Tales of the Jedi; Willow
Dec. 1st, 2022 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakMore Star Wars: I watched the six Tale of the Jedi episodes - btw, will this be continued, or is it complete? - , i.e. an animated anthology masterminded by David "Clone Wars" Filoni; three of the episodes are focused on Ahsoka Tano, and three on Dooku. Despite my Ahsoka love, I actually found the Dooku episodes more compelling, but that's no surprise if you consider that Ahsoka got thoroughly explored in The Clone Wars, which has her big emotional trajectory, and while the three episodes we get here (Ahsoka's birth family and background, Anakin thinks droid training isn't good enough for Ahsoka and has her practicing (avoid) getting shot at by Rex and his men, and how Ahsoka got from post Clone Wars/Revenge of the Sith despair to getting back into action again) are neat addenda, they're not exactly necessary to fleshing her out or understanding her. That's all aready been done. Whereas with Dooku, the few tantalizing hints we get o his pre villainous life in Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars indicated there could be a lot of potential, but it was just that so far, potential; his on screen appearances were with him firmly in Sith territory and without any inner conflict about it.
Which is why I thought it was was great to see these three episodes tackling Dooku's trajectory of from doubting Jedi to Sith, and to do it in a way that managed three dimensionality without making the end result less villainous. Someone in the script writing department decided to have Dooku grow disillusioned specifically (in as much as the cartoon aimed at younger viewers format allows) for political reasons - he's confronted twice with corrupt senators who only bleed their respective planets dry, and with the fact the Jedi are seen (not wrongly) by the population primarily as a tool of the Senate instead of defenders of the weak - , and that there's a clever ambiguity about the scene between him and Mace Windu at the end of his second episode, when he realises Windu got the now free seat at the Council. Does Dooku mind because he thinks Windu got that seat by sticking to the rules over the spirit (i.e. the need to help), or does he mind because he's ambitious and wanted that seat himself? Both, I'd say.
And even in the third episode, which is set shortly after The Phantom Menace, and shows Dooku making the step to Sith, he's still shown sincerely grieving Qui-Gon, with whom we've seen him in the first episode. I always thought it would be more interesting if Dooku wasn't entirely lying to Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones re: Qui-Gon Jinn, so thank you, David Filoni, for feeling likewise. Now we actually have some on screen canon as to what their relationship was like, and that means that if I ever find the time to write SW fiction again, I'll probably write about it.
Willow: I saw the film when young, and the first two episodes dropped so far are charming and promising for the rest. (Also way better than that sequel novel many years ago.) Some of the things I liked:
- on screen f/f relatonship between Kit and Jade, without any coyness or euphemisms; it's main text
- not just one but several female warriors
- clever twists on popular tropes, including Arik as the ladies' man (except he's also a good brother, his romantic track record seems to be not due to callousness) ending up as the to-be-rescued damsel and Greydon as the unwanted arranged marriage partner (except he's got neither a falling-in-love arc with Kit nor is he an evil bastard standing in her way, he's just a sensible guy with scholarly strengths who is able to be helpful to 'spoiler')
- the big "who's Elora Danan" twist which really does turn a certain stereotype on its head
- older Shorsha = Joanna Whalley being great ((I was afraid she'd hardly be in the show)
- Willow's daughter
- Willow being very human, for lack of a better term, well meaning but not perfect
- so far, the series' way of dealing with the fact Val Kilmer due to his physical condition can't be available isn't ignoring MadMartigan was an important part of what made the oriiginal movie but have Sorsha and other characters bringing him up in poignant ways, and the in-story reason given for his absence makes sense.
Which is why I thought it was was great to see these three episodes tackling Dooku's trajectory of from doubting Jedi to Sith, and to do it in a way that managed three dimensionality without making the end result less villainous. Someone in the script writing department decided to have Dooku grow disillusioned specifically (in as much as the cartoon aimed at younger viewers format allows) for political reasons - he's confronted twice with corrupt senators who only bleed their respective planets dry, and with the fact the Jedi are seen (not wrongly) by the population primarily as a tool of the Senate instead of defenders of the weak - , and that there's a clever ambiguity about the scene between him and Mace Windu at the end of his second episode, when he realises Windu got the now free seat at the Council. Does Dooku mind because he thinks Windu got that seat by sticking to the rules over the spirit (i.e. the need to help), or does he mind because he's ambitious and wanted that seat himself? Both, I'd say.
And even in the third episode, which is set shortly after The Phantom Menace, and shows Dooku making the step to Sith, he's still shown sincerely grieving Qui-Gon, with whom we've seen him in the first episode. I always thought it would be more interesting if Dooku wasn't entirely lying to Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones re: Qui-Gon Jinn, so thank you, David Filoni, for feeling likewise. Now we actually have some on screen canon as to what their relationship was like, and that means that if I ever find the time to write SW fiction again, I'll probably write about it.
Willow: I saw the film when young, and the first two episodes dropped so far are charming and promising for the rest. (Also way better than that sequel novel many years ago.) Some of the things I liked:
- on screen f/f relatonship between Kit and Jade, without any coyness or euphemisms; it's main text
- not just one but several female warriors
- clever twists on popular tropes, including Arik as the ladies' man (except he's also a good brother, his romantic track record seems to be not due to callousness) ending up as the to-be-rescued damsel and Greydon as the unwanted arranged marriage partner (except he's got neither a falling-in-love arc with Kit nor is he an evil bastard standing in her way, he's just a sensible guy with scholarly strengths who is able to be helpful to 'spoiler')
- the big "who's Elora Danan" twist which really does turn a certain stereotype on its head
- older Shorsha = Joanna Whalley being great ((I was afraid she'd hardly be in the show)
- Willow's daughter
- Willow being very human, for lack of a better term, well meaning but not perfect
- so far, the series' way of dealing with the fact Val Kilmer due to his physical condition can't be available isn't ignoring MadMartigan was an important part of what made the oriiginal movie but have Sorsha and other characters bringing him up in poignant ways, and the in-story reason given for his absence makes sense.
