Did Star Wars Clone Wars do a good job in fleshing out the Separatists?

Self explanatory. Much of the intrigue tried to center on the political intrigue surrounding the Galactic Republic, but was it successful in fleshing out the Separatist faction as being a legit threat to the republic, or was the overall success of the series more predicated on the appearances of other antagonists such as Cad Bane, Darth Maul, Pre Viszla, and Saw Guerra?
 
It does a decent job imo.

My only issue is that basically in the battles its super-characterized and developed clones vs battle droids,
so you automatically lose a bit of potential connection there at the start.

But the "politics" are definitely handled well.
 
To a limited degree, especially where the Mandalorians' and Dooku's activities are concerned.

The series' greater achievement is succeeding where the prequels failed and vastly fleshing out the twilight of the Republic, and all key characters in the Prequel Trilogy.

Clone Wars:

- made Anakin a respectable and likable commander with just the right balance of arrogance and aggression

- made Darth Maul an actual character

- turned Count Dooku into a competent villain, plausible leader, and fearsome elegant warrior

- humanized the clone troopers and showed how the Clone Wars were fought

- made the politics of Star Wars reasonably entertaining

- showed how Palpatine's long shadow fell over every event of importance during his reign as Chancellor

Ultimately, the series developed most of the PT's undercooked elements, retroactively justified some of its questionable ideas (like Clone Troopers suddenly turning against the Jedi during Order 66), and went a long way in repairing the damage Lucas did to classic characters. To me it finally legitimized the setting of the Prequels as an integral part of Star Wars' timeline.

Jar-Jar still sucks though.
 
To a limited degree, especially where the Mandalorians' and Dooku's activities are concerned.

The series' greater achievement is succeeding where the prequels failed and vastly fleshing out the twilight of the Republic, and all key characters in the Prequel Trilogy.

Clone Wars:

- made Anakin a respectable and likable commander with just the right balance of arrogance and aggression

- made Darth Maul an actual character

- turned Count Dooku into a competent villain and fearsome, elegant warrior

- humanized the clone troopers and showed how the Clone Wars were fought

- made the politics of Star Wars reasonably entertaining

- showed how Palpatine's long shadow fell over every event of importance during his reign as Chancellor

Ultimately, the series developed most of the PT's undercooked elements, retroactively justified some of its questionable ideas (like Clone Troopers suddenly turning against the Jedi during Order 66), and went a long way in repairing the damage Lucas did to classic characters.

Jar-Jar still sucks though.

Which story arcs should have been used in the prequel films themselves if Lucas had done the prequels differently? I really think his decision not to have Tarkin play any role in the films was a huge missed opportunity, and to a lesser extent, Mon Mothma. Maybe the Siege of Onderon would have been a great arc to have adapted in Episode 2. It's clear that Lucas tried to pack in too dense a volume of ideas, so which of his ideas would have been best being attended to and which left on the cutting room floor? Jedi/Sith conflict, Galactic Senate, Republic vs. Separatists, ect., and then having to figure out a way to shoehorn Anakin's relationships with Obi-Wan and Padme. Yes, the prequels were godawful in terms of execution, but even in the hands of more capable writers and directors, could the ideas I just listed been executed more properly? Moreover, could they have snuck in some story arcs from Clone Wars for good measure?
 
In my opinion, no.

But it does show you that Anakin was a beloved hero. And his turn to the dark side was slower, more believable, even understandable, and much less drastic than in the movies.
 
Which story arcs should have been used in the prequel films themselves if Lucas had done the prequels differently? I really think his decision not to have Tarkin play any role in the films was a huge missed opportunity, and to a lesser extent, Mon Mothma. Maybe the Siege of Onderon would have been a great arc to have adapted in Episode 2.

The obvious one for me is the five-part Mandalore arc from season 5. It brings back a popular villain from Episode I, but also massively showcases and develops Obi-Wan's character, highlights how devastating the Clone Wars could be (Pacifist Utopia goes completely off the rails into Civil War), and hypes the shit out of Sidious and his true aims. For me, it is the template of a prospective Episode II.5

Otherwise, Clone Wars did at least try to flesh out the actual existence of a Separatist leadership with some legitimate grievances against the Republic, particularly in the episodes where Padmé tries to negotiate a separate peace. It better gave the sense of both sides of the war ultimately being puppets in Sidious' attempts to consolidate power under himself.
 
Which story arcs should have been used in the prequel films themselves if Lucas had done the prequels differently? I really think his decision not to have Tarkin play any role in the films was a huge missed opportunity, and to a lesser extent, Mon Mothma. Maybe the Siege of Onderon would have been a great arc to have adapted in Episode 2.

Honestly the movies could have ended up very similar but had they been in Clone Wars characterizations and writing they would have been infinitely more likable.
Politics of Phantom Menace a bit better.
Anakin and Padme actually being likable characters within their romance.
Anakin's turn working a bit more smoothly also actually being tragic.
 
Not really. There was one episode with an actual Separatist senate which was neat but all of the leaders of the movements are just assholes. I would've liked to learn more about Dooku and Grievous but they added nothing.
 
Yep, pretty great series. Actually took the garbage from the prequel films and made a compelling and interesting series out of it for the most part.

Separatists basically wanted greater autonomy from the corrupt and bogged down Republic. It wasn't a huge focus, but you got a lot more of a glimpse at it than the films ever did, which was nothing.

Honestly that's what the prequels should have been. Solely focused on Anakin and Obi-wan dealing with the traumas of decades long war. Phantom Menace was a joke and pointless and really so was Attack of the Clones. Should have started with youngish Anakin as a padawan at outbreak of hostilities and then follow his rise and development amidst a war over all three films.

The show did a pretty good job showing how the harshness of war colored and affected Anakin's sense of right and wrong, good and evil. As well as a loss of faith in democracy and the Republic. It wasnt some abstract out of nowhere dumb nonsense about forbidden love and fear.
 
Not that great, but does a far better job at explaining whats going on than the movies. The movies were awful at explaining anything about the Clone Wars or what was going on in the background.
 
The Sifo-dyas stuff in Attack of the Clones continues to bewilder me to this day. What the fuck was going on there?

An overly complicated red herring, basically. The idea, on paper, is that part of why the Jedi and the Republic take the clone army onboard even though they clearly never wanted it was that it was put together by a seemingly legit Jedi, rather than Sidious with a Saturday Morning Cartoon level disguise. It gets elaborated on in Season 6 of Clone Wars, but honestly it makes it even more unnecessarily complicated.
 
The Sifo-dyas stuff in Attack of the Clones continues to bewilder me to this day. What the fuck was going on there?

I really believe that Syfo-Dias was initially an undercover moniker for Sideous, but that the writers of Clone Wars decided to retool him into a separate character from Palpatine. Am I the only one that feels this way? And can anyone speculate on the timeline when Lucas began exploring the option of relying on side stories to flesh out gaps in the film? I would argue Revenge of the Sith, with Palpatine's inexplicable kidnapping. That, I felt, was important information that needed to be in the film, to which Lucas dropped the ball on:-/
 
In my opinion, not really. It does a better job than the movies of giving you some hints of what Separatist leaning worlds and individuals could be thinking, of course, but not enough. There are a couple instances where someone like that kind of states their case (Mina Bonteri springs to mind).

After watching the whole series, my interpretation is that the reasons one would support the CIS are something like:

-the Republic is slow, bureaucratic and overly regulatory
-the Republic couldn't even protect Naboo, they had to fight off of the invaders themselves
-most damning, as soon as systems dared to withdraw from the Republic, the Republic started attacking
-and, in fact, pulled a huge army out of their ass at a moment's notice which nobody had previously ever heard of, or voted on
-AND, that army is made of some unnatural, bizzare mad science
-AND it's basically a slave army
-AND it's all commanded by a shady, secretive cult of what... weirdo devil worshippers or something.
-who were supposedly passive peacekeepers, until galactic citizens dared exercise their freedom, then suddenly the super powered wizards and their army of ghoulish, emulated draftees started raining fire all over them.

If you consider the optics to the average, street level galactic citizen, a pretty compelling Separatist point of view can be extrapolated. TCW never really drives it home, unfortunately, but it gives you just enough to think it through.
 
Which story arcs should have been used in the prequel films themselves if Lucas had done the prequels differently? I really think his decision not to have Tarkin play any role in the films was a huge missed opportunity, and to a lesser extent, Mon Mothma. Maybe the Siege of Onderon would have been a great arc to have adapted in Episode 2. It's clear that Lucas tried to pack in too dense a volume of ideas, so which of his ideas would have been best being attended to and which left on the cutting room floor? Jedi/Sith conflict, Galactic Senate, Republic vs. Separatists, ect., and then having to figure out a way to shoehorn Anakin's relationships with Obi-Wan and Padme. Yes, the prequels were godawful in terms of execution, but even in the hands of more capable writers and directors, could the ideas I just listed been executed more properly? Moreover, could they have snuck in some story arcs from Clone Wars for good measure?
It would have been great to see Anakin's personality and wartime competence carried over to the movies. I'm not sure if his apprentice Ahsoka would have fit (although she's a good addition to the series), but the Prequels rely so heavily on Anakin's character that the whole trilogy would have been elevated if he were the same heroic but flawed war hero he becomes in Clone Wars.

As for story arcs that could have been used in the prequels, there's just so much to choose from. Anything that strengthens the characters and adds context and detail to the Clone Wars, I'd say. The contrast between the Republic and the Separatists needed some serious focus. Especially since the Separatists were so poorly defined in the movies.

I think Padme was terribly underserved in Eps. 2 and 3, so it would have been nice to see one of her diplomatic ventures. Her relationship with Anakin could have been developed the way it was in the Clone Wars series by showing their affection and their political disagreements, with foreboding hints of Anakin's authoritarian tendencies. The prequel films also could have given some screen time to Padme's collaboration with Bail Antilles and Mon Mothma, as they opposed Palpatine and laid the groundwork for the Rebel Alliance.

I agree that Mon Mothma and Tarkin should have had roles in the prequels. Both characters could have connected Padme, Anakin and Palpatine to numerous events and secondary characters, opening doors to subplots with consequences that reach all the way to the Original Trilogy.

I have to say my #1 change would have been to shift the entire timeline of the prequels to start with a grown up Anakin and end with Darth Vader's Jedi purges in progress, or even around the point where Rogue One begins. That would have allowed for a much more balanced story focused on the Clone Wars, Anakin, his fall, and the doom of the Republic. The Prequel Trilogy had its great potential squandered by sloppy storytelling and bad direction.
 
Honestly the movies could have ended up very similar but had they been in Clone Wars characterizations and writing they would have been infinitely more likable.
Politics of Phantom Menace a bit better.
Anakin and Padme actually being likable characters within their romance.
Anakin's turn working a bit more smoothly also actually being tragic.

Even with Clone Wars characterization, could he have gotten away with murdering children? Not legally mind you, but in terms of the viewer's perception of cause and effect of his motivations? Perhaps he could have killed the alien children and spared the humans as sort of a compromise from the writer's standpoint?

I think key to the prequel's inability to get the audience to empathize with Anakin's disillusionment with the Jedi Order was Lucas' reluctance to portray the Jedi in any manner that made them look anything other than benevolent. Was Lucas trying to convey the notion that the Jedi were obtuse and out of touch in the films? I never got that impression. In Lucas' mind, force users either aligned as Jedi or Sith, so there was no room for any sort of intractable personality within the Jedi Order for Anakin to clash with. That's unrealistic. There are assholes in all walk of life in the real world. I come from a catholic household and many of the catholics I know in my personal life are terrific people, but I have no qualms in describing many of the catholics who operate from the Vatican as vile, retrograde pieces of shit. I can't help but feel the inclusion of an Alan Rickman or Jeremy Irons personality could have given a more legit air of internal conflict within the Jedi Order, not to mention someone that Anakin could lock horns with on an ideological level. From a Separatists' point of view, you could make the argument that the republic was corrupt, greedy, and ruthless using Tarkin as a personified example, but who within the Jedi Order are we to take as being corrupt and out of touch going by the information the audience is working with in the prequels? Not Yoda or Obi Wan, because Lucas perhaps feared that he might damage their moral alignment in the minds of the viewers within the context of the OT.

And why was romance forbidden within the Jedi Order? That too was never elaborated on. And as viewers, were we meant to sympathize with Anakin over this conundrum, or could some viewers have easily just shrugged their shoulders and accepted this as perfectly normal as a monastery practice? Because none of this was ever given clarity, the forbidden love angle ended up coming off as childish and cliche. It's like Lucas knew of the tropes, but couldn't be bothered to examine the details or historical circumstances that went into these restrictive practices.

What type of scandal would have erupted if their relationship ever became public? And how would it have disrupted Anakin and Padme's capacity to carry out their public duties? As it ends up being, because of no deep elaboration, their reasons for keeping their relationship a secret comes off like churlish pre-teens not wanting to be caught engaging in hanky panky. What exactly did Padme have to lose if the relationship became known to the public? We all know what Anakin had to lose, but George Lucas seemed like he was expecting his audience to assume that both Padme and Anakin could lose everything in equal measure. In the end, none of it mattered at all, because none of the payoffs were earned in a satisfying way.
 
Here's another too-long post I made about this last year if anyone cares to trudge through it:

Yeah, you might as well watch AotC just to get a refresh, but the concise version is:

There's a civil war going on. One side is the Republic that has stood for a thousand years, the other side is the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a collection of planets that have chosen to leave the Republic. The CIS, also called the Separatists or Separatist Alliance, feels that the Republic has grown bloated, corrupt, overly regulatory and cripplingly stagnant and bureaucratic. The Separatists also feel that corporate taxes are too high, and point to the Naboo crisis from ten years prior as proof of all this. In fact, the Trade Federation from the crisis on Naboo is a part of the CIS, as are other such business guilds and interstellar corporations. (History paints both the Trade Federation and Naboo as victims in the conflict - the TF as victims of excessive regulation and taxation, and Naboo as victims of the Republic's inaction to resolve anything; Naboo had to unite the two peoples of their planet and fight off the Trade Federation on their own, according to history.)

Essentially, the Separatist cause is ultra Libertarian. They didn't want to go to war, but merely to declare their independence, at which point the Republic suddenly conjured a "Grand Army" to bully them into staying. They also don't trust the fact that the Republic has a strange, secretive, supernatural cult with super powers on their side. People are familiar with the idea of the Jedi, but not everyone really knows their details or particularly trusts them. The Republic suddenly making them the generals commanding the new Clone Army wasn't exactly a great PR move.

So the Separatists went to war, and while they might not have a "Grand Clone Army" led by weird wizards, they DO have industry. The droid factories on Geonosis and other industry driven Separatist ally planets can turn out "clankers" that may not be as strong battle units as living clone troopers, but can be produced faster and in greater numbers.

As far as anyone knows, the CIS is led by Count Dooku, its founder, president and military commander, who has a leadership council serving with him, as well as a collection of strong military Generals.

(Of course, what the people of the Galaxy DON'T know, is that Dooku actually has a boss too, and that said boss is also the leader of the Republic as well, and the whole thing was engineered for profit and to change the Republic's leadership structure. Nor that Dooku's boss/the mastermind behind it all even engineered the Crisis on Naboo ten years earlier just to set the stage.)

...I guess that wasn't too concise after all.
 
It actually shows some of the Seperatist Senators and gives you enough reason to understand where they're coming from which is way more than the movies ever did. I would have liked more exploration in to that though.
 
Embo

96acf830f0061290b18f3d6c51002815--the-bounty-bounty-hunter.jpg
 
Not enough. I wanted more about the Separatist parliament and the people who were fighting for the cause because they genuinely believed in democracy. We got a glimpse of that with the Bonteris.

I hope we get a book about Cassian's family someday.


edit: In Dark Disciple there's a rather humorous scene where Dooku is given a humanitarian award and gives a speech about how the Separatists fight with droids while the Republic fights with slaves.
 
The best thing, the absolute best thing about Clone Wars is they treated Boba Fett like a scrub.

Like other bounty hunters use to give him swirlies and shit
 
It could have done a better job, but it didn't do an awful one. Certainly better than the films.

The show was largely told from the Republic POV though, so the level of insight we got into the Separatists was about as much as could be expected.
 
Coincidentally, I JUST started reading Dark Disciple for the first time last night.

One of the things that TCW suffered from is this:

Not really. There was one episode with an actual Separatist senate which was neat but all of the leaders of the movements are just assholes. I would've liked to learn more about Dooku and Grievous but they added nothing.

It really would have been nice to show a somewhat justifiable if misguided Separatist cause. And they almost got there a time or two, but unfortunately most of the time Separatist leadership was just depicted as typical cartoon villains. They were just "the bad guys" and that was that, more often than not. And the worst offenders of this were Dooku himself, as well as Grievous. And Ventress. And that other Geonosian General, and the leftover Trade Federation guys, all of them were just mustache twirling villains usually.

It would have been much more interesting to see how Dooku's public persona really was presented and curated, and how/why millions of galactic citizens would have chosen to follow him.

All I've read of Dark Disciple so far is the first chapter, but I was disappointed to see that it included Dooku blowing up several ships full of refugees for being from a planet that dared to not join the Separatists. And taunting them first over a transmission that he knew the Jedi were watching. Again, it's all so mustache twirly. Why would half the galaxy join that cause?

All through the prequel era, there's an overall lore that COULD be brilliant, and occasionally the execution actually makes good on its potential, but all too often it doesn't.

It's good to hear that later on in DD, there's some better thought put into it.
 
Yea, one of the big WTF to me was Palpatine's kidnapping in Revenge of the Sith. Nothing was ever explained.

The original Clone Wars cartoon's final episode was about this. Essentially Grievous goes to Corusant during the battle of Corusant and slaughters his way to Palpatine and snatches him.

Mace Windu gets close to stopping Grievous and was too late, but not without crushing his mechanical torso with the Force. I believe that is the explanation as to why Grievous is constantly coughing throughout RotS.

Still, the movie and newer Clone Wars show hardly did the character justice. A shame because he was ultimately a foreshadowing of Anakin's fate to become Darth Vader. He had a really cool backstory for as to why he detested the Republic but I believe it's no longer canon.
 
Which story arcs should have been used in the prequel films themselves if Lucas had done the prequels differently? I really think his decision not to have Tarkin play any role in the films was a huge missed opportunity, and to a lesser extent, Mon Mothma. Maybe the Siege of Onderon would have been a great arc to have adapted in Episode 2. It's clear that Lucas tried to pack in too dense a volume of ideas, so which of his ideas would have been best being attended to and which left on the cutting room floor? Jedi/Sith conflict, Galactic Senate, Republic vs. Separatists, ect., and then having to figure out a way to shoehorn Anakin's relationships with Obi-Wan and Padme. Yes, the prequels were godawful in terms of execution, but even in the hands of more capable writers and directors, could the ideas I just listed been executed more properly? Moreover, could they have snuck in some story arcs from Clone Wars for good measure?

Obviously they couldn't have stuffed all of Clone Wars into three movies. But they could have picked several stories. Here's how I'd retool the Trilogy based on The Clone Wars.

The Phantom Menace

Personally I would have gone with the Maul & Mandalore plot, It was the best in the series, for Episode 1. Gut what is currently Episode 1 down to the fight with Darth Maul where Qui-Gon dies being the start of the film, then have a time skip and play it out from there. It gives a clear protagonist and antagonist, lets Obi-Wan have a film where he is the real main character, and let's us truly see a "Jedi in love" who is bound by his duty and loses it all. The storyline is already powerful, it could have made a great movie. You could even have the entire Mandalorian crisis be the jumping off point for the Clone Wars. The Sith (Maul) will have revealed themselves once more, etc. And it helps make sense of why Jango Fett, a Mandalorian, would even want to be the person all these clones are based on.

Attack of the Clones

The Clone Wars start and we see Anakin as a real hero, as well as his relationship and camaraderie with Obi-Wan. I would use the Slaves of Kadavo arc for an exciting, pulpy serial, opening that does a good job of showing these two characters working together. After that you can still have the Padme romance aspect... although it would have to be written much better. Then instead of getting captured and put in an arena or whatever I would utilize material from the Landing at Point Rain arc. This wouldn't be the start of the Clone Wars. It should be a huge, important battle in the ongoing conflict. I would incorporate aspects of the Umbara arc for part of this movie, also one of the best arcs in that series, but include Anakin and Obi-Wan. Use Krell and his betrayal to foreshadow Anakin's own fall to the dark side.

Revenge of the Sith

You can still have Palpatine kidnapped at the start and his influence over Anakin grow stronger. Forcing Obi-Wan to be away from Anakin should be utilized in -this- movie to have Obi-Wan go to Kamino. But instead of whatever happens in episode 2, incorporate the order 66 arc and have him discover the chips in the Clones' heads. But by time he figures out what it is, it will be too late. Anakin will have already become Darth Vader and most of the Jedi order will have been wiped out. And the stuff with Anakin's love story with Padme here could echo back to Obi-Wan's relationship with Satine in episode 1 and help inform his own understanding of what Anakin is going through. Make it clear Obi-Wan could have gone down a similar path to Anakin and that Obi-Wan can tragically relate. You can still have the climactic battle in the Volcano, but Anakin's turn should be much more deliberate and better justified than he accidentally choked his wife or something.
 
Obviously they couldn't have stuffed all of Clone Wars into three movies. But they could have picked several stories. Here's how I'd retool the Trilogy based on The Clone Wars.

The Phantom Menace

Personally I would have gone with the Maul & Mandalore plot, It was the best in the series, for Episode 1. Gut what is currently Episode 1 down to the fight with Darth Maul where Qui-Gon dies being the start of the film, then have a time skip and play it out from there. It gives a clear protagonist and antagonist, lets Obi-Wan have a film where he is the real main character, and let's us truly see a "Jedi in love" who is bound by his duty and loses it all. The storyline is already powerful, it could have made a great movie. You could even have the entire Mandalorian crisis be the jumping off point for the Clone Wars. The Sith (Maul) will have revealed themselves once more, etc. And it helps make sense of why Jango Fett, a Mandalorian, would even want to be the person all these clones are based on.

Attack of the Clones

The Clone Wars start and we see Anakin as a real hero, as well as his relationship and camaraderie with Obi-Wan. I would use the Slaves of Kadavo arc for an exciting, pulpy serial, opening that does a good job of showing these two characters working together. After that you can still have the Padme romance aspect... although it would have to be written much better. Then instead of getting captured and put in an arena or whatever I would utilize material from the Landing at Point Rain arc. This wouldn't be the start of the Clone Wars. It should be a huge, important battle in the ongoing conflict. I would incorporate aspects of the Umbara arc for part of this movie, also one of the best arcs in that series, but include Anakin and Obi-Wan. Use Krell and his betrayal to foreshadow Anakin's own fall to the dark side.

Revenge of the Sith

You can still have Palpatine kidnapped at the start and his influence over Anakin grow stronger. Forcing Obi-Wan to be away from Anakin should be utilized in -this- movie to have Obi-Wan go to Kamino. But instead of whatever happens in episode 2, incorporate the order 66 arc and have him discover the chips in the Clones' heads. But by time he figures out what it is, it will be too late. Anakin will have already become Darth Vader and most of the Jedi order will have been wiped out. And the stuff with Anakin's love story with Padme here could echo back to Obi-Wan's relationship with Satine in episode 1 and help inform his own understanding of what Anakin is going through. Make it clear Obi-Wan could have gone down a similar path to Anakin and that Obi-Wan can tragically relate. You can still have the climactic battle in the Volcano, but Anakin's turn should be much more deliberate and better justified than he accidentally choked his wife or something.

I never liked the fact that Padme never stood up to Anakin. She was such a pushover, especially in episode 3, where her role was to be pregnant and nothing more.
 
I've only watched the first season of Clone Wars so far, but the number of times I've said "God damn" because I've been so amazed to see what I was seeing. It's way more brutal than a cartoon aimed at children has any right being.
 
I've only watched the first season of Clone Wars so far, but the number of times I've said "God damn" because I've been so amazed to see what I was seeing. It's way more brutal than a cartoon aimed at children has any right being.

oh well if that's your reaction to the first season, the later stuff is going to blow your fucking mind
 
I've only watched the first season of Clone Wars so far, but the number of times I've said "God damn" because I've been so amazed to see what I was seeing. It's way more brutal than a cartoon aimed at children has any right being.

I don't even remember anything brutal in the first season.

Wait until season 3 and after!
 
Even with Clone Wars characterization, could he have gotten away with murdering children? Not legally mind you, but in terms of the viewer's perception of cause and effect of his motivations?

I don't think anything could make that work but having watched all of Clone Wars and Rebels I have faith they could have shown evil Anakin much better than "he kills kids now!".


Personally I probably would have had Anakin fight a face Jedi in the temple with an Ahsoka/Barris aged apprentice who were trying to escape with the children.
I'd also make one of them not completely against Anakin more so than Obi-wan, and they think something happened to him.
 
Top Bottom