Ratings Irony

TCW (the CGI Clone Wars show) debuted in its second season with 2.58 million viewers. 

Enterprise in its fourth season averaged 2.81 million viewers.

TCW's ratings are said to "kick ass", whereas Enterprise was shut down because of the low ratings.

I know, it's not a 100% fair comparison, and there are different network and other 'environment' factors (not to mention just more channels taking smaller and smaller bites out of the big pie of potential viewers), but it is ironic. 

Incidental . . . B5 & TCW

Is it just me, or is the supposed-to-look-like-CGI of Star Wars: The Clone Wars actually better and more realistic looking than the CGI from Babylon 5?

And yes, I know that isn't fair.  But still . . . am I the only one who thinks so?

Betreka Nebula

In reviewing galactic map details, I pondered the matter of who borders whom.   The Federation, Klingons, and Romulans naturally have mutual borders, of course (though interestingly we've never heard of a "triangle region" outside of the non-canon).  And we've heard explicitly of the Romulan and Cardassian borders with one another, a small bit of rearranging on the part of the DS9 folks to make the area more lively . . . after all, as some had earlier envisioned, Cardassia was to the "west" of the Federation along with the Ferengi, Talarians, and (later) the Tzenkethi, with the old-timer Klingons and Romulans to the "east".

But the question was whether the Klingons and Cardassians shared a border, or whether the Klingons had gone way out of their way to conquer, thus creating a non-contiguous Klingon Empire.  To be sure, there were frequent mentions of the Klingon-Cardassian
border after "Way of the Warrior", but at that point the Klingon Empire
had conquered a section of Cardassian territory so the matter was
unimportant.

The answer, I think, comes from "Way of the Warrior"[DSN4].   Bashir and Garak refer to a "skirmish":  the Betreka Nebula incident sparked an 18-year-long conflict between the Klingon Empire and the Cardassian Union.   This strongly implies the presence of a border or near-border between the two prior to the invasion.

Just a note . . . probably obvious to some, but I just couldn't remember.

Obnoxious Pacifism

Regarding "Jedi Crash" and "Defenders of Peace"[TCW1], as noted at NoLettersHome.Info and expanded here:

I hate arrogant pacifism.  It's the taking of an ideal that's good and worth
striving for and turning it into a socio-political tool.  For instance, if
you're an arrogant pacifist talking to someone who respects pacifism
but values justice and liberty more (and thus fights), then this reasonable person
wants you to understand why they feel liberty overrides peace ((since of course it is a difference of degree but you're both in the same general moral zone and thus equals)).  After
all, pacifism is a worthy goal, and Jedi above all others would not
wish to be seen as not respecting pacifism.

But if you're the
arrogant pacifist who's more pacifistic than said Jedi at the expense of justice and liberty, being an
obnoxious schmuck about it only serves to make perfectly reasonable
people want to hit you.   At that point, of course, you would then start
crying and bemoaning what evil hostile aggressors they are, yelling far
and wide.  Then you get a lightsaber in the chest because you won't
shut up.

Opinions will differ, and moral men will disagree.  But to get all haughty with complete strangers because you made your choice and they made the opposite one in the presence of the same facts is not noble or even pacifistic.  Words can be weapons, too, and the little old alien punk from
this episode knows that all too well.  No supreme pacifist is he.   Instead, he's one of those people who complains that no one likes him and then goes out of his way to ensure he is unlikable so he can complain about people not liking him.   What a toolbag.

The moral of the story is, being a pacifist doesn't
just mean not shooting a gun.  It also means not shooting your mouth
off.  

A Silly But Beautiful Game

Imagine fighting the fandom Kobayashi Maru scenario of ever more swarming enemies.
Now imagine you're fighting against ethereal Tarellian starships.
Now imagine you're fighting while within V'Ger.
Now imagine you're tripping on acid.

And thus, you get a sense of this game.

Enjoy.

Cruisin' on Tatooine

You must go here at once.

Then here, too, though I think that's Endor and not Tatooine.  That Lotus is just reminiscent enough of the THX-1138 vehicles to make for an awfully appropriate juxtaposition.

And after all that amusement, I'll torture you with this monstrous vehicle with an anime skank writhing upon it.

What's Really For the Kids?

Filoni says no:

 It seemed as we went further in the season, the things that George [Lucas] wanted to see were a lot more intense and we were able to get things even darker and a bit more serious. Especially when you compare it with the film, where we started. I think that's something we as a crew all wanted to do. I know that I did, and Henry Gilroy did. We kind of had to see what a Star Wars animated series was going to be like and was it just going to be a cartoon for kids. It turned out that it's just not. We just try now to make it like the classic movies. They're quite fun, but they can also get quite dark. So that's what we shoot for now.

[...]

IGN: [Laughs] Me too. You mentioned that as the season progressed, you began to shift things into darker territory. Was it a challenge figuring out what the balance would be as you went on, since you do have some younger fans who enjoy the stuff with Jar Jar and the Battle Droids, versus the older fans who prefer the darker material?

Filoni: Yeah, I think it's always a challenge. There's this perception right away, since we're animated, that we're just for kids, always, which is just not true. When I was a little kid, I really liked Empire Strikes Back. Now, it freaked me out, because I was really little. When I saw Luke's hand get cut off, I was like, "Oh my gosh…" But something George told me, when we're doing stuff like that, is that as long as there's an intention and a purpose and a story point, we can do things that are intense, because they're just not done gratuitously. We have to keep that in mind. Because I think ultimately, we're chasing some of the best fantasy/science fiction films ever made with our little television series and that's a heavy order for fans. They want us to be as good as those movies, all the time, wrapped into 22 minutes. So we have to have intensity.

But then there's also that whole fun, funny side to Star Wars, like, "Get this walking carpet out of my way." And you have a girl swinging across a chasm on a rope, kissing a guy. It doesn't get much more fairy tale/fantasy than that. So we try to capture all of that and just at the end of the day, tell a good story.

Apparently this is the opposition's attempt to copy my little side point that the Incredible Cross-Sections books are children's books (which is true, as per the 11 links (some from DK, the publisher, directly) on this page), and try to turn it around to ignore some of the highest canon of Star Wars.  Or, as one SB denizen put it, "Not that I put much stock in the series anyway. [...] I don't take what goes on with any particular seriousness. It is a kid's show, after all."

Um, no it isn't.   It's what George Lucas is doing with Star Wars these days.   Sorry if you don't like it, or if it bursts your little Saxtonian Wankery bubble, but TCW sure looks like Star Wars always has  . . . at least, to most everybody but you.