Almost a year has passed since we last looked at some tribute video’s here on Clone Corridor! Previously we looked at Clone Wars, Saga and Rebels tributes. Many events have transpired in the Galaxy Far Far Away since then, The Force Awakens has premiered and Rebels Season 2 has had its spectacular finale. Time to take another look.

Expanding the Saga

With a new Saga Trilogy coming out in 2015 it was evident that there would be attempts to combine all three trilogies, the Original Trilogy, The Prequel Trilogy and the emerging Sequel Trilogy into a single framework for a tribute video. With little more than trailer footage at his disposal, this is what 1Jonde1 set out to do in July 2015 with his ‘Forces of Destiny’ tribute video, a 7-minute epic scale tribute to the whole Saga, including what was coming up.

What I really liked about this tribute video is, apart from its wonderful integration of Prequels and Originals into a single storyline focussing on Destiny, that change in tone and music as the trailer material from The Force Awakens is edited in: the anticipation is clearly audible.

But now we are more than 8 months later and the full motion picture of episode VII is available so now tribute video makers can actually look for a deeper integrations of prequels, originals and sequels. A particularly nice example is Neosuka&white24room’s Ultimate Tribute’

 Instead of following a chronological path, or a thematic path it takes a more visual and cinematic connection between the films. One thing which always strikes me in such videos is how the three trilogies mesh together visually. Haters will always find something to hate, but I am quite convinced that if you would show this to anyone who has never seen Star Wars they would have a hard time figuring out which shots are 1977, which 1999 and which are 2015. With some worry I watch persistent and even increasing fan-community divisions between Prequel-, Sequel- and Originals-fans. So I see a real need for this kind of tributes to underscore the unity of it all.

The Animation Series

Although Star Wars: The Clone Wars was cancelled more than 3 years ago by now it still has a strong presence in the memories of many fans. As a result tribute videos are still appearing quite regularly. A nice one is that by Prime Dragon

The video skilfully combined shots from practically all seasons making for a fun watch especially when you try to recognise all the episodes used. In Star Wars: Rebels season 2 we have seen plenty of characters from The Clone Wars make the cross-over into the Rebels era. I personally really like that and I think the storylines we have seen all make sense as crucial ingredients into Ezra’s path with The Force and the developments of the other characters of the Ghost Crew.

It was again 1jonde1 who in February 2016 took some ‘season 2.5’ trailer material and connected it with the awesome Mortis Arc from Clone Wars into a powerful tribute to Ahsoka’s and Anakin’s path.

The Rebels season 2 finale justified all the anticipation that was leading up to it. So it was inevitable that the tributes would follow swiftly. Although ‘Tributes Only’ made a video that occasionally is a little ‘unsmooth’ I really like the choice of music, the editing, the choice of dialogue and shots extracted from the  season 2 episodes.

Now there will be many more to come I am sure. And with Rogue One now officially in ‘trailer status’ it will be interesting to see which part Anthology films are going to play in Star Wars tributes. Will OT fans integrate Rogue One shots into an OT-themed tribute? With PT fans take up Rogue One footage? And what will season 3 of Rebels bring and how will the season 3 trailer that I expect we will see on Star Wars Celebration London impact the tribute video world? All exciting questions that will be answered in due time … and in the future instalments of this series here on Clone Corridor.