The Disney formula to Star Wars is the Dave Filoni formula to Star Wars, and it’s amazing how long it’s taking people to realize this. Dave Filoni was Disney Star Wars before Disney Star Wars was Disney Star Wars.

Ashoka really should have died in a fight with Vader, either the one in Rebels or earlier. That arc Ezra goes through to save her was so dumb. There was potential for something good in having her fight Vader. Keeping her alive and included in more things is nonsensical fan girling by Filoni.

Honestly I like Ashoka and TCW, my issue is that he keeps bringing her and other characters back over and over.

One gripe I've always had with Ashoka was how she was shoehorned in as Anakin's Padawan. We're told the Jedi are assigning padawans to Jedi Knights during the clone Wars but this ONLY happens to Anakin. All other Jedi choose who they are going to train as a Padawan and there are several knights featured in TCW how are shown to be without a Padawan. It was clearly a weak excuse to force Ashoka into a storyline which she had no business being into in the first place.

It's funny how people complain about Galen Marek being A broken character but these same people turn around praise Ahoska Tano-and all she is Dave Filoni's fan fic character(Y'know,calling her A fan fic character is A insult to actual good fanfic characters.)

Thanks for pointing these facts out, Prof! I've felt that way about Filoni and his Star Wars writing since the Clone Wars came out. It's just hard to talk about it with a lot of Star Wars fans because the mainstream community has decided that The Clone Wars is amazing and Asohka is the greatest character ever...

I liked Rebels, but looking back; you're completely right about Sabine. She made that super conductor for Beskar armor; only got hated for it over the course of a single two parter. Never brought up again.

4:27 For the longest time, the concept of the Jedi being the real bad guys of the story was always a deconstructionist fan theory.

It irks me when fans today believe the Jedi were corrupt. Yes, they had their shortcomings with the Chancellor, and their lack of vision on that one singular point led to their genocide. That displays more the power of the villain, not the weakness of the heroes. Ultimately, the Jedi were the ambassadors of good and peace.

I'm actually a weirdo, I didn't have much issue with Ahsoka initially. But unlike everyone else, I say Ahsoka and TCW quality dropped. The arc that really got me to turn against Ahsoka was the Onderon Arc as it shows another case of her being a Mary Sue. The main key was that this arc bothered ignoring its own plot point that the Jedi could not expose themselves aiding the Rebels of Onderon. When she revealed herself defending the Onderon Rebels, she outright exposed herself and by extension broke the one rule; don't interfere less you show the Republic actually supporting an insurrection. Now that she did this, and both the King and his Separatist allies know the Republic are supporting the Rebels, do they take advantage of this political bomb and use it for their own advantage? No. The next episode actually ignores it and continues like she didn't ever reveal herself to save some insurrectionists. Unlike others, I say Ahsoka got worse as seasons went on; not better. And I'm with Lucas in that Ahsoka should have died during the Clone Wars. But this was a point Filonii was willingly disobeying Lucas on. TCW is fine as a kid show, but it has it's issues fitting in with the Canon. Ahsoka is just one of many. It also explain why Filonii never used Aaylla Securra in future episodes.

This is the best takedown of Filoni I've ever seen. I love how you bring up the fact that Ahsoka is a Mary Sue in disguise, because she never actually makes real mistakes. She makes fake mistakes and the show rewards her for them. And yes Filoni cannot into character development at all. But man the amount of times that Ahsoka was rewarded for bad behavior or for making mistakes was infuriating.

Back when I still watched Kevin Smith's show I remember him talking about Filoni, basically he asked Filoni why doesn't he write for the movies instead of the show (Rebels was still on the air) and Filoni responded "Because here I can do whatever I want" the bad thing is that his fan fiction is going to be considered more and more canon since the mamdalorian and Disney+ shows are live action.

It doesn't really make sense for characters like Ahsoka and Cal Kestis running around the time of the original trilogy. Luke and Leia were the LAST hope. Authors are now going to have to bend over backwards to explain why they weren't around, or they are just going to ignore canon and try to erase it like the Kenobi show.

Hi Professor Geek I was wondering if you could make a video on your thoughts on the Star Wars prequels

That's why people didn't like final fantasy 7 remake because they changed the story that's why people cringe overthe Kotor remake and splinter cell getting a remake because we know they're going to change the story for a modern audience which usually means woke Its our story now and people don't like when they change the story for a modern audience

I will admit I have defended feloni in the past but I'm glad you have definitely brought this stuff to my attention because ahsoka, while she's not a terrible character that I could name worse I'll take her over Rey, let's compare ahsoka to Luke from empire to Jedi. You have the same situation time Skip and change of clothes and change of attitude. But when you point out this difference that is Ashoka never changes and grows really as a character in execution compared to Luke who is night and day difference between himself from episode 4 to episode 6. This is not easy stuff I'm not trying to say that I could do it but it's one of those things where it's all in execution. I know a lot of people who like the emotional payoffs like I was listening to somebody talk about the latest episode of Kenobi and I constantly think of Obi-Wan versus Darth maul in rebels, and Ashoka versus Darth Vader in rebels. There are some strong emotional payoffs in these scenes, but they definitely could be stronger

Wow. This really shows why Filoni and Disney get along so well. Many Disney Princess movies are about a rebellious, headstrong, independent, wise-beyond-her-years young lady who typically makes some very poor decisions based on even poorer judgment…and then the story magically warps around her to make everything okay at the end. (Ariel is the worst offender in this regard, but there are others.) She doesn’t have to apologize or mature-that’s done by the foolhardy characters who doubted her! I’ll admit, I enjoyed about 75% of the CW series. Granted, that was back when it first came out, and the abysmal Prequels had made me desperate for decent SW content. (I was so foolish back then. So young and reckless.) I did, and still do, largely appreciate how they actually made Anakin a respectable character and showed him undertaking noteworthy exploits. He showed leadership, sacrifice, a sense of humor, and a dark side that wasn’t melodramatic emo nonsense. It also gave him an Obi Wan a legit friendship-something the films utterly failed at. But I did experience Filoni fatigue, I just didn’t realize what it was or where it stemmed from. Nowadays, CW only serves as occasional background noise when a very particular whimsy temporarily shrouds my better judgment. I am continually surprised at how many people hold Ahsoka up as an amazing character-even so far as to calling her their favorite. There’s no accounting for taste of course, but the skeptical part of me wonders if it isn’t some mild defense against the slanders of sexism and racism. “My fav character is a non-white, non-human woman! I’m kosher, ya’ll!” Whatever the reason, I am perplexed at her popularity, as I found her, at best, to be…not-a-distraction when I watched the show. Thanks for giving the Filoni discussion a sequel of sorts, (kudos on the discipline to keep the duration consistent) and for proactively addressing various arguments regarding writing proclivities and limitations. The fact that there are people celebrating the triumph that is the Kenobi series means that there will always be irrational and absolutely ridiculous minds that will defend and support anything, so I’m guessing you’ll get some pushback here as well. But I doubt it will be conveyed with any reason or arguments capable of contesting truth.

I cannot believe how I did not see this. Thank You Professor G!

Tartakovsky General Grevious > Filoni Grevious

EU writers could do powerful strong female characters without destroying all the powerful strong male characters, Disney star wars is only about the whaman

Anyone who wears a cowboy hat indoors should be on a watchlist

I've been thinking a lot with regards to George Lucas himself. Looking back at his cinematography, I have some appreciation with how he visualizes the prequels. It's a little hard to explain so I'll take examples. The most defining aspects is how he transitions the scenes (the blur effect) which is what I considered authentic to Star Wars exclusively. The way I see modern films and ESPECIALLY Disney Star Wars, the cinematography is more modern Hollywood-esque. Most movies would have jump cuts and fast transitions to the next scene, and sometimes it would result in fade in and fade out effects. The highlights that I find Lucas's approach to his filmmaking of the prequels is how he uses the camera to give depth to his characters. One scene I loved the most was Anakin's ride on his vehicle towards his mom's kidnappers and how the camera slowly zooms into him at full view, showing his sheer anger being held back until he confronts the Tusken Raiders. Revenge of the Sith has two scenes that were PEAK. Order 66 and Obi-Wan VS Anakin. Order 66 basically begins with the elimination of the jedi. The transition between each jedi is slow and carefully placed to give a emotional impact. One by one, you observe how such a order could caused a massacre. Plo Koon (whom I enjoyed in the Clone Wars) broke my heart when he was shot down, Obi-Wan getting shot by command Cody with the camera zooming slowly as it tilts to him ordering him to open fire with the blast knocking Kenobi to the pit. The biggest moment was with Obi-Wan and Anakin. What makes their fight insanely good was it's attention to simple keeping a steady camera at all times. When I watched the Kenobi show, I sensed how amateurish the camera was in showing the fight between the him and Darth Vader, it felt like there wasn't care into creating the scene. It's like they called it a day after one take. The fight on Mustafar is breathtaking as the cinematography makes you see how dangerous it is. And when it cuts to still shots, they remain focus on Kenobi and Anakin at all time. Compared to shows like Loki with him vs the female version at the climax of the last episode, there's no authenticity in the fight, it's rapid shots of them throwing their hands and quick cuts that really don't serve anything other than to build a bland fast paced scene. Obi-Wan and Anakin's fight on Mustafar is what I believe was Lucas' greatest moment as this would've set a standard on how action and cinematography could be managed. But instead with Clone Wars while having nice still shots, I do hate much of the time it's so still when the Jedi deflects and swings, they have these fast swings to bounce the blasters back at the droids. There was a stiffness in their movement and given this was animated, it lack the flow in how the Jedi fight in live-action. Filoni himself is who I considered careless and doesn't take continuity into consideration. When looking at Darth Maul's voice performance and how Filoni shed more depth to his character, I kinda like it but sometimes his raspy and monologue tend to drag on for me atleast. In Reva's case, her performance lacks believability and authenticity. Even I liked the Jar Jar due to how characteristic he was. He may be annoying, but George Lucas sure did make a believable character so DAMN annoying :). I had all these thoughts since Kenobi was finally done, didn't need to watch the very last episode to realize that Lucas's vision for the franchise is not going to happen anytime soon. Filoni, Jon and Kathleen, even people like the guy who directed Last Jedi (yes, I didn't care to name him) aren't really the type who actually care about the IP's legacy and treat it as a brand and a cash-cow. It's sad when you let a mouse buy something that they don't know how to work with. I probably some errors in my comment so I leave this out here and rest assured, I'll fix whatever I stated that may not be correct. It's just Star Wars is a franchise I want to succeed. I respect Lucas because without him, the Original Trilogy would've never existed.

Looking back on this... I only liked Ahsoka because of her relationship with Anakin, my kid brain was a big Anakin fanboy and frankly I loved the fact that Anakin has his own Padawan, It gave much more amazing moments with his character, but unfortunately I grew up and realized that why would the Jedi order let Anakin, one of the most reckless and emotional Jedi Knights have a Padawan? Like shouldn't they consider the consequences of this? I mean they did give a half-assed explanation in the first movie but it still doesn't make sense, plus the biggest hole in this is Anakin is a Jedi KNIGHT, not a master who usually trains Padawans, they literally have a ritual wherein the masters choose who becomes their apprentice or a farmboy in their Agricultural corps but nah screw it, make up an excuse because it's the Clone Wars which is an ok explanation I guess, they desperately need more manpower or something but it still doesn't answer the biggest question, why Anakin? Shouldn't Plo Koon have Ahsoka instead? Or hell maybe some other Master that is more qualified for this position? Then you realize that she basically has no character progression, she literally just changes at the writer's whim, which is very reminiscent of the writing of most telenobelas I had to endure as a child here in the Philippines which over time I grew to dislike, and realize that Filoni has the same flaws as the many Filipino writers we have over here, so many writers in the Philippines often write their characters as Author's pets and frankly having tried writing myself and upon reviewing it I also have a tendency to bias to one character and ignore the rest, especially if it's an OC of an already established franchise, which tells me that the reason why this happens is because of amateur writing and frankly nobody is there telling you to stop and review what you are doing or you are actively ignoring them which I will absolutely avoid doing so the next time I dare to write again if it is a fanfiction. Watching film critques and analysis like these of my favorite shows and finding out their flaws has actively made me improve my consumption of media and how I plan my future creative endeavors which unfortunately for Filoni and other writers, will never happen which is bad news for the Star Wars media franchise, I highly encourage people to always be critical of what entertainment media they consume and learn from it's mistakes and it's success, I am a firm believer that stories are a very important part of society and quality is important but in the Capitalistic society we have, as long as people keep consooming this will still happen just like in the Philippines, just like in the West now.

I didn’t like Ashoka when she was first introduced. I didn’t watch for a bit and when I tuned back in Ashoka was different and not as annoying. I didn’t realize that they didn’t do the work to have her improve. Overall she could have been a good character if they put in a little more effort. I have no faith in anything from Disney as long as Kennedy is still there. I don’t know much about Filoni but he tends to come back to the same tropes.

Truth. This Star Wars format that Disney is giving us is dead to me. Give me the EU

So true Filoni essentially turned Ahsoka in to a STAR WARS GOD! And I'm not surprised to see why they put the mortis statue in the Ahsoka show... but its indicating at the fact that he's going to take the Ahsoka character to an absurd power level, since she had to face Baylen Skoll 2wice and she fought her master in the world between worlds portals in the 5th Episode, lol... And now seeing Baylen Skoll and Ahsoka in the new GALAXY, it's become a new playground for Filoni to bring back chars from the EU such as Abaloth, which again is another overpowered female character that has to do with the whole force power situation (AKA The Queen of the STARS , The creature responsible for the constant Chaos that repeats in the SW Galaxy, The Rise Fall of the Jedi to the Rise of the Empire and the Age of The Rebellion to the Fall of the Empire and Rise of the Resistance).... and according to Filoni's writing Ahsoka is probably going to be, "#the new Anakin" in this arch I guess, Filoni is Phasing away alot of the Lucas storytelling, Ahsoka has literally become the chosen one now, it's hilarious. Ahsoka is a Goddess that the fandom worships blindly and dogmatically (They dont actually understand the truth about a true female character), its messed up, she's more a symbol than an actual character, its sickening. For me I used to like Clone Wars alot, growing up as a teen back in the day, but I've always wanted to see more character out of Ahsoka;(And it turns out only now I realized there was no true character in her) I guess that's why she never really was my favorite character, even until they resurrected the Season 7 and maybe because of all the Hype i was blinded to the truth, i guess the fandom highly praised it because they really were dying of any true real OG Star Wars content. My favorite characters were that i either preferred Obiwan or Anakin Skywalker or even other characters like Count Douku. This is why I'm tired of Star Wars and I'm done with it, after that show and I can't seem to like anything Disney, even from the sequel trilogy; its all a mess & a woke train wreck and a woke machine, their content comes across as dangerous propaganda, promoting symbols and trying to brainwash the youth and society at large as a culture, the future generation will be controlled seriously and AI will be there to condition them or to eliminate the unprogrammed minds. the future is truly scary my friend. I fully agree with your points in this video! man your perspective is spot on. Thank You so much.😎 👍 Fred/K.S

Gore Vidal speaks the truth. So many of my characters are similar. I'm trying to become better at variety.

Hey Prof, think you can do a breakdown of Sloane. She seems like a Daala+Palleon race swap to me. I am also worried she will take Palleon's spot as Thrawn's deputy in the Asohka series.

Even when I was a kid watching this show, I became progressively less interested from Seasons 3 or 4 onward, as it felt less like the Clone Wars and more like a series of constant sidetracks from the show’s primary purpose. Ashoka represents what is probably the most egregious and canon-breaking (even worse than Maul’s return, honestly), and as other comments have said, she’s a fanfiction OC. Actually, as a fanfiction author myself, I can’t even call TCW good fanfiction. It’s just contrived and incompetent writing.

The thing with the Jedi being depicted not as heroes is my biggest issue. Completely disregards Lucas's original vision for them.

for more detail check out I'm your Alibi . she breaks down TCW especially Ahsoka in great detail

While I think Filoni's characterization of it was ridiculous, I do subscribe to the idea that of the 10,000 Jedi Knights in the galaxy, many if not most of them don't live up to the ideals espoused by the council, and some are flat-out oppressive villains drunk on their power, and the council turns a blind eye to it for one reason or another. It mirrors the reality of the Samurai (and knights in other Feudal hierarchies), and explains how Palpatine - like Meiji - was able to convince the bulk of the galaxy to support the eradication of the Jedi, and why he personally desired it. I hated that the Emperor was reduced to a typical sci-fi villain without any complex motivations, and I REALLY hated the secret chip saga. I think the chips undermined the characters of the clones and oversimplified the universe. In the old EU, the clones served the Senate and the Republic FIRST, and because of the actions of most of the Jedi, when the Jedi were deemed to be traitors to the Republic, many of the clones were all too happy to carry out Order 66. Those who served with the good Jedi were either reluctant, or at times outright refused to carry out those orders.

Dave Filoni is just playing with his toys, but that some how makes it into the writing.

Literally the only thing I liked from Filoni was bringing maul back, which I know it's not the best, but if it wasn't for that there wouldn't be a Wrath of Darth maul, which is a book I personally enjoyed... And no longer canon because Disney. Other than that Filoni literally uses the same formula that Disney seems to be borrowing. Bring back the original character just to be cast aside by his OC characters. This is especially the case with villains like grievous, Maul, Thrawn, even Palpatine and Vader.

I hope one day Netflixvania gets exposed this hard. Warren Ellis was nothing but poison to the franchise and anyone who allowed him to get away with him destroying the only chance Castlevania had as an animated cartoon should be called out. People whine and whine about "MUH RUINED STAR TREK AND DC" but these same clowns never call out Netflixvania for doing the same.

Personally I enjoy the clone wars animated series very much. But to be honest I wish they just stuck to source material from the books - the real canon.

I actually noticed that Ashoka just kind of changed out of nowhere (new outfit too). I thought that I missed some episodes that showed said change. Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on the Prequel Trilogy overall? I know you've touched on it here and there (The Clone Wars weren't needed to "save" the prequels being one example), but I don't recall a deep dive on your thoughts. If I'm wrong, please let me know (and where you did give your opinions).

oh heteronormativity is so rare in SW canon right? ... right?

Oof yes your absolutely right ahsoka objectively had no character or progression ever. She just became less annoying due to the fact that she has barely any episodes and even then we never see her change It just happens.

what kind of male characters does Dave Filoni write? You describe his Female characters, but you didn't tell us what are the male characters that he casts in his material?

I've tried to watch Clone Wars a few times and turned it off bc of sheer boredom. There's one metric that i can measure the quality of that show by and also the main reason I'll never try watching it again.... Jeremy from G+G loves it and thinks Assoka is just the best. Jeremy is a clown who loved TLJ.

Back when Ahsoka was introduced I was hesitant to accept her since the story of the Prequels was about showing the bond between Anakin and Obi Wan, just two brothers. No more and no less. I eventually accepted her and ended up liking her. Now as I started reading the Expanded Universe and the Clone Wars Multimedia Project, I’m starting to dislike Ahsoka, and sadly I’m disliking TCW more and more

did I tell YOU thank YOU fer These, thank you Incase I didn't......Thank ....YOU!!

For the amount of squabbling between Dave and Karen Travis, they sure do both love to dump on the jedi and cant keep a cannon consistency to save their lives. (Save Travis can actually write)

I can't really call Ahoska Tano a mary-sue. Mainly because I haven't seen Clone Wars in like 10 years, and it's easy to see why Rey is call a Mary Sue she did it over the course of one single movie. Ahoska had seasons to grow. Maybe I have rose colored glasses, and I don't like her in this new cannon but I remember hating her, then growing to like her. That's just me, I wish her story stopped in Clone Wars.

I don't hate the disney star wars shows, I hate that they do not use the potential to its fullest. Like I knowwwwwwwwww making star wars shows are expensive than making an entire tokusatsu series that lasts 50+ episodes per year. But honestly I find myself frustrated whenever Star Wars live action shows just have no shame in their rushed pacing. Because yeah, a lot of the shows already have hubris enough from being mini series' in disney+. But then Filoni and a lot of other people REALLY LIKE using SYMBOLISM in order to make scenes feel like they have great ground covered for its characters. It's the reason why we have The Book of Boba Fett BARELY IN 1-2 EPISODES being concerned for his own people. They tried to sell us good guy Boba Fett by NOT PRODUCING A TV SEASON ARC MEANT TO SHOW BOBA FETT AS A GOOD GUY! I LIKE THE IDEA OF GOOD GUY BOBA FETT! SHOW ME HOW MUCH BOBA FETT CAN BE A GOOD PERSON FOR THE CITIZENS OF TATOOINE! ALL BOBA DID WAS HELP THE TUSKENS OUT FOR 1 EPISODE AND THAT WAS HIS GROWTH???????? AND WAIT THE SERIES IS DONE ALREADY?????????!!!!! Or the way The Mandalorian season 3 did not embrace the path of Din's Mandalorian life style. It could've had great potential if we got to see a more relaxed season of Din having more interactions with the people from the Children of the Watch. THE PEOPLE THAT HE HAS LIVED ALONGSIDE EVER SINCE HE BECAME A FOUNDLING! NOW PAZ VIZSLA IS DEDDDDDDDDDDD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The Anakin dream in the show was cool to see but did nothing for the story they could have just pulled Ahsoka out of the water and she still would have changed her showl so just pointless for the story

Actually, Ashoka changed throughout the Clone Wars due to her cockiness and disobedience of orders causing her to lose engagements and putting her troopers in danger. She learned from those experiences and grew from them, her growth wasn't due to a time jump, and I don't know where you got that because I've never heard THAT argument before. Don't take this to mean I disagree with Feloni's management being poor, I honestly think he hasn't done that good of a job. And even if I DO like the Clone Wars, I still recognize that it regularly fucks with canon.

Sarah j mass is notorious for writing the same character with a different name. She is so cringe because she tries to be so edgy with her novels.