I watched some carefully selected arcs of The Clone Wars! (Prior to this I've seen the film and the first series, but never ventured beyond). In general, I found them very meh, with one notable exception.
The Mandalore Plot / Voyage of Temptation / Duchess of Mandalore
Oh boy, no wonder Karen Traviss quit Star Wars over this! In about 30 seconds it absolutely shreds years of her careful world-building and lore-crafting. (It is hard to feel too bad given what Traviss did to Jaina in LotF). I was excited to find out what the darksaber is about but it's just... there. Fun to see a Sidious / Dooku plot where Dooku does everything right, and it's Sidious who can't seal the deal.
The Zillo Beast / The Zillo Beast Strikes Back
This is great stuff. And what a stinger at the end. Pure Star Wars, no notes.
Overlords / Altar of Mortis / Ghosts of Mortis
This was the arc I was most excited to watch, but boy, what a disappointment. I like my Star Wars weird, but this takes a potentially all-timer weird concept and just... plays it entirely straight? Also makes the insane creative choice of having Anakin straight up learn what he will become and what he will do, which is clearly a misstep, and his reaction is... to immediately turn to the dark side and start attacking Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. It's resolved when his memory is wiped. No. No. No. Kinda fun to think about the Ones hanging out with Abeloth, tho, which is one of the more entertaining attempts to incorporate TCW into the EU canon.
Nightsisters / Monster / Witches of the Mist
No, you can't make me watch this. Whatever happens in this, I will never know. Viva Dave Wolverton! Viva Haden Blackman!
Darkness on Umbara / The General / Plan of Dissent / Carnage of Krell
Even Karen Traviss would feel that Pong Krell is a bit too lacking in nuance. Some great visuals; I'm told this is one of the few times that TCW really captures a sweeping battle story (versus Obi-Wan / Anakin / Ahsoka antics).
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