Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 1x14-15
Jan. 25th, 2021 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars – 1x14: "Defenders of Peace"
This episode was...well paced, I'm not sure I can give it many more compliments. It's decent in the abstract, and at least I wasn't distracted by the obvious bad decisions of the last ep, but it's still kind of...dumb.
I will say that at least this episode answers a bit of my criticism of not showing what the war is about, because this one actually does some work to show the Separatists acting like the villains we're told they are. In that they do seem to be taking a stance akin 'the strong can and should dominate the weak.' And I'll admit that that's not a great attitude and it's one that fits for the supposed bad guys. It doesn't stop me from thinking they're not that much worse than the Republic who are using an army of sentient, living beings who have no choice but to serve as soldiers and didn't actually care about the lesser, weaker planets until they said they wanted out of the Republic (if they were ever in it).
I'm also a bit annoyed that the locals' non-violence was shown as something that had to change instead of to highlight that the Jedi used to stand for the same thing. I don't mind showing that rigidity to any code can lead to destruction and needs to be evaluated in the face of shifting needs; but this goes a bit too far to paint it as a wrong idea. Also, I found it a bit comical when the leader said that if they abandoned their beliefs they were no better than the attackers; something in the way he said it made it seem like he was claiming the army was lacking conviction. And that was ridiculous, because the droid army shows a lack of ability for an individual to make their own choices instead of being bound by a specific code. I suspect it was meant to say that if we become fighters we're no better than the other fighters, but it didn't ring that way in my ears when he said it.
I also might not have minded it if these guys turned out to be some kind of Organians and were actually super powerful but chose to live humble, non-violent lives. And I don't know if I would have minded if they were more akin to the Ewoks and were about to give a fair amount of help (but not super powered) when some of them joined the fight. Instead I just have to wonder how dumb the droids are (in the continued inability to make them the least bit scary), because they had plenty of time to react to their legs being tied up before they were tripped. Though I might have excused that if it had been about showing that the locals' way of life could fight back without having to kill everything against them, if Ahsoka hadn't come along and decapitated all the droids a moment later.
And then there's a thing I would rather not talk about, but I feel like I need to. By this point in our time, Lucasfilm had been accused of being kind of racist with it's depictions of other SW races for the better part of a decade, specifically the showing of the Trade Federation as stereotypically Japanese. And instead of trying to get away from that, they had George Takai do an exaggerated run as the ruthless conqueror, and two-faced about their intentions to boot. If this had been produced during the time of the movies I probably wouldn't make a thing of it, but leaning into it so many years later feels wrong.
That, and it doesn't help giving the poor defenseless dirt farming locals an Irish accent. Something I didn't even really notice last episode, but this ep was just leaning into the somewhat uncomfortable vocal choices quite a bit more.
And just as a note to keep in mind; these were test launches of a weapon that already exists and has been developed and built; there is nothing stopping them from making another one. Though I also find the use of this weapon somewhat suspect; or at least I find the end goal a little questionable. If the weapon never comes up again that will be weird because if Dooku and co. think in has a use, there's no reason not to continue producing it; but if it does I'd like it to be a bit more clearly explained how they want it to be used.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 1x15: "Trespass"
I...liked that episode. I have things to discuss, and it will probably sound like I'm picking on it a bit, but I think I liked that one quite a bit. It is somewhat damning that my favorite episodes of the season have been the ones with limited involvement in the actual fighting the eponymous Clone Wars, but that's a topic for a season evaluation (if I do one).
Let's get the most petty nitpick out of the way; one of the things pointed to as evidence that the base wasn't attacked by droids is because there weren't blaster burns? Does that mean the clones didn't have any chance to fight back? Nor did the Tal leave any sign of their attack? Even assuming the removed all the bodies, there was no blood? No fur? No prints left in spilled clone blood? The logistics to make it a mystery are a little stretched. Same goes for the droid base.
I'm not calling this a nitpick exactly, so much as an 'I see what you're doing' pick. Because the Senator seems very young, even compared to Padme in ep2. And as such she seems a bit too plainly meant to be the audience proxy/surrogate among younger viewers. This is made all the more evident by Ahsoka's absence from this story, especially when they're very similar character models. It works okay, but I see the writing strings a bit too obviously.
I'm starting to consider Rex the competent Jar Jar, he keeps managing to survive all these missions when the odds are clearly not in his favor. But I'll take competent Jar Jar over the bad one any day.
That said...I think the chain of command is kind of screwy here. The clones serve the Republic, and the Jedi are there representing the Republic, so the local chancellor wouldn't have true authority over them. And if there's a conflict between the interests of the Republic and the local authorities, then the Republic representatives would have the authority with the Clones. Also, and I'll admit I'm getting this from Babylon 5 but I am more or less quoting it directly; the civilian officers don't give orders to the military, it has to come through the proper chain of command. Now this episode does skirt that decently since the interests of the Republic are served by keeping the chancellor alive and Anakin's orders were about defense rather than offense, but I also feel like it could have used some clarification who had what authority.
Aside from those various complaints, this is a pretty well constructed episode; but what I like about it most is how, as the plot is revealed, you realize it's the thematic sequel to lest episode. The last episode framed the Separatists as the clear evil party for what happened in that episode, but this episode shows that being in the Republic doesn't necessarily make you that different. There are elements in the Republic just as into claims of ownership and willingness to destroy local 'lesser' peoples.
And to me, that rebalances the scales back to asking what is the war actually about. Because if there are bad people in the Republic, aren't there probably good people in Separatist camp? If both sides are judged by their worst actors then they're not that different. I'm not playing the 'both sides' game exactly (though since Palpatine is playing both sides of the game they literally aren't that different), because I am willing the believe that the Separatists have more bad faith actors in high positions than the Republic; but the show still needs to meet me halfway on knowing what they're fighting about.
That said, I kind of think this episode does more to establish the Jedi as guardians of peace than most of what I've seen. They are the check to those bad faith actors, who can strive to bring about peace. Of course now they're going to go back to fighting a war, but for this episode I'm on board.
This episode was...well paced, I'm not sure I can give it many more compliments. It's decent in the abstract, and at least I wasn't distracted by the obvious bad decisions of the last ep, but it's still kind of...dumb.
I will say that at least this episode answers a bit of my criticism of not showing what the war is about, because this one actually does some work to show the Separatists acting like the villains we're told they are. In that they do seem to be taking a stance akin 'the strong can and should dominate the weak.' And I'll admit that that's not a great attitude and it's one that fits for the supposed bad guys. It doesn't stop me from thinking they're not that much worse than the Republic who are using an army of sentient, living beings who have no choice but to serve as soldiers and didn't actually care about the lesser, weaker planets until they said they wanted out of the Republic (if they were ever in it).
I'm also a bit annoyed that the locals' non-violence was shown as something that had to change instead of to highlight that the Jedi used to stand for the same thing. I don't mind showing that rigidity to any code can lead to destruction and needs to be evaluated in the face of shifting needs; but this goes a bit too far to paint it as a wrong idea. Also, I found it a bit comical when the leader said that if they abandoned their beliefs they were no better than the attackers; something in the way he said it made it seem like he was claiming the army was lacking conviction. And that was ridiculous, because the droid army shows a lack of ability for an individual to make their own choices instead of being bound by a specific code. I suspect it was meant to say that if we become fighters we're no better than the other fighters, but it didn't ring that way in my ears when he said it.
I also might not have minded it if these guys turned out to be some kind of Organians and were actually super powerful but chose to live humble, non-violent lives. And I don't know if I would have minded if they were more akin to the Ewoks and were about to give a fair amount of help (but not super powered) when some of them joined the fight. Instead I just have to wonder how dumb the droids are (in the continued inability to make them the least bit scary), because they had plenty of time to react to their legs being tied up before they were tripped. Though I might have excused that if it had been about showing that the locals' way of life could fight back without having to kill everything against them, if Ahsoka hadn't come along and decapitated all the droids a moment later.
And then there's a thing I would rather not talk about, but I feel like I need to. By this point in our time, Lucasfilm had been accused of being kind of racist with it's depictions of other SW races for the better part of a decade, specifically the showing of the Trade Federation as stereotypically Japanese. And instead of trying to get away from that, they had George Takai do an exaggerated run as the ruthless conqueror, and two-faced about their intentions to boot. If this had been produced during the time of the movies I probably wouldn't make a thing of it, but leaning into it so many years later feels wrong.
That, and it doesn't help giving the poor defenseless dirt farming locals an Irish accent. Something I didn't even really notice last episode, but this ep was just leaning into the somewhat uncomfortable vocal choices quite a bit more.
And just as a note to keep in mind; these were test launches of a weapon that already exists and has been developed and built; there is nothing stopping them from making another one. Though I also find the use of this weapon somewhat suspect; or at least I find the end goal a little questionable. If the weapon never comes up again that will be weird because if Dooku and co. think in has a use, there's no reason not to continue producing it; but if it does I'd like it to be a bit more clearly explained how they want it to be used.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 1x15: "Trespass"
I...liked that episode. I have things to discuss, and it will probably sound like I'm picking on it a bit, but I think I liked that one quite a bit. It is somewhat damning that my favorite episodes of the season have been the ones with limited involvement in the actual fighting the eponymous Clone Wars, but that's a topic for a season evaluation (if I do one).
Let's get the most petty nitpick out of the way; one of the things pointed to as evidence that the base wasn't attacked by droids is because there weren't blaster burns? Does that mean the clones didn't have any chance to fight back? Nor did the Tal leave any sign of their attack? Even assuming the removed all the bodies, there was no blood? No fur? No prints left in spilled clone blood? The logistics to make it a mystery are a little stretched. Same goes for the droid base.
I'm not calling this a nitpick exactly, so much as an 'I see what you're doing' pick. Because the Senator seems very young, even compared to Padme in ep2. And as such she seems a bit too plainly meant to be the audience proxy/surrogate among younger viewers. This is made all the more evident by Ahsoka's absence from this story, especially when they're very similar character models. It works okay, but I see the writing strings a bit too obviously.
I'm starting to consider Rex the competent Jar Jar, he keeps managing to survive all these missions when the odds are clearly not in his favor. But I'll take competent Jar Jar over the bad one any day.
That said...I think the chain of command is kind of screwy here. The clones serve the Republic, and the Jedi are there representing the Republic, so the local chancellor wouldn't have true authority over them. And if there's a conflict between the interests of the Republic and the local authorities, then the Republic representatives would have the authority with the Clones. Also, and I'll admit I'm getting this from Babylon 5 but I am more or less quoting it directly; the civilian officers don't give orders to the military, it has to come through the proper chain of command. Now this episode does skirt that decently since the interests of the Republic are served by keeping the chancellor alive and Anakin's orders were about defense rather than offense, but I also feel like it could have used some clarification who had what authority.
Aside from those various complaints, this is a pretty well constructed episode; but what I like about it most is how, as the plot is revealed, you realize it's the thematic sequel to lest episode. The last episode framed the Separatists as the clear evil party for what happened in that episode, but this episode shows that being in the Republic doesn't necessarily make you that different. There are elements in the Republic just as into claims of ownership and willingness to destroy local 'lesser' peoples.
And to me, that rebalances the scales back to asking what is the war actually about. Because if there are bad people in the Republic, aren't there probably good people in Separatist camp? If both sides are judged by their worst actors then they're not that different. I'm not playing the 'both sides' game exactly (though since Palpatine is playing both sides of the game they literally aren't that different), because I am willing the believe that the Separatists have more bad faith actors in high positions than the Republic; but the show still needs to meet me halfway on knowing what they're fighting about.
That said, I kind of think this episode does more to establish the Jedi as guardians of peace than most of what I've seen. They are the check to those bad faith actors, who can strive to bring about peace. Of course now they're going to go back to fighting a war, but for this episode I'm on board.
