Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x20 - 21
Mar. 15th, 2021 09:49 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_reviewsI debated finishing out the season in this post, but decided these two were long enough, and the finale is close to it too; and that will give me a chance to make add in a few stray thoughts when it's the focus.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x20: “Death Trap”
Hmm...
This episode was a good idea, and I think it was even executed well, but I can't decide if I like it. I can't think of it as a good episode, even if I can't really point to anything wrong with it.
I don't even feel a lot of need to discuss the ethics of child soldiers in this case; I certainly could, but this story didn't provoke a need for me to go on a tear about it. Although I would suggest that maybe the reason Boba is better than the other cadets is because he at least has the experience of a ten year old as opposed to the others who are probably less than two. And that doesn't really have an ethical component, it's just an observation.
I found the lack of buddy system among the cadets to take me out of the episode a couple times. How did no one notice when Boba left the group when there were people standing right next to him?
Maybe I'll talk a bit about the fact that there continues to be an assumption that all clones are going to act just as their expected to. It's not as if this doesn't make sense, in a sub-society where literally everyone has the same experience and circumstance, as well as genetics and features, it's reasonable to presume that no one has a unique attitude. Especially among the very young that we're looking at here. So assuming they're alike is fairly reasonable; but we've seen that as experiences diverge, some will make different choices. Though even among the young, we know differences start to appear early enough that that's how they choose names. And as soon as an individual personality starts to form, it builds upon itself. Some start to drift towards leadership roles, some towards tough guy, some happen to draw a straw that they show an apparent aptitude for something (whether or not they have an actual difference in aptitude) and that snowballs into them taking on those roles.
I can't say for sure if it's because I've seen it referenced that Boba Fett has things to do in this show that meant I figured out pretty quickly what we were seeing in Lucky, or if the opening quote was a signpost that quickly made sense of what was up with the outsider cadet. I don't want to say it's a problem that I knew, because it wasn't (being able to see what game is being played is okay, being able to call all the moves is a problem and I couldn't do that), but I still thought I should own it. Besides it's not like there's a lot I feel like talking about in this review.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x21: “R2 Come Home”
Another good concept, executed pretty well, and I connected with this one a little more. And the fact that this one worked for me better gives me an idea what the problem was in the last one; I don't do well following villains. And/or I still do not care about Boba Fett, take your pick.
Last episode was a decent idea, and an interesting attempt to have us on the side of Boba Fett. I'd even say it kind of worked up to a point (which is where my 'I just don't care' part was still in play), because him trying to get vengeance on Mace is kind of a valid angle to take. Heroes and villains being in the eye of the beholder, everyone being the hero of their own story, and giving a villain a motivation people root for when it's the hero. But the bigger problem than my Boba Fett apathy kicked in after the first attempt failed; at the point you're blowing up a ship to get vengeance on one person, that's not an anti-hero, that's just a villain.
R2 on the other hand, is not a villain, nor is he Boba Fett, so watching him doesn't create the same disconnect for me. It seems R2 can be a bit of jerk when he's 'worked up' on mission, but that's small beans. I will say that while he didn't actually kill anyone in this one he could have with his antics, he could have; but still not thousands of people, so still a plus.
Though this does raise some stray thoughts about having hero droids when the main antagonists of the series are droids. On one level it just highlights that it makes no sense that the droid army is so bad at everything when a single R2 unit can do so much on its own. While Mace's droid didn't do quite as well, it still seemed more capable than any of the Roger droids ever have. And it would seem that the difference between R2 and Mace's R8 would be the same as discussed between Boba and the clones last episode, experience; R2 not having a memory wipe in a long time vs. regular reset to factory settings.
On another level, I find myself wondering what effect it has on people that they see droids as the opposing force. They still use them of the Republic side, they're probably too integral to society (and space travel) to not have them around, but I wonder if there's an undercurrent of that connection in Mace's attitude. This makes a lot more sense in theory than it does with available evidence; but they have it be something like showing the Separatist droids having more individual personality than the functional droids we see in Republic areas, and R2 clearly has a personality so in some views he's closer to being like the enemy. It's not quite supported by the text, and it's too late to start showing the Separatist droids as anything but useless piles of metal, but it would have been an option at some point.
It also occurs to me that the droids haven't been as common of opponents this season. Rather than seeing the heroes mow through line after line of droids, we've at least as often as not been smaller scale opponents (or not always smaller, in the Zillo's case); and even when there are droid crew, we'll focus on a sentient commander instead the fighting being against the droids. This was a good move of this season, but I find myself quite aware of it happening when I go to talk about battle droids and realize I haven't needed to in a while.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x20: “Death Trap”
Hmm...
This episode was a good idea, and I think it was even executed well, but I can't decide if I like it. I can't think of it as a good episode, even if I can't really point to anything wrong with it.
I don't even feel a lot of need to discuss the ethics of child soldiers in this case; I certainly could, but this story didn't provoke a need for me to go on a tear about it. Although I would suggest that maybe the reason Boba is better than the other cadets is because he at least has the experience of a ten year old as opposed to the others who are probably less than two. And that doesn't really have an ethical component, it's just an observation.
I found the lack of buddy system among the cadets to take me out of the episode a couple times. How did no one notice when Boba left the group when there were people standing right next to him?
Maybe I'll talk a bit about the fact that there continues to be an assumption that all clones are going to act just as their expected to. It's not as if this doesn't make sense, in a sub-society where literally everyone has the same experience and circumstance, as well as genetics and features, it's reasonable to presume that no one has a unique attitude. Especially among the very young that we're looking at here. So assuming they're alike is fairly reasonable; but we've seen that as experiences diverge, some will make different choices. Though even among the young, we know differences start to appear early enough that that's how they choose names. And as soon as an individual personality starts to form, it builds upon itself. Some start to drift towards leadership roles, some towards tough guy, some happen to draw a straw that they show an apparent aptitude for something (whether or not they have an actual difference in aptitude) and that snowballs into them taking on those roles.
I can't say for sure if it's because I've seen it referenced that Boba Fett has things to do in this show that meant I figured out pretty quickly what we were seeing in Lucky, or if the opening quote was a signpost that quickly made sense of what was up with the outsider cadet. I don't want to say it's a problem that I knew, because it wasn't (being able to see what game is being played is okay, being able to call all the moves is a problem and I couldn't do that), but I still thought I should own it. Besides it's not like there's a lot I feel like talking about in this review.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 2x21: “R2 Come Home”
Another good concept, executed pretty well, and I connected with this one a little more. And the fact that this one worked for me better gives me an idea what the problem was in the last one; I don't do well following villains. And/or I still do not care about Boba Fett, take your pick.
Last episode was a decent idea, and an interesting attempt to have us on the side of Boba Fett. I'd even say it kind of worked up to a point (which is where my 'I just don't care' part was still in play), because him trying to get vengeance on Mace is kind of a valid angle to take. Heroes and villains being in the eye of the beholder, everyone being the hero of their own story, and giving a villain a motivation people root for when it's the hero. But the bigger problem than my Boba Fett apathy kicked in after the first attempt failed; at the point you're blowing up a ship to get vengeance on one person, that's not an anti-hero, that's just a villain.
R2 on the other hand, is not a villain, nor is he Boba Fett, so watching him doesn't create the same disconnect for me. It seems R2 can be a bit of jerk when he's 'worked up' on mission, but that's small beans. I will say that while he didn't actually kill anyone in this one he could have with his antics, he could have; but still not thousands of people, so still a plus.
Though this does raise some stray thoughts about having hero droids when the main antagonists of the series are droids. On one level it just highlights that it makes no sense that the droid army is so bad at everything when a single R2 unit can do so much on its own. While Mace's droid didn't do quite as well, it still seemed more capable than any of the Roger droids ever have. And it would seem that the difference between R2 and Mace's R8 would be the same as discussed between Boba and the clones last episode, experience; R2 not having a memory wipe in a long time vs. regular reset to factory settings.
On another level, I find myself wondering what effect it has on people that they see droids as the opposing force. They still use them of the Republic side, they're probably too integral to society (and space travel) to not have them around, but I wonder if there's an undercurrent of that connection in Mace's attitude. This makes a lot more sense in theory than it does with available evidence; but they have it be something like showing the Separatist droids having more individual personality than the functional droids we see in Republic areas, and R2 clearly has a personality so in some views he's closer to being like the enemy. It's not quite supported by the text, and it's too late to start showing the Separatist droids as anything but useless piles of metal, but it would have been an option at some point.
It also occurs to me that the droids haven't been as common of opponents this season. Rather than seeing the heroes mow through line after line of droids, we've at least as often as not been smaller scale opponents (or not always smaller, in the Zillo's case); and even when there are droid crew, we'll focus on a sentient commander instead the fighting being against the droids. This was a good move of this season, but I find myself quite aware of it happening when I go to talk about battle droids and realize I haven't needed to in a while.
