Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Part 2
Jul. 5th, 2021 08:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsStill haven't gotten back to Loki; thinking about it, but haven't done it yet. So have another fairly confused set of TCW thoughts.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Part 2: 5x02-5x05
Hmmm
How much of the fact that I kind of liked this is because it’s good story arc, and how much of it is because I didn’t stop after each episode to reflect on ways that it annoyed me? Because I know it’s some of both, I’m just not sure where the balance point it.
I do think that had I still been doing single episode reviews, I still would have come to the conclusion that this set restored some of my optimism about the show (is optimism the right word when it’s more that I’d like it to surprise me by being good?). It hits on a lot of the things that actually do work about this show, and doesn’t make me wallow in the things that usually distract me from whatever an episode is about. Basically, this story gave me a lot of development for Ahsoka without making me spend all my time distracted by the moral implications of the clone army.
But I think every episode on its own had something that made me recoil from saying it was actually good. So if I had paused and dwelled on that fact, those issues would have festered rather than something I quickly moved past (they’re still there, and we’ll get to them, but they’re less debilitating than the flaws often are). In that case, instead of being notable scratches in my enjoyment they would have become big black marks.
One point I want to talk about isn’t a complaint exactly, but is an almost unique situation to the Star Wars universe. Was this the introduction of Sah or had he already been introduced in other material and this was sort of his origin story? The way he’s introduced kind of feels like I’m already supposed to know who he is; which I do, but because I’ve seen Rogue One which came out several years after this.
This backwards viewing of things did lead to one of my issues with this story arc. Basically, knowing that Sah survives I was about 90% sure Steela was going to die at some point. I probably would have said that anyway, considering that the last episode (where it was the most distracting) had a dozen other things that said she wasn’t going to make it through this alive; but with Sah around made it all the more obvious.
And I’m really not sure, after all of this, how I feel about Steela or Sah. And the fact that they feel like characters, with more establishment kind of works both for and against them. I can sfeel the idea that I’m supposed to be invested in these characters from something that isn’t in the episode. It makes them feel like they could be interesting with more time to breathe, but also makes me feel like some life has been choaked out of them to make them the thinner versions we’re seeing in the episode.
(Does that make sense? I’m trying, but it’s kind of circular reasoning type of feeling.)
One of my problems with this story is a recurring problem throughout the series; less of a constant problem than all the unexplained reasons things happen and clone rights, but it pops up more than once. Why do we keep fighting for monarchies like this? Granted, maybe they’re like Naboo and have bizarrely elected monarchs (through nebulous means) but the trappings of this world are very old fashioned, making me assume we’re talking hereditary monarchs and divine right of kings, and I just don’t go for that. Yes the old king seems more reasonable, but is he really a better leader? Maybe that’s not fair, since they paint the new king as so bad that the old one probably was better, but that’s not really enough to make me root for him. And that he rejoins the Republic at the end doesn’t help; is that the will of the people? Much like the two monarchs, the Republic might be the better choice, but it’s still corrupt and broken, so it’s not great.
I also have some issues with Lux being into the idea of rejoining the Republic so readily. Because his mom (and presumably his dad) actually believed in the Separatist cause. He’s definitely seen enough to know that there’s too much rot inside the Separatists to stay loyal to them, but has the Republic actually earned his loyalty? Beyond Ahsoka?
(Hmm, I think this ‘better is not the same as good’ can also be applied to my journey with this show. Even the parts I like wouldn’t really convince me to rank the show above okay.)
I kind of need to complain about Obi-wan’s portrayal here. It’s not out of character I wouldn’t say, but it’s very…mouthpiece of the Council. Obi-wan isn’t exactly a radical at such, but he’s not even that much of a character here, he’s just there to be the conservative voice next to Anakin. And while that take on the character is far from unique to this story, it just feels empty and like they don’t think of him as a real character in his own right.
Not that I think they’re much better with Anakin’s character, but Anakin has at least a few defined character traits outside of whatever role the plot needs him to play at a given moment.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Ahsoka is the only character on this show to have a real character (and I’m not saying it’s a super deep one); and because of that, her stories tend to be among the best since those have an actual character at the center of them. They know they have freedom to do anything with Ahsoka, as long as they earn it with good writing. They never had to earn the audience for the other Jedi characters, but they also don’t have freedom to shape them as wanted, so they end up earning nothing with them.
(Again, this point makes a lot of sense in my head.)
Which brings me to the teenage shipping drama. Which, like so many other things, I’m kind of mixed on. I like adding in a personal element, a small scale drama against the backdrop of all the war and trauma and everything. But the show never quite commits to it; it can’t commit to it because if it does, it’s doing something with Ahsoka’s character that they really can’t do. And I only partially mean that as a mark against the show going interesting places with character development. Because to have Ahsoka even tempted to want to be a normal teenager with a crush in a love triangle is to have her step outside her view of herself. And it’s both she and the writers who wouldn’t want to go there.
That said, if they had played it as a full arc, one where she did consider and reject the idea of a connection like that, it would have shown her in contrast to Anakin. And while I am all for telling the Jedi Code that it’s too narrow and doesn’t adapt to work for people who don’t quite fit into the rigid structure, I am also in favor of showing that Ahsoka is her own person who is not doomed to walk the same dark path as Anakin.
All told, I think this new viewing method is probably going to improve things somewhat. But I also think this was an arc I would have mostly liked anyway. And at the end of it I’m not nearly as frustrated with it as I have been with the show. So, let’s hope that stays the case.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Part 2: 5x02-5x05
Hmmm
How much of the fact that I kind of liked this is because it’s good story arc, and how much of it is because I didn’t stop after each episode to reflect on ways that it annoyed me? Because I know it’s some of both, I’m just not sure where the balance point it.
I do think that had I still been doing single episode reviews, I still would have come to the conclusion that this set restored some of my optimism about the show (is optimism the right word when it’s more that I’d like it to surprise me by being good?). It hits on a lot of the things that actually do work about this show, and doesn’t make me wallow in the things that usually distract me from whatever an episode is about. Basically, this story gave me a lot of development for Ahsoka without making me spend all my time distracted by the moral implications of the clone army.
But I think every episode on its own had something that made me recoil from saying it was actually good. So if I had paused and dwelled on that fact, those issues would have festered rather than something I quickly moved past (they’re still there, and we’ll get to them, but they’re less debilitating than the flaws often are). In that case, instead of being notable scratches in my enjoyment they would have become big black marks.
One point I want to talk about isn’t a complaint exactly, but is an almost unique situation to the Star Wars universe. Was this the introduction of Sah or had he already been introduced in other material and this was sort of his origin story? The way he’s introduced kind of feels like I’m already supposed to know who he is; which I do, but because I’ve seen Rogue One which came out several years after this.
This backwards viewing of things did lead to one of my issues with this story arc. Basically, knowing that Sah survives I was about 90% sure Steela was going to die at some point. I probably would have said that anyway, considering that the last episode (where it was the most distracting) had a dozen other things that said she wasn’t going to make it through this alive; but with Sah around made it all the more obvious.
And I’m really not sure, after all of this, how I feel about Steela or Sah. And the fact that they feel like characters, with more establishment kind of works both for and against them. I can sfeel the idea that I’m supposed to be invested in these characters from something that isn’t in the episode. It makes them feel like they could be interesting with more time to breathe, but also makes me feel like some life has been choaked out of them to make them the thinner versions we’re seeing in the episode.
(Does that make sense? I’m trying, but it’s kind of circular reasoning type of feeling.)
One of my problems with this story is a recurring problem throughout the series; less of a constant problem than all the unexplained reasons things happen and clone rights, but it pops up more than once. Why do we keep fighting for monarchies like this? Granted, maybe they’re like Naboo and have bizarrely elected monarchs (through nebulous means) but the trappings of this world are very old fashioned, making me assume we’re talking hereditary monarchs and divine right of kings, and I just don’t go for that. Yes the old king seems more reasonable, but is he really a better leader? Maybe that’s not fair, since they paint the new king as so bad that the old one probably was better, but that’s not really enough to make me root for him. And that he rejoins the Republic at the end doesn’t help; is that the will of the people? Much like the two monarchs, the Republic might be the better choice, but it’s still corrupt and broken, so it’s not great.
I also have some issues with Lux being into the idea of rejoining the Republic so readily. Because his mom (and presumably his dad) actually believed in the Separatist cause. He’s definitely seen enough to know that there’s too much rot inside the Separatists to stay loyal to them, but has the Republic actually earned his loyalty? Beyond Ahsoka?
(Hmm, I think this ‘better is not the same as good’ can also be applied to my journey with this show. Even the parts I like wouldn’t really convince me to rank the show above okay.)
I kind of need to complain about Obi-wan’s portrayal here. It’s not out of character I wouldn’t say, but it’s very…mouthpiece of the Council. Obi-wan isn’t exactly a radical at such, but he’s not even that much of a character here, he’s just there to be the conservative voice next to Anakin. And while that take on the character is far from unique to this story, it just feels empty and like they don’t think of him as a real character in his own right.
Not that I think they’re much better with Anakin’s character, but Anakin has at least a few defined character traits outside of whatever role the plot needs him to play at a given moment.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Ahsoka is the only character on this show to have a real character (and I’m not saying it’s a super deep one); and because of that, her stories tend to be among the best since those have an actual character at the center of them. They know they have freedom to do anything with Ahsoka, as long as they earn it with good writing. They never had to earn the audience for the other Jedi characters, but they also don’t have freedom to shape them as wanted, so they end up earning nothing with them.
(Again, this point makes a lot of sense in my head.)
Which brings me to the teenage shipping drama. Which, like so many other things, I’m kind of mixed on. I like adding in a personal element, a small scale drama against the backdrop of all the war and trauma and everything. But the show never quite commits to it; it can’t commit to it because if it does, it’s doing something with Ahsoka’s character that they really can’t do. And I only partially mean that as a mark against the show going interesting places with character development. Because to have Ahsoka even tempted to want to be a normal teenager with a crush in a love triangle is to have her step outside her view of herself. And it’s both she and the writers who wouldn’t want to go there.
That said, if they had played it as a full arc, one where she did consider and reject the idea of a connection like that, it would have shown her in contrast to Anakin. And while I am all for telling the Jedi Code that it’s too narrow and doesn’t adapt to work for people who don’t quite fit into the rigid structure, I am also in favor of showing that Ahsoka is her own person who is not doomed to walk the same dark path as Anakin.
All told, I think this new viewing method is probably going to improve things somewhat. But I also think this was an arc I would have mostly liked anyway. And at the end of it I’m not nearly as frustrated with it as I have been with the show. So, let’s hope that stays the case.
