Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x07 - 08
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x07: “Assassin”
I liked that episode, there aren't even a lot of caveats this time. The things it's inspiring me to say are more lore thoughts than nitpicks.
Because Ahsoka's foresight brings up some interesting ideas about things down the road. In allowance to the fact that I liked the episode, I won't dwell too hard on how this makes me think Anakin maybe should have talked to or at least about Ahsoka come RotS, but I do have to at least acknowledge it. The counterpoint to that is that if we just take as a given that it wasn't mentioned in the scenes we saw because it didn't come up, having had this experience would inform Anakin and Padme's actions in the movie. Yeah, Anakin had dreams about his mother too, but this gives them someone else with proven foresight and that it can be used to save people.
Along the same line though, I find myself thinking that maybe the Force is putting extra effort into protecting Padme until the twins are born. I know there are people who try and argue that Star Wars is really the story of Anakin's fall and redemption, but I've never been convinced; for me this is all background and build up to the real story that belongs to Luke and Leia.
I'm sure we will get back to the war, but I notice this season has been very focused on events away from the front lines. And in that light 3x03 ends up in sort of an odd place, where it both completely fits in with what this season is doing so far; and yet the flashback nature of it was still so awkwardly forced in. Again, I don't think 3x01 (the real one) had the same problem. It was a flashback, but the theme of showing this war from different angles works quite well; maybe because it could have been done with present day cadets just as much as the flashback nature.
The flaw in this view of events is that I don't care about Padme as much as I do the Jedi characters. Enough of this story is still focusing on Ahsoka that I'm doing okay with it, but the writing seems a little forced with Padme. Though in an odd meta way that makes some sense, trying to meld and create gradient from ass-kicking Padme in ep2 to completely passive Padme in ep3, maybe there's a reason why it would be confused right now.
This ep also brings up that we haven't had to deal with Yoda very much in the show, and I'm fine with that. This had more of him and as usual I was fairly annoyed by him. Funny trash muppet Yoda will always be better that supposedly wise mentor Yoda. It doesn't matter how much they try, they can't the voice right to make it not super annoying the way he talks; only Frank Oz can pull it off. And his advice is never super helpful, even though he's far more useful with Ahsoka than he is with Anakin.
But, I have some 'to be fair' things to say about that comparison I just made. Ahsoka has nothing to hide when she turns to Yoda for help, so their conversation doesn't have to be super awkward. Anakin in ep3 is trying to save his wife's life without admitting he has a wife; though that brings us back to the Jedi rule book and I have issues with that anyway, while Yoda goes hard on it (at least in the prequel era), so that's something we tend to disagree on. Ahsoka is just a younger student turning to a (supposedly) wise teacher with questions and she's not sure what kind of reaction she'll get, but is pretty sure they won't punish her for saying something.
I think it was Lorerunner (though I can't swear to that) who at one point articulated my issue had a read on especially prequel Yoda that registered with me. Yoda has found one solution that works best in his experience, and with centuries of life that's an extensive experience; so when he guides others he's tries to keep them on the same path that works for him. And it's not a bad path, he doesn't need to get off it, and it's good advice for a lot of upcoming Jedi. But when there's an issue that can't be navigated with the Path-A that works for him, he doesn't have another solution. And I, kind of like Anakin, find Path-A to be a poor path, which is something you can't solve it by trying to send us back to Path-A.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x08: “Evil Plans”
So this is where the skipping around in time actually causes a problem for me. I wasn't super fond of the episode in general, but the uncertainty about when it is made things worse.
I didn't bring it up last time because I couldn't remember whether Ziro actually got away back in s1 or not; I was perfectly capable of believing his pardon obtained under terrorist threat had been revoked and he went back to prison. With this episode I have to conclude this, and probably last episode, are actually before that? I maintain that it's the right choice for my review projects to take the episodes as people would have originally seen them; and I stand by what I've said before that sometimes it's better for the story to view it as things were invented by the writers instead of the order they happen from a strict chronological view, but in this instance this order is wrong.
And yes I did decide to go and check after writing that paragraph whether I'm right about the timeline. Research says to stick with saying this was a poor decision. And makes the s1 finale a little worse than I thought it was at the time; since I noted at the time that the animation looked bad, now I wonder if the story was rushed for some reason and that's why it looked so bad to me.
As an episode, I still didn't like this one. I might have liked it more if it went either more comedic or more serious, but this didn't work. And by more comedic I don't mean more of the comedy we got which was rarely funny and mostly annoying; but if they had gone full farce somehow and completely wacky, there's a chance it could have worked as an episode, though it wouldn't have worked for this plot.
At times during the episode I thought the characterization of the droids was off, but on reflection, I think it's mostly R2 that's off. Which does in turn throws Threepio off I suppose. But R2 seems far too juvenile in his portrayal here, and a bit too incapable. I would call his writing a bit too willfully off topic, but it's in character for R2 to just wander off and do his own thing, but usually in service of a larger mission instead of his own whims. I actually sort of expected the turn that this would take early is that R2 would spot something he needed to go deal with and Threepio wouldn't notice he was gone for a bit and them be frustrated that R2 wasn't doing his part of their fruit mission when R2 is actually off stopping a spy from hacking into the Jedi Temple or something. That would be more R2; and therefore more Threepio to miss the forest for the trees.
I also expected it to matter that Threepio wasn't a factory built droid; he's a desert kid's hobby project. But that never even got acknowledged, much less mattered in the story. Look, it's a dumb thing in the prequels, Threepio would make a lot more sense as a protocol droid for a queen/senator than something Anakin built as a slave at the age of ten; but it's not like this series came out before the prequels and so would have the option to make a more logical assumption about Threepio's origins.
This episode just happened ti tick a lot of negative elements for me. I don't hate it exactly, and I'd probably like it at least a little better if the events had all happened in order, but as is, I give it a bad stamp.
I liked that episode, there aren't even a lot of caveats this time. The things it's inspiring me to say are more lore thoughts than nitpicks.
Because Ahsoka's foresight brings up some interesting ideas about things down the road. In allowance to the fact that I liked the episode, I won't dwell too hard on how this makes me think Anakin maybe should have talked to or at least about Ahsoka come RotS, but I do have to at least acknowledge it. The counterpoint to that is that if we just take as a given that it wasn't mentioned in the scenes we saw because it didn't come up, having had this experience would inform Anakin and Padme's actions in the movie. Yeah, Anakin had dreams about his mother too, but this gives them someone else with proven foresight and that it can be used to save people.
Along the same line though, I find myself thinking that maybe the Force is putting extra effort into protecting Padme until the twins are born. I know there are people who try and argue that Star Wars is really the story of Anakin's fall and redemption, but I've never been convinced; for me this is all background and build up to the real story that belongs to Luke and Leia.
I'm sure we will get back to the war, but I notice this season has been very focused on events away from the front lines. And in that light 3x03 ends up in sort of an odd place, where it both completely fits in with what this season is doing so far; and yet the flashback nature of it was still so awkwardly forced in. Again, I don't think 3x01 (the real one) had the same problem. It was a flashback, but the theme of showing this war from different angles works quite well; maybe because it could have been done with present day cadets just as much as the flashback nature.
The flaw in this view of events is that I don't care about Padme as much as I do the Jedi characters. Enough of this story is still focusing on Ahsoka that I'm doing okay with it, but the writing seems a little forced with Padme. Though in an odd meta way that makes some sense, trying to meld and create gradient from ass-kicking Padme in ep2 to completely passive Padme in ep3, maybe there's a reason why it would be confused right now.
This ep also brings up that we haven't had to deal with Yoda very much in the show, and I'm fine with that. This had more of him and as usual I was fairly annoyed by him. Funny trash muppet Yoda will always be better that supposedly wise mentor Yoda. It doesn't matter how much they try, they can't the voice right to make it not super annoying the way he talks; only Frank Oz can pull it off. And his advice is never super helpful, even though he's far more useful with Ahsoka than he is with Anakin.
But, I have some 'to be fair' things to say about that comparison I just made. Ahsoka has nothing to hide when she turns to Yoda for help, so their conversation doesn't have to be super awkward. Anakin in ep3 is trying to save his wife's life without admitting he has a wife; though that brings us back to the Jedi rule book and I have issues with that anyway, while Yoda goes hard on it (at least in the prequel era), so that's something we tend to disagree on. Ahsoka is just a younger student turning to a (supposedly) wise teacher with questions and she's not sure what kind of reaction she'll get, but is pretty sure they won't punish her for saying something.
I think it was Lorerunner (though I can't swear to that) who at one point articulated my issue had a read on especially prequel Yoda that registered with me. Yoda has found one solution that works best in his experience, and with centuries of life that's an extensive experience; so when he guides others he's tries to keep them on the same path that works for him. And it's not a bad path, he doesn't need to get off it, and it's good advice for a lot of upcoming Jedi. But when there's an issue that can't be navigated with the Path-A that works for him, he doesn't have another solution. And I, kind of like Anakin, find Path-A to be a poor path, which is something you can't solve it by trying to send us back to Path-A.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x08: “Evil Plans”
So this is where the skipping around in time actually causes a problem for me. I wasn't super fond of the episode in general, but the uncertainty about when it is made things worse.
I didn't bring it up last time because I couldn't remember whether Ziro actually got away back in s1 or not; I was perfectly capable of believing his pardon obtained under terrorist threat had been revoked and he went back to prison. With this episode I have to conclude this, and probably last episode, are actually before that? I maintain that it's the right choice for my review projects to take the episodes as people would have originally seen them; and I stand by what I've said before that sometimes it's better for the story to view it as things were invented by the writers instead of the order they happen from a strict chronological view, but in this instance this order is wrong.
And yes I did decide to go and check after writing that paragraph whether I'm right about the timeline. Research says to stick with saying this was a poor decision. And makes the s1 finale a little worse than I thought it was at the time; since I noted at the time that the animation looked bad, now I wonder if the story was rushed for some reason and that's why it looked so bad to me.
As an episode, I still didn't like this one. I might have liked it more if it went either more comedic or more serious, but this didn't work. And by more comedic I don't mean more of the comedy we got which was rarely funny and mostly annoying; but if they had gone full farce somehow and completely wacky, there's a chance it could have worked as an episode, though it wouldn't have worked for this plot.
At times during the episode I thought the characterization of the droids was off, but on reflection, I think it's mostly R2 that's off. Which does in turn throws Threepio off I suppose. But R2 seems far too juvenile in his portrayal here, and a bit too incapable. I would call his writing a bit too willfully off topic, but it's in character for R2 to just wander off and do his own thing, but usually in service of a larger mission instead of his own whims. I actually sort of expected the turn that this would take early is that R2 would spot something he needed to go deal with and Threepio wouldn't notice he was gone for a bit and them be frustrated that R2 wasn't doing his part of their fruit mission when R2 is actually off stopping a spy from hacking into the Jedi Temple or something. That would be more R2; and therefore more Threepio to miss the forest for the trees.
I also expected it to matter that Threepio wasn't a factory built droid; he's a desert kid's hobby project. But that never even got acknowledged, much less mattered in the story. Look, it's a dumb thing in the prequels, Threepio would make a lot more sense as a protocol droid for a queen/senator than something Anakin built as a slave at the age of ten; but it's not like this series came out before the prequels and so would have the option to make a more logical assumption about Threepio's origins.
This episode just happened ti tick a lot of negative elements for me. I don't hate it exactly, and I'd probably like it at least a little better if the events had all happened in order, but as is, I give it a bad stamp.
