Friday, September 20, 2019

Clone Wars in the Star Wars Story!

We heard only the mention of The Clone Wars from Obi-Wan in Star Wars (1977).  Then there was the very beginning of the Clone Wars in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002).  The end of the Clone Wars was in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005).  The actual events of the Clone Wars was in Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) that aired on Cartoon Network as a series of shorts divided into chapters.  This of course was in between the prequel films.  It is known as the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars and has his cartoony style that was in Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack.  The series is not considered canon, but the events in it are not contradicted at this point.  It introduced many of the voice actors who were in the later animated series; Matt Lanter as Anakin, James Arnold Taylor, Obi-Wan, Yoda was played by Tom Kane, Terrence “TC” Carson was Mace Windu, and Corey Burton played Count Dooku.  The first and second seasons ran about 5 minutes an episode and the third season ran around 15 minutes.  


A new character, Asaaj Ventress, was introduced in Clone Wars, “Chapter 11”(2004) in the second season, she scars Anakin in Chapter 19 (2004) in season 2 dueling with him on Yavin.  His scar was seen in Revenge of the Sith, but not explained.  Over the years, Ventress has been a Sith apprentice, Jedi, bounty hunter, basically everything in the SW universe.  Side note: Chapter 14 (2004) has the searching for kyber crystals for the lightsaber ceremony of Barris Offee.  The ice planet, Ilum, was introduced in Jedi Quest: Path to Truth (2001), but this the first time we see it in visual form.  General Grieveous first appears in the Clone Wars in Chapter 20, season 3 (2004).  He takes some of the Jedi lightsabers in the battle.  In Chapter 21 (2005), Anakin is knighted by the Jedi Council, C-3PO gets his gold coloring, and Anakin is given R2-D2 by Padme.  The beginning of the Battle of Coruscant is seen in Chapter 23 (2005).  This shows the kidnapping of Palpatine by General Grievous.  Mace Windu faces Grievous and crushes his chest causing his wheezing in Chapter 25 (2005).  It ends at the moment where Revenge of the Sith begins.  

I hit Star Wars saturation by the time of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) movie.  When I finally got around to seeing it, loved it, it is Star Wars!  The CG animation was intended to be tv films, but Lucas had it released in theaters.  Dave Filoni was an important figure in bringing us Star Wars content as supervising director learning under George Lucas.  Padme Amidala was now voiced by Catherine Taber.  The film is the first appearance of Ahsoka Tano, voiced by Ashley Eckstein, she is one of my favorite SW characters.  It is interesting to see a young tween apprentice turn into a very competent and formidable Jedi in the backdrop of the Clone Wars.  The other part is Anakin’s character, we know he falls to the Dark Side, but his Padawan tempers him.  Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order in “The Wrong Jedi” (2013), season 5.  Then, the contact in Star Wars: Rebels, Fulcrum, is revealed to be Ahsoka Tano in “The Siege of Lothal” (2015) with one of the best SW lines, “The apprentice lives” delivered by James Earl Jones, shivers.  Darth Vader faces Ahsoka Tano in “Twilight of the Apprentice” (2016).  She tries to turn Darth Vader back to the Light Side.  Dave Filoni’s favorite character is not easily killed, “Ahsoka Lives!”, Ezra Bridger enters the Gateway and pulls Ahsoka from her fate.  She promises to find Ezra with Sabine Wren after the Battle of Endor.  


This of course leads to the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series which went for five seasons with the sixth season found in The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions released on Netflix in 2014.  The eleventh episode, “Dooku Captured” (2009) introduces the smuggler and survivor Hondo Ohnaka, voiced by Jim Cummings, and the pirates in his Ohnaka Gang.  He gets involved with Maul in “Revival” (2012) and it was unknown what was his fate in the Clone Wars.  Then, he turned up in Star Wars: Rebels in season 3’s “The Wynkahthu Job” (2016).  Ohnaka was involved in the Battle of Lothal in season 4’s finale, “Family Reunion - and Farewell” (2018).  We don’t know if he survived the Galactic Civil War, but then he turned up in Black Spire Outpost in charge of Ohnaka Transport.  In season two’s “Holocron Heist” (2009), the bounty hunter Cad Bane first appears, he is one of the few bounty hunters who can take on Jedi.  He is voiced by Corey Burton.  Cad is a Duro, blue skin, red eyes, seen in the Cantina, with a long hat.  His last episode was season 4’s “Crisis on Naboo” (2012), but we don’t know his fate.  It may be that he shows up in The Mandalorian.     

An important person in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s life is Satine Kryze, a romantic interest, who was introduced in “The Mandalore Plot” in season 2 and they are reunited at that time.  She is voiced by Anna Graves. Obi-Wan is there to protect her from the Death Watch.  Maul forms the Shadow Collective and they try to overthrow Mandalore in “The Lawless” (2013).  Unfortunately, Maul ends Satine.  I don’t think this is the end of her story.  Her first episode was in 21 BBY (the SW dating, Before the Battle of Yavin), and last was in 19 BBY.  What I found interesting was the birthdate of another Mandalorian character, Sabine Wren, from Star Wars: Rebels, 21 BBY, which is between Satine’s reunion with Obi-Wan and her end.   Satine’s sister, Bo-Katan, first appears in “A Friend in Need” (2012) in season 4.  She is at the end of “The Lawless” (2013) and then reappears in the Star Wars: Rebels season 4 episode, “Heroes of Mandalore” (2017).  She is made ruler of Mandalore by Sabine Wren.  My theory is that Bo-Katan brought Sabine in hiding to Clan Wren.  There is precedent with Leia taken into hiding with the Organa family.  It may be that Bo-Katan appears in the Obi-Wan Disney+ series and maybe gets Obi-Wan out of his exile to help her protect a child.   Savage Opress first appears in season 3’s “Monster” (2011), a servant to Asaaj Ventress, he is found by Mother Talzin to be another Dark Acolyte of Count Dooku.  Clancy Brown voiced Opress.  


In Season 4’s “Brothers”, Opress finds Maul, and he is restored by Talzin and given cybernetic legs.  He is taken down by Sidious in “The Lawless.”  We see Tarkin as Captain Tarkin in the Clone Wars with season 3’s “Citadel Rescue” (2011).  He works with Anakin to escape and recover plans for the Republic.  Captain Ackbar who was admiral in Return of the Jedi defends Mon Cala in the Season 4, three part episodes; “Water War”, “Gungan Attack”, and “Prisoners” (2011).  Artt Butler voiced Captain Ackbar.  In “A War on Two Fronts” (2012) in season 5, there is the Battle of Onderon which involved Steela Gerrera (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) and her brother, Saw Gerrera (Andrew Kishino).  The battle goes on to “Front Runners”, “The Soft War”, and “Tipping Points” (2012).  The character later appears in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) played by Forest Whitaker.  He appears in season three of Star Wars: Rebels in “Ghosts of Geonosis” (2017) where Saw Gerrera is found trying to find the Empire’s weapon on Geonosis.  He inhales gas that was used by the Empire to destroy the Geonosians.  This is why we see his breath mask in Rogue One.  Saw’s birth date is one of the few characters to be unknown.  What is not really seen is that Count Dooku runs the military operations of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, but we didn’t see a government.  Padme heads over to Raxus Prime to negotiate a peace settlement in “Heroes on Both Sides” (2010).  The Separatist Parliament agrees, but Dooku sends General Grievous to sabotage the peace on Coruscant.

 The Order 66 mystery is explored in The Lost Missions’ “The Unknown”, “Conspiracy”, and “Orders” (2014).  Trooper Tup’s chip is set off and this leads Trooper Fives to deactivate his chip and try to bring the truth to Anakin Skywalker.  It is instead said to be a parasite that caused the malfunction.  In “The Lost One”, we finally get to the connection of Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas who was mentioned in Attack of the Clones.  His ship and lightsaber are discovered and Anakin has to deal with the Pyke Syndicate to find out what happened to Sifo-Dyas.  A very important and brilliant trilogy of episodes deals with Yoda in “Voices”, “Destiny”, and “Sacrifice.”  Yoda hears the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn and instructs him to travel to Dagobah.  He enters the cave and gets a vision of the future.  Qui-Gon leads him to the center of the galaxy where he encounters Serenity, Five Priestesses, and he is tested.  His final test is on the Sith world, Moraband, where he encounters the vision of Darth Bane, Sifo-Dyas, and then a duel with Darth Sidious! The possible manipulation of the Jedi is answered here and Yoda learning about the Jedi Purge, but unable to change it.  Clone Wars had an unfinished seventh season which had episodes adapted to the Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (2014) comic book and the Dark Disciple (2015) novel by Christie Golden.  Now there was the announcement at July’sComic Con that there will be a seventh season on Disney+!  I hope everyone is caught up before it drops!  The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels offers a complete picture of the Star Wars story and threads that can lead to The Mandalorian and other stories.  

#CloneWars, #GenndyTartakovsky, #DaveFiloni, #MattLanter, #JamesArnoldTaylor, #Tom Kane, #Ashley Eckstein

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