Club Jade

Here’s some of the top picks out of the media build-up for Friday’s premiere of the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (8 PM EST/PST on Cartoon Network – 1 hour):

Some of the reports coming from The Clone Wars press event held at LucasFilm Animation:

• IGN gets geeky at Lucasfilm Animation with some interviews and exclusive clips – and asks Dave Filoni about Ahsoka’s whereabouts in Revenge of the Sith, while the voice crew discuss the benefits of recording together.
• UGO.com also gets in some time with the Wookiee Cookies and chats with Dave Filoni about the role of comedy in Star Wars.
• TVSquad apparently isn’t as nerdy, but proclaims that in the small field of action shows, SW:TCW might just be the best and highlights the darker themes and greater threats coming this season.
• Putting a completely different spin on the event, the San Francisco ABC affiliate points out non-geeky angles, such as Ashley Eckstein’s husband, second baseman for the Padres, and also hypes a bit more on the upcoming Republic Heroes game.

Meanwhile, Geekdad at Wired talks up what the new season means in his household, and mentions that Seth Green will be doing the voice of Cad Bane’s droid, Todo 360.

And of course, StarWars.com gets busy:

• The Clone Wars web comic for season 2 will form a longer story instead of the episode lead-in comics that were made for season 1. “Act on Instinct”, written by the Internet’s Pablo Hidalgo, will unfold weekly, and will bring in new faces, like Padawan Tyzen Xebec.
• In a video, voice actor Dee Bradley Baker talks about the clones as the heroes the audience can relate to in Star Wars: The Clone Wars as well as gives examples of how he can turn characters with supposedly identical voices into distinct individuals.
• There’s some nifty screenshots from The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes video game, coming out on October 6.
• Episode Guide placeholders are now up for the season premiere double-feature of episodes (”Holocron Heist” and “Cargo of Doom“). Is the latter’s message of “Overconfidence is the most dangerous form of carelessness.” an issue for Cad Bane or for Anakin?