Clone Wars Season Six: Science fiction of the highest order and a real treat
There are a lot of things in the world more important than the latest Star Wars news…….but then again, maybe not. I have declared before that The Clone Wars animated series on Cartoon Network is one of the best entertainment venues around. The work that Star Wars is performing in philosophy, science fiction, political science, and culture building I think is being conducted on an epic scale and is extremely important. When Disney bought Lucasfilm one of the first things they did was canceled The Clone Wars series because of the contract the show had on The Cartoon Network. Probably deeper than that, the series had actually become very serious and was dealing with very complicated topics that were clearly not intended for children—but the kind of adults who grew up watching Star Wars. I’ve watched and read a lot of science fiction over the years. I was a tremendous fan of the most recent version of Battlestar Galactica, especially the first two seasons. So I have pretty high expectations when it comes to that kind of entertainment, and I always felt that The Clone Wars was some of the best science fiction being done. So it was sad to see it canceled by Disney—because the show had gone to a very dark place not really suitable for the Disney Channels. The remaining season 6, called The Lost Episodes remained in limbo until Disney cut a deal with Netflix to release them on March 7, 2014 in 13 episodes which were designed to wrap up many of the story arches created through the first five seasons leading into the film Revenge of the Sith. Not expecting much my wife and I sat down together over the weekend and watched the new season and let me just say—it was absolutely fantastic.
Season Six of The Clone Wars is just simply some of the best science fiction ever done. The presentation of the material was just beautiful to look at, the scope of the show was phenomenal, the story lines were deeply complicated, and the content was epic containing many threads of contemporary value. I personally felt very sorry for the character called “Fives” in the series because I know a lot of people who are in his condition presently—conspiracy theorists that have deep inside knowledge to what is really going on in the world and are unable to communicate those concerns because of the sheer audacity of their claims. The fate of “Fives” was tragic, but wow, what a way to tell a story. The whole Kaminio cloning facility plotline was exceptionally beautiful and was science fiction of a top order. It had elements of the old Flash Gordon Republic serials done with modern sophistication and was graphically a thing of wonder. It was not just good stuff……….but great stuff! Nobody is making anything close in entertainment as the people at Lucasfilm have been performing on The Clone Wars television show.
It is easy to become overwhelmed with modern problems and to focus too intensely on all the issues of the day. But I have found that the most effective way to deal with extreme stress and anxiety is with good robust entertainment which is aligned with the things I’m trying to deal with in the real world. To that end I enjoy Star Wars video games, I simply love the Fantasy Flight game X-Wing Miniatures with a passion, and I of course love the movies—but the television show The Clone Wars is deeply sophisticated and a real treasure. I often find I have fresh perspectives on real problems after watching them—because the creative minds at Lucasfilm have the liberty to analyze hard problems without the immediacy of political alignments forged by realities.
One complaint that I read about the Season Six Clone Wars was the plotline about the Intergalactic Banking Clan’s financing of the war. I found that to be the most interesting of just about any aspect of Star Wars in any capacity. The writers of The Clone Wars were clearly drawing parallels between the real life situation that we have on earth with the Rothchilds, the Buffets, and the Soros types and how they play all sides to their own needs.
In Star Wars, according to Darthipedia.com, the Intergalactic Banking Clan, or IGBC, member FDIC, was a commerce guild organization of the Galactic Republic, headquartered on Muunilinst. It was a union of clans of bankers, proving that those anorexic losers managed to get at least three-fourths of their own damn title correct. Sadly for the pasty-faced goths, every single banker had delusions of grandeur the day they decided to name it “InterGalactic”. Honestly, they could be done by the Trades Descriptions Act. Y’know, the Intra-Galactic Trades Descriptions Act.
During the Clone Wars, San Hill was the leader of the IGBC. Hill became one of the founding financiers of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, then celebrated by “making it rain,” which did not amuse Dooku at all. The IGBC pledged its ships and battle droids to the Confederacy… wait, battle droids? Ah, well, the Banking Clan kept battle droids as part of its, er, collections division. Their most potent weapons were Hailfire droids. The resultant debts forced San Hill into hiding on Mustafar. Reports that he gained access to a Chameleon Arch and rewrote his biology to become a Human[1] during the Galactic Civil War are spurious to say the least.[2]After the Separatist Crisis ended, Palpatine offered the IGBC a massive, quadrillion-credit bailout and ended up controlling them.
http://darthipedia.com/wiki/InterGalactic_Banking_Clan
The Clone Wars dealt with this whole subplot and I found it fascinating. A lot of fans of Star Wars just want to deal with the emotional story points, but Lucas years ago established in the face of much criticism why war often occurs and with his Star Wars, the situation is even more complicated than might be found in the real world of earth. Watching that kind of science fiction allows a curious mind to begin to understand the level of deception that is required to be a villain, which is the first step in solving actual problems. But before that can happen, a mind has to grasp the problem. The politics in Star Wars was always something that I found infinitely fascinating and the Season Six content is nothing short of amazing. If it was not an animated film set in a galaxy far, far away, but here on earth dealing with the Bilderbergers, it would likely win an Academy Award. It was that good.
I could go on and on, but the short of it is this, the Season Six Clone Wars: Lost Episodes are worth watching for a lot of reasons. They are great entertainment, they are involved science fiction, and they are commentary on many contemporary problems. They were a real treasure that took me quite by surprise. But more than anything they were food for inquisitive minds well worth the time to watch. If you have access to Netflix, there simply isn’t a better choice available than that show—so you should watch it and enjoy a work of modern art that is quite healthy and robust for its sheer quality and complexity. That is a series that I will forever miss, but am very glad to have seen the last 6 years worth of wonderful material known as The Clone Wars.
The ending of Season Six, the last three episodes featuring Yoda were deeply touching–and extremely bold. They will give great hope to people everywhere who desperately need it.
Rich Hoffman
