“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (7 p.m. Central Fridays on Cartoon Network) is currently in the midst of its first-ever adaptation from another medium: It has adapted the first two-thirds of Henry Gilroy’s 2008-09 six-issue Dark Horse comic series “Slaves of the Republic,” and the trilogy’s final episode is slated for Jan. 6.
Like most entertainment geeks, I have mixed feelings about adaptations. On one hand, I’m paranoid about all the things they are going to “screw up.” On the other hand, it’s fun to see old stories brought to “life” through moving pictures; also, the creative process gets illuminated quite nicely when we can hold the source material in our hands and imagine how we would’ve done it.
In the case of “Slaves of the Republic,” the TV series has decided to move the story, which originally took place in Season 1, up to the current Season 4. This hasn’t resulted in a whole lot of content changes in the first two parts. The most notable indicator of the timeline shift is that Ahsoka is wearing Outfit No. 2 rather than Outfit No. 1 (In the “Star Wars” galaxy, and in computer animation, characters don’t have big wardrobes).
And I admit some changes have been for the better. These are the four biggest:
- Rather than fighting an overweight crime-lord type to buy time while Ahsoka and Anakin defuse the bombs, Obi-Wan fights a much-more formidable Zygerrian who looks kind of like Wolverine.
- The beast that Anakin and Ahsoka fight in the hold of the Zygerrian slave ship is cooler looking, as is the fight (Of course, an animated TV show should top a static comic book when it comes to fight scenes).
- Ahsoka reluctantly takes up the role of the slave girl whom Anakin presents to the slaver queen as a gift. This fits with her lead-with-her-fists personality, something she has picked up from Anakin at this point. In the comic book, she was gung-ho to prove she could convincingly act the part of a slave girl, fitting with her need to prove herself to Anakin in the early seasons.
- Ahsoka’s slave girl attire is elegant in a courtly way, and not as revealing as the more “Jabba’s palace” style outfit in the comic, which apparently stirred up some controversy (which is somewhat bizarre, because Ahsoka’s regular outfit from the early seasons wasn’t much less revealing). As with making the slave-ship monster more complex-looking, it makes sense that the TV show would take the opportunity to come up with a more colorful costume for Ahsoka, especially since action figures tend to spawn from the TV series more so than the comic.
The biggest change will inevitably happen in the third episode, “Escape from Kadavo.” In the comic, Dooku sends his loyal assassin, Ventress, into the fray as Anakin and Ahsoka attempt to rescue Obi-Wan and Cody and a bunch of Togrutans from a slave-labor camp. But in Season 3, Dooku — on Sidious’ orders — tried to have Ventress killed, then recruited Savage Opress to take her old job. Since the adaptation takes place in Season 4, Ventress won’t be able to play the same role as in the comic. The most likely changes will be either: 1, Dooku fights the Jedi on his own, or 2, Opress steps into the Ventress role.
Of course, I’ll be tuning in, curious to find out what the writers decide to do. But another part of me wonders why they would use three of the 22 episodes in Season 4 to adapt a Season 1 story from Dark Horse. I assume George Lucas and Dave Filoni wanted a story about slavery in order to bring that aspect of Anakin’s past to the fore for upcoming stories. Maybe someone said “We need something like Henry Gilroy’s ‘Slaves of the Republic’ comic.” Then someone else said, “We can’t do any better than that, so let’s just adapt it.” (I have no problem with that, although I wish they hadn’t moved the story up in the timeline. I’ll probably feel even stronger about that when Ventress is absent from Part 3.)
The consensus among fans seems to be: “Well, I wouldn’t want all of the episodes to be adaptations, but it’s kind of neat to do it once in a while.”
From that standpoint, which adaptations from other media would you like to see “The Clone Wars” tackle down the road? Obviously, we won’t see any of the “Republic Commando” series from Karen Traviss brought to animated life: The TV series blatantly contradicted her vision of Mandalore in a Season 2 arc that still has fans scratching their heads. Still, there were a ton of great books and comics released before the TV series launched. In fact, some of the TV show’s ideas are repeats from Dark Horse even though they aren’t quite adaptations: For example, the comic staged a watery battle on Kamino before the TV series did.
One problem with adapting material from 2002-08, of course, is that Ahsoka isn’t in any of those stories; she wasn’t introduced as Anakin’s Padawan until the 2008 movie.
Speaking of the question of “Where’s Ahsoka?,” she is also missing from “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” which came out in 2005. This has led to plenty of speculation about her fate; a quick Google search of “Ahsoka’s fate” will lead to hours of reading. The ForceCast’s “Clone Wars Roundtable” podcast brought up an interesting idea awhile ago: Rather than having “The Clone Wars” TV series end with the beginning of “Revenge of the Sith,” it should continue THROUGH the events of the movie, even if it’s technically not the Clone Wars anymore. Thus we can find out the fates of characters we’ve come to like on the show, including clones Rex and Cody, and naturally, Ahsoka.
As their discussion along these lines continued, someone brought up the idea of actually adapting “Revenge of the Sith” on “The Clone Wars,” perhaps in an alternate-viewpoint or behind-the-camera style, and that brings me to my pick for the “Clone Wars” adaptation I’d most like to see. I think it’d be fascinating to see the events of “Revenge of the Sith” interspersed with Ahsoka’s story from that same time period. Just as Matthew Stover’s novelization of the movie “saved” the film, which was, in my opinion, strong on ideas but weak in execution, a “Clone Wars” adaptation could do the same thing. When we as viewers wonder “Why would Anakin slaughter younglings?,” we tend to view it as weak character writing. If Ahsoka were to ponder the same question, suddenly the story gains depth and pathos without having to be altered.
(One “Roundtable” guest suggested that “Revenge of the Sith” should be thrown out the window entirely and remade on “The Clone Wars.” I very much disagree, just as I disagreed with “The Clone Wars” for ignoring the novels’ version of Mandalore and for killing off Even Piell when he was supposed to be alive in a later book. I think continuity is part of what makes the “Star Wars” universe feel real, and it shouldn’t be trifled with lightly.)
What do you think of the “Slaves of the Republic” adaptation — cool and fun, or lazy and unnecessary? And if the TV series tackles another adaptation, which story would you want to see? Share your thoughts below.