TVSquad

Less Ziro the Hutt, less Jar Jar, less Asohka... that'd be a good start.

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I took my son to see the theatrical version of Clone Wars when it was released and I found myself wanting to just grab him by the scruff of his neck and bolt out of the theater as fast as I could. I'm no Star Wars purist or even a big fan, I just thought what I was watching was utter crap.

My son, though, was ready to declare it the Citizen Kane of his generation, or at least he would have if he had ever heard of Citizen Kane and his generation's idea of quality entertainment didn't already include the words Spoongebob and Squarepants. He looked forward to each new episode on CN with as much drooling anticipation as a nine year old could muster, and believe me, that's a lot of drool. It was an astounding achievement any time he could spend ten minutes without uttering something about Clone Wars, driving me to ban the words 'Clone' and 'Wars' from his vocabulary whenever I was around. (Other words banned in our house include 'pickles', 'jesus', 'copperfield', 'bush' and 'bootylicious'.)

However, I'm an open-minded guy. I'm willing to give it another chance and while I still won't watch it myself, I might stop accidentally erasing the episodes my son thought he recorded and stop telling him to zip it any time he even uses a word that starts with the "CL" sound. I've heard from others whose opinions I normally respect that the series did actually improve and was far superior to the theatrical nightmare I suffered through. Jason's write-up says the series improved in the latter third of the first season.

So how about some detail as to how the show improved upon the movie then? The movie looked like wooden marionettes, pretty much like Team America without the intentionally visible strings and wires. The dialogue, which can only be regretfully described as Lucasian, was stilted, stunted, awkward and simplistic. (I won't fault any of the voice actors because I'm pretty sure it's how the characters were meant to sound.)

What's improved? Why is it better? From my point of view, which is mine and mine alone and not representative of anyone but myself, it was so far down the crap scale that it would take a miracle to work its way up from complete and utter crap to just plain crap.

Convince me Squadders...

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The biggest real consequence I'm curious to see unfold is Order 66. (I know it's in the movie) I like Asohka but are we going to get comfortable with characters knowing how and when they're gonna die?

At any rate, I loved the first season. Looking forward to the second.

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Elf, convince yourself. Watch and maybe you'll like it. If not, let your son watch and enjoy it. Because he will. Just like you enjoyed it when YOU were a child, full of imagination and wonder. That was until it was squelched out of you by some other overbearing adult.

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Maybe I missed the attraction of George Lucas' lesser table scraps. What's the point of "Clone Wars," anyway? To root for the nascent Darth Vader and the soon-to-turn clone stormtroopers? A prequel is one thing, but isn't this series a prequel of a prequel, set between Episodes II and III?

Fans of the series: What attracts you to it? I'm curious. Thanks.

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I think the series is fascinating BECAUSE we know what's going to happen. That Asohka exists at all is important. That she's not around for Revenge of the Sith is also quite telling.

That the Jedi are befriending clones, only to be murdered by them, is interesting... particularly since some of these clones are being fleshed out..... something we didn't remotely get from the features.

Just look at that trailer for season 2. I don't know if it's Rex or Cody, but I'm pretty sure it's one of them that remarks something to the extent that he'd give his life for the Jedi... that he would die for them. That he would do anything to protect them. And then he shoots them in the back?

A kids show? Sure. Is there more there than that? If you're not too blinded by animation and a few references that aren't there for you to begin with, sure.

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I'm a huge SW fan, and let's face it this show is plain awful. This isn't one of the least explore eras- there are tons of books and comics and woderfully crafter storylines- all being displaced by this show. This is for kids, not serious fans.

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And by serious fans, you mean 40 year old guys sitting in their underwear in their mom's basement like you, right?

Newsflash: The whole franchise is for children and always has been.

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