Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Part 5
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars – Part 5: 5x14-5x16
This is a strange set of episodes, and I am going to struggle to approach them in any kind of order. I could approach it episode by episode, and some of it needs to be approached that way, but in other ways I need to talk about it as a series.
In some ways this trio of eps is something of a microcosm of my various feelings towards the show as a whole
5x14: I have some thoughts about the execution of this but I basically can’t care any less about what I’m watching. I don’t care about these characters and it’s a lot of mindless fighting.
5x15: Interesting idea, also interesting to consider as a reflection of other parts of the ongoing story; but also kind of a shallow exploration of its complex narrative.
5x16: Finally a good episode, except this material should have been spread over multiple episodes to give it time to breathe and show us the characters actually dealing with what happens and earning the moments it gives us.
And that’s really the problem; there is an amazing story buried in what we get, but its focus is always on the wrong elements of the story. Every. Single. Time. Pick a character, a theme, a climax to build the story around, and freaking EARN IT. But it basically never does.
I would like to put one caveat on some of the complaining I’m going to be doing about what this says about the series as a whole. If and only if next episode is actually a continuation of what happened here; if we see Anakin trying to console Obi-wan; if we see Obi-wan trying to bring the Republic to help; if we see him have to deal with what happened; maybe talking to Bo Katan about Satine; or maybe show him having to justify why he went on this unsanctioned mission while he mostly stands there shellshocked; if those sorts of things happen, the show might actually convince me for a little while that it’s not stupid. But since the reason I have no faith in that happening is actually reflected in this story, I’m not holding my breath.
The one and only interesting thing about the first episode of this arc is the idea that all of this has been happening in the background of events we’ve seen play out in this season. That no one was paying attention while Maul was running around building his criminal empire.
Well, the second most vaguely interesting this was trying to remember if Black Sun were the syndicate from Shadows of the Empire. I think so, especially since the head family/race looks like how I think I’ve seen Xizor pictured somewhere. And yes I did think of SotE and focused on that question for a while before I wondered if Black Sun may have been mentioned in Solo; I apparently remember more about a book I read (or maybe listened to, I don’t remember that) two decades ago than I do that movie. I think I still own that one. Maybe I’ll dig it out.
Look, I’m not going to presume I speak for everyone, but I can’t be the only person who does not have a single ounce of interest in Maul’s actions. I really just wanted him/Savage, the Deathwatch, and the criminal underworld to all kill each other. But I know that it’s not going to happen since some people on each side are going to be around for a while.
Basically, I watched the second part going ‘yes Maul, you want to pull a Palpatine, whatever.’ But it’s not subtle at all in this case, yet Mandalor just goes along with it and falls into the Sith trap blindly. Now, Mandalor has not seemed like the smartest place in the prior times we’ve gone there, and really Satine doesn’t seem like the smartest ruler (including here; good person, not a great leader) but I still want to think they should have had to play this out with more thought and skill.
Here's kind of where I’m landing. I’d be almost okay if there basically a two episode arc that focused on Maul and co. taking over Mandalor. It wouldn’t be my thing, but Maul taking power should have been the climax of that arc (with setup for what is a separate arc following it). Then there should have been a 2-3 episode arc where Satine is the main character (or at least the central one, if Bo Katan and Obi-wan end up being the ones driving the story it’s still around Satine) and have us with the characters making these decisions instead of it just being a series of things that happen one right after the other.
Has anyone novelized the episodes/adventures of this show? Because this is hardly the first time when I think there has been a really good idea and even a lot I’m sure I would care about, but things are let down by the way the story is told. And I want to be in the characters’ heads where I think there should (or at least could) be a lot of interesting material that I’m not getting in the presented story. I want to ship Obi-wan/Satine; I want to be heartbroken by her death, both for her and him; I want to read or write an epic comparison between her death and Padme’s; but I get next to nothing from the story on-screen.
Also, yep, called it back in Satine’s first appearance and basically every time after. She wasn’t making it out of this series alive. But, part of why I think this story needed to play out over more time is so that we actually had time between her and Obi-wan. Their relationship does get to be important again, but not their dynamic as a team or how they relate to each other. Again, what we see ends up being fairly superficial compared to what I even think they’re going for, much less what it could be.
And I realize that I’ve never quite explained my statements about how the show needed to revisit Obi-wan/Satine before she could be written out. She was introduced as a foil for Obi-wan, but they basically don’t interact after the first story she’s in. And because we get so little acknowledgement of their relationship after that first adventure, the series really needed to reconnect what was her primary connection to the main arc of the show. It could have been done by something happening to her offscreen and then we follow Obi-wan’s reaction to whatever it was, but that would have ended up being a character piece instead of an action plot, and this show vastly prefers action plots.
As a side-note, is Bo Katan Corky’s mom? That would make sense. Or did they have another sibling? Also, did Corky survive? I remember noting that his existence was part of what convinced me Satine was definitely dead meat, since he was presumably an heir to the throne and also the Mandalor plotline where they could keep coming back to a familiar face (although how much have those kids grown up since their last appearance? How much time is supposed to have passed? I’m so confused).
His return is also something that makes the story crammed into the last episode feel like it needed to get an epic arc rather than get so compressed. This feels like all the chickens of the Mandalor plot coming home to roost, where they bring back in the little plot strands that had been sort of set up in previous episodes there. But most of it is all jammed into that last episode, where we don’t get to appreciate it as a culmination to that piece-meal arc. And whatever follows it up can’t be the culmination since Satine is already dead.
Satine deserved to die in an episode, and really an arc, that was actually about her. This is a very weird case of fridging since I don’t think it’s actually going to serve Obi-wan’s arc (does he even have an arc?), but just seems there for the sake of Maul’s establishment. And maybe Bo-Katan down the line I guess, but we get hardly any focus on their relationship before Satine dies so it will be less impactful than it might have been.
I’m trying to remember if this is the first time the series has unleashed Sidious and made it so clear that it’s Palpatine. They’ve used Sidious in the background a couple times I can recall, but if you somehow didn’t know that it was Palpatine you might not realize it. I’m still not sure it’s spelled out, but I can’t put myself in the shoes of someone who doesn’t know that, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago I realized (had told to me) it wasn’t actually made clear in ep1&2 that Palpatine was going to be the Emperor; I just assumed it was clear to everyone and meant to be so. But they’re taking the veil of Palpatine’s evil at this point in the series. I remember thinking in the first episode of the season that he was being framed much more clearly evil, and that does continue here. I’m not altogether sure I like it, but I guess I don’t mind them giving him a chance to completely unleash his powers.
~~~~
I do want to say that Obi-wan gives perhaps the best defense of the Jedi way that anyone has ever given me. And that is an above the cut kind of argument, but my main follow up to it is more personal and roleplaying based. Because I can believe that it’s true for him, I just don’t think it’s the only way to be good Jedi or a good person, much less a whole person. And I’m a little more understanding than my long running rp character who would basically tell both Maul and Obi-wan that they’re missing the point. The Force is all about love and connection; Maul is evil to go on about how it’s about power; but Obi-wan is a fool to not be motivated by his feelings. Especially at a time like that.
In point of fact, I’m kind of seeing that scene as the difference between Obi-wan and my character’s birth father. He was Obi-wan’s kind of Jedi, but he also had the influence of what would by my character’s adopted parents, who wormed thoughts into his head that attachment wasn’t the enemy. That you can feel the deepest emotions without being taken by the Dark Side; love isn’t dark, but it does have power.
Also I really do want Obi-wan to go SAATTTTTTIIIIIIIINNNNNE, Moulin Rouge style, like the improv group I mentioned back when she first introduced.
~~~~
So, since I wrote all that, it has come to my attention that it is Korkie not Corky , but I figured I’d let the wrong spelling stand as I didn’t find it until much later. It has also come to my attention that there is a somewhat common fan-theory that Korkie is Obi-wan and Satine’s kid. It would explain how he’s related to the family without inventing extended family offscreen (although Satine herself would probably have had to to make the nephew story work), and in a story where Satine doesn’t die I could probably be persuaded to like the idea. I might even like it with her dying if the show actually let the emotions and connections of characters matter. But since it doesn’t, I don’t like the idea of this trying to work this into the Obi-wan-of-the-show’s backstory.
I’ve basically found that I really ship those two in basically fanfic in way where the canon is only a slight vague outline. Because fanfic takes the barest of bare bones that the show gives the relationship and actually explores the emotions that could be involved in it. I don’t even know that I ship canon them, but canon them is just interesting enough to open the door to other interpretations that I do ship. Which is more than I can say for Anakin/Padme, I still have no interest in exploring them from any other angle.
This is a strange set of episodes, and I am going to struggle to approach them in any kind of order. I could approach it episode by episode, and some of it needs to be approached that way, but in other ways I need to talk about it as a series.
In some ways this trio of eps is something of a microcosm of my various feelings towards the show as a whole
5x14: I have some thoughts about the execution of this but I basically can’t care any less about what I’m watching. I don’t care about these characters and it’s a lot of mindless fighting.
5x15: Interesting idea, also interesting to consider as a reflection of other parts of the ongoing story; but also kind of a shallow exploration of its complex narrative.
5x16: Finally a good episode, except this material should have been spread over multiple episodes to give it time to breathe and show us the characters actually dealing with what happens and earning the moments it gives us.
And that’s really the problem; there is an amazing story buried in what we get, but its focus is always on the wrong elements of the story. Every. Single. Time. Pick a character, a theme, a climax to build the story around, and freaking EARN IT. But it basically never does.
I would like to put one caveat on some of the complaining I’m going to be doing about what this says about the series as a whole. If and only if next episode is actually a continuation of what happened here; if we see Anakin trying to console Obi-wan; if we see Obi-wan trying to bring the Republic to help; if we see him have to deal with what happened; maybe talking to Bo Katan about Satine; or maybe show him having to justify why he went on this unsanctioned mission while he mostly stands there shellshocked; if those sorts of things happen, the show might actually convince me for a little while that it’s not stupid. But since the reason I have no faith in that happening is actually reflected in this story, I’m not holding my breath.
The one and only interesting thing about the first episode of this arc is the idea that all of this has been happening in the background of events we’ve seen play out in this season. That no one was paying attention while Maul was running around building his criminal empire.
Well, the second most vaguely interesting this was trying to remember if Black Sun were the syndicate from Shadows of the Empire. I think so, especially since the head family/race looks like how I think I’ve seen Xizor pictured somewhere. And yes I did think of SotE and focused on that question for a while before I wondered if Black Sun may have been mentioned in Solo; I apparently remember more about a book I read (or maybe listened to, I don’t remember that) two decades ago than I do that movie. I think I still own that one. Maybe I’ll dig it out.
Look, I’m not going to presume I speak for everyone, but I can’t be the only person who does not have a single ounce of interest in Maul’s actions. I really just wanted him/Savage, the Deathwatch, and the criminal underworld to all kill each other. But I know that it’s not going to happen since some people on each side are going to be around for a while.
Basically, I watched the second part going ‘yes Maul, you want to pull a Palpatine, whatever.’ But it’s not subtle at all in this case, yet Mandalor just goes along with it and falls into the Sith trap blindly. Now, Mandalor has not seemed like the smartest place in the prior times we’ve gone there, and really Satine doesn’t seem like the smartest ruler (including here; good person, not a great leader) but I still want to think they should have had to play this out with more thought and skill.
Here's kind of where I’m landing. I’d be almost okay if there basically a two episode arc that focused on Maul and co. taking over Mandalor. It wouldn’t be my thing, but Maul taking power should have been the climax of that arc (with setup for what is a separate arc following it). Then there should have been a 2-3 episode arc where Satine is the main character (or at least the central one, if Bo Katan and Obi-wan end up being the ones driving the story it’s still around Satine) and have us with the characters making these decisions instead of it just being a series of things that happen one right after the other.
Has anyone novelized the episodes/adventures of this show? Because this is hardly the first time when I think there has been a really good idea and even a lot I’m sure I would care about, but things are let down by the way the story is told. And I want to be in the characters’ heads where I think there should (or at least could) be a lot of interesting material that I’m not getting in the presented story. I want to ship Obi-wan/Satine; I want to be heartbroken by her death, both for her and him; I want to read or write an epic comparison between her death and Padme’s; but I get next to nothing from the story on-screen.
Also, yep, called it back in Satine’s first appearance and basically every time after. She wasn’t making it out of this series alive. But, part of why I think this story needed to play out over more time is so that we actually had time between her and Obi-wan. Their relationship does get to be important again, but not their dynamic as a team or how they relate to each other. Again, what we see ends up being fairly superficial compared to what I even think they’re going for, much less what it could be.
And I realize that I’ve never quite explained my statements about how the show needed to revisit Obi-wan/Satine before she could be written out. She was introduced as a foil for Obi-wan, but they basically don’t interact after the first story she’s in. And because we get so little acknowledgement of their relationship after that first adventure, the series really needed to reconnect what was her primary connection to the main arc of the show. It could have been done by something happening to her offscreen and then we follow Obi-wan’s reaction to whatever it was, but that would have ended up being a character piece instead of an action plot, and this show vastly prefers action plots.
As a side-note, is Bo Katan Corky’s mom? That would make sense. Or did they have another sibling? Also, did Corky survive? I remember noting that his existence was part of what convinced me Satine was definitely dead meat, since he was presumably an heir to the throne and also the Mandalor plotline where they could keep coming back to a familiar face (although how much have those kids grown up since their last appearance? How much time is supposed to have passed? I’m so confused).
His return is also something that makes the story crammed into the last episode feel like it needed to get an epic arc rather than get so compressed. This feels like all the chickens of the Mandalor plot coming home to roost, where they bring back in the little plot strands that had been sort of set up in previous episodes there. But most of it is all jammed into that last episode, where we don’t get to appreciate it as a culmination to that piece-meal arc. And whatever follows it up can’t be the culmination since Satine is already dead.
Satine deserved to die in an episode, and really an arc, that was actually about her. This is a very weird case of fridging since I don’t think it’s actually going to serve Obi-wan’s arc (does he even have an arc?), but just seems there for the sake of Maul’s establishment. And maybe Bo-Katan down the line I guess, but we get hardly any focus on their relationship before Satine dies so it will be less impactful than it might have been.
I’m trying to remember if this is the first time the series has unleashed Sidious and made it so clear that it’s Palpatine. They’ve used Sidious in the background a couple times I can recall, but if you somehow didn’t know that it was Palpatine you might not realize it. I’m still not sure it’s spelled out, but I can’t put myself in the shoes of someone who doesn’t know that, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago I realized (had told to me) it wasn’t actually made clear in ep1&2 that Palpatine was going to be the Emperor; I just assumed it was clear to everyone and meant to be so. But they’re taking the veil of Palpatine’s evil at this point in the series. I remember thinking in the first episode of the season that he was being framed much more clearly evil, and that does continue here. I’m not altogether sure I like it, but I guess I don’t mind them giving him a chance to completely unleash his powers.
~~~~
I do want to say that Obi-wan gives perhaps the best defense of the Jedi way that anyone has ever given me. And that is an above the cut kind of argument, but my main follow up to it is more personal and roleplaying based. Because I can believe that it’s true for him, I just don’t think it’s the only way to be good Jedi or a good person, much less a whole person. And I’m a little more understanding than my long running rp character who would basically tell both Maul and Obi-wan that they’re missing the point. The Force is all about love and connection; Maul is evil to go on about how it’s about power; but Obi-wan is a fool to not be motivated by his feelings. Especially at a time like that.
In point of fact, I’m kind of seeing that scene as the difference between Obi-wan and my character’s birth father. He was Obi-wan’s kind of Jedi, but he also had the influence of what would by my character’s adopted parents, who wormed thoughts into his head that attachment wasn’t the enemy. That you can feel the deepest emotions without being taken by the Dark Side; love isn’t dark, but it does have power.
Also I really do want Obi-wan to go SAATTTTTTIIIIIIIINNNNNE, Moulin Rouge style, like the improv group I mentioned back when she first introduced.
~~~~
So, since I wrote all that, it has come to my attention that it is Korkie not Corky , but I figured I’d let the wrong spelling stand as I didn’t find it until much later. It has also come to my attention that there is a somewhat common fan-theory that Korkie is Obi-wan and Satine’s kid. It would explain how he’s related to the family without inventing extended family offscreen (although Satine herself would probably have had to to make the nephew story work), and in a story where Satine doesn’t die I could probably be persuaded to like the idea. I might even like it with her dying if the show actually let the emotions and connections of characters matter. But since it doesn’t, I don’t like the idea of this trying to work this into the Obi-wan-of-the-show’s backstory.
I’ve basically found that I really ship those two in basically fanfic in way where the canon is only a slight vague outline. Because fanfic takes the barest of bare bones that the show gives the relationship and actually explores the emotions that could be involved in it. I don’t even know that I ship canon them, but canon them is just interesting enough to open the door to other interpretations that I do ship. Which is more than I can say for Anakin/Padme, I still have no interest in exploring them from any other angle.
