Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x03 - 04
Mar. 19th, 2021 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x03: “Supply Lines”
I think I liked this episode, maybe even liked it a fair amount, but I find myself a bit split on a lot of things I could say about it.
Even the use of Jar Jar here; I spent a good chunk of the first half of the episode being annoyed by him as usual; then I thought maybe this is a good use of him. But if this is a good use from him as written, then I'm still not sure it works in character; since it works because he's been such a buffoon up until that point and that wasn't part of some long game, so it ends up reminding me that it's contrived here to make him look like a useful character. At this point I don't know quite how you make it seem not-contrived for him to be useful, aside from that time in s1 when the clones unleashed Jar Jar on the smugglers and let chaos run its course.
A lot of my other mixed feelings about this come from the timing of it. Even the Jar Jar part is effected by that, since it helps throw into focus that this is out of order, we haven't really seen much of Jar Jar in a while; kind of like, as happened with the movies, they realized his shtick gets old real fast.
The last couple episodes, whichever order you might end up watching them in, it works just fine putting in the flashback a bit into the series, but this doesn't come off as clean. Maybe if the show had been doing things like this since s1 or early s2, by this point it would be more easily accepted that sometimes we just see effect before cause. Or maybe we gradually come to realize that we're watching a few different points in time, maybe with different groups of characters, or so they can have different flavors to them (early war bravado to seasoned veterans unaware how close they are to the end we know is going to happen).
And I can't make up my mind whether this seems like a lost episode they really should have shown where it was meant to slot in, or if they could be doing something with the non-chronological events. I've noted how much the first episode of the series felt like a very random choice, so I'm quite open to the idea that it and this ep were supposed to be shown around the time of the Ryloth arc where they would seem less random. But I can see it being thematically relevant to things the series could be doing going forward.
Speaking of, this is one of the better episodes that at least toe up to the line of explaining what the war is about, Granted, it paints the Separatists as clear invaders and schemers and doesn't really say what the ideology of the war is, but comparatively at least it does something with the politics of the war.
It's the Ryloth part that feels the most like it should have been shown at the same time. This is a much better introduction to the rebel force/refugees that randomly showed up for one part of the Ryloth arc. It's not that it gives us a huge view into them as people or characters, but that kind of why it works; it shows us what they're doing and dealing with and if these were shown in chronological order we would then shortly get to actually know them.
As for how that arc ends though, that put me back to waffling. Because killing off a Jedi hero like that, doesn't feel like a s1 thing, and yet it feels like it absolutely should have been a s1 thing. Showing that this war is a threat to the Jedi is both something I can see coming into play more going forward, but also would have been very much appreciated in s1.
I'm not sure how I would have felt about this episode back in s1; since Jar Jar was around more I was more frustrated with him at that point than I am now, and it could have felt out of place with so few of the major show characters (in keeping with the show's first episode, Yoda seems like an idiot). On the other hand, it wouldn't have had all these distracting elements and I'd be able to judge it without all that running though my mind.
So, good; but with some serious caveats.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x04: “Sphere of Influence”
With this episode I go back to considering if I get the most out of this show by doing reviews, because I have very little to say about this one, but I'd be fine watching another if I wasn't taking the time to write a review. And like last episode, this one was fine, it did a lot of things I like but it did so in a pretty bland way. There's nothing to complain about, and it's entirely possible my particular reaction just means I wasn't into it tonight, but I don't have much to say.
I don't get how the Trade Federation is keeping up this pretense or not picking a side. Although this episode does imply that there's some kind of legalese in their charter that allows them to still be in business with both sides during a war; and while that might be understandable (if still a bit questionable and war profiteering) if it was two planets or systems that were warring, but the Trade Federation itself was actually neutral and uninvolved. But as they are members of the Republic, continuing to sell to the enemy of the Republic seems pretty sketchy.
What this episode is doing connects with why I wasn't sure how to treat last episode; this ep ties in with things done in that one, just at different points in time. And if the show sticks with this style where there's more done in the political sphere and less action for action's sake I'm on board. Even if this episode didn't hit me so well, I did like what it was working with and I think they could do better.
It's also good to see some things brought back that had been introduced before, which is something I hoped might prove true and build arc off the more episodic s1. That would be very B5 of them. It does however highlight that Ahsoka wasn't in the first episode with the Pantorans; it's not that I don't buy that she's become friends with the senator since then, but I remember that it didn't happen in that episode. And even at the time I said the senator seem to have a pretty similar character model to Ahsoka and seeing them together did nothing to make me stop seeing it.
So, hopefully the next ep will be better/I'll be in a better mood.
I think I liked this episode, maybe even liked it a fair amount, but I find myself a bit split on a lot of things I could say about it.
Even the use of Jar Jar here; I spent a good chunk of the first half of the episode being annoyed by him as usual; then I thought maybe this is a good use of him. But if this is a good use from him as written, then I'm still not sure it works in character; since it works because he's been such a buffoon up until that point and that wasn't part of some long game, so it ends up reminding me that it's contrived here to make him look like a useful character. At this point I don't know quite how you make it seem not-contrived for him to be useful, aside from that time in s1 when the clones unleashed Jar Jar on the smugglers and let chaos run its course.
A lot of my other mixed feelings about this come from the timing of it. Even the Jar Jar part is effected by that, since it helps throw into focus that this is out of order, we haven't really seen much of Jar Jar in a while; kind of like, as happened with the movies, they realized his shtick gets old real fast.
The last couple episodes, whichever order you might end up watching them in, it works just fine putting in the flashback a bit into the series, but this doesn't come off as clean. Maybe if the show had been doing things like this since s1 or early s2, by this point it would be more easily accepted that sometimes we just see effect before cause. Or maybe we gradually come to realize that we're watching a few different points in time, maybe with different groups of characters, or so they can have different flavors to them (early war bravado to seasoned veterans unaware how close they are to the end we know is going to happen).
And I can't make up my mind whether this seems like a lost episode they really should have shown where it was meant to slot in, or if they could be doing something with the non-chronological events. I've noted how much the first episode of the series felt like a very random choice, so I'm quite open to the idea that it and this ep were supposed to be shown around the time of the Ryloth arc where they would seem less random. But I can see it being thematically relevant to things the series could be doing going forward.
Speaking of, this is one of the better episodes that at least toe up to the line of explaining what the war is about, Granted, it paints the Separatists as clear invaders and schemers and doesn't really say what the ideology of the war is, but comparatively at least it does something with the politics of the war.
It's the Ryloth part that feels the most like it should have been shown at the same time. This is a much better introduction to the rebel force/refugees that randomly showed up for one part of the Ryloth arc. It's not that it gives us a huge view into them as people or characters, but that kind of why it works; it shows us what they're doing and dealing with and if these were shown in chronological order we would then shortly get to actually know them.
As for how that arc ends though, that put me back to waffling. Because killing off a Jedi hero like that, doesn't feel like a s1 thing, and yet it feels like it absolutely should have been a s1 thing. Showing that this war is a threat to the Jedi is both something I can see coming into play more going forward, but also would have been very much appreciated in s1.
I'm not sure how I would have felt about this episode back in s1; since Jar Jar was around more I was more frustrated with him at that point than I am now, and it could have felt out of place with so few of the major show characters (in keeping with the show's first episode, Yoda seems like an idiot). On the other hand, it wouldn't have had all these distracting elements and I'd be able to judge it without all that running though my mind.
So, good; but with some serious caveats.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x04: “Sphere of Influence”
With this episode I go back to considering if I get the most out of this show by doing reviews, because I have very little to say about this one, but I'd be fine watching another if I wasn't taking the time to write a review. And like last episode, this one was fine, it did a lot of things I like but it did so in a pretty bland way. There's nothing to complain about, and it's entirely possible my particular reaction just means I wasn't into it tonight, but I don't have much to say.
I don't get how the Trade Federation is keeping up this pretense or not picking a side. Although this episode does imply that there's some kind of legalese in their charter that allows them to still be in business with both sides during a war; and while that might be understandable (if still a bit questionable and war profiteering) if it was two planets or systems that were warring, but the Trade Federation itself was actually neutral and uninvolved. But as they are members of the Republic, continuing to sell to the enemy of the Republic seems pretty sketchy.
What this episode is doing connects with why I wasn't sure how to treat last episode; this ep ties in with things done in that one, just at different points in time. And if the show sticks with this style where there's more done in the political sphere and less action for action's sake I'm on board. Even if this episode didn't hit me so well, I did like what it was working with and I think they could do better.
It's also good to see some things brought back that had been introduced before, which is something I hoped might prove true and build arc off the more episodic s1. That would be very B5 of them. It does however highlight that Ahsoka wasn't in the first episode with the Pantorans; it's not that I don't buy that she's become friends with the senator since then, but I remember that it didn't happen in that episode. And even at the time I said the senator seem to have a pretty similar character model to Ahsoka and seeing them together did nothing to make me stop seeing it.
So, hopefully the next ep will be better/I'll be in a better mood.
