Trying to get up on my clone wars and rebel knowledge before ahsoka since i've never seen those. Since i do not want to see the clone wars 140+ episodes i found this helpful
So Im not a big Clone Wars (2008) fan. There are individual arc's that are great, but as a whole (imo) it devaulues Star Wars as a whole by introducing idiotic plot points, and playing fast and loose with lore. Filoni treats characters that aren't established in the films as malleable objects he can apply any backstory or personality to. Are you an established character from the novels? Doesn't matter, here's a new personality, age, basiclly a new character. Before the continuity reset Filoni would kill characters off in his show who appear in later novels, just pissing off the EU writers as a whole. The show is like his Star Wars fan fiction, starring his OC, just shoved into canon without regard for impact. (Granted, it fits better now with the continuity reset, and Disney basically tailoring their new lore around it, but that's more forcing the lore to adapt around you then you adhering to it). I have similar feelings about Rebels.
That said I was/am a big fan of The Mandalorian and was looking forward for years to seeing Ahsoka...now I havent watched it yet, but reading plot details of what's happened so far online, namely Filoni reintroducing the most asinine, bullshit plot device to ever make it's way into Star Wars Lore
The world between fucking worlds, aka time travel
.
The good news; this kickstarted me back into a desire for good Star Wars material and I finally cracked open Path of Deceit (technically got about 40 pages in before putting it on pause). Feels good to be back engaging in solid original SW content.
So Im not a big Clone Wars (2008) fan. There are individual arc's that are great, but as a whole (imo) it devaulues Star Wars as a whole by introducing idiotic plot points, and playing fast and loose with lore. Filoni treats characters that aren't established in the films as malleable objects he can apply any backstory or personality to. Are you an established character from the novels? Doesn't matter, here's a new personality, age, basiclly a new character. Before the continuity reset Filoni would kill characters off in his show who appear in later novels, just pissing off the EU writers as a whole. The show is like his Star Wars fan fiction, starring his OC, just shoved into canon without regard for impact. (Granted, it fits better now with the continuity reset, and Disney basically tailoring their new lore around it, but that's more forcing the lore to adapt around you then you adhering to it). I have similar feelings about Rebels.
That said I was/am a big fan of The Mandalorian and was looking forward for years to seeing Ahsoka...now I havent watched it yet, but reading plot details of what's happened so far online, namely Filoni reintroducing the most asinine, bullshit plot device to ever make it's way into Star Wars Lore
The world between fucking worlds, aka time travel
.
The good news; this kickstarted me back into a desire for good Star Wars material and I finally cracked open Path of Deceit (technically got about 40 pages in before putting it on pause). Feels good to be back engaging in solid original SW content.
For comics, Dark Hose's flagship SW series "Star Wars: Republic", written by the legendary John Ostrander is brilliant, and has several spin-ff miniseries. Half the time it follows Obi Wan and Anakin through major battles of the Clone Wars, and the other time follows Quinlan Voss and his padawan Ayaala Secura as they struggle with the moral dilemas of war. Ostrander is awesome; Lucas himself was a fan of the series and included Ayaala's Order 66 scene in ROTS as an homage.
The novels are gonna be more character focused. Shatterpoint is arguably the best standalone SW book ever written, and easily the best depiction of Windu. It's basically Apocolypse Now/Hearts of Darkness in the Clone Wars. I'm also a big fan of the Medstar duology; it follows Barris Ofree as a Jedi battle medic operating on the front lines. There's really nothing else like it in Star Wars literature. Yoda: Dark Rendevous is another good one. If you want to get the boots-on-the-ground Clone perspective you have the Republic Commando series, which I admitatly have not read (but would very much like to someday). Big cult following for that series and it's associated video game.
And then finally theres the Genndy Tartakovky microseries which aired in 3 minute increments and is a much better watch nowadays (since you can just watch them all in one go on Disney Plus). It's quick, but it's great.
So yeah, there's no real "starting point", you just pick what you're interested in, and chances are it'll be pretty good. I could write more about material covering the end of the war and the transition to the Empire, but that's another topic entirely
Trying to get up on my clone wars and rebel knowledge before ahsoka since i've never seen those. Since i do not want to see the clone wars 140+ episodes i found this helpful
So Im not a big Clone Wars (2008) fan. There are individual arc's that are great, but as a whole (imo) it devaulues Star Wars as a whole by introducing idiotic plot points, and playing fast and loose with lore. Filoni treats characters that aren't established in the films as malleable objects he can apply any backstory or personality to. Are you an established character from the novels? Doesn't matter, here's a new personality, age, basiclly a new character. Before the continuity reset Filoni would kill characters off in his show who appear in later novels, just pissing off the EU writers as a whole. The show is like his Star Wars fan fiction, starring his OC, just shoved into canon without regard for impact. (Granted, it fits better now with the continuity reset, and Disney basically tailoring their new lore around it, but that's more forcing the lore to adapt around you then you adhering to it). I have similar feelings about Rebels.
That said I was/am a big fan of The Mandalorian and was looking forward for years to seeing Ahsoka...now I havent watched it yet, but reading plot details of what's happened so far online, namely Filoni reintroducing the most asinine, bullshit plot device to ever make it's way into Star Wars Lore
The world between fucking worlds, aka time travel
.
The good news; this kickstarted me back into a desire for good Star Wars material and I finally cracked open Path of Deceit (technically got about 40 pages in before putting it on pause). Feels good to be back engaging in solid original SW content.
so i´m through with this clone wars speed through and there are indeed some great story arcs (my favourites beeing the end of season 5 and the arc where clone trooper fives nearly uncovers the order 66 conspiracy) in there. i have to admit that i liked the bounty hunters story arcs the least. Ashoka is clearly the heart of the show, the other center is the clones which really get fleshed out as beings with feelings and compassions. The "roger, roger" droids are quite annoying, but a villain like general grieveous is indeed more terrifying than he was in the movies. I liked the Asajii Ventress character arc during the seasons and i think they even did a decent job with reviving maul. I also like that it deals with lots of nuanced topics for an animated series like war profiteering on both sides, the cost of raging war on the people fighting on the ground etc. Anakin is a much more likable character than in the movies and his gradual transition to the dark side shown much better. Generally the jedi are pointed more grey and their entanglement in an endless war shown critical.
The look of the series improves a lot over the season. While it looked somehow like n older computer game in the beginning the lasts seasons had some stunning graphics. I really like the last 5 or so (wordless) minutes of the series that looked gorgeous and showed alot of emotions in ahsoka and even vader without anyone speaking.. But overall i am glad i took a shortcut through the series because even in those storylines there were episodes that really dragged ( endless samey battles of clones and droids running at each other).
so i´m through with this clone wars speed through and there are indeed some great story arcs (my favourites beeing the end of season 5 and the arc where clone trooper fives nearly uncovers the order 66 conspiracy) in there. i have to admit that i liked the bounty hunters story arcs the least. Ashoka is clearly the heart of the show, the other center is the clones which really get fleshed out as beings with feelings and compassions. The "roger, roger" droids are quite annoying, but a villain like general grieveous is indeed more terrifying than he was in the movies. I liked the Asajii Ventress character arc during the seasons and i think they even did a decent job with reviving maul. I also like that it deals with lots of nuanced topics for an animated series like war profiteering on both sides, the cost of raging war on the people fighting on the ground etc. Anakin is a much more likable character than in the movies and his gradual transition to the dark side shown much better. Generally the jedi are pointed more grey and their entanglement in an endless war shown critical.
The look of the series improves a lot over the season. While it looked somehow like n older computer game in the beginning the lasts seasons had some stunning graphics. I really like the last 5 or so (wordless) minutes of the series that looked gorgeous and showed alot of emotions in ahsoka and even vader without anyone speaking.. But overall i am glad i took a shortcut through the series because even in those storylines there were episodes that really dragged ( endless samey battles of clones and droids running at each other).
You did right by skipping out on the worst, most cartoony bits. There's the episode where the Sepratists mistake Jar Jar for a Gungan jedi, the one where the Gungans somehow capture Grevious and hold him for ransom...really any episode with the Gungans. There's also the unabashed film parody episodes, the most egregious being the Zilo beast 2-parter that's just straight up Godzilla/Kong.
Darkness over Umbara and The Seige of Mandalore easily stand out as the best stuff. Most of the back half is pretty decent actually, except where Filoni really deviates from established canon.
Turning Barris Ofree from a gifted Jedi battle medic to a literal terrorist. Doesn't help that she and her master (Luminara) are the 2 muslim-coded jedi.
Completely changing the Nightsisters and Dathomir from their previous appearances.
The concept of the inhibitor chips completely changes the clone's motivations for order 66, and is a HUGE change. This is a biproduct of Filoni wanting to "humanize" the clones and give them individual personalities, which is completely diffrent from how they were normally presented. Order 66 went from "loyal soldiers follow orders, even if it means shooting a supposed ally in the back", and dealing with the emotional fallout from that, to "I dont know anybetter because I have a mind-control chip".
Yoda's whole vision quest, which involves him knowing important information he really should not be aware of at the time (ie the Rule of 2). Plus changing Darth Bane's whole look..just cause
and I agree that portrayal of teenage Boba Fett is awful. Strangely enough the definitive portrayal of Clone-Wars era Boba is the "Young Boba Fett" young readers series from the early 00's. I still have mine from when I was a kid and they really (weirdly enough) hold up.
You did right by skipping out on the worst, most cartoony bits. There's the episode where the Sepratists mistake Jar Jar for a Gungan jedi, the one where the Gungans somehow capture Grevious and hold him for ransom...really any episode with the Gungans. There's also the unabashed film parody episodes, the most egregious being the Zilo beast 2-parter that's just straight up Godzilla/Kong.
Darkness over Umbara and The Seige of Mandalore easily stand out as the best stuff. Most of the back half is pretty decent actually, except where Filoni really deviates from established canon.
Turning Barris Ofree from a gifted Jedi battle medic to a literal terrorist. Doesn't help that she and her master (Luminara) are the 2 muslim-coded jedi.
Completely changing the Nightsisters and Dathomir from their previous appearances.
The concept of the inhibitor chips completely changes the clone's motivations for order 66, and is a HUGE change. This is a biproduct of Filoni wanting to "humanize" the clones and give them individual personalities, which is completely diffrent from how they were normally presented. Order 66 went from "loyal soldiers follow orders, even if it means shooting a supposed ally in the back", and dealing with the emotional fallout from that, to "I dont know anybetter because I have a mind-control chip".
Yoda's whole vision quest, which involves him knowing important information he really should not be aware of at the time (ie the Rule of 2). Plus changing Darth Bane's whole look..just cause
and I agree that portrayal of teenage Boba Fett is awful. Strangely enough the definitive portrayal of Clone-Wars era Boba is the "Young Boba Fett" young readers series from the early 00's. I still have mine from when I was a kid and they really (weirdly enough) hold up.
Guess I need to reed the battle medic books. Barris is definitelthe worst part in the ashoka conspiracy storyline. I liked ahsokas estrangement from the way the jedi council does politics, but Barris role and while motivation in the plot weren't particularly well written. She had no real reason to frame her friend ahsoka and it felt more like the writers wanted a shocking reveal.as I said I liked the overall arc of ahsokas departure from the order but hers was def the weak part.
The humanizing of the clones worked well for me, but I had not read any of the clone wars canon stuff before, so I understand that this is disappointing for readers of those novels
Guess I need to reed the battle medic books. Barris is definitelthe worst part in the ashoka conspiracy storyline. I liked ahsokas estrangement from the way the jedi council does politics, but Barris role and while motivation in the plot weren't particularly well written. She had no real reason to frame her friend ahsoka and it felt more like the writers wanted a shocking reveal.as I said I liked the overall arc of ahsokas departure from the order but hers was def the weak part.
The humanizing of the clones worked well for me, but I had not read any of the clone wars canon stuff before, so I understand that this is disappointing for readers of those novels
Well im glad you enjoyed what you watched, jumping around really is the way to watch TCW as opposed to straight through.
Yeah the disparity between canon and legends, and their very diffrent portrayals of certain things can be jarring. The more Filoni adds to his Star Wars universe the more Legends lovers like me mostly stick to pre-disney content, but that's fine...... What was really awful was 2008-2013, when The Clone Wars (2008) was on the air, but Disney hadn't made the Lucasfilm purchase, so it just had to somehow sit in current continuity while contradicting things left and right. That's probably what started the negativity surrounding 'ol Dave. Bad times.
Feel free to ask for Legends recommendations anytime if you're ever in the mood; I really love writing about Star Wars. The Medstar Duology (the two Battle Medic Novels) are great, but more in the cult classic territory of SW books. There's probably a dozen more I'd recommend first, unless you're just itching for a wartime medic novel (which is admititly unique and a very interesting read....it's kind of like the serious parts of MASH).
Oh and I forgot to mention the one episode I really do enjoy a lot.
The one where Sidious learns about Mauls survival and takeover of Mandalore, and goes to put an end to it. Seeing him cackle like an absolute madman, doing acrobatic flips and 2on1ing Maul and Savage Opress without breaking a sweat.....that's some good stuff.
slate.com
