apparent at the time, but watch them all now and you'll see it. 

I think Sith was better than TPM but TPM was miles ahead of AotC. If I had to rank all six movies it'd be:

Star Wars/Empire (I flip flop on which one I like best), Sith, TPM, Return of the Jedi, AOTC.

For those of you wondering how I put two prequels ahead of one of the original trilogy I only have one word. Ewoks. Jar Jar was annoying but I can imagine him as sort of the Forest Gump of his race. Ewoks? They're all bad.

Finally, I actually have grown to like Ahsoka. I hated the idea of Anakin having a Padawan but it has given him an interesting new dynamic and Ahsoka is actually kind of an interesting character though it really depends on the writer for that episode. Watch the episode sometime where her whole squad gets wiped out. They did a good job of showing how someone as young as she is would react.

[Ingmar]

I'd have a hard time picking TPM as the best of the new ones given that it contains the single worst sequence in any of the movies (kid Anakin derp derp derps his way into blowing up the star base thing.) So awful.

[Sjofn]

I'd have a hard time picking TPM as the best of the new ones given that it contains the single worst sequence in any of the movies (kid Anakin derp derp derps his way into blowing up the star base thing.) So awful.

No, the worst sequence of the new ones was that god fucking awful picnic or whatever with Anakin and Padme. It was beyond stilted and awkward. They had anti-chemistry. They made me question if Lucas had ever known love.

[Ratman_tf]

Hold me like you did by the lake on Naboo.

[Threash]

Annnnnd it's back.

[jgsugden]

Whenever the hell Disney releases their streaming service, that is....

[Ironwood]

Annnnnd it's back.

Why ?

[Threash]

Because it got pointlessly canceled in its last season even though it was good and popular just because of the Disney acquisition?

[jgsugden]

I'm kind of surprised it took this long.  I expected them to do it as part of Rebels - to wrap up the unfinished stories.

[eldaec]

It didn't feel unfinished by the time they finished.

Annnnnd it's back.

Why ?

Because Disney are pumping out everything they can that they think will attract a few extra subs for their Disney-flix platform.

And ahsoka is really popular.

I wouldn't be shocked if this is partly a test run for a 'fulcrum' series covering the time from aotc to rebels.

[Ironwood]

But my point is they put out Rebels, which was fucking awesome and actually capped it all off and finished it well.

WHY?

[eldaec]

I do agree ahsoka should not meet Anakin again until rebels. And plainly that isn't going to be the case now.

But I'd happily watch the cgi-clone wars do the the build up to RotS that we got in samurai-jack-clone-wars. Also the last episodes of clone wars where the Republic got darker and darker could be explored more.

[Threash]

They had the ending already set up when they canceled CW and everything they planned they took it as cannon when making Rebels.

[jgsugden]

Yeah - basically, they're just wrapping up what they had in progress. 

[eldaec]

Maybe I'm remembering it wrong but I don't remember there being much to wrap up?

[jgsugden]

There were a few foreshadowed things that never resolved and there are some small elements of planned stories that impacted what we've seen in Rebels ... and perhaps even films.  They're likely going to be working from the scripts and outlines for the episodes that they had planned to do before they were terminated early.

[Threash]

Basically what happens in Mandalore and with Ashoka.

[eldaec]

So, this was great.

The last 4 episodes are better than Mandalorian.

[Riggswolfe]

So, this was great.

The last 4 episodes are better than Mandalorian.

I had the same reaction which genuinely shocked me. So good. I've felt for years now that the Clone Wars series adds much needed depth to Revenge of the Sith and those 4 episodes nail that home.

[jgsugden]

Fuck.  Now I have to watch these.  Thanks.

If you guys were going to start watching these, how much would you watch/rewatch?  The entire series?  Or just the last X episodes?  just this season?  I stopped at about season 4 (not due to lack of interest - due to lack of time at the time).

[Riggswolfe]

Fuck.  Now I have to watch these.  Thanks.

If you guys were going to start watching these, how much would you watch/rewatch?  The entire series?  Or just the last X episodes?  just this season?  I stopped at about season 4 (not due to lack of interest - due to lack of time at the time).

Hmmm...it really depends. A major event takes place at the end of Season 5 that informs Ahsoka's arc in this last season. You won't get the emotional beats that happen if you haven't seen those events. I think they're the last 2 or 3 episodes of Season 5. Also, in Season 6 there is a very important event with a trooper called fives that also is important though you can get the gist of it from context. Still, seeing what happened will make episode 10 have more emotion behind it in my opinion.

[jgsugden]

Thanks.  I apparently watched deeper than I remembered, now that I try to find where to pick up, but I still have some watching to do.

[eldaec]

I would recommend...

S3 ep1
S1 ep5
S2 ep10
S3 ep2
S2 ep12-14
S3 ep12-14
S3 ep10
S3 ep18-20
S3 ep5-6
S4 ep7-10
S4 ep19-22
S5 ep1
S5 ep14-20
S6 ep1-4
S6 ep10
All of S7.

This mashes up the clones, maul, and mandalore viewing recommendations you can find elsewhere, and reorders stuff to play more chronologically, but also help pacing.  There is other good stuff, and this list is light on ahsoka given she is main character of the series, but you know who ahsoka is so nbd.

I watched all of this list again to avoid the temptation of watching the latest episode each week (the episodes are too damn short). I was glad I did.

[Threash]

The last four episodes are amazing, the other eight are about par for the series with some ups and downs.

[eldaec]

Just to say something in favour of the maligned middle arc.

It made me realise that clone wars, despite regularly hitting the 'why are we fighting?' theme, hadn't really managed to show the war's impact on civilians.

[Threash]

It was also a good reminder of what assholes the Jedi council were. It really was three episodes too long though.

[Khaldun]

That's such a clear narrative theme now that it's kind of fascinating how much of that view was likely not really what Lucas intended us to get out of the prequels. Intended or not, it adds a lot to the SW universe--that the Jedi had become isolated, unaware of the world around them, arrogant, inflexible, dogmatic. If they really do that Kenobi show, that's a great theme to keep working with--that over time Obi-Wan finds his exile useful as a chance to fully process and reflect about what the Jedi did wrong.

[Threash]

I think it was intended in Lucas clumsy way. Windu's last words are literally a mirror of what Sidius tells Anakin early in the movie about Dooku "he's too dangerous to keep alive".