Clone Wars CGI Series

[2046]

The first eps are out. Here's a quickie look at the highlights.

[Flectarn]

huh, i thought the movie was going to be the first couple episodes

[GStone]

Mess with Yoda, you shall not. Melting is the way of lightsabre ettiqute.

[Mike DiCenso]

From what I'am seeing here, Robert. Your 60-1000 km estimate in some cases was more than on the generous side of things.
-Mike

[l33telboi]

Well, different vessels will have different ranges, so it's not necessarily a problem. What I found most curious about the "we're out of range!" bit when the Venators were about to fire on the Malevolence was that it's not even implied to be effective range. Just range, period. I mean the ship just sits there, it doesn't move, it doesn’t do anything. So why don't they at least try to shoot at it? Ok, most bolts might miss, but some might hit. So what do they have to lose?

I'm starting to think that these bolts might have some maximum range before they explode, like all the flak blasts we see. Whatever containment field the energy is contained in might degrade to the point where it can’t sustain itself. But for now, I'm just going to call that a hunch.

[l33telboi]

The third episode is out now. And I must say it's more then just a bit awesome. The episodes seem to have gotten progressively better. The first one was so and so, the second one was good and this one is great.

A few interesting tech related revelations too. You can't hyperspace through a nebula. The Y-Wings are said to accelerate as fast as they can, yet they don't really go anywhere (it’s certainly not acceleration in the kilogee range). And a squad of bombers is expected too, and actually does, damage a ship as big as the Malevolence. Oh, and the (apparently only) medical station for the Outer Rim houses a mere 60,000 clones. And Y-Wing scanners don't work inside the nebula.

It's getting to the point where even I am about five seconds away from calling it minimalistic... and that's saying something.

EDIT: Oh, and the show heavily implies that a parsec isn't actually a parsec as we know it, but rather a single hyperspace jump. So a journey that takes two jumps is two parsecs away from something.

[Mr. Oragahn]

So in theory both opposite ends of the galaxy could be a parsec away from each other?

As for the nebula, was it because of its overall mass, or some EM radiations?

EDIT: Let's add the list of episodes, just in case.

Plus that fubar wookieepedia link:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_War ... TV_series)

[l33telboi]

So in theory both opposite ends of the galaxy could be a parsec away from each other?

It's just a theory on my part so far, perhaps a bit premature, we'll see.

In hindsight, the whole thing is very weird. The Malevolance was supposed to travel 10 parsecs to get around the nebula, and the map showed a segmented line around it. The fighters, flying on sublight through the nebula, got through it in mere hours, and according to the map, their route was apparently just two thirds shorter or somesuch.

As for the nebula, was it because of its overall mass, or some EM radiations?

Back in the Resolute's hangar, Shadow Squadron's Y-wing bombers undergo preparation, and Anakin assigns Ahsoka as his tailgunner. Admiral Yularen reports in with news of the Ryndellia attack. Anakin theorizes that Grievous will likely target the Kaliida Shoals station. Stellar densities in that area of space limit the Malevolence's hyperspace capabilities, giving Shadow Squadron the opportunity to intercept it via a shortcut. Plo Koon decides to join Anakin's squadron flying fighter escort.

[Mike DiCenso]

A few interesting tech related revelations too. You can't hyperspace through a nebula. The Y-Wings are said to accelerate as fast as they can, yet they don't really go anywhere (it’s certainly not acceleration in the kilogee range). And a squad of bombers is expected too, and actually does, damage a ship as big as the Malevolence. Oh, and the (apparently only) medical station for the Outer Rim houses a mere 60,000 clones. And Y-Wing scanners don't work inside the nebula.

I missed this episode, unfortunately. After all the years that Warsies have been hitting the pro-Trek side over the head with TWoK with the Mutara nebula causing the Enterprise and Reliant's shields and sensors to not operate or not operate very well, this a very interesting development and a gratifying one indeed that at least some SW sensors don't work in a nebula. Was there something in particular about this nebula that rendered scanners inoperative, or is it implied that all nebula will have this effect?

Oh, and the show heavily implies that a parsec isn't actually a parsec as we know it, but rather a single hyperspace jump. So a journey that takes two jumps is two parsecs away from something.

Interesting. How is this implied in the dialog?
-Mike

[Mith]

So in theory both opposite ends of the galaxy could be a parsec away from each other?

It's just a theory on my part so far, perhaps a bit premature, we'll see.

In hindsight, the whole thing is very weird. The Malevolance was supposed to travel 10 parsecs to get around the nebula, and the map showed a segmented line around it. The fighters, flying on sublight through the nebula, got through it in mere hours, and according to the map, their route was apparently just two thirds shorter or somesuch.

It's possible that the screen the droid was looking at represented the area that would be too dangerous for the Malevolence to navigate through via hyperspace, but something smaller like a fighter could to a certain extent and then pass through the actual nebula itself.

Although, if we were to go with the image and then how long it took Anakin's fighter to cross the Nebula (which wasn't very long, unless it took hours, which is possible, but unlikely), which would be a horrible showing for SW speeds, which flies in the face of everything we see in their speeds. Thus far, it appears their speed is about 50x faster than warp 9.


Overall, it was a good episode. Anakin's potrayel was decent, but it sort fell a bit towards the end, but was still good. It was good to see Anakin's own actions coming back to bite him in the ass, nearly foil the mission, and only when he actually admitted he was wrong and went with someone else's idea did things work out.

The episode itself was pretty good, but it bothered me that they had at least 25%-50% of their forces out of action. Either the Republic is suffering heavy losses (possible given the competency displayed by both sides) or we might have to see an increase in Clone Numbers. Granted, this was an important Outer Rim Force, so it may have been half of their deployed force. Another note is that even within the time frame, they were only able to get about 30,000 clones or so away...and they all died. Is anybody else disturbed that the Republic just lost 12.5% to 25% of their forces in a single swoop? Even despite the failure of the Malevolence to destroy the hospital, the good General did at least complete about half the job.

I'm also bothered by the level of destruction done to the Malevolence; a heavily armed battleship that can withstand the barrages of three Republic warships. Granted, these do appear to be different torpedoes than the one from Phantom Menace, so I guess that wasn't the new Proton Torpedo. The warheads didn't seem to powerful and yet they once again crippled a ship far larger than itself.

[l33telboi]

Was there something in particular about this nebula that rendered scanners inoperative, or is it implied that all nebula will have this effect?

No, it was just a normal nebula. Well, normal nebula in the televised sci-fi sense, at least. Compared to a normal nebula, it's extremely dense, just like all the nebulas in Star Trek and Firefly etc. The episode guide describes the whole thing thusly:

The Malevolence travels through hyperspace at a velocity well past lightspeed, but it's not fast enough for the impatient General Grievous. The navicomputer has had to calculate a complex course sidestepping the Kaliida nebula. The Y-wings, however, can negotiate the dust cloud, so Shadow Squadron emerges from hyperspace to traverse the nebula: a short cut dubbed the Balmorra Run that Anakin Skywalker learned from smugglers in his youth. Entering the cloud completely obscures the fighters' scanners. Ahsoka is increasingly concerned by this dangerous course of action.

Well, ok, maybe not completely normal. It had giant space-whales living in the center. :P

Interesting. How is this implied in the dialog?

It's actually not, as I discover now that I've rewatched the ep. It was just an automatic connection I made when they were talking about x amount of parsecs and then showing the segmented line they were supposed to follow. But there is still something very odd about all that, if a ship traveling at faster then light barely outruns ships traveling at slow sublight even though they seem to cover almost the same distance (hard to say for certain given we're talking about a two dimensional map depicting space though).

Another note is that even within the time frame, they were only able to get about 30,000 clones or so away...and they all died.

Not too sure about that. We see a few transports come back after the fighting is over. I'm guessing the Malevolence didn't have time to actually destroy these vessels before they diverted their attention to the Y-wing squadron.

I'm also bothered by the level of destruction done to the Malevolence; a heavily armed battleship that can withstand the barrages of three Republic warships. Granted, these do appear to be different torpedoes than the one from Phantom Menace, so I guess that wasn't the new Proton Torpedo. The warheads didn't seem to powerful and yet they once again crippled a ship far larger than itself.

Yes, it is strange. At first they all plan on taking out the bridge to the vessel, but then instead decide to take out one of the ion cannons. Either way it shows that, for some reason, a few fighters carry enough firepower in the form of normal torps to seriously damage a Battleship that's something like 6km in length.

And where were the shields? A fighter crashes straight into the ship and then slides on the surface, no shields were in the way. Same when they fire the torps, they all hit metal, so no shields. I'm starting to get this twitching feeling that maybe TCW will go with the idea that shields don't stop kinetic objects, but that’s another thing that’ll have to wait and see.

[GStone]

Am I the only one that was in an area where they didn't show the third ep? They just ran UFC for a couple hours.

[Praeothmin]

I was in Boston last friday, so I got to watch the 3rd episode.
It was well done, and it allowed to realize two things:
First, the amount of fire a Capital ship can fire in the Clone Wars is astounding (they have a lot of guns, and each gun seems to be able to fire once every 1-2 seconds).

Second, they can't aim at all.
Three warships, coming in a straight line, firing at another warship (huge target) going away in a straight line, and at least a third of their shots were going wide off the mark.
And they weren't even at more then 2 or 3 kilometers distant, judging from the visuals.

And the Warsies say that ST can't aim... :)

[Cocytus]

I actually caught this while visiting my sister and my niece. And I have to ask, am I the only one who thinks the Ion Weapon is incredibly stupid looking? The big pink wheel of electricity? It looks like a jellyfish or something. But that's just my opinion.

As I recall, the damage to Malevolence was done because the weapon itself overloaded, as per Plo Koon's statement: "If we do enough damage, the weapon might overload when Greivous tries to fire." Though oddly, when Anakin breaks off the attack on the bridge, he veers to his left, which should mean he's attacking the starboard ion cannon. But in subsequent shots, it's the port cannon that's attacked, and it's the port cannon that explodes first.

The accuracy of the three Venators at the end of the episode was just unforgivable, I agree. I can't remember seeing a single shot actually hit the Malevolence, though I think Malevolence herself showed passable accuracy at one point. She disabled some transports leaving the station, then opened fire, and then we cut to Greivous watching from the bridge, and there are explosions in the distance. Since those weren't caused by the Ion Weapon, the Malevolence must have hit something. Her accuracy against the fighters was terrible, but that's par for the course.

The best piece of dialogue was undoubtedly the battle droid Greivous unceremoniously beheads: "I still can't seem to hit anything."

[Mr. Oragahn]

Having watched the two first episodes, and actually liking them quite well, I'm also baffled by the sheer idiocy and ineptness found in both parties.

The pod-hunter thing was good for tension, but absolutely nonsensical in about every possible practical way. The only reason I'd think the CIS wouldn't shoot down escape pods would be that in that newly created space junkyard, any explosion and shrapnel would make finding surviving pods even harder. But seriously, how far can we push that logic? The range of disturbances would be fairly limited.
More so, why couldn't the Malevolence just fire those teratons to vapourize anything in that debris field?

The other main problems are the aim, the ranges and the missing bolt fired by Munificent ships, missing Yoda's cruiser, flying towards Toydaria and doing shit to the planetary surface, at least nothing worth gigatons of firepower which would last long enough to be spotted under another angle minutes later.

Comes the AAT being incapable of shooting down pink trees, yet smashing them down as they move forward... a few feet ahead until the trees suddenly decide to block the tanks.

Still, the speech Yoda gave to the clones really worked well. I can't recall any moment in the prequels reaching the strength of that single break in the cave.
I like, in fact, how all enlightening speeches by Yoda involve caves, like a certain allegory.

Oh, that's a bit off topic, but as I had zero expectation about the CW film, I kinda liked it for the mindless action it was, but it would have certainly been far better as two episodes than a flick which certainly did no deserve to end on the big screen.

Globally, I love the style, the textures, with the artistic effects they use.