The Untold Clone Wars Panel Impressions (SWCA 2015)

Fans of The Clone Wars (one of them being me) were in for a treat when Pablo Hildalgo and Dave Filoni got to show off a lot of unseen concept art and clips, even if they weren’t really supposed to. They teased the Bad Batch arcs, Wookiee related plans, Cad Bane and Boba Fett on Tatooine, and some stuff from the 8 episodes the upcoming novel Dark Disciple is based off of, and some Ahsoka Tano shenanigans.

(I have my full gallery below, but the official site has all the concept art up in better quality than my photos anyways so enjoy those as well!)

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UPDATE: The entire panel, including all the footage that was shown, is up on the official Star Wars YouTube:

The best part of this panel was the very chill and laid back nature of it, as Pablo and Dave sat on a big old couch and relaxed into the proceedings, casually sharing all this new and exciting content for TCW. David Collins hosted and he felt like he was really only there to lead them onto the next steps or reel them in for time purposes. Dave and Pablo have an easy rapport, with Pablo always quick on even the minute details, and they gave the whole panel a hilarious vibe. Dave even addressed the whole #SaveTheCloneWars movement, thanking them for being so invested in his first Star Wars show.

It all began with a look at the return of Cad Bane, with Boba Fett and Aurra Sing, as they set out to rescue a kid from Tusken Raiders. Cad was to be mentoring Boba, trying to impart skills onto the young Fett for a somewhat twisted but reasonable Cad Bane reason: he knew Jango and always wanted to best him in combat, so after Jango died Cad’s next best chance was to train Boba so he could, in a way, try to beat Jango again. They’d have had a run in with a Tusken shaman, rode dewbacks (with hats that Filoni geeked out over), and Cad would’ve generally been a badass. The short rough animation clip they showed (much like the Utapau arc) had full voice acting and featured a sweet scene of Boba being captured on purpose and Cad setting a Tusken on fire. Lots of fun implications in that arc.

Next they covered the Wookiee arc, where we would’ve seen an almost “Force-like” connection between the walking carpets and the nature around them (which Pablo revealed George Lucas rambled about back in 1977). They have the ability to call on tree gods, the giant monkey looking creatures in the picture, but rarely liked to as they are obviously sacred of them. But that all changes when a Transdoshan pact with the Separatist starts the slow invasion of the planet. In an interesting twist on their communion with nature, their best option to retreat from the invading forces would be to strategically burn a portion of their forest. This would’ve caused them some strife between the Wookiees and the clone troopers, even though both sides agreed it was the best course of action. A brief clip showed off an impressive scene where the Bad Batch troopers and Wookiees ride their tree gods, leading to a run in with–as seen in Knights of the Old Republic–a group of mantis/spider-like things. It would’ve ruled to watch this in full animation, as one of the Wookiees Hulks out and slams one of the creatures to the ground. More Wookiees are never a bad thing!

Then some bits and pieces of the 8 episodes which will become Star Wars: Dark Disciple were shown off, including a fun chase scene on Pantora (the race which George Lucas starred as in Ep. III and who’s character got an episode in TCW) where Ventress is after an extremely acrobatic alien and is interrupted by Quinlan Vos. She punches Vos not because he helped her, but because he called her ‘babe’; You’ve got to love Ventress. Along with seeing Ventress’ new evolved persona, Vos’s character will slowly start to look a lot more and act a lot more like his comic book origins, something which should please long-time fans. Their novel, which pits them against Dooku, drops July 7. But they aren’t the only ones who face off against Dooku, as we were treated to a clip where Dooku kicks major ass in a well choreographed battle with Boba (fully suited up!), Highsinger (his droid companion), Embo and his dog, and Latts Razzi.

But of course the big draw was the Ahsoka content, where they showed off the design she would’ve sported in some of her arcs following her leaving the Jedi Order. The one arc we did get to see some footage from was of her taking a journey into the Coruscant underworld with a janky speeder bike (a design given to Kanan’s speeder in Rebels), which breaks down and forces Ahsoka to get rather crafty on how to survive its out of control crash. There also would’ve been a bunch of ‘Ahsoka Loyalist’ clones (of the 332nd) and the final season was supposed to line up and surpass Revenge of the Sith, showing the fates of characters like Ahsoka and Rex. But for Rex that’ll have to wait for another day, I guess.

Here are a few other things:

A fan asked Dave if he’d publish his sketchbook. Pablo and he both agreed the best way to get that to happen is tell those who can make that decision that demand is there!
The design of Ventress’ ship, the Banshee, will be given to someone in Star Wars Rebels S2, though slightly modified.
Fan wondered if Cad Bane would be in Rebels. Dave said not at this time, but he’d rather have Embo, but other writers wanted to kill off Embo’s dog. Dave argued he’s an alien dog, he could live a long time.
There would’ve been an arc where someone would’ve ventured deep underneath the Jedi Temple, which has been built on top of other Force religions over the years, to a Sith Temple hidden far below. This underground Sith Temple is canon already, as it was mentioned in the novel Tarkin, believe it or not.
A ‘Top Gun’ arc, where ground clones and fighter clones decide to settle an argument with a ship race. Rex is picked from the ground troops, but is paired with R2, who I guess pissed him off some way and they get stranded together after Rex crashes, forces them to deal with one another. Sounded like a pure fun arc to me.
The biggest shock was the Yuuzhan Vong sketch, where a Republic Cruiser has a run-in with a Vong scouting vessel. Said to have a X-Files/alien abduction feel. To think, Vong could’ve, and still might get a chance to be, canon…
They’ll occasionally call stand-in voice over talent from the crew with their recorded sessions in the middle of the night to scare them. How cool of a call would that be?
The Kyber crystal’s story is still left to tell (seen in the Utapau arc and Rebels‘ “Breaking Ranks“).
Bariss Offee was original supposed to die at the end of the Ahsoka arc in S5 of TCW, but she didn’t. That’s all Filoni has to say about that for the moment.

Check out these other sites for more details:

Thomas Storai has an extremely detailed looked at all TCW content post-Yoda arc and it’s all in mostly chronological order.
Johnamarie Macias of The Wookie Gunner transcribed her audio recording and has links to video people took of the clips they showed at the panel!
Star Wars Maven discusses why this panel was their day one highlight, even over the teaser.

Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.

The Untold Clone Wars Panel Impressions (SWCA 2015)

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