Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x11 - 12
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x11: “Pursuit of Peace”
That's two in a row, where I maybe kinda sorta think the show has finally grown up a bit. It's like they finally got some feedback and considered what the basis of the show was and how shaky the foundation was. I'd almost given up ever getting those problems addressed since the show seemed so completely unwilling to acknowledge them. I'm not going to say it's finally becoming the show I hoped it would be (I'm not sure exactly what I hoped it would be so I can't, but I also still notice that it has a hard time blending its action eps with its world-building plots) but these last couple episodes have quickly earned back some good will from me.
That said, I'm still going to talk about the chronological vs. airing order. And it ends up being another one where I'm not sure either works as well as it should. After watching all of this, Ono's death might hit harder since we actually know some things about him and have seen him in action; on the other hand, with this as buildup it would feel awfully cheap to have killed him off with so little ceremony considering what they had just been through. I'd be a little curious if in chronological order the killer is a little more obscured, since we have seen more of why others might be suspects up to and including Palpatine; on the other hand, if these were meant to be see in chronological order, why not actually introduce the aide in this one instead of just having her show up as an extra? I feel like there is a right answer to this, but damned if I know what it is. Knowing fandom as I do, I'm sure there are adamant voices on both sides. For me I think what tips the scales to not being able to see this flowing correctly in chronological order is that Padme loses two mentors in rapid succession and it wasn't handled in Senate Murders as if there was another layer to her loss.
I'm not sure if this is a consequence of watching this as an adult, or if it's because of all we've watched go down in the last few years, or if it even really is a problem; but this episode was kind of preachy with its message. I'm not even disagreeing with it, I have repeatedly said that I think this war is dumb and then add in the fact that we know it will end in disaster for all, and it's not as if my real world politics are in conflict with my view on this situation; that doesn't stop me from finding the message a bit preachy. In fact it probably means it is a problem with the story-telling, if in spite of all that I still had these nagging feelings about it.
My questions considering where the Banking Guild and Trade Federation fit into the Republic are still there. It's one thing to be a neutral piece in the war, but being an active neutral is an odd place to be? I would try and draw some real world parallels to the US in the opening years of the World Wars, when American businesses and investors were free to do business with whoever they wanted regardless of which side was buying, but I'm not sure the comparison works. Because even in times when 'American interests' banded together to argue in a political sphere for their right to be an active neutral, those were still coalitions and deals had to be put together with smaller actors. We don't really see individual actors within the Trade Federation or Banking Guild (at least not yet) or alternate options of traders or backers. Monopolies are dangerous, people.
And if the Trade Federation and Banking Guild are parts of the Republic, then a part of the Republic is able to extort a lot of money/business from other elements of the Republic because the Republic deregulated part of itself. Yes this does sound convoluted enough to be actual politics, but my foundation for understanding it still doesn't feel entirely solid.
Then there's something I'm a bit of two minds on. On one hand, the show finally addressed some more of my concerns through most of the show so far; that there is a cost to this war and people are viewing the clones as disposable soldiers and just units to be ordered as needed. And yet the writing is both a touch over doing it, and too committed to having Padme's hands clean of all the problems around her. And that second is a little weird to say, since the episode does in fact have her responsible for her mentor's death and calls her out just a little on being part of the problem she's complaining about. But I think it's tied in with the preachy feeling, in a way it seems the story doesn't trust us to see that she's right for both moral and practical reasons, it also needs her to be uncomplicated. Again, kid friendly show, and I can roll with it, but it cast a shadow over the ending.
Also, I can't help but feel like her argument at the end is a bit too extreme. Again, not unbelievable exactly, but I also feel like if the costs of this war on the homefront are that extreme this really can't be news to people. And in turn it actually makes Padme look worse if it was news to her.
There's a lot of this episode I like, and not just that it was finally doing things I've thought all along were worth addressing, it was also a solid episode that leaned on its plot instead of action (again, two in a row), and it definitely seems that things are being taken a bit more seriously (a noticeable lack of Representative Binks in all this). If anything, I think it might have made me greedy for it to stick with this sort of story and continue to flesh out how this galaxy works. Because I do think they can if they put in the effort, but it's still got some patches that need shoring up.
Also, Palpatine's outfit was bothering me again. I think the face animation, while a bit too stylized, is alright, but the proportions on the outfit bother me. Even if it is basically the outfit he wears in the movies, there it has to work on a real person instead of a stylized animation of a person, so it looks bad in this show.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x12: “Nightsisters”
I can't decide if I want to stamp this one with a quick review of good or weird. It's a bit of both, and while things certainly can be both good and weird, in this those two reactions feel in conflict with each other. The quickest way to put it is that the reason it's good is that it's different from the usual; but the reason it doesn't work is that it introduces things at random that don't quite fit in with the usual.
I've had a selection of problem with Ventriss in this series, and this episode really only suffers from the first and lingering: she wasn't given an introduction. Not that we should have gotten her entire backstory until the right moment to reveal it, which clearly this was meant to be even if it only kind of it; we never meet her with the characters, they just all seem to know her when she shows up, but if you're going to do that you still kind of need to give them some actual backstory that we've never had brought up. And revealing her backstory now doesn't peel back a layer to help us understand a character we've had a lot of experience viewing one way and now might see another, she hasn't been a character up until now, just a force to be reckoned with.
One of my sticking point now that I'm thinking of it, seems to be that I don't like the witches. For a few reasons. Part of it is that the coding on this seems...confused. Admittedly I think that is at least partly deliberate, but that doesn't make it less distracting. I really don't know how I'm supposed to feel about them, considering our primary character here isn't exactly a good person herself, but I'm definitely not sympathetic. And really, I don't understand why Ventriss would be thinking this was some place she could run to. Am I supposed to feel sorry for people who sold a very young kid into slavery? Because I don't. Had she been older and made a willing sacrifice for the good of the clan I could both see it as noble and understand why she'd feel safe going back, but as is it doesn't work.
I don't like that the witches' powers are so random and unexplained. Are they special Force powers or do they have a different source? I can understand why outsiders would consider them witches since they seem to brew potions and everything, but within their group there should be reasons besides magic that give them power (in-universe ones can include the Force). That or it's something they don't understand, but then you run into the next problem of how more people don't come around trying to learn their secrets if they are in contact with a wider civilization.
My attitude toward Ventirss herself is yet another split thing; one side of that is roleplaying related that will be discussed in detail in the closing section, and the other part is the part of me that didn't even realize when I was younger (and had to have it pointed out to me when I was older) that we were supposed to feel bad for Vader/Anakin at the end of RotJ, because I didn't. Ventriss and Vader can have all the sympathetic backstory the writers want to give them, it doesn't take away the things they do. Redemption isn't a switch, it's a journey, one that I don't think Ventriss is even on yet.
She is definitely set up to a mirror for Anakin; starting out as a slave, being rescued by a Jedi, turning to the Dark Side when there was nothing left on the Light; if she is going to have a redemption arc, I assume that will also be underpinned with Anakin parallels. But that just reminds me of how separate this all is from Anakin's story; parallels kind of ought to have better chances to mirror each other.
But this episode also kind of works as well as it does because it's focused on characters that are normally the antagonists, showing us their internal rivalries and split allegiances. And to my eyes we're not supposed to see any of them as a the good guy in the scenario. You can think Ventriss or Dooku is in the right in their choices, but that doesn't make them a hero outside of this specific conflict.
I don't think I'm any less confused about my feelings for having written all that down.
~~~~~
Now here's the thing, I need to go on a roleplaying related ramble, you are free to leave if you're not interested.
It is uncanny how much Ventriss' backstory parallels that of the main Jedi on our roleplaying party (and who was almost literally my character's brother from another mother) , except that he had managed to stop himself from going entirely over the edge. I went and checked the dates (having to dig through a few layers of wiki and still not sure how much of her backstory was introduced that early), and that game (I wasn't playing in the first round, but I think I have my dates right) started at basically the same time as Ventriss' first appearance. And while I'm not saying the player couldn't have read the material or even maybe leaks if he was really looking for them, I'm also not sure that's what I think happened. I'm pretty certain he never mentioned anything, even though we talked about our characters a lot and I was quite willing to admit that halfway through character creation I realized I was creating someone with a lot of Luke similarities.
It's probably that part of me that is more interested in seeing if they're going to do a redemption arc with Ventriss; the skeptical part of me sees in it terms of clunky Anakin parallels, the roleplaying part of me sees it as proof that you're never so far gone you can't come back, and that part of me believes that.
If you actually want me to go into further detail about the RP parallels let me know, I'm doing my best not to go on too many big rambles about something no one else has any reason to care about.
That's two in a row, where I maybe kinda sorta think the show has finally grown up a bit. It's like they finally got some feedback and considered what the basis of the show was and how shaky the foundation was. I'd almost given up ever getting those problems addressed since the show seemed so completely unwilling to acknowledge them. I'm not going to say it's finally becoming the show I hoped it would be (I'm not sure exactly what I hoped it would be so I can't, but I also still notice that it has a hard time blending its action eps with its world-building plots) but these last couple episodes have quickly earned back some good will from me.
That said, I'm still going to talk about the chronological vs. airing order. And it ends up being another one where I'm not sure either works as well as it should. After watching all of this, Ono's death might hit harder since we actually know some things about him and have seen him in action; on the other hand, with this as buildup it would feel awfully cheap to have killed him off with so little ceremony considering what they had just been through. I'd be a little curious if in chronological order the killer is a little more obscured, since we have seen more of why others might be suspects up to and including Palpatine; on the other hand, if these were meant to be see in chronological order, why not actually introduce the aide in this one instead of just having her show up as an extra? I feel like there is a right answer to this, but damned if I know what it is. Knowing fandom as I do, I'm sure there are adamant voices on both sides. For me I think what tips the scales to not being able to see this flowing correctly in chronological order is that Padme loses two mentors in rapid succession and it wasn't handled in Senate Murders as if there was another layer to her loss.
I'm not sure if this is a consequence of watching this as an adult, or if it's because of all we've watched go down in the last few years, or if it even really is a problem; but this episode was kind of preachy with its message. I'm not even disagreeing with it, I have repeatedly said that I think this war is dumb and then add in the fact that we know it will end in disaster for all, and it's not as if my real world politics are in conflict with my view on this situation; that doesn't stop me from finding the message a bit preachy. In fact it probably means it is a problem with the story-telling, if in spite of all that I still had these nagging feelings about it.
My questions considering where the Banking Guild and Trade Federation fit into the Republic are still there. It's one thing to be a neutral piece in the war, but being an active neutral is an odd place to be? I would try and draw some real world parallels to the US in the opening years of the World Wars, when American businesses and investors were free to do business with whoever they wanted regardless of which side was buying, but I'm not sure the comparison works. Because even in times when 'American interests' banded together to argue in a political sphere for their right to be an active neutral, those were still coalitions and deals had to be put together with smaller actors. We don't really see individual actors within the Trade Federation or Banking Guild (at least not yet) or alternate options of traders or backers. Monopolies are dangerous, people.
And if the Trade Federation and Banking Guild are parts of the Republic, then a part of the Republic is able to extort a lot of money/business from other elements of the Republic because the Republic deregulated part of itself. Yes this does sound convoluted enough to be actual politics, but my foundation for understanding it still doesn't feel entirely solid.
Then there's something I'm a bit of two minds on. On one hand, the show finally addressed some more of my concerns through most of the show so far; that there is a cost to this war and people are viewing the clones as disposable soldiers and just units to be ordered as needed. And yet the writing is both a touch over doing it, and too committed to having Padme's hands clean of all the problems around her. And that second is a little weird to say, since the episode does in fact have her responsible for her mentor's death and calls her out just a little on being part of the problem she's complaining about. But I think it's tied in with the preachy feeling, in a way it seems the story doesn't trust us to see that she's right for both moral and practical reasons, it also needs her to be uncomplicated. Again, kid friendly show, and I can roll with it, but it cast a shadow over the ending.
Also, I can't help but feel like her argument at the end is a bit too extreme. Again, not unbelievable exactly, but I also feel like if the costs of this war on the homefront are that extreme this really can't be news to people. And in turn it actually makes Padme look worse if it was news to her.
There's a lot of this episode I like, and not just that it was finally doing things I've thought all along were worth addressing, it was also a solid episode that leaned on its plot instead of action (again, two in a row), and it definitely seems that things are being taken a bit more seriously (a noticeable lack of Representative Binks in all this). If anything, I think it might have made me greedy for it to stick with this sort of story and continue to flesh out how this galaxy works. Because I do think they can if they put in the effort, but it's still got some patches that need shoring up.
Also, Palpatine's outfit was bothering me again. I think the face animation, while a bit too stylized, is alright, but the proportions on the outfit bother me. Even if it is basically the outfit he wears in the movies, there it has to work on a real person instead of a stylized animation of a person, so it looks bad in this show.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 3x12: “Nightsisters”
I can't decide if I want to stamp this one with a quick review of good or weird. It's a bit of both, and while things certainly can be both good and weird, in this those two reactions feel in conflict with each other. The quickest way to put it is that the reason it's good is that it's different from the usual; but the reason it doesn't work is that it introduces things at random that don't quite fit in with the usual.
I've had a selection of problem with Ventriss in this series, and this episode really only suffers from the first and lingering: she wasn't given an introduction. Not that we should have gotten her entire backstory until the right moment to reveal it, which clearly this was meant to be even if it only kind of it; we never meet her with the characters, they just all seem to know her when she shows up, but if you're going to do that you still kind of need to give them some actual backstory that we've never had brought up. And revealing her backstory now doesn't peel back a layer to help us understand a character we've had a lot of experience viewing one way and now might see another, she hasn't been a character up until now, just a force to be reckoned with.
One of my sticking point now that I'm thinking of it, seems to be that I don't like the witches. For a few reasons. Part of it is that the coding on this seems...confused. Admittedly I think that is at least partly deliberate, but that doesn't make it less distracting. I really don't know how I'm supposed to feel about them, considering our primary character here isn't exactly a good person herself, but I'm definitely not sympathetic. And really, I don't understand why Ventriss would be thinking this was some place she could run to. Am I supposed to feel sorry for people who sold a very young kid into slavery? Because I don't. Had she been older and made a willing sacrifice for the good of the clan I could both see it as noble and understand why she'd feel safe going back, but as is it doesn't work.
I don't like that the witches' powers are so random and unexplained. Are they special Force powers or do they have a different source? I can understand why outsiders would consider them witches since they seem to brew potions and everything, but within their group there should be reasons besides magic that give them power (in-universe ones can include the Force). That or it's something they don't understand, but then you run into the next problem of how more people don't come around trying to learn their secrets if they are in contact with a wider civilization.
My attitude toward Ventirss herself is yet another split thing; one side of that is roleplaying related that will be discussed in detail in the closing section, and the other part is the part of me that didn't even realize when I was younger (and had to have it pointed out to me when I was older) that we were supposed to feel bad for Vader/Anakin at the end of RotJ, because I didn't. Ventriss and Vader can have all the sympathetic backstory the writers want to give them, it doesn't take away the things they do. Redemption isn't a switch, it's a journey, one that I don't think Ventriss is even on yet.
She is definitely set up to a mirror for Anakin; starting out as a slave, being rescued by a Jedi, turning to the Dark Side when there was nothing left on the Light; if she is going to have a redemption arc, I assume that will also be underpinned with Anakin parallels. But that just reminds me of how separate this all is from Anakin's story; parallels kind of ought to have better chances to mirror each other.
But this episode also kind of works as well as it does because it's focused on characters that are normally the antagonists, showing us their internal rivalries and split allegiances. And to my eyes we're not supposed to see any of them as a the good guy in the scenario. You can think Ventriss or Dooku is in the right in their choices, but that doesn't make them a hero outside of this specific conflict.
I don't think I'm any less confused about my feelings for having written all that down.
~~~~~
Now here's the thing, I need to go on a roleplaying related ramble, you are free to leave if you're not interested.
It is uncanny how much Ventriss' backstory parallels that of the main Jedi on our roleplaying party (and who was almost literally my character's brother from another mother) , except that he had managed to stop himself from going entirely over the edge. I went and checked the dates (having to dig through a few layers of wiki and still not sure how much of her backstory was introduced that early), and that game (I wasn't playing in the first round, but I think I have my dates right) started at basically the same time as Ventriss' first appearance. And while I'm not saying the player couldn't have read the material or even maybe leaks if he was really looking for them, I'm also not sure that's what I think happened. I'm pretty certain he never mentioned anything, even though we talked about our characters a lot and I was quite willing to admit that halfway through character creation I realized I was creating someone with a lot of Luke similarities.
It's probably that part of me that is more interested in seeing if they're going to do a redemption arc with Ventriss; the skeptical part of me sees in it terms of clunky Anakin parallels, the roleplaying part of me sees it as proof that you're never so far gone you can't come back, and that part of me believes that.
If you actually want me to go into further detail about the RP parallels let me know, I'm doing my best not to go on too many big rambles about something no one else has any reason to care about.
