Big Worlds On Small Screens—Rebecca Fisher Discusses Star Wars: Clone Wars!
~ by Rebecca Fisher
Introduction:
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens only weeks away, I needed something to whet my appetite…
It’s important not to confuse 2003’s Clone Wars with 2008’s The Clone Wars, for though both are based on the same source material, they’re still quite different in format, style and content. Described as a “micro-series”, Clone Wars was released as a series of two to three minute episodes that ran across three seasons, filling in the gap between prequel films Attack of the Clones and The Revenge of the Sith.
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The subject is (obviously) the titular Clone Wars, in which Jedi Knights led the cloned forces of the Galactic Republic into battle against droid armies of the Confederacy of Independent Systems – and the Sith, though their existence is still more rumour than fact. The prequel films kept this conflict largely off-screen, though this series proved there was plenty of material to be mined in its depiction…
Premise:
In many ways the subject matter of Clone Wars is a gift to any animator/storyteller, especially those interested in warfare and military campaigns: it simply involves exploring the battles and missions that take place across a three year period, in a setting that’s limited only by one’s own imagination.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the series is that it’s best described as a series of short vignettes, each one showcasing a different character. Though there are plenty of episodes that follow Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, others focus on supporting characters such as Padme, Yoda and Mace Windu, while others shine the spotlight on figures that are glimpsed only briefly in the film trilogy, or are entirely original to this show.
Getting the franchise away from George Lucas and allowing other writers to play in his sandbox (as they say) brings fresh blood to the stories, and you can tell the creators really enjoyed expanding the boundaries of this universe.
Story:
With minimal dialogue and extended action sequences, the short episodes largely deal with what individual characters got up to during the three years of war. Filling in the gap between the second and third films of the prequel trilogy, Clone Wars deserves the title of Star WARS more than either of them considering it actually depicts the galactic warfare, not just the lead-up and conclusion to it.
Kit Fisto in the Battle of Mon Calamari
There are space battles and underwater battles, skirmishes in cities and on vast plains, fighting between Jedi and droids and clones and other alien creatures, across dozens of different planets. There are sieges and infiltrations, evacuations and hostage crises, and lastly a protracted chase scene that introduces the villain whose kidnapping of the Chancellor leads to the rescue mission that opens The Revenge of the Sith: General Grievous.
The show also takes the opportunity to fill some of the gaps left in the films: such as how General Grievous got his cough, or how Anakin went from Padawan to Jedi Knight. It all serves as a clear bridge between films that gives you a better idea of what the Clone Wars encompassed and why they were so devastating to so many planets.
General Grievous adds to his collection of lightsabres
Characters:
Focusing mainly on Anakin and Obi Wan, we get a deeper look at their camaraderie and the underlying tension of their relationship, making their hostility in The Revenge of the Sith all the more tragic.
There’s a less-nauseating depiction of Anakin’s secret marriage to Padme, and the likes of Yoda, Mace and various other Jedi get plenty of action sequences to show off their abilities. Among the original characters, the would-be Sith Master Asajj Ventress is a fantastically creepy and threatening villainess, one so striking in her design and behaviour that you wish she had appeared in one of the actual films.
The stylized animation can take a few minutes to get used to, and some of the voice actors are trying a bit too hard to capture the cadence of their live-action counterparts, but the best thing about Clone Wars is its scope: so many planets, so many species, so many characters. It’s a feast for the eyes and the imagination.
Conclusion:
I’ve often thought that the key difference between Star Trek and Star Wars is that the former is genuinely interested in what the future might be like, while the latter has an old fairy tale quality to it. That’s captured throughout Clone Wars, as (for example) with this droid:
It may be a high-tech robot, but it’s been designed to look like a black knight jousting on horseback.
The series is full of innovative little details like this; from rain steaming on drawn lightsabres to Anakin glimpsing his dark future in the cave-paintings of a primitive race of aliens. It’s definitely worth a look for fans of the franchise, especially if you’re finding the wait for Star Wars: The Force Awakens difficult.
Next Time: Sense8
I haven’t even started watching the next show I plan to review; all I can tell you is that it’s called Sense8 and involves strangers from around the world becoming psychically linked. Hopefully in two weeks I’ll be able to recommend it!
About The Reviewer:
Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com and her They’re All Fictional blog.
To read Rebecca’s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:
Big Worlds On Small Screens
Rebecca won this year’s Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Fan Writer, for writing including Big Worlds On Small Screens.