Star Wars the Clone Wars: An Introduction

I have a friend—an older guy who grew up with the original star wars films. He hates the special editions and really hates the prequel trilogy. I only have to say the word “midichlorians” and he starts ranting about how they totally invalidate the entire concept of the force. He’s not an EU guy like I was growing up, but a few years ago I showed him a little of the clone wars and soon he had watched the whole series.

In many ways the Clone Wars TV series was what we wanted out of the prequels. Instead of a whinny, psychotic brat, Anakin Skywalker is actually somewhat likable: a brave and heroic man who is too passionate for his own good.  The Clone Troopers actually have personality, and the Jedi do more than sit in circles and talk. It had a little of everything: Jedi, war, political intrigue, and more. It was an amazing series that ended before its time.

The Clone wars drew deeply from Star Wars lore. It took fan favorites such as the Mandalorians, Mace Windu, Darth Maul and others who hadn’t received much attention in the movies and fleshed them out, intermixing them with  more established characters like Anakin and Obi wan. The series is also notable for striking a remarkable balance between adult sophistication and the needs of friendly family viewing. Its therefore somewhat fitting that even though the Expanded Universe was declared non-cannon by Disney, the Clone Wars was allowed to remain part of the cannon. Many concepts first established in the EU were included in the Clone Wars, albeit with slight tweaks. Wisely, Disney has continued to look to the EU for characters and inspiration to fill the new cannon. 

When I decided to rewatch the series, I decided to write a review, but as I watched I found there was too much worth writing about for one article. Therefore I would like to offer this multi-part analysis of the Clone Wars. While some parts might seem unduly harsh, I hope this introduction will make it clear that I am a passionate fan of the series, and am writing out of love.

-Gedaemon

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Why is Most Fanfiction Bad?

If you have ever written both a fanfiction and an original story, you know there is a vast gap between the two. Frankly speaking fanfiction is easier to write. You already have most if not all the main characters created, an established universe, and often a general story arc and themes from the source material. Compared to creating your own characters and universe it’s practically child’s play. Why then is most fanfiction such unadulterated crap?

The easy answer is that most people don’t know how to write-- technically or creatively-- But I don’t think that is the heart of the problem. The challenge for the fanfiction writer is to accurately reflect the original characters.  Even the professional writers sometimes fail at this when working with someone else’s characters. How much harder is it for an amateur writer, perhaps doing their first public work, to capture the spirit of another person’s creation? 

It’s a difficult task to capture the essence of something, but the challenge does not stop there. And author who does not desire to make a character their own is doomed to failure. Writing that doesn’t involve the self is without passion. Such a work can only be a failure. So a fanfiction author must balance out their own creative thoughts with the source material. It is a frustrating dilemma.

The low quality of most fanfiction as lead many famous authors to attack it, and express their wishes that people not write fanfiction of their work. I can understand this, but I wonder if there isn’t an element of possessiveness in the sentiment: The notion that your characters and stories are only yours to play with and imagine? But this is not how culture works. The moment you release something to the public they will begin reimagining it, and the more popular it is the more they will reimagine. If I ever wrote something so popular that a fan community started putting up their own work I would be extremely flattered, even if most of it was crap unworthy of attention. I also believe that a strong fan community is important to the success of any media work. 

Most fanfiction is terrible; I shied away from writing any based only on its horrible reputation. But there is good fanfiction. I have even read a few works which I believe are of professional quality, even better than what sometimes passes as professional quality. So don’t be afraid to write, to grow the fandom. Because fandom is an act of love and it opens the doors to even greater creativity.

-Gedaemon

Review of Dragon Ball Super Ep. 92

Ohh Buu! (shakes head) 

Having heard Buu won’t wake up in the last episode Goku arrives at Mr. Satan’s house. Unable to wake Buu Mr. Satan volunteers to take his place until Goku reminds him of the fight he saw he reluctantly backs down.

Meanwhile Kuririn and eighteen show up with their daughter at Capsule corp. Kuririn is surprised Roshi isn’t there yet but Gohan tells him Roshi is training to overcome his only weakness.

The team finally gets back to talking about Buu. Gohan is told that if Zen oh says ten warriors than they need ten warriors and it’s up to him as captain to find someone. IN the ensuing discussion people figure out that Goku lied about the 10 million Zeni, but before the real secret is spilled they all feel Vegeta power up. He as once again destroyed the Hyperbolic time chamber. Popo will not be pleased.’

In between all of this we get peeks at universe eleven and two. We are introduced for a few fighters but not much happens. At least not much worth writing about.

In Universe six Cabba is teaching a bored Caulifla about becoming super Saiyan while Kale watches from behind a rock. Cabba tries getting her to go into a Super Saiyan rage with rather lame insults. This however seems to just piss her off. He explains that you need to get mad to learn the transformation. Asked if he is always made when he transforms he explains that once you’re used to it you can just focus power into a point on your back, but he thinks it’s impossible to learn the transformation this way.  Caulifa tries to imitate this and to Cabba’s surprise succeeds. She immediately decides to test her new power and blows Cabba and Kale away. After being taught she agrees to join the tornament and says she is bringing Kale with her. Caulifa challenges Kale to try the transformation but she insists she could never do it.

Back in universe seven Goku arrives at Capsule Corp to an angry Kuririn,Tenshinhan and pretty much everyone else. Confronted with the lie Goku laughs and promises to pay them with the money Mr. Satan gave him. Vegeta reminds Goku that Chichi has that money so he ask Bulma saying ten million Zeni is just like leaking a little pee to her. This goes over poorly but better than I expected.

But it turns out the reason they are really mad is because Goku didn’t tell them about the universe being threatened despite their longtime friendship. But after some begging from Goku and some threats from Beerus the team holds together, also Bulma says she’ll pay the prize money. 

There is still the problem of the tenth member. Beerus goes on a rant that the reason only goku and his friends can fight is because they destroyed the Freeza force, which gives Goku an idea…

The first half of this episode was pretty boring, very little important was said or happened. The parts about universe two and eleven were incredibly dull and didn’t need to be there at all. They left no impression on me.  But the second was great. Cabba and Caulifla are great characters. We also got to see an impassioned speech by Kuririn, which was humorously undercut by the fact Kuririn really is scared of the tournament. The art was at least on point, and the jokes tended to be somewhat funny. As another transition episode it was pretty good, or at least the second half was. 

I am interested to see where they are going with the Freeza angle, though I will miss not seeing Buu fight. I’ll reserve my final judgment on that until later. 

-Gedaemon

Review of Dragon Ball Super Ep. 91

After last week’s episode can Dragon Ball Super keep it up?

Zen oh  and his counterpart are bored. This is bad. To amusing them, the high priest tells him that Goku’s team is ready. The entire episode takes the form of the grand priest showing Zen oh clips of various universes to keep him amused. 

Back in universe seven the warriors have gathered, except for Vegeta who has gone to the Hyperbolic time chamber to train. (I thought there was a lifetime limit of two years in there, but oh well).  The elder kai offers to give Goku the same power up he gave Goku but the supreme Kai reminds him it takes more than twenty four hours. That red herring out of the way, he decides to train with Whis.

In the other world Zen oh wants to start the tournament right away but the high priest tells him they should keep their promises and other universes are not ready yet. 

Meanwhile in Universe six Cooler is still on the run from the law, but Hit has no trouble finding him. Cooler assumes he is going to be killed, and tries to trick him by submitting only to attack. This has no effect on Hit. Hit observes however that being on the run has made him stronger and tells him he has been chosen to represent universe six, and the two head off.

In universe seven Yamcha is lying in bed when Roshi comes to visit. Rather than inviting him to fight in the tournament Roshi wants Puar to transform into a woman so he can train to overcome his perversion. Because it’s a request form Roshi Yamcha urges Puar to do it. The results of this training are about what you would expect from Roshi.

The other universes also get shown, universe 9 still has only three warriors, topo is trying to gather his men in universe 11 and Universe 2 has an  idol turned very very fat magic girl as a warrior. In universe 10 They appear to be making a God Tube video of their team dancing.

Back in universe 7 everyone is preparing themselves when Mr. Satan calls Bulma. She informs the team that Buu can’t enter the tournament, having fallen asleep Satan assures them he won’t wake up for at least two months. Goku and Beerus—who is still angry about the pudding Buu stole from him--decide to leave, but while Beerus is talking Goku leaves without him. 

As a transition episode this was OK, but it was disjointed as my summery should demonstrate. I tried to clean it up but there is only so much I could do without leaving too much out. Some it was amusing, but most of it was unnecessary Focusing on the Saiyans from universe six--which the next episode seems to feature--would have been far more interesting.

The next episode at least looks amusing and gives us more Cabba, which I want to see.

-Gedaemon

Review of Dragon Ball Abridged Ep. 58

Oh Dragon Ball Z Abridged…. Have you gotten shorter or is it just me?

After Mr. Satan’s loss and lying to cover up for it, Goku takes his turn, and after an exchange of sexual innuendo that fight begins. If you know the original there isn’t much to say. Cell uses the multi technique, Goku defeats it, Cell uses the Kamehameha, Goku dodges it. There are also jokes. While that might not sound impressive some of them were really funny. 

Dragon Ball Z Abridged continues to be funny, and a great fan tribute to the original. That said I have great problems waiting months at a time for a few minutes of footage. I know I have no right to complain since it is a free fan work, and Team Four Star has a lot of projects to work on. But I really wish we could have at least gotten fifteen minutes. That said I am a firm believer that the episode cannot truly be judged until the season is complete and we can watch it as part of the larger whole.

This episode was step up from the last few, though it didn’t have a huge impact on me.  It almost felt like this was material they were just trying to get through. Perhaps they are working up to the Super Saiyan Two transformation, which TFS is on record of loving. The biggest thing is that a few months in producing for a few minutes of footage leaves a lot of room for anticipation that is hard to deliver on. Having watched this episode twice I will say it holds up, and will probably be a good addition to the season as a whole. All in all it was a decent but not great episode with only one really memorable line. It just left me wanting more. The live stream gave some insights into their decision and a rewatch did a lot to convince me that the material was solid, but I can’t change my initial reaction as much as I understand their choices.

-Gedaemon