Lit Clone Wars Multimedia Project vs. The Clone Wars

There is a chronological order too ;p

Though I do think another thing to see about the MMP vs TCW is

The MMP is really about Anakin and Obi-Wan

TCW at the end of the day...is Ashoka and Rex's show ...and then later Maul. Especially by Siege of Mandalore that really makes it about Ashoka and Rex as sorta the two primary characters.

(Obviously it's not traditionally structured with the Anthology approach but from a Macro perspective it is Ashoka and Rex's story)

 

In my personal headcanon I like to imagine that Maul’s reemergence opened up a second theatre in the war where the fighting shifted towards putting down the sudden uprising of underworld elements and the third parties that Maul had organized. It’s a shame that we didn’t actually get any content about the redirection of Republic forces to combat Maul until Season 7; maybe that has something to do with the cancellation. It would have been interesting to see, for example, a Truce at Bakura-style arc where Anakin and co. agree to assist Separatists against the larger threat of Maul.

 

That is production lead time, it is what shows do due to the time it takes to make stuff.

I also disagree with you once again saying that the first seasons being light hearted was part of some plan.

They knew even less about where things were going than TCW, since while the MMP was happening RotS was still being written. But they were still able to keep the stories tonally consistent with others and include references to them. The MMP was also more tied into the larger EU.

How are you defining "Program"? Each episode is a progam in an of itself. Some of them form arcs and some arcs are linked together. But to me the lack of that timeline and how it went off with Maul and changed tones midway though it's run it become something different. It also stopped being about the war.

Have you read any of the MMP material? Because it is about a lot more people than Anakin and Obi-Wan. They might be the leads, but Voss is also a lead in the comics and Bariss and Mace are leads in their own books.

It defaults to Ashoka, due partly to how the movie starts and also we see her grow. Rex, I feel more dubious about.

 

I definitely think that TCW is an incomplete replacement for the CWMMP and the reason for that is because it was not at first intended to be a replacement at all. While it might have evolved into a reboot of the era in its latter half, the first 2 and a half seasons are essentially just more Star Wars content with no pretenses. It had tie-in Legends content that bridged it with the rest of the continuity and save for a few standard continuity hiccups here and there I don't think there was anything standout that indicated it was a reboot of the era, unless you want to count giving Anakin a padawan.

TCW starts out as meandering, and I don't mean that as an insult: it is a serialized adventure anthology that gives very little in the way of a grand direction beyond the inevitable conclusion at Revenge of the Sith. I really like the latter half of TCW, but for me its biggest problem stems from the fact that it steps away from the Clone Wars. I feel more invested in the Mandalore and Maul plots, but those episodes barely involve clones and droids going at it. In fairness, both the CWMMP and TCW inherit the problem of the Droid Army from the prequels and very little could be done to make them an interesting threat over a long period of time. Ever notice how a lot of fans love the episodes where the main villains aren't even battle droids? however, TCW gives a very different interpretation of the Clone Army than the CWMMP and yet they don't really get involved with Mandalore until Season 7. I think that's a real shame because the Republic getting involved on another front opens itself to a lot of story potential. Maybe they didn't want to cross any further into the Republic Commando controversies than they already had.

The murky beginning and continuity threads separated across canons is a running problem I have with the Legends/Canon split in general, but that's neither here nor there.

What gives TCW a leg up and probably what cements its place in the Star Wars mythology is accessibility. The CWMMP inherits a problem from all of Star Wars' MMPs in that the roadmaps can be hard to follow and completing one's collection can be impeded. TCW benefits from being A/V, a seven-season show that appears self-contained. Sure it's not the only source of Clone Wars-era content in canon, but you can basically act like it is. You can find it all in one place on Disney+ and you don't need to be switching between mediums to get the full experience. All of these factors are irrelevant to the actual quality of the storytelling, but they are relevant to the impact that either project has on the fanbase and greater universe. To be blunt, TCW has greater relevance. The CWMMP is great, but securing relevance is a challenge.

 

Well that and being the kinda core for the New Canon's expanded universe since many threads started in TCW are the ones being expanded upon within New Canon.

 

Sorry for the DP

@Golbolco

I'm confused by your point here....I understand TCW not meshing with Legends and Mortis coming into Crucible and stuff like that with Abeloth

But TCW is sorta the core of the New Expanded Universe and meshes way better with it in general.

 

What I mean is that there are continuity threads that continue across from Legends into Canon and vice-versa, many of which are embedded in TCW. A cleaver was taken and used to sever the two bodies of canon. In my eyes, this makes the development of TCW into a pillar of continuity awkward when it has been in some regard orphaned.

Something I learned while doing research after I made my post (the opposite of what a good poster does!) is that at Celebration III, TCW was called a continuation of the Tartakovsky show, which itself was referred to as a pilot. Therefore, TCW grows out of the CWMMP. It is probably serviced by being attached to the CWMMP, even with the acknowledged problems with that. You can even see the attachment in the art style: Obi-Wan and Dooku are especially modeled on the 2D show, along with other characters.

So to me, TCW is looking more and more like a successor to the CWMMP rather than a replacement, and I’ll extend my philosophy to the rest of Star Wars: the continuing threads are what matter to me, and they continue even when they’re under new names or conceits or canons. I guess this is why I like focusing on the families, lineages, character developments, and timelines.

You can’t just Rule of Two it. The apprentice can’t replace the master, not completely.

 

@Golbolco

I still don't get it?

Like yes TCW is inspired by the CWMMP...No doubt about that...I mean Asaj Ventress is involved in TCW but from a in-universe perspective TCW threads are being expanded upon in the NuCanon stuff.

But I still don't really get what you are talking about?

The way i see TCW place in Legends is that it's inspired by the 2D show sure and maybe even back then meant to be the G-Canon continuation, but in terms of how it fits in legends, it's kinda in a weird way on the side and only occasionally bleeds into everything else.

Compared to NuCanon were it's the heart of the New EU.


Now to be fair....I think we would have seen more of that with TCW and the Live Action Underworld series Lucas also had in mind set in the Dark Times.

So I feel like if George had kept going and going a whole new continuity would have just morphed into reality and probably would have caused the Legends EU to implode on itself.

If anything the reboot in 2013 was probably the best thing that could have happened to Legends before things go waaaay to messy.

 

I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing. I’m talking about how many of the continuity threads present in TCW originate long before TCW came onto the scene, and I think what you’re talking about is the feasibility of maintaining that continuity within a single canon over a long period of time. If I’m correct, then I simply think we have very different ideas about the evolution of continuity.

If I can boil down my two posts to a thesis: TCW came from the CWMMP and the CWMMP lives into TCW, so to me they are inseparable if distinct products.

“You and the Naboo form a symbiotic circle, what happens to one of you will affect the other, you must understand this.”

 

Oh alright, well that makes more sense.

I guess one could argue that TCW took several of those threads created in CWMMP and essentially mainstreamed them for a wider audience.

In some ways that the current Canon is doing with the large EU at large.