The PT designs are fantastic, like you said, the execution was poor. I kick myself for not picking up Dooku now.
Don't want to go much into ST discussion but the 3 films felt lifeless, boring and unoriginal. I couldn't tell you one new original alien that era introduced.
I think the big resurgence of the PT (besides the ST disappointing fans) is mostly thanks to TCW and all it did for that era, while introducing new favorites (Ahsoka, Rex, Cad Bane, Fives, etc), it gave us an Anakin that was easy to root for, making his downfall more tragic.
All great points, some of which I?ve heard before but tying the ST in as well as TCW?s accentuated those points eloquently! Ahsoka is a funny topic, especially if you believe Dave Filoni now, apparently he designed her long term character change from the beginning. Apparently he claims that the newly christened Padawan, know it all, bratty, unwaveringly cocky, barely tennage Togruta little girl was meant to be perceived by the majority of audiences to be extremely unpopular & annoying with only room to become a better character in the beginning. In some interviews, when he has been less cagey & more assured, he had said that the series was to focus on Anakin, Obi-Wan and Alpha 3 (was changed to Rex because too many A names-Anakin, Ahsoka, Artoo, Alpha 3). Most people by now have seen the original sketch of Ahsoka on the napkin I believe which was actually a pretty close to last minute change so it?s particularly hard to buy the whole long term hate her only to see her grow making people love her even more but then equally in my mind is the fact that he is Dave Filoni who was Lucas? star Padawan who also studied all the ?holocrons? of every ?master? and doesn?t ever seem to stop. He might just be the chosen one and the Sithari all rolled into 1 person, I dunno.
Personally, I liked most everything post OT with AotC at or near the bottom of my list; described by its creator as a love story, I would be remiss to say there are more minutes in that love story movie that I enjoyed than almost any other (that didn?t end as a tragedy). As you mentioned the Dooku figure, I?m reminded that we were treated to his introduction in that episode which could have been longer providing more detail and backstory but at least we got the gist of a noble former Jedi being tricked by the great deceiver who for a moment before the official start off the Clone Wars actually did want to help and wanted help from Kenobi who he saw as a ?Jedi grandson?. You know because Yoda trained Dooku who trained Qui-Gon who trained Obi-Wan, and Qui-Gon?s death was a factor that angered Dooku contributing to his leaving the order.
Anyways, the figure is as regal as the character and Sir Christopher Lee which led me to buy 2 as I had planned to convert 1 into a younger, Jedi Master Dooku by making some minimal hair color changes (more pepper than salt) and even in the canon descriptions, he did wear simple Jedi tunics and robes but they were always perfectly clean and tailored. Most material shows him with a blue blade but the same curved hilt although I have seen a few panels of him with a green blade. I?ve decided not to pursue that even though, including the second figure, I sourced everything except an outer robe as I could not make my mind up as to which would suit him best. Having said that, I now have a MISB Dooku I would be able to part with knowing it was going to a good home.
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