Full Series Imagining a 'Clone Wars' trilogy set between II and III

Most of us can I agree that there's some fantastic stuff in TCW series that would translate brilliantly to the big screen--characters, locations, battles, etc. The thought then hit me: Imagine a 'Clone Wars' trilogy that takes places between AOTC and ROTS. In other words, three films featuring characters and based on ideas from the TCW series. How would you structure such a trilogy?

Just spit-balling ideas here...

PART I:
- First film opens with a big montage of battles across the galaxy. Think the first episode of the 'Clone Wars' animated shorts, but toned down a bit.

- After opening montage, we're introduced to Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi hopeful who is paired with a reluctant Anakin Skywalker. I'd have Anakin and Ahsoka be sent out on some fairly straightforward mission that ultimately ties into Obi-Wan's thread in the film.

- Obi-Wan is sent to Mandalore, and this would play out as a loose adaptation of the Mandalore story arc from Season 2. We meet Death Watch, Pre Vizsla, etc. and learn of Duchess Satine's history with Kenobi.

- In addition to the Obi-Wan and Anakin storylines, we'd also see Count Dooku recruiting a young Dark Side apprentice named Asajj Ventress.

- Not sure how it would work logistically, but I'd have the final duel of the film be Anakin vs. Asaijj on Yavin 4. One of my favorite lightsaber duels of the Expanded Universe.

- Film ends with Anakin being granted knighthood by the Jedi Council, with Anakin later delivering his severed padawan braid to Padme before jetting off for another campaign.


PART II:
- Film opens with the Battle of Kamino. I figure we'd see Kamino again given it's strategic value, and it makes sense the Separatists would want to steal the DNA template for the clone army. I'd bring Ahsoka into the action so she has something to do for the first part of the film.

- The 'meat' of the film would be the Mortis Trilogy. Lots of strong character development between Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka and some fantastic imagery, not to mention a chance to see Qui-Gon Jinn in ghost form.

- Concurrent storyline would be Asaijj Ventress being betrayed by Dooku after the Battle of Kamino and traveling to Dathomir to recruit her 'replacement', Savage Oppress.

- Film ends with Savage Oppress discovering his long-lost brother, Darth Maul. The two decide to form an alliance and move against both the Republic and the Separatists.


PART III:
- The film would open with Darth Maul and Savage Oppress assembling an army to move against the Republic and Separatist.

- Meanwhile, there has been a terrorist bombing inside the Jedi Temple. Anakin and Ahsoka are recalled from the Cato Neimodia front lines and return to Coruscant immediately.

- As the Jedi try to determine who was behind the bombing, they receiving an urgent transmission from Duchess Satine on Mandalore. Obi-Wan knows the timing is wrong but decides to travel to Mandalore alone to rescue Satine.

- Obi-Wan arrives on Mandalore and discovers the Sith brothers and Death Watch have imprisoned the planet's leaders.

- Meanwhile, Ahsoka is implicated in the Jedi Temple bombing and becomes a fugitive, shaking Anakin and the Council's trust in her.

- Film ends with us learning the fates of Ahsoka, Asajj Ventress and Darth Maul.

I know it's not perfect. There's a lot of stuff I'd have loved to include but I just couldn't find room for it. For instance, Cad Bane would be awesome to see on the big screen, as would General Krell and the planet Umbara. We also don't know how much longer the show will actually go one, and there are bound to be some great story arcs and ideas to appear over the next season(s). However, given what we've already seen over the first five years, this is more or less how I'd like to see this kind of trilogy play out.

What are your thoughts and ideas?

 

Well we already have a TCW movie

 

Yeah, I think Episodes 2 and 3, TCW movie and series plus the microseries are enough of the Clone Wars. Plenty of other time periods to be explored.

 

While I like your concept, I sorely miss my favorite part of the Clone Wars - the clones. IMO they didn't get enough exposition in the OT, so I think they should get it in movies featuring the Clone Wars.

 

I agree the concept is nice but I like the TV show format TCW is in which gives us alot more time to explore various things that happened between AOTC and ROTS. TCW is basically about the journey of Anakin Skywalker through the clone wars, the characters who surrounded him, and how it all impacted his eventual fall to the darkside in ROTS. Its only through the amount of time TCW allows that's we've finally been able to explore the familiar characters of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi in an on screen format. Then have been introduced to all these neat original characters added like Ahsoka, Rex, Hondo, and Cad.

TCW's length allows the mythos of the Clone Troopers which I believe is the main mythos of this time period in the GFFA to be embellished with the Republic vs. Separatist struggle. Its given a window into the struggles of these men born and bred to fight a war, bred to be docile and singular but forced by the war to basically bring out recognizable humans traits which really drive home their tragedy and the tragedy of what will happen to the Jedi. Its indirectly them who cause all the angry picketing we see in the current arc.

Lastly TCW has plenty of room to pull back the curtain and explore the overall mythos of the Jedi and the force. Show us the politics at work and the neat Xanatos Gambit played the whole way through by Palpatine where the Republic slowly but surely becomes more and more Imperial. We see the other stuff going on around it like the pirates, the bounty hunters, the plight of Mandalore with the overthrowing of Satines government and the plunging of that world into a civil war by the unlikely hands of Maul.

This show has way to much going on for a few movies to really cover it. It may take up to two more season to fully resolve everything and plug us into ROTS in a way that makes the ride gratifying.

 

I understand the thinking that it's impossible to cover everything great about TCW in just three movies.

It's more of a question of what storylines you would include in a CW trilogy if it existed, and how the stories would flow together.

 

Not sure if should belong in TCW thread.. or Episode VII thread.

Ah what the heck, why not. I'd love a TCW movie.

 

Honestly, including that many storyplots in a movie trilogy would be too much. I don't know why anyone would want to do that.

 

GREAT ideas!!!! However, I think even 3 movies is too little to properly tell the whole story lol.... I would think 4 is probably best. Your ideas for Movies #1 and #2 are flawless though

 

Would much rather get out of this time period.

Episode VII
Rumored KOTOR movie
Rumored Boba Fett movie
Rumored Kenobi spin off
Hell, even the rumored Jabba movie.

I would take any of these before another Clone Wars film on the big screen. Star Wars is so much bigger than this little sliver out of the time line.

 

Hell to the no! Clone wars is far better that those mentioned above

Now those sound good, however I'd still prefer the clone wars to these. If I had to choose

 

The clone wars is better than both.

 

I like the idea. I think it would be cool to have the Slavers arc somewhere in there, though. It'd show how Anakin hasn't let go of his past yet. Maybe this being the main part og the second one, instead of Mortis. Although I do like the idea of Mortis in there.

 

The more I think about it, the Slavers arc would probably work great for the first film. You could rework things a bit so that Anakin first meets Ahsoka on Kiros and officially takes her as his apprentice at the end of the film.

 

First and most importantly: the idea posed by this thread is made all the more interesting because it's very close to an idea that George Lucas himself considered while making Ep. V, that the set of prequel films would consist of Prologue / Clone Wars Trilogy / Epilogue. Source:

http://boards.theforce.net/xentemp/...-did-lucas-make-up-his-mind.1949/#post-157445

Okay, I love the concept of this thread as it's very similar to ideas I've tried to throw out on LACWAC before. So before I get ahead of myself and post some new ideas, I'm just gonna cross-post some stuff that's relevant here.

On the temp boards, I created a thread called Replacing Parts of the PT with CW Micro-Series/(Pre-S5) TCW (only pre-S5 because it hadn't come out yet). In that thread I did a little brain-storming that fits perfectly with the theme of this thread:

This is what I have as of now, running with GL's "Prologue / Clone Wars Trilogy / Epilogue" five-film prequel set idea.

Prologue:

The Phantom Menace (Attack of the Federation fan-edit, if you haven't seen it yet you need to, it's SO much better than TPM and I say that as a TPM fan)

Clone Wars Trilogy:

I - Attack of the Clones - crawl explains Obi-Wan tracking a bounty hunter who's the clone template for an army mysteriously ordered on behalf of the Republic he just discovered and that Anakin and Padme are going to Tatooine because of his visions even though he's supposed to be protecting her from an assassin

- film opens with Anakin and Padme landing on Tatooine and goes to the very end of the real AOTC [droid antics edited out]
- chapters 1 - 4 from Genndy V1
- chapters 8 - 11 from Genndy V1
- chapters 17 - 20 from Genndy V1
- first 10 min. from Genndy V2
- The Hidden Enemy from TCW S1

This would be approximately 150 minutes and cover the start of the Clone Wars, all Anakin/Obi-Wan scenes from Genndy up until and including when Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight, and the start of the battle of Christophsis.

II - ???????? - crawl links The Hidden Enemy to the beginning of The Clone Wars film which shouldn't be too hard since both are on Christophsis

- film opens with the first 25 minutes of The Clone Wars film with all scenes and dialogue where the kidnapping of Jabba's son is discussed edited out,
- Landing at Point Rain from TCW S2
- Weapons Factory from TCW S2
- Legacy of Terror from TCW S2
- Brain Invaders from TCW S2
- Padawan Lost from TCW S3
- Wookiee Hunt from TCW S3

This would be approximately 125 minutes and cover the introduction of Ahsoka as Anakin's Padawan and the different sides of him that having a Padawan brings out (as contrasted with Luminara), from dipping into the dark side to utter, genuine despair when she goes missing.

III - ????????

Epilogue:

Revenge of the Sith

---------------------------

I basically finished the second film of the Clone Wars Trilogy. The last part of TCW film I'd show is Anakin and Ahsoka taking off together followed by Obi-Wan and Yoda talking and then Obi-Wan taking off alone. Landing at Point Rain starts with Obi-Wan and Ki-Adi Mundi talking on the bridge of a ship with Anakin and Ahsoka just starting to enter the room. So I actually think that will work really well visually and in terms of story continuity, even though some dialogue makes clear some time has passed.

I think the Geonosis arc is important to include because of Anakin and Luminara's dialogue about the different ways they approach their Padawans and how that difference plays into the story of the LAPR and Weapons Factory and ultimately Anakin's first TCW dark side moment in Brain Invaders; and Legacy of Terror is such a great example of the type of swashbuckling Anakin/Obi-Wan sci-fi pulp adventure I think the PT should have been full of but was sorely lacking.

...

Someone else started a thread called TCW Episodes To Watch With The Saga more recently where I came up with a slightly different take on basically the same idea:

General Skywalker - Hero of the Grand Army of the Republic

All through the OT (and I am old enough to have thought about this before the PT came out) I had this picture of Luke's dad when he was friends with a young Obi-Wan Kenobi as being, you know, a good guy. But in the PT, he's a little kid, a whiny teen, and then a Sith Lord. Not very sympathetic, which kind of ruins the whole downfall thing. Luckily, TCW shows this side of Anakin which is crucial to the whole Star Wars saga working. So here's a few episodes you can throw together as a makeshift movie to make that work:

Trespass
Cat & Mouse
The Hidden Enemy
The New Padawan
Landing at Point Rain
Legacy of Terror
Brain Invaders

The idea is to get in as much as possible before introducing Ahsoka, showing Generals Kenobi and Skywalker working as a team for more than the 20 or so minutes the entire PT gets around to showing. Landing at Point Rain hits hard but also plays into Jedi philosophy and how Anakin relates to it. Weapons Factory can be skipped since Anakin doesn't do anything except worry about Ahsoka and the whole thing gets quickly summarized at the beginning of Legacy of Terror anyway, which I love as a Kenobi/Skywalker team-up and even though it's after her introduction we still get it Ahsoka-free. Plus that episode is one of the series' most Flash Gordon-esque, so bonus for me. Brain Invaders shows even though he's a good guy most of the time, he can still be pushed to go a little dark side when he has what he sees as an altruistic reason for doing so and that gets combined with a personal issue that creates a really bad mood for him, like Ep. II. The difference is, this way you actually get to see him as a hero prior to a dark side relapse rather than him being a whiny teen all the time and it not really seeming like a relapse because of that. And it's a more easily rationalized relapse than, you know, killing all the Jedi, to bridge the gap.

Questioning Loyalties - Skywalker's Relationship with the Jedi Council and Supreme Chancellor Palpatine Evolves

Ep. III has Anakin turn to the dark side too abruptly and without enough reason. You're pissed that you're on the Jedi Council but not a Master, when you know that you're only on the Council as a ruse to play Palpatine? The Jedi Council ask you to spy on Palpatine and when you find out he's a Sith Lord that makes you think the Jedi were the evil ones all along? The only thing that kind of works is Padme, and that's not enough to carry the massive plot twist alone. So let's throw together some episodes of TCW that explain Anakin's changing attitudes more and makes his fall more plausible:

The Zillo Beast
The Zillo Beast Strikes Back
Citadel Rescue
Deception
Friends and Enemies
The Box
Crisis on Naboo

This is a story arc of Mace Windu/Palpatine/Skywalker that more plausibly develops Anakin Skywalker ultimately leaving the Jedi to become a Sith Lord with Palpatine and makes Ep. III feel more like a last straw than a random straw. The Zillo episodes have the interesting dynamic of Mace Windu being opposed to first the Dugs and then (more importantly) Supreme Chancellor Palpatine about the treatment of the beast with Anakin in the Jedi camp but sometimes showing sympathies for opposing points of view. Citadel Rescue by itself, opening monologue explains everything you need to know; has Anakin once again showing sympathy for non-Jedi views but more directly, and competing with Tarkin to see who's the biggest bosom-buddy of Palpatine. Makes Tarkin's appearance in Ep. III more significant - he doesn't even have any lines there. Rako Hardeen arc has some truly chilling scenes in Friends and Enemies where Palpatine is manipulating the **** out of Anakin into doing something he knows the Jedi don't want him to and then when the Jedi Council contacts Palpatine about it he basically shrugs them off, and the arc culminates with Skywalker having a much more legitimate reason to be pissed at the Jedi Council than anything in Ep. III and then Palpatine eagerly watching the contest of Anakin and Darth Tyranus - looking awfully interested. It completes the Mace Windu/Anakin Skywalker circle, starting with them as partners and then having their relationship strained with Mace as the embodiment of the Jedi Council.

I expect there will be at least one more of these you could make by time the series is over. I'm getting a hunch they will use Tarkin more, so he will already have been introduced if that's the case and he's in episodes that would make this kind of cut. This is also going off the assumption that Ahsoka will have a worthwhile end, otherwise it might make sense to just cut around her and do a Trespass/Cat & Mouse/The Hidden Enemy/Zillo Beast/Zillo Beast Strikes Back type thing.

I know I start to lose people at this point because some are more accepting of the PT than I, but there are some other things I could use in another made-up film to fill in some Ep. I and Ep. II holes and then another way to watch the saga becomes just TCW (and I'd throw the micro series in too) followed by Episodes III, IV, V, and VI. I also one day want to watch the two Clone Wars television series (or made-up films of them like the above) followed by the OT. The biggest flaw in that is losing the epic Ep. III Kenobi/Skywalker duel that works so well right before Ep. IV, but it could have some advantages in keeping Darth Vader more mysterious and not making it 100% certain that he's Luke's father before the end of Ep. V. I think this thread has a generally-enough-worded title for me to rant about those things in the future.

...

I only left in that last chunk so I wouldn't have to write the same thing again, because this thread seems even more specifically in the direction of my thought experiments on this topic, so I will likely return here at some point in the future to continue them.

 

Tarkas, I love your ideas. Do you have a link to the 'Replacing Parts of the PT' thread to which you made reference?

 

Thanks! I couldn't really get anyone else to participate in the thought experiment at the time and the thread never got past the first page, so unfortunately, what I posted is all there is as far as a concrete answer to the prompt. Sorry to disappoint!

 

Thanks anyway! I'll make sure to re-read your initial post and share my thoughts in more detail later.

 

Got a chance to read through your ideas, Tarkas. I think they'd pretty much all work fantastically on screen and would go a long way towards developing the schism between Anakin and the rest of the Jedi Council building up to ROTS.

There are a few other stories I'd love to see in movie format that weren't included in either of your outlines--most notably the Mortis, Mandalore and Slaves of the Republic arcs. Maybe we could work on mapping out film outlines that include those storylines?

 

Thanks. Someday, when the whole series is over and I've settled on ideas I really like, I want to put together some fan-edit films and solidify my personal canon version of the saga. (Which, I point out as often as possible, would include the mid-90's THX remastered versions of the OT, not the "Special Editions"). Even though I think it could be cool to include the end of Ep. II and some of the micro-series, I'm expecting that by time TCW is over it will be hard just to edit the best of that into three films, so I may wind up scrapping the idea of including some of Ep.II and the micro-series. What do you think of that? It would also make the fan-edits more visually consistent, and not have the issue of the Jedi suddenly being way more powerful in the micro-series.

I definitely, definitely want to include the S4 slaver arc in one of my fan-edit films. That's probably my favorite arc as a whole from all of TCW. It's just a matter of figuring out what episodes would go along well with it to make a coherent storyline like how the Zillo Beast/Rako Hardeen combination shows a larger progression arc of the Anakin Skywalker/Mace Windu/Chancellor Palpatine relationship. For Mortis, I would want to include Overlords somewhere because that's my favorite single TCW episode, but I think the next two episodes in the arc aren't nearly as good, so I'd probably only put Overlords by itself in somewhere. Mandalore is iffy. I'm a fan of it, and especially love Voyage of Temptation, but I don't think it's as immediately related to Anakin Skywalker's story as some of the other stuff. I kind of see all the Mandalore/Savage Opress/Darth Maul stuff as a potential side-film (like they're now planning on making along with the sequel trilogy), but not something I'd include as part of the Clone Wars trilogy proper. I'm interested to hear why you mentioned those three specific arcs and how they fit the overall story.

 

Clearly you've emphasized the development of Anakin more than I have in my proposed trilogy. I really enjoyed how you managed to tie together a few seemingly disparate episodes in order to strengthen the character relationships that form the backbone of those collective episodes.

I love the cinematic nature of the Mortis trilogy. As I said in my initial post, there's some fantastic imagery in those three episodes and some great callbacks to the films, most notably Qui-Gon Jinn in spirit form. The idea that Anakin gets a glimpse into the horrors of his future only to have his memory erased adds yet another tragic layer to his character, in my opinion.

With the Mandalore story arc, you 1) show the Mandalore warriors in all their glory, which is something I think most SW expected to see at some point in the PT but ultimately never did, and 2) humanize the Obi-Wan character a bit by alluding to his feeling towards Duchess Satine, while drawing a comparison between how he masters those feelings vs. Anakin, who gives in to his temptations with Padme.

I guess I'd bring back Maul to gratify the fans who felt shortchanged by his quick death in TPM. There's no telling yet how Maul will meet his end (for good this time) in the future of the series, but how cool would it be to see Maul leading an army of Mandalore warriors in defiance of both the Separatists and the Republic?

I also think we should see Clovis appear at some point. That way, you set up Anakin's jealous tendencies so his suspicions of Padme and Obi-Wan in ROTS don't come out of nowhere.

On that note, I see there being a few story arcs that very clearly need to be fleshed out in order to make their resolutions in ROTS more satisfying:

- Obi-Wan and Anakin's friendship
- Anakin's respect and confidence in Palpatine as he grows more and more disillusioned with the Jedi
- The growing tension between Anakin and Mace Windu
- Anakin's maturity, military prowess and leadership, as demonstrated through his mentorship of Ahsoka
- His fear of losing Padme and, by extension of that, jealousy of other men close to her

 

your saying a Jabba movie would be better than a Boba Fett movie and Episode 7?!

 

Of course. Now they are going to make Boba into this crazy bad ass, yet in ROTJ we see him get completely embarrassed.

Episode 7 seems lame anyways. Old actors returning.... I really don't want to see them. Carrie is a mess, and after all she's said putting down GL and SW I don't want to see her again. I would take Hayden and the prequel gang over her any day of the week. They are at least good and respectful fans who love the series.... Sorry but I can't stand there being anything post ROTJ, that was the end of star wars. On top of that they're brining back this old lame and ugly actors who don't even deserve another shot at SW.

 

Lame and ugly? Wow nice attitude...

Jabbe got embarrassed in RotJ, too...

 

He's a fat crime lord and isn't even supposed to be a fighter.