Episode 2.5 - Clone Wars

It seems to be a commonly expressed opinion that the prequel series story is ‘missing’ a story between Episodes 2 and 3. Obviously TCW bridges this gap, which is why it’s so lauded, but I’m curious what an Episode 2.5 would actually look like if a coherent story were taken from TCW or any other source.

I’ve seen EddieDean’s Refocused edit of TCW, which is really great, but I’m hard-pressed to pick a single storyline that would work well if expanded into a full movie. The completely different style of story-telling between an episodic TV show and a feature-length movie make picking a single storyline a bit unwise, not to mention the oft-mentioned strength of TCW being the development of Anakin over time is completely removed.

Personally I would hope that a storyline in 2.5 would have more of Anakin and Obi-Wan working together. It’s a bit disheartening when you think about how few scenes of Anakin and Obi-Wan working together actually exist in both Episodes 2 and 3. By nature of being a main character, Padme would also need to be a part of the storyline.

Thoughts?

Have AOTC be episode I (reworked a bit so it has elements of TPM). ROTS/episode III stay the same minus the opening rescue of Palpatine. Episode II would then just be the Battle of Coruscant extended to a full movie.
That way, no need to have a ‘2.5’ episode, it is still a trilogy, and we get to have a full movie of Obi/Anakin working together that also works as a full Clone Wars movie.
Don’t know how to have Padmé part of that storyline though. Maybe we get some back and forth between the battle above Coruscant and Padmé doing political stuff on Coruscant. Or just have her be with Anakin and Obi-Wan on the rescue mission and have them work as a trio like Luke-Han-Leia.

I can’t help but feel like the Battle of Coruscant isn’t nearly long enough to sustain a whole movie.

I actually haven’t seen the Tartakovsky mini-series 💀 I suppose I should do that!

Wholeheartedly agree that Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars is the perfect 2.5, it fits with the movies better than Lucas and Filoni’s TCW, too, imo - though I recognize and respect what TCW does in terms of just playing with those characters and putting them in stories that maybe shares something interesting about them, with not that much care for an absolutely linear story to go along neatly with the movies.

But yeah, short answer, Tartakovsky micro-series.

Cyborgan Le Fay said:

I can’t help but feel like the Battle of Coruscant isn’t nearly long enough to sustain a whole movie.

I actually haven’t seen the Tartakovsky mini-series 💀 I suppose I should do that!

Yeah you’re probably right ! Maybe it could work if it wasn’t actually the whole movie ? For exemple Palpatine wouldn’t be kidnapped until the second act. That would leave the first act open to something else (maybe Anakin and Obi-Wan on a mission on a different planet), then the second act is the capture of Palpatine followed by the big space battle, and the third act is aboard the Invisible Hand. Something like that. I haven’t really thought this through, but I like the Battle of Coruscant sequence and I thought it was a cool idea to extend it to a whole movie (and it would kill two birds with one stone: having a full Obi/Anakin movie and a full Clone Wars movie).

Anyway, I’ve seen the Tartakovsky series praised so many times I have to watch it someday ! It appeals to me more than TCW in terms of animation, and also because it’s shorter !

Tobar said:

I think Tartakovsky’s mini-series is the perfect 2.5. It covers the start of the war, Anakin’s knighthood, his struggle with the darkside and leads directly into ROTS.

I agree. I was thinking maybe a scene or two from the other CW could be inserted (even though it’s 3D instead of 2D) showing Bail asking for help (“Years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars”

The first set of five minute shorts were OK, but it was just nonstop action. The longer videos were a vast improvement IMO, as they had more of a Star Wars feel to them.

The reason it’s hard to figure out what to put in some hypothetical Episode 2.5 is because the whole Prequel series was poorly structured and it’s hard to figure out climaxes or cliffhangers to bridge the episodes. Ideally, Phantom Menace shouldn’t exist, and instead some kind of “Intro to Clone Wars” plot line should be Episode 1. Episode 2 should depict one or more critical missions during the Clone Wars, and Episode 3 should be either after the Clone Wars or during the end of the wars.

But there’s usually a rhythm or pattern in a Star Wars trilogy. The first episode ends with a triumph for the good guys. The second episode ends in defeat. And the third episode ends with a final triumph. Since the Prequels have to end in disaster, perhaps the Prequels should mirror/inverse that pattern: so we get a defeat, then triumph, then final defeat/disaster. So that pattern would suggest that Episode 2 would depict a major turning point in the Clone Wars where the (ostensibly) “good guys” get a major victory.

I wonder if it would have made more sense to invert the pattern — the first movie is a defeat (leading to the start of the clone wars?), the second movie is a triumph, and the third movie is a tragedy, for obvious reasons.

The real main issue with The Phantom Menace is that it barely advances the story. You can’t have actual romance between Anakin and Padme because the age gap is too big, and Obi-Wan does nothing for most of the movie while Anakin bonds with a guy that gets killed in the end, thus you don’t get to see their friendship. The Clone Wars also have no development because we just see a precedent that isn’t that important.
The next two movies suffer a lot from having pick up the slack. It’s frustrating to watch CW03 and TCW and see all those interesting (and better) stories that were left out of the movies.
My proposal would be to somewhat merge TPM and AotC into a single Episode 1 while placing the beginning of the war to before the movie starts and explaining it in the title card and through exposition (like the OT did).
Episode 2 would start with the Battle of Coruscant and go on with a plot similar to the cartoons, my picks would be the Mandalore arc from TCW and stuff from CW03 for Anakin.
Episode 3 would be like RotS from the point Anakin turns to the Sith extended into a whole movie, but instead of Order 66 we would see the hunt being something that took more time, and Vader participates in it.