Clone Wars Rewatch

Ok, moving on... (guessing my idea isn't that popular or someone would've said something by now, either agreeing or disagreeing with me)

I have six episodes left ["Evil Plans" (3x08); "Hostage Crisis" (1x22); "Hunt for Ziro", (3x09); "Heroes on Both Sides" (3x10); "Pursuit of Peace" (3x11); and "Senate Murders" (2x15) (in that order)] until I'm at the place where the episode order is in chronological order and I don't have to jump around on Netflix.

My thoughts so far (aside from it still feels good watching TCW again as long as I don't binge-watch it too much making me tired of watching it)... well, I feel like going in chronological order has made the series feel... okay, how do I put this... more like a cohesive series. Let me explain. When you watch the show in episode order (like how we all watched it originally), the seasons (or at least 1-3) feel somewhat separate from each other since the quality gets better each season and the feel each season (and sometimes characters) as a whole changes to some extent. With watching them in chronological order, it feels less different since seasons are essentially getting mixed up and thus there aren't really any seasons. There's no "season opener" or "season finale" since they're mixed in together making a cohesive timeline of events that happened in this era of SW. Plus, events are less confusing because they happen in order and you don't have to guess when is this event in relation to this other event. For example, I'm about to start watching the Ziro-escapes-from-prison arc (my own made-up arc and arc title) and I have already seen "Assassin" (3x08). Now, when I first watched TCW and saw that Ziro was in jail at the end of "Assassin" after "Hostage Crisis" had already been aired, I got confused. Until you saw Ziro in prison (and had to assume that this took place before "Hostage Crisis" and not after with an unseen capture), there was no indication that "Assassin" took place before "Hostage Crisis", so it was a surprise when you remember "Oh, I forgot about Ziro for a while!" but then also a surprise when you find out that a lot more took place before "Hostage Crisis" than you thought (actually, this was when I first really started to question what order these episodes were in). I guess you could say that the surprises are a good thing since it kinda keeps you on your toes and the out-of-order storytelling allows you to get to come back later and see what went on beforehand and such, but now that I've been watching these in chronological order, I find that don't like it. I feel like seeing what happens when it happens is more satisfying to me than having to come back to a particular storyline over a season after you see something happen. But, that's just my opinion (feel free to disagree if you want). Anyways... where was I again??? Eh, I'll come back to it if I remember/have something else to say...

Okay, I do have a couple of questions that have nothing to do with the order. Okay, so I remember seeing at some point (probably an extra featurette on SW.com) that in "ARC Troopers", they had to either cut out or edit a scene where Ventress kills a clone by pulling him through her lightsaber and then kisses him (talk about the kiss of death...) because it was too inappropriate for kids (understandably). Okay, so my questions are: was it cut out after the episode premiered or before it premiered and was the original version on SW.com or was that scene just in a separate clip or picture I saw around the time the episode premiered?

I think it's great that you're watching them all in chronological order, Allishmalli! I wish the show had actually aired them that way, but whatever.

Hmm, idk about the kiss, actually. ARC Troopers was one of the first episodes I ever saw when it actually aired on TV, but I don't remember if the kiss was in it or not. I don't THINK it was, but i'm not entirely sure. I think the Netflix version has it, because they don't have as many censors. (They don't censor out the clones swearing, either.) I wish I still had the original version recorded!

Starwarsartist wrote:

I think the Netflix version has it, because they don't have as many censors. (They don't censor out the clones swearing, either.) I wish I still had the original version recorded!

Oh yeah! I noticed that Rex said the d-word in the movie, some clones say WTH (not "Heck") in the show and some other character in the background (in the show) said "Oh my God", which typically are no-nos in kid shows. There might be more that I didn't catch (or haven't caught yet) though.

I wish I had decided to watch them in chronological order now! It sounds a lot better! I may have to go back and do that someday. I'm actually thinking of having a giant Star Wars marathon sometime where I watch all 6 movies and The Clone Wars in order. I don't know when I would find time for that, but it's on my bucket list.

About the kiss, I remember that it wasn't on tv when the episode was aired because Cartoon Network cut it out. Strangely enough, though, that scene was in a video clip on Cartoon Network's website. I like that Netflix is more relaxed on the censoring. Clone Wars really does have some dark stuff in it, and it was always sort of out of place on Cartoon Network (at least at the time).

Ok, now I've reached the point where I don't have to jump around anymore (yay!).


I will just tell you that if you watch it in order, there is at least one noticeable continuity error/hiccup that is a bit easy to spot unless you wait a long time between watching these two particular episodes. It's not terrible and it is understandable on why this mistake was made, but it still bothers me just a little bit.

I am talking, of course, about the episodes "Pursuit of Peace" (3x11) and "Senate Murders" (2x15) (and maybe "Heroes on Both Sides" before those two). You see in "Pursuit of Peace" that because of the bill to deregulate the banks (the bill that Padmé, Bail, "Ono", and others are against) has strong supporters (a.k.a. the banks and such) behind it and Team Padmé poses a threat to the bill, then they would do anything to stop them, such as hurting Senators (including "Ono" and Bail) and trying to kill Padmé. But when "Senate Murders" comes around and "Ono" is actually murdered, everybody's like "Oh, it could be because of the bill, but his opponents respected him and wouldn't pull a stunt like this." (I'm obviously paraphrasing) and I'm like "No, you dummies! Don't you remember that some bounty hunter are roughing y'all up and even trying to kill you?! You idiots! Even Mina Bonteri was killed because of this stupid bill!"

Plus, in "Pursuit of Peace", Padmé clearly makes some giant speech about neglecting the citizens of the republic that should have swayed the votes and such (plus it was clear that this speech is the one to make right before the vote happened). But right at the beginning of "Senate Murders", she's making a different speech that's... to be honest... kinda lame and afterward they're all talking about losing votes based off of how'd they look politically when clearly they've already been through this except with higher stakes. Plus, at the end of "Pursuit of Peace" when Palpatine's being all sinister, he admits that Padmé's speech influenced "millions", yet by the end of "Senate Murders", the bill ultimately passed (probably due to Padmé's kinda lame speech in that episode). I wish that things made more sense and it flowed better.

Of course, this hiccup is understandable since they made "Senate Murders" before "Heroes on Both Sides" and "Pursuit of Peace". But it still kinda bugs me. It's a personal gripe. If someone gets the chance to novelize episodes and arcs of TCW, I'd say they'd need to fix these problems (I'd suggest that "Senate Murders" take place right after Padmé's speech in "Pursuit of Peace" and a lot of the dialogue and maybe even story changed. For example, have everyone still a bit banged up from the bounty hunters and have them not be so oblivious to the fact that the supporters of the bill are trying to kill them and such). Most of the other episodes (unless I'm mistaken and didn't see them) don't have glaring continuity problems like this, so it bugs me when this does.


Ok, complaining over.

Oh yeah! I had almost forgotten about those episodes, to be honest. But that does sound kind of annoying.

I like your idea of them doing a big novelization of the Clone Wars! It would be so cool to get it all in order and actually leading up to RotS.

So... where are y'all at right now? And are we still trying to stay with each other on episode order? I'm about to start the Mortis Arc, but I'll wait if anyone needs to catch up (or hurry up if I'm the one who needs to catch up).

I'm on one of my favorites, "Voyage of Temptation". I haven't been able to watch in a while because of work. But don't feel pressured to wait for any of us.

Actually where is everyone else? Should we still make an effort to stay together or just each person watch at their own pace? Either way is fine with me.

Duchess Satine Kenobi wrote:

Actually where is everyone else? Should we still make an effort to stay together or just each person watch at their own pace? Either way is fine with me.

Honestly, I'd really like to stay at least somewhat together (esp. since now I've made it to the point where I can just watch without jumping around), but since hardly anyone's commenting (as of late) as to where they are in the rewatch, maybe we should forget it and just watch at our own pace. Otherwise, I might be waiting for a long time for others to catch up since I don't even know (except for DSK) where people are.
I will just say that even though I'm still loving rewatching TCW, I'm glad I've been taking a break while trying to find out where everyone else is. I feel like I was getting worn out a bit while trying to catch up (even though I think I've surpassed everyone at this point).

Duchess Satine Kenobi wrote:

I'm on one of my favorites, "Voyage of Temptation".

Yeah, that's a good one! Any particular reason why it's one of your favorites?

I'll keep you posted on where I am when I find time to watch more! Once I move in I'll probably have a bit more time.

Well, I love the Obitine aspect, of course, but it also just sort of embodied everything I like about Star Wars. Great characters, humor, action, and a great hint at Anakin becoming Vader.

Watching the episodes again, are there any that you feel didn't hold up that well?

I'm honestly surprised by how well most of them DO hold up. Even some that I didn't like when I first saw them I liked on the rewatch. I will say that the movie didn't hold up as well as I remembered, mostly due to the animation.

For me, most of them are okay (and by okay, I mean from good to great), but that could possibly be because of the order I've been watching them in. It's possible that since I've been stringing these together sort of in one story (or at least more arcs than normal), I don't end up judging episode by episode even when I jump seasons (and therefore quality-levels) in order to finish up a story.

The movie doesn't hold up for me though and I still think season 1 is the weakest season, but mostly because they were just starting out and hadn't found their groove just yet. Although, I'm finding that there were actually a lot more stories that all connected in season 1 than I thought; meaning it's not as "cut-and-dry" as I remember.

Oh, I did find that I actually missed an episode ("Bounty Hunters"; 2x17) in the original run, so it felt good to finally watch that episode after all these years.

I agree with your observations, especially about season 1. Though I'd have to say season 3 has always been my least favorite out of all of them, with seasons 2 and 4 being my favorite.

So, I know that school's been in secession for a little while and we were all very busy over the summer, but where is everyone on their rewatch?

I haven't watched any TCW since the beginning of August... Partly because I was wanting to stay close to other people's watching schedule (especially since I was about to start the Mortis arc), thus waiting on people to catch up; partly because I needed a break after practically binge-watching it throughout July; and partly because I kinda forgot since I've been busy myself lately.

I'm unsure when I'll start back up again, but I'll be sure to finish it by the end of the year.

I just finished the Zillo Beast ones. I'm just kind of watching when I feel like. It would be nice to finish before TFA comes out, but I don't know if I will or not.

Okay, so I finally got around to watching the Mortis arc today. I say that it's great and still holds up... but maybe not as much as I thought it would/should. I don't even know why, actually. There's something about it that isn't clicking with me (if you get what I'm saying), making me not love it as much as I used to and as much as everyone else does... I'm really wondering why...

I actually never liked the Mortis arc that much. I don't know, I guess it seemed just a little corny to me. I mean, I liked certain things in it, like seeing Vader and dark Ahsoka (and the amazing Anakin-Ahsoka hug!), but overall the arc didn't impress me that much.

Speaking of the Clone Wars rewatch, though, I've picked it back up! I'm on the Boba Fett arc now. I can't believe I almost forgot about this one

I saw the Boba Fett arc today, and I'm sorry to say it wasn't as good as I remembered. It's good, don't get me wrong, and I especially like the impressive action sequences and development for both Boba and Aurra. I guess compared to future season finales, though, this one feels like it's lacking the "epic" factor. It also raises some questions for me. The main one being, why did Mace Windu kill Jango again? I haven't seen AotC in ages so I can't remember, but was Jango actually a bad dude, or just doing his job? Hondo kept calling him an honorable man, though he was sided with Sidious if I remember correctly? So maybe that's it. And I mean to be fair he was attacking the jedi. But it still seems unnecessarily cruel to kill Jango right in front of his son.

Again, not that I blame Mace entirely as it is easy to see why he would have done that, but it would have been interesting if, in this story arc, we got a bit of Mace questioning if he did the right thing. I mean he did just screw up this child for life by taking away his only parent and then leaving him alone on Geonosis.

Boba isn't exactly in the right either, as killing people for revenge will get him nowhere, but I think that Mace shares at least a little of the blame.

What are your thoughts on this?

I haven't seen AoTC in a long time, but from what I remember, Jango Fett was shooting at Mace and then Mace ran up, sliced his blaster, then decapitated him. Plus, I think Boba was hiding somewhere off the battle field and he happened to see that happen, so it wasn't intentional that Mace killed Jango right in front of Boba (though it does lead to the question of how Mace knew that Boba watched him kill Jango). I guess you could argue that Mace was defending himself, but the decapitation was a bit overkill... although, they are in an actual battle, so casualties in order to prevent other casualties is understandable, plus being in battle would explain how Boba just got left there on Geonosis. I don't really remember if Jango was supposed to be a legit bad guy or just doing his job as a pawn in the real baddies' plan.

As far on who's to blame, I think it was their intention to blur the blame-line. It's obviously wrong to go searching for vengeance, but Boba's also being manipulated by Aurra Sing, clouding his moral judgment. Plus, we obviously feel at least a little bit sorry for Boba for losing his only parent (even though he's a clone) and can place a bit of blame on Mace... considering that he doesn't even apologize in the slightest when they finally capture Boba.

Personally, now that I think back (though I haven't seen that arc in a few months), I think that arc would've been better as a novel. That way, you could flesh more things out and not let things get squished for the sake of time and trying to divide the story into episodes. I think I heard that in that arc, some of the dialogue was going to go longer until they had to cut down.

Also, since I've been watching in chronological order (which leads to me jumping around different episodes and season), I don't really have season finales and season premieres and such, so I don't really have that problem of comparing that arc to other season finale arcs.

Yeah, now that I think back it was more in self-defense. I really need to watch Attack of the Clones again. I'm planning to marathon them all before the new movie comes out.

Yeah, that's a good idea! I would love to read it as a novel. I think mainly the interaction between Mace and Boba should have been longer, but for what it was the arc did a great job with just building up Boba's character, as well as Aurra's.

Yeah, I think for me the season 5 finale is still freshest in my mind, and it's some of the best television I've ever seen so it really raises the bar for me. Though honestly I'm really happy so far with how well some of the earlier episodes have held up.

Okay, so I watched the Citadel Arc a few weeks ago and I just now watched the Trandoshan two-parter.

I still think they're good episodes. I kinda forgot what happened in the Trandoshan two-parter, so it sort of felt new again.

Just watched "Mercy Mission" and "Nomad Droids." I will just say that I didn't like these two episodes when they first came out. With that in mind, I really didn't like these two episodes. They felt so boring and I honestly wanted to skip them. I know that people like C3PO and R2D2, but episodes by themselves are just so annoying and boring. I just don't care about C3PO and R2D2's "adventures" on various planets and wasting two entire episodes just on that is kinda sad considering that a better two-parter could've been told. Heck, maybe if they didn't have to shoehorn a C3PO and R2D2 arc in there, maybe two more episodes from what eventually got cut could've been made instead.

I'll just confess I honestly have almost no memory of even watching those episodes, which to me just goes to support what you are saying. They really were pretty pointless episodes. Maybe I'll like them more when I see them again, but I kind of doubt it. *shrugs* I'm willing to give it a shot, though.

Well, I just realized that I've seen 14 episodes since the last time I posted about my rewatch experience. I've seen the Umbara Arc, the Kavado Arc, "A Friend in Need" (a.k.a. the Lux episode), the Obi-Wan-going-undercover Arc, and the Ventress/Nightsisters two-parter.

It's been a while since I've seen the Umbara Arc and the Kavado Arc, but I remember those arcs still holding up.

I felt that "A Friend in Need" was... awkward.

The Obi-Wan-going-undercover Arc holds up, though I remember it feeling longer. Though that could just be because we had to wait a week between each episode, whereas I recently just flew through all of them in less than an-hour-and-a-half.

The Ventress/Nightsisters two-parter holds up. It was interesting to go back and watch the Nightsister massacre after reading Dark Disciple.

I'm about to start the intro to Maul episodes soon, but at the moment, I'm not that excited about it. I'm actually more excited to watch the Onderon Arc considering that Rogue One will have a character from that arc (http://www.ew.com/article/2016/06/22/star-wars-rogue-one-forest-whitaker-character).

Duchess Satine Kenobi wrote:

I like your idea of them doing a big novelization of the Clone Wars! It would be so cool to get it all in order and actually leading up to RotS.

I've done some thinking on that recently... According to my calculations (and interpretations of how some episodes should be combined), if Disney decided to turn every episode of TCW (including some of the episodes that were never finished) into novels, they could end up writing 40 novels! Honestly, if they decided to do this, I'd probably buy every one of them plus whatever novels they made using TCW stories that either barely got off the ground or never got off the ground.

I read somewhere (http://www.savetheclonewars.com/2016/02/approximatley-35-clone-wars-stories.html) that they were planning on a bunch of "stories" that never happened. The thing in the article that got my attention was "Depa Billaba was going to appear in Clone Wars."

If they went ahead with that particular idea, they could introduce Kanan to TCW "universe"... though they'd probably have to change the story from what they originally had planned to accommodate Kanan's existence (since he would have been Depa's padawan at the time of the story/episode/book).

As I watch more and more of these episodes and the more I read the current Star Wars books coming out, I am more and more convinced that Disney needs to get behind the idea of novelizing the whole TCW series and just the whole Clone Wars era in general. Maybe novelize some parts of the micro-series that would fit into this current Clone Wars canon (even though the micro-series itself is said to have been de-canonized).


Anyways, (sorry to get back on that soap-box that I assume y'all are tired of me get back on) I'm glad that after all these months that I'm getting back to my rewatch. I feel bad that it's basically been a year since I started this and I still haven't finished yet.

I want to, however, try and coincide my rewatching of the Ahsoka Arc (mainly that final episode when she leaves) and mine and my dad's watching (or rewatching for me) of the Season 2 finale of Rebels. I want the feels... I welcome the feels resulting from watching those two episodes close to one another. That might take a while though, so I might need to slow down when I get pretty close to the Ahsoka Arc in my rewatching "schedule".



What about y'all?

I'm still 100% in favor of your idea to novelize the Clone Wars series. I especially love the idea of brining in Kanan! That would be so cool! It would really help make up for the episodes that were never finished as well as fill in the gap between Clone Wars and Rebels.

It's been a while since I've been able to rewatch any of the episodes, though something interesting I noticed is that the series has picked up in popularity since it got put on Netflix. I've met a ton of people at my college who have started watching Clone Wars since it got put on Netflix and love it. It makes me happy that the show still has life.

I was kind of frustrated, though, with one of my friends who I tried to get to watch The Clone Wars. She's a Star Wars fan, but every attempt I make to get her to like Clone Wars fails. She always nitpicks things, whether it's the animation, Ahsoka, or "well this character should have said that" or "there should have been more bonding between Anakin and Obi-Wan here" or whatever. I've tried showing her different episodes from different seasons, and in her defense she has given the show a fair chance, but it still puzzles me. She's the first person I've talked to (who isn't an internet troll) who just couldn't get into the series. It makes me kind of sad, but I guess it's a testament to the show that this is the first person I've talked to who feels that way. I did manage to get her into Star Wars Rebels, though, and she really likes that one.

Anyways, I need to get back to the Clone Wars rewatch! I find it so interesting to revisit the episodes now, and as you said, it's going to be especially interesting (and heart-breaking) rewatching the Ahsoka arc knowing what happens in Star Wars Rebels.