A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Are Star Wars animated series only placeholder canon until the movies decide what actually happened during that time frame? No.  Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels,  and  Star Wars: Resistance  are coequal in canon to the live-action films. Especially  Star Wars: The Clone Wars,  because that series was created and executive produced by George Lucas and was the last  Star Wars  content he personally oversaw. The only animated series that meets the “placeholder” criteria is the 2003–2005  Star Wars: Clone Wars  2-D micro-series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and co-produced by Lucasfilm and Cartoon Network. Intended as a means to bridge the three-year in-universe gap between  Attack of the Clones  and  Revenge of the Sith,  Tartakovsky’s series was just one of many elements in Lucasfilm’s multimedia Clone Wars campaign, as well as a backdoor pilot to George Lucas’s CGI animated series.  Star Wars...

General Grievous is one of the several villainous "tools" used by Darth Sidious in his quest to destroy the Jedi Order in the waning days of the Republic. Photo Credit: © 2018 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd.. (LFL)  The Black Series When Hasbro introduced its ongoing The Black Series  (TBS)  collection of Star Wars toys in 2013, I was up to my forehead in the duties of being a caregiver to my ill parent. Even though I shopped online for new books, home media editions of movies I'd missed during their theatrical runs, music, and the occasional computer game, I didn't look for Star Wars collectibles of any sort. I had to choose my purchases carefully, and at the time I thought that spending $15 or more on Star Wars figures, vehicles, and other Hasbro products was a bit unseemly given my circumstances. I found out about the TBS line roughly around the time that Lucasfilm was getting ready to release Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. I saw some of the 3.75-in ...

On Quora, Daniel Brown asks: Is  Star Wars: The Clone Wars  canon? Unlike its 2003–2005 2D animated precursor,  Star Wars: Clone Wars,  the 2008–2013 3D computer animated series  Star Wars: The Clone Wars  is included in the overall canon. Lucasfilm Ltd., the parent of Lucasfilm Animation, has stated since 2014 that the series created and executive produced by George Lucas is a key element of the  Star Wars  canon, which currently looks like this: Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones Star Wars: The Clone Wars Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Solo: A Star Wars Story Star Wars Rebels Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Star Wars: The Mandalorian Star Wars: Resistance Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last ...

Do you think Mace Windu is alive? Let’s see: When we last saw Mace Windu in 2005’s  Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith , his lightsaber hand had been amputated at the wrist, Darth Sidious was shocking him with Force lightning, and he was plummeting down from a skyscraper on Coruscant, courtesy of a mighty Force shove by the aforementioned Darth Sidious. Now, I know that  Star Wars  is a space fantasy. I also understand that the amputation of his hand was not fatal; lightsabers cauterize wounds, so Mace would not have bled out from that injury. Still, it’s not likely that Mace could have survived the double-whammy of being electrocuted  and  pushed off a high building that’s at least two miles high. In the 14 years that have elapsed since  Revenge of the Sith,  Mace Windu has only appeared in books, comics, and one TV series set between  Star Wars Episode II  and  Episode III.  Samuel L. Jackson reprised ...

In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan "discovers" Kamino. Why do the Kaminoans have a spot in the Republic Senate in  Star Wars : The  Clone Wars ? In Attack of the Clones, Obi-Wan "discovers" Kamino. Why do the Kaminoans have a spot in the Republic Senate in  Star Wars : The  Clone Wars ? Although we don’t know   exactly how much time elapses between the end of  Star Wars - Episode II: Attack of the Clones  and the beginning of the  Star Wars: The Clone Wars  series in-universe, we do know that Kamino joins the Galactic Republic a short time after the First Battle of Geonosis (22 years Before the Battle of Yavin). It stands to reason; the Grand Army of the Republic is the official standing army of the Galactic Republic. It’s not, like the Hessians hired by the British to help them quash “the insignificant rebellion” in America in the 18th Century, a mercenary army. Any reasonable leader, whether he or she is a Sith Lord or a true love...

Ahsoka Tano as she appears in Star Wars: Rebels. © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)  Asked on Quora as: "If the Clone Wars series is considered to be canon, then where is Ahsoka Tano (Anakin's Padawan) during AOTC and ROTS?" After George Lucas put the finishing touches on  Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,  the then-chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. hired animator Dave Filoni and a team of producers, writers, computer animators, and directors led by Catherine Winder. Their mission: to set up Lucasfilm Animation and start production on a new television series,  Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Lucas himself told fans about the new show - which is set  between  Attack of the Clones (AOTC)  and  Revenge of the Sith (ROTS). As Lucas has stated in several behind-the-scenes interviews, the Clone Wars is a conflict that can’t be depicted in its entirety in the main Saga films. We only see how the war begins in Act Three of  AOTC  and i...

Note: This review discusses the  Genndy Tartakovsky-directed 2003-2005 microseries, not the George Lucas-produced Star Wars: The Clone Wars series that aired on Cartoon Network between 2008 and 2014. As a Star Wars fan of the '77 Generation, I remember vividly the yin-yang effect of the seemingly endless wait between Episodes when it became apparent that George Lucas' unexpectedly successful space-fantasy film was part of a larger storyline that was destined to span nine “saga” films. On the one hand, my friends and I looked forward to the release of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi with a mix of enthusiasm and impatience, with thoughts such as Man! Three years till the next one? That's like freakin' forever! often crossing our minds. On the other hand, the waiting period also became a time of much speculation about the characters, possible story developments, and both the characters' origins and possible future fates. A...

Pros:  Reasonably good story; a good introduction to the TV series Cons:  Emphasizes action over plot In October 2008, Time-Warner's Cartoon Network will begin to air The Clone Wars , an animated Star Wars series produced by Lucasfilm Limited and Warner Bros. as part of the ongoing Clone Wars multimedia franchise set "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," Produced by George Lucas and Catherine Winder, the first season will consist of 22 episodes dealing with the conflict between Count Dooku's Confederacy of Independent System (or Separatists) and the Galactic Republic led by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and protected by the Jedi-led clone army. (A second TV live-action series, set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope will air on TNT, which is also owned by Time-Warner; it's supposed to air in 2009.) Although Lucas had said that after Revenge of the Sith there wouldn't be any more Star Wars theatrical films, he apparently liked ...

(C) 2002 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) Pros:  Nice detailing, good sculpt, and packaging lends itself for collecting Cons:  May be too scene-specific; available mostly online. Character Background:  Just as Darth Vader's Nazi-like helmet, skull-like breath mask and black armor-and-cape outfit indelibly branded him as the face of the Galactic Empire's evil in the Classic  Star Wars  Trilogy, Darth Maul, the seven-horned, red-and-black tattooes Iridonian Zabrak apprentice to future Emperor Palpatine's Sith alter ego Darth Sidious, was supposed to be the incarnation of Hate itself in  Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace. If one watches the Prequel Trilogy carefully just for thematic purposes, it becomes evident that Maul personifies one of the three aspects of Anakin Skywalker's transformation from earnest but troubled Jedi Knight to Sith Lord: anger and hate. (Count Dooku, of course, represents Anakin's ambition and the fact that a...

Star Wars: Rebels  Created by: Simon Kinberg, Carrie Beck, and Dave Filoni Based on the works of George Lucas A year after the Walt Disney Company bought Lucasfilm Limited from its founder and CEO George Lucas, Dave Filoni and his crew at Lucasfilm Animation were told to close down production of the animated series  Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was airing on Time-Warner's Cartoon Network.  The Clone Wars had just finished its fifth season, and Filoni's team was in the midst of producing Season Six when Disney pulled the plug on the Emmy-winning series. Lucasfilm's corporate owners wanted to focus the company's creative efforts on the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens feature film and other projects - including a new animated series for the Disney Channel's cable sibling Disney XD: Star Wars: Rebels. Created by Filoni with writers Simon Kinberg and Carrie Beck, the series' first season is set 15 years after the events of Star Wars - Episode II...