Clone Wars animated CGI TV series - why do i like it?

I watch it religiously, and yes, with a few exceptions I too think it is better than the three first movies - they expand upon the story and universe nicely. The movies felt more like 'yeah, this is a story we kind of have to tell even though it's a bit meh'. Doesn't hurt that I like the little spitfire, too.

Semi off topic - star wars dark empire trilogy:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1595826122/ref=oss_product

I recently ordered this after hearing some glowing comments and it picks up after return of the jedi.  Some pretty cool stuff there.

Anyway, on topic - I've watched about 4 episodes (and loved them), then somehow this dropped off my radar.  I think its very well done and enjoyed them.  I need to pick this up again as its certainly a good cartoon and well done imo. 

Are the episodes online anywhere? I Don't really have time in during the day to watch much of anything.

I think they are horrible after reading some of hte books

@nilles - you might be right.  I've liked what I've seen of the clone wars cartoon anyway.  I feel like they are generally well done, but I can't really speak to how close they are to the books, etc.  I'm not a huge fan of episodes 1-3.  Speaking of which:

Watch this online:  http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episode-1-the-phantom-menace/

It's a VERY good review of episode 1.  If you like star wars, odds are you will find this very entertaining.  He has reviews for ep 1-3. 

Hmmm... I personally liked the prequles (poor jedi) but regardless

If you have read any of the books concerning the mandalorians you'll see why i don't like the series. Also they just seem to mess with canon

I would have said the same thing a month ago.  Do me a favor and watch about 10 minutes of the redlettermedia link I provided above and decide if you want to watch more.  I'm a HUGE star wars fan and watching that helped me see some of the problems.  I think you'll find it quite entertaining.

A quick, albeit crappy example:  here is your task.  Describe the following character without referring to their profession or what they look like.

Han solo:  A bit of a brigand.  He's out for money, but has a heart of gold.  He's a scumbag, but also a hero.  He's there when it matters. 

qui gon jinn:  He's... stoic.  (Any other thoughts?  He was a pretty important character in episode 1, right?)

Princess Leia - She's not exactly soft spoken.  She's a bit like a shrew.  She's a brat.  She flirts with someone else just to frustrate another.  She becomes a hero and is the hope for the galaxy if her brother dies.  She ends up falling if love with a brigand. 

Padmé Amidala - She's.... she.... she loves someone that goes bad and gives birth to the last hope of the universe...

Anyway, that's just a small sample of some of the things discussed in the review.  Give it a look if you like.  I found it entertaining, at the very least. 

And no - I get that.  I'm a bit of a purist nerd myself.  If they are screwing with the canon WITHOUT adding any interesting or meaningful content, then I'm not a fan.  But as I haven't read all of the books, its not off-putting to me.

I like star wars but am not up on who done what but isn't cannon set by the creator of the universe, George Lucas. Who wrote those so-called canon books and who created the animated series?

I read a few books years ago and I am pretty sure George did not write them, though they were excellent.

Oh they have a system of deciding what's canon and what's not at Skywalker ranch. George's time is too valueable to rule on everything that bares the StarWars logo, though I suppose he could override anything if he wanted to. Unsure of how they consider the TV series though.

Most of the Extended Universe novels are canon, though there are dozens of authors of them.

I can't stand the Clone Wars cartoon, it is making a mess of Star Wars canon for several reasons. The entire Clone Wars storyline between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is being rewritten thanks to the Clone Wars cartoon. The Tantive IV (Princess Leia's ship from A New Hope) no longer appears in Revenge of the Sith, which ruins the EU character Corla Mertonae's story, thanks to the Clone Wars cartoon. The list of things being changed by a kid's cartoon is getting ridiculous. The 6 movies are great, but the general direction of the Expanded Universe since the New Jedi Order series of novels came out is irritating me.

Whoa really, what happened to it? Its pretty rare that canon material ever directly contradicts the movies. Of course like you I haven't paid much attention since the New Jedi Order, though I go discouraged by events after it, not from the Prequels (honestly a second Galactic Civil War even after the Yuzhan Vong?).

Actually, I shouldn't have said rewritten, more like the timeline has yet to be finalized now thanks to the Clone Wars cartoon.

A contradiction like that is exactly what I am complaining about, because George Lucas said it himself that the corvette is the Tantive IV. Every source since Revenge of the Sith has stated that the Tantive IV was the corvette until they retconned it to be the Sundered Heart from Star Wars: Empire at War in a recent source. This was due to several things including technical discrepancies between the dimensions of the ship in Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope (could be explain away by the refit mentioned later) and the decision in the Clone Wars cartoon to make the Tantive IV a CR90 before Revenge of the Sith (which is just irritating considering its a T-canon kid's cartoon overruling the G-canon movies, the highest canon that trumps all). This totally ruins Corla Mertonae's story, because she was in charge of the Tantive IV's Vanguard c20 refit from a CR70 corvette to the CR90 standard during the Dark Times between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Then there is Ryloth rotating like every other planet, again thanks to the Clone Wars cartoon. I hate all of this, and flatly refuse to accept it as canon, because they are not doing a good enough job of respecting existing canon.

I can't even begin to describe how much I don't want to read the post-NJO books. I don't have a problem with the Second Galactic Civil War, more like plot decisions like Natasi Daala as Chief of State and as CmdrNilles eluded to earlier in this thread, Karen Traviss screwing up things with the Mandalorians by going overboard with them and ruining their image in her post-NJO books.

Yeah, everything after the Hand of Thrawn duology should be burned.

Everything written by Pablo Hidalgo, Abel G. Pena, and Curtis Saxton should be scattered after burning.

Here some news for you.

The daughter of George L. wrote the some of story lines for Clone Wars. She was the one that did the witches of Episodes 12 to 14. She must be getting practice in writing so when Old George passes on, the star wars empire will continue. You do know that is  12 books. The last 3 books are about Liea and Han and Luke. I love to see Thrawn and Yuuzhan Vong in the last three moies but that would be too Kool. 

Those three guys have done more good for Star Wars than all most any other people I know of. Pablo Hidalgo and Abel G. Pena came up with the original story for the Mandalorians until one Karen Traviss stepped in and started ignoring almost everything they did. Curtis Saxton has tried to help fix the numerous technical mistakes like cataloging the Tector-class Star Destroyer and other unidentified Star Destroyers in Return of the Jedi. I have the utmost respect for their work.

You and I have very different perspectives on the Star Wars universe. I miss the days when 'Mandalorian' was only an adjective applied to Boba Fett's armor or, at most, the Washington Generals of Tales of the Jedi.

Hidalgo and Pena exemplify a relatively modern approach to managing the universe under which every perceived continuity error needs to be replaced with some contrived nonsense, e.g. cloning. I don't take issue with the need to make the universe consistent, but I do think that need shouldn't always take precedence over the other needs of a fictional universe, say, decent plotting.

Saxton's a slightly different case. What irks me about his contributions are his insistence that the movies are scientifically, rather than cinematographically, accurate representations, and the universe should, wherever possible, follow presumptively objective 'conventions'. It's not so much that he holds the opinions that he does, but more that he believes that those opinions aren't just opinions, but shared norms.

In maintaining the continuity -- or, more correctly, what they perceive to be the continuity -- all three tend to favor the sledgehammer over the scalpel... or the lightsaber over the vibroblade, to steal a metaphor from one of the real heroes of the Star Wars universe.

Well, no one else is trying to fix errors like that. I am tired of seeing nonsense like the Eclipse and the Sovereign-classes just being Super Star Destroyers instead of Star Dreadnoughts like the Executor-class, the Imperial-class SSD and Allegiance from Dark Empire not being Imperial-class Star Battlecruisers with Allegiance the only named representative, and the Strident-class Star Defender being in the same league as an Imperial-class Star Destroyer when her sister class, the Viscount-class Star Defender, is comparable to the Executor-class Star Dreadnought. They can't even clean up the Mon Calamari Star Cruisers, the Corellian capital ships, and the large Imperial capital ships. Those starship classifications exist for a reason, but the writers don't use them when they create something new, which leaves the ships with what ever name can be extrapolated from the books. Would you rather they just continue screwing things up with the Clone Wars cartoon nonsense and the post-Hand of Thrawn Duology era (New Jedi Order series and beyond). That show and those series of books have change more things than any other stories ever conceived in the history of the EU. You clearly miss the EU before there was such a thing as the EU. Michael A. Stackpole and Timothy Zahn are the only authors I have seen who don't destroy everything they get their hands on.

Yes, but they should quit while they're only somewhat behind or hire a decent writer to do it for them.

I liked the universe better when 'star destroyer' referred to a group of similar warships, before Saxton decided that it must be an analog for 'destroyer' and not a cross-cutting designation. (Saxton's decision here is an example of the type of 'objectivity' I wrote about in the previous post.) Unfortunately, the new designations like 'star dreadnought' don't have the same ring as 'star destroyer' or even 'super star destroyer', as tacky as it sounds.

No, but there's not a forced choice between the two. Unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that the Clone Wars and Legacy folks will continue spewing their brand of nonsense while Hidalgo et al. will continue spewing theirs, even if theirs is a corrective sort of nonsense.

That's not quite true. I miss the late 1990's era EU.

P.S. There's no need to keep namedropping class names and the like... I'm just as big of a nerd as you are. :-p

I am just tired of this screwing up everything that has happened since the NJO came out.

Agreed

I mean, the NJO was tolerable, but the general direction it took things is just terrible. Things like Natasi Daala being Chief of State and the portrayal of the Mandalorians, two reasons why I won't read anything after the NJO beyond maybe the Dark Nest trilogy any time soon.

Then there is the Clone Wars mania doing far too much ignoring the existing canon like adding new content without using existing content like the largest Kuati capital ships or even the Victory-class Star Destroyer (which had better appear when they get to that time period, if they haven't destroyed the timeline by then), or just changing existing things like the portrayal of Ryloth and stepping on the toes of G-canon when its only T-canon.

Things like the Tantive IV no longer being a CR70 in Revenge of the Sith and later undergoing a Vanguard c20 refit during the Dark Times to become the CR90 seen in A New Hope. I will say it again, I am not accepting the Tantive IV dramatic retcon any time soon without a cleanup of the mess it caused and justification for it that involves more than the technical discrepancies that where better explained by the refit, because it destroyed the perfectly good story of Corla Mertonae and Revenge of the Sith in general.

No need to read that, I am rambling like a madman over the same ideas again.

Zigzag, I come from a school of thought where examples are important, though in truth it probably has more to do with my general distaste with this "new" Star Wars as opposed to the "old" Star Wars before the Del Rey books and a Clone Wars mania kid's cartoon rewriting every single thing it possibly can. I don't know what else to do besides point out the problems I see.