Clone Wars 100th episode
 

Saturday morning.

Good 5-minute retrospective video here.

This season has I think been the best yet, in terms of consistent quality. Lots of good stuff.

Wow has this taken a turn for the dark in the last 3 weeks. Lots of killing (not droids), not much humor. Serious stuff. Really good stuff.

Yeah. I absolutely love this season, but I'm having to discourage my son from watching because it's pretty much focused in the evil as the protagonists.

I get why they did the goofy episodes with the droids and the tiny colonel now. Those were for the little kids. The stuff with maul and the mandalorians sure isn't.

In sad toon news, Young Justice has been cancelled and Tron: Uprising is likely not getting a second season. Tron especially is sad, because it's really, really good (not that YJ isn't). But nobody is watching it...

What? Young Justice was really damned good. CW is having their Firefly moment here. (well, maybe not as big of scope, but still, a mistake)

YJ and Green Lantern (which is actually good too, much to my surprise) have both been canned. They're going with some shitty comic Teen Titans show called "Teen Titans GO!" and yet another Batman series (which if it's anything like the last one will be complete garbage).

Details:The unfortunately reality is that the ratings weren't very good, so they're going to dumb the DC shows down to match the rest of the early morning crap on the network.

That sucks. The animation and storylines on YJ are top notch. Hopefully someone somewhere with sense will give it a second chance sometime.

It's a real difficulty with PG 13 animated shows. I can't really let my kids watch those as much as I like them. Thus I can't watch them when they're normally airing.

My 6 year old and I watched the first two episodes of The Clone Wars last night. I realize that we're only two episodes into it but I have to say that the quality of animation, sound design and especially Kevin's score, seem to be way beyond Rebels.

It feels like we're watching a film at a movie theater, not a TV show. I'm really, really impressed and the voice actors are excellent. My daughter jumped off the sofa when she saw Ashoka and asked "Why is she so short?".

I can't wait to watch the remaining 98 because I've read here and heard from others that it gets even better. I hope Rebels makes the jump to this type of quality in season two.

I really enjoyed it. Very well done. Good voice acting, well written, solid animation.

The only thing I didn't like (and it was TERRIBLE) was when Anakin and co. visit this "Force world."

Just skip those eps. It's that bad and adds nothing to the story...

It was more cinematic. The minimalistic style of Rebels has taken some time to adjust to.

And Rausch is right about the episodes he mentions. They were amazingly bad, after being pushed as a major event (if I recall, that's when Liam Neeson reprised Qui-gon).

Thanks for the heads up about those episodes but we'll watch them anyway. :D

Yeah, it's not only the visuals but the score and the sound design that seem far inferior to TCW. Now I understand why so many people initially criticized Rebel. I'd be kind of bummed, too.

Rebels came a long way pretty quickly, I thought. It started out sort of okay and ended great. It'll be fine.

I wasn't agreeing with the don't watch part, just the quality assessment. Think of it as a warning.

There are some other clunkers too. It's not all rainbows and unicorns.

You'll see why everyone was so excited about Ahsoka joining Rebels though. She has a fantastic character arc. Way more than you'd expect from a cartoon. Some other great characters as well.

Rebels was in a tricky situation because it introduced brand new characters in different setting than all of the other films and TV series but I agree that it improved greatly as the season progressed.

My only issue is that the production value is far less than that of TCW. Considering that it's on Disney instead of the Cartoon Network (which had to pay a handsome fee to broadcast it) I'd wager to guess that the budget is significantly smaller, which results in a less "shiny" and produced series.

Maybe they'll ramp it up in season two.

I'm not sure there isn't more to it than that. There's been a minimalistic movement of sorts in animation recently. Rebels reminds me artistically a bit of both the Tron series Disney XD ran a couple years ago and the Green Lantern show that ran a season on CN. While I'm sure there are budgetary motivations I also think it's an intentional stylistic choice.

TCW also told stories on a broader, galactic scale. In pretty much every way I can think of, Rebels is basically TCW Lite.

I know I was rather loudly disappointed in Rebels. The story has picked up enough that I will watch the first few episodes next season, thanks mainly to the season finale character introductions. Still, it just feels like a watered down TCW.

The only reason I can see for a minimalist style with Rebels is because it will never "darken" like TCW did. Rebels just screams kid friendly. The movies were so visually stimulating that something like Rebels seems more like a kids coloring book. TCW animation wasn't perfect, but it felt so much more modern and visually appealing.

I don't see Rebels as kid friendly. There was a scene in the second to the last or last episode where Tarkin calls in two Imperials we've seen throughout the series when the Inquisitor walks in and beheads them with his dual blade lightsaber.

In the initial episodes, they were terrorists, killing multiple Stormtroopers with grenades or thermal reactors. There's been a lot of unprovoked killing on the part of the Ghost's crew, which takes some explaining to children under 10 (and maybe even under 12).

I expect the series to get darker because as far as we know, Kanan, Yoda and Obi Wan are the only Jedi left. Vader is hunting them down, as is Tarkin and we're getting closer to a fully functional Death Star.

There will be more killing and more death, for sure.

I guess I don't see it as any worse than the typical cartoons I grew up with. I can't really explain the difference, but I think you'll understand once you get to it. TCW was pretty tame the first few seasons. I struggled in season 2 because of the jarjar-ness of it. So far in Rebels we've had a single (OK, double :) ) beheading left to your imagination, with no real onscreen deaths.

TCW makes you care about the deaths in the series. You get to know the stormtroopers. They're given names, stories, histories, goals, personalities. When they die, they die onscreen. With their brothers. As heroes and flawed beings. Their deaths are not hidden behind masks. Their blood is not shed off-screen. Their pain and sacrifice is the story.

I tried to find some youtube clips to show what I mean, but as I watched them I realized that so much of the mood comes from knowing the characters. Without getting to know them and watching the episodes it just doesn't hold the same kind of weight. Anything I point to directly would just be a spoiler.

"The mission. The nightmares. They're finally over."

The clone stories are just one of many differences that separate the two shows that I think you'll discover as you watch. I think you are right about Rebels getting darker, but I don't think it will ever reach the same levels as TCW.

EDIT:
Oh, and **** Disney for cancelling TCW. Another reason I'm not currently a fan of Rebels. It is not a worthy replacement for TCW.

TCW really starts to pick up in season 2. Season 1 was pretty kiddie.

Once Darth Maul returns the show hits it's stride and you can watch 10 episodes in a row without blinking.

Rebels style may change somewhat. It may have started simple to reflect the smaller focus of the show in the beginning. It couldn't begin with an established set of characters, does not have a wider galactic conflict to immediately build upon like the Clone Wars (referring to the event not the series). It's a teenage orphan joining a ragtag crew that's eventually revealed as a part of a larger conspiracy. It makes sense that it would start more intimate and gradually evolve into something increasingly epic, as the individuals and team both become more aware of what they are and can be. Characters become deeper and more complex over time, as does the larger show.

We saw that play out pretty clearly by the finale and I don't see why that evolution wouldn't continue this summer and beyond.

Were there more stories to tell?

Yeah, and those stories are considered canon since Lucas was involved (or so article authors seem to claim). A lot of the stories started in TCW don't have endings.

I missed this whole "Clone Wars Legacy" thing that they decided to do to resolve the issue. Three arcs have been announced/released so far. Video contains what I would consider to be trailer type clips, not spoilers, and interviews discussing the reasons behind TCW Legacy as a project...

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vnH1JKr4o_8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

I am definitely going to have to read the Dark Disciple. Ventress was one of my favorite characters from TCW and it really felt like they left her unfinished. Rumor has it that a certain dead clone will be making a comeback in another story arc as well.

All four season 7 story reels:

I really wish they would have stuck with the Clone Wars animation. I've adjusted to Rebels, but CW was far superior imo (the space battles are fine in both, but the characters seem clunky in Rebels to me).

Holy shit, an extra 90 minutes of Clone Wars.

I know what I'm doing tonight.

Just watched the story reels for the season 7 arc, Crystal Crisis on Utapau. Great story. Would love to have seen this in a fully finished product. MAJOR back story for the original trilogy (at least IMO, maybe others already knew). Highly, highly recommend. If this is the quality of stories that awaited us in season 7, I'm even more pissed off that Disney cancelled the show.

On a side note, I found it pretty cool to see a "story reel". Wasn't sure what to expect. Kind of a rough draft product. Full story and voice acting, but minimally animated.

Agreed. If they can create story arcs like TCW or become more mature like keg suggests, I'll still watch. Hopeful, but doubtful (IMO).

Think I'm going to pick up TPB for this one...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wC-zF2xOMME" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/t...sive/24245601/

When Clone Wars ended last year, Filoni still had 12 episodes of stories that explored Ahsoka's history and what happened to her after...

Hoping this gets a full TCW animation treatment...

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/A207Pj">@A207Pj</a> Have a feeling there will be some Bad Batch info coming soon. Can&#39;t say what or how I know, tho, so pls don&#39;t ask. Just be patient.</p>&mdash; Brent Friedman (@BFree63) <a href="https://twitter.com/BFree63/status/568858997479989248">February 20, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Alright, we just finished Episode 3 (I cannot believe there are 100 or more!) and I am just completely blown away. Speechless. Dave Filoni is a genius amongst geniuses.

If the prequels were half as good as the first three episodes of TCW, Star Wars would be the biggest thing on the planet.

Good grief, if Kinberg and Abrams and the brain trust can actually take this thing to the next level, it would be insane. I mean really, insane.

Dude season 1 isn't even that great. I didn't REALLY get into it until the end of season 2.

I was recovering from surgery last year and had very limited mobility. I spend two weeks in a recliner binge-watching TCW.

You're going to be FLOORED.

All I can say is WOW.

I'm stoked, Man, really super stoked.

The best thing about TCW is that Anakin is a completely different character.

It's too bad movie Anakin sucked so hard. If he had been like TCW Anni, ownage.

Everything that Clay said. All of it. It is sofa king good.

This is the Anakin I expected to see after hearing Obi Wan describe him in ANH.

It's ridiculous. All of the whiny, bratty crap that he does in AOTC and ROTS was completely unnecessary and had nothing to do with him turning to the dark side.

Lucas must have felt this way as well, which is why he sanctioned 100+ episodes of cinematic style animation, sound design and score in an effort to wipe those crappy movies from people's minds.

I have second doubts about even show the prequel to my daughters. Clone Wars, Rebels, the OT and new trilogy might be just enough back story.

Clone Wars + Episode III is more than enough.

Yeah, I think so

Machete Order isn't a bad idea, either.

I popped in ROTS tonight and wow, is it disappointing. TCW series contradicts much of this film, especially the fact that Anakin isn't a Jedi Master.

What a disaster.

Sweet god, how many times will Kenobi lock blades with Grievous in this damned thing?

Obi-Wan is a badass.

Ended really well. Nailed the "end of Empire"-feeling to a tee.

In hindsight, the could have made the prequels about the Clone Wars and skipped the whole Skywalker childhood-trip.