#steven melching

[harrypotterhousequotes]

HUFFLEPUFF:

"PLO KOON: Sergeant, why are you so certain no one is coming? SINKER: We're just clones, sir. We're meant to be expendable. PLO KOON: Not to me."

–Steven Melching (The Clone Wars: Rising Malevolence)

[dswcp]

Happy Clone Wars Friday!

One thing I like about this comic is it shows that Palpatine used the fact that Maul survived to make Obi-Wan look bad in front of Anakin. Of course, Palpatine was taken off guard himself, but no one has to know that. Three cheers for our brilliant future emperor, who can twist every variable to his favor!

“The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters.” Dark Horse. August 15, 2012. Writers: Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching. Penciller: Vicenç Villagrasa. Inker: Vicante Ibañez.

[dabbingonronpa]

Transformers: Prime Director’s Commentary, Ep24-26

One Shall Rise, Part 1 (Nicole Dubuc, Joseph Kuhr, Vinton Heuck, Augusto Barranco)

-”I AM OPTIMUS PRIME. I AM REALLY COOL (...) I BECOME A TRUCK” -Nicole singing to the intro

-this episode was written while Nicole was at ComicCon, so the fans’ enthusiasm motivated her

-”How cool would it have been to have Twilight Sparkle to have been inside that volcano? I wanted to make this shirt for the writers—’Best Typo Ever’” -Nicole

-June was named after Jeff Kline’s mother

-”[June]’s not wearing her heels for Optimus Prime now, is she” -Nicole

-”I think they need to call the Rescue Bots, that’s what I think”

-Nicole’s attempts to bring the Mayan Prophecy of the 2012 disaster prophecy was consistently shot down because it would date the episode hard

-how Bumblebee would save June and Raf in the original draft of the script had them crawling onto the car door while the car was in the air from the tornado, Bumblebee grabbing the car door with both hands, transforming with them falling inside him, and then driving away, but was changed because it didn’t seem plausible

-”Sometimes we write things and find out, ‘oh that’s just not possible’” ”’What medical kit? Ratchet doesn’t have a medical kit’”

-”My favorite weapon is Jack’s, the fire extinguisher. It should definitely come with the toy”

-the prophecy was altered to remove a part of one leader rising and one falling

-bc of the tsunami in Japan, the matte paintings and character designs for the Thirteen had to be done on the spot

-canyons are redressed to be reused in the show often

-Unicron was designed more organically, like a beetle

-originally, unicron’s eyes were green (a la G1) but changed to purple to align with his blood

One Shall Rise, Part 2 (Duane Capizzi, Marsha Griffin, Christopher Vacher, Vince Toyama)

-John Noble (voice of Unicron) was considered to be the VA for Ratchet early on

-Darkness Rising and One Shall Rise were written as if they were feature-length films so the action and suspense can breathe

-Optimus’ character became more edgy and angel-of-vengence because of Ratchet’s grievences in Stronger, Faster and Raf getting harmed in One Shall Fall

-they were worried about how the long conversation pieces would be taken by the audience, because it’s just as long as the action sequences

-all the monitor designs are constantly changing and active throughout the shootings

-”This part makes me laugh.” “This part makes me dizzy.”

-there was some resistance about using too many legacy icons (the matrix, for example) in producing TFP because for some audiences this would be their G1

-the heartbeat was Hartman’s decision and oversaw that

One Shall Rise, Part 3 (Duane Capizzi, Steven Melching, Christopher Vacher, Vince Toyama)

-the episodes are a 3 step process: premise > outline (beat-by-beat skeleton) > script, each undergoing numerous revisions

-The episode Partners originally started as a sequel Wheeljack episode

-the flashback was specifically called the “Exodus flashback”

-most of the matte paintings were quickly remade after they were lost in Japan after the earthquake by three people

-the entire flashback exposition was done in one take by Jeffrey Combs, Ratchet’s VA

-”...SO THAT WAS A LOT OF BACKSTORY”

-”Soundwave superior, Airacahnid inferior”

-all designs were made with Google Sketchup

Toy Featurette

-originally, Megatron was introduced to be someone who would kill a C/B-tier character who was built-up the entire season to be a fan favorite, Smokescreen, initially, but was changed to Cliffjumper

-toy concepts usually take 2 years from concept to actualization

-some characters the production team would like to see join TFP in some capacity: city-formers (Metroplex, Fort Max, etc), Huffer, Brawn, Bluestreak, Prowl, Springer, Sharkticons, Cosmos, Oil Slick

[pep-no]

So "Nik Sant" (the white-bearded Rebel seen on Endor) might NOT be Rex after all...

[commandervisor]

Spoilers: Kallus gets a sweet jacuzzi in the next episode.

[dswcp]

Happy Clone Wars Friday from our beloved hairless harpy in one of her earliest comics!

“The Clone Wars 7: In Service of the Republic,” Part 1. Dark Horse. July 15, 2009. Writers: Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching. Penciller: Scott Hepburn. Inker: Dan Parsons. Letterer: Michael Heisler. Colorist: Michael E. Wiggam.

[dswcp]

Happy Clone Wars Friday!

This week’s theme: snow!❄️🥶☃️⛸️❄️

Don’t you love seeing Jedi in fluffy coats? This stylish comic has an odd running joke about Plo Koon’s mysterious age. The irony of that last line though...💔

“The Clone Wars 8-9: In Service of the Republic,” Parts 2 and 3. Dark Horse. August 12 and September 16, 2009. Writers: Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching. Penciller: Scott Hepburn. Inker: Dan Parsons. Letterer: Michael Heisler. Colorist: Michael E. Wiggam.

[dswcp]

It’s Villain Appreciation Week! Every villain this week gets 4 panels to show off their tragic arc, dark goofs, and/or raging aesthetic! Today, bow down to...

ASAJJ VENTRESS!!!

The original Lady Sith, Ventress was first designed for Attack of the Clones by Dermot Power. Said Iain McCaig, prequels art guy and king among men:

“I felt this was a great opportunity to introduce a strong woman character, to give girl fans an icon...”

“The first drawing I did for Episode II was a female Sith. I remember George coming up and looking at it and asking what it was. ‘It’s your Sith, George,’ I said. ‘It’s got to be a woman!’”

But Movie Ventress was not to be, and we got Christopher Lee instead, whomst we stan. The character design was brought back from the brink of death by, as far as I know, Genndy Tartakovsky’s worthy Clone Wars cartoons (which are my favorite Star Wars thing besides Hayden Christensen’s forehead).

From this righteous beginning came a character with the most confusing and poorly communicated backstory in possibly the entire franchise. From her on-again-off-again relationship with causing Anakin’s sexy eye-scar, to the squicky misandry of her homeplanet Dathomir, she has never ceased to be a badass bitch who never quite fits in the story. She was a Jedi -- for a bit, long ago, far away -- and she brings out the naughty side of Obi-Wan -- and they of course, could never be!

When cuts must be made, the guys in charge have made it pretty clear that the story of Ventress -- like that of Padme -- is not their priority. You’ve got to bounce across several media to get the whole thing, and still you must fill in a lot of it yourself. She falls to her death at the end of her part in Genndy Tartakovsky’s cartoon, but she’s back on her feet at the beginning of Dave Filoni’s. The novel Dark Disciple (reading?! with no pictures?!) kills her again, and it’s kind of the biggest bummer of them all. In an appropriately confusing and touching tribute, the mysterious, witch-like Mika Grey was written into another cartoon series, Resistance, as a “what could have been” stand-in for an elderly Ventress. Gimme gimme.

Over the decades in comics, she’s been tossed around by a lot of writers and artists at cross purposes. In general, she is a bad bitch in Dark Horse, and a babelicious queen in Marvel (which is a roughly accurate microcosm of the two Star Wars comics publishers’ styles). Today, Ventress bears the noble goal of serving the most cheesecake you can get from Disney.

The story of the Lady Sith foretold, I think, the story of Rey, the Lady Jedi. We love her -- we adore her -- we don’t know quite what to do with her. It didn’t have to be such a mess, but it’s got to be a woman!

***

Iain McCaig quotes from “The Art of Attack of the Clones.” 2002.

“Republic 53: Blast Radius.” Dark Horse. April 30, 2003. Writer: Haden Blackman. Penciller: Brian Ching. Inker: Joe Weems. Colorist: Joe Wayne. (2 Joes!)

“The Clone Wars 9: In Service of the Republic,” Part 3. Dark Horse. September 16, 2009. Writers: Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching. Penciller: Scott Hepburn. Inker: Dan Parsons. Letterer: Michael Heisler. Colorist: Michael E. Wiggam. (2 Mikes!)

“Age of Republic Special 1: Sisters.” Marvel. January 16, 2019. Writer: Jody Houser. (A QUEEN!) Penciller: Carlos Gómez. Colorist: Dono Sanchez-Almara.

“Return to Vader’s Castle,” Issue 3. Marvel. October 16, 2019. Writer: Cavan Scott. Penciller, Inker, and Colorist: Nick Brokenshire.