Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x09 - 10
Feb. 26th, 2021 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsOn one hand, I actually remembered to post on Friday. On the other, these were not well written and I don't remember the episodes well enough to smooth the reviews out very well.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x09: “Grievous Intrigue”
So I was super bored by this episode, lots of fighting and then more fighting, and the only vaguely interesting thing I thought might be going on apparently wasn't. Plus it managed to do about five things that annoyed me in the first couple minutes, then ended with a bad taste in my mouth, so all around I did not enjoy this.
I was inclined to think Koff had actually ended up betraying them, because Grievous was certainly acting like he had knowingly set up a trap for the Jedi. I suspect on reflection the implication was supposed to be that he had fully planned for Koff to give away their position. But that could have used a bit of acknowledgment that this was a thing some people knew the Jedi did; or at least that Sidious could have predicted it was a tactic Grievous could use. I also would have accepted that Grievous noticed it happening and chose to run with it; but that's not the same as setting up that the whole thing was a trap. Basically, I find something quite suspicious with the order of events here.
Maybe I'm just forgetful, but I don't remember this rivalry between Obi-wan and Grievous being set up before. Just because the audience saw things out of order, so knows Obi-wan will end up killing Grievous, isn't set up for it in character. And since this ties in with the first thing in the episode that annoyed me, I'm not going to ignore that.
Also because this show skips over events so randomly. The first line by the announcer is about how the Republic has been losing battle after battle, but of course we haven't seen that. To go with that statement, they even include insert shots of characters we know so we can't even claim that maybe all these defeats were just happening to other people. They just spent a pretty sizable arc with us seeing the characters with a big success, but now they're supposedly on the back foot.
I continue to wish we had seen Grievous gradually gaining lightsabers over the course of the series. So that when he pulls them out we know where he got each one of them, the people he killed in order to have that collection. Even if he killed more than four Jedi over the series, I wish seeing him wield the sabers had a more viscerally negative reaction at the memory he's abusing.
And the last annoyance of the episode had kind of been a nagging feeling through the episode that crescendoed with one of the last lines of the episode. And yes I am yet again annoyed for clone respect; because this rescue operation got a lot of people killed. Throughout much of the story I could tell myself that it was also about the opportunity to go after Grievous, not just the life of one Jedi; but having Koff say at the end that he would gladly give his life to have taken out Grievous rubbed me the wrong way. Because again, he's going to say it's okay, but not the hundreds (minimum) of clones on the destroyer that died.
Now, if the implication is that it wasn't so much Grievous with the big plot, but the Jedi had used Koff as bait to try and catch Grievous...well I think they should have had a better plan for how to work that trap. It also seems like a poorly done plan all around (how would they have known Grievous wouldn't just kill Koff?) and the show gave a lot more implication that Grievous was the one with a plan and no real indication that this had been a Jedi plot. So I just continue to be annoyed on behalf of the clones.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x10: “The Deserter”
I'm torn on this one; part of me rather liked it, but another part finds it a muddled mess of a story. And I think both those reactions come from about the same place; it actually does a story about clones as individuals and what that means within their culture...and then basically refuses to actually do that with Rex who's arguably our most familiar clone.
I can't tell how I'm supposed to feel about Rex's attitude; it feels like it's being presented as good and honorable; but it also comes across as small and barely considered. But even for myself I can't say that Rex is wrong to want to serve the Republic alongside his brothers; but I'm also not convinced he ever got to make his own choice about whether that was right. Maybe I'd feel better if I felt he actually struggled with his conditioning in this episode. He can continue to choose that his service is the right choice for him, he's allowed to make that choice, but I still don't feel like he really saw it as a choice so I can't say that he's making one.
I think intercutting the Rex plot with the Obi-wan and co. hunt for Grievous really hurt this. I kind of expected it to be relevant to the A-story at some point, but it was mostly just an excuse for why Rex was on his own at the farm. And for that we didn't need to see much of the fight story (especially since they injected action into the farm plot). It could have also been thematically relevant, I thought maybe a few of Rex's squad would be killed and he's come back to a scene similar to Cut's description, and with Cut's words still in his mind. Even if Rex would still to decide to stay, they could play a moment of him reflecting on what he's seen.
Basically, if they had done a truly personal story of Rex defining his beliefs and taking them on as more than parroted responses, this could have been a lovely story. Truly humanized Rex as a person, and since Rex tends to stand as the clone archetype we'd have seen the clones as fully realized people too (not that I've been having a problem with that).
Or maybe if the war had found them more organically. I don't see any reason the droids would have attacked the farm; they probably had better things to do once they were activated. I might have rationalized it if Rex and/or Cut had been there to be identified a clone troopers, but a couple of farm kids aren't that important to go after.
I think there are the pieces to a really good episode here, both in concept and execution, but I can't say it actually rises to the moment. And as I've said before, sometimes the eps that could have been excellent but I can only call decent-to-good are more disappointing than they actual meh ones (actual bad ones depend on what sort of bad). But this does show that the series might touch on these issues I've been bringing up...not that it's done more than skate around them so far.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x09: “Grievous Intrigue”
So I was super bored by this episode, lots of fighting and then more fighting, and the only vaguely interesting thing I thought might be going on apparently wasn't. Plus it managed to do about five things that annoyed me in the first couple minutes, then ended with a bad taste in my mouth, so all around I did not enjoy this.
I was inclined to think Koff had actually ended up betraying them, because Grievous was certainly acting like he had knowingly set up a trap for the Jedi. I suspect on reflection the implication was supposed to be that he had fully planned for Koff to give away their position. But that could have used a bit of acknowledgment that this was a thing some people knew the Jedi did; or at least that Sidious could have predicted it was a tactic Grievous could use. I also would have accepted that Grievous noticed it happening and chose to run with it; but that's not the same as setting up that the whole thing was a trap. Basically, I find something quite suspicious with the order of events here.
Maybe I'm just forgetful, but I don't remember this rivalry between Obi-wan and Grievous being set up before. Just because the audience saw things out of order, so knows Obi-wan will end up killing Grievous, isn't set up for it in character. And since this ties in with the first thing in the episode that annoyed me, I'm not going to ignore that.
Also because this show skips over events so randomly. The first line by the announcer is about how the Republic has been losing battle after battle, but of course we haven't seen that. To go with that statement, they even include insert shots of characters we know so we can't even claim that maybe all these defeats were just happening to other people. They just spent a pretty sizable arc with us seeing the characters with a big success, but now they're supposedly on the back foot.
I continue to wish we had seen Grievous gradually gaining lightsabers over the course of the series. So that when he pulls them out we know where he got each one of them, the people he killed in order to have that collection. Even if he killed more than four Jedi over the series, I wish seeing him wield the sabers had a more viscerally negative reaction at the memory he's abusing.
And the last annoyance of the episode had kind of been a nagging feeling through the episode that crescendoed with one of the last lines of the episode. And yes I am yet again annoyed for clone respect; because this rescue operation got a lot of people killed. Throughout much of the story I could tell myself that it was also about the opportunity to go after Grievous, not just the life of one Jedi; but having Koff say at the end that he would gladly give his life to have taken out Grievous rubbed me the wrong way. Because again, he's going to say it's okay, but not the hundreds (minimum) of clones on the destroyer that died.
Now, if the implication is that it wasn't so much Grievous with the big plot, but the Jedi had used Koff as bait to try and catch Grievous...well I think they should have had a better plan for how to work that trap. It also seems like a poorly done plan all around (how would they have known Grievous wouldn't just kill Koff?) and the show gave a lot more implication that Grievous was the one with a plan and no real indication that this had been a Jedi plot. So I just continue to be annoyed on behalf of the clones.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x10: “The Deserter”
I'm torn on this one; part of me rather liked it, but another part finds it a muddled mess of a story. And I think both those reactions come from about the same place; it actually does a story about clones as individuals and what that means within their culture...and then basically refuses to actually do that with Rex who's arguably our most familiar clone.
I can't tell how I'm supposed to feel about Rex's attitude; it feels like it's being presented as good and honorable; but it also comes across as small and barely considered. But even for myself I can't say that Rex is wrong to want to serve the Republic alongside his brothers; but I'm also not convinced he ever got to make his own choice about whether that was right. Maybe I'd feel better if I felt he actually struggled with his conditioning in this episode. He can continue to choose that his service is the right choice for him, he's allowed to make that choice, but I still don't feel like he really saw it as a choice so I can't say that he's making one.
I think intercutting the Rex plot with the Obi-wan and co. hunt for Grievous really hurt this. I kind of expected it to be relevant to the A-story at some point, but it was mostly just an excuse for why Rex was on his own at the farm. And for that we didn't need to see much of the fight story (especially since they injected action into the farm plot). It could have also been thematically relevant, I thought maybe a few of Rex's squad would be killed and he's come back to a scene similar to Cut's description, and with Cut's words still in his mind. Even if Rex would still to decide to stay, they could play a moment of him reflecting on what he's seen.
Basically, if they had done a truly personal story of Rex defining his beliefs and taking them on as more than parroted responses, this could have been a lovely story. Truly humanized Rex as a person, and since Rex tends to stand as the clone archetype we'd have seen the clones as fully realized people too (not that I've been having a problem with that).
Or maybe if the war had found them more organically. I don't see any reason the droids would have attacked the farm; they probably had better things to do once they were activated. I might have rationalized it if Rex and/or Cut had been there to be identified a clone troopers, but a couple of farm kids aren't that important to go after.
I think there are the pieces to a really good episode here, both in concept and execution, but I can't say it actually rises to the moment. And as I've said before, sometimes the eps that could have been excellent but I can only call decent-to-good are more disappointing than they actual meh ones (actual bad ones depend on what sort of bad). But this does show that the series might touch on these issues I've been bringing up...not that it's done more than skate around them so far.
