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After a long time of avoiding it due to inconsistencies of narrative and tone (a fancy way of saying I thought season 1 sucked a bit), I went back and gave Clone Wars another chance. I haven't regretted it. I feel the episodes, while sometimes not standing on their own feet, weave together into an appealing narrative. I was surprised, after the lukewarm action of the first ten episodes, to find some actual suspense building. There was also an episode dedicated to Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai", which was nice. And to get it out of the way, I am forced to modify my stance on "Clone Wars"' approach on showing violence and death. It's not all Nickelodeon, horrible shit does happen to good people, and morbid stuff is occasionally done to bad guys for poetic justice. There, I've said it. :.)
There was even (god forbid) a relatively funny Jar-Jar scene (the banquet distraction scene, parts of it reminded me of Frank Drebin in his Fishtank-scene). So I find that there are actually ways to use Jar-Jar in this more Jim Carreyesque way, avoiding the "Three Stooges" style. I hope they can develop that.
Also, the character art direction is growing on me. I find myself staring at characters whose look and voice acting manage to make a real impression on me. Not many animated shows can manage that, they have some real talent over there:
And speaking of making an impression, Bariss Offee was just crazy well-done, it was almost scary watching her. They made her face more accurate and lifelike than anything else in the show, she looked almost out of place next to Obi-Wan's infamous stone beard:
Then there's the new ship designs...
The Arquitens-class escort! Debuted in Season 2. Literally a threeway of corellian corvette, millennium falcon and star destroyer. Shut up and take my money. I've always loved smaller-range capital ships, they feel more manageable, a crew you could get to know, as opposed to on a 1600 meter Imperator. In that same episode and on that ship there was also a new elite ARC Trooper helmet design on the bridge (the one on the right). Similarily, a threeway cross between the Gen-1 Clone Helmet, the Gen-2 (standing behind him) and just the classic Stormtrooper, topped off with a mandalorian ocular sensor. Cool eyeslit. Well done there. Hope to see more of that helmet.
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The Slayn & Korpil H-2 Executive Shuttle, probably the most beautiful shuttle design I've seen in Star Wars, period. Wings that for once doesn't fold upwards, but back and to the sides? Super sexy nose-design? Forgeddaboudit. And it's an ancestor to the B-Wing, insta-win.
The Mandalmotors Kom'rk class attack shuttle. Nice mandalorian design. I've been reading the surpisingly well-made Knights of the Old Republic comic book, depicting the life of struggling, comically unlucky jedi Zayne Carrick, and I love what they are doing with the Mandalorians back in their prime. I'm glad "Clone Wars" wants to add to that with some new ships of their own.
(Btw, I'm going to replay the PC-game "Knights of the Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lords" soon, because the "Sith Lords Restored Content Mod" v1.8 major update came out this summer. The mod adds a whole new planet full of missions, which weren't included at launch because Obsidian Entertainment didn't have time. There's a plethora of other updates, bug-fixes and stuff there, making the game shine. Plenty of Mandalorians there too, in fact you get one in your party. Will post beauty pics of game later)
Back to Clone Wars: In the episode "Supply Lines" I saw this interesting design of a courier/cargo transport, a gorgeous combination of Corellian Corvette and Acclamator I-class assault ship (proto-star destroyer):
I still haven't found a class name for it, not on Wookiepedia or anywhere. The variable sweeping wing-parts on the end are intriguing. The visual cleanliness of just a single engine nozzle is appealing, a very "less is more" approach. Hope we see more of that too.
Honorable mention to a cool blaster: the Pantoran "disruptor" as I'd like to call it, I think you can guess why:
A powerful and also ornamental, almost renaissance design, a bit high bore axis of the barrel but very high energy output. Up until now most of the Clone Wars weaponry had been fairly boring. The only drawback to the Pantoran disruptor: it's firing sound sounds like a kid's bicycle bell. "Ring-ring!" Nice, anyway.
That's when I hit upon a very weird easter egg that had gone unnoticed up until now... Baron N. Papanoida (the bearded guy with guns akimbo above) had a prominent role in the episode ("Sphere of influence"). His son (in the first blaster pic), Ion Papanoida, is voiced by Seth Green, which was nice in its own right, but that wasn't the nifty part. It's George Lucas.
The character and his daughter was originally in a short, non-speaking senate corridor walk scene in Episode 3, and they decided to incorporate him into Clone Wars. No wonder they have him kick so much ass in that scene, which by the way, also takes place in the Mos Eisley Cantina, involving Greedo!
Oh, and speaking of Easter Eggs, I think I caught a little teensyweensy detail in the background, in the episode "Liberty On Ryloth", when the Separatist Commander packs up his shit. Can you spot it?: Asps! Very Dangerous.
Well, that's all I had to say about that, so far. Hope you enjoyed this little frivolous excursion into Star Wars minutiae. Flare in a nutshell, I'd like to think.
I guess all that's left is some random beauty shots that tasked me. ---
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See you, space cowboy...
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I have to say that I've been enjoying the Clone Wars as well. It's not the best show ever, but it's good.
Probably the best compliment I can give it is that it does what Episode II didn't: Portraying Anakin Skywalker as a good guy and hero while hinting at the darkness that is to come (as opposed to portraying him as a whiner and stalker).
Also, whenever this show ends (which I sadly expect to be soon since the show airs on Cartoon Network, which is owned by Disney's competitors), am I the only one expecting it to end with a Vader vs. Tano fight?
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
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Those are good arguments. I've gotten to the point where I look forward to the next episode and I especially like seeing new jedi knights and masters (if only for one-shot episodes). The ending of "Supply Lines" was tough to see, for Master Ima-Gun Di. He was cool.
Sadly, for all the cool new ships, there is a terrible lack of new saber designs. They are still just regurgitating the basic 3 models that came with "Phantom Menace": the Mundi, the Gallia and the Windu Mk.1 (before his purple badass-mofo one). I wish they would take some pride in proliferating the greatest icon of Star Wars, I'm so tired of those three models. There was Tera Sinube's sabercane, of course. They even invented a new official lightsaber color for him, pale blueberry. That was pretty neat.
Note: I haven't yet seen the episode where Ahsoka takes students to build their sabers, I'm holding out for that one.
About the aquisition: I would think that Disney sees the value of the show and just does a "we won't get in your hair, keep making episodes" move, so that the only difference is the name on the paychecks. I imagine there have been successful shows in the past who've survived channel jumps?
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NIM! You're reading Knights Of The Old Republic?!? Man, I rant and rave about that everywhere- KOTOR is the most fun you can have with Star Wars- Zayne is everyting a Jedi should be by way of morals and doing the right thing no matter what...and his being a total fuckup and his "special relationship to the Force" gets nicely explained...but I wont spoil it for you. There's a major shocker in the sixth trade paperback...and though I guessed it slightly beforehand, I was still suprised.
KOTOR would make for an incredible animated or live action series.
Also, you should get the two action figures they made- Jarael and Rholan! Rhola is impossibly well detailed too!
You should also read Star Wars: Dark Times- dealing with events starting six months after ROTS and the fallout from the fall of the Jedi. A very adult series with a few distinct Kurosowa nods in the third trade paperback. Like KOTOR, the art id fantastic- some of the best comic art I've ever seen. Period.
TFAW.om is the place to get the trades- they have them really discounted- there or Amazon for usd trades.
Anyway, getting back to Clone Wars (sorry for the detour, I'm just a huge fan on those two series!), season three showcases some great clone trooper development and shows us a trooper that was a "reject" for some reason- kinda old and frail: hunched over and limping, he helps out as a sorta custodian on Kamino. We also get to see Heavy and Echo's origins as raw cadets- and the origin of their names!
Soething that really shines in CW is how they not only manage to make each clone unique despite them all being voiced by the same (awesome) actor, but they make the clones compelling enough to carry whole episodes without any Jedi...and you dont miss them!
quote:The Arquitens-class escort! Debuted in Season 2. Literally a threeway of corellian corvette, millennium falcon and star destroyer. Shut up and take my money. I've always loved smaller-range capital ships, they feel more manageable, a crew you could get to know, as opposed to on a 1600 meter Imperator. In that same episode and on that ship there was also a new elite ARC Trooper helmet design on the bridge (the one on the right). Similarily, a threeway cross between the Gen-1 Clone Helmet, the Gen-2 (standing behind him) and just the classic Stormtrooper, topped off with a mandalorian ocular sensor. Cool eyeslit. Well done there. Hope to see more of that helmet.
That clone commander is Wolf- his squad is called the Wolfpack. You can see the wolf design on the front of their helmets. You see more of the Wolfpack in season four. Those helmets are for the ARC Trooper Commanders only- the rest of the squad get standard ARC trooper helmets (which are still far better than Stormtrooper helmets!).
You also get to see Waxer- it was him a Boil that saved that llittle girl on Ryloth.
Lets see...you're on Season Three...tons of great stuff there. That Jedi Light Cruiser is indeed badass- it's back in season four (though obviously not that exact cruiser!). That first episode with the light cruiser was brutal- I think almost all of that crew was killed on that mission.
The Pantoran Chancellor is NOT to be fucked with! Holy smokes, that old dude mows through lowlifes. That episode again shows a Jabba that can be reasoned with. The Pantoran disruptor is indeed cool- it reminded me a lot of mal's gun from Firefly.
quote:And speaking of making an impression, Bariss Offee was just crazy well-done, it was almost scary watching her.
Like you, I'm in love with Luminara Unduli,- your pic is of Luminara- Barris is her padawan. The way Luminara moves, is so liquid- it's almost like she's dancing. The fight between Ashoka and Luminara against Ventress was amazing- I've probably watched that episode ten times. Great depiction of Newt Gunray as well!
So far as I can determine, the Medical Transport design has no other name- and no one knows what the flippers on the aft are there for- I had thought they were for vectored thrust but that's unlikely at this point.
You're going to see a return to Geonosis and in the episode after that, you'll see a great tug design that makes certain those medical ships dock properly.
Huh...you've already seen the episode with my favorite CW ship design- the lovely Mandalorian Coronet.
The only thing I'm a bit disapointed in from season's three and four is that we dont get to see Anakin's freighter Twilight. That hunk of junk really grew on me!
....but you will see a lot of amazing new designs- and some tweaked to fit the CW a bit better- like the Z-95 Headhunter!
I'm hoping that they show the Deadnought class of capital ship- they'd be older than the Venator, but still- I love that design!
[ November 09, 2012, 11:19 AM: Message edited by: Jason Abbadon ]
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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Of course it was Luminara Unduli, I will hide behind the pneumonia there. Don't think I've seen the Ahsoka/Ventress fight yet. I think Ventress started out really well in the original Tartakovsky-Clone Wars series, she had arrogance and a pained past, and clearly bit off more than she could chew with Anakin, in this show she's more one-dimensional, I think. The eternal Dr Claw. "Next time, Gadget, next time." I hope she grows more.
Thanks to your comment about that Republic transport as "medical", I managed to find it on Wookiepedia! It's called Pelta-Class, and I had no idea that it was the class of ship on which Ahsoka and Offee fought the brain worms! Unarmed and armed ship-version. According to the site, the vectoring aft "wings" open to activate the lesser mini-pair of engine thrusters, but that doesn't make sense since they opened when the ships in "Supply Lines" had docked. Ah well, they do give the ship a very cool outline.
INDEED I am a fan of the Kotor-comic, I've played through both of the PC-games at least three times (and as I mentioned up there, will soon revisit "Sith Lords" in High-def greatness). The last thing I read in the KotOR-comic was when Carrick assaulted a platoon of Mandalorians, then got captured by a bunch of renegade dark jedi who wants to decimate the Mandalorians, even though they were unarmed and retreating. They're on a swamp-land type planet. Haven't progressed beyond that, or finished the subplot.
I've never been a fan of the Episode 3 clone helmets, they feel like an orphan design, IMO not achieving a relevant "middle-ground" between the Boba Fett-style and the Stormtrooper style, and the visor slits are ugly to me, pinching in the middle when they should be wide, vision-wise. That's why I thought Wolf's helmet was so very nice, THAT'S what they should've gone with in Episode 3. Looking forward to seeing more of Wolpack.
Oh yes, about the Coronet, I do so love the Mandalorian ship designs that build vertically. In the KotOR-comic you see grand scale ship battles with their nautilus-shell style cruisers, many different classes. According to the (mildly retconning) Wookiepedia, the Dreadnaught is based on the Mandalorian Kandosii Dreadnaught, which I have no problem with. Do you know any names of the other "vertical" mandalships, like the ones in the background of the pic I just linked to?
I'd like to see more of the Juggernaut too, especially the interior. Do you know if the Juggernaut is used in season 4 or 5?
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Wait till you see their iteration of the z95 Headhunter. They took a clumsy looking EU ship and made it a design that you can point to and say, "Oh yeah, I can see an X-wing being developed from that."
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That's a beaut. Can't wait to see it in action. I like the red, but I'd also like to see it in an alternative blue. :.) It really is a different craft than the original, though, judging by the number of engines and the nose shape.
Btw, have you guys got Hoverzoom? It's a free application for Google Chrome, expands a picture just by holding the mouse on the link. Very sweet. That, AdBlock and "Turn Off The Lights" (for dark youtube-viewing) has really made my web experience better.
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Ventress gets the DELUXE character development treatment! Background, motivations, you name it- they mange to bring up a shiton of new questions regarding her people though...and the Sith. And what is called "Sith Magic" by the Jedi. Hell, we even get the original design for Darth Maul- a "Sith witch" realized in the series in the form of Mother Talsend. You'll see. By the end, you'll be a fan of Ventress as a character- she's much more fleshed out than Dooku, who so far remains a mystery...though you do get to see a bit of the beutiful world he aparantly owns.
Not only all that, but the CW crew decided to break with Tartakovsky's series regarding her- she definitely will not be serving Dooku toward the war's end and meeting her end against Anakin atop some myan-looking temple thinger.
The Z-95 in CW is the predesessor to the EU Z-95, so the resemblence is like seeing a 68 Corvette and a '78 model- you can tell they're the same make, but obviously not the same model.
I had not noticed it, but No, we dont get to see the Juggernaut design in use...at least not as of season five's sixth episode.
What exactly have you read of the KOTOR comics? The stuff you'retalking about is the War series- which would be like issues 80-90 or something if they were numbered that way.
If you missed the AMAZING stories that led up to that, it's nine trade paperbacks long, but well worth it all! ALL the issues are written by John Jackson Miller- and this guy has such a feel for the soul of Star Wars that he should be tapped to write the new movies.
The Mandaolrian Horde from KOTOR is a lot different than the Mandos from CW though- it's 3000 years prior and the galaxy is a much less explored and less setteled place- with the Republic only about a third of it's CW size- and the Mandalorians are nomadic raiders that shun any kind of centralized governmental authority- but they're unified under a single leader with the purpose of invading the Republic... What's so cool here is that they conscript the populaces of worlds they take over- having a standardized Mandalorian style armor that can be configured for whatever species wears it....which is pretty refreshing in it's novelty! But that's not to say that veteran warriors like Rholan Dyre wear that crap- the older guys all have unique and specialized armor that serves as their public face and reputation- and in their society, a person's accomplishments are all that matters- not money.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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Well then, that sounds great, her getting a narrative of her own.
About the KotOR-comic, yes, I've read every issue since the start and up until that new offensive towards the Mandalorians on a swamp planet. I have a bit of a backlog at the moment but when I soon get access to the mags again, I'll get up to date.
As I said before, I played through the KotOR video games when they came out (2003&2004), everything the comic book has in terms of republic ships (including my favorite, the Foray-Class cruiser), uniforms and the exotic Mandies either comes directly from those two games, or follows a design paradigm set by the games.
That's not to say the comic hasn't also come up with lots and lots of original content both ship-, weapon- and uniform-wise, it really has. The big Republic disc-shaped battleship isn't one of my favorites, but almost all the stuff from the Mandies is new (including the properly mountable Basilisk-droid, as opposed to the Kotor2-game's ugly-ass Basilisk "shuttle") and I really like it. Especially the unconventional vertically-shaped Mandy capital ships and cruisers:
[url= http://www.bwafer.com/starwars/images/Jehavey'ir-type_assault_ship.jpg]Jehavey'ir Class cruiser[/url]. No matter how many times I edit that line, the space between the url= and the adress keeps reinserting itself. Something must be wrong with the forum software, I can't believe it starts killing links if you write more than 5 hotlinks? What kind of arbitrary number is that?
[ November 10, 2012, 06:27 PM: Message edited by: Nim ]
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You probably already know this but the Basilisk Shuttle is the same design (and CG model) as Prince Xizor's Virago. But if you're feeling that itch to build the model kit of the Virago...god help you. Many good Bothans died trying to get that thing's parts to fit together...and to fill the gaps they leave open!
Star Wars Miniatures makes an excellent Basilisk droid with a Mandalorian rider on top...would look cool atop your Computer's monitor or something. I think my roomate has that one.
As to the capital ships from the comics, I personally really liked the disk shaped Couragous! It was cool in that the bridge was on the ventral side -better to observe a large battle or look down on some planet, I suppose. Plus with all tah firepower on the ventral sie, the ship looks designed for planetary bombardment or as a command and control ship for ground troops. It's also (to me) nice to see new designs that look nothing like the familiar CW/OT designs- after all, it's a few thousand years prior, right? Ship design should have changed radicaly...even in a universe where technological advancments seem to have stagnated- or even fallen backward because of the massive wars that periodicly threaten to topple everything into anarchy.
I'd love to make a Ixpungible class class model (like the Courageous)to go with my Venator and Dreadnoughts... still, it was cool seing the Mandos blow the ship to hell, and for the Mandalore to make his axe from the wreckage! Nothing says "Fuck You" like that move.
Yes, that mandolorian shp that looks like a cross between a hairdryer, a Q-bert and a nautilus is bizarrely neat- functionally cool in that it lands on that decending stem part- giving the crew a height advantage over any hostiles around the ship. It's like a fortress that can just fly away. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/6/65/Jehavey'ir-type_assault_ship.jpg
I'm NOT a fan of the Kyramud-type battleship though- too organic and inscetoid. It just does not really fit with the other Mandalorian ships and the scale of them always seems off because they look like fleas- they could just as well be the tiny "gremlin" droids from ROTS.
Here's a gift from Season Five of Clone Wars- the Crucible class Jedi transport:
[ November 11, 2012, 07:58 AM: Message edited by: Jason Abbadon ]
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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Oh that is a gorgeous design, it's engine layout is the same W-shape as the Foray-class! Very lean and nice lines, this style of ship is what I'd hoped the Normandy would look like in "Mass Effect". I hope they get around to an armed variant of this. "Crucible" does not ring of non-martial connotations. ; That's another design I would so love to see with blue markings instead of red.
Man, those designers at Lucasfilm seem to like their jobs. They could easily have just gone with another ship of existing design there, I wonder who at Lucasfilm makes the desicions to commission new ships? I would want to meet that guy and check out his concept art, the ones that almost made the cut. See one of their brainstorming design meetings.
I agree the Ixpugnable is a novel design, I suppose I thought it was a bit immobile-looking the first time I saw it, but as a siege-type command ship it's solid. And seeing its engines just now did redeem it even more.
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I had to make a small recording. The sheer cuteness and level of silly in this scene caught me off-guard. I had to punch out a window to feel like a man again. The dramatic and dead serious musical score makes the scene even more silly.
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I'm at work so I'll have to watch taht scene later- what episode is it from and what's happening? Is it the Jar jar distraction bit? That one cinched the idea that he does indeed have some latant Force ability- noting else explains his strange clumsy-yet-agile way that he manages not to get killed- or rarely even captured!
That Crucible is definitely made for weapons- you can see the space for a dorsal turret midships- this particular one likely is a schoolbus of sorts- it's used to take very young Jedi Padawans to find their lightsaber crystals at the temple shown in the CW cartoon shorts. Over at SSM, we're trying to get a feel for the ship's dorsal elevation- the shape of the "head" for want of a better term- it's smaller and more sharp angled than the Alderaan Blockade Runner (dont know it's precise name).
Season Four and Five show us such lovelies as the Gozanti Cruizer- another EU design like the Z-95 Bossk's Hound's Tooth and best of all- we see that Hondo's person craft is none other than the Lady Luck- the ship fated to oneday belong to Lando Calrissian! [URL=http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121024043314/starwars/images/f/f6/Obi-Wan_Kenobi's_Personal_Luxury_Yacht_3000.jpgg ]A screengrab showing her all pimped out.
The more I see Hondo, the more I really, truly love him. Wait till you see the wild free for all between him, his men (traitorus and otherwise) Darth Maul, Obi Wan, Savage oppress and Adi Galia. He's SO. DAMN. FUNNY. The perfect unflappable pirate leader. ANd...without spoiling anything really, his attitude when dealing with Maul and Obi Wan is very telling- he asks Obi Wan what this Maul guy's problem is and calls him "one of yours- referring to the Jedi. To the galaxy in general, the Sith seem forgotten...which is bad news when guys like Maul or Dooku fuck over the whole galaxy....and are viewed as Jedi. Which really is the case with Dooku!
I wonder why we dont see more of the media in Star Wars- we never see the press dogging politicians- no investigative reporters that might uncover the shocking truth- or even get in the way of the various missions or murder investigations- yet we can infer from the "Movietone" announcer at the start of each episode that there is indeed some means to keep the public informed about galactic events. weren't there floating cameas in the senate scenes from TPM?
[ November 12, 2012, 06:41 AM: Message edited by: Jason Abbadon ]
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Nope, not Jar-Jar distraction. I won't tell you which scene it is, you'll have to enjoy when you come home. :.)
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Okay. meanwhile, I edited my last post to clear some clutter and add some thoughts- SW Wiki seems to have a hotlinking countermeasure that prevents even the "URL" function from happening.
I'm annoyed and impressed.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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