Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x09 - 10
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x09: “Hunt for Ziro”
This episode is alright at what it is, and frustratingly good at what it isn't.
Putting the good first, the plot of this episode is functional, it's fine, and fairly well written to obscure the big twist towards the end. Also, I actually like Voss more than most of the random Jedi we've met even if we don't get much of him (there's also a whole lot of jumping at the end that made it hard to care much about what was going on).
Then there's something that I think would only stand out this way in this viewing order; there's a certain vibe of clearing some early pieces of canon off the board. I don't know if this is the last we'll see of Bane, but it could be; which is almost a shame because I think he was written much better in this season than he was s1&2. Though, in full admission, I do think there's an argument that they nerfed what at first seemed like a villain sue and brought him back down to a more reasonable level, but I can't help but see that he's also completely beatable at this level, making less a foil than he was set up to be. It's certainly (baring more out of order things) the last time we'll see Ziro, who in my opinion never worked as a character anyway.
In a way this and the last episode almost end up feeling like an apology for the episode in season one, and it's that feeling that most makes me almost unable to buy that going with 3x08-1x22-3x09 would quite flow in that order. Of course I can't know exactly how I would have felt in that order, but this was the order they were released in, which makes it inescapable to consider these a later reaction to what came earlier. And sure, even if you moved 1x22 forward to here, it could still be seen as an apology for the then introduction in 2x01 that was where my major villain sue feelings came from the most; but this it set to specifically address the 1x22 events.
But let's not dwell on that too much; it is a feeling I have from it, but it's not what really caused me various reactions to this episode. Bane isn't even that important to the story (which again, might have seemed a little odd in chronological order), and definitely isn't driving it. I guess Ziro is the closest thing to a focus, but he's such a (if you'll pardon the pun) cartoon, and he never really seems to driving things either.
In fact the story kind of lacks a protagonist. I hesitate to call that a problem, as it's part of why the writing of this episode is successful at its tricks, but it makes it hard to feel invested in. We're given something of an outsider's view on all the sides of this case, which allows them to frame things as suits the scenes, but keeps us at arms length from anyone in specific. The main one being that all episode I figured Ziro was just leading his girlfriend on so that she would help him and we'd get a classic betrayal scene; and we did but in reverse. And that definitely worked, I'm curious if anyone did call it early on or if it's a me thing.
I think part of my mixed feeling about this episode is we get so few Obi-wan focused episodes that when we actually get one, I wish he was more the focus. But I didn't resent it for that factor the way I have in some prior instances of that happening, so things were still working alright for me. I also wanted more of Voss, I liked him more than just about any of the other background Jedi we've met before, and I like the dynamic between Obi-wan and Voss that we barely got anything of. I kind of do resent that, or at least I'm annoyed by it, but again I don't find myself holding it against the episode. It's an odd feeling that I know I'm not getting it across.
Is the fact that I immediately liked Voss and had a bad reaction to an episode of Kit Fisto a little indicative of my preferences? I feel like it is.
The best way I can describe this episode was as something of a minor shift for me in a way that I probably wouldn't have noticed without doing the review; might not even have happened without the reviews. But it's a different sort of 'I wish I liked this more than I did' than I've mentioned a lot. I think I have reached a kind of baseline liking for the show that keeps me from disliking it too much unless it's really bad (there's another level of liking where it's easy to dislike things when you're deeply invested in what would make the story actually good but it's not doing it; see my AoS s7 reviews), but there's nothing about this episode that's all that good (save the twist) to elevate it much above the baseline liking. So I don't find myself disliking it, and I think that even without a strong opinion I don't 'nothing' it, but I...can't achieve liftoff to actually like it.
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. This show hasn't done much that I dislike, there have been episodes I liked quite a bit, but that was notably above a lower baseline...I swear this makes sense in my head. Here I seem to have reached a higher baseline, but in that, the ups aren't as clear. But noting that, I'm probably quite ready for this to blast into a much higher level of enjoyment; I hope it does.
~~~
(editing note...even I don't know what I meant half the time here, so if you don't I get it and I'm sorry)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x10: “Heroes on Both Sides”
So while I am going to have to spend some time talking about the yet again confused timeline at play here, in every other way this episode is everything I could have wanted it to be. Right down to the fact that it finally addresses at least a little of what the war is about and paints it as exactly the dumbass conflict my patchy memory of ep2 thought it was yet doesn't exactly gel with how the show treats it.
But to get the timing thing off my chest; this does support that the Ziro arc was meant to all go here, along with Senate Murders, as I gather all of them do have the political negotiations running through them. And yet I highly doubt Senate Murders would have actually made sense coming after this in the form we got it; because I'm pretty sure they never mentioned there being an attack on Corescant in that episode, and that's pretty important to this one. On the flip side, Senate Murders would kind of fit in better with s3's behind the lines view as opposed to the still very action focused s2. The continuity of this show is a mess, and maybe one day I will do a rewatch in chronological order just to see how that goes. But since it won't be my first viewing my opinions will be tainted.
A brief bit of complaining that yet again I find the stylized characters disconcerting to look at, so the banking guy set my teeth on edge. Although Palpatine didn't so much this time, so the animation is not as much of a negative as it could have been.
The series has kind of needed this episode for a while. Like I said, it actually tells us what the war is about (in the minds of the characters), so that we have grounding in just how dumb the conflict actually is. But it also re-orients Anakin as the guy who buys into that dumb reason; he's someone who could, in theory and unlike the younger and less experienced Ahsoka, see the shades in this, but doesn't. It orients us with Padme as someone who it seems, had the war had come a few years later, would have been on the other side of it, because she was too idealistic in ep2 to see how right the Separatists were but the more she sees of the Senate the more she kind of agrees that they have a point. This ep reminds us that there are people and systems who are part of the war, that it has an effect beyond the droids and clones who duke it out in so many episodes.
I've talked before about how having the armies made up of 'disposable soldiers' was a far reaching idea that the show rarely engaged with. In terms of the series production the reasons it's done is so they can have the large scale action in a kid friendly show, but it has implications in the universe. This doesn't go very far with that, but it at least looks over the edge at the issue. Through a kid who is probably fairly rare in that he has any experience with loss caused by the war, but even he doesn't really know who the enemy is. And through Ahsoka, who has been out there fighting the war and seen the cost of it...kind of, but doesn't have the first idea what the war is about (welcome to the club Ahsoka, but thank you for pointing it out); not even the propaganda (also wrong) reason that Anakin uses.
If I was inclined to get into the real world lessons of showing that both sides of the war are being controlled by the same five people, I definitely could. But instead I'm going to sidestep it and comment on some of the visual storytelling at play. Framing the Separatist Senate as basically British Parliament is yet another thing this episode does to frame them as not so different from a heroic side. They are technically the rebels in this case, but their central council has the coding of the older world order. It's an interesting choice that I'm not going to fully get into, but I guess I think it was an inspired choice for what this episode is doing with showing the politics of both sides.
Both sides are ultimately corrupt because the people at the top don't speak for the desires of everyone, maybe not even a majority, of people that serve around them; but both Dooku and Palpatine pretend to and so can keep people distracted from how non-representative they're acting. Again, I don't want to get into the real world politics, but I recognize them. I definitely recognize them.
This episode is alright at what it is, and frustratingly good at what it isn't.
Putting the good first, the plot of this episode is functional, it's fine, and fairly well written to obscure the big twist towards the end. Also, I actually like Voss more than most of the random Jedi we've met even if we don't get much of him (there's also a whole lot of jumping at the end that made it hard to care much about what was going on).
Then there's something that I think would only stand out this way in this viewing order; there's a certain vibe of clearing some early pieces of canon off the board. I don't know if this is the last we'll see of Bane, but it could be; which is almost a shame because I think he was written much better in this season than he was s1&2. Though, in full admission, I do think there's an argument that they nerfed what at first seemed like a villain sue and brought him back down to a more reasonable level, but I can't help but see that he's also completely beatable at this level, making less a foil than he was set up to be. It's certainly (baring more out of order things) the last time we'll see Ziro, who in my opinion never worked as a character anyway.
In a way this and the last episode almost end up feeling like an apology for the episode in season one, and it's that feeling that most makes me almost unable to buy that going with 3x08-1x22-3x09 would quite flow in that order. Of course I can't know exactly how I would have felt in that order, but this was the order they were released in, which makes it inescapable to consider these a later reaction to what came earlier. And sure, even if you moved 1x22 forward to here, it could still be seen as an apology for the then introduction in 2x01 that was where my major villain sue feelings came from the most; but this it set to specifically address the 1x22 events.
But let's not dwell on that too much; it is a feeling I have from it, but it's not what really caused me various reactions to this episode. Bane isn't even that important to the story (which again, might have seemed a little odd in chronological order), and definitely isn't driving it. I guess Ziro is the closest thing to a focus, but he's such a (if you'll pardon the pun) cartoon, and he never really seems to driving things either.
In fact the story kind of lacks a protagonist. I hesitate to call that a problem, as it's part of why the writing of this episode is successful at its tricks, but it makes it hard to feel invested in. We're given something of an outsider's view on all the sides of this case, which allows them to frame things as suits the scenes, but keeps us at arms length from anyone in specific. The main one being that all episode I figured Ziro was just leading his girlfriend on so that she would help him and we'd get a classic betrayal scene; and we did but in reverse. And that definitely worked, I'm curious if anyone did call it early on or if it's a me thing.
I think part of my mixed feeling about this episode is we get so few Obi-wan focused episodes that when we actually get one, I wish he was more the focus. But I didn't resent it for that factor the way I have in some prior instances of that happening, so things were still working alright for me. I also wanted more of Voss, I liked him more than just about any of the other background Jedi we've met before, and I like the dynamic between Obi-wan and Voss that we barely got anything of. I kind of do resent that, or at least I'm annoyed by it, but again I don't find myself holding it against the episode. It's an odd feeling that I know I'm not getting it across.
Is the fact that I immediately liked Voss and had a bad reaction to an episode of Kit Fisto a little indicative of my preferences? I feel like it is.
The best way I can describe this episode was as something of a minor shift for me in a way that I probably wouldn't have noticed without doing the review; might not even have happened without the reviews. But it's a different sort of 'I wish I liked this more than I did' than I've mentioned a lot. I think I have reached a kind of baseline liking for the show that keeps me from disliking it too much unless it's really bad (there's another level of liking where it's easy to dislike things when you're deeply invested in what would make the story actually good but it's not doing it; see my AoS s7 reviews), but there's nothing about this episode that's all that good (save the twist) to elevate it much above the baseline liking. So I don't find myself disliking it, and I think that even without a strong opinion I don't 'nothing' it, but I...can't achieve liftoff to actually like it.
Yeah, that's a good way to put it. This show hasn't done much that I dislike, there have been episodes I liked quite a bit, but that was notably above a lower baseline...I swear this makes sense in my head. Here I seem to have reached a higher baseline, but in that, the ups aren't as clear. But noting that, I'm probably quite ready for this to blast into a much higher level of enjoyment; I hope it does.
~~~
(editing note...even I don't know what I meant half the time here, so if you don't I get it and I'm sorry)
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x10: “Heroes on Both Sides”
So while I am going to have to spend some time talking about the yet again confused timeline at play here, in every other way this episode is everything I could have wanted it to be. Right down to the fact that it finally addresses at least a little of what the war is about and paints it as exactly the dumbass conflict my patchy memory of ep2 thought it was yet doesn't exactly gel with how the show treats it.
But to get the timing thing off my chest; this does support that the Ziro arc was meant to all go here, along with Senate Murders, as I gather all of them do have the political negotiations running through them. And yet I highly doubt Senate Murders would have actually made sense coming after this in the form we got it; because I'm pretty sure they never mentioned there being an attack on Corescant in that episode, and that's pretty important to this one. On the flip side, Senate Murders would kind of fit in better with s3's behind the lines view as opposed to the still very action focused s2. The continuity of this show is a mess, and maybe one day I will do a rewatch in chronological order just to see how that goes. But since it won't be my first viewing my opinions will be tainted.
A brief bit of complaining that yet again I find the stylized characters disconcerting to look at, so the banking guy set my teeth on edge. Although Palpatine didn't so much this time, so the animation is not as much of a negative as it could have been.
The series has kind of needed this episode for a while. Like I said, it actually tells us what the war is about (in the minds of the characters), so that we have grounding in just how dumb the conflict actually is. But it also re-orients Anakin as the guy who buys into that dumb reason; he's someone who could, in theory and unlike the younger and less experienced Ahsoka, see the shades in this, but doesn't. It orients us with Padme as someone who it seems, had the war had come a few years later, would have been on the other side of it, because she was too idealistic in ep2 to see how right the Separatists were but the more she sees of the Senate the more she kind of agrees that they have a point. This ep reminds us that there are people and systems who are part of the war, that it has an effect beyond the droids and clones who duke it out in so many episodes.
I've talked before about how having the armies made up of 'disposable soldiers' was a far reaching idea that the show rarely engaged with. In terms of the series production the reasons it's done is so they can have the large scale action in a kid friendly show, but it has implications in the universe. This doesn't go very far with that, but it at least looks over the edge at the issue. Through a kid who is probably fairly rare in that he has any experience with loss caused by the war, but even he doesn't really know who the enemy is. And through Ahsoka, who has been out there fighting the war and seen the cost of it...kind of, but doesn't have the first idea what the war is about (welcome to the club Ahsoka, but thank you for pointing it out); not even the propaganda (also wrong) reason that Anakin uses.
If I was inclined to get into the real world lessons of showing that both sides of the war are being controlled by the same five people, I definitely could. But instead I'm going to sidestep it and comment on some of the visual storytelling at play. Framing the Separatist Senate as basically British Parliament is yet another thing this episode does to frame them as not so different from a heroic side. They are technically the rebels in this case, but their central council has the coding of the older world order. It's an interesting choice that I'm not going to fully get into, but I guess I think it was an inspired choice for what this episode is doing with showing the politics of both sides.
Both sides are ultimately corrupt because the people at the top don't speak for the desires of everyone, maybe not even a majority, of people that serve around them; but both Dooku and Palpatine pretend to and so can keep people distracted from how non-representative they're acting. Again, I don't want to get into the real world politics, but I recognize them. I definitely recognize them.
