A critical analysis of David Filoni's contributions to the SW canon

Which era are you referring to this as?

 

I think we see hints of this in the Utapau arc and personally I am not really surprised if this is true.

 

Having just binge-watched the Clone Wars, my feelings on Filoni's contributions are far more to the positive than negative. There is some stuff in there, that I probably wouldn't have liked conceptually had I just heard about it, but I did end up liking a lot of it in execution. Specifically stuff has pretty much been already mentioned: Anakin having an apprentice, Mandalore, and Darth Maul.

 

I would be very surprised, although, I think he ment in the rebels era and not the clone wars.

 

Since he did not agree with her decision to leave the Jedi Order, I think he took it as a form of betrayal and this feeling was amplified when he turned to the darkside.

 

It would seem as he understood her and faced the decision in the clone wars, but maybe when he turned to the dark side he began feeling like this. I agree on what you say.

 

Pitchblack skin, horns, fangs? They've got nothing in common with each other that they don't have in common with humans. And they weren't intended too.

 

Also as indicated by Eeth Koth, Agen Kolar, and Maris Brood, zabraks do have hair, and the tatoo thing is a sith thing not a zabrak thing.

 

bucks and does

That's because one was intended to be human and the other was a slight variation on a human created for an at-the-time throwaway Sith apprentice.

I've always hated the idea that Maul had Sith tattoos. The Sith were in hiding at the time and were concealing their identities and none of the other three known Sith have tattoos.

 

I honestly don't get why people see Kenobi's faux-beating in the Slaves arc as some sort of negative.

Kenobi tricked the Zygerrian into a fight that would distract him, while Anakin and Ahsoka went around disarming the bombs within the city. Kenobi kept the ruse of a one-sided fight going until they were finished. Then afterwards got up, dusted himself off, crushed a few droids and was basically ready for round two at that point. It might just be how I was brought up, but I see him as kind of a badass, not as some sort of palooka. At worst, he took faked a beating in order to presumably save lives.

If Filoni's goal was to somehow diminish Kenobi's character with that scene, he failed miserably in that regard.

Side note: Can we keep this thread going with a little bit more intensity? I'm looking at investing in pitchfork and torch companies in the near future.

 

Blah

 

Exactly, these were parts that were never intended to fit together and I really don't think they do. And slight variation or not, I'd rather the female of the Maul-race keep the horns.

I've always hated the idea that Maul had Sith tattoos. The Sith were in hiding at the time and were concealing their identities and none of the other three known Sith have tattoos.[/quote]


Not fond of it either. But you can blame however designed the Zabrak Jedi Masters in the following movies for that, whose facial markings were very underwhelming.

 

Lol... How do you explain this one... I'm gonna drop a bomb.

What about the female zabrak (NOT A NIGHTSISTER) that was a bounty hunter in TCW?

 

Iridonian Zabrak and Dathomirian Zabrak seem to be different races of the same species. The Dathomirian ones however also seemed to be mixed with whatever kinda humanoids the Nightsisters were originally, they though should technically also have Zabrak blood. They never explained their breeding well at all.Kolar though seems to have practiced what appears to have been tribal spotted scarring, rather than the tattoos that Sugi and Koth wear, that also appear kinda identical. Maul's clan they appear to be skin patterns while the Nightsisters do not appear to have natural markings going by Ventress alone, she adapted a pattern as part of her Sith allegiance. However its strange how it would just so happen to mimic patterns worn by Nightsisters and Nightbrothers and how would she remember, yet apparently she does, as she fled back to Dathomir after Dooku's treachery.

 

You explain it by Nightbrothers and Zabraks being separate species or races.

Where does Ventress have tattoos?

chromosome mutations, I guess

 

edit: double post

 

Being that only the males had horns and thus Zabrak, the Nightsisters but be doing something akin to selective breeding as none of the females have horns.

As for Sith having tattoos, I mixed feelings about. Tales of the Jedi introduced scarring or branding. Jarec had tattoos. I think the practice became more standarized and more overly used ever since Darth Maul appeared. Legacy they over did it to where it did not make sense, although I think many certainly looked cool. But it was crazy how they used up nearly any alien species, even some of the silly ones and slapped on Darth Maul patterns. Also Hett had no connection to Maul so why would he adopt the look of Maul?! Hett also changed his own tattoo patter why the time he became darth Krayt.

 

You're absolutely right.

And all of these other authors are guilty of the same thing. And I say "guilty" because, as I mentioned in the other thread, I think an author has a responsibility to not transparently play favorites.

But no, it's not just Filoni. You're right.

Difference is, this is the Filoni analysis thread (so were obviously going to zero-in on Roscoe). And that -- unlike all of the others you've mentioned -- as a member of the LSG, Filoni's decisions directly affect matters of Star Wars canon (which I've also pointed out is a really, really big deal to a geek like me).


And you're right that David's influence has been largely confined to his own works, so far (though not exclusively, I feel, as I think it's pretty clear that his fingerprints have begun to be seen on works from other realms of canon).

But I prefer to look at the canon as a unified whole. So I cannot just say to myself: "Self, I know you don't like some of what this one guy has been doing, but it's no big deal because it's only in a cartoon or two in this one little corner of the franchise. It's not like he's pushed Ahsoka to the forefront of a canon Star Wars film (yet)."

To me, it's all one grand tapestry and I'd like to enjoy every part of it, free of certain quibbles I have.


Now, is Filoni's favoritism enough to ruin my fun when I watch TCW or Rebels? Not always, no (but sometimes). I'm a big fan of TCW and so far, I really like Rebels, too.**

But is it enough to effectively take me out of the moment, just about every time I encounter what I've come to recognize as evidence of it?

Oh, yes. You bet it is. Every stinking time.


Now, that's partly on me, too. I freely admit that.

But if we're going to honestly take a look at the job Dave Filoni is doing with SW, it's not something I feel comfortable just ignoring. And I cannot just excuse what I see as a fault by saying, "It wouldn't be any different with another."

Well, yes, it certainly might be.


**I can happily report that I've found my fears of an "Ahsoka 2.0" type of situation with Ezra Bridger to have been largely unfounded. I not only like Bridger (quite a lot, so far), but to my very happy surprise, I've not detected any of the kind of things I was concerned with when the character was first unveiled. I find myself very, very intrigued by Bridger's future adventures.

It would seem that Filoni has gotten better about how he handles the development of his original characters.

I hope the same type of growth will be evident in his usage of Ahsoka in Rebels.


See? I'm not all doom-and-gloom, after all.

 

We're just going to have to agree to disagree then. Filoni having favourite characters gets to you in a way it doesn't get to me, and never will. There are things he's done, or maybe fairer to say have been done under his leadership, I really don't like - the resurrection of Maul is the biggest. But I can ignore them because for the most part, of what he's done I enjoy far, far more than not. If I am out of the moment due to Plo popping up again (he's a very busy dude)... then I'll go watch the Umbara arc, some of the finest SW story telling in any genre and any medium and not affected by Ahsoka or Plo in the slightest. Filoni's not perfect. There's episodes I wouldn't watch again if you paid me to. So I just watch the rest, and enjoy them immensely, because thus far I see no evidence that anyone has enough influence to be steering all of Star Wars EU material so I can pick and choose in peace.

 

Trebor Sabreon

I'm convinced your try to make your posts a long as possible.....

OK, this is the second time in less than 12 hours I have read a post that Filoni is on Story Group. Yet I am only aware of him being one of the directors and the executive producer for Rebels currently. Is there an article I missed or some evidence that he is working on Story Group?

What works do you feel you can see his influence in?

 

Some of us are verbose, Jabber. That's not a bad thing.

 

I don't think some fans will be happy with Filoni unless he drags Ashoka through the mud, humiliates this character and kills it off. I think they feel he ruined their favorite characters and they want revenge and hate or dislike him for it intensely. Some also blame him, cause Lucas was untouchable, so Filoni gets much of the blame for bastardizing the EU or ignoring key events from it and alterations.

 

Unfortunately, I agree that may be the case for some. Personally, I think many are unfairly blaming one man for what they see as all the 'ills' of the current state of SW.

 

Purely out of curiosity AFS1983 but what about the other examples I've cited previously? They are just as transparent and obvious as Filoni's (which reflects well on neither) but Stover and Zahn in particular are particularly well regarded amongst most fans and yet they play favourites equally hard as Filoni. Matt Stover is the one who really cranked up Mace's super specialness (the shatterpoint ability that so far no-one else has managed to master properly, and a lightsaber form so awesome it drives everyone else who tried to learn it to the Dark Side, except Mace) but surely the story suffers just as hard? Or is it different because you personally don't like Ahsoka either, as of course you are well within your rights to do?