Seven Burning Questions About Star Wars: The Clone Wars
by Tom Burns

4. What will be the final fate of Asajj Ventress?

ANYONE who watched The Cartoon Network's Clone Wars series came away with a healthy respect (and strange sense of arousal) from the bad-ass Sith apprentice Asajj Ventress, the most frightening female to ever wield a lightsaber in our fair opinions. Season 2 of the Cartoon Network series ended with Ventress falling down an impossibly deep ravine on Yavin 4 after throwing down with Anakin, but, since then, the lethal lady of Lucasfilm has made frequent post-fall appearances in several Star Wars tie-ins - the Star Wars: Obsession comic series and the novel The Cestus Deception.

Ventress is a fixture in the trailer for The Clone Wars theatrical film, so our question is - how closely will Asajj's fate in the new Clone Wars movie/TV series match up with her fate in the Star Wars literary properties? Ventress is too good of a villain to toss away casually, so we're willing to wager that she, at least, makes it through the movie alive, but - since Lucas has frequently rejected certain continuity elements from Star Wars tie-in properties - we have to wonder if the sad, angry life of Asajj Ventress will end the way we think it will OR if a new fate will be invented for this new series? Either way, we're just glad she's back, regardless of whether her return will enrage the sensibilities of continuity nerds everywhere.

5. Will we ever learn to LIKE Anakin Skywalker?

That might sound harsh, but, to be honest, the three prequels don't really go out of their way to paint Anakin Skywalker as the kind of guy you'd want to hang around and share a beer with. He's a precocious/annoying kid in Phantom Menace, a love-struck brooder in Attack of the Clones, and a borderline psychopath in Revenge of the Sith. When Alec Guinness talked about his old friend Anakin in A New Hope, we always thought that Luke's dad would've been the coolest Jedi around - tons of friends, Mr. Personality - those are the guys who are normally destined to fall into the Dark Side due to ego and unrealistic expectations. So, the question surrounding this Clone Wars series is - will we finally get to see a lighter, happier, more successful Anakin? The guy came of age during the Clone Wars. He was a military hero, he became a full-fledged Jedi, his relationship with Obi-Wan went from mentor/student to war buddies, he had this hot secret wife and was spending his evenings making Luke and Leia... Anakin had it pretty good during the Clone Wars. Hopefully, the producers will spend some time in the Clone Wars making the audience start to empathize and enjoy being around Anakin Skywalker rather than just having us scared of him and making mullet jokes under our breath.

6. How did a Trade Federation and a bunch of goofy droids almost bring down a Republic?

First, to calm the continuity jerks, yes, we understand that there have been an obscene amount of comics and paperback novels about the Clone Wars period. But 90% of the rest of the world is just going into The Clone Wars with only having previously seen the theatrical movies, maybe the Cartoon Network series, and possibly the Star Wars Holiday Special on YouTube. (Can we add Chewbacca's relatives - Itchy, Malla, and Lumpy - to our list of cameos we really want to see?) So, speaking from that perspective, the prequels really don't go out of their way to explain how or why the Trade Federation - the evil democracy-haters with the droid armies, led by Count Dooku and General Grievous - are threatening the Galactic Republic. Sure, Palpatine's machinations have a lot to do with it, but we really hope that The Clone Wars movie (and series) get into the nitty-gritty details of how exactly one overthrows a galaxy-spanning government.

If the new Clone Wars series hopes to retain our attention for a few seasons, then they're really going to have to make the Trade Federation into much more realistically motivated, smart, deadly foes instead of just black-hatted pawns of Darth Sidious. We're excited about what we're hearing about the Republic having to work with the Hutt's crime syndicate to fight back against the Federation - particularly since actions like that seem to introduce some nice shades of gray into our usually morally-white Jedis - and we hope that, as the movie and series both progress, we see more and more of that three-dimensional character-building go on. Thanks to the movies, the good guys are pretty well fleshed out in the Clone Wars universe. The challenge will be taking the Trade Federation - the Washington Generals of the Clone Wars - and making them just as interesting as Palpatine, Jango Fett, or Asajj Ventress.

7. How the hell did Lucasfilm get Samuel L. Jackson to come back to voice Mace Windu?

Wait, wait... just so we're clear.... Oscar-nominated Samuel L. freakin' Jackson had enough time to reprise his role as Jedi Master Windu, but, apparently, Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, and Ian McDiarmid were too busy? WHAT? Do Jumper DVD signings really take up that much time? Was McGregor stuck filming Deception 2: What's Become of My Career? THOSE GUYS were all too busy and Sam Jackson wasn't? Really? Boggles the mind.