Stephy Watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

Hello There!

Today I will be rambling about The Clone Wars. Movie, not show... Nor the actual war... 

Warning, there might be spoilers ahead?

You're reckless, little one. You never would have made it as Obi-Wan's Padawan... but you might make it as mine.

-Anakin Skywalker

 About/Summary

Jabba the Hutt's son is kidnapped and (for some fucking reason) he contacts the Republic to ask (demand...) for Jedi help. Oh, and Anakin gets a Padawan.

Okay, so, this takes place after Attack of the Clones, and I've always treated it as an opening for the show. But... It might take place during the first season of the show? I am not 100% sure. If you want to watch everything in chronological order I would suggest looking up some lists for that. I know they exist. I am not that dedicated so I watched this before starting up the show. 

Content/Trigger Warnings

Death (a lot of unnamed clones die)

Child endangerment (baby Hutt is in danger, Ahsoka is still a child, and those clones are only, like, ten years old)

Tropes

Here is a list of tropes. Now, let me ramble about some.

Bait-and-Switch - The bit when it looks like maybe Threepio is kicking ass and not taking names and then it's revealed that it was a group of clones (which is obvious, really) made me laugh.

By Wall That is Holey - this is some silent movie shit and I am here for it.

Characters/Casting

Characters are fantastic. And I really liked the voice acting.

Writing

Writing is pretty good. It was written by Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching, and Scott Murphy. I feel like they got the Star Wars vibe pretty good. I would say it's a bit more light-hearted, but... Like, 15 clones die in the first few minutes. 

Plot

The plot is pretty good. The main plot is Anakin and Ahsoka rescuing the baby Hutt and returning him to Jabba. Obi-Wan is off doing something else. And Padme is trying to help, I think? 

Animation

I don't like this animation style. I'm sorry to everyone who did the animation for this, but I do not like the style. I don't think it's bad or anything, I'm just not a fan.

 

Costuming

I suppose... Is costuming a thing in an animated thing? Fuck it, I'm gonna talk about it. Costuming was fine. Padme's one outfit looks like one she wore in Attack of the Clones, but it can't be the same one since that one got damaged and turned into a nice little crop top. So, I suspect Padme has multiple copies of that white outfit and it is her "action" outfit.

How diverse is it?

Not very. I mean, most of the characters look identical.

I think I'm funny.

Overall Thoughts

Overall I enjoyed this movie. I do still question the logic of making Anakin responsible for another sentient being, but Jedi Order be like that. 

The movie is pretty good. And I do recommend checking it out and the series to any Star Wars fan that hasn't watched it. Or, ya know, be confused about so much in the new shows. Whatever you want. I don't control you.

That's all for this one. 

If y'all wanna toss some money my way via Ko-Fi, that would be awsome (disclaimer: All money received from now until January 1st will be used to buy my kid nerdy shit for Christmas and their birthday)

See y'all on Saturday to see what nonsense I got up to this week.

Oh yeah, and if you wanna yell about Star Wars, leave a comment, we can yell together.

Stephy Watched Star Wars: Attack of the Clones

Hello there.

So... Time for Attack of the Clones.

Yes. There will be spoilers. 

I want to go home and rethink my life.

- Elan Sleazebaggano

About/Summary

The sequel to The Phantom Menace (and the prequel to all the rest of the movies) was released in 2002. Directed by George Lucas. Written by George Lucas and Jonathan Hales.

After an assassination attempt against Senator Padme Amidala, the Jedi send Anakin to protect her while Obi-Wan tracks down the assassin. 

Content/Trigger Warnings

Violence

Character Death

Tropes

As I have been doing, here's a list of tropes on tvtropes.org. And I will be rambling about a few.

Battle in the Rain: I loved the fight between Jango and Obi-Wan. If only they would have kissed... I mean *clears throat* Great fight. Great fight. should have kissed and then raised the clones as their children and retook Mandalore and I'm gonna go read fanfiction...

Time Passage Beard: Obi-Wan's beard is lovely. Five stars.

Toxic Friend Influence: Why are the Jedi allowing Palpatine to spend that much time alone with a child? I know Anakin is, like, 19 in this movie, but it is hinted at in this movie, and the next, that Anakin spends a lot of time with Palpatine. That they're "friends". Why? I would not let a former slave child hang out with an old man who is the head of the government. Just... No. Obi-Wan, do better.

Characters/Casting

Ewan McGregor is still doing great. Five stars, Mr. McGregor.

I need more Dexter Jettster in my life.

The rest of the cast did the best with what they had.

Also, Jango Fett is a super interesting character that the movie didn't go into. 

 

Atmosphere/Setting

I like that each planet has its own sort of vibe. We see Coruscant, Naboo, and Tatooine again. And we also get a couple new planets, Kamino and Geonosis. 

Dex's diner looked like a small hometown diner and it was great.

Writing

Oh. The writing. Most of it wasn't bad. But the dialogue between Anakin and Padme was just... It was bad, in my opinion. Anakin is supposed to come off as someone that could (does) fall to the darkside in his dialogue and actions. But they could have made it a bit more subtle. Because, he was throwing up all sorts of red flags and Padme was just ignoring them.

Plot

The main plot is good. The romantic subplot made me cringe so hard at times that I think I pulled a muscle.

Animation/Special Effects

As I said on my ramblings of The Phantom Menace, a lot of the special effects didn't age well. But, they did the best with the technology at the time. 

Costuming

Costuming was great, again. Padme's still looking great. 

How diverse is it?

About as diverse as Phantom Menace was. 

Overall Thoughts

If it wasn't noticeable, the romance between Anakin and Padme annoyed me. As I said earlier, Anakin was throwing up red flags constantly and she ignored them. He slaughtered a group of people and Padme just shrugged it off. Also, they met 10 years before this movie, spent a few days together, and then spent a few more days together in this movie and then they got married. I am used to speed-run romances, I mean, I read romance novels, but this just seemed very quick. And made little sense to me.

Aside from that, it was overall a good movie. But it could have been better 🤷🏻‍♀️

Stephy Watched Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

 Me, end of September: Oh, October is coming up! Spooky month. I'll do a bunch of spooky posts!

Me, on October 7th: Star Wars is a thing. We should focus on that...

Look how pretty Obi-Wan is

There will probably be spoilers. But... come on. I'm talking about a film from one of the biggest franchises that was released over 20 years ago. If you haven't watched this damn thing yet, you're never going to.

You can't stop change any more than you can stop the suns from setting.

- Shmi Skywalker

About/Summary

Released in 1999, The Phantom Menace is both the first and the fourth installment of the Star Wars movies. Look, if you don't know how these movies were released, then what the fuck are you doing here? Do you understand anything I talk about? Star Wars is at least 30% of my personality.

Anyway.

Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi, are sent to deal with a Trade Federation blockade of the planet Naboo. That doesn't go well, and after some shit, they end up on Tattooine, where they meet Anakin Skywalker. Things really go downhill after that.

Content/Trigger Warnings

Death

Slavery

Major Character Death

Tropes

Here's the listing of all the tropes according to tvtropes.org. Now for me to pick out some random ones to talk about.

Achievements in Ignorance - I laugh every time Jar Jar gets out of trouble because he's clumsy. Sorry. I like slapstick humor.

Body Double - I really liked the use of body doubles as a security measure for the Queen of Naboo.

Easter Egg - Didja all see the ET aliens?

Characters/Casting 

Ewan McGregor was fantastic as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Love Ewan McGregor... The rest of the casting was pretty good as well. But I've been an Ewan fangirl since I watched Trainspotting in high school so he was my favorite.

Jake Lloyd, who played young Anakin Skywalker, did the best he could with what he was given. I'm not going to say he was the best child actor I have ever seen, but he did a good job.

Casting was really excellent honestly.

Thinking about it, I don't think I really had a favorite character... I mean, Obi-Wan, yeah, but that comes from my love of Ewan McGregor than anything that happened in this movie. Darth Maul was a fantastic villain. I will admit that none of the characters are really fleshed out. A lot of them just seem very flat. Or we get the beginnings of a personality that goes nowhere. Most of my knowledge of characters in this movie do not come from this movie.

Atmosphere/Setting

Naboo was really beautiful.

Tatooine is still a hellscape.

It was fun to finally see some of Coruscant. Been reading about that place for years and I was excited to finally see it.

Writing

It could have been better. But it wasn't the worst written movie I've seen.

Plot

The plot was good. But honestly that whole "Anakin is the child of prophecy. He will bring balance to the force." was stupid. I'm sorry, but when I first watched this movie when it came out and they brought that up I was like "Uh... what? Y'all realize that bringing balance would result in all you Jedi dying cause there's only one sith but a bunch of you?" But... Plot was fine, I guess. It would have sucked if this was a solo movie, but as the beginning of a trilogy, it was fine.

Animation/Special Effects

Ugh. Okay, I know how much green screen shit they used for this movie. And back when it came out, it was noticeable but ignorable. I saw it, I knew it was special effects, and I ignored it. Now... It aged badly. I know they did the best with what was available at the time. But... some of the stuff looks so bad now. But honestly, it's still ignorable for me. My brain will be like "Oh, that looks bad. Anyways... When does Obi-Wan drop those robes?"

Costuming

Queen Amidala's dresses are fucking fantastic. I always loved Padme's look in this movie.

Putting Darth Maul in all black was cliche as hell, but it fucking worked fantastically.

Honestly, I think the costuming of this movie was top-notch.

How diverse is it?

Well... There are a lot of white people. But there are also a few people of color. And I'm not talking about the aliens. The head of the queen's guard is a black man. And Mace Windu, another black man, is a high-ranking Jedi. And... is everyone else white? Fucking white people. Also, is there any sort of racism against aliens of different colors? Like, do people in the Star Wars universe think one color of twi'lek is worse than the others? Do they have phrases like "Well, you know how those green twi'leks are..."?

No discussions of sexuality, by the way so who knows if any of these people are queer or not. Probably not... Though I think Obi-Wan could have made a fantastic bi-icon.

Overall Thoughts

This movie doesn't deserve all the hate it gets. It's not the best Star Wars movie, but it's not that bad. Some parts were a bit ugh-inducing. But overall it was a good movie. It's probably my favorite of the prequels.