Comics A/V Star Wars: Dark Empire Animated Series (Fan Made)

Oh here it is....Episode 2 is now out and lets say Clone Palpatine looks veeeeery Famailiar

 

So I never actually watched this and decided to today (like the DE one it just updated - the whole playlist is here and looks to update about once a month), and I gotta say, it really made me smile that the first thing to show up are Cygnus X-1 Gunboats representing Thrawn's scout ships from Obroa-skai. I got into X-Wing and the literary EU at the same time, so of course that's what I imagined too!

Also honestly I think I kind of like their amateur fan production Threepio better than the official DE audio drama's actor used in the animated series. I know someone praised him earlier, but I personally thought he was the weak link among the cast, although maybe I'm just spoiled because Anthony Daniels has been so willing to reprise the role in more modern times.

(The audio drama's Palpatine is a delight, though.)

 

Ah yes, 2003 Clone Wars

 

Interesting.

While I applaud the craft and care, I am confused a bit.

Why take such care in mimicking the art and style of the original Dark Empire, only to throw in the TROS homage?

It would fit, except for it being so clearly a tribute that it sticks out.

One of the hardest things for many fans over the years to embrace about Dark Empire is the style.
So if someone loves Dark Empire's aesthetic enough to recreate and animate it, why divert from that now?

It's not bad...it's just obvious and takes you out of the story a bit.

Still good, still subscribed.

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PS: Forum overlords, there appear to me multiple threads on this very subject.

 

To my eyes, it appears that the visual homage to the Dark Empire artwork is primarily (although not exclusively) emulated in the color palette of the fan animation. The fan animation is not subtle when it comes to paying tribute to other Star Wars cartoons/animated shows. For example, the design for C-3PO is clearly referencing the old Droids cartoon; the stormtrooper on Byss is drawn in the style like the stormtroopers from Rebels; as pointed out by @Blackhole E Snoke above, the face (especially the mouth and teeth) of Palpatine is drawn similarly to how Sidious was depicted in the 2003 Clone Wars cartoon.






Personally, I don't mind the small change to reference The Rise of Skywalker since it clearly isn't the only visual homage in this (so far great) fan project.