Star Wars: The Clone Wars Arc 7.3
Aug. 23rd, 2021 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars Arc 7.3 (ep 9-12)
I will say without qualification that this arc was good. The fact that it clearly wants to be great doesn’t stop me from saying that it’s good. If the series had always been this, I probably would have had a very different attitude toward it as a whole, but it wasn’t; and while the flaws are lessened here, they’re not gone. But how much of the general/almost ever-present flaws with the show should I hold against this arc?
The problem is, that the thing I would probably suggest to paper over a lot of the flaws in the series is something that would have needed to happen from the start, but couldn’t have been done from the start. That would be to have made it always Ahsoka’s story. To have been a young person’s experience growing up in a time of war that she has to fight from an early age and sees the cost of it on herself and the society around her. And as more and more people betray her, as the institutions she trusted crack and fall into darkness, as she herself begins to wonder what the point of it all is, we see the fall of the Republic from the perspective of someone who might have been close enough to save it, but ultimately could never have stopped its fall.
Making Ahsoka the true central character of the piece would have made some of the other problems it has…have a kind of sense to them. You even get a little of that here, by showing us parts of the same events from a different perspective, it takes on a very different feel. The talk about the Chancellor seems quite a bit more sinister (and it was always a little iffy) when we’re not with the Council having the discussion. And having a main character would allow some narrative wiggle room for why certain things don’t happen with the (supposedly equal) characters they kind of should have.
Because if I have one true complaint about this episode, is that it means Obi-wan did nothing for Mandalor following the events in s5 and that doesn’t sit right with me. The show has always kind of struggled with what to do with Obi-wan; they were basically incapable of giving him an actual character arc, but he’s too prominent a character to treat like he’s Plo or Mundi or someone that can just be put on the shelf and just say that he’s off doing his own thing in the war all the time. But the arc in s5 very much ended with the implication that Obi-wan was going to see to it that someone stepped in and restored Mandalor; Bo Katan had asked him for the Republic to send backup, they knew Maul was involved so there was no reason the Jedi wouldn’t, and Obi-wan had already established that some concerns did go about the Council’s wishes for him. So there is no reason why he would have just sat around all this time, and then not jumped on the chance when Ahsoka dropped it in their laps.
Now it’s possible that there were some books on the subject written in the years between s5 and s7; and if I liked the show better I might make up a reason (like he got big time reprimanded for going to Mandalor in s5 against orders, so he really can’t force the issue this time; not that I think that covers everything). This is the element that the most makes this feel like it’s not the ending we should have had. That they had other plans for how to wrap up the Mandalor story when they opened it in s5 (arguably further back depending on what counts as the opening of this can of worms), but hadn’t gotten back to it when the show was cancelled; and when they got s7 they weren’t given enough episodes to wrap up everything they needed to, so they forced Ahsoka into the Mandalor arc, but didn’t trade on her connection to it (where’s Corkey? No, really, they never did answer if he was alive of not).
And nothing this season has cared about Obi-wan’s characterization, but this just wrecks it. Obi-wan taking the lead in wrapping up the Mandalor arc would have finally given me some of the fallout I wanted to see in s5 but the show hasn’t actually given me/us/him. And that is one of those big problems with the series that I’m not sure how much I should hold against this arc.
Like all of s7, this arc had a slight stink of franchise over story. It’s smaller in this case, but it’s still there. I’d probably put money on the idea that the few Mandalorians we see without helmets in this episode are ones that we’re supposed to know from other parts of the franchise. Also, where did the Darksaber end up? It wasn’t around in this episode, but last I knew Maul had it…unless Sidious took it? Weirdly I don’t have too much of a problem with the outright references they make to events that happened offscreen (but probably on page), like Maul praising his troops for things they did, and the adventures of Ahsoka and Bo Katan; but the more subtle stuff grated on me.
But, if I can set aside my series and franchise issues, this is a really well told story. Setup and payoff generally track and make sense; the tragedy of how it ends is very much felt; and that it doesn’t wimp out of the tragedy is very much appreciated. Ahsoka didn’t want to kill people under mind control, but she did. The ship crashed because she let Maul out to cause chaos, and everyone died because of that choice. It’s noble of her and Rex to try and have mercy because they know the people they’re fighting and don’t want to hurt them; but it’s still her fault in the end.
Also, I really appreciated the beginning with Obi-wan swooping in to save Cody and co. The tragic irony hurts my heart, even if neither character really deserves it in this case.
I do need to at least briefly bring up the animation again. Because some parts of it are excellent, but others don’t work. I don’t know what happened to the character models for Obi-wan and Anakin, but they look pretty crappy. But…not all the time… And yet it’s everything about their character model, so some pieces of it is always off, be it the face, the hair, the clothes, the expressions; something is off with some part of it almost every time they’re around, it just isn’t always the same thing. Even some of Ahsoka’s facial expressions don’t seem right; she benefits from not having hair and having more basic clothes, and aliens seem a little easier for my brain to accept; but the expressions are still off in places, especially early in the arc.
But Maul looks excellent. Distance shots look good; masses of people in armor work out well. It’s at an individual level that there are problems.
In the end I will probably never write it, so here’s the fanfic I want to see someone if not me write.
In the s5 Mandalor arc, when it comes to Satine’s death scene, Obi-wan isn’t so passive. He telekinetic-duels Maul to keep him from killing Satine. Somehow this leads to Obi being able to subdue Maul at least long enough for him and Satine to get away. Bo Katan gets them both off planet, and Obi-wan is full of angst; because while he didn’t exactly turn to the dark side to find the strength to stop Maul, he did embrace something inside himself that he’s not sure he can accept, and he’s not sure Satine can or should accept the very non-pacifist side of him that came out for that fight. It leads to a lot of discussion of the role of soldiers and warriors, protecting that which they love vs. embracing the fight.
Obi-wan and Satine go into hiding for a bit, which means Obi-wan isn’t around during Ahsoka’s trial (it’s not like he did anything in that arc beyond occasionally looking bothered by how the Council was acting). But he does make it back by the end of that arc, though he’s still not completely back, either in the Council’s good graces or feeling like he belongs there right now. So he sets up Ahsoka with Satine and Bo Katan trying to take back Mandalor, but he can’t leave Anakin like this, or the other people who rely on him. So he takes on a lesser role in both the Clone War and the Mandalorian war. He and Satine continue to be very much in love with each other but very much unwilling/unable to be together; Ahsoka and Bo Katan both think they’re idiots, but also kind of get their hang-ups. Maybe they do talk a bit about whether, when the war is over, he’ll feel like he’s done being a hero, and might want to stay in one place, build a better future where there aren’t wars like this; and stay with her. He says he’s not sure, but he has been waiting for her to ask for a couple decades now (what is it with me and long term mutual pining couples?).
Even with that I run into a problem. Because I’ve never really wanted to change the twins’ stories, I probably wouldn’t change a whole lot in RotS (look, I want Luke and Leia to be Luke and Leia, and they wouldn’t be if we start changing swaths of backstory). But perhaps Obi-wan does convince the Council to actually talk to Anakin about their concerns over the Chancellor instead of making the spying an underhanded order. Although when you start changing anything about those events I’m not sure what to say happens for the next couple decades. And the fact that I’d probably want to know and write it is part of why I think I’ll sit on my hands to not go down that road. Epic AU spirals are kind of my kryptonite.
But yeah, if Obi-wan and Satine were also having a kid, there could be some more baby shenanigans going on, just throwing it out there. Although with the Jedi Purge, they still wouldn’t get much of a happy ending where a Duchess and her consort just rule in peace and prosperity. Just saying that too.
Anyway, I’ll move on to Rebels soonish (you probably won’t notice a pause). I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about that show; but I do know it will be different.
I will say without qualification that this arc was good. The fact that it clearly wants to be great doesn’t stop me from saying that it’s good. If the series had always been this, I probably would have had a very different attitude toward it as a whole, but it wasn’t; and while the flaws are lessened here, they’re not gone. But how much of the general/almost ever-present flaws with the show should I hold against this arc?
The problem is, that the thing I would probably suggest to paper over a lot of the flaws in the series is something that would have needed to happen from the start, but couldn’t have been done from the start. That would be to have made it always Ahsoka’s story. To have been a young person’s experience growing up in a time of war that she has to fight from an early age and sees the cost of it on herself and the society around her. And as more and more people betray her, as the institutions she trusted crack and fall into darkness, as she herself begins to wonder what the point of it all is, we see the fall of the Republic from the perspective of someone who might have been close enough to save it, but ultimately could never have stopped its fall.
Making Ahsoka the true central character of the piece would have made some of the other problems it has…have a kind of sense to them. You even get a little of that here, by showing us parts of the same events from a different perspective, it takes on a very different feel. The talk about the Chancellor seems quite a bit more sinister (and it was always a little iffy) when we’re not with the Council having the discussion. And having a main character would allow some narrative wiggle room for why certain things don’t happen with the (supposedly equal) characters they kind of should have.
Because if I have one true complaint about this episode, is that it means Obi-wan did nothing for Mandalor following the events in s5 and that doesn’t sit right with me. The show has always kind of struggled with what to do with Obi-wan; they were basically incapable of giving him an actual character arc, but he’s too prominent a character to treat like he’s Plo or Mundi or someone that can just be put on the shelf and just say that he’s off doing his own thing in the war all the time. But the arc in s5 very much ended with the implication that Obi-wan was going to see to it that someone stepped in and restored Mandalor; Bo Katan had asked him for the Republic to send backup, they knew Maul was involved so there was no reason the Jedi wouldn’t, and Obi-wan had already established that some concerns did go about the Council’s wishes for him. So there is no reason why he would have just sat around all this time, and then not jumped on the chance when Ahsoka dropped it in their laps.
Now it’s possible that there were some books on the subject written in the years between s5 and s7; and if I liked the show better I might make up a reason (like he got big time reprimanded for going to Mandalor in s5 against orders, so he really can’t force the issue this time; not that I think that covers everything). This is the element that the most makes this feel like it’s not the ending we should have had. That they had other plans for how to wrap up the Mandalor story when they opened it in s5 (arguably further back depending on what counts as the opening of this can of worms), but hadn’t gotten back to it when the show was cancelled; and when they got s7 they weren’t given enough episodes to wrap up everything they needed to, so they forced Ahsoka into the Mandalor arc, but didn’t trade on her connection to it (where’s Corkey? No, really, they never did answer if he was alive of not).
And nothing this season has cared about Obi-wan’s characterization, but this just wrecks it. Obi-wan taking the lead in wrapping up the Mandalor arc would have finally given me some of the fallout I wanted to see in s5 but the show hasn’t actually given me/us/him. And that is one of those big problems with the series that I’m not sure how much I should hold against this arc.
Like all of s7, this arc had a slight stink of franchise over story. It’s smaller in this case, but it’s still there. I’d probably put money on the idea that the few Mandalorians we see without helmets in this episode are ones that we’re supposed to know from other parts of the franchise. Also, where did the Darksaber end up? It wasn’t around in this episode, but last I knew Maul had it…unless Sidious took it? Weirdly I don’t have too much of a problem with the outright references they make to events that happened offscreen (but probably on page), like Maul praising his troops for things they did, and the adventures of Ahsoka and Bo Katan; but the more subtle stuff grated on me.
But, if I can set aside my series and franchise issues, this is a really well told story. Setup and payoff generally track and make sense; the tragedy of how it ends is very much felt; and that it doesn’t wimp out of the tragedy is very much appreciated. Ahsoka didn’t want to kill people under mind control, but she did. The ship crashed because she let Maul out to cause chaos, and everyone died because of that choice. It’s noble of her and Rex to try and have mercy because they know the people they’re fighting and don’t want to hurt them; but it’s still her fault in the end.
Also, I really appreciated the beginning with Obi-wan swooping in to save Cody and co. The tragic irony hurts my heart, even if neither character really deserves it in this case.
I do need to at least briefly bring up the animation again. Because some parts of it are excellent, but others don’t work. I don’t know what happened to the character models for Obi-wan and Anakin, but they look pretty crappy. But…not all the time… And yet it’s everything about their character model, so some pieces of it is always off, be it the face, the hair, the clothes, the expressions; something is off with some part of it almost every time they’re around, it just isn’t always the same thing. Even some of Ahsoka’s facial expressions don’t seem right; she benefits from not having hair and having more basic clothes, and aliens seem a little easier for my brain to accept; but the expressions are still off in places, especially early in the arc.
But Maul looks excellent. Distance shots look good; masses of people in armor work out well. It’s at an individual level that there are problems.
In the end I will probably never write it, so here’s the fanfic I want to see someone if not me write.
In the s5 Mandalor arc, when it comes to Satine’s death scene, Obi-wan isn’t so passive. He telekinetic-duels Maul to keep him from killing Satine. Somehow this leads to Obi being able to subdue Maul at least long enough for him and Satine to get away. Bo Katan gets them both off planet, and Obi-wan is full of angst; because while he didn’t exactly turn to the dark side to find the strength to stop Maul, he did embrace something inside himself that he’s not sure he can accept, and he’s not sure Satine can or should accept the very non-pacifist side of him that came out for that fight. It leads to a lot of discussion of the role of soldiers and warriors, protecting that which they love vs. embracing the fight.
Obi-wan and Satine go into hiding for a bit, which means Obi-wan isn’t around during Ahsoka’s trial (it’s not like he did anything in that arc beyond occasionally looking bothered by how the Council was acting). But he does make it back by the end of that arc, though he’s still not completely back, either in the Council’s good graces or feeling like he belongs there right now. So he sets up Ahsoka with Satine and Bo Katan trying to take back Mandalor, but he can’t leave Anakin like this, or the other people who rely on him. So he takes on a lesser role in both the Clone War and the Mandalorian war. He and Satine continue to be very much in love with each other but very much unwilling/unable to be together; Ahsoka and Bo Katan both think they’re idiots, but also kind of get their hang-ups. Maybe they do talk a bit about whether, when the war is over, he’ll feel like he’s done being a hero, and might want to stay in one place, build a better future where there aren’t wars like this; and stay with her. He says he’s not sure, but he has been waiting for her to ask for a couple decades now (what is it with me and long term mutual pining couples?).
Even with that I run into a problem. Because I’ve never really wanted to change the twins’ stories, I probably wouldn’t change a whole lot in RotS (look, I want Luke and Leia to be Luke and Leia, and they wouldn’t be if we start changing swaths of backstory). But perhaps Obi-wan does convince the Council to actually talk to Anakin about their concerns over the Chancellor instead of making the spying an underhanded order. Although when you start changing anything about those events I’m not sure what to say happens for the next couple decades. And the fact that I’d probably want to know and write it is part of why I think I’ll sit on my hands to not go down that road. Epic AU spirals are kind of my kryptonite.
But yeah, if Obi-wan and Satine were also having a kid, there could be some more baby shenanigans going on, just throwing it out there. Although with the Jedi Purge, they still wouldn’t get much of a happy ending where a Duchess and her consort just rule in peace and prosperity. Just saying that too.
Anyway, I’ll move on to Rebels soonish (you probably won’t notice a pause). I’m not sure how I’m going to feel about that show; but I do know it will be different.
