#WHY WAS THIS CONTENT NOT IN CLONE WARS FILONI??

[coruscanti-arabi]

Apparently "That Business On Cato Neomoidia" was that Kenobi had inhaled some sort of drug and was fighting while high out of his mind and Anakin was called in by Commander Cody to circle back and provide aid.

Why has no one told me this until now?

[lieutenant-teach]

I love The Clone Wars series. I love the clones. I like both Rex and Cody. But since the very beginning of watching the series, I felt like smth was kind of off about them. Specifically, why do we have so much content about Rex? Why at least part of these clone-centric moments are not given to Cody? He was there first! He’s the only clone in the movies who has some semblance of characterization and he’s actually very important for Star Wars.

Like, the episodes about a clone deserter – why not give them to Cody instead of Rex? Why not use the 212th instead of the 501st? If you imagine Cody instead of Rex, the plot won’t change, the message of the episode won’t change – they both would have similar attitudes to the situation. But we would know more specifically about the most important clone of SW. And I’m not exaggerating this claim – Rex’s presence doesn’t change the movies narrative in any way. I’m not saying they should’ve cut him out completely – just divide some adventures between Cody and Rex.

Being a Filoni original character is very advantageous.

[legacyofwalpurgis22]

no fr cause he's SUCH an older brother (cody and hunter dad's of the year always) and i feel like she'd remind him sm of young rex?? like they'd be such a funny duo

my villain origin story is that cody never got to meet omega like wtf he would love her so much???

[bg-11]

Ripping into TCW's A Friend in Need, in which every character is awful.

I'm going to be upfront about this: I do not care for TCW, I never really have. See, I've always been a big stickler for continuity, even as a kid, and by this point there was *plenty* of Clone Wars related content that had been set across the whole 3 years of the war. The big issue of course was always Ahsoka, who of course just couldn't neatly slot into that timeframe at all because there were already plenty of comics that made it clear that Anakin never had a Padawan. She was a square peg the writers of TCW had jammed into a square hole. Of course, Ahsoka wasn't the only example, it was clear the writers never really gave a shit about what other, better writers had already established, and so retcons and continuity errors were rife with the series, only increasing as it continued. Exactly the kind of thing I was leery about. I was willing to give it a chance when it first came out, but that optimistic goodwill didn't really last too long.

I watched it on-and-off when it came out to check it out, I didn't want to judge it without having seen it. It was the same when I heard about how obnoxious Karen Traviss' Republic Commando series was, I wanted to see if that was as bad as people were saying it was (it was worse). By Season 4, I was pretty ready to write it off, the retcons were getting bigger and bigger (Even Piell getting killed off before his Canon death in Coruscant Nights, changing Asajj Ventress' backstory and fate contrary to what it was in the Republic comics, treating the Nightsisters as if they were literal witches who could use actual magic, the list goes on, but those were my biggest gripes). One episode that stood out to me though, was A Friend in Need, an episode in which pretty much everyone except for Artoo is stupid, malicious or both. At the time, I thought it was the worst episode of TCW yet. Has that changed since then? Yeah, but I'd still count this episode as the dumbest.

For whatever reason, the episode popped into my head recently after...I don't know how long its been, relatively shortly after the episode aired, I guess? And, I don't know, I guess I wanted to take a jab at picking it apart? I've never really done this before, there've been a couple of times when I've wanted to examine bad media, but for whatever reason, I never really got to it. So, fuck it, better late than never, I guess. So, I rewatched the episode to get it fresh in my mind. As the old EU was still Canon when this aired, I'm putting it through the lens of it still being Canon when I talk about it.

There's a good reason why my friends call me a masochist, I guess.

Things start out on Mandalore, where Ahsoka is escorting Padme, Bail and Mon Mothma in talks with representatives from the Separatist Senate when Lux Bonteri walks in. When I first watched A Friend in Need, I had missed Lux's Introductory episode which also introduced the Separatist Senate, so I was a little confused here. Confused because prior to TCW, there wasn't a Separatist Senate, the Confederacy was solely ruled over by the Separatist Council. Now, there's commentary from Filoni that apparently, the EU writers had misunderstood the purpose of the Separatist Council, that no, they weren't the leaders of the CIS, and that the megacorporation's who made up the CIS were just neutral parties. I have two issues with that, first being that I trust Dave "I sincerely believe this man wants to fuck wolves" Filoni's word about as far as I can throw his furry ass, and two, that isn't how it comes across in the movies at all.

The leaders of the Trade Federation, Intergalactic Banking Clan, Techno Union and Commerce Guild are all present, outright saying they're pledging their alliance and their armies to the Separatist cause. That they're apparently neutral, uninvolved parties doesn't gel at all, it just seems like a clumsy retcon to me. One of many.

But anyway...

Lux busts in and causes a scene, accusing Count Dooku of murdering his mother, so the Separatist senators have their guards drag him away. Ahsoka, concerned, gets permission from Padme to follow him, as long as she's discrete. Lux is dragged back to the Separatist's shuttle, where a hologram of Dooku appears to gloat a bit, before telling the droids to execute Lux. Why he doesn't just use the Force to choke him, I don't know, all you need is line of sight.

Now, I'd actually misremembered how this scene went down. In my memory, Lux dropped an ion grenade to disable the droids and *then* Ahsoka showed up. Apparently my flawed memory made Lux more competent then he actually is in the episode. How was he actually planning on getting away? We'll get back to that in a moment, but for right now, he's at the battle droid's mercy.

And then Ahsoka intervenes.

Here's another issue I had with Ahsoka, her characterisation. There were a couple of moments that stuck with me that I think are relevant here.

Season 1, episode 19, Storm Over Ryloth: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

Season 2, episode 1, Holocron Heist: Ahsoka has to learn not to be a reckless, headstrong idiot because she gets her troops killed.

This episode? Ahsoka is a reckless, headstrong idiot who forces her way into a hostile situation, gets the attraction of a bunch of armed droids and leads them back towards the Senate Guards who are stationed at the Republic shuttle, quickly alerts the unaware men that some pissed off droids are on her tail, then boards the shuttle, takes off and flees back to Coruscant, abandoning the Senators she was supposed to be escorting *and* the Senate Guards who are now taking the heat for her.

Ahsoka is such a shitty bodyguard, Jesus Christ. Getting Lux to safety is a priority, fine, but why does she need to board the ship herself and flee the system entirely? Why not just have Lux board the ship, then go back to help the Senate Guards deal with the battle droids that she *led* there in the first place? They're not just regular battle droids either, they're droid commandos who are supposed to be a lot tougher and smarter than the standard B1 battle droids. We don't see the outcome of this fight, so I presume the Senate Guards won, which, good thing. Because Ahsoka abandoned the Senators she was supposed to be watching over, and I genuinely wouldn't put it past the Separatists to pull something now that these peace talks have collapsed because of what Ahsoka did. They were never going to work out anyway of course, given Sidious' whole purpose behind the Clone Wars, but the characters aren't aware of that.

Anakin gets in contact and when Lux tries to apologise with "Master Jedi, I'm sorry if I've caused you any trouble." ("If" you caused trouble? "If"?)

Ahsoka tries to brush it off with "It's nothing." Uh, no, it's not. See the above paragraphs for why it *is* a big deal, and I can't see Anakin of all people being too happy with Padme being left in a dangerous situation like that. But I guess we're brushing past that, cool.

Ahsoka points out how dumb Lux's plan was, saying he would have been killed if she hadn't intervened (true). Then Lux says no, actually, he *did* have a plan, then he pulls out a taser and stuns Ahsoka. Seriously? His plan was to go in, confront Dooku, hoping that he'd send a transmission just to gloat (apparently he "knew" he would, but why? He could just have easily been shot by the battle droids), and he went in there armed with a dinky little taser? Brilliant plan, I'm sure that would have done *wonders* against a squad of droid commandos all armed with blasters.

Ahsoka wakes up hours later aboard the shuttle with just Artoo, her lightsabers missing. She goes out to talk to Lux and finds out the contacts he's meeting are the Death Watch, that Mandalorian supremacist group of terrorists who are awful even by Mandalorian standards.

Jesus Christ, Lux is so fucking stupid.

Despite Ahsoka attempting to tell him that they're bad news, he keeps brushing it off because they *also* hate Dooku, so it'll be fine. Back aboard the ship, Artoo finds Ahsoka's lightsabers tucked away in a random drawer. So, if she had bothered to look for them, she would have found them in the space of five minutes. My God, she is useless. These two deserve each other, I swear.

Oh, and we meet Bo-Katan for the first time.

Awful, *evil* Bo-Katan.

On the ride back, Lux reveals he had a way to track Dooku's location through his communication.

Serenno. He was probably on Serenno, his homeworld of Serenno, where he has a mansion on Serenno, Serenno on which he is a Count. This isn't exactly hidden knowledge.

They go back to the Death Watch compound. see them using kitbashed battle droids as target practice and Ahsoka is marched off while Lux talks to their leader, Pre Vizsla. Apparently, he has beef with Dooku now and the Count gave him a scar. Which, first thing, if Dooku had wanted him dead, he'd be dead. Second, I actually don't remember those two falling out, so I looked it up and apparently it happens entirely offscreen between his last appearance and now, so whatever, I guess. Also, Vizsla threatens to cut up Lux if he doesn't hand over the tracer, and Lux seems pretty fine with that. Brilliant, that one, real smart.

Ahsoka gets thrown in with a hut full of enslaved women from a nearby village. Great people, those Mandalorians. Artoo, meanwhile, is taken to the droid shack and told to fix up the damaged battle droids so they can be used as target practice again. They don't even slap a restraining bolt on him, they just leave him to his own devices. Which, in this case, happens to be a room full of battle droids, several of which actually still have blasters in repairable condition as we'll see later.

Well, the Mandalorians are rock stupid, so I suppose I can't complain *that's* out of character.

Big feast is held, now Lux can see with his own eyes that the Death Watch are using the local women as slaves...but he doesn't seem to give much of a shit about it, even as Ahsoka keeps trying to point out how awful his allies are. It's at that point the village elder shows up and demands Viszla let his people go. He did this unarmed, with his only support being two other unarmed villagers, walking into a camp full of hostile people who had already taken the village's women as slaves and expected things to go well for him. When Vizsla agrees in the most sinister way possible, with several other Death Watch members openly snickering about it, the elder thinks all is well and Lux even says: "You see? They're not the butchers you make them out to be."

I...Jesus Christ, they were using the local women as slaves, but you're fine with that so long as they take them back when they're done? Lux has to be the stupidest character in this series, I swear. There is exactly one smart person this entire episode and it's Artoo.

Next day, the Death Watch take the enslaved women back to their village, the Elder thanking him for it.

And then he takes out his stupid edgesaber and stabs the man's granddaughter in front of him. Can't help but feel this would have been more impactful if obvious sacrificial lamb character had more than a minute of screentime, but okay, its awful and its typical Mando behaviour. For good measure they start torching the village and maybe set one villager on fire. And much to my shock, Lux finally gets it. I was half expecting him to brush it off as them setting fires to keep the villagers warm. Ahsoka seems to impale a guy with a blunt pole, before getting tied up. And then they drag her back to their camp from their speeder...yeah, Ahsoka should be dead.

Then Lux says this...

"I believed you had honour, but you're just murderers."

What possibly led you to think that conclusion, you absolute dumbass? This whole time, Vizsla has been acting as blatantly sinister and creepy as Dick Dastardly, if he had a moustache he'd be twirling it. Lux seems like the kind of character who needs to be told not to drink drain-cleaner, I swear to God.

As Vizsla is preparing to deal with Idiot and Useless, Artoo shows up with an army of kitbashed droids...and like I said either, a few of them have working blasters. Literally the only competent character, I swear. Artoo gives Ahsoka her lightsabers back, and Vizsla decides to duel her one-on-one, because like every Mando, he has a totally unearned superiority complex. She ends up slicing his jetpack and he doesn't even notice until Ahsoka points it out to him. How did he not hear her hit it? How did he not feel that? In the confusion of the exploding jetpack, Dumb and Dumber manage to escape, chased by Bo-Katan, but they get away.

Then Lux fucks off in the escape pod, the end.

And apparently the next time Ahsoka runs into Bo-Katan, they're besties and join forces to free Mandalore. Guess Ahsoka kinda forgot about the whole slavery, village torching and innocent people she murdered, huh? Yeah, guess so. Bo-Katan fucking sucks, she doesn't get a redemption, the narrative just wants you to forget all the atrocities she commits because she doesn't want Maul to be her leader. Zuko she ain't.

Ahsoka majorly screws up her assignment, puts senators in danger and gets some guards killed, Lux is so braindead that he blindly trusts the most obviously evil pack of killers he could find. I'd say he needs a helmet, but I don't think its possible for him to get anymore brain damage.

TCW is massively overrated, this is a hill I will die on.

[just-prime]

I'm not sure if you've been watching The Acolyte, but my critically high levels of sodium over the Ahsoka series have returned with the revelation that Rosario must have fought Lucasfilm over fight/lightsaber training stipulating in her contract.

Manny Jacinto, who came to the role with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do trained for four months for his fight scenes before filming. Rosario repeatedly said in interviews that she trained for two hours a day while filming, and it was clear that she thought this was a lot.

I tried to write it off last year. Budget and time constraints, George Lucas overspent and Disney is doing things differently, the prequel era is dead-

No.

No, this is not the case.

Prequel era love and care in the arena of bringing characters who are expert sword wielders and martial artists to life is alive and well at Lucasfilm.

Daphne Keen fights like Ahsoka plucked from the middle of the Clone Wars and brought to life. Dean Charles Chapman's saberwork is a beautiful hybrid of Obi-wan and Anakin with lightning fast, graceful Soresu and saber spins, lightsabers are deadly once more and used in ways we haven't seen outside of animation and video games, and characters far, far older than 11 ABY Ahsoka have kinetic, energetic choreography because a 42 year old Jedi is nowhere near over the hill, and I'm done with being gaslit about her age.

There are many issues with this show, yes, but there are no cameos (save for one blink and you miss it), no name dropping to make the audience tear up and feel something based on the hard work of previous content. Nuggets are plucked from the EU and made fresh, like the delightful and creative use of cortosis. New force worshipping sects with their own beliefs are brought to life without being the Nightsisters. The galaxy feels large again.

It's everything Ahsoka wasn't and shows just how soulless an effort that show was. Ironically this is the show that's getting raked over the coals while nearly all criticism of Ahsoka was met with dismissal despite the show being desperately mediocre.

If you had asked me to go in without behind the scenes knowledge and tell you if Filoni or Headland was the one new to Star Wars and who was approaching this effort with genuine love of the material and passion for world building and adventure, it wouldn't be the guy who was recently made Creative Director.

I'm sorry for once again paragliding into your inbox (yes, this is the salty anon from last summer lol), especially if you aren't interested in The Acolyte, but it just sheds so much light on everything wrong with Ahsoka and how valid our criticisms were. Salt doesn't have an expiration date, so I hope this is a little bit of vindication!

Hello, hello! Hang up your paraglider, you're always welcome in my ask box.

I have been watching the Acolyte! I'll admit, I saved off answering this until the final ep had come out so that if there were any more cool fight scenes, they were not missed in my response.

Thoughts I had Pre Finale

All in all I agree completely.

While flawed (personally I feel like the acting on Osha and Mea is the weakest part of the show as a whole, as well as the fact that this very much felt like a movie idea stretched into a tv show) the Acolyte has been legions better than the previous slop that Disney Star Wars has put out recently. You know why? Because I had fucking fun watching it. Sure, afterwards I'd usually say something along the lines of 'wow the pacing is a bit weird' but all in all? Actively enjoyable. It never made me angrily close the D+ tab mid episode.

It's also been a facinating litmus test for what people are able to be chill about Star Wars and which ones are not able to handle it. The amount of reviewers and reactors whom I previously had massive respect for who just are acting like utter tools is really getting on my nerves.

Because in sooooo many ways this has been exactly what people have been asking for. A new perspective, with new ideas that isn't just focused on the Skywalker saga. And on top of that, holy fuck the fights are glorious. You are absolutely right, both Dafne Keen's and Tommon's fights prove just how well you can have lightsaber skills look from a single person, as well as the Wookie fight showing off some truly impressive choreo between the three.

And then you have Manny Jacinto...hello ARMS

The man is by far the standout joy of the series (followed closely by Sol) as the man just oozes charisma. His big fight against everyone was brutal and I'm glad to see that lightsabers are once again deadly in the Star Wars universe. Watching him mow through a legion of Jedi was so incredibly satisfying to watch, and again he is just knocking it out of the park with the choreo. LOVE the way that they've introduced cortosis into live action, especially in a fighting style. Headbutting a lightsaber was fucking amazing to witness. Though it's actually not the first time that it's appeared in Canon star wars, as it appears in the second canon Thrawn book, Thrawn : Alliances!

The exploration of the Dark Side is being done in such an interesting way, because none of the practitioners we've seen would self identify as 'dark side users' at all. Because sure, you have Manny Jacinto who is out being evil because the Jedi were going to label him as dark side either way so he might as well defend himself, for him it's just the way he connects with the Force. But you also have the witches, who's mind infiltration is certainly Dark Side, but are just out here living their best witchy lives. They live by their Thread, regardless of what the Jedi would call it.

As always, also the "the jedi need to be the coolest and the morally purest people in the whole wide world" people are having hissy fits, which is just like...no? Stop being allergic to nuance? We've seen time and time again how the Jedi were in fact a child taking cult (yes, yes they are, if you disagree i'd recommend going and rewatching TPM which spells it out pretty clearly) usually we've just been on the Jedi's POV so it seems justified. The Sol flashback episode I think shows off this mentality very well. He had good intentions, sure, but all in all, he wants to take and even Trinity calls him on it. It's a fascinating examination of what decades later would lead Anakin down a path of desperation.

Speaking of Anakin...People getting suuuuuper protective over Anakin's super special status as 'the chosen one' was also rather surreal to witness. Personally, I don't see how this invalidates his 'the chosen one' in the first place? But people were definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel for things to complain about, as opposed to offering actually constructive criticism, of which there are plenty of options.

Thoughts I had Post Finale

All in all, nothing really changed for me, as usual, the pacing was absolutely fucked and the action was absolutely incredible, and in the end, I enjoyed the experience of watching it.

I certainly appreciate seeing more of the Jedi actively covering shit up, both in little ways as well in big ways.

Also *waves* Hi Plagueis!

My main little gripe

I really don't get why they needed to actively tie Mr. Darth Hotpants over here to Venesta specifically? I get the want to connect him to an established character, it just rang a little hollow for me. I think I'd have preferred it if he was just a rando youngling who never even got to being a Padawan cuz the Jedi kept trying to basically de-dark side him ala grade schools punishing for being left handed. Donno, I just think that would have been a bit more compelling.

My main BIG gripe

Why...THE FUCK...did they split up??? They burned waaaay more time having their little heart to heart then had it been all three of them fucking booking it to the ship. I just don't get it. I don't get why Mae or Osha would want to leave each other again, and I don't get why Manny Jacinto would willingly give up an additional fighter. I get the whole "There can only be two" bit, but A) Plagueis is already there on the island, so Osha makes it three and B) Osha's probably going to be more motivated with a little living reminder of the Jedi's lies being right there and present and C) Osha and Mae are both so fucking powerful why would anyone just let one half of the pair walk away????

It just didn't fit with any of the character's previous actions so it annoys me.

Kinda ended as I began, relatively neutral on it all. Think if pressed would give it a 7/10 just because the action was SO FUCKING GOOD, otherwise it would probably be lower due to the rather painful pacing issues and the meh acting on display from Amandla Stenberg which was just such a huge shame cuz I know she's got more range than this.

Mainly, I just really really hope future shows take from this just how good lightsaber combat can be when you have properly trained performers. THIS should be the standards, and it's painful that its not.

As always thank you for dropping into my ask box! You always give me so much to work with it's a joy to respond :D

[arizonaconservativegal]

Thanks for replying. I didn't think to check here until after work. I believe that you truly believe that your side isn't that bad and I'm under some sort of media hypnotism. Maybe I am and have turned into an elitist snob. I just don't get how you don't see conservative Christians as problems- you are aware when they talk about "religious freedom," they're usually only talking about the right to be obnoxiously Christian in public, right? I know very few conservative Christians whose idea of the religious freedom of others is "I don't want to ever see or hear about it and if you expose my kids to it I'll throw a huge fucking fit." These are the people who fight against evolution and sex ed in schools. I don't get it, man. But that's whatever, we're not going to agree. But...I really do hope you're right.

Anyways, what's your favorite Star Wars era? Do you prefer pre- or post Disney EU? I really like pre-Disney EU so I'm biased towards them and I am weird because I actually really like the New Jedi Order era. (And the pre-Filoni Clone Wars.)

Thanks for talking, even if it wasn't pleasant.

Matt-the-Atheist

Hello again Matt-the-Atheist. I'm actually enjoying our little chat.

Frankly I don't mind if people want to be obnoxiously Christian in public. I'm actually fully in support of their right to do so. That's cool with me. It hurts no one. And suggesting that it's a bad thing if they do so sounds kinda "I don't want to ever see or hear about it and if you expose my kids to it I'll throw a huge fucking fit" if you ask me.

As for people who fight against evolution in schools, that's a pretty tiny minority - I've literally never met one. I might grant you the point on sex ed, to an extent - that does tend to be a point of contention because if you ask ten people (Christians or otherwise) what the appropriate curriculum would be for any given age group, you'll get ten different answers.

Far more importantly though: Star Wars.

My favorite era is definitely that classic OT rebellion era and I'm also really fascinated by the fall of the Republic / early days of the Empire. I probably lean a bit more towards the pre-Disney stuff overall but there's plenty to love and hate about both timelines so I just pick and choose what I like from each and mash 'em all up together in a way that makes no sense to anyone else and ignore the rest and I'm perfectly happy lol.

Oh man New Jedi Order? I applaud the effort to do something different but I must admit I had a hard time with those books. I'm not really sure why. I did really like the legacy era after that though, much more than I expected. It's a fucking trip but it was fun.

Do you have a favorite character, canon or otherwise?

[taco-pal]

AHSOKA REVIEW: I'm sorry but Dave Filoni has got to go lol. Ahsoka show is so mediocre in execution. His dialogue and style of directing just do not translate to live action well at all. The dialogue is so stilted and full of pauses, enough that it feels like actors are in entirely different spaces when reciting lines. All of it feels so expository and flat. Characters do not act like real people, they act as plot and lore delivery machines.

Rosario Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead are not a bad actors. And yet here...Ahsoka is played so stoic, so emotionless, that it has to come down to the directing and writing telling her to do so. None of the charisma Ashley Eckstein and the animators of TCW and Rebels is here whatsoever. Winstead's Hera Syndulla is also played very flat. Can we also talk about how the blue eye contacts for both make the characters look absolutely lifeless and cheap? You can also just tell Natasha Liu Bordizzo is being instructed to act a certain way and wants to do more with the character but cant. It's so frustrating!

There is some stuff to like here: the stuff going on with Skoll and Hati at least seems mildly interesting, but it's also doing the Dave Filoni thing of changing the entire lore structure of a pretty well known universe by introducing more and more fantasy elements and glup shittos from the EU. It is just not dramatically interesting, sorry. Marrok at least looks cool as fuck by emulating Rinzler from Tron lol.

And this just brings us to the problem with modern Star Wars; It is all becoming so interconnected to the animated tv shows that they assume you'll have seen them already and understand who so and so blorbo's and glup shittos are and why they're here. But new SW creators are also in the trap of having an entire generation of younger fans created because of those shows now watching and wanting to feel validated. How do creators please both camps? How do you make people suspend disbelief enough to think that Thrawn really was part of the Empire that Lucas established in the OT? It just feels like Lucasfilm and Filoni steered the ship into the trap of fan service and ridiculous lore by mistakenly believing it could make up for the flaws of the prequels and any inconsistencies they might have later on and it is just sinking the entire ship.

Casual fans just do not care about this stuff and it's causing the entire SW machine to fail. It is also what made The Mandalorian drop hard in quality and also Book of Boba Fett.

The animated shows have never had any REAL parity with the main saga and it is a huge mistake to make it the backbone and catalyst of all the new content. I'm sorry, but most people don't want to watch 100+ hours of an animated show to understand what's going on in the series their grandma also wants to watch and easily understand. Only Disney Adult 30+ year olds and younger millennials that grew up on The Clone Wars could possibly find this pleasing.

(The way I had to hold off on talking about Andor's brilliance in comparison here...consider yourself lucky. ANDOR STANS RISE UP!!!!!)

[oenimo]

In honour of the Ahsoka show coming out, I’m coming out of my internet/Tumblr hiatus to write out my feelings, the feelings that caused the hiatus in the first place.

I love Ahsoka as a character. I love Clone Wars.

I love Star Wars Rebels

I want Ezra to come home. To see Hera again. To see Sabine again. Zeb. Chopper. Kallus. Rex.

I want him to meet Jacen

I loved the Mandalorian

I loved the Bad Batch (whitewashing not included)

I loved Book of Boba Fett

But I am terrified of the Ahsoka show

I am terrified at what they are going to do to the characters I love with all my heart. I am terrified of what they are going to do to Sabine. To Ezra. To Hera. To Chopper.

I am terrified they are going to erase Zeb. Terrified they’ll erase the meagre progress we got in the finale, of Kallus and Zeb on Lira San together.

I am terrified that Thrawn is going to be a villain.

“But he is a villain?” I hear you ask. “He was a villain in Rebels? He was the big bad for season 3 and 4?”

He was.

And that’s half the reason I’m scared.

Because I read the books.

Before I read the Thrawn books, Rebels was my favourite piece of Star Wars content/media I’d ever consumed (and I have consumed a metric fuckton of Star Wars). But the two new Thrawn book series beat it out. The new canon ones (Disney canon, if you want to call it that).

I love these books so much that I couldn’t consume any more Star Wars media after them. The live action shows, I could see the hints flooding in, and I have barely a shred of hope left that they won’t take my beloved books and destroy them. By which I mean, destroy Thrawn. This is why I’m so so scared of the Ahsoka show. I retreated from every bit of Star Wars fandom because I just couldn’t handle it.

The Thrawn books set up a beautiful narrative for the time skip in rebels. The hints from both the original trilogy (of Thrawn books) and the Thrawn Ascendancy trilogy wove into the beginnings of an amazing explanation for where Ezra might’ve been during the gap, and did so while exploring Thrawn's character in a way that made me love him. And if you’ve only watched Rebels, you’ll believe me when I say that before reading the books I hated him. Before I read the books I couldn’t imagine liking him. And then I read them. And now the main reason that I am so so so distrustful and scared of the Ahsoka show is that I can see contradictory hints in the trailers, hints at the themes and stories that are going to be explored in the show, and they are all hints pointing towards making Thrawn who he was in the pre-Disney canon, in the old Thrawn novels. In those, he was exactly what you likely think of him as—ruthless, evil, heartless. However you want to describe it. But the newer books (written by the same guy who created Thrawn in the first place, I’d like you to know) changed that. They made him an infinitely more nuanced character, gave him a story that is so much more interesting than an evil dictator. But the trailers for the Ahsoka show make reference to the old books. The set up of the show is making Thrawn out to be the big bad. And when I heard “Heir to the Empire” (the title of one of the old Thrawn books, in which he is exactly that, and is his usual Legends canon nightmareish evil self) I pretty much lost all hope.

Theoretically, all this should’ve been assuaged by the fact that the new Thrawn books are canon. Not Legends canon, they are current canon.

But after how they changed Kanan’s backstory in Bad Batch, contradicting canon comics in favour of their new audiovisual show, I can’t expect much respect for written canon vs audiovisual canon. They’ve already disregarded their books once, why wouldn’t they do it again?

And let’s loop back around to that “but Thrawn was a big bad villain in the Rebels show”, because that ties right in.

Most of us love Dave Filoni. Clone Wars kicked ass. Rebels is amazing. I said it before—it’s my second favourite Star Wars media ever.

However.

Dave Filoni is also involved in the whole changes that happened with Jacen. He did the Bad Batch.

He also did Rebels, and specifically, also chose to make Thrawn the way he was in Rebels.

Compared to how Thrawn is in the new books, written by Timothy Zahn (again, the guy who made Thrawn in the first place), I’d take Zahn Thrawn over Filoni Thrawn any day. Because as I said, he is way more nuanced and complex in the books.

Villain and antagonist are two very different things. A villain is bad. A villain is cruel, and wrong. An antagonist is an opposing force. An opposing force against the protagonist. The protagonist doesn’t have to be a hero. The protagonist is simply the person we are following the story of, the one we hear the side of.

In Rebels, Thrawn is presented as antagonist and villain. He is countering the rebels efforts, doing things they don’t condone. The Empire is the true overarching villain of Rebels, and he is the face of the empire (once the inquisitors are done away with, and Kallus has defected). He and Pryce are the Empire. (Maul’s also an antagonist, but this isn’t about him.)

In the books, Thrawn is the (main) protagonist. He’s not really a hero, not in any usual meaning of the word, but he’s a protagonist.

The other main protagonist for the first book is Eli Vanto. An imperial officer who’s a hick from Wild Space, he’s about as low on the food chain as you could get.

For the first while, the Thrawn books don’t really have a distinct villain. The antagonists are, as could be expected for a book centred on imperial officers, sympathetic, or just plain unimportant enough to really count. Pirates. Smugglers.

And then comes Nightswan.

Nightswan is not a villain—He’s an antagonist. But he’s not a hero either. He’s not even really a rebel, not in with the rebellion, or his own sect like Saw Guerrera. He’s just swindling and fighting because he doesn’t like the empire, but he’s not overly concerned with results. A bit, but not much.

Pryce is a protagonist of the first Thrawn book. She is also, simultaneously, a villain. We watch her turn from a cunning and conniving 30-something, to a cunning, conniving, ruthless 50-something with a body count and a former best friend she turned in, making her rot in prison (because she joined a rebellion after seeing how Pryce was treated by her superiors!).

The last of the conflicts in the first Thrawn book is not a person vs person conflict. It is a person vs society. The last antagonist is the Empire. Or, specifically, the Empire’s xenophobia.

Thrawn is treated like crap by more than half of the people he works with. Eli, hick extraordinaire, the lowest member of the food chain, is not the lowest. Thrawn is. The only thing worse than being a hick from the ass end of nowhere is being an alien from the ass end of nowhere. At every turn, there are enemies watching for Thrawn and Eli to slip up, so they can be sent packing. The only reason they don’t, the only reason they survive, is a combination of one (1) influential non-xenophobic friend (who’s a remnant of the Republic, funnily enough (love you, Yularen)), plain competency at military matters, and a lot of tiptoeing around and making concessions.

“When can we push without being kicked out or killed”. “When do we have to give ground in order to stay in the fleet, and have the chance to do better in the long run”. More often than not, for two people such as themselves, they have to give ground. Eli, and Thrawn, spend a lot of their time in the books having ethical dilemmas and crises of conscious. It’s subtler from Thrawn, but it’s there.

Tell me that’s not more interesting than another black and white imperial villain. Tell me that doesn’t make more sense than a black and white imperial villain when said villain is an alien.

I also… don’t like Lars Mikklesen, heh. I don’t have anything against him, not really, but the problem stems from how he doesn’t help counter what I’m seeing in the trailer(s). Lars Mikkelsen was, indeed, Thrawn’s voice actor in Rebels. However, it’s Dave Filoni’s Thrawn (Rebels Thrawn) that I’m worried about. As we’ve said, Thrawn in Rebels occupies a very black and white villain role, this cold as ice ruthless and cruel and creepy villain, but then they (Disney! Literally Disney! Literally canon!) expanded on him, changing his backstory and history and present to be something way more interesting, way more complicated and nuanced and sympathetic and tbh, not a villain so much as a misguided hero. 

That’s the Thrawn I want! That’s the Thrawn I read six books of! That’s the Thrawn that makes a fascinating counter to Ezra’s reckless idealism! But they are hinting at all the wrong hints, and the fact that they keep pulling from Rebels is one part of those hints. Ahsoka snarling in Mando asking for where “Grand Admiral Thrawn” is, is another. “Heir to the empire” is another, and that’s the really, really, really damning one. Anyway, yeah, Lars is not the problem, but he’s another person involved who doesn’t have any exposure to Book Thrawn, so he does nothing to reassure. Also, in the pettier reasons I’m eh on him, lmao, he’s… kinda old for how I think Thrawn should look since we’ve experienced that Chiss seem to age extremely gracefully, and also just generally his face isn’t right, and also… I know he was the first voice but I really like Mark Thompson (the voice actor for the audiobooks) way better, lol.

Other than Thrawn, the trailer(s) worries me that they’re going to pull force-sensitive Sabine out of their asses. There’s no reason to make her force-sensitive, she could use Ezra’s lightsaber without it, and work with Ahsoka without being her padawan (remember how Ahsoka left the Jedi order also?? And refused to train Grogu? Her randomly turning around to train Sabine (who shouldn’t be force sensitive anyway) doesn’t even fit in with their own canon!)

Ahem.

That’s all I can think of right now. If you’ve read the Thrawn books, or if you haven’t but are curious and don’t care about spoilers, this is what I think should’ve/should happen with Ezra, Thrawn, and all the post-rebels pre-rebels epilogue/pre-Ahsoka time.

[scottysketches]

i'm having too much fun, so how about your version of mara why not! or even satine!

I'm gonna do both.

SATINE KRYZE:

Sexuality headcanon: Straight, but down to experiment if she's in the mood and Obi-Wan's not around to rail her

Gender headcanon: Cis female, but enjoys dressing in masculine-appearing outfits (lots of pants, much easier for causing trouble in than a dress lol)

A ship I have with said character: Obi-Wan/Satine, 'nuff said

A BROTP I have with said character: Satine and Padmé - even though Padmé's, like, a decade younger than Satine, they both have valuable experience putting up with Jedi bullshit 😂

A NOTP I have with said character: Satine/Quinlan when it's just them is my squick - however I am rather fond of Obi-Wan/Satine/Quinlan

A random headcanon: she says she doesn't like Obi-Wan's beard because it hides too much of his handsome face, but she's thankful for it when Korkie starts growing his own facial hair out because now he really looks like his pops and she realises just how much scrutiny she's managed to avoid r.e. Korkie's parentage just by virtue of Obi-Wan having a fantastic beard

General opinion over said character: Funnily enough, I didn't actually like her when she was introduced in S2 of The Clone Wars, but then the way her entire demeanour softened when it was just her and Obi-Wan made my heart melt, and that was it - I was hooked just like Obi. Now, she's one of my favourites to be introduced in TCW and I am eternally mad that I didn't watch it sooner, as in back when my brother would nag me to watch it with him when we got home from school. She deserves so much better than to be forgotten, and I'm with James Arnold Taylor on this - tell us their full story, Filoni!!

MARA JADE:

I'm going to preface this with the fact that I didn't actually know anything about Mara until I read a fanfic that mentioned her - her name seemed too specific to me for her to be an OC, so I hopped on over to Wookiepedia and read up on her.

Sexuality headcanon: Bi-curious, possibly asexual

Gender headcanon: Non-binary - most of the time identifies as she/her, but sometimes goes by they/them pronouns

A ship I have with said character: Luke/Mara Jade, though I don't see them ever getting married

A BROTP I have with said character: From what I've read about her, I think Mara would get on quite well with Hondo 🤔

A NOTP I have with said character: leaving this one blank, I got nothing

A random headcanon: I feel like she probably sleeps with a knife under her pillow?

General opinion over said character: Like I mentioned above, I don't know much about Mara, I've never read any of the media that she's in (not because I don't interact with Legends content, just that I've only recently gotten back into Star Wars as a whole), but she seems like an interesting character, and after reading about her I started wondering if the concept of the Inquisitors that I first experienced in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order came from Mara and her role as an Emperor's Hand

[smokeybrandreviews]

Lowered Expectations

If you know me, you know I shill hard for all things Star Wars. This blog is riddled with so much Star Wars content, it’s absurd. While I consider myself a fan of the greater universe, I’d be lying if I said my adoration didn’t start with Darth Vader. For me, he was this ominous, overpowering, force of nature who just embarrassed anyone willing, or dumb enough, to stand in his way. Then the prequels happened and we were introduced to Anakin Skywalker; A Vader before Vader. Those films sucked, with the exception of the last hour or so of the third, but it gave me a version of Vader i didn't think I'd ever see and i wanted so much more. Thankfully, Clone Wars redeemed those films and introduced my second favorite character in the entire series, Ahsoka Tano. Like most fans, I hated this kid so much in the beginning but, as the show progressed, Ahsoka became, arguably, the most developed character in the entire franchise and number two on my list. It helped tremendously that number one was her Master and their dynamic was pure, serotonin inducing, joy. And then things went bad. Anakin was Destroyed. Vader was created. Ahsoka was lost. That sh*t hurt. I never lost hope in seeing Snips again and Filoni rewarded my faith with her appearance in Rebels, and then again in Mando. The second they announce Ms. Tano was going to get her own series, i was all over it. Well, Ahsoka has finally dropped and I am decidedly meh about it.

After three episodes, I find myself at an impasse. It’s more confliction than anything. I was never a huge fan of Rebels but I didn't outright hate the show like a lot of the fandom. There were aspects i enjoyed, Ezra was not one of them, but Sabine Wren, is. Officially adding her to the Disaster Lineage by making her Ahsoka’s Padawan is everything to my Imperial heart. It makes so much sense that it would be Sabine, basically a Mando version of Ahsoka, herself, who would end up being Ahsoka's first student. Witnessing Snips make the same faces as Skyguy when her own Padawan does the same reckless sh*t she did when she was a Padawan, is just perfect. So why don’t i like this show more? I mean, if we’re being perfectly honest, this thing is tailor-made for me. The titular characters is basically my second favorite of the entire franchise, continuing her exceptional development in what has turned out to be the most gorgeous of the Star Wars serials. It focuses on Jedi and the force, aspects that always draw me in. There’s promise of an Anakin sighting in an interaction with an adult Snips, which I have wanted since Rosario first popped up on screen in that orange body paint. And, most important, this sh*t is a straight up adaption of Heir to the Empire. Obviously, it's going the way of “inspired by” but still, we're talking Thrawn and maybe Mara Jade. I Should absolutely adore this show so why am i so goddamn lukewarm?

I don't have an answer and that bugs the f*ck out of me. It's not Star Wars fatigue because there's no way i would get tired of sci-fi wizard having telekinetic laser sword fights ins space. That sentence just kills. It's not the performances because, even though everyone says they're wooden, they didn't seem that way to me. They seemed aloof and stoic; The way all those powerful in the force act. I already mentioned how gorgeous the show looks, you see every penny on screen, and even the practical sh*t looks really great. I mean, look at Hera's leku. They blend that obvious headpiece perfectly on to MEW's head. Speaking of, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is just another stroke of inspired casting after Rosario's Ahsoka, Natasha Liu Bordizzo's Sabine, and Lars Mikkelsen's Thrawn. I've heard grumblings that this has too much “GUUURL power” but I've never subscribed to that. The Force has always been Female and cats just need to get over that sh*t. I mean, Abeloth, the most powerful force entity in the entity of Legends, presents female so, you know, there's that. The pacing didn't bother me either but I'm a fan and enjoy the exposition and easter eggs. Again, tailor-made for me. This sh*t should have been an easy win for someone like me and it's not. Like, it's not a bad show and I am enjoying it, but this thing is definitely missing something and I cannot, for the life of me, put my finger on it.

[smokeybrand]

Lowered Expectations

If you know me, you know I shill hard for all things Star Wars. This blog is riddled with so much Star Wars content, it’s absurd. While I consider myself a fan of the greater universe, I’d be lying if I said my adoration didn’t start with Darth Vader. For me, he was this ominous, overpowering, force of nature who just embarrassed anyone willing, or dumb enough, to stand in his way. Then the prequels happened and we were introduced to Anakin Skywalker; A Vader before Vader. Those films sucked, with the exception of the last hour or so of the third, but it gave me a version of Vader i didn't think I'd ever see and i wanted so much more. Thankfully, Clone Wars redeemed those films and introduced my second favorite character in the entire series, Ahsoka Tano. Like most fans, I hated this kid so much in the beginning but, as the show progressed, Ahsoka became, arguably, the most developed character in the entire franchise and number two on my list. It helped tremendously that number one was her Master and their dynamic was pure, serotonin inducing, joy. And then things went bad. Anakin was Destroyed. Vader was created. Ahsoka was lost. That sh*t hurt. I never lost hope in seeing Snips again and Filoni rewarded my faith with her appearance in Rebels, and then again in Mando. The second they announce Ms. Tano was going to get her own series, i was all over it. Well, Ahsoka has finally dropped and I am decidedly meh about it.

After three episodes, I find myself at an impasse. It’s more confliction than anything. I was never a huge fan of Rebels but I didn't outright hate the show like a lot of the fandom. There were aspects i enjoyed, Ezra was not one of them, but Sabine Wren, is. Officially adding her to the Disaster Lineage by making her Ahsoka’s Padawan is everything to my Imperial heart. It makes so much sense that it would be Sabine, basically a Mando version of Ahsoka, herself, who would end up being Ahsoka's first student. Witnessing Snips make the same faces as Skyguy when her own Padawan does the same reckless sh*t she did when she was a Padawan, is just perfect. So why don’t i like this show more? I mean, if we’re being perfectly honest, this thing is tailor-made for me. The titular characters is basically my second favorite of the entire franchise, continuing her exceptional development in what has turned out to be the most gorgeous of the Star Wars serials. It focuses on Jedi and the force, aspects that always draw me in. There’s promise of an Anakin sighting in an interaction with an adult Snips, which I have wanted since Rosario first popped up on screen in that orange body paint. And, most important, this sh*t is a straight up adaption of Heir to the Empire. Obviously, it's going the way of “inspired by” but still, we're talking Thrawn and maybe Mara Jade. I Should absolutely adore this show so why am i so goddamn lukewarm?

I don't have an answer and that bugs the f*ck out of me. It's not Star Wars fatigue because there's no way i would get tired of sci-fi wizard having telekinetic laser sword fights ins space. That sentence just kills. It's not the performances because, even though everyone says they're wooden, they didn't seem that way to me. They seemed aloof and stoic; The way all those powerful in the force act. I already mentioned how gorgeous the show looks, you see every penny on screen, and even the practical sh*t looks really great. I mean, look at Hera's leku. They blend that obvious headpiece perfectly on to MEW's head. Speaking of, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is just another stroke of inspired casting after Rosario's Ahsoka, Natasha Liu Bordizzo's Sabine, and Lars Mikkelsen's Thrawn. I've heard grumblings that this has too much “GUUURL power” but I've never subscribed to that. The Force has always been Female and cats just need to get over that sh*t. I mean, Abeloth, the most powerful force entity in the entity of Legends, presents female so, you know, there's that. The pacing didn't bother me either but I'm a fan and enjoy the exposition and easter eggs. Again, tailor-made for me. This sh*t should have been an easy win for someone like me and it's not. Like, it's not a bad show and I am enjoying it, but this thing is definitely missing something and I cannot, for the life of me, put my finger on it.

[sitaka-irony]

Star Wars fans intrigued by the “Not dead inside enough to be a Sith but not square enough to be a Jedi” character types, may I present to you:

QUINLAN VOS and ASAJJ VENTRESS

Star Wars fans intrigued by the goth/himbo couple dynamic, may I present to you:

QUINLAN VOS and ASAJJ VENTRESS

Star Wars fans may I present to you:

QUINLAN VOS and ASAJJ VENTRESS

[just-prime]

Parachuting into your inbox because I'm ready to throw my phone into the sea, after seeing all of these posts about Ahsoka showing Luke Anakin's training holocrons.

IT WOULD BE CUTE, YES.

That is, if it made ANY sense for Ahsoka to have them at this point in time, let alone for them to still exist.

More terrible writing for fan service and we can't keep letting them get away with it.

Ahsoka left the temple with nothing but the dress on her back.

As far as we know and can easily gather from her living in the lower levels and having presumably sold her akul tooth headdress - the one symbolic tie she had to the only cultural identity she had that wasn't the Jedi, the only one she could still associate positive feelings with, she was not meeting up with any Jedi or Padme, and therefore was not hiding them at the Martez warehouse.

And it isn't likely that Anakin would have tried to find a way to find them to her. It isn't illegal to own a lightsaber, but Anakin kept them hoping that she would one day come back, making it even more likely that he kept her training holocrons.

Why, after all, when Ahsoka said she didn't want to be a Jedi, would she have either found a way to ask for them, or Anakin thought they would be a welcome parting gift, and there was no time.

We can then easily infer that the holocrons could only possibly have been relocated from her quarters to four places:

- Anakin's quarters in the temple

- Anakin's quarters on his Venator

- Ahsoka's quarters on the Tribunal, in the unlikely event that in the flurry of Anakin only being able to give her sabers back and leaving for Coruscant

- The archives in the Jedi temple, possibly to be used for training other Padawans, or for more secure storage

One of those three places (and the most unlikely) were destroyed, the other Vader had direct access to.

Are we really to believe he didn't ensure there wasn't a single trace left of any of the virtual time capsules of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker?

He minimally took them to Mustafar and hid them in a closet, but it's much more likely that he destroyed them.

I want as much Anakin and Ahsoka content as the next person, but I am beyond tired of heartstrings, including mine, being tugged on through shoddy writing that insists on breaking canon and logic repeatedly in order to evoke said emotional response from the audience, and distract them from the fact that this show is riding on nostalgiabaiting and milking beloved relationships from much better written shows (when this show didn't put in the work to earn it).

The sad reality is that this clusterfuck of a show isn't actually delivering satisfying nor compelling storytelling at all.

Name dropping fan favorites while saying absolutely nothing about them, while depending on Ray Stevenson and Hayden to carry this show on their backs through their excellent performances isn't good enough.

I really think that people either feel afraid of speaking openly about the show, or they are settling for worse than mediocrity, while Filoni is getting away with murder, giving Ahsoka holocrons and psychometry she shouldn't have, because he doesn't know how to tell his story without doing so.

I wanted Ahsoka to have a show worthy of the character she was up until the end of Rebels. Those who haven't watched her in animation aren't going to walk away from this series understanding why Ahsoka is so beloved, and it's a tragedy.

I wanted live-action only audiences to watch this show and be driven to give The Clone Wars and Rebels a chance, instead of doing the opposite.

I wanted to love this show instead of wanting to eat a plank of wood. Your scathing and accurate reviews are a balm for my soul right now. Wednesday can't come soon enough. Then the healing can begin.

Until the next Filoniverse show.

Exactly. All of this is so fucking true.

Filoni's playing around like a child in a sandbox. Except he doesn't care if the sandcastles he's knocking down are his or not.

The one of the earliest examples, but also the deepest cut that I can think of is the needless recon (and weird whitification) of Kanan in the beginning of The Bad Batch.

Now, a lot of people don't know this, but Kanan had his own book, exploring his backstory and how he came to meet Hera. It was also turned into a 12 issue comic run called Star Wars: Kanan: The Last Padawan which was how I knew about it. The story depicts Kanan and Depa Billaba final moments together, including banter with their clone troopers, on a very obviously desert planet, with no Bad Batch people in sight.

And there are numerous other examples of written Star Wars content being thrown in the bin by Filoni, like massive portions of the Ahsoka novel that was needlessly condensed for Tales of the Jedi. It's obvious that he must have nothing but contempt for the canon Thrawn books given how he's made Thrawn into some insane pro-imperial warlord that doesn't even fit with his Rebels characterization in a void, let alone his book characterization on top of it.

AND we all know it doesn't stop at written works either. Midichlorians, while incredibly stupid, are a pivotal part of Star Wars now and don't just get to be thrown away cuz Filoni doesn't like them. Entire character arcs have been utterly scrapped for the sake of the disgusting GirlBossification of Bo Katan, for the sake of making Luke more mystifying while seeking synergy with the sequels, for the sake of having an easy marketing ploy with Ahsoka the Jedi.

For me, this all ties back to the fact that Filoni actively discouraged people from watching the previous shows. It was a warning flag then that has morphed into the massive red flag that it is now. He doesn't want people watching the old shows, because he wants to appeal to a larger audience who is naive and will eat this shit up. The amount of people who I've seen online who are singing the praises of the show, but admit to having never watched Rebels let alone Clone Wars is really concerning. Because it proves exactly who his target audience was with this.

Which is such a shame because even on it's own, Ahsoka is a bad show. As previously discussed here, the choreography is laughable and the acting from everyone is that of a cardboard cutout and how the pacing is absolutely fucked and how the costumes could be outdone by a 5 year old's first cosplay. But that's not even touching the lackluster sets, and the really weird messaging (both @trashquisitor-shirozora and @kanansdume have extensive metas on the show's treatment of Xiono that are definitely worth the read), and so much more.

But to return to your original reason for persecuting in, yes. Those cards should not exist, in any way shape or form, and the fact that they do without explanation is fucking ridiculous.

[meandmyechoes]

my Rex + his name headcanon:

he delayed thinking of a name as long as possible, feeling it would come to him naturally

his fellow cadets would think him a stoic, but find it difficult to sum him up in one word

it got to one point when being referred to in number, or some pronoun, or “class rep”, became inconvenient

rex looked up most popular baby boy names of the century in the library and picked one off the list

the decision was made in 20 seconds

he waited until the other day’s breakfast to announce to his class

[mamuzzy]

I agree here with you. In most fan content clones had lost their edges for the sake of... I don't even know what. Moral superiority? Why chose soldiers as blorbos then if you want to keep your morals?

I think Filoni gave us lots of wonderful characters with Clone Wars, but take away lots of things. Like you said, the lore. Stupid decisions. We had cameos, returning story elements but inconsistencies and plotholes as well. I'm starting to see the chips as flaws as well. Completely humanizing, watering down the clones to "goodguys" the point that taking away the full responsibility of their actions makes them completely the "überblorbo" who can't do anything wrong and basically the blasters in their hands are just toys.

And ughhh, I see that convo really left an impression in all of us. It was truly insane.

8, 13, 16 for the ask choose violence ask game :)))

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥 [Accepting]

@mamuzzy

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

// Yes, we can all agree on the fact that the clone army IS in the end of the day an army comprised of slaves. YES, the clones' upbringing & development was indeed, inhumane. It's a FACT that all of this SUCKS.

Then WHY are people unable to recognize and understand that these same clones have also, committed unspeakable things all in the name of serving the Republic? EVEN AMONGST THEMSELVES?

Gestures @ Fox & the Coruscant guard basically being Palpatine's direct line, to HEAVILY control the population within Coruscant. Basically turning the army against civillians.

Gestures @ Bacara's sector (forgot the term rn <3) had amongst the HIGHEST death counts of clones. And it was ALL his doing, because of his leadership style. He LOATHED Mundi for daring to intervene or bring changes, to his strategies. Which was just him trying to minimize a bit, the amount of lives lost in combats.

& there are SO MANY other examples of these fucked up moments, found within the old clone lore. I genuinely have nothing positive to say about any clone lore since Filoni, stepped on the scene tbh LOL.

13. worst blorboficiation

// See above LOL

I really despise the fandom's take on the clones. LIKE Lucasarts post-Disney acquisition HAD to water down and infantilize SO MUCH about its rich lore. Well, the "clone stans" take that and make it 10000x worse and insufferable. Talk about people projecting their white savior issues.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

// One thing is being jedi critical and not being that invested or interested about them, as part of SW's story. Another one is just going full genocide-denial, like what the fuck.

Not in a: you're sick and fucked up. But in a: Congratulations you failed to grasp EVEN THE MOST BASIC PART, OF THE STORY. HOW DO YOU DO THAT?

[david-talks-sw]

Final thought on Tales of the Jedi (I hope):

When it comes to the retcons or the content overall... I think there's one more thing to keep in mind:

The description on Disney Plus defines these episodes as "parables".

And during the announcement of Tales of the Jedi, when Dave Filoni talked, about these episodes he apparently referred to them as "a series of tone poems".

Months ago, a member of the editorial staff tweeted that these are simplified versions of bigger stories, just like the story in junior novelizations "focus on small, more easily digestible moments rather than the whole story". He also added that:

The episode The Sith Lord is "not meant to be the entirety of that story" but rather a "brief glimpse at a couple of moments".

The last Ahsoka episode is also just a "simplified" 15-minute adaptation of the novel Ahsoka. It's not meant to be the FINAL and ONLY version of that story.

Like, these weren't made with the words "canon" or "BBY" in mind, beyond Matt Martin making sure that the chronology lined up, in Dooku's case (although now we gotta accept that Mace was a Master at, like, 24).

They're stories Dave Filoni came up with on a whim because he saw how awesome the Bad Batch looked, visually, and was like "I want me some of that!"

"I saw what Brad Dunn and Athena [Portillo] were doing in Bad Batch, and how good the show looked… I’m like “well, I wanted that in Clone Wars!” Why does it look like now—- NOW? Mine look like Atari 2600, when it started. Now, you got snow and trees and I’m like “so I’m gonna write something so I can play with those toys.” That’s how it happened!"

During the panel, he also added they're stories he wrote while he was in lockdown during COVID or flying back and forth while filming The Mandalorian.

These aren't meant to be replacements or retcons. They're not meant to be "the ultimate definitive version of how events transpired".

They're art.

They're the streaming equivalent of short films you'd see in a film festival. And they are fucking beautiful. The visuals, the colors, the fights, the emotions, the performances, the RHYMES... all of it. Just marvelous!

The only things that stopped me from giving the show a 10/10 is out-of-universe pet peeves that messed with my suspension of disbelief (like Filoni essentially cramming Ahsoka into everything he's involved in, or his blatantly biased stance on the Prequel Jedi, and his consequentially 2-dimensional depiction of them).

So, really, nothing to do with the quality of the actual episodes, themselves.

Hopefully in the next season, my boy Quinlan Vos gets some time in the spotlight with Asajj Ventress! Maybe Mace gets his own episodes, maybe Luminara and Luke & Ben Solo too?