Look, when I said I wouldn’t have any more interruptions to covering the Star Wars prequels, all I technically said was I wouldn’t immediately cover more documentaries. Never said anything about an animated series! And really, Star Wars: Clone Wars was designed to tell the story between Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, so covering it now seemed like a good choice. Too bad none of this is canon so it doesn’t actually matter. Oops!
Last we left a galaxy far, far away, begun the Clone War has. The Galactic Republic has acquired a clone army to go against the Separatist droid army, with Jedi fighting Sith as the main characters of what is otherwise a lot of battles between nameless characters*. Enter Star Wars: Clone Wars, a series of animated shorts created as part of a partnership between Cartoon Network and Lucasfilm. It was developed and directed by Mr. Genndy Tartakovsky, who–as if you couldn’t tell by the animation style–was the man behind shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and, more relevant to this, Samurai Jack. He’s also working on Primal now, which is really good and you should check that out. Anyway, three seasons worth of shorts were collected into two volumes, Volume One covering the three minute episodes of seasons 1 and 2, and Volume Two covering the longer episodes of season 3. The collection process isn’t perfect–at one point early on in Volume One you hear the start of the Star Wars theme music before it’s abruptly cut off when the next short is spliced in–but it does tell a few moderate-to-major stories in-between general warfare between the two armies.
The main story, if I had to pick one, would be Anakin Skywalker (Mr. Mat Lucas) versus… her. Look, I’m no expert at the Clone War era, but even I know Asajj Ventress (Grey DeLisle, sometimes credited as Grey Griffin), even if they never name her. She seeks out Count Dooku (Corey Burton) and is selected by him and Darth Sidious (Nick Jameson) to attack Skywalker, with the Sith lord fully realizing she probably won’t win. She knows where to find him because Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) were sent to Muunilinst by Grand Chancellor Palpatine (again, Nick Jameson) to fight the Separatist army. While Anakin covers space, Obi-Wan is in charge of ground troops and fights… that guy. Seriously, Star Wars media, is it really so hard to say the name of characters? I had to look up “Star Wars tentacle man” to learn his name was Durge. Anyway, Anakin chases Ventress to a remote planet and the two engage in a lightsaber battle that ends with her appearing to fall to her doom after forcing Anakin to get angry while wielding one of her red lightsabers. Bit of foreshadowing, yes. I mean, seeing the clone army while playing “The Imperial March” was a bit less subtle, but this is part of the prequels to one of the most recognized film franchises of all time so we all have a pretty good idea where things are heading.
Other stories are less connected. Luminara Unduli (the green skinned lady in a pseudo-nun’s habit, voiced by Cree Summers) meditates with her padawan, Barriss Offee (another green lady, voiced by Tatyana Yassukovich) in a cave filled with lightsaber kyber crystals before they’re attacked by stealth droids. Yoda (Tom Kane) takes Senator Amidala (Grey DeLisle) to rescue them, finding out the hidden place was targeted by Count Dooku, who we remember was a former Jedi. Kit Fisto (green guy with tentacle hair and big, black eyes, voiced by Richard McGonagle)–which is the best name in Star Wars and I will not cede this point–fights a schism on the planet Mon Calamari while Mace Windu (TC Carson)–who was in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones but didn’t really do anything so I didn’t mention him–fights a droid army. The volume/second season ends with a group of Jedi hopelessly outnumbered and facing a new threat named General Grievous (John DiMaggio). Hey, he actually says his name, too! This is not the wheezing mid-level threat we see in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, but a combatant at his prime, more than a match for several Jedi at once. Volume One ends on a sort of cliffhanger, making us wonder if any of the Jedi he fought had survived.
This show is absolutely made by Tartakovsky. Not only is his animation style incredibly distinctive, but the man loves extended action sequences with very little dialogue. Like, I credited Mace Windu and Kit Fisto’s voice actors, but they maybe said one or two words in their respective episodes. If you like Samurai Jack and Star Wars, this show is for you, but if you don’t, it comes off a little… light. Asajj Ventress and Durge are never named in the episodes, because you’re not supposed to get all your info on them from this. In addition to the Clone Wars cartoon–again, not to be confused with The Clone Wars CG cartoon which is considered canon–Lucasfilm worked with Del Rey to make Clone War books, Dark Horse Comics to make Clone War comics, and several other companies to create Clone War video games. You liked Durge? Maybe you saw him in his actual first appearance in Star Wars: Republic #51 (2003). How about Ventress? You could read more about her in the Star Wars: Jedi – Mace Windu one-shot (2003) or the short story “Dark Heart” published on the Wizards of the Coast website, supplementing the Star Wars Roleplaying Game‘s Living Force campaign. This cartoon was really designed to get people interested in side characters, and ideally buy the related toys and media. You don’t get much depth of anyone in the first season, but really, what would you expect from a collection of 3 minute shorts?
Next: Volume Two
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* I know each and every clone trooper and battle droid probably has a name, but I refuse to look them up. Also, shut up, nerd.
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