June 29, 2025 • 60 mins
Join Tom, Stephen, and William as they rewind the clock to 2003 and review Season 1 of the classic Genndy Tartakovsky series Clone Wars.
Synopsis: The Clone Wars television series chronicles the events taking place between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Clone Wars will ultimately lead to the downfall of the Jedi and the rise of the Galactic Empire.
The Ion Cannon Podcast is your source for entertainment reviews from a galaxy far, far away. Ion Cannon has covered every corner of the saga since 2008, from the films and hit series like The Mandalorian, Andor, The Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, and Skeleton Crew to books, comics, games, and more. Not affiliated with Disney or Lucasfilm.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All wings reported Red 10 standing by Red 9 standing by
Red 3 standing by Red 6 standingby Goodnight.
Standing by, you're listening tothe Ion Cannon Podcast.
Laugh it up, fuzzball. Your source for entertainment
reviews from a Galaxy far, far away?
This is it. Hey, laser clickers.
(00:23):
Welcome to the Iron Cannon podcast.
I'm one of your hosts Steven andI'm joined by my friends and Co
hosts Tom and William. Guys, I am so excited we are
here to talk about the Clone Wars season 1.
The the the the first one the the two Clone Wars.
We are going. Out no Clone Wars.
Way, way way back in. Time.
(00:43):
Wait, wait, does it? Should it just be the Wars?
And then the Clone Wars was obviously a clone of the Wars.
I think so don't. Don't.
Come on. I'm just, I'm just saying, feel
like that would make sense, right?
Checks out. But no, we are going way back in
time to 2003, if you can believeit, 2003.
(01:10):
Way back when the Gendi Tartakovsky produced Clone Wars
animated series premiered on Cartoon Network.
If you, if you guys will remember, you know, I, I, this,
I, I just, I vividly remember this.
I was like in my early teens at the time, I was like super
(01:32):
excited about about Star Wars And, and remember, there was no
Star Wars television. Yeah, there had been the Droids
show and the Ewoks and you know the.
Androids and Ewoks and things like this.
This was like Sirius television by like I said, Jen D Tarde got
jar. I can't even say his name right,
but Jen D Tardypotsky, who he you know, famous Cartoon Network
(01:57):
director and animator involved with like samurai.
Yeah, I. Believe he did Powerpuff Girls
as well. Like basically the heyday of of
Cartoon Network in my opinion. And it's funny watching this now
because like these it's obviously filmed in these like
very short like 5 minute episodes.
(02:18):
It also aired in a really weird way at the time, like obviously
streaming didn't exist. So it was like, I think they
like, we're cutting commercials basically for normal television.
And then they're like, OK, I'd be from not, you know, whatever
time like 7:55 until 8:00 PM. That's when the new episodes
will air. And it made it so hard to it
was. Literally during the commercial
(02:39):
break it was they were all the episodes early on they were two
to three minutes by the end. Later on in the series I think
they were like 5 to 6. Yeah, they expand.
But early on, they were two to three minutes long each and they
just took the place of a commercial break.
So you'd be watching some other show and then all of a sudden
it's like, oh, here's your little Star Wars mini episode
somewhere during the episode. And I'm sure it's great to boost
(03:01):
the ratings of their of their shows that the show was actually
on and you got to watch the StarWars thing.
And it's like TuneIn next week for the next part.
It was such a different time, such a different time, but.
Very weird. These have like these are
iconic. It's an iconic series.
We've never reviewed it because of course we, you know, we
(03:23):
started with the Clone Wars thatthat came out five years later.
But it's pretty impressive just how much of an impact these
animated shorts had on Star Warsanimation and Star Wars
television in general. And they're just, they still are
(03:44):
some of like, like peak Star Wars TV even at 2:00 to 3:00
minutes. We'll talk more about this, I'm
sure, as we get into the episodes, but they are they.
Are. Phenomenal.
They're they're so good. They're so good if you're
watching on Disney Plus, becausethat's the best way to get to
these. Now it's worth noting that I
(04:07):
think they actually, I forget what year they were released
sometime after the entire seriesbecause there were three seasons
sometime after the final, the the the final season.
I want to see it was probably maybe even 345 years after the
show. I I forget they released a box
set on DVD it. It wasn't that much longer.
I actually wasn't because I I sorry, this is where I'm gonna.
(04:29):
So I was president of my high school Star Wars fan club, and
one of the things I. Was here for a second.
You guys are literally making mefeel very old Anyway.
I was, yeah, I was 13 at the time.
I was like, yeah. This is that.
Hurt. Oh jeez.
You set for for these and this is and played them.
You know we've watched hours during lunch was basically all
(04:51):
we did, but we played it during yeah sorry.
We played played them during lunch.
So it I it was at least like I wanna say 2005.
OK, that sounds 2006 maybe. Yeah, well, they do the DVD.
Yeah, at at. Least by that time that makes
sense. Yeah, and, and they, so they,
what they did is they, they tookthe first two.
(05:11):
So Season 1 aired November 7th through 20th, 2003.
The second season came out the following March in 2004 from
March 26th to April 8th. And then the following November
of 2004, they released season 3,which was November 7th through
20th and, or, or actually, I forget the exact dates for the
(05:36):
the third season, but it was they're basically like 6 months
apart each season. And the they, they and
ultimately in the DVD release, they put seasons one and two
together as one combined episodeeffectively.
So if you're looking on Disney Plus and you see volume one,
season 1 is basically the first half of volume one.
(05:57):
Season 2 is the second-half of volume 2.
And then volume 3 is all of season 3 and all told, Volume 1
and volume to each run about an hour long.
So there again, it's not that much content when you think
about it. At the time we were getting a
Star Wars movie every three years and we got two hours of
Star Wars animation in about a year.
(06:20):
And so it's not like we're used to now the eras of like, you
know, 8 hour or 12 hour long episodes.
Back then we got a basically a whole movie's worth of content
in a year. So even though they were very,
very short, we still got a, a lot of content.
So if you're watching, followingalong at home, we're gonna be
talking about Season 1 today. So that's the first half of of
(06:45):
the of Volume 1. The last the last comment I'll
make before we get in and it'll this'll apply to as we because
we're gonna review season 1 and then season 2 and then season 3
of the show. Not all at once, because that's
still a good healthy chunk of content.
Was it was. It there was a season 3.
Yeah. That's volume to.
(07:06):
That's Volume 2, yeah. Got it, got it, got it.
Got. It first I.
Don't anyway, basically. These also aired before episode
3 came out and volume to in particular was intended as a
lead in to episode 3, which we'll we'll talk about more when
we get to. But yeah, just very, very, very
(07:29):
cool. I'm excited for this.
So I I'm glad I double checked because as I was reading out the
dates I'm like, that seems wrong.
I I didn't believe it based on my recollection.
Turns out I forgot to update thedates for season 3.
So you know, seasons one and twowere indeed the six months apart
in November and then March through April of 2004.
(07:52):
So November 2003, March 2004, the fifth, sorry, third season
came out a year and a year laterbasically.
So they, the weight was from March 2004 to March 2005.
So it was, you know, Steven, as you were saying, just a month
(08:13):
and a half before Episode 3 cameout.
And that's where Season 3 introduces a lot of elements
that we see in Revenge of the Sith.
So if you take yourself back like these came out after Attack
of the Clones, but before Revenge of the Sith.
So we hadn't even seen the conclusion of the Clone Wars
(08:35):
yet, like the, the, the, the, the war itself, not the, the,
the show or either either of theshows.
And so, you know, this was like a such a uncharted time.
We didn't know where things weregoing to go.
How would how are they going to wrap up the prequel trilogy?
And they just introduced so manycool elements, right?
We had just seen Attack of the clones, the beginning of the
(08:56):
Clone Wars and Kit Fisto's famous smile and, and
everything. And now we get to dive into more
of these these battles. And so it is it's really, really
cool. One other thing I should note,
and I don't know about you guys.I forgot just how much how much
(09:21):
of the Star Wars voice acting cast we've come to know and love
started in clone wars, not the clone wars, but clone wars, cuz
I was it's been a long time since I love it.
I could still like quote probably every line in this
series for my heart and but I ithad been a long time since I
watched it. As I was watching.
I was like, wait a minute, that's James Arnold Taylor,
(09:42):
right? As as Obi Wan.
That's, you know, a Corey Burtonas Count Dooku, right?
That's Terence TC Carson as Macewin.
Do you know? It's so many Tom Kane as Yoda.
So many of the people we've gotten to know in Star Wars
(10:05):
animation started actually in Clone Wars.
I think they've actually been insome games as well and stuff,
but they started here. The notable exception, the
biggest exception being Matt Lucas, who played Anakin
Skywalker. And in hindsight, I can see why.
They cast recast him with Matt Lanter and he's fine all right.
(10:28):
He's a little more younger, a little more, I guess Attack of
the Clones Anakin, then maybe Revenge of the Anakin and Gray.
Delete, delete. De La Salle played Padme instead
of Cat Tabor and and so you can see why they recast them.
But so much of the cast started in in this this show.
(10:52):
See if we're gonna add somethingelse.
Yeah, you're gonna add somethingstated.
We'll talk about this as we go through, but it's fascinating to
see in particular some of the creative choices that differ
between Clone Wars and The CloneWars or 2D and 3D.
Anakin being I think probably the most the the largest example
where throughout the the 2D series we see him grow up a
(11:12):
little bit, particularly going into the Volume 3.
But it's very much like you said, kind of whiny Anakin who
you sympathize with a lot less compared to the Anakin of 3D and
Matt Lanter where you're like, Oh no, I kind of get, I get a
little bit of where you're coming from.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that one.
While we're talking about the comparisons, it's probably also
(11:33):
worth noting Yoda introduces a decent number of these episodes.
Again, kind of that's not that'sthe hallmark of the Clone wars
later on with the the famous, you know, intro for every
episode by Tom Kane where he's, you know, whoa, talking about
whatever setup is. You know, Tom Kane, of course,
(11:56):
is not the voice of time right in in Clone Wars, but in in this
show is instead just being playing Yoda and recapping
viewers on on where things are. And I guess one last piece.
But even though they're only twoto three minutes long, they tell
(12:16):
individual stories, but they allkind of come together to weave
into one larger narrative. And I think they just do such a
phenomenal job of that. We'll, we'll talk about that
more as we we go in. So Steven, you wanna kick us off
with Chapter 1 of Season 1? Yeah, I mean, Chapter 1 is very.
(12:38):
Much the table. But what about the table?
Set set Set set set. Set the table for everyone.
I mean, I, I would actually say Chapter 1 is literally setting
the table for what the show is going to be.
Like I said, it kind of opens with the kind of Yoda narration
of the Clone Wars setting, setting the scene for viewers
(12:59):
that were in the middle of this war between the Separatists and
the Republic. I'll say one of the things I
like about this series is I always think of it as a, it's
like Republic propaganda films. It's the two-minute shorts that
you see now before you go to themovies or whatever it might be,
and so much of it. He's over the top in the way you
would expect, which we'll get to, but.
(13:21):
Especially as we go into season 2 and stuff.
Even season one, yeah. Yeah, see there, there's a lot
of over the top stuff. But what do?
I love. You know, the the war is
ongoing, Republic versus the Separatists.
And we discover that Obi Wan is being given command of the
assault on Immunolis, the Banking Clan, where he will work
(13:45):
with Anakin to, you know, disrupt the Banking Clan and
yeah, etcetera. And it kicks off with this very
obvious move by Palpatine to continue to prop up Anakin and
make Anakin feel worse about theJedi.
Like this is one of those thingswhere you only get two or three
(14:05):
minutes per episode, so everything has to happen pretty
quickly. But I laughed pretty hard when
it's just like, it should be given command of the Space
Force. And they're like, no, he's not
ready. It's like, oh, but now I don't
know which one. Who?
Who do we go with? The Jedi?
Palpatine makes it a challenge. Oh yeah.
You're you're I think one of thethings that's so impressive
(14:25):
about this show, though, is while it is so short and so
fast, they still do a decent amount of it.
It takes place a little slower over the course of the entire
season, not within a single episode, but you do get a lot of
good character development. You get great action.
It it strikes that balance perfectly of being short little
(14:48):
vignettes and and giving you a peek into different battles or
or continuing a story from a previous episode.
But you could also watch it completely in isolation and
totally enjoy it. And for a 3 minute episode that
is incredibly impressive. It's really hard to overstate
how hard it is to do a compelling, action-packed story,
(15:12):
you know, with a, with a good story in 3 minutes so that you
could share it during a commercial break.
It's impressive. Well, there, there's no other
thing about the show. There's no thing about the show
that I really enjoyed was some episodes.
There was not a lot of dialogue.It was the action that drove the
episodes. Right.
Yeah. And for being a show that is
(15:34):
only like 2 to 3 minutes, that is kind of cool they're able to
pull that off in that way, to tell a story that's compelling
just for that short amount of time with barely any dialogue.
Yeah, it's, it is interesting because like we, we, we, we
reviewed Tales of the Underworlda month ago, right?
A month and a half ago. And don't get me wrong, I love
(15:56):
the Tales series. I I love the characters that we
get featured in them. But one of the critiques we had
was that it, it feels like they're either they're, they're,
they're too long. They they don't, they're not
long enough to tell a full story, but they're too short.
They're too short to tell the full story that like you would
get in a 30 minute episode, for example, but they're too long.
(16:20):
They they feel like overly long for the story that they're
trying to tell. And it just makes it feel like
they kind of drag a little bit, right.
But while not telling as big of a story, this is the exact
opposite of that. This is like the how you do it
perfectly of like super short, super contained, but really
(16:40):
interesting. Again, nothing against nothing
against to the tale shows. I love it.
But like I feel like this still has set the pinnacle for how to
do these little vignettes. Personally, I.
Completely agree to see what where they sacrifice in order to
make that possible, especially comparing it.
(17:01):
I'm going to give it our 2D and 3D quite a bit I think as we're
reviewing these and Chapter 2 isa great example of that in my
mind. A so Chapter 2 open ones ARC
troopers arrive at or sorry Obi Wan arrives immunoist he send
they begin the you know landing assault whatever you want to
call it and he sends off the clone arc troopers on a secret
mission and AI want this might have been the first time we saw
(17:25):
the arc troopers I think. I know there was an ongoing
comic series as well, Clone Wars, that Dark Horse was doing,
so I know they borrowed a lot and traded back and forth.
Like this is the first time we saw on screen.
Arc. Troopers and so many other
things we'll talk about. Yeah.
They are the ARC troopers are, you know, they've got the, I
(17:45):
don't know what they're called. I forget what it's called.
The not the skirt. There's like an official title
for it. What's it called?
I know it's Eric, the thing thatgoes on the show.
Me. Is that it?
I think. It's the comma.
OK, that's close. But like.
Like that? You're just this is one of those
wordless episodes that you were kind of talking about Tom,
where, you know, they they land in Munoz, they get shot down and
(18:08):
then they are going through thismassive battle in the city.
And it is so cool to watch them,you know, step by step, like
there's the the snipers, they'retaking them down and then they
take out the tank. Very little dialogue, but you're
just walking like, oh, these clone troopers are so cool.
A lot less personality to them, I would say, compared to what we
(18:30):
got, you know, out of Rex or Cody or any of the other clones
in Clone Wars, The Clone Wars. But I think.
But I think in this use for the animation it works.
Yeah, they, they use those two to three minutes beautifully.
I I will say more. Steven, it's.
Sorry, go ahead. No.
I just wanted to add before, sorry, I mean the, the they make
(18:51):
the clones feel so cool. Not even just clones.
Literally every character is so just like oozes coolness in this
show. But just watching the the arc
troopers make their way through the through the the the the the
town immunolist and and like just being amazing at what they
do is such a delight. But sorry, continuing on what
(19:12):
you're saying. No, I was going to say my I the
one thing I I forgot about untilwe got I watched this episode
and I died all over again. I think one of my favorite
sequences in the entire thing isthere's a shot where they've
just crashed the their gunship. They're, you know, starting to
(19:33):
move and the Droid snipers are taking a shot.
And there's just this lingering shot of a Droid sniper zooming
in on them, getting ready to take the shot and that it
immediately turns into like the most inaccurate machine gun
sniper fire I've ever seen and it cracks me up every time.
It's so good. It is so, so good.
(19:55):
I I like this. Yeah.
It, it makes you fall in love with the ARC troopers instantly.
And I remember I loved collecting the ARC trooper
action figures and I was. Younger and like and I think a
lot of it was from this episode because it was like these guys
are the coolest and yeah we see arc troopers in the clone wars.
(20:17):
It's different, the clone wars, a little more serious, whereas
this show is it's over the top, but not in a so often times I I
don't like I'll be me personally, I I'm not as big of
a fan of the comics a lot of times because it feels over the
top and exaggerated in a unrealistic way.
(20:40):
But this is over the top in a perfect way.
And I and it's it's it's hard toalmost articulate, but it's they
do this great job of being over the top and just making them
super, super, super, super cool and exciting and interesting and
but also making it not like outside of the realm of
possibility where you're just laughing at it.
(21:01):
It's the perfect balance. Yeah, I, I think it's, I think
what really makes it work is when you're watching it, it's
how militarily they're going through the procedures.
It's not, I mean, they're sitting there in the ARC
trooper, he's putting up his hands and he's doing the signals
of to go that way, this go that way.
And it's it's something that youcan relate to because that does
(21:24):
work in real life. It's not over the top, all that
kind of action. It's not like you're not seeing
that stuff for the first time. But they are very cool
characters and just, they're amazing.
I mean, just, I have the action figures too.
I just, I was collecting them like crazy as well.
I wasn't a kid at the time, but I was still collecting.
(21:44):
Kid at heart, right? Right, Tom?
I'm such a kid at heart, guys. Yeah.
And then yeah, Tom, I love your thoughts.
And, you know, they make their way through the city and then
actually reach their target. And you know, I guess it's funny
as I was re watching these, there's they go by so quickly at
(22:07):
first it's like, wait, is that are we still in the same episode
or are we on a new episode? And it was no, it would
crossover because it was it was so seamless at times.
Other times you could tell it was the end of the end of the
the 2-3 minute episode. But yeah, so they make their way
through through mutilist and, you know, reach their target
while meanwhile, Sam Hill Sandhill, sorry, who is not Sam?
(22:29):
He's just the he's the the regular boarding guy.
Sandhill, leader of the banking clan, orders someone special to
help lead his the IG Lancer droids to defend the city.
Dirge and Tom, your thoughts on on this episode with the
(22:54):
introduction of Dirge. This is the one, the one
character I would love to have seen move forward when it came
to the actual Clone Wars, because we did get Grievous,
which was great. And I'll get thoughts on that
later when we get to that that point.
But this is a character I think worked so well in animation, I
(23:15):
would love to have seen in 2D, Would love to have seen it
translate that way into 3D. Because I think there's still a
story there that that really could have been pulled off if it
went into The Clone Wars. And I do believe they brought
him into comics, but he went to comics only and not actually CG
(23:36):
animated. Yeah.
But I, I just, I love that character.
And to sit here and have this guy with Lancer droids.
And that's the one thing when itcame to this, there are some
cases with this, there is stuff that's over the top, like these
Lancer droids on both. Yeah, it's like Lancer, Lancer
clone troopers, Lancer Obi Wan, Lancer droids.
(23:58):
Literally droids and clone troopers riding around speeders
with. On spearplanes.
Like jousting. It's amazing.
Yeah, and not just trusting. And amazing.
Taking taking out tanks, taking out guns, taking out clone
troopers like they were nothing,and taking out droids like they
(24:19):
were nothing. And that's where it's like in
some cases it's the over the topaspect that this show was able
to pull off that you couldn't pull off in the actual Clone
Wars animated CG series. But Dirge, I think, was the one
character that from this series I would love to have seen carry
over. Oh, I agree.
(24:40):
He's the coolest. Yeah, the coolest character to
never actually make it into intoCanon basically.
Or, you know, into other other works because yeah, he was in a
few comics. But yeah, he's so cool, right.
And he's this this Gendai who can, as we see later in the in
(25:00):
the season, self heal. And it is he's kind of
terrifying and he's so cool. Like my brother and I loved
Dirge and the cool thing about this episode is it it's entirely
from the perspective of the Separatists.
And so, you know, there are multiple episodes through, you
know, the seasons where it's, you know, from the perspective
(25:23):
of the bad guys only. And it makes them look amazing.
You're just watching Dirge and you're like, I, I feel like
Dirge is like Boba Fett from original trilogy levels of cool,
right? Yes, yes.
And yeah, it just makes this episode phenomenal.
Yeah, it actually, in hindsight,it's kind of surprising they
(25:46):
didn't double down on Dirge more, given that he he does ooze
that level of cool. I mean, I think in many ways
Dirge ended up being replaced byGrievous in in later efforts.
So different, yeah. Very much so, but I think it was
make because Dirge also comes across very much as like the
(26:06):
bounty hunter of the group. Maybe CAD Bane is actually the
equivalent in some ways, but I mean that's not a one to one,
but I mean the. No, I get I.
Get it? I get it.
I think they were, they were looking to do a little bit more
of the the broader kind of conflict versus having it be
(26:27):
rogues versus rogues, if you will.
That's. Fair.
Yeah, no, it's it. It works.
I agree. But yeah, that episode is is
just is incredible. And the first one is really just
dirge wrecking havoc on the Republic.
I don't think Obi Wan is in thisthis chapter, right?
(26:47):
It's we see him later. No, what?
Do you see him later? So we first get into a kind of
diverging episode, which seems to be the pattern.
Like the season 1 is very much about the battle immunilis.
Yep, and then we occasionally disappear off, in this case to
Mong Calmari, not yet called DAC.
Yes, it's true name. I do really appreciate the the
(27:12):
Yoda narration here as well, kind of setting this, setting
the table for, you know, the Mong, Calmari and Corin.
They share a home world. The, you know, the Quran have
decided to make their move against the Mon Calamari.
And now the Republic is here, and we see like the acclimators,
you know, land in the ocean again, a thing we've never seen
(27:32):
before. It was very cool.
It looks really cool and then Kid Fisto dramatically reveals
his as he throws his cloak off and jumps into the water to
begin begin the battle. Just such a unique take on in
this entire experience. I mean later clone wars see
(27:53):
something kind of similar, but this is still an epic water
fight with, you know, the the giant calcans and the going off
against the Subs of the core in isolation league and it's and
the giant like crab like launchers that can just decimate
the venators sitting in the in in the ocean.
Just it's. They're like sitting ducks.
This is the first of the ridiculous super weapon.
(28:16):
I mean, I guess we we did just see the the Lancing droids, so
maybe that's the first real ridiculousness.
But like the the giant undersea laser that blows up entire
capital ships is thoroughly ridiculous.
Yeah, OK, so the other ridiculous aspect was the man
Calamari on their little, I think sea lizards or sea worms
(28:39):
over the edge to watch it just sink and then blow up.
Yeah. But I do have to say one thing
when it comes to Kit Fisco Fisto.
I loved his lightsaber underwater.
Because it was. So different than an actual
lightsaber above water. It's more jagged and everything.
It's really cool. Yeah, it was really cool.
(29:00):
Yep. They do that a couple times in
the season, the Anakin Asaj fight, which we'll get to and
the rain similar similar vibes where they're just really
exploring. I think like what it what would
it mean to have a lightsaber underwater?
What would it mean to have it inthe rain?
How would visually that change the scene and it's?
Just so creative. Oh yeah, yeah, very creative.
Yeah, I agree. It's it's worth noting also that
(29:22):
if you're you're gonna followingalong in on Disney Plus, the
DVDs are Blu rays. These episodes are actually
swapped. So for the the battle on Munalis
with Dirge and Kit Fisto, are are are swapped.
I think so it it yeah, from fromwhat was originally aired.
And I think that's so that you can I think so you can better
(29:45):
space out some of the battles onMunalis with these other stories
around the Galaxy. But I find that very surprising.
Yeah. OK, so then we move on to
Chapter 6, which I feel like is one of the most iconic of of the
season of Season 1. And this is the giant arena on
(30:10):
rat attack and the introduction of a Saj Ventris and sorry the.
The book She dies at the end of the book.
How is she back? I.
Don't. Understand.
Wait, wait, wait. Come on, come on.
That's that's her origin story. So the original origin story of
Asajj Ventress and I, I, I believe so.
(30:34):
I think she had previously, if Irecall correctly from my
timelines, right, appeared in the comics prior to the battle
of rat attack, right. And this, this, I think she was
pulled from the comics for the series.
I don't think she was created for this series right now.
Now I'm doubting. My collection I'm not 100% on
any of this. Yeah.
I'm not going to say anything about it, I just know that I
(30:56):
don't read the comics and this to me is her origin story.
No, you're right. She, I think she did appear
first in Republic 51 and 52 according to Wikipedia, but this
is pretty close to her origin story.
And I think it's possible she was developed for this and then
maybe brought into one of the comics.
(31:16):
I, I would that wouldn't surprise me.
But, you know, we think about how a big of a character Asaj
Ventris is now. This was like the first time
most people got to know Asaj Ventris.
And it is, it is, it is epic. So, Tom, walk us, walk us
through the the battle of rat attack.
(31:37):
But well, the one thing I just really love is how you're
sitting here inside this big arena with all these creatures
and mugs and thugs and they're all fighting each other and
you're watch and you're watchingbasic account Dooku watch this
with somebody by his side. And these guys are just duking
it out everything with flamethrowers and chains and
(31:58):
rocks. And I just love how you're
sitting here watching Dooku and then he just basically says
something to the extent I'm going to paraphrase your skills
are good because your skills aregood.
But I did sense you were basically Asad's adventure shows
up out of nowhere behind him. And then it was all a set up to
(32:19):
put her in the middle of this big battle to see how good she
is fighting and if she actually has skills of a Sith.
And if she is, you know, if likeand you just see her take out
every single one of these creatures in many different
ways, even subtle lightsaber dropping boulders on them and
(32:45):
just walks out the winner of this big battle.
It's so cool, just so cool and just showing that even at this
point she is strong in, I was going to say the forest, but the
dark side of the forest. Yeah, OK, I, I sorry, really
quick take a quick break from come back to the battle.
(33:06):
I was just double checking and yes, she was created for this
series. So this is the first time we've
ever seen Massage Avengers. She was created from her
originally based on concept art for Attack of the Clones that
wasn't used for Dooku. But yeah, she was created
specifically for this show. And our friend of the show
(33:31):
Leland, she suggested the name Massage.
But originally, I mean, I forgotabout all this.
This is this throws me back. Her original name in the series
was going to be Juno Eclipse, which if you'll remember,
becomes the name of one of the characters in Star Wars The
Force Unleashed Juno. Eclipse.
I don't remember where that camefrom.
(33:51):
Yeah. Interesting, so that that brings
me back. I haven't heard the name Juno
Eclipse in it forever, but. Yeah, I know she.
Was she was created for this show?
So this is literally the first appearance of a Saj Ventress
ever. And you know, now she has her
own stand alone tales of the Underworld shorts like she it's
(34:13):
because of the show that she became such a massive a a, a, a
massive character in in Star Wars that inspired the night
sisters and inspired all this other stuff.
It all starts here. Yeah, it.
Yeah, and it's good entrance forher too.
I mean, just just to the one that still gets me, as you're
(34:35):
sitting here watching these three or four beasts that are
just charging. And this is the thing about the
animation I really love. They're just charging right at
you and it looks like they're just standing still and a bowler
drops and one goes away and a boulder drops and another goes
away, and a boulder drops and another goes away.
And you're like, how cool is that?
Yeah, even the the introduction where, you know, counting Dooku
(35:00):
is there on rat attack in the the cauldron and he's watching
these these gladiators fight andyou know, the he has this, this
this guy showing him around and all of a sudden one minute his
tour guides there sitting next to him and the next minute
there's this hooded shadowy warrior and you know, like it's
just like these the the lines are so iconic.
(35:22):
They still, I can still hear them to this day, like the dark
side of the Force is strong in me, for I am Sith, you know,
it's so good. Mary Overtock.
Is great, yeah. So good again, not the voice
acting massage. She's she's good, not as good as
(35:46):
you know, we got we got from clone war, the clone wars, but
the character massage Ventress is just it is just incredible
and it all started here and it'sa great fight, right, So good.
It actually spans 2 episodes because we had the battle on rat
attack and then Dugu bests her with the force lightning and
(36:07):
then she wakes up and they get another duel.
And this one is where she gets her iconic red lightsabers
because she has green and blue lightsabers before this.
And you know, Dugu makes her hisdisciple with the blessing of
Starth Sidious himself. It's just so good.
(36:32):
It is so good. It it's good, but it's funny
because I think at the end of that when Duke, when Sidious
gives his blessing and Duke who sends her on his way, they get
and basically to go after AnakinSkywalker.
You get the feeling that they they did not expect her to come
(36:53):
back from going after Anakin, ifI understood the end of that
episode correctly. I think Dooku.
I think Dooku does expect it andI but I don't.
Think yes. Who didn't?
Yeah. Yeah, Sidious, I think, is
playing both sides. Either Sajid wins and he's got
someone to replace Dooku, or Anakin wins and the plan
continues as expected. Yeah, it's yeah.
(37:19):
Yeah, it's. Peak I'm just so excited to you
know, I've been this is such a fun first season and I'm just
getting excited just thinking about seasons two and three,
which we'll be reviewing later this summer.
Since you know, it's a little bit of Star Wars hiatus.
We're using the opportunity to to go back into the the vault
and and review some stuff we've never done, but it's it's so
(37:41):
good. So then the the next episode
gives us an epic two-part fight where you know, Part 1, this is
chapter 8. Obi Wan General Kenobi and his
troopers mount up on their own speeder bikes with their Lancers
and and take on the Lancers. Sorry, this is not Gears of War.
They're their Lance is and take on.
(38:04):
Talking about it was too cool. And take on Dirge and you know,
Obi Wan, we see him wear armor, clone armor in the Clone Wars, a
little bit here or there, right?Just little pieces.
But in this episode he is wearing the full set of clone
armor with a Jedi cloak on top. It's very cool.
(38:25):
He's got a helmet on, He's got everything.
And it's just giant jousting battles on speeder bikes and Obi
Wan deflecting bullets and fire with the Force.
It's just it's so good. It is so.
It's still, it's still fascinating that you get 2
episodes of jousting and nothingbut jousting in a Star Wars
(38:48):
movie. I mean in a Star Wars TV show.
It's great, it's great. And and this also is where we
start to is where we learn that Dirge is not just a fearsome
warrior, but he is very, very hard to kill.
Obi Wan. You first see it when Obi Wan
like impales him and he just keeps on going and he's got a
(39:11):
hole in his chest for like half this fight.
And then Obi Wan cuts off his arm and he keeps going.
And then Obi Wan slices them in half and you think he's dead.
And Obi Wan leaves and you see the little tentacles as he comes
back together and repairs himself.
And it is. That's so good.
(39:31):
The one, the one thing about that that you mentioned about
Obi Wan thinks he kills him. I think the one thing that got
me about Dirge after Obi Wan puts that Lance into him, there
is that very long dramatic pausewhere it's just like, OK, now
what? Is Dirge just going to fall
over? Is this or that?
(39:52):
It's just that that pause that just had you thinking and then
you realize, uh oh, he's still going to live.
I just, just just that timing was outstanding for the episode.
Yeah, no, it's, it's just excellent.
And then of course, Steven, thattakes us into the Banking Clan
(40:14):
headquarters where the fight continues.
Your thoughts on this whole thiswhole episode?
Just another iconic moment and you know, Obi Wan to rise.
He's demanding the surrender of the banking, the banking clan,
and dirt pops through the windowon his jetpack, having
(40:37):
recombined his pieces. And just that moment where no,
no stop the all the clones open up on him, just full, full
firepower. You know, he bounces a couple
times, falls, dies, well does die, I guess is the point he and
comes back in his full, I don't know, monstrous form.
(41:04):
And yeah, I mean, I think this is the first time we get sassy
Obi Wan in this one as well, where he Obi Wan is swallowed
into inside of dirge, pops his way out a minute later.
And what did you what? Did you get?
I have to ask you guys, what didyou think of that when he got
when Obi Wan got enveloped or involved or whatever we're gonna
(41:26):
call it by dirge. And then there's just that
pause. You like, It's swallowed by
Dirge's chest, basically, and it's.
Yeah, it's. It's.
Disgusting and and yet makes complete sense in this world.
Again, I'll keep saying it. That's the thing that this
showed us so well. It's over the top and crazy and
(41:48):
not that much storytelling. It's very simplistic overall,
and yet it's so phenomenally done and, and it's believable or
it's, even though it's over the top, you believe everything that
happens. Yeah.
And I, I just, it's something that I, you know, it is a master
class in, in storytelling like for this type of thing.
(42:11):
It is. It is.
Obviously it's a very different type of thing than like Andor
right, shall we say very different type of show, but it
is phenomenally executed. Yeah, yeah.
Steven, your your thoughts on onthe dirge thing?
No, that I, I think that covers all of it.
Like hard to see him coming backfrom that one.
(42:34):
May be the reason we don't see him again.
But. Oh well, when the ARC trooper
just shocks him and Dirge just explodes.
Well the he the shocking I thinkthe explosion is because Obi Wan
like pops his way out is how I interpreted it.
But. Well, except we see the slime
moving on the ground at the end.Oh, do it.
(42:55):
I must have missed that. OK.
Yeah, Obi Wan's picking up his helmet and staring at it, and
the the slime is just slowly moving on the ground and you
know he's still alive. I stand corrected.
And that's where I really want to see if he does when, if
possible, he comes back because yes, I did see all that stuff
Mert kind of oozing away. So I I just, he is such a good
(43:22):
character, you want to see more of him if possible.
Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, season 1 is really, I'd
say Obi Wan's show with like, yeah, he's like the the main
star. If I, if I, if I had to say at
least of like a good number of episodes.
Anakin is not in it at quite as much.
He's in the beginning and the end, but not a lot in the
(43:43):
middle. Yeah, with without a doubt the
the closest I think is this lastepisode in season 1, which I
actually think it may be the weakest episode in my opinion,
which is the the space battle above mutilist.
And it is, you know, mainly Anakin flying through, blowing
up stuff. It's the one.
(44:06):
It's the one case where I don't know what it is, but this should
be my bread and butter and it just doesn't quite work for me.
Because I, I agree it's the weakest, but I, it's, I also
really love the space battle andhow like Anakin's got his souped
up Jedi starfighter blue and, you know, white, white light and
he's like. Style of his pod racer and like
(44:28):
inspired I think by his pod racer as well.
I would assume with the 2 engines kind of upfront.
Yep, and he's got like you know,he's ordering the clones to, you
know, fire over the bow cruiser 8 as they as he, you know, leads
all the all of the Jen ocean fighters up around the fighter.
They come over the they fly up and over the ventilator as the
(44:51):
closed. One moment of this that I do
really enjoy. Yeah, I did enjoy that episode.
It's so fun to hear that the clone pilot say, but Sir,
there's nothing in that area andAnakin's like, I don't care a
trooper just fire. And at that last second you see
one missile go right by, There goes the Anakin starfighter.
Then the rest of the Geo Nelson ships come and they're just
(45:13):
obliterated. So good.
And you really get to see Anakinthe, the, the, you know, the,
the, the incredible pilot. Pilot.
Yeah, yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, and this is another case.
This is another case where over the top works.
I mean, a lot of the space battle was just over the top,
(45:33):
just with the mention of clone dripper fire over the bow of
this and Anakin basically going into the spin, taking out all
those ships. Just somehow the over the top
works in this case. Yeah, yeah.
And the the last, you know, the last piece really is the not so
(45:54):
shocking arrival of Asajj Ventress at the very end.
She takes out Blue Squadron and Anakin and Asajj start flying
right at each other head to head.
And the episode ends and we haveto wait six months to find out
what happens. Well, now you just.
(46:18):
Yeah, OK. Sorry.
Four months it was tight to. Be four months sometime.
Now you just hit you just it keeps the episode keeps rolling
and you know you're not even done with volume one, but.
Which which I thought we were going to go into the next part
of it because I was going to saysomething about another.
I gotta wait. I gotta wait because I.
Gotta have a little taste of 2003 and and wait till next time
(46:38):
Tom. Oh man, because I I've, I've
already I OK. It is.
It's fun for me to look back at this and look at animation back
in that day of 2D and kind of compare how it went in into CG
now. And you miss the 2D aspect of
(47:02):
The Clone Wars in this respect because this was done by Warner
Brothers originally. This had really had nothing to
do with Disney or Lucas because it was on Cartoon Network.
Yes, it was done by Lucas. Yeah, this was prior to days
Before this was like early days,yeah.
Yeah, this was, this was like, you know, groundbreaking at that
(47:22):
time to have Star Wars do something like this and pull it
off very well. Exactly.
Yeah, it's kind of incredible how much they accomplished here,
honestly. And it is fun to see the amount
that actually was able to carry over into the Clone Wars.
(47:43):
Not a lot of it, but you know, like Dirge didn't make it.
But but to see that kind of carry over is really cool that
there was that nod to what came before, even though it wasn't
fully embraced going into the Clone Wars.
The other thing I really I thinkwe take a little bit for granted
(48:04):
now, but at the time I think saycartoons, but like this style of
animated show was this was the the pattern, you know, you you
would watch these one off episodes that would, you know,
tell an insulated story and rarely was there a story that
like really branched multiple episodes.
Obviously this show, you know, the fact that it's, you know, 2
(48:26):
to 3 minutes at a time per episode obviously hampers that
even more. So I think it really underlines
the the, the power, the the innovation that was the original
Clone Wars of doing these biggerepisodes and arcs to tell these
these bigger stories. It I think it underlines, yeah,
(48:47):
just just how great both series were.
Like they they're doing very different things, but.
Yeah. It's hard to you're.
You're totally right. And that, yeah, it's you.
You certainly can love both. They're very different styles.
Right. But you can see just how much of
the Clone Wars was inspired by Clone Wars.
(49:09):
Yes. And it's like they they took the
core concept of, you know, little.
Let's go check in on different characters around the Galaxy and
see these battles. Introduce it with a, you know, a
Tom Kane narration many times. You know, a lot of the same cast
is there it it, it so, so, so much is started in Clone Wars.
(49:35):
These characters that were created for this show that you
know, have have now made appearances in so many other
works. This really truly was a
foundational show and and so innovative at the time.
And it's just so fun to go back and experience it again.
Those makes me realize just how spoiled we were, like thinking
(49:58):
about getting something like this that was filling in the
gaps between episodes 2 and 3. I mean, and as we'll see with,
you know, the later, I'm not going to worry about spoilers.
But like the the later arcs, we get the introduction Grievous
for the first time, we get Anakin's knighting ceremony, the
first many that he would end up going through over over the
(50:19):
years. Well, like, you know, the Clone
War, sorry, episode 2 attack of the Clones kicks off the Clone
wars and then episode 3 ends theClone Wars.
And that's very similar. I think what we, you know,
between all other Star Wars, youknow, 4 through 6 and especially
7 through 9, you only really getwhat's in the movies.
(50:40):
You don't get the these filler type pieces that really build
the story on top of it. I think like, like I said, we we
check in on Kit Fisto, we check in on Mace Windu.
Eventually we're we're at this big battle immunolist.
We are seeing the full scope of the Clone Wars rage across the
Galaxy. It's just so cool, such a good
(51:04):
idea. Galaxy.
The Clone Wars spread. There you go.
See even. Even that line right fire across
the Galaxy, if you think about it, that inspired so many titles
of rebels and other shows. You cannot understate just how
much this show inspired. And it's just it's phenomenal.
(51:31):
It really is. And it's so fun to go back and
and take a look. So I guess Tom, what would you
rate season? One, you know what, I'm giving
it a 9.5. I mean, you know, it's going to
be very hard about this. It's going to be hard not to
(51:51):
give give this series. I mean all three seasons.
It's going to be hard not to give it anything lower than a
nine honestly, because they werejust so how they were done in
such short time frames. The story they told and you had
the beginning, middle and end boom each time.
(52:12):
And it was so engaging, engrossing and everything else
to keep your attention for that time frame and and kept you on
the edge of the seat until the next one showed up.
And you had to wait for a commercial break from a
different TV show to watch this episode nowadays.
Just go to a streaming service. So I'm I'm giving this a 9.5 for
(52:34):
season 1 and I I'm leaving it that my 9.5 Womp rats.
I'm going to save it until the introduction of Grievous.
I'm gonna take all my womp rats and I'm gonna put them at the
introduction of the Grievous episode.
That's gonna be such a tough episode for us to record 'cause
(52:54):
I could, I could go on for an hour just on the grievance for
dinner. So could I, but we'll, we'll get
there. We're.
Gonna have a dedicated episode just on that 5 minute Clone Wars
short so yeah. Yeah, I mean, anyway, so since I
went, why don't you go next? Me, OK, it's.
(53:15):
You. Man, this is it's just such a
good show. It I just was smiling ear to ear
rewatching this. I, I love clone wars.
I have so many fond memories of clone wars.
It just it's it's so good. I think, Oh, it's hard.
(53:36):
I think maybe I'll give it 8 1/2womp rats out of 10 only because
I know it gets even better and and because it's like, it's such
a good start, but it gets even better as it goes on.
So maybe I'll get it, give it 8 1/2.
It's just, it's so good. And these 8 1/2 womp rats,
(53:58):
they're all going to fight each other in the big the cauldron on
rat attack. See who's the winner, Steven?
Oh man, I've literally gone backand forth with both of you on on
these scores. I was going to do originally do
8.5 and I was like, no one couldgive it less than a nine.
I was like, no, you're kind of right.
Like. I had the same thought.
(54:19):
I had the same. Thought difference between you
both. I'm going to give it a nine.
Generally this first season is amazing.
I it is kind of because I just know how much better it's going
to get from here. Like it is phenomenal.
(54:39):
The second, the second season I think is phenomenal.
Third season almost more so like, so I'm going to give it a
nine. I'm going to, I'm going to leave
myself a little bit of room to grow and have, you know, some
comparison. But yeah, just such a great show
across the board. Yeah, that's that's all there is
(55:00):
to it. So I'm, I'm going to sit here
and do this. Why don't you guys review this
in your, let's say William, your13 year old eyes back in that
day. And Steven, how about you?
You're 13 or 15 at that time, not straight. 10.
Yeah, straight 10, you can't getany better.
Like no, this isn't doesn't get any better.
(55:20):
My critical eye is like 8 1/2. My 13 year old self is like 1012
out of 10. Cannot get better.
OK, then go with the 12 out of 10 because go with your 13 year
old. Just kidding.
I'm totally kidding in this respect.
But that would that literally just.
Do you think this is a a nine out of 10 show like this season
particular like it is? Absolutely.
(55:42):
There is room for it to grow. It is phenomenal.
Yeah, they just, they just did such a great job with it, like.
Yeah. No, totally, totally so.
Couldn't agree more. It's just phenomenal and
everywhere. Yeah.
(56:03):
Well, so, so fun to look back onsuch a great show.
I'm excited to do the next two as well.
But like we said, you know, saida little bit ago, our our goal
was, hey, there's not a lot of Star Wars content right now.
We've got, I think Lego Star Wars in September, envisions in
(56:24):
October, but there's not a lot. We're a little bit of a Star
Wars drought at the moment, I guess you could say.
Although the Bad Batch book comes out in I think a little
over a month. So that's exciting.
Yeah. So maybe I'll talk about that
one as well. But you know, it's there's,
(56:45):
there's, there's lots of more stuff coming.
But while we're waiting, we're like, OK, we got to go do we've
been talking about it for forever.
We want to do it for forever. Let's finally make it happen and
review the Getty Tarkovsky series.
And so, so glad we're. Doing that, I do feel like we've
talked about reviewing the show since we were reviewing the
original 2D Clone Wars. Sorry, 3D Clone Wars.
(57:06):
We have been. Yep, it's been a long time
coming, really long time coming.So it's it's it's fun.
And, and it makes it easy now because it's all on Disney Plus.
Exactly exactly yeah. So, yeah, so that's that's Clone
Wars season 1. Stay tuned.
(57:27):
We're going to be covering seasons two and three very soon
in Before we wrap up, should we briefly touch on the fact that
there's not a lot of here? But there is a report that the
Ray movie from Charmaine Obey Chenoy, the New Jedi Order movie
15 years after Rise of Skywalker, has been shockingly
(57:52):
put on hold. So yeah, I guess.
I would never have guessed why a.
Star Wars movie is having trouble delay getting delayed.
Yeah, again, not an official report yet.
Lucas almost has not announced anything.
Honestly, until they start filming, I just kind of take
every movie with a grain of saltunfortunately.
And it's kind of sad that it's that's the state of things, but
(58:15):
you know it. That's also the correct way to
take it exactly. Yeah, and I'd rather they take
the right their time and and do do it right.
So, yeah, we'll see what happens.
Yeah, but we still have Mandalorian Grogu next year to
look forward to. So that'll be fun.
And there's, you know, we'll see.
I'm sure eventually we'll get it.
I would, I would love this. Sounds like a fun movie.
(58:37):
I would love it. But you know, we'll, we'll see
what happens. Also, don't forget at some point
we're going to be getting Starfighter with Ryan Gosling.
Yes, yes, that's also coming. So there's there's a lot of
stuff coming down the pipe, but so far we are still waiting.
But that's it for now. We'll keep you all waiting until
our review of season 2 of Clone Wars, but I hope you're all
(59:04):
having a a great summer. Thank you all for listening, and
like Clone Wars, we'll be back next time.
Thank you for listening to the Ion Cannon Podcast, your source
for entertainment reviews from the Galaxy far, far away.
For over a decade, Ion Cannon has covered every corner of the
(59:25):
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(59:48):
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Standing by, you're listening tothe Ion Cannon Podcast.
Laugh it up, fuzzball. Your source for entertainment
reviews from a Galaxy far, far away?
This is it. Hey, laser clickers.
(00:23):
Welcome to the Iron Cannon podcast.
I'm one of your hosts Steven andI'm joined by my friends and Co
hosts Tom and William. Guys, I am so excited we are
here to talk about the Clone Wars season 1.
The the the the first one the the two Clone Wars.
We are going. Out no Clone Wars.
Way, way way back in. Time.
(00:43):
Wait, wait, does it? Should it just be the Wars?
And then the Clone Wars was obviously a clone of the Wars.
I think so don't. Don't.
Come on. I'm just, I'm just saying, feel
like that would make sense, right?
Checks out. But no, we are going way back in
time to 2003, if you can believeit, 2003.
(01:10):
Way back when the Gendi Tartakovsky produced Clone Wars
animated series premiered on Cartoon Network.
If you, if you guys will remember, you know, I, I, this,
I, I just, I vividly remember this.
I was like in my early teens at the time, I was like super
(01:32):
excited about about Star Wars And, and remember, there was no
Star Wars television. Yeah, there had been the Droids
show and the Ewoks and you know the.
Androids and Ewoks and things like this.
This was like Sirius television by like I said, Jen D Tarde got
jar. I can't even say his name right,
but Jen D Tardypotsky, who he you know, famous Cartoon Network
(01:57):
director and animator involved with like samurai.
Yeah, I. Believe he did Powerpuff Girls
as well. Like basically the heyday of of
Cartoon Network in my opinion. And it's funny watching this now
because like these it's obviously filmed in these like
very short like 5 minute episodes.
(02:18):
It also aired in a really weird way at the time, like obviously
streaming didn't exist. So it was like, I think they
like, we're cutting commercials basically for normal television.
And then they're like, OK, I'd be from not, you know, whatever
time like 7:55 until 8:00 PM. That's when the new episodes
will air. And it made it so hard to it
was. Literally during the commercial
(02:39):
break it was they were all the episodes early on they were two
to three minutes by the end. Later on in the series I think
they were like 5 to 6. Yeah, they expand.
But early on, they were two to three minutes long each and they
just took the place of a commercial break.
So you'd be watching some other show and then all of a sudden
it's like, oh, here's your little Star Wars mini episode
somewhere during the episode. And I'm sure it's great to boost
(03:01):
the ratings of their of their shows that the show was actually
on and you got to watch the StarWars thing.
And it's like TuneIn next week for the next part.
It was such a different time, such a different time, but.
Very weird. These have like these are
iconic. It's an iconic series.
We've never reviewed it because of course we, you know, we
(03:23):
started with the Clone Wars thatthat came out five years later.
But it's pretty impressive just how much of an impact these
animated shorts had on Star Warsanimation and Star Wars
television in general. And they're just, they still are
(03:44):
some of like, like peak Star Wars TV even at 2:00 to 3:00
minutes. We'll talk more about this, I'm
sure, as we get into the episodes, but they are they.
Are. Phenomenal.
They're they're so good. They're so good if you're
watching on Disney Plus, becausethat's the best way to get to
these. Now it's worth noting that I
(04:07):
think they actually, I forget what year they were released
sometime after the entire seriesbecause there were three seasons
sometime after the final, the the the final season.
I want to see it was probably maybe even 345 years after the
show. I I forget they released a box
set on DVD it. It wasn't that much longer.
I actually wasn't because I I sorry, this is where I'm gonna.
(04:29):
So I was president of my high school Star Wars fan club, and
one of the things I. Was here for a second.
You guys are literally making mefeel very old Anyway.
I was, yeah, I was 13 at the time.
I was like, yeah. This is that.
Hurt. Oh jeez.
You set for for these and this is and played them.
You know we've watched hours during lunch was basically all
(04:51):
we did, but we played it during yeah sorry.
We played played them during lunch.
So it I it was at least like I wanna say 2005.
OK, that sounds 2006 maybe. Yeah, well, they do the DVD.
Yeah, at at. Least by that time that makes
sense. Yeah, and, and they, so they,
what they did is they, they tookthe first two.
(05:11):
So Season 1 aired November 7th through 20th, 2003.
The second season came out the following March in 2004 from
March 26th to April 8th. And then the following November
of 2004, they released season 3,which was November 7th through
20th and, or, or actually, I forget the exact dates for the
(05:36):
the third season, but it was they're basically like 6 months
apart each season. And the they, they and
ultimately in the DVD release, they put seasons one and two
together as one combined episodeeffectively.
So if you're looking on Disney Plus and you see volume one,
season 1 is basically the first half of volume one.
(05:57):
Season 2 is the second-half of volume 2.
And then volume 3 is all of season 3 and all told, Volume 1
and volume to each run about an hour long.
So there again, it's not that much content when you think
about it. At the time we were getting a
Star Wars movie every three years and we got two hours of
Star Wars animation in about a year.
(06:20):
And so it's not like we're used to now the eras of like, you
know, 8 hour or 12 hour long episodes.
Back then we got a basically a whole movie's worth of content
in a year. So even though they were very,
very short, we still got a, a lot of content.
So if you're watching, followingalong at home, we're gonna be
talking about Season 1 today. So that's the first half of of
(06:45):
the of Volume 1. The last the last comment I'll
make before we get in and it'll this'll apply to as we because
we're gonna review season 1 and then season 2 and then season 3
of the show. Not all at once, because that's
still a good healthy chunk of content.
Was it was. It there was a season 3.
Yeah. That's volume to.
(07:06):
That's Volume 2, yeah. Got it, got it, got it.
Got. It first I.
Don't anyway, basically. These also aired before episode
3 came out and volume to in particular was intended as a
lead in to episode 3, which we'll we'll talk about more when
we get to. But yeah, just very, very, very
(07:29):
cool. I'm excited for this.
So I I'm glad I double checked because as I was reading out the
dates I'm like, that seems wrong.
I I didn't believe it based on my recollection.
Turns out I forgot to update thedates for season 3.
So you know, seasons one and twowere indeed the six months apart
in November and then March through April of 2004.
(07:52):
So November 2003, March 2004, the fifth, sorry, third season
came out a year and a year laterbasically.
So they, the weight was from March 2004 to March 2005.
So it was, you know, Steven, as you were saying, just a month
(08:13):
and a half before Episode 3 cameout.
And that's where Season 3 introduces a lot of elements
that we see in Revenge of the Sith.
So if you take yourself back like these came out after Attack
of the Clones, but before Revenge of the Sith.
So we hadn't even seen the conclusion of the Clone Wars
(08:35):
yet, like the, the, the, the, the war itself, not the, the,
the show or either either of theshows.
And so, you know, this was like a such a uncharted time.
We didn't know where things weregoing to go.
How would how are they going to wrap up the prequel trilogy?
And they just introduced so manycool elements, right?
We had just seen Attack of the clones, the beginning of the
(08:56):
Clone Wars and Kit Fisto's famous smile and, and
everything. And now we get to dive into more
of these these battles. And so it is it's really, really
cool. One other thing I should note,
and I don't know about you guys.I forgot just how much how much
(09:21):
of the Star Wars voice acting cast we've come to know and love
started in clone wars, not the clone wars, but clone wars, cuz
I was it's been a long time since I love it.
I could still like quote probably every line in this
series for my heart and but I ithad been a long time since I
watched it. As I was watching.
I was like, wait a minute, that's James Arnold Taylor,
(09:42):
right? As as Obi Wan.
That's, you know, a Corey Burtonas Count Dooku, right?
That's Terence TC Carson as Macewin.
Do you know? It's so many Tom Kane as Yoda.
So many of the people we've gotten to know in Star Wars
(10:05):
animation started actually in Clone Wars.
I think they've actually been insome games as well and stuff,
but they started here. The notable exception, the
biggest exception being Matt Lucas, who played Anakin
Skywalker. And in hindsight, I can see why.
They cast recast him with Matt Lanter and he's fine all right.
(10:28):
He's a little more younger, a little more, I guess Attack of
the Clones Anakin, then maybe Revenge of the Anakin and Gray.
Delete, delete. De La Salle played Padme instead
of Cat Tabor and and so you can see why they recast them.
But so much of the cast started in in this this show.
(10:52):
See if we're gonna add somethingelse.
Yeah, you're gonna add somethingstated.
We'll talk about this as we go through, but it's fascinating to
see in particular some of the creative choices that differ
between Clone Wars and The CloneWars or 2D and 3D.
Anakin being I think probably the most the the largest example
where throughout the the 2D series we see him grow up a
(11:12):
little bit, particularly going into the Volume 3.
But it's very much like you said, kind of whiny Anakin who
you sympathize with a lot less compared to the Anakin of 3D and
Matt Lanter where you're like, Oh no, I kind of get, I get a
little bit of where you're coming from.
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that one.
While we're talking about the comparisons, it's probably also
(11:33):
worth noting Yoda introduces a decent number of these episodes.
Again, kind of that's not that'sthe hallmark of the Clone wars
later on with the the famous, you know, intro for every
episode by Tom Kane where he's, you know, whoa, talking about
whatever setup is. You know, Tom Kane, of course,
(11:56):
is not the voice of time right in in Clone Wars, but in in this
show is instead just being playing Yoda and recapping
viewers on on where things are. And I guess one last piece.
But even though they're only twoto three minutes long, they tell
(12:16):
individual stories, but they allkind of come together to weave
into one larger narrative. And I think they just do such a
phenomenal job of that. We'll, we'll talk about that
more as we we go in. So Steven, you wanna kick us off
with Chapter 1 of Season 1? Yeah, I mean, Chapter 1 is very.
(12:38):
Much the table. But what about the table?
Set set Set set set. Set the table for everyone.
I mean, I, I would actually say Chapter 1 is literally setting
the table for what the show is going to be.
Like I said, it kind of opens with the kind of Yoda narration
of the Clone Wars setting, setting the scene for viewers
(12:59):
that were in the middle of this war between the Separatists and
the Republic. I'll say one of the things I
like about this series is I always think of it as a, it's
like Republic propaganda films. It's the two-minute shorts that
you see now before you go to themovies or whatever it might be,
and so much of it. He's over the top in the way you
would expect, which we'll get to, but.
(13:21):
Especially as we go into season 2 and stuff.
Even season one, yeah. Yeah, see there, there's a lot
of over the top stuff. But what do?
I love. You know, the the war is
ongoing, Republic versus the Separatists.
And we discover that Obi Wan is being given command of the
assault on Immunolis, the Banking Clan, where he will work
(13:45):
with Anakin to, you know, disrupt the Banking Clan and
yeah, etcetera. And it kicks off with this very
obvious move by Palpatine to continue to prop up Anakin and
make Anakin feel worse about theJedi.
Like this is one of those thingswhere you only get two or three
(14:05):
minutes per episode, so everything has to happen pretty
quickly. But I laughed pretty hard when
it's just like, it should be given command of the Space
Force. And they're like, no, he's not
ready. It's like, oh, but now I don't
know which one. Who?
Who do we go with? The Jedi?
Palpatine makes it a challenge. Oh yeah.
You're you're I think one of thethings that's so impressive
(14:25):
about this show, though, is while it is so short and so
fast, they still do a decent amount of it.
It takes place a little slower over the course of the entire
season, not within a single episode, but you do get a lot of
good character development. You get great action.
It it strikes that balance perfectly of being short little
(14:48):
vignettes and and giving you a peek into different battles or
or continuing a story from a previous episode.
But you could also watch it completely in isolation and
totally enjoy it. And for a 3 minute episode that
is incredibly impressive. It's really hard to overstate
how hard it is to do a compelling, action-packed story,
(15:12):
you know, with a, with a good story in 3 minutes so that you
could share it during a commercial break.
It's impressive. Well, there, there's no other
thing about the show. There's no thing about the show
that I really enjoyed was some episodes.
There was not a lot of dialogue.It was the action that drove the
episodes. Right.
Yeah. And for being a show that is
(15:34):
only like 2 to 3 minutes, that is kind of cool they're able to
pull that off in that way, to tell a story that's compelling
just for that short amount of time with barely any dialogue.
Yeah, it's, it is interesting because like we, we, we, we
reviewed Tales of the Underworlda month ago, right?
A month and a half ago. And don't get me wrong, I love
(15:56):
the Tales series. I I love the characters that we
get featured in them. But one of the critiques we had
was that it, it feels like they're either they're, they're,
they're too long. They they don't, they're not
long enough to tell a full story, but they're too short.
They're too short to tell the full story that like you would
get in a 30 minute episode, for example, but they're too long.
(16:20):
They they feel like overly long for the story that they're
trying to tell. And it just makes it feel like
they kind of drag a little bit, right.
But while not telling as big of a story, this is the exact
opposite of that. This is like the how you do it
perfectly of like super short, super contained, but really
(16:40):
interesting. Again, nothing against nothing
against to the tale shows. I love it.
But like I feel like this still has set the pinnacle for how to
do these little vignettes. Personally, I.
Completely agree to see what where they sacrifice in order to
make that possible, especially comparing it.
(17:01):
I'm going to give it our 2D and 3D quite a bit I think as we're
reviewing these and Chapter 2 isa great example of that in my
mind. A so Chapter 2 open ones ARC
troopers arrive at or sorry Obi Wan arrives immunoist he send
they begin the you know landing assault whatever you want to
call it and he sends off the clone arc troopers on a secret
mission and AI want this might have been the first time we saw
(17:25):
the arc troopers I think. I know there was an ongoing
comic series as well, Clone Wars, that Dark Horse was doing,
so I know they borrowed a lot and traded back and forth.
Like this is the first time we saw on screen.
Arc. Troopers and so many other
things we'll talk about. Yeah.
They are the ARC troopers are, you know, they've got the, I
(17:45):
don't know what they're called. I forget what it's called.
The not the skirt. There's like an official title
for it. What's it called?
I know it's Eric, the thing thatgoes on the show.
Me. Is that it?
I think. It's the comma.
OK, that's close. But like.
Like that? You're just this is one of those
wordless episodes that you were kind of talking about Tom,
where, you know, they they land in Munoz, they get shot down and
(18:08):
then they are going through thismassive battle in the city.
And it is so cool to watch them,you know, step by step, like
there's the the snipers, they'retaking them down and then they
take out the tank. Very little dialogue, but you're
just walking like, oh, these clone troopers are so cool.
A lot less personality to them, I would say, compared to what we
(18:30):
got, you know, out of Rex or Cody or any of the other clones
in Clone Wars, The Clone Wars. But I think.
But I think in this use for the animation it works.
Yeah, they, they use those two to three minutes beautifully.
I I will say more. Steven, it's.
Sorry, go ahead. No.
I just wanted to add before, sorry, I mean the, the they make
(18:51):
the clones feel so cool. Not even just clones.
Literally every character is so just like oozes coolness in this
show. But just watching the the arc
troopers make their way through the through the the the the the
town immunolist and and like just being amazing at what they
do is such a delight. But sorry, continuing on what
(19:12):
you're saying. No, I was going to say my I the
one thing I I forgot about untilwe got I watched this episode
and I died all over again. I think one of my favorite
sequences in the entire thing isthere's a shot where they've
just crashed the their gunship. They're, you know, starting to
(19:33):
move and the Droid snipers are taking a shot.
And there's just this lingering shot of a Droid sniper zooming
in on them, getting ready to take the shot and that it
immediately turns into like the most inaccurate machine gun
sniper fire I've ever seen and it cracks me up every time.
It's so good. It is so, so good.
(19:55):
I I like this. Yeah.
It, it makes you fall in love with the ARC troopers instantly.
And I remember I loved collecting the ARC trooper
action figures and I was. Younger and like and I think a
lot of it was from this episode because it was like these guys
are the coolest and yeah we see arc troopers in the clone wars.
(20:17):
It's different, the clone wars, a little more serious, whereas
this show is it's over the top, but not in a so often times I I
don't like I'll be me personally, I I'm not as big of
a fan of the comics a lot of times because it feels over the
top and exaggerated in a unrealistic way.
(20:40):
But this is over the top in a perfect way.
And I and it's it's it's hard toalmost articulate, but it's they
do this great job of being over the top and just making them
super, super, super, super cool and exciting and interesting and
but also making it not like outside of the realm of
possibility where you're just laughing at it.
(21:01):
It's the perfect balance. Yeah, I, I think it's, I think
what really makes it work is when you're watching it, it's
how militarily they're going through the procedures.
It's not, I mean, they're sitting there in the ARC
trooper, he's putting up his hands and he's doing the signals
of to go that way, this go that way.
And it's it's something that youcan relate to because that does
(21:24):
work in real life. It's not over the top, all that
kind of action. It's not like you're not seeing
that stuff for the first time. But they are very cool
characters and just, they're amazing.
I mean, just, I have the action figures too.
I just, I was collecting them like crazy as well.
I wasn't a kid at the time, but I was still collecting.
(21:44):
Kid at heart, right? Right, Tom?
I'm such a kid at heart, guys. Yeah.
And then yeah, Tom, I love your thoughts.
And, you know, they make their way through the city and then
actually reach their target. And you know, I guess it's funny
as I was re watching these, there's they go by so quickly at
(22:07):
first it's like, wait, is that are we still in the same episode
or are we on a new episode? And it was no, it would
crossover because it was it was so seamless at times.
Other times you could tell it was the end of the end of the
the 2-3 minute episode. But yeah, so they make their way
through through mutilist and, you know, reach their target
while meanwhile, Sam Hill Sandhill, sorry, who is not Sam?
(22:29):
He's just the he's the the regular boarding guy.
Sandhill, leader of the banking clan, orders someone special to
help lead his the IG Lancer droids to defend the city.
Dirge and Tom, your thoughts on on this episode with the
(22:54):
introduction of Dirge. This is the one, the one
character I would love to have seen move forward when it came
to the actual Clone Wars, because we did get Grievous,
which was great. And I'll get thoughts on that
later when we get to that that point.
But this is a character I think worked so well in animation, I
(23:15):
would love to have seen in 2D, Would love to have seen it
translate that way into 3D. Because I think there's still a
story there that that really could have been pulled off if it
went into The Clone Wars. And I do believe they brought
him into comics, but he went to comics only and not actually CG
(23:36):
animated. Yeah.
But I, I just, I love that character.
And to sit here and have this guy with Lancer droids.
And that's the one thing when itcame to this, there are some
cases with this, there is stuff that's over the top, like these
Lancer droids on both. Yeah, it's like Lancer, Lancer
clone troopers, Lancer Obi Wan, Lancer droids.
(23:58):
Literally droids and clone troopers riding around speeders
with. On spearplanes.
Like jousting. It's amazing.
Yeah, and not just trusting. And amazing.
Taking taking out tanks, taking out guns, taking out clone
troopers like they were nothing,and taking out droids like they
(24:19):
were nothing. And that's where it's like in
some cases it's the over the topaspect that this show was able
to pull off that you couldn't pull off in the actual Clone
Wars animated CG series. But Dirge, I think, was the one
character that from this series I would love to have seen carry
over. Oh, I agree.
(24:40):
He's the coolest. Yeah, the coolest character to
never actually make it into intoCanon basically.
Or, you know, into other other works because yeah, he was in a
few comics. But yeah, he's so cool, right.
And he's this this Gendai who can, as we see later in the in
(25:00):
the season, self heal. And it is he's kind of
terrifying and he's so cool. Like my brother and I loved
Dirge and the cool thing about this episode is it it's entirely
from the perspective of the Separatists.
And so, you know, there are multiple episodes through, you
know, the seasons where it's, you know, from the perspective
(25:23):
of the bad guys only. And it makes them look amazing.
You're just watching Dirge and you're like, I, I feel like
Dirge is like Boba Fett from original trilogy levels of cool,
right? Yes, yes.
And yeah, it just makes this episode phenomenal.
Yeah, it actually, in hindsight,it's kind of surprising they
(25:46):
didn't double down on Dirge more, given that he he does ooze
that level of cool. I mean, I think in many ways
Dirge ended up being replaced byGrievous in in later efforts.
So different, yeah. Very much so, but I think it was
make because Dirge also comes across very much as like the
(26:06):
bounty hunter of the group. Maybe CAD Bane is actually the
equivalent in some ways, but I mean that's not a one to one,
but I mean the. No, I get I.
Get it? I get it.
I think they were, they were looking to do a little bit more
of the the broader kind of conflict versus having it be
(26:27):
rogues versus rogues, if you will.
That's. Fair.
Yeah, no, it's it. It works.
I agree. But yeah, that episode is is
just is incredible. And the first one is really just
dirge wrecking havoc on the Republic.
I don't think Obi Wan is in thisthis chapter, right?
(26:47):
It's we see him later. No, what?
Do you see him later? So we first get into a kind of
diverging episode, which seems to be the pattern.
Like the season 1 is very much about the battle immunilis.
Yep, and then we occasionally disappear off, in this case to
Mong Calmari, not yet called DAC.
Yes, it's true name. I do really appreciate the the
(27:12):
Yoda narration here as well, kind of setting this, setting
the table for, you know, the Mong, Calmari and Corin.
They share a home world. The, you know, the Quran have
decided to make their move against the Mon Calamari.
And now the Republic is here, and we see like the acclimators,
you know, land in the ocean again, a thing we've never seen
(27:32):
before. It was very cool.
It looks really cool and then Kid Fisto dramatically reveals
his as he throws his cloak off and jumps into the water to
begin begin the battle. Just such a unique take on in
this entire experience. I mean later clone wars see
(27:53):
something kind of similar, but this is still an epic water
fight with, you know, the the giant calcans and the going off
against the Subs of the core in isolation league and it's and
the giant like crab like launchers that can just decimate
the venators sitting in the in in the ocean.
Just it's. They're like sitting ducks.
This is the first of the ridiculous super weapon.
(28:16):
I mean, I guess we we did just see the the Lancing droids, so
maybe that's the first real ridiculousness.
But like the the giant undersea laser that blows up entire
capital ships is thoroughly ridiculous.
Yeah, OK, so the other ridiculous aspect was the man
Calamari on their little, I think sea lizards or sea worms
(28:39):
over the edge to watch it just sink and then blow up.
Yeah. But I do have to say one thing
when it comes to Kit Fisco Fisto.
I loved his lightsaber underwater.
Because it was. So different than an actual
lightsaber above water. It's more jagged and everything.
It's really cool. Yeah, it was really cool.
(29:00):
Yep. They do that a couple times in
the season, the Anakin Asaj fight, which we'll get to and
the rain similar similar vibes where they're just really
exploring. I think like what it what would
it mean to have a lightsaber underwater?
What would it mean to have it inthe rain?
How would visually that change the scene and it's?
Just so creative. Oh yeah, yeah, very creative.
Yeah, I agree. It's it's worth noting also that
(29:22):
if you're you're gonna followingalong in on Disney Plus, the
DVDs are Blu rays. These episodes are actually
swapped. So for the the battle on Munalis
with Dirge and Kit Fisto, are are are swapped.
I think so it it yeah, from fromwhat was originally aired.
And I think that's so that you can I think so you can better
(29:45):
space out some of the battles onMunalis with these other stories
around the Galaxy. But I find that very surprising.
Yeah. OK, so then we move on to
Chapter 6, which I feel like is one of the most iconic of of the
season of Season 1. And this is the giant arena on
(30:10):
rat attack and the introduction of a Saj Ventris and sorry the.
The book She dies at the end of the book.
How is she back? I.
Don't. Understand.
Wait, wait, wait. Come on, come on.
That's that's her origin story. So the original origin story of
Asajj Ventress and I, I, I believe so.
(30:34):
I think she had previously, if Irecall correctly from my
timelines, right, appeared in the comics prior to the battle
of rat attack, right. And this, this, I think she was
pulled from the comics for the series.
I don't think she was created for this series right now.
Now I'm doubting. My collection I'm not 100% on
any of this. Yeah.
I'm not going to say anything about it, I just know that I
(30:56):
don't read the comics and this to me is her origin story.
No, you're right. She, I think she did appear
first in Republic 51 and 52 according to Wikipedia, but this
is pretty close to her origin story.
And I think it's possible she was developed for this and then
maybe brought into one of the comics.
(31:16):
I, I would that wouldn't surprise me.
But, you know, we think about how a big of a character Asaj
Ventris is now. This was like the first time
most people got to know Asaj Ventris.
And it is, it is, it is epic. So, Tom, walk us, walk us
through the the battle of rat attack.
(31:37):
But well, the one thing I just really love is how you're
sitting here inside this big arena with all these creatures
and mugs and thugs and they're all fighting each other and
you're watch and you're watchingbasic account Dooku watch this
with somebody by his side. And these guys are just duking
it out everything with flamethrowers and chains and
(31:58):
rocks. And I just love how you're
sitting here watching Dooku and then he just basically says
something to the extent I'm going to paraphrase your skills
are good because your skills aregood.
But I did sense you were basically Asad's adventure shows
up out of nowhere behind him. And then it was all a set up to
(32:19):
put her in the middle of this big battle to see how good she
is fighting and if she actually has skills of a Sith.
And if she is, you know, if likeand you just see her take out
every single one of these creatures in many different
ways, even subtle lightsaber dropping boulders on them and
(32:45):
just walks out the winner of this big battle.
It's so cool, just so cool and just showing that even at this
point she is strong in, I was going to say the forest, but the
dark side of the forest. Yeah, OK, I, I sorry, really
quick take a quick break from come back to the battle.
(33:06):
I was just double checking and yes, she was created for this
series. So this is the first time we've
ever seen Massage Avengers. She was created from her
originally based on concept art for Attack of the Clones that
wasn't used for Dooku. But yeah, she was created
specifically for this show. And our friend of the show
(33:31):
Leland, she suggested the name Massage.
But originally, I mean, I forgotabout all this.
This is this throws me back. Her original name in the series
was going to be Juno Eclipse, which if you'll remember,
becomes the name of one of the characters in Star Wars The
Force Unleashed Juno. Eclipse.
I don't remember where that camefrom.
(33:51):
Yeah. Interesting, so that that brings
me back. I haven't heard the name Juno
Eclipse in it forever, but. Yeah, I know she.
Was she was created for this show?
So this is literally the first appearance of a Saj Ventress
ever. And you know, now she has her
own stand alone tales of the Underworld shorts like she it's
(34:13):
because of the show that she became such a massive a a, a, a
massive character in in Star Wars that inspired the night
sisters and inspired all this other stuff.
It all starts here. Yeah, it.
Yeah, and it's good entrance forher too.
I mean, just just to the one that still gets me, as you're
(34:35):
sitting here watching these three or four beasts that are
just charging. And this is the thing about the
animation I really love. They're just charging right at
you and it looks like they're just standing still and a bowler
drops and one goes away and a boulder drops and another goes
away, and a boulder drops and another goes away.
And you're like, how cool is that?
Yeah, even the the introduction where, you know, counting Dooku
(35:00):
is there on rat attack in the the cauldron and he's watching
these these gladiators fight andyou know, the he has this, this
this guy showing him around and all of a sudden one minute his
tour guides there sitting next to him and the next minute
there's this hooded shadowy warrior and you know, like it's
just like these the the lines are so iconic.
(35:22):
They still, I can still hear them to this day, like the dark
side of the Force is strong in me, for I am Sith, you know,
it's so good. Mary Overtock.
Is great, yeah. So good again, not the voice
acting massage. She's she's good, not as good as
(35:46):
you know, we got we got from clone war, the clone wars, but
the character massage Ventress is just it is just incredible
and it all started here and it'sa great fight, right, So good.
It actually spans 2 episodes because we had the battle on rat
attack and then Dugu bests her with the force lightning and
(36:07):
then she wakes up and they get another duel.
And this one is where she gets her iconic red lightsabers
because she has green and blue lightsabers before this.
And you know, Dugu makes her hisdisciple with the blessing of
Starth Sidious himself. It's just so good.
(36:32):
It is so good. It it's good, but it's funny
because I think at the end of that when Duke, when Sidious
gives his blessing and Duke who sends her on his way, they get
and basically to go after AnakinSkywalker.
You get the feeling that they they did not expect her to come
(36:53):
back from going after Anakin, ifI understood the end of that
episode correctly. I think Dooku.
I think Dooku does expect it andI but I don't.
Think yes. Who didn't?
Yeah. Yeah, Sidious, I think, is
playing both sides. Either Sajid wins and he's got
someone to replace Dooku, or Anakin wins and the plan
continues as expected. Yeah, it's yeah.
(37:19):
Yeah, it's. Peak I'm just so excited to you
know, I've been this is such a fun first season and I'm just
getting excited just thinking about seasons two and three,
which we'll be reviewing later this summer.
Since you know, it's a little bit of Star Wars hiatus.
We're using the opportunity to to go back into the the vault
and and review some stuff we've never done, but it's it's so
(37:41):
good. So then the the next episode
gives us an epic two-part fight where you know, Part 1, this is
chapter 8. Obi Wan General Kenobi and his
troopers mount up on their own speeder bikes with their Lancers
and and take on the Lancers. Sorry, this is not Gears of War.
They're their Lance is and take on.
(38:04):
Talking about it was too cool. And take on Dirge and you know,
Obi Wan, we see him wear armor, clone armor in the Clone Wars, a
little bit here or there, right?Just little pieces.
But in this episode he is wearing the full set of clone
armor with a Jedi cloak on top. It's very cool.
(38:25):
He's got a helmet on, He's got everything.
And it's just giant jousting battles on speeder bikes and Obi
Wan deflecting bullets and fire with the Force.
It's just it's so good. It is so.
It's still, it's still fascinating that you get 2
episodes of jousting and nothingbut jousting in a Star Wars
(38:48):
movie. I mean in a Star Wars TV show.
It's great, it's great. And and this also is where we
start to is where we learn that Dirge is not just a fearsome
warrior, but he is very, very hard to kill.
Obi Wan. You first see it when Obi Wan
like impales him and he just keeps on going and he's got a
(39:11):
hole in his chest for like half this fight.
And then Obi Wan cuts off his arm and he keeps going.
And then Obi Wan slices them in half and you think he's dead.
And Obi Wan leaves and you see the little tentacles as he comes
back together and repairs himself.
And it is. That's so good.
(39:31):
The one, the one thing about that that you mentioned about
Obi Wan thinks he kills him. I think the one thing that got
me about Dirge after Obi Wan puts that Lance into him, there
is that very long dramatic pausewhere it's just like, OK, now
what? Is Dirge just going to fall
over? Is this or that?
(39:52):
It's just that that pause that just had you thinking and then
you realize, uh oh, he's still going to live.
I just, just just that timing was outstanding for the episode.
Yeah, no, it's, it's just excellent.
And then of course, Steven, thattakes us into the Banking Clan
(40:14):
headquarters where the fight continues.
Your thoughts on this whole thiswhole episode?
Just another iconic moment and you know, Obi Wan to rise.
He's demanding the surrender of the banking, the banking clan,
and dirt pops through the windowon his jetpack, having
(40:37):
recombined his pieces. And just that moment where no,
no stop the all the clones open up on him, just full, full
firepower. You know, he bounces a couple
times, falls, dies, well does die, I guess is the point he and
comes back in his full, I don't know, monstrous form.
(41:04):
And yeah, I mean, I think this is the first time we get sassy
Obi Wan in this one as well, where he Obi Wan is swallowed
into inside of dirge, pops his way out a minute later.
And what did you what? Did you get?
I have to ask you guys, what didyou think of that when he got
when Obi Wan got enveloped or involved or whatever we're gonna
(41:26):
call it by dirge. And then there's just that
pause. You like, It's swallowed by
Dirge's chest, basically, and it's.
Yeah, it's. It's.
Disgusting and and yet makes complete sense in this world.
Again, I'll keep saying it. That's the thing that this
showed us so well. It's over the top and crazy and
(41:48):
not that much storytelling. It's very simplistic overall,
and yet it's so phenomenally done and, and it's believable or
it's, even though it's over the top, you believe everything that
happens. Yeah.
And I, I just, it's something that I, you know, it is a master
class in, in storytelling like for this type of thing.
(42:11):
It is. It is.
Obviously it's a very different type of thing than like Andor
right, shall we say very different type of show, but it
is phenomenally executed. Yeah, yeah.
Steven, your your thoughts on onthe dirge thing?
No, that I, I think that covers all of it.
Like hard to see him coming backfrom that one.
(42:34):
May be the reason we don't see him again.
But. Oh well, when the ARC trooper
just shocks him and Dirge just explodes.
Well the he the shocking I thinkthe explosion is because Obi Wan
like pops his way out is how I interpreted it.
But. Well, except we see the slime
moving on the ground at the end.Oh, do it.
(42:55):
I must have missed that. OK.
Yeah, Obi Wan's picking up his helmet and staring at it, and
the the slime is just slowly moving on the ground and you
know he's still alive. I stand corrected.
And that's where I really want to see if he does when, if
possible, he comes back because yes, I did see all that stuff
Mert kind of oozing away. So I I just, he is such a good
(43:22):
character, you want to see more of him if possible.
Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, season 1 is really, I'd
say Obi Wan's show with like, yeah, he's like the the main
star. If I, if I, if I had to say at
least of like a good number of episodes.
Anakin is not in it at quite as much.
He's in the beginning and the end, but not a lot in the
(43:43):
middle. Yeah, with without a doubt the
the closest I think is this lastepisode in season 1, which I
actually think it may be the weakest episode in my opinion,
which is the the space battle above mutilist.
And it is, you know, mainly Anakin flying through, blowing
up stuff. It's the one.
(44:06):
It's the one case where I don't know what it is, but this should
be my bread and butter and it just doesn't quite work for me.
Because I, I agree it's the weakest, but I, it's, I also
really love the space battle andhow like Anakin's got his souped
up Jedi starfighter blue and, you know, white, white light and
he's like. Style of his pod racer and like
(44:28):
inspired I think by his pod racer as well.
I would assume with the 2 engines kind of upfront.
Yep, and he's got like you know,he's ordering the clones to, you
know, fire over the bow cruiser 8 as they as he, you know, leads
all the all of the Jen ocean fighters up around the fighter.
They come over the they fly up and over the ventilator as the
(44:51):
closed. One moment of this that I do
really enjoy. Yeah, I did enjoy that episode.
It's so fun to hear that the clone pilot say, but Sir,
there's nothing in that area andAnakin's like, I don't care a
trooper just fire. And at that last second you see
one missile go right by, There goes the Anakin starfighter.
Then the rest of the Geo Nelson ships come and they're just
(45:13):
obliterated. So good.
And you really get to see Anakinthe, the, the, you know, the,
the, the incredible pilot. Pilot.
Yeah, yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, and this is another case.
This is another case where over the top works.
I mean, a lot of the space battle was just over the top,
(45:33):
just with the mention of clone dripper fire over the bow of
this and Anakin basically going into the spin, taking out all
those ships. Just somehow the over the top
works in this case. Yeah, yeah.
And the the last, you know, the last piece really is the not so
(45:54):
shocking arrival of Asajj Ventress at the very end.
She takes out Blue Squadron and Anakin and Asajj start flying
right at each other head to head.
And the episode ends and we haveto wait six months to find out
what happens. Well, now you just.
(46:18):
Yeah, OK. Sorry.
Four months it was tight to. Be four months sometime.
Now you just hit you just it keeps the episode keeps rolling
and you know you're not even done with volume one, but.
Which which I thought we were going to go into the next part
of it because I was going to saysomething about another.
I gotta wait. I gotta wait because I.
Gotta have a little taste of 2003 and and wait till next time
(46:38):
Tom. Oh man, because I I've, I've
already I OK. It is.
It's fun for me to look back at this and look at animation back
in that day of 2D and kind of compare how it went in into CG
now. And you miss the 2D aspect of
(47:02):
The Clone Wars in this respect because this was done by Warner
Brothers originally. This had really had nothing to
do with Disney or Lucas because it was on Cartoon Network.
Yes, it was done by Lucas. Yeah, this was prior to days
Before this was like early days,yeah.
Yeah, this was, this was like, you know, groundbreaking at that
(47:22):
time to have Star Wars do something like this and pull it
off very well. Exactly.
Yeah, it's kind of incredible how much they accomplished here,
honestly. And it is fun to see the amount
that actually was able to carry over into the Clone Wars.
(47:43):
Not a lot of it, but you know, like Dirge didn't make it.
But but to see that kind of carry over is really cool that
there was that nod to what came before, even though it wasn't
fully embraced going into the Clone Wars.
The other thing I really I thinkwe take a little bit for granted
(48:04):
now, but at the time I think saycartoons, but like this style of
animated show was this was the the pattern, you know, you you
would watch these one off episodes that would, you know,
tell an insulated story and rarely was there a story that
like really branched multiple episodes.
Obviously this show, you know, the fact that it's, you know, 2
(48:26):
to 3 minutes at a time per episode obviously hampers that
even more. So I think it really underlines
the the, the power, the the innovation that was the original
Clone Wars of doing these biggerepisodes and arcs to tell these
these bigger stories. It I think it underlines, yeah,
(48:47):
just just how great both series were.
Like they they're doing very different things, but.
Yeah. It's hard to you're.
You're totally right. And that, yeah, it's you.
You certainly can love both. They're very different styles.
Right. But you can see just how much of
the Clone Wars was inspired by Clone Wars.
(49:09):
Yes. And it's like they they took the
core concept of, you know, little.
Let's go check in on different characters around the Galaxy and
see these battles. Introduce it with a, you know, a
Tom Kane narration many times. You know, a lot of the same cast
is there it it, it so, so, so much is started in Clone Wars.
(49:35):
These characters that were created for this show that you
know, have have now made appearances in so many other
works. This really truly was a
foundational show and and so innovative at the time.
And it's just so fun to go back and experience it again.
Those makes me realize just how spoiled we were, like thinking
(49:58):
about getting something like this that was filling in the
gaps between episodes 2 and 3. I mean, and as we'll see with,
you know, the later, I'm not going to worry about spoilers.
But like the the later arcs, we get the introduction Grievous
for the first time, we get Anakin's knighting ceremony, the
first many that he would end up going through over over the
(50:19):
years. Well, like, you know, the Clone
War, sorry, episode 2 attack of the Clones kicks off the Clone
wars and then episode 3 ends theClone Wars.
And that's very similar. I think what we, you know,
between all other Star Wars, youknow, 4 through 6 and especially
7 through 9, you only really getwhat's in the movies.
(50:40):
You don't get the these filler type pieces that really build
the story on top of it. I think like, like I said, we we
check in on Kit Fisto, we check in on Mace Windu.
Eventually we're we're at this big battle immunolist.
We are seeing the full scope of the Clone Wars rage across the
Galaxy. It's just so cool, such a good
(51:04):
idea. Galaxy.
The Clone Wars spread. There you go.
See even. Even that line right fire across
the Galaxy, if you think about it, that inspired so many titles
of rebels and other shows. You cannot understate just how
much this show inspired. And it's just it's phenomenal.
(51:31):
It really is. And it's so fun to go back and
and take a look. So I guess Tom, what would you
rate season? One, you know what, I'm giving
it a 9.5. I mean, you know, it's going to
be very hard about this. It's going to be hard not to
(51:51):
give give this series. I mean all three seasons.
It's going to be hard not to give it anything lower than a
nine honestly, because they werejust so how they were done in
such short time frames. The story they told and you had
the beginning, middle and end boom each time.
(52:12):
And it was so engaging, engrossing and everything else
to keep your attention for that time frame and and kept you on
the edge of the seat until the next one showed up.
And you had to wait for a commercial break from a
different TV show to watch this episode nowadays.
Just go to a streaming service. So I'm I'm giving this a 9.5 for
(52:34):
season 1 and I I'm leaving it that my 9.5 Womp rats.
I'm going to save it until the introduction of Grievous.
I'm gonna take all my womp rats and I'm gonna put them at the
introduction of the Grievous episode.
That's gonna be such a tough episode for us to record 'cause
(52:54):
I could, I could go on for an hour just on the grievance for
dinner. So could I, but we'll, we'll get
there. We're.
Gonna have a dedicated episode just on that 5 minute Clone Wars
short so yeah. Yeah, I mean, anyway, so since I
went, why don't you go next? Me, OK, it's.
(53:15):
You. Man, this is it's just such a
good show. It I just was smiling ear to ear
rewatching this. I, I love clone wars.
I have so many fond memories of clone wars.
It just it's it's so good. I think, Oh, it's hard.
(53:36):
I think maybe I'll give it 8 1/2womp rats out of 10 only because
I know it gets even better and and because it's like, it's such
a good start, but it gets even better as it goes on.
So maybe I'll get it, give it 8 1/2.
It's just, it's so good. And these 8 1/2 womp rats,
(53:58):
they're all going to fight each other in the big the cauldron on
rat attack. See who's the winner, Steven?
Oh man, I've literally gone backand forth with both of you on on
these scores. I was going to do originally do
8.5 and I was like, no one couldgive it less than a nine.
I was like, no, you're kind of right.
Like. I had the same thought.
(54:19):
I had the same. Thought difference between you
both. I'm going to give it a nine.
Generally this first season is amazing.
I it is kind of because I just know how much better it's going
to get from here. Like it is phenomenal.
(54:39):
The second, the second season I think is phenomenal.
Third season almost more so like, so I'm going to give it a
nine. I'm going to, I'm going to leave
myself a little bit of room to grow and have, you know, some
comparison. But yeah, just such a great show
across the board. Yeah, that's that's all there is
(55:00):
to it. So I'm, I'm going to sit here
and do this. Why don't you guys review this
in your, let's say William, your13 year old eyes back in that
day. And Steven, how about you?
You're 13 or 15 at that time, not straight. 10.
Yeah, straight 10, you can't getany better.
Like no, this isn't doesn't get any better.
(55:20):
My critical eye is like 8 1/2. My 13 year old self is like 1012
out of 10. Cannot get better.
OK, then go with the 12 out of 10 because go with your 13 year
old. Just kidding.
I'm totally kidding in this respect.
But that would that literally just.
Do you think this is a a nine out of 10 show like this season
particular like it is? Absolutely.
(55:42):
There is room for it to grow. It is phenomenal.
Yeah, they just, they just did such a great job with it, like.
Yeah. No, totally, totally so.
Couldn't agree more. It's just phenomenal and
everywhere. Yeah.
(56:03):
Well, so, so fun to look back onsuch a great show.
I'm excited to do the next two as well.
But like we said, you know, saida little bit ago, our our goal
was, hey, there's not a lot of Star Wars content right now.
We've got, I think Lego Star Wars in September, envisions in
(56:24):
October, but there's not a lot. We're a little bit of a Star
Wars drought at the moment, I guess you could say.
Although the Bad Batch book comes out in I think a little
over a month. So that's exciting.
Yeah. So maybe I'll talk about that
one as well. But you know, it's there's,
(56:45):
there's, there's lots of more stuff coming.
But while we're waiting, we're like, OK, we got to go do we've
been talking about it for forever.
We want to do it for forever. Let's finally make it happen and
review the Getty Tarkovsky series.
And so, so glad we're. Doing that, I do feel like we've
talked about reviewing the show since we were reviewing the
original 2D Clone Wars. Sorry, 3D Clone Wars.
(57:06):
We have been. Yep, it's been a long time
coming, really long time coming.So it's it's it's fun.
And, and it makes it easy now because it's all on Disney Plus.
Exactly exactly yeah. So, yeah, so that's that's Clone
Wars season 1. Stay tuned.
(57:27):
We're going to be covering seasons two and three very soon
in Before we wrap up, should we briefly touch on the fact that
there's not a lot of here? But there is a report that the
Ray movie from Charmaine Obey Chenoy, the New Jedi Order movie
15 years after Rise of Skywalker, has been shockingly
(57:52):
put on hold. So yeah, I guess.
I would never have guessed why a.
Star Wars movie is having trouble delay getting delayed.
Yeah, again, not an official report yet.
Lucas almost has not announced anything.
Honestly, until they start filming, I just kind of take
every movie with a grain of saltunfortunately.
And it's kind of sad that it's that's the state of things, but
(58:15):
you know it. That's also the correct way to
take it exactly. Yeah, and I'd rather they take
the right their time and and do do it right.
So, yeah, we'll see what happens.
Yeah, but we still have Mandalorian Grogu next year to
look forward to. So that'll be fun.
And there's, you know, we'll see.
I'm sure eventually we'll get it.
I would, I would love this. Sounds like a fun movie.
(58:37):
I would love it. But you know, we'll, we'll see
what happens. Also, don't forget at some point
we're going to be getting Starfighter with Ryan Gosling.
Yes, yes, that's also coming. So there's there's a lot of
stuff coming down the pipe, but so far we are still waiting.
But that's it for now. We'll keep you all waiting until
our review of season 2 of Clone Wars, but I hope you're all
(59:04):
having a a great summer. Thank you all for listening, and
like Clone Wars, we'll be back next time.
Thank you for listening to the Ion Cannon Podcast, your source
for entertainment reviews from the Galaxy far, far away.
For over a decade, Ion Cannon has covered every corner of the
(59:25):
saga, from the films and animated series like The Clone
Wars and Rebels to books, comics, games, and more.
If you like what you hear, please rate US in your favorite
podcast client. Your review will help this show
grow within the Star Wars community.
We can be found at our website, ioncannoncast.com and you can
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You can do so at contact@ioncannoncast.com.
(59:48):
The Ion Cannon Podcast is not associated with Lucasfilm, The
Walt Disney Company, or any and all of their respective
trademarks or copyright holders.Any opinion expressed on the
show are that of the hosts. This podcast is a production by
fans, for fans and its copyright2018.
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