Keith Palmer's Multi-Purpose Journal

After commenting on the beginning of an annual trip back through the movies of the Star Wars saga with the admission I wasn't thinking about extending it with anything produced in the last few years (no matter what particular film it was supposed to follow), all of a sudden I did start thinking there was something I could try and fit in between two movies after all. It's been more than a few years since I'd last watched the "drawn animation" Clone Wars "micro-series" produced in two blocks between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Back then, I'd come to think that in starting off only able to follow Attack of the Clones they had cast too ominous and unappealing a shadow over their Anakin Skywalker. Even though I understand some people seem able to enjoy more than a few of the movies without having a very positive view of his character, the interpretation I've been able to stick with and feel satisfied by wants to allow him the uncomplicated, enjoying-himself heroism of the beginning of Revenge of the Sith before "tragic protagonist" takes over altogether. That some people in the time since then hadn't stopped using the drawn animation as a stick against the movies themselves and the computer-animated Clone Wars series that had been able to work with a complete saga didn't appeal to me either. There was finally too much Clone Wars computer animation to just casually view it "in between," though, and I suppose I also got to thinking I couldn't turn down every chance to take another look at something and perhaps even pick up on something fixed opinions might hide from me. I've seen a few positive takes quite lately on the older drawn animation that might not have pushed me away. As I started watching my DVD compiling the first block of very short episodes, though, the strongest "new insight" I was feeling was that the ersatz Anakin voice, in trying to sound like Hayden Christensen's, just had me thinking that was a hard voice to imitate. While I could remember seeing comments about the computer-animated Clone Wars (not simply intending to put it down, I believe) that its Anakin voice didn't quite seem to get the character's complexities either, I don't remember it sounding quite as "off" to me; that Obi-Wan sounded the same as in the computer-animated series didn't help either.
( Dialogue's not the only focus, though )

I've been conscious for a while now of continuing to hold back from watching The Force Awakens on Netflix, but the latest time I thought about that I also thought it's been a while since I've watched Clone Wars. I had made a point of returning to the late plot arc I'd heard had included a character who would appear "decades later" in Rogue One (only to wind up thinking it was hard to suppose Saw's character in the movie showed any particular influences of that previous story), but other than that the same "I'd rather use my time watching other things" feeling seems to apply in both cases.

However, the "Clone Wars era" itself doesn't quite seem to have left my contemplations. In starting to wonder if the Jedi wound up so focused on "Count Dooku leading the enemy" as to neglect the other Sith Lord he'd even named to Obi-Wan, all of a sudden I happened to wonder if the assorted "Dark Side acolytes" in the Clone Wars series were meant to get the Jedi thinking he had become the master. While I had grown to find characters like Asajj Ventress and Savage Oppress interesting, I suppose the discussions of other fans about how there can only be two Sith had intrigued me, influencing the way I thought about the old movies; to start multiplying acolytes for the sake of more action had led to a few unfortunate thoughts of the old Star Wars novels I wasn't reading any more. Having mulled over this new idea for a little while now (until, of course, the day people start tossing an amusing greeting back and forth) does seem to suggest it's not pushing me back towards watching Clone Wars again, but it's at least nice to keep thinking about the subject.

When the last episodes of the fifth season of Clone Wars gave an answer to the question "so what happens to Ahsoka?" that had been lurking built into the series since its theatrical premiere, I still wasn't quite dwelling on the first rumours it might be reduced to one more untidy problem springing from the sale of Lucasfilm. The news the show was being brought to a sudden end battered me too, even if I had the obvious cautionary example of what happens to Star Wars "fans" who spend all their time dwelling on self-identified slights. Aware even so of how some promised episodes had been pushed back and back through the fifth season until all of a sudden they were more collateral damage, though, I still reacted to the talk of production continuing for some more "bonus content" first with happy surprise, then with the creeping worry nobody in my own market would actually get to see it, and at last with the resolve to sign up for Netflix. I wasn't as fast as some people watching through them, aware that when they were done that would be it, but at last I was finished, a little sad there were no more but still heartened by the experience.
( Those still behind me may find things given away )

Today, of course, is the day a great many Star Wars fans say "May the Fourth be with you" in a winking sort of way, or at least they assume it's being said. I do have to admit it can still seem a little too clever for me, but did find myself wondering if I could put a post on a Star Wars-related topic together. Then, when I looked in my mailbox just yesterday, I saw an envelope with the Lucasfilm logo on it. The letter I had mailed a while ago on hearing Clone Wars had been brought to an end had produced at least a tiny result.

It was a little discouraging to get the same careful non-explanation for the show's all-but-abrupt ending, and I decided to write another letter today at least mentioning the rumoured "unreleased episodes" again. However, it was at least interesting to hear that Dave Filoni and "many members" of the Clone Wars team were working on a new project instead of being let go. I did, though, start wondering about the setting "a time period previously untouched in Star Wars films or television programming." The simplest explanation would seem to be that, just as the first Marvel comics were set immediately after Star Wars itself, we'd be getting "further adventures" in the new galaxy upcoming. Without a definite comment that way, though, I am wondering just a little about all the conflicts worked into the thousands of years previous to any of the movies, even if that does risk beginning to play into the hands of those who can't contemplate "a story with a conclusion" when there's so much alluded to lead into it.

Some time has passed since the announcement of the sale of Lucasfilm, and it does seem that people have been digesting the news and putting on their hopeful faces. Much of what's been said is better than I could seem to think of, but one odd thought did come to me in contemplation of the speculation about "Episode VII," and the whole deal with lining up at theatres, a sort of "hasn't this already happened..." Then, I remembered the Clone Wars theatrical premiere, a mere three years and change after the last live-action movie, with the simple realisation the seventh Star Wars movie already exists.

Clone Wars is chugging along, but its theatrical release didn't make a lot of money from everything I can remember. Is this, then, just a note of warning (especially given that this time the simple distinction between "live action" and "animation" can't be tossed off), or does it somehow demonstrate resiliency after all? Perhaps "frenetic action" or "a peculiar premise" will spring to mind for the critical. Still, just as the Clone Wars movie let Ahsoka win me over and also provided the pleasant surprise Padme wasn't going to be let out, there may be positive points for those who actually try and look for them.

The fourth season of Clone Wars seems to be concentrating on "action" pure and simple, and for the most part this seems to have agreed with the fans whose opinions I do follow. On what seemed very short notice, though, a sudden hand grenade was thrown into things with what itself appeared not so much "stunt casting" as "crashing straight into something for real."( Rubbernecking )

While the latest season of Clone Wars has continued to deliver "changes of pace" as it gets under way, it does seem to me to be packing more action up front than the previous one did. Whether this only prefigures the complaints about "message" episodes coming later, I don't know, but at least for the moment things are getting my attention.

When the forces of the Republic landed on the darkened world of Umbara, I found it striking both in terms of sound and visuals (even aggressively panned and scanned as it was on the channel I was watching it on), but did wonder a bit what the larger point of it was. That showed up soon enough, though, when Anakin was ordered away and replaced by the Jedi Master Krell.
( The descent into nightmare )

In finishing the "Ryloth trilogy," I've just about finished the first season DVD set of Clone Wars. In managing that much, though, I did find myself thinking back to the original "drawn animation" series and the comments of some that it could tend towards exaggerated Jedi powers; Mace Windu was doing quite a lot in this episode, from shoving a wrecked six-legged walker off a precipitous cliff to leaping out of an abyss using tumbling transports as stepping stones. I suppose I began to reflect on how he had been played by Samuel L. Jackson, and wondered if that might have provided a shorthand for everyone to understand how he was powerful.

This still doesn't seem to be a very serious thought, of course, but by now I seem to be rolling with things. I hardly batted an eye when the creators mentioned in the little documentary on the DVD how the rebel leader's handgun was based on Han Solo's blaster and the droid bombers were based on TIE bombers, but I suppose I was able to realise the second resemblance by myself.

When rewatching "Blue Shadow Virus" from the first season set of Clone Wars DVDs, I noticed how self-contained the episode seemed even though I knew it had a direct sequel. On getting to "Mystery of a Thousand Moons," though, the little documentary managed to explain things when the creators said George Lucas can look at an episode and decide its story can be further developed (although I did notice they said "prequel" before "sequel").

So far as "race for a cure" stories go, this one manages to identify a specific remedy quite early on (if not before Anakin can get dangerous and threatening at the threat to two people he's attached to; however, this isn't allowed to overpower everything else); the problem is just getting to it and bringing it back. Without the whole galaxy to be searched, Iego and its moons (the quote from The Phantom Menace where that world's first mentioned is included at length in the documentary) can be presented at greater length. One thing I might not have remembered about this episode before I returned to it was the "boy genius" Anakin and Obi-Wan meet on Iego; it's pointed out both in the episode and the documentary that his skill with droids is a reflection of the young Anakin's, and I found myself reminded of a production drawing in "The Art of The Phantom Menace," although it wasn't mentioned in the documentary. I suppose it's nice to not have a specific inspiration pointed out for me for once.

For a change (perhaps even for a "wonder"), it hasn't been that long since I last rewatched an episode of Clone Wars to comment on it. I suppose I might have had a particular interest in getting back to "The Hidden Enemy" knowing what we know now, that Clone Wars has a penchant for throwing in episodes previous to what we've already seen and letting us sort that out on the way. The creators did touch on that in the little documentary, but started off addressing the idea of a "traitor clone," suggesting that George Lucas was involved in suggesting the story. That did get my attention; I suppose it's a little too easy to take note of the particular interests of specific people and fall into thinking "it's other people who really delve into things." As well, the references to the movies were to Attack of the Clones when suggesting that "rogue clones" are a little too much like Jango Fett and Revenge of the Sith in an allusion to how developing clone characters might have some bearing on "Order 66." That also got my attention, although I did still ponder how it could all turn out. If Rex and Ahsoka are touched on then, that could be very interesting for me, but if it's a matter of "every Jedi we don't actually see shot down on screen escapes," a perhaps completely unfair suspicion of my own about the novels and comics, that could be different. In any case, I was perhaps a bit happer than I need to be to think I've only got one DVD left of first season episodes.