Full Series Adaptations?

Though the question is moot now in light of the cancellation, but would you have protested TCW adaptations of extant story lines? (E.g., the Republic comic series, Shatterpoint, etc.)

If so, what stories would have made cool additions to the cinematic Star Wars universe?

Consider the Slaves of the Republic arc from season 4, adapted from Henry Gilroy's comic.

 

They probably would have totally demolished any EU they were adapting in doing so, which makes me against using things like Shatterpoint or the Republic comics.

However, were the rest of The Clone Wars comics any good? I know there were 6 more along with Slaves of the Republic and then they made a bunch of digest comics. Those could potentially have made great adaptations.

The three-part arc covering SotR was brilliant IMO. Escape from Kadavo is one of my favourite episodes of the show.

 

Of course not the comics are ultra lame compared to the show and they will MESS UP the story. If lucas/filoni arent making it then just leave it as is no random a** EU writers comming in and ruining everything

 

Did you not like the Slaves arc?

 

Yeah it was good... but if the EU writers take over the series we'd get a comic with boba killing ahsoka with a lightsaber lol and tons of crazy ****

 

I would loved to have seen an adaptation of Shatterpoint and Yoda: Dark Rendezvous.

 

I'm neither leaning toward or against a TCW adaptation of certain EU material. I think adapting the stories of some of the Republic comics would certainly have been a cool idea, but at the same time, after having seen how the series has chosen to at times significantly alter the stories and fates of a number of characters whose stories were told in the EU (i.e. Barriss, Even Piell, Adi Gallia), I am not sure it would have gone well. I would probably have chosen a "Not sure" option if that existed in the poll.

In an ideal world, TCW would judiciously reference the pre-established Clone Wars stories written over the years without seriously retconning the fates (Even Piell) or even the personalities (Barriss) of many characters. Personally I don't hold these creative decisions against Lucas or the writers, but I had hoped they could have avoided them.

I would have loved to see on screen the adventures of Quinlan Vos early in the war, particularly his infiltration of Dooku's Dark Acolytes and his battle with his inner demons, leading ultimately to his redemption and rejoining of the Order. We only saw him in Hunt for Ziro, and by then he was firmly on the side of the Jedi, and no mention whatsoever of his time as a double agent. I would also have loved to see the introduction of additional Dark Acolytes to the series outside of Asajj Ventress and TCW OC Savage Opress.

The story of the Jedi schism at Ruul from the Mace Windu comic comes to mind as a potentially interesting storyline that could have been adapted. Dissident Jedi like Sora Bulq who actively chose to forsake the Republic in favor of the CIS are of particular interest to me. The only rogue Jedi the series has introduced thus far are Pong Krell and Barriss Offee, and both openly turned seemingly later on in the war, with neither of them ever becoming Dark Acolytes. Both characters had great potential, but I doubt that for Barriss, this potential would ever be fulfilled now. Bulq's introduction to TCW would have helped tie such stories together more tightly, and perhaps make Dooku appear far more charismatic than how he was portrayed in TCW. If they had ever planned to show the fate of Oppo Rancisis onscreen without another death retcon, they could have adapted The Siege of Saleucami faithfully with Bulq's character established in the series. But that's now a moot point as we likely will never see Rancisis in TCW.

Even the story of a Jedi like K'Kruhk who initally opposed the war due to personal beliefs, but were in no way malevolent towards the Jedi Order, would have been nice to see.

Finally, I was thinking that the series could have further adapted some of the more minor stories of certain popular Jedi characters like Shaak Ti and Aayla Secura as one-off episodes so that we could really see more of them in action. But I understand that the series is ultimately about Anakin Skywalker and his gradual descent to the Dark Side as well as the war itself, so I don't blame the writers for focusing heavily on the Big Three as well as the clones. Still, seeing other Jedi Council Members besides Yoda and Mace Windu in action more would have been awesome.

Of course, all of this discussion is purely theoretical, as it will almost certainly never happen.

 

Theoretically, adaptations would've been pretty awesome. Shatterpoint, Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, the Republic Commando and MedStar novels, and Labyrinth of Evil all would've made excellent multi-episode arcs, as would the vast majority of the Clone Wars-era Republic comics.

But looking at what they have adapted from the EU, it's been essentially one disappointment after another. Quinlan Vos was turned into a odd surfer/stoner/The Dude pastiche. Mandalore became a desert and the Mandalorians pacifists. Even in a direct adaptation like Slaves of the Republic, they still needed to change the Zygerrians into felines or rodents or something for no apparent reason. Their apparent pathological need to change for the sake of change, with no obvious benefit to the story, is completely off-putting.

I suppose if the creative team behind the series was more in line with the ones behind Watchmen or Game of Thrones, smart enough to realize that the strong source material they had was already good enough and didn't need more than minor tweaks to fit the adapted format, then I would be much more enthusiastic. With the one we had, however, my answer unfortunately has to be a solid no.

 

Shatterpoint in TCW?



Unless you want to see it completely watered down.

 

I'm pro anything that makes a good story and contributes to the plot. If good episodes could have come from adaptions of more comics then by all means I'm for it. The Slaves of the Republic arc was a highlight of season 4 so they do work. I know the danger of recons will piss people off. A few adapted comics could have made for much better and more relevant stuff than the wasted junk of the droid arc.

 

Even though I haven't read the Clone wats comics or the novels, it would have been nice to see adaptions of already existing storylines. The Slaves Of The Republic arc was really good and showed that there was some potential when it came to adaptions.

 

I'm actually surprised that Star Wars had never adapted EU stories on screen - aside from the slaver arc. I don't expect them to be adapted into films, but for a TV show or TV special, etc. Why not?

I don't think it's really any different than adapting anything else. The Dark Knight Returns was a graphic novel adapted into an animated film released on DVD. Shogun was a novel adapted into a miniseries. Jurassic Park was a novel adapted into a film, etc.

It's like there's this attitude that the TV series should ignore C-canon because C-canon has a smaller audience, so why acknowledge those stories? If that's the case and certain gems are buried within C-canon and get overlooked by millions, adapt them as a Clone Wars episode and expose them to a larger audience. Shadows of the Empire I guess was my biggest surprise since it was pretty much adapted into every other format - video game, comic, and novel. Make a miniseries or TV special out of it. Yeah, it will probably differ from the source material in some ways just as most adaptations do. The Shogun miniseries and Jurassic Park film are quite a bit different from the source material, but they're still good IMO and while there might be some disappointment that a certain scene or character wasn't adapted 100% the same, I still think they are worthy adaptations.

I see no reason it couldn't be the same for Star Wars.

 

So you think R2 and 3PO going shopping, Grievous getting beaten into submission by Gungans and children drinking poisoned tea are better stories than Quinlan Vos going undercover and the Siege of Saleucami, simply because they were 'envisioned' by Lucas and/or Filoni?

 

Dear god.

 

There's also the intimate love story of Ziro and Sy. Better than Quin/Khaleen and Kit/Aayla. Cos Lucas, y'know.

 

Needs more Ahsoka

 

Fans of Star Wars - which is what people like J.J Abrams and the EU writers themselves are - can often have a greater grasp on the characters or what makes for a good Star Wars story more-so than Lucas himself. Lucas has said himself that he cannot appreciate Star Wars the same way that the fans do, that since he created it, he cannot see what the phenomenal appeal is. Somewhere down the line Lucas must have decided that Ewoks and special effects were what made Star Wars so great and thus loaded TPM with Jar Jar and CG environments and characters.

Star Wars needed to take a look at existentialism through the eyes of a small, frog-slug and a pit droid.

Darth Maul, after nearly a decade needed to retroactively be given character development via reintroducing the character as Gollum, if Gollum were a gigantic spider made out of trash - with this Gollum oddly enough playing the part of Shelob, Morley playing the part of Gollum, and Savage as Frodo.

Granted, Lucas has come up with some pretty good ideas too, but he lacks any kind of consistency. When I see something like Umbara, I can't help but think that he's trolling the fans with the rest because he obviously knows what works, but then you get something like D-squad and the guy obviously has no idea what he's doing.

All the lightsaber duels of the OT involved talking and they were just as much about driving the plot as they were a spectacle for the audience. That got transformed into how much crazy **** you can have the characters do in a fight.... like swinging from wires or fighting atop the head of a droid. Granted, TCW got better in that regard.

 

I think there's actually a good argument for having two separate continuities here - the visual saga and the "extended saga / written saga". Because of how the current continuity system works, any adaptations made would automatically overwrite the existing work. That sucks.

When Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead is made, it exists separately from the material it's adapting. It's then okay to have changes, some of them even for the better. It's a shame that the current continuity system actually prevents this.

A Thrawn trilogy adaptation would be loved by most (if good, obviously) but it would current overwrite Zahn's novels. The more TCW has gone on, the more I think the canon system demands change so we can have adaptations and not be ****ed off.

 

As long as the episodes are good I don't care whether they were from EU or not. Since I know practically no Clone Wars-era EU, I wouldn't even know.

I was disappointed that Ulic Qel-Droma didn't even get a name-drop in the Onderon arc.

 

If it's good material, yes.

 

The majority of franchises I can think of have separate continuities between whats on screen then whats in books or comics. Different TV shows are often in different continuities. Usually with a core of stories that form the basis of the canon in each version (the movies in this case). Perhaps distinctions should be made for anything that comes on TV. Also perhaps there should a division for everything Disney. That's actually alot of fun in many cases because you end up with variations on the mythology.

 

It's different for franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars because their expanded universes are derivative of and supplement what's on screen. If you pick up a Star Wars game, novel, or comic, I think it's generally assumed that you have familiarity with the films.

With a franchise like Spider-Man, what's on screen is an adaptation of what was written and retells the origin story. You don't have to have any familiarity with Spider-Man to see the films. The films do not supplement the comics in any way and are completely separate.

That would be hard to back track and achieve in Star Wars' EU. The EU doesn't sit in its own little alternate universe like Spider-Man movies do. Instead they occupy the same universe as the films and expect the reader/player to have some familiarity with that universe.

You adapt a comic into a film and there is great artistic license to spin it into something completely new (e.g. The Walking Dead). Write a book or comic about a film and it's generally expected to stay very close to the material of the film.

If Star Wars existed as a book first and then became a movie, we would probably have two continuities. But since the written EU is derived from a film, the novelizations and such stay very close to the events on screen.

I'm guessing it's tied to audience size. Everyone that reads the Star Wars novelizations is probably expected to have seen the movie and so there is an obligation to stay true to it and supplement it. With something like the Walking Dead, only a sliver of the TV shows fan base probably reads the comics, and so they get greater freedom to deviate from the source material and do whatever they want.

 

I don't think its that different. In my opinion any time you jump mediums it makes sense to me to put that medium in its own bubble of continuity with a core of stories. I can think of quite a few animes which are conceived for the screen and then adapted to novels and manga just as many series are adapted from novels and manga. This happens with video games. Hell that crappy Animorphs show that Nick had back in the day was as different as it could be from the books and yet required knowledge of the books to understand the mechanics of what was going on. That sort of thing is normal.

I noticed when I started reading the Republic comics it was certainly assumed I had seen the movies and that goes without saying if that's what came first. SW if far from the first franchise to do that to do that. Given how popular Star Wars is I think its fine for it to be assumed everyone has seen it. I know people IRL who have never seen the movies but still know more than enough to be dangerous.

Yes there are many franchises out there where I could pick up any comic or movie and just start there without wondering if I'd missed anything before or after that. Transfomers Prime is in its own bubble and doesn't require viewers to really know anything about Transformers to start watching but its rebooted into forming a single new continuity now. Star Wars isn't rebooting to my knowledge.