The Season 5 Discussion Thread

[FCEEVIPER]

'STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS': ASHLEY ECKSTEIN ON WHY AHSOKA'S FUTURE 'SEEMS A LOT BRIGHTER'
By: Christian Blauvelt


hollywood.com

If you saw the finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ fifth season this weekend you are, like me, probably still reeling from it. The question that’s dominated the show since its start in 2008—What explains why Anakin’s Padawan Ahsoka Tano is neither seen nor mentioned in Revenge of the Sith?—was answered.

[SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT.]

After being accused of a murder she didn’t commit, Ahsoka went on the run to clear her name. Though she ultimately was exonerated, the experience was so shattering to her that she decided to walk away from the Jedi Order and the galaxy-spanning Clone Wars they continue to fight. It was a turning point for the character, and a major change for the actress who voices her, Ashley Eckstein. “I’ve spent the last seven years in the studio with Matt Lanter recording Anakin and Ahsoka scenes,” says the actress, who worked primarily on-camera, including a recurring stint on Disney’s That’s So Raven, before getting the call from Lucasfilm to voice Anakin’s apprentice seven years ago. “And when I realized that Ahsoka was leaving, it became ‘Who knows if they’ll ever interact again?’ That hit me.” Not to mention that her departure from the titular conflict has spawned more questions than answers. “I think when I said, a few weeks before the finale, that it made me cry, the fans thought I meant that Ahsoka was going to die,” Eckstein says. “Ever since speculation began about her ultimate fate, so many fans thought Ahsoka was going to die. And as we neared the end of Season 5, I’d say 50% of the audience was convinced she would die in the finale, and the other 50% hoped she wouldn’t die but just didn’t know.”

RELATED: ‘Clone Wars’ Recap: The Fate of Ahsoka
Ahsoka has always been, in a sense, the ultimate Jedi Padawan. Fiercely loyal to the Order itself, a true believer that her master, Anakin Skywalker, can do no wrong, and a valiant commander in the Grand Army of the Republic who has fought the Separatists on countless battlefields during the Clone Wars. If she can lose her faith in the Jedi, and in herself, things aren’t looking too good for the Order as a whole. “Being framed for murder caused Ahsoka to lose faith in everything around her,” Eckstein says. “The fact that none of the Jedi, other than Anakin, were willing to believe and stand up for her was devastating. I think she senses that the Order as a whole is headed in the wrong direction, but the fact that Barriss, her best friend, turned on her and framed her for her own crime, meant that she had to reevaluate everything. Like so many other Jedi, Ahsoka’s vision of the future is clouded. But unlike the vast majority of the Jedi, she realizes she needs to step back and try to make sense of what’s happened, rather than continue to fight a war without all of the facts.”

Though Eckstein recorded Ahsoka’s departure from the Order some time ago, George Lucas himself stepped in to make crucial rewrites to the script. These were changes that tightened the focus on Ahsoka’s decision to leave and made it clear that her choice came from a place of strength, not fear. “Ahsoka is resolute in deciding to leave,” Eckstein says. “The only time I think she truly loses it is in the tunnel scene after she’s first on the run in ‘The Jedi Who Knew Too Much.’ She screams at Anakin, ‘You could have helped me, but you didn’t try!’ which is such a sad moment. So George wanted to show the strength of her final choice to walk away and have it be more about her point of view.” Those rewrites meant that Eckstein and Lanter returned several times to record new dialogue. “We realized the Anakin/Ahsoka relationship we’ve known was ending. And we knew that it had to end at some point because of Episode III, but it still hit me like a ton of bricks. So I emailed supervising director Dave Filoni a list of 20 questions, because I just had to know for my performance what exactly her reasoning is.”
RELATED: ‘Clone Wars’ Recap: Good Jedi Gone Bad
Unlike many other animation projects, The Clone Wars’ recording sessions involve the voice actors performing their scenes together, almost like an old-time radio broadcast, to create a naturalistic back-and-forth. For the final scene, in which Ahsoka gently turns down Anakin’s offer to return to the Jedi, Filoni was so keen for it to remain secret that he kicked everyone out of the recording studio except for the sound engineer, the producer Cary Silver, and Eckstein and Lanter. “There’s no way we would have gotten the same emotional impact if we had recorded separately.”

One particularly poignant moment was the revelation that Ahsoka has known about Anakin’s marriage to Padmé, when she replied to his statement that he had wanted to leave the Order himself many times with a quiet, “I know.” For her part, Eckstein doesn’t think Ahsoka was fully aware of Anakin’s secret until just recently, possibly when Anakin enlisted Padmé to represent Ahsoka as her defense counsel before the Senate. “It hit me that Ahsoka was saying goodbye to Anakin, and I was also saying goodbye to this particular dynamic we had in these recording sessions over the past few years [that] I loved so much.”
RELATED: Sam Witwer on Darth Maul’s ‘Clone Wars’ Fate
That sounds pretty finite, and maybe for this particular Master-Padawan dynamic Anakin and Ahsoka had, it is. But don’t expect this to be the end of the wide-eyed Togruta. “All I can say is, Dave and I talked about Ahsoka walking away, and this was never meant to be the ‘end of all things’ storyline for her,” Eckstein says. “I’m excited for Ahsoka’s future. It seems a lot brighter to me. Admittedly, I still don’t know her final outcome, but it’s gotta be better than being with the Jedi as Order 66 comes down. Sure, we know now why she isn’t in Episode III, but the fact [that] she leaves the Jedi Order opens up her story, and her ultimate destiny, completely. Everyone thought her outcome would be so black or white. She’s a Jedi, so she has to die, right? Well, if she’s not a Jedi, there are other possibilities for her. And we have no indication where she goes. She just walks off into the sunset.”

We’re still not certain where Season 6 of The Clone Wars will land—all Lucasfilm will say is that there will be “more”—but that’s gotta make you excited about its future…and the future of Ahsoka. Sounds like there’s still a lot of Force to her story.

[Bim]

That was a nice read, tnx for posting

“I’m excited for Ahsoka’s future. It seems a lot brighter to me. Admittedly, I still don’t know her final outcome, but it’s gotta be better than being with the Jedi as Order 66 comes down. Sure, we know now why she isn’t in Episode III, but the fact [that] she leaves the Jedi Order opens up her story, and her ultimate destiny, completely. Everyone thought her outcome would be so black or white. She’s a Jedi, so she has to die, right? Well, if she’s not a Jedi, there are other possibilities for her. And we have no indication where she goes. She just walks off into the sunset.”

The bolded bit made me laugh, so true

[Longshot777]

Hey Bim,

Is that Count Dooku on your avatar?? What cartoon was that from??


Anyways,

Just caught up and saw Palpatine showing his true power and destroying the Maul brothers!!!

What a great episode!!!

Finally Darth Sidious is shown why he is the TRUE master of The Force.

Only the Chosen One can defeat him hence why he has to turn Anakin to his side to prolong his inevitable death from the Chosen One.

[Verbal21]

Looks like Kenobi to me, especially with the blue saber.

[Gianakin_]

So Lucas did rewrites that had to do with the reasons behind her decision? Good man, leaving out of strength > leaving out of fear.

[Bim]

Originally Posted by Longshot777

Hey Bim,

Is that Count Dooku on your avatar?? What cartoon was that from??

Nope, that's Kenobi. No idea where it's from since Hunter's the one to blame for it

[James]

Looks like that season finale was the first appearance of those masked Temple Guards after all. There's a bunch of information popping up online though, although nothing we couldn't really work out from the episode itself. One thing I like is that apparently those guys are Jedi, not just some advanced security force of regular people.

Someone on Facebook asked "Where were these guys when Anakin was attacking the temple?" which made me laugh, but I guess there's plenty of explanations writers could come up with for that.

According to the Clone Wars Facebook page this was the first canon appearance of yellow bladed light sabers, is that true? I kind of feel like yellow must have been done before. I know you could get yellow in The Force Unleashed, although that's not necessarily canon because it was only an option for the player. In any case it seems strange that no one's ever had yellow before.

Here is the Wookiepedia page for the Jedi Temple Guard. At the moment there's not really any new information that wasn't evident in the episode.

[Destructus86]

awesome article. I am a HUGE fan of her character. I'd really like to see more of her story away from the Order.

[Hunter Rider]

Originally Posted by James

Absolutely. In a way I almost feel like Anakin becoming Vader is more tragic for the Ahsoka/Anakin relationship than it is for the Obi Wan/Anakin relationship. While Obi Wan and Anakin have known each other a lot longer and fought together far more often, I kind of think Anakin and Ahsoka seem closer in a 'kindred spirit' kind of way.

Agreed on the kindred spirit part, plus we have gotten to see that bond grow over the course of 5 seasons, where as Anakin and Obi-Wan only had one and a quarter movies really.

Originally Posted by Hellion

I'm not sure how to do website links but IGN has a interview with David Filoni explaining they removed an arc featuring Anakin, Padme, Clovis, & Embo (which was featured in the trailers) but was switched out with the young jedi arc.


Basically it came down to the amount/number of episodes it sounds like. Can't wait to see it next season>.

I don't get the number of eps issue given every season so far has had 22 and this season only had 20, was the Anakin/Padme/Clovis/Embo arc more than 2 parts?

Originally Posted by James

Looks like that season finale was the first appearance of those masked Temple Guards after all. There's a bunch of information popping up online though, although nothing we couldn't really work out from the episode itself. One thing I like is that apparently those guys are Jedi, not just some advanced security force of regular people.

I figured they'd be Force sensitives and potential Jedi who maybe didn't go through the trials but instead became Temple guards, interesting that it seems like they were equals as Jedi and simply took a lonely but honorable position as Temple Guards.

Someone on Facebook asked "Where were these guys when Anakin was attacking the temple?" which made me laugh, but I guess there's plenty of explanations writers could come up with for that.

I wondered that myself.

According to the Clone Wars Facebook page this was the first canon appearance of yellow bladed light sabers, is that true? I kind of feel like yellow must have been done before. I know you could get yellow in The Force Unleashed, although that's not necessarily canon because it was only an option for the player. In any case it seems strange that no one's ever had yellow before.

I think canon is far tighter than some think so that would certainly make this episode the first canon appearance of the yellow bladed Lightsaber.

[Verbal21]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

I think canon is far tighter than some think so that would certainly make this episode the first canon appearance of the yellow bladed Lightsaber.

Wait, I always thought one of Ahsoka's blades were yellow?

[Hunter Rider]

^^^ Both of Ahsoka's are green.

[Verbal21]

Originally Posted by Hunter Rider

^^^ Both of Ahsoka's are green.

ok, but in my defense, I've always thought the bottom color was yellow

[Hunter Rider]

Lol, well that picture certainly makes it look yellowy but it's never actually been yellow on the show.

[Marvolo]

Ashoka's left blade has always been closer to yellow than green on the show. She's never had two lightsabers of identical green.

[Compi716]

FINALLY caught the finale...WOW. This show is just so wonderful, and the animation this season has been gorgeous. And talk about an incredible ending! Such a beautiful, sad, and heartfelt moment that exemplifies the quality of this show.

I really, really hope we hear news about season 6 sooner rather than later.

[GoldGoblin]

Ashoka does have a yellow lightsaber,just pause the dvd and you can clearly see it.

[James]

Heh heh heh, this is one of those things where people argue over whether or not something is one colour or the other. Is it blue or dark purple? Green or grey? We all see colour ever so slightly different, and our definitions of what colours qualify as one or the other vary as well. It can be very confusing.

In this instance the show's creators have told us that the Temple Guard's light sabers are the first appearance of yellow light sabres. This tells us that Ahsoka's light saber is not yellow, but a variant of green.

Looking at the bottom light saber in that picture without the top one in view, it appears to me like a neon-green. When I look at them together the bottom one looks yellow. Ergo, I think side-by-side the bottom one appears yellow because the top one if such a prime-green, but in reality it's just a neon variant.

[kalzor]

Well damn.

http://www.jedinews.co.uk/news/news.aspx?newsID=10825

[James]

Here's the key sentence:

"Although not yet officially confirmed..."

Until something official is announced, there's no point worrying. Besides, I was fairly confident everything had been locked in for season six to begin airing on the Disney Channel?

In any case, unless it's from an official source it doesn't mean anything.

[kalzor]

Still not confirmed for the Disney Channel is the other key.

With their focus pretty much set on Episode 7, I could see it just either getting a hiatus until 2015 (which would be weird but plausible) or getting it set for a DVD finale or webisodes.

[Verbal21]

Webisodes or the bonus episodes on the blu-ray would be awesome. And like you said, with Disney's focus on Ep VII, I really hope they can do a similar style show with the original characters to start building up the awareance of them for the younger fans. Having these three years is a great advantage they have and I hope they take care of it to it's fullest potential.

[GoldGoblin]

When is season 6 coming out?Be cool if it took place after Revenge of the Sith where Vader is the villain.

[ericadawn16]

So, I have my fingers crossed that there's some carbon freezing accident and she turns up in episode 7...

If not, one of those stand-alone movies would be awesome, too...and I do mean live action.

[Marvolo]

It's not looking good for The Clone Wars...

It seems as though The Clone Wars is done

“Then our worst fears have been realized…” –Mace Windu

It seems a sad fact that The Clone Wars is likely not returning to any television screens in the next year. I’ve heard rumblings to this effect from people in the know for a while now, but never on the record, and with them always encouraging us to show support for the show. Over the weekend, though, it seems as though The Clone Wars has met its demise.

Jedi News UK is reporting from “several sources” that The Clone Wars is done. There has been no official announcement, though I’ve heard one will be forthcoming, perhaps as early as tomorrow. There’s no good reason for this, but I said back in January that the plug could be pulled for the same shortsighted reasons as the 3D re-releases of the other films.

None of my sources has any reason to lie to me, but I was holding out talking about this until an official announcement was made, in hopes that it was all an elaborate bluff. Perhaps it will all turn out to be an elaborate bluff anyway and the announcement will be good news. We’ll see Season Six and all of the rest of the material in production finished and released to us to tide us over until the Sequel Trilogy.

But it doesn’t seem likely.

I’ll be angry and saddened by the “official” loss of The Clone Wars. I’ll be doubly angry if the completed episodes don’t air or appear on Netflix or iTunes, especially with the cliffhangers of the last two arcs of Season 5. But, as Master Yoda said, we must rejoice for those around us who transform into the force. The Clone Wars has given us five seasons of Star Wars that have blown us away. In the initial press releases, we were only getting 100 episodes over four seasons. With more than 100 over five seasons, perhaps we were living on borrowed time anyway.

You can still send messages of support for The Clone Wars to Disney and Lucasfilm. If nothing else, at least they’ll know how much the show means to all of us and that we’d love to see it continue.

http://www.examiner.com/article/it-s...alerts_article

[James]

There's nothing on their Facebook page about it yet, not that it means much.

I was thinking, if it does end then that was one hell of a place to end it! No doubt Ahsoka's story will carry on somewhere. Also, I will forever blame the dreaded Droid Arc. Here's hoping it's all just wild rumors though.