Fan Rant '10 #4: The Clone Wars
[requested by frostbit_sky]
In the wake of some particularly nasty prequel vitriol I glimpsed earlier today, I was in serious need to feel some PT love, so I decided to hurry up and finish this rant. Fortunately, I had most of it typed up already last year as part of a review I never posted; I just needed to update it slightly to include season 2. :)
When I first heard Lucasfilm was putting together a new animated series set during the Clone Wars, I was simultaneously excited and anxious. Several years having passed since Revenge of the Sith, I was naturally in a kind of SW-withdrawal. So of course the idea of new weekly Star Wars was mouth-watering, even moreso weekly SW that would focus on Anakin Skywalker during his heyday as a Jedi Knight, the "cunning warrior" and "good friend" fighting alongside Obi-Wan, which we only had time to briefly glimpse in the movies.
But... would I like the animation style? Or the voice acting? What if, like so much of the EU, the series didn't do justice to the movie characters? Would Jedi powers be as ridiculously over-the-top as they were in the 2-D Clone Wars series? How were they going to handle Anakin having a Padawan? Would she be a Sue who outdid Padmé at everything? What if it was all space battles and lightsaber duels with little to no character development? Were they going to fall all over themselves making the show mesh with existing EU continuity?
Many of my fears were relieved hearing director Dave Filoni (of Avatar: TLA fame, which I've also come to love) speak about the series at Celebration IV; he clearly has huge respect for the PT, the saga as a whole and GL's vision - he was even brave enough to voice his preference for ROTS over ESB - and IMO the show has largely lived up to my hopes and, in many cases, exceeded them.
There's plenty of classic SW action, but there're also wonderful character moments too. With only a few exceptions, the characters are generally handled well - even the one-shots and red-shirt clones - and while some EU is incorporated, it doesn't dominate. (Though I may gag if they ever introduce, say, Mara's parents.) The episodes are designed like mini-movies, and sometimes it's hard to believe how much is successfully fit into a 22-minute show. The scope of the storytelling and animation has only gotten better and more lush, with the vast expansion of character and location designs - and there's great attention to detail. (Such as one I noticed in tonight's episode, with a machine-targeting proton bomb actually affecting Anakin's robo-arm too. Nice!) The creators also clearly love homaging classic cinema, with episodes like "Senate Spy" and "The Zillo Beast," everything from noir/romance to monster movies. Which I think is great - the SW films homage countless genres of fiction/myth, so it's fitting that this show does too.
(She has the best little "bitch, PLEASE" face, doesn't she? No surprise who it's directed at!)
Ahsoka was my biggest question mark going into the show, but I'm relieved to say that, more or less, I've enjoyed her character. Sure, she starts off a bit of a brat with cutesy lines, but that's not surprising given her age and that there needs to be room for her character to grow over several seasons. And of course she's being trained by Anakin, who's only a few years older than her and not quite the pinnacle of maturity himself. ;) I'm pleased so far to see that - IMO - she's not a Sue: while she's gifted, she does fuck up spectacularly on occasion, as she does in "Storm Over Ryloth" and "Cargo of Doom." She's starting to show flashes of Anakin's temper. If you put her up against a superior foe such as Ventress or Grievous in combat, she has to rely more on her agility than her skill, holding them off long enough to escape rather than actually defeating them.
But the biggest thing I've enjoyed about her are the avenues she's opened up for exploring Anakin's character: for the first time, we see him from the perspective of someone who looks up to him, a glimpse of the sort of teacher that, in an "ideal" universe, he might have been for Luke and Leia. For a man who is infinitely more comfortable commanding soldiers, having the primary responsibility for the training and well-being of a young one is clearly not his ideal position. She serves as a great commentary on his character, both literally in her own observations about his nature (her telling Barriss she's not sure how peacetime would agree with him), and in the way Anakin approaches her training. He treats Ahsoka the way he wanted to be treated as a Padawan, tries to allow her the freedom and trust he doesn't believe he had under Obi-Wan. And naturally, he stumbles - sometimes giving Ahsoka more responsibility than she's really ready for with potentially disastrous consequences. And when she is faced with a personal loss/the need to let go, he obviously doesn't know how to truly help her through it, because it's something he himself never masters. We already know one of the Council's intended goals with Ahsoka - that she'll teach Anakin to let go - is an abject failure. It's going to be really, really ugly when they're finally forced to part ways, be it through her death or - my favored theory - her reassignment by the Council.
Which brings me to Anakin. Even with his character arc now full-circle in film canon, much of the existing profic seems to have trouble getting a handle on him, often ending up too heavy-handed with the HE'S GOING TO THE DARK SIDE DUDES, and even now I see some people that won't be happy until he starts Force-choking every Separatist baddie he comes across. Much of past EU exaggerates his negative personality traits (I'm looking at you, Jude Watson) to the point that one wonders why Obi-Wan continued to train him, why it took him all the way to RotS to become Vader, or worse, why Padmé and Luke bothered trying to redeem him.
This series has been a blessed relief in that area, perhaps due to GL's heavy involvement in so much of the production. You see Anakin as the heroic, immensely talented, but troubled young husband/soldier forced to mature by the war (much like RotS) and through mentoring a Padawan, but still young enough that flashes of his own Padawan-era frustration/petulance slip in now and then. Some have questioned whether Anakin was too mild in this series - I would agree that's the case in "Trespass" where he should totally have flipped out at being played the way he and Obi-Wan were, but for the most part he's believable to me. Season 2 has begun to delve deeper into the darker aspects of his nature: his increasing attachment to Ahsoka and inability to accept the idea of losing her; his willingness to Force-choke a baddie just to save her life; his cheerfully leaving behind Padmé's traitor ex-boyfriend to face likely death. And with at least three more seasons to go, there's ample opportunity to increasingly show the flaws in Anakin's character that will be his downfall.
I've seen more than one comment that expresses the wish that we'd seen "this" Anakin in the prequels. To me, this Anakin was already very much present in RotS, especially the first half hour. (I see glimmers of him in TPM/AOTC too, but most especially I see early RotS!Anakin in CW!Anakin.) That said, though, I am glad to see more of "this" Anakin in the CW series, especially knowing what's to come. And of course, if more people come out liking Anakin as a result of this show, I can hardly complain. Besides, it's largely due to this show that I find myself enjoying Obi-Wan a little more. (Damn if TCW!Obi, Mr. Attachment is Forbidden, isn't the frickin' pimp - Ventress, Satine, Sugi the bounty hunter... whereas Anakin, Mr. Broke The No-Attachment Rule Like WHOA, is nothing but business with the babes he works with. Heh.)
The show's not perfect, of course. I didn't actively dislike any of the episodes, though there were certainly a few I probably won't be doing many rewatches of ("Lair of Grievous," "Trespass," and "Liberty on Ryloth" are the main ones that come to mind). Particularly early on, the writers tried to "cutely" shoehorn in too many lines from the movies. My biggest "gripes" right now, if you could call it that, involve Padmé. One, I think she's sadly underutilized. I know politics and kissing generally aren't considered exciting to five-year-old boys, but she still represents an important facet of the war, and her relationship with Anakin is so crucial to the saga as a whole. We should see her more than twice a year and see her interact with her husband more than once a year.
Two, I would love to see more episodes featuring her where she wasn't captured. Granted, most of the time, she ends up saving herself (and others), and doing so pretty impressively - besides, how many times did Leia get captured in the OT? There've been a few "huh?" moments with Padmé's character (like her resentment toward Anakin in "Senate Spy"), but I can forgive it if it's just an occasional misstep. I think by and large, the people who work on this show do have a genuine love for the saga and fully intend to do it justice. I do worry sometimes that some of the creators think they're "fixing" the PT with this show, with comments about "bringing back the romance/flavor/whatever of ESB," but by and large, I am happy with the result as it stands right now, and the aforementioned attitude doesn't seem overwhelming yet.
Long story short: love the show, it's the TV highlight of my week. Well, depending on what The Office is like that week, anyway. ;)