Full Series Why only wait till NOW to bring anti-Jedi sentiment into here?

As an avid EU fan I'm well aware of all those Jedi criticisms in the Republic; meddlers, baby-nappers, etc. Hence why people were quick to accept their fates come Order 66 and the Empire.

Which is why when they finally brought it here into this show, I was puzzled. The show, up until this point, NEVER attempted to put the Jedi in a bad light. So why wait until now, near the end of Season 5, to bring it in? They had plenty of opportunities to build up to it but nooooooooo. Just, wham, anti-Jedi sentiments.

 

Because it'll be the plot for this episode, and then never mentioned again. It's a simple rule of mediocre writing.

 

I agree that gradual progression over the series would be great, but to do that you need an overarching narrative in addition to "it's the Clone Wars." These episode arcs are written as stand-alones because it's more flexible should anything go wrong and it's a lot easier to handle for the writers. It's another sacrifice for practicality. Instead of having everything tie back into the main story somehow, you can just write a load of separate mini adventures.

There are some cartoons that focus on the "main" narrative, like the 2003 TMNT series, which have a very clear line of progression even though many of the episodes also worked as stand-alones. But as I said, it adds another layer of work, and I don't blame them for keeping things simple.

 

If you combine JackG and Fanboy's answers, I think you have the truth.

 

Better late than never. The first real inkling though was in Lightsaber Lost, and they should have picked up that thread and continued it from there instead of leaving it to the end of the fifth season. Glad it's here though and hopefully it gets continued in Season 6.

 

False premise. They didn't wait till only now to introduce anti-Jedi sentiment. Just off the top of my head, you can find this in:

Jedi Crash
Defenders of Peace
The Hidden Enemy
Lightsaber Lost
The Mandalore Plot
Voyage of Temptation
Duchess of Mandalore
Corruption
The Academy
Heroes on Both Sides
Slaves of the Republic

Every season is accounted for. I'm not disputing the highly episodic nature of the show or saying this was planned from the beginning, but this is far from the first time the Jedi were challenged in it. That happening is part of what made me get so into the show in the first place.

 

I think the anti-jedi sentiment is actually a storyline that's been running before we reached "Sabotage". This arc seems like it fits perfectly with "Senate Murders", "Pursuit of Peace" (Blasphemy I know!) and "Lightsaber Lost".

In "Sabotage" we're starting to see the fallout from the Republic cloning itself into bankruptcy, the commission of create more clones. We know hot showers and light to read at night is a commodity and at the time it was something to snicker at. But folks not from the third world really take those things for granted. Take them away and I'm pretty sure people would go insane rioting. That's probably the tip of the iceberg.

Now, that was the Senate that decided that but I think there may be a correlation with Ahsoka saying, "I thought working for the Jedi paid better" when entering Letta's dwelling. I wonder what she would of thought of the Lawquane farm house. I have no benchmark for how poor Letta's home seemed. I've assumed that was part of Letta's twisted motivation for using her husband as a bomb. I kind wish we could have known Jakar before he exploded. Who leads the clone army? Who could be saying they need more clones to fight the war? Who isn't paying hubbie enough? It all crashes down on the Jedi. I think the Krell might even back this up a bit depending on what the public ever found out about what happened on Umbara. Fives knew Krell had high casualty numbers and the guy turned out to be a traitor basically killing them off. Imagine what that would look like to folk's whose taxes went to funding more clones?

In "Lightsaber Lost" when Ahsoka is hunting the fugitive who stole her lightsaber she lands on a talking billboard where Palpatine is basically making a speech to quiet concerns the Jedi are dragging out the war to gain power. Ahsoka has experience thanks to HOBS with seeing the Jedi as less than shining beacons. I find it very interesting Ahsoka's character arc is going to merge into this story thread. She has been present in many of the episodes in Tarkas's list.

 

The way I see it, personally, the inclusion of anti-Jedi sentiment as we're seeing it now is not that out of place at all really. You have to remember that at this point it's now 20 BBY, and we're approaching the end of the war. Everything that's happened so far in the series and in the larger universe, all the seeds and hints that've been planted in subtler ways—the stories of the Jedi who've turned to the dark, the rumors of wrong-doings, the reports of worlds the Jedi failed to defend, not to mention urban legends and misinformation that's been circling among the common people who've had no face-to-face interaction with the Order—that's all coming to a head now. They've been piling up, festering in the public consciousness over the course of the last two years. And as it's coming to a boil, the series' lens has swiveled around to focus on that built up resentment now that it's effectively been dumped on the Jedi's doorstep in no uncertain terms.

 

I think the point was missed. Most of these views were from outside sources or villains; we really don't see much of the Republic start to lose faith in the Jedi until now besides a very fleeting glimpse in Lightsaber Lost.

 

We're just now seeing protesters with signs on the steps of the Jedi temple with their clever 'Stop cloning violence' signed but what we're seeing is civil unrest toward the Jedi that's been brewing off screen. "Lightsaber Lost" is the most obvious example and we get little hints from those outside sources, villains, and the political episodes. TCW's old snap shot style at work.

 

Theo333 the list is in response to the claim in the original post that "The show, up until this point, NEVER attempted to put the Jedi in a bad light."