The Clone Wars

Fan Art Friday: At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi

Mei-Mei6 Comments

Welcome back to our Star Wars coloring book club, where Kiri at Star Wars Anonymous and I color the same image every month to compare and contrast.

I have complicated feelings about Darth Maul.  How could such a cool character only get two lines in The Phantom Menace?  Why did The Clone Wars essentially replace him with his brother, Savage Opress, only to bring him back to life in a dumb way that is now canon?  Why is he from Dathomir, instead of the Zabrak homeworld of Iridonia?  Why did they bring him into Solo at all?

Yet despite all these questionable story decisions, I still have a fondness for the Sith apprentice with the awesome double-bladed lightsaber.  He has plenty of great storylines that have been told in books and on TV, and great actors behind his portrayal.

I had fun with this picture.  I didn’t have any grand plan for it, I just chose colors as I went along, starting with Maul’s portrait and working outward.

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In fact, I have reached the point where I need to sharpen my pencils again.  I discovered that the four colors I use the most are: jade green, aqua green, red, and golden yellow.  Obviously, I used several of those here.

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My shortest pencils

Check out Kiri’s subtle, dried-up color palette of Maul here.  As she points out, this was the very first page in the coloring book.  Kind of funny we’re only now getting around to it after a few years of doing this!

 

Fan Art Friday: Cowabunga Clone Troopers

Mei-Mei14 Comments

Welcome back to our Star Wars coloring book club, where Kiri at Star Wars Anonymous and I color the same image every month to compare and contrast.

This month I decided I was tired of coloring everything in a symmetrical pattern, so I wanted to do the four Captain Rex clone trooper helmets all different colors.

For some reason, an inspiration immediately sprang to mind: my childhood heroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Four helmets, four Ninja Turtles.  The more I looked at the picture, the more I liked that idea.  The circle in the center even kind of looks like a turtle shell.

Thematically, it works really well also.  The Ninja Turtles may be an American creation, but they are inspired by the culture of Japan, just like Star Wars.  The style of the helmets of Vader (and consequently the storm troopers) seem partly inspired by Japanese samurai helmets.  Obi-Wan’s sojourn on Tatooine seems much like the life of a ronin.  And most specifically, the Kurosawa’s movie The Hidden Fortress was a huge inspiration to George Lucas when making the movie that would come to be known as A New Hope.

This one was pretty quick and fun; maybe not one of my favorites, but I enjoyed it.  And for the record, Michelangelo is the best Ninja Turtle.  Cowabunga!

 

Let the Clone Wars begin!

Mei-Mei1 Comment

So, Star Wars: The Clone Wars went up on Netflix on Friday, and over the weekend I watched the movie and the first 5 or so episodes.

I will definitely keep watching.

This guy's name is General Loathsom. Really.
This guy’s name is General Loathsom. Really.

The movie, as I had been warned, is truly awful.  No exaggeration: it has an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  The dialogue was clearly written by a 5-year-old, and the plot advances only through incompetence (mostly the droids’) and convenient communications breakdowns.

Wouldn’t Dooku have sensed that the Huttling was not in the backpack?  Why would you send troops into hand-to-hand combat with blasters and NO MELEE WEAPONS?  Why isn’t Ahsoka dead at least five times? So many questions!!!

The two scenes I enjoyed: Obi-Wan’s stalling tactic and the Padmé-Anakin look at the end.

I don’t know if my preconceived ideas played a role, but the TV series was palpably better as soon as it started.  The very first episode really nailed Yoda’s character, improved the dialogue, and had an intelligent story to go with the action.

I still find Ahsoka annoying a few episodes in (she’s kinda like Skye in Agents of SHIELD), but I assume that will change because everyone else seems to love her.

My favorite part of the show so far is all the cool planets and characters that I love from the EU coming to life.  The character design and voice acting are pretty good, too.  I even got my husband watching a little bit 🙂