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tori_reviews2021-03-08 06:30 pm
jedi_of_urth) wrote in tori_reviews2021-03-08 06:30 pm
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x15 - 17
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x15: “Senate Murders”
So, another episode I'm kind of torn on. It's plot is not great for a variety of reasons, but it's also exactly what I was saying last time about wanting more of what's going on in the corridors of politics instead of swooshy fighting on the front lines, and yet they still refuse to say what the damn war is about.
Though in this instance, while I'm definitely annoyed by it, I can see a way it could be intentional. To show that in the political realm, no one really knows what the war is about. If they ever did, by this point they're just entrenched in their positions on it. That said, this would have been an excellent time to give some insight into what people think of the war as being about and why they would take the positions on it they do.
Because I'm not sure where my sympathies lie in the debate here. Long term, obviously Palpatine is completely in favor of this as it keeps the fighting going and has the Republic accustomed to constant wars and military spending, plus getting him more and more power under the ruse of seeming non-threatening when he has it. But for there to be a chance of diplomacy doing any good, the war has to be about something aside from keeping the war going. Show me on a map what you are willing to concede in order to have peace, and what happens if not all the people in those regions, or any regions, agree with the new lines drawn? Do you have any indication the other side would come to the negotiation table, or abide by any deal you make? Because if not, ramping down their military spending when the Separatists can just go on making more droids is likely going to end up putting the Republic in the weaker position by the time the Separatists are willing to come to the negotiation table.
As far as the investigation plot itself, I thought it was pretty weak. But I am pleasantly surprised that the end result was not to demean the actual police, which seemed what they were setting up by having the cop being a bit bumbling and not make a good first impression on our main characters. Though here in the audience I wondered if it had been a murder at all, or if Palpatine was just turning this into an opportunity to sow distrust among the senators. Mostly, I thought Lola was pretty suspicious all the way through; admittedly partly for Doyalist reasons as once Ahno died, the other three people around are legacy characters and the 'villains' of the episode were too obvious in their baddie-ness.
Hmm, I guess some exposure to Padme's dumb senate hair (I mean the big fan one, the funnel cage hat is better anyway) helped me get a bit more used to it. It still objectively dumb, but I didn't find it as distracting this time. Also, as isn't surprising, she's more interesting and developed away from Anakin.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x16: “Cat and Mouse”
So I didn't gather until the ending that I think this is a prequel the the early action of the animated movie? Making this a prequel to a midquel in a series of prequels to the sequels to the original Star Wars, making this...a week ago next Saturday.
That said, I did get kind of a season 1 vibe from this episode; s2 has been a notable step up in quality and this episode was...not that. I might be a bit more tired than usual, but I found this episode slow and boring and hard to stay awake through. There was nothing about it that hooked me, no character work really (if one watched it before seeing the movie maybe you could call Anakin and Yolaran bonding to be something, but it's not at this stage), no mystery (except with this being a prequel, where did the cloaking device go? It fell into the same place R2's rockets will I suppose), no attempt to do world-building or broaden the galaxy or explore the complexities of the war. There's some fighting, Anakin's a dick but not a competent dick, and the day is saved (for the moment), and that's not that interesting.
While I didn't exactly think of it during the episode (aside from wondering where Rex was since we didn't see him as far as I could tell), now I notice that the clones are also treated in a rather s1 way. They're all interchangeable nobodies who are extensions of the player characters but there aren't individuals yet. Oddly, if we consider this as an episode they had in the can but had cut when they attached the Ahsoka part to the movie, there's a bit of Yolaran filling the role that would usually be Rex; and I think there's some interesting implications in that, but I don't quite feel like getting into them.
Looked at another way though, this makes me consider that Yolaran might be set to die soon. It would be far from unusual for TV shows to show you a previously unseen beginning of a character in the story just before that character gets killed off. Apparently this show has convinced me there's possibility for anyone to die, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad one.
Of course, the best moment of the episode was Bail's 'We need you're help Kenobi, you're our only hope.' Like father, like daughter I guess.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x17: “Bounty Hunters”
Again I find myself in a situation where I'm not quite sure how I feel about an episode, and I also don't have much to say about it. And I don't know how much of that is from my own mood where my heart is not really in it, or if there was something about the episode I was just not into. I feel a bit like this was probably objectively better than I was feeling about it, probably fine to good on a quality scale, I was just not finding anything to invest in.
I sort of thought, since the episode was moving kind of slow, that this was part of a story arc and this was starting a setup episode. But even though it did have the action breakout, there was never very much tension or stakes. There definitely wasn't much character work, nor twists, and it all ended pretty happily.
Probably the most character thing about it was early on, with Ahsoka just grinning watching Anakin and Obi-wan bicker with each other. These two decorated and distinguished Jedi who are squabbling siblings when you put them together. And probably the most disappointing thing about the episode is that, having our three primary Jedi all in an episode seems like it should be good ground for interesting character work and we don't get any of it.
I do have to comment a bit on Hondo though. Given his name and the few times I've noted fandom referencing him I had and would assume he was of the Han and Lando mold of smugglers. Even his first episodes, while he was on the darker edge of that character model, I still assumed that we were using the mold. But his actions this episode are a few steps further and I'm not seeing him as a middling grey character but an actual bad guy. Bringing a tank to a spear fight is not the actions of a thief with a heart of gold; and giving him a line of 'Die Jedi scum,' definitely doesn't show him in a good light. Plus the whole taking advantage of Anakin showing mercy; something Anakin doesn't always do.
There was a point where I also thought there would be consequences for Hondo talking about how he knew the Jedi. Either having it make people distrustful of the Jedi, or that it somehow influenced Hondo's plans. Especially with Obi-wan's attitude towards the village's problems being so dismissive (somewhere between selfish detachment and the Prime Directive equivalent).
Which is part of what's so difficult about this episode, it's a series of events that the main characters have little to no impact on. They're around, but we're not seeing through their eyes, it doesn't have any effect on them and they don't effect it; and nothing in it is building on consequences of their action. And making no effort to blend elements together makes it really bland.
So, another episode I'm kind of torn on. It's plot is not great for a variety of reasons, but it's also exactly what I was saying last time about wanting more of what's going on in the corridors of politics instead of swooshy fighting on the front lines, and yet they still refuse to say what the damn war is about.
Though in this instance, while I'm definitely annoyed by it, I can see a way it could be intentional. To show that in the political realm, no one really knows what the war is about. If they ever did, by this point they're just entrenched in their positions on it. That said, this would have been an excellent time to give some insight into what people think of the war as being about and why they would take the positions on it they do.
Because I'm not sure where my sympathies lie in the debate here. Long term, obviously Palpatine is completely in favor of this as it keeps the fighting going and has the Republic accustomed to constant wars and military spending, plus getting him more and more power under the ruse of seeming non-threatening when he has it. But for there to be a chance of diplomacy doing any good, the war has to be about something aside from keeping the war going. Show me on a map what you are willing to concede in order to have peace, and what happens if not all the people in those regions, or any regions, agree with the new lines drawn? Do you have any indication the other side would come to the negotiation table, or abide by any deal you make? Because if not, ramping down their military spending when the Separatists can just go on making more droids is likely going to end up putting the Republic in the weaker position by the time the Separatists are willing to come to the negotiation table.
As far as the investigation plot itself, I thought it was pretty weak. But I am pleasantly surprised that the end result was not to demean the actual police, which seemed what they were setting up by having the cop being a bit bumbling and not make a good first impression on our main characters. Though here in the audience I wondered if it had been a murder at all, or if Palpatine was just turning this into an opportunity to sow distrust among the senators. Mostly, I thought Lola was pretty suspicious all the way through; admittedly partly for Doyalist reasons as once Ahno died, the other three people around are legacy characters and the 'villains' of the episode were too obvious in their baddie-ness.
Hmm, I guess some exposure to Padme's dumb senate hair (I mean the big fan one, the funnel cage hat is better anyway) helped me get a bit more used to it. It still objectively dumb, but I didn't find it as distracting this time. Also, as isn't surprising, she's more interesting and developed away from Anakin.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x16: “Cat and Mouse”
So I didn't gather until the ending that I think this is a prequel the the early action of the animated movie? Making this a prequel to a midquel in a series of prequels to the sequels to the original Star Wars, making this...a week ago next Saturday.
That said, I did get kind of a season 1 vibe from this episode; s2 has been a notable step up in quality and this episode was...not that. I might be a bit more tired than usual, but I found this episode slow and boring and hard to stay awake through. There was nothing about it that hooked me, no character work really (if one watched it before seeing the movie maybe you could call Anakin and Yolaran bonding to be something, but it's not at this stage), no mystery (except with this being a prequel, where did the cloaking device go? It fell into the same place R2's rockets will I suppose), no attempt to do world-building or broaden the galaxy or explore the complexities of the war. There's some fighting, Anakin's a dick but not a competent dick, and the day is saved (for the moment), and that's not that interesting.
While I didn't exactly think of it during the episode (aside from wondering where Rex was since we didn't see him as far as I could tell), now I notice that the clones are also treated in a rather s1 way. They're all interchangeable nobodies who are extensions of the player characters but there aren't individuals yet. Oddly, if we consider this as an episode they had in the can but had cut when they attached the Ahsoka part to the movie, there's a bit of Yolaran filling the role that would usually be Rex; and I think there's some interesting implications in that, but I don't quite feel like getting into them.
Looked at another way though, this makes me consider that Yolaran might be set to die soon. It would be far from unusual for TV shows to show you a previously unseen beginning of a character in the story just before that character gets killed off. Apparently this show has convinced me there's possibility for anyone to die, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad one.
Of course, the best moment of the episode was Bail's 'We need you're help Kenobi, you're our only hope.' Like father, like daughter I guess.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x17: “Bounty Hunters”
Again I find myself in a situation where I'm not quite sure how I feel about an episode, and I also don't have much to say about it. And I don't know how much of that is from my own mood where my heart is not really in it, or if there was something about the episode I was just not into. I feel a bit like this was probably objectively better than I was feeling about it, probably fine to good on a quality scale, I was just not finding anything to invest in.
I sort of thought, since the episode was moving kind of slow, that this was part of a story arc and this was starting a setup episode. But even though it did have the action breakout, there was never very much tension or stakes. There definitely wasn't much character work, nor twists, and it all ended pretty happily.
Probably the most character thing about it was early on, with Ahsoka just grinning watching Anakin and Obi-wan bicker with each other. These two decorated and distinguished Jedi who are squabbling siblings when you put them together. And probably the most disappointing thing about the episode is that, having our three primary Jedi all in an episode seems like it should be good ground for interesting character work and we don't get any of it.
I do have to comment a bit on Hondo though. Given his name and the few times I've noted fandom referencing him I had and would assume he was of the Han and Lando mold of smugglers. Even his first episodes, while he was on the darker edge of that character model, I still assumed that we were using the mold. But his actions this episode are a few steps further and I'm not seeing him as a middling grey character but an actual bad guy. Bringing a tank to a spear fight is not the actions of a thief with a heart of gold; and giving him a line of 'Die Jedi scum,' definitely doesn't show him in a good light. Plus the whole taking advantage of Anakin showing mercy; something Anakin doesn't always do.
There was a point where I also thought there would be consequences for Hondo talking about how he knew the Jedi. Either having it make people distrustful of the Jedi, or that it somehow influenced Hondo's plans. Especially with Obi-wan's attitude towards the village's problems being so dismissive (somewhere between selfish detachment and the Prime Directive equivalent).
Which is part of what's so difficult about this episode, it's a series of events that the main characters have little to no impact on. They're around, but we're not seeing through their eyes, it doesn't have any effect on them and they don't effect it; and nothing in it is building on consequences of their action. And making no effort to blend elements together makes it really bland.