Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's the beginning of August and it's definitely cooler outside than it was a month ago. Today I'm doing something a little special. I'm doing daily blog posts that chronicle my journey through the 2008 animated TV show, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, along with other Star Wars stuff that I do on a daily basis. Let's get into it!
I watched the first season of The Clone Wars as it aired in 2008. At the time the show was on Sunday nights on CTV (CJOH TV) and I was in college, so it was very easy to relax for thirty minutes on a Sunday night, watching a Star Wars TV show before going into a new week of classes and homework assignments. However, halfway through the second season in 2009, it moved off of CTV and I just didn't have much time to watch TV because of assignments, so aside from a few episodes in the second half of season 3, I haven't seen The Clone Wars since 2009. So I finally decided to watch the whole show from start to finish.
I ended up watching the first four episodes that aired in 2008. People always talk about watching the show in an in-universe timeline order, because it jumps around the timeline of the Clone Wars. But it's a Star Wars TV show produced by George Lucas in the late 2000s. It was never meant to be watched in timeline order. The DVDs and Blu-rays don't order them that way and Disney+, which is where I'm watching it, doesn't order them that way either, because there are episodes from later seasons that take place before some of the episodes from season 1, and, much like the DVDs and Blu-rays, Disney+ orders them by season. So the episodes I watched are "Ambush", "Rising Malevolence", "Shadow of Malevolence", and "Destroy Malevolence" last night, after dinner.
There wasn't anything in any of these episodes that I didn't remember from when I originally saw them back in 2008. One particular scene that I remember the most is Anakin and Padme on the train onboard the Malevolence trying to escape the Battle Droids in episode 4, "Destroy Malevolence". I think it stood out to me because, even with all the CGI that George used in the Prequel Trilogy, we hadn't really seen anything like it in Star Wars before, outside of maybe the hover-tram sequence in the Shadows of the Empire video game in 1996. And even then, the animation on that game was primitive in comparison to what we had in The Clone Wars, twelve years later.
Honestly I'm really excited to finally experience the entirety of the show without knowing all that much about events in the show. Nobody was really talking about the show in my online fan circles in the early 2010s, and even in my offline life, nobody was really talking about it. I even avoided spoilers in Star Wars Insider whenever they published episode guides in the magazine as each season wrapped up. But I'm familiar with many of these characters because of Rebels, The Mandalorian, and Ahsoka, so I'm excited to see the stories where many of them originated.
I easily could've watched more Clone Wars episodes last night, but I decided to stop so I could watch The Force Awakens in preparation for this week's episode of the Haven't Seen Star Wars Podcast, since they were finally covering that movie this week. It's scary to realize that this movie is almost 11 years old now. I don't think there's a single Star Wars fan who doesn't remember where they were or who they were with when it was announced that not only did Disney buy Lucasfilm from George, but, yeah, there was finally gonna be Episodes 7, 8, and 9, movies George had long ago stated he was no longer interested in making.
When the announcement was made back in 2012, I had been visiting my grandparents at the cottage. We'd had a storm on Monday night and so the power was out until dinnertime on Wednesday evening. So I'd been offline for several days. Plus internet at the cottage wasn't stable back in 2012, so there would be days where the internet would go out or my laptop wouldn't stay connected to the Wi-Fi up there. So we'd gotten power back on Wednesday evening, right before that week's episode of Arrow aired, and that episode was Oliver's trial episode after he'd been arrested by Captain Lance for being the Hood. But, I digress.
So on the Thursday morning, I was in Grandma and Grandpa's kitchen, making my breakfast when they announced on Canada AM (CTV's former morning news show) that not only had Disney bought Lucasfilm, but that they were working to develop a new trilogy of Star Wars movies, with the first one slated to be released in 2015. I had just poured almond milk on my oatmeal and was carrying the carton back to the fridge when I heard this announcement. I almost dropped the milk carton. I didn't have a lot of friends who were Star Wars fans at the time, so I didn't really have anyone to talk to about the announcement, except Brad and my two siblings. Naturally, they'd all heard the news online a few days earlier, but, like I said, the power had been out for a couple of days, so I missed it entirely until they talked about it on TV.
I also wanted to watch it last night because, while I have watched it more than the other four Star Wars movies that had come out between 2015 and 2019, I'd only seen it a total of two or three times, despite owning it on Blu-ray. My go to Star Wars movies tend to be one of the ones from either the Original Trilogy or the Prequel Trilogy, so besides The Force Awakens, I've only seen the other four a total of one time, two for Rogue One, which I really need to rewatch so I can do a rewatch of Andor at some point. Maybe after I'm finished watching The Clone Wars. I do love Rey, Finn, and Poe. Also, getting Harrison Ford back as Han Solo in this movie was awesome. I won't spoil what happens to him, but if you know, you know.
Then, finally, before bed, I started my first re-read of The Princess and the Scoundrel by Beth Revis. I hate thunderstorms and heavy rain storms, so I ended up getting through the first six chapters of this book before going to sleep, just to make sure a thunderstorm wasn't about to start. I only read it for the first time last year, after I got it for either my birthday or for Christmas from my sister. I loved it, but I didn't really have a chance to talk about it online. I think one of the reasons I love this book so much is because it's written by a fan who grew up reading the Bantam era Star Wars novels from the '90s and the books from the 2000s, like The New Jedi Order and Tatooine Ghost. So, she understands how to write a Star Wars novel, which is different from writing any other kind of novel.
I also love how the book immediately dives into Leia's thoughts and feelings the day after finding out that not only is Luke her brother, but that Darth Vader, the man who tortured her and destroyed Alderaan with the Death Star, is their father! Like, that's right in the first chapter. The only other novel to try to do this was The Truce at Bakura in 1993, as it also takes place immediately after Return of the Jedi. Han and Leia have always been some of my favourite characters in Star Wars, so I love that they got a book together in Canon as well as in Legends.
That's all I got for you for today. Tonight I'll be watching more of The Clone Wars and probably get a few more chapters in of The Princess and the Scoundrel before bed as well. So I'll be back tomorrow to give you an update on my TV show watching and on my progress on the book. Until then, may the Force be with you.
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