Star Wars, Clone Wars, Rebels, Oh My

do you think they'd ever have a character with white lightsaber(s) in the movies?

the new rebels trailer feels like it reinforces my hunch that these good people are mostly going to wind up dead before long

http://www.youtube.com/embed/JtigV-biVGg

ffs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtigV-biVGg

weird editing on that one

I like the idea of making the last season about going back to defeat the empire in the place they all came together

fwiw the new Thrawn book was half about Rebels

I enjoyed reading Bloodline! I tend to agree that a lot of what's in it doesn't really appear so much on screen (which is a flaw of the newer movies, mostly TFA), but it did kind of jibe with what I expected about the First Order. Paramilitary, funded by some secret extremists within the government (Hail Hydra), salvaged existing craft from the Empire, mostly lived underground (literally).

is there any place Rebels is streaming? I bought season 1 but lord do I not wanna buy each one individually.

I think you can buy a season pass subscription from Amazon or Apple or the like

It's streaming on Disney XD, if you can get the ability to sign into someone's cable streaming credentials

Of the recent stock of writers allowed to dabble in Star Wars I'd put Claudia Gray on a higher tier than the others. The writing has a character focus, the connective tissue quotient is way too high on a lot of the others, or they're given characters that seem ephemeral

just watched the ep where [redacted] confesses to the crimes they tried to frame [redacted] for and it's pretty much all the stuff that Luke says in the Last Jedi, just more use of the present tense. Clone Wars is the best Star Wars

Rebels really takes a big step up in quality between Seasons 1 and 2. I wish I had a show like this as a kid.

omg the scene where Ahsoka shows up and faces down the two Inquisitors

omg the episode with Agent Kallus and Zeb was incredible

there are some slower episodes but... you have a lot of great moments ahead

Love REBELS 4evah

they grind on Sabine’s arc a little hard but it’s a cartoon, and it pays off

New trailer for the final episodes, plus a lot of further detail (for now) from Filoni

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-final-trailer-for-star-wars-rebels-is-here-and-we-1822194377

Thrawn is so fuckin dope

and omg at Fulcrum reveal

Dave Filoni with a new animated series coming this fall: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-resistance-set-for-fall-debut

StarWars.com is thrilled to announce that production has begun on Star Wars Resistance, an exciting new animated adventure series about Kazuda Xiono, a young pilot recruited by the Resistance and tasked with a top-secret mission to spy on the growing threat of the First Order. It will premiere this fall on Disney Channel in the U.S. and thereafter, on Disney XD and around the world.

Featuring the high-flying adventure that audiences of all ages have come to expect from Star Wars, Star Wars Resistance — set in the time prior to Star Wars: The Force Awakens — will feature the beloved droid BB-8 alongside ace pilots, colorful new characters and appearances by fan favorites including Poe Dameron and Captain Phasma, voiced by actors Oscar Isaac and Gwendoline Christie, respectively.

The series was created by renowned Lucasfilm Animation veteran Dave Filoni (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels); executive-produced by Athena Portillo (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels), Justin Ridge (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels) and Brandon Auman (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); and art-directed by Amy Beth Christenson (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels).

“The idea for Star Wars Resistance came out of my interest in World War II aircraft and fighter pilots” said Filoni. “My grandfather was a pilot and my uncle flew and restored planes, so that’s been a big influence on me. There’s a long history of high-speed racing in Star Wars, and I think we’ve captured that sense of excitement in an anime-inspired style, which is something the entire team has been wanting to do for a long time.”

Marc Buhaj, senior vice president, Programming and general manager, Disney XD, said, “Our colleagues at Lucasfilm have created a compelling narrative for an untold moment in the Star Wars galaxy, and we are excited to partner with them again on this new original series. Star Wars Resistance will bring viewers across generations an engaging story with heart, humor and both new and familiar characters.”

In addition to Isaac and Christie, the voice cast includes actors Christopher Sean (Days of Our Lives), Suzie McGrath (East Enders), Scott Lawrence (Legion), Myrna Velasco (Elena of Avalor), Josh Brener (Silicon Valley), Donald Faison (Scrubs), Bobby Moynihan (DuckTales), Jim Rash (Community), and Rachel Butera (Tammy’s Tiny Tea Time).

I guess this is the TV series SW thread, so might as well put this here re the Favreau series:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/jon-favreaus-live-action-star-wars-show-will-be-set-in-1825951046

As summed up:

Exclusive: @Jon_Favreau confirms that his live action #StarWars series takes place 7 years after Battle of Endor, between #ReturnOfTheJedi and #TheForceAwakens. Will feature all new characters, using cutting edge tech a la THE JUNGLE BOOK. Story coming to @nerdist... pic.twitter.com/iRyPS8hPDR

— Dan Casey (@DanCasey) May 11, 2018

I hope it ends up being the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles of Star Wars. Some character just being a fringe figure or passing through all kinds of shit going down.

Okay so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae2Cxy8sswk

Annnd we got more Mandalorian details:

https://www.starwars.com/news/pedro-pascal-revealed-as-the-mandalorian

Pedro Pascal (Narcos) has been cast in the title role as a lone Mandalorian gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy. He is joined by Gina Carano (Deadpool), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), and Nick Nolte (Affliction).

Ah yes, Werner Herzog, star of Grizzly Man

I suppose revive this one for The Mandalorian details:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-first-footage-from-the-mandalorian-just-kicked-our-1834033182

Also, separately:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw7sRmD-ViY

Herzog? Carl Weathers? Baby, they've got a stew going!

https://i.imgur.com/2kBY6OT.jpg

offered without comment https://ew.com/movies/2019/11/12/disney-new-hope-han-greedo-macklunkey/

they should just randomly show you one of any current and any number of new possibilities, every time it's played. We have the technology!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EJQRrHcXkAAXD5a?format=jpg

I like the sense one starts to get that we've always only been seeing heavily abridged snippets of a long, psychologically complex conversation between the characters and eventually, gradually, the entire 20-hour scene will be revealed

If only to stop shitting up the SW IX threads with my discussions about a tv show, can I just say: I'm way more invested in The Clone Wars than I have been in any SW movin' picture show released since my childhood. Like I'm even able to look past the off-putting character design (my #1 barrier of entry since this show has existed) because this is kinda everything I ever wanted from SW on a story level (tho the OG trilogy still wins easily in terms of the overall visual/aural presentation). Guess I started binging at a good time, too, since the long-delayed final season starts next month.

It's just now occurring to me that, since this was arguably the primary SW product released during the decade between the prequels and the Disney acquisition, this might actually be THE SW of an entire generation. Jealous.

huh i guess i'm gonna watch clone wars now lol

I would recommend it to SW fans in general but I'd go so far as to call it essential if you're at all invested in the prequel storyline. There's such a radical change in status quo at the end of AOTC, and this show gives that changed world room to breathe. And there's more of a gradual shift in where the characters and relationships end up when ROTS rolls around (I just, a season and a half in, got to the first moment where Vader's Theme pokes into the score when Anakin goes a little further off-book than usual).

Cool: a young Boba Fett wreaks massive havoc in an attempt to exact revenge on Mace Windu (this show covers all the angles!)
Drool: getting to hear Bossk's voice for the very first time in forty years and discovering that he sounds like someone's dad doing a shitty impersonation of a cartoon character

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLW2jkd6E7g

ending, these clone wars are

Caught up in time to watch the final season, I may well be. Rippin' through the show at lightning speed. It's so good, y'all. Can't believe I slept on it for so long.

Okay so the 'Maul on Mandalore' storyline in season 5 of Clone Wars is big and epic and awesome and dark and apparently very highly regarded, but I've been appreciating the extent to which this show narratively functions very well as a bridge between the two films which abut it and then they just totally blew it with Palpy being all 'bring me my ship' (flips up hood). Like yes, of course, we the audience know that he's behind everything, a-doy, but they did such a good job within the narrative of straddling that dramatically ironic line without ever being all PALPATINE = SIDIOUS DO U SEE because that, of course, is a job for ROTS. It's a minor quibble, particularly since it's chronologically quite near the fall of the Republic but still. Come on, y'all.

BTW, it's only taken about a month for me to go from 'yeah I guess Rise of Skywalker was dece but I ultimately don't think I'm all that invested in the enterprise' to being actually kinda super invested as a result of binging this show. Which may be an argument for treating the films themselves as ancillary elements of a much bigger and better story.

Time to steal a Disney+ login, y'all, the first ep of Clone Wars final season dropped TODAY

I was idly wondering if/when a new animated series would be in the works and behold:

https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-the-bad-batch-series-announce

Today, Disney+ ordered its next animated series from Lucasfilm, Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Fresh off of the critically-acclaimed series finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the Disney+ original series will premiere on the streaming service in 2021.

The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch — a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill, which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.

Also: for the past few weeks I've been going through all the animated series for the first time ever -- four seasons down on The Clone Wars itself as of yesterday -- and it's been enjoyable for sure, just in terms of the variety of the kind of stories they do. (And some of the surprises along the way: one intense battlefield episode directed by Walter Murch was a credit I didn't expect.)

Aw, man. I wanna be excited but that Bad Batch arc felt like a misstep to me.

The QC may be all over the place but I've been getting a lot more enjoyment from the expanded universe stuff lately (cartoons, novels, comics) than I did from the recent run of sequels.

Anyway -- had muttered something about this on another thread but today I finished a long-planned, not a binge watch but a thorough back to front of the entire Clone Wars series over the past few weeks, very little of which I'd actually seen before. Gotta say they really did the business throughout -- sure not everything landed but yeah if you had all this as a big part of your introduction to the world I can see where all the characters would be specific anchors and interpretations you'd hinge on even more than the films, just thanks to the overall volume of work.

The whole thing on Mortis, with the Force Wielders? Never not gonna be weird.

“Hey Mr Filoni, what if we throw some random stuff late in the season that’s a lot like the endgame from a JRPG?”

“Sure”

I remember the little arc about the Mon Calamari / Quarren civil war being a lot more boring and confusing than this time around.

Maybe I give more fucks this time around since both races got recent screentime on The Mandalorian?

It was pretty involved! And the shark asshole died too quickly.

I think that guy was probably the actual ugliest character not named Hutt in the entire series.

almost done with Rebels. loving it. I do like that it and Mandalorian really dig into the fascistic tendencies of the Empire, rather than the morality play it was depicted as in the films.

depicts civilian life in the Empire on many worlds, how the Empire uses virulent language about the rebellion to paint them as the violent ones and put a target on their backs (much like....ehh, too easy), allegories for the cold war....and hell some really nice scenery throughout each ep

RIP Kanan

Closing in on the end of Clone Wars S5 on my rewatch and really starting to realize how fucking amazing this show looks on my new 4K QLED.