Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x12 - 13
Jun. 2nd, 2021 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsSo I did take the last couple of posting days off because of family stuff over the holiday weekend. But I'm also going to have to readjust which days go to which shows since Loki is shaking things up. We'll see what shakes out next week. For now it's more Clone Wars.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x12: “Slaves of the Republic”
I liked that...I think. It's a good story and it progresses at a good pace, there are no glaring problems with it (and the issues that are there are mostly personal problems that bother me), if it can stick the landing I'll be prepared to say this was a pretty good arc.
So why don't I like it more? Lack of confidence in them sticking the landing is part of it. Those previously mentioned personal niggles are part of it. But I can identify those factors, and they're not quite what feels wrong here.
I think there's something a little off with the tone. But I'm not sure now much of that is on this episode specifically and how much is a consequence of other factors about the show. This episode fails to sell me on there being any real danger to anyone; in spite of our lead characters getting quite a few people killed. All the character reactions seem a little...off; mostly underselling it, but occasionally overdoing it. There are places where there's a bit more telling than showing. The elements never quite gel; though they could come together in future episodes.
Though I think I do need to acknowledge that the animation medium once again works against them with me. It's not that the animation is bad, not by a fair amount, but it never quite feels real. I'm not sure how it would work better; maybe this is just confirming my long time instinct that I can't take both live action and animation being in the same universe.
And let's talk about the big niggle that never quite left me through the episode. There's an undercurrent of...hypocrisy about everything that's happening here. The Jedi and the Republic don't actually care about the slavery that happens on the outer worlds; Anakin is living proof of that. They've taken an interest this time, because of the numbers involved and because it could mean a bigger threat, but they don't care about stopping the slave trade in general. I'll grant there is an undercurrent of more general disapproval from these characters, but they don't come to define their mission in broader terms, they only put themselves in danger for a select group.
The question of why they never went back for Shmii hangs in the background too. Even if no one was ever willing to try and bust up the slave trade on Tantooine, they could have gone and freed some slaves including Shmii. Because no one cared to put in even minimal effort, Anakin turns toward the dark side and all the Jedi die off.
And that's to say nothing of the treatment of the clones. There's the potential for a pretty powerful Rex arc here if the writers let there be one; but I'm sure they won't.
I also found myself really disliking Ahsoka in this one. I don't think it was a great idea to put her in this position, but I think the writing needed to pick a lane with her. If she went along with it, and we saw how it chafed and chafed at her until she finally got to cut loose at the end, that could work. But as much as they showed her not able to go along with it, there should have been consequences that made the experience a lot harder for her.
Which is where we cycle back to the animation being a problem for me. It's hard to do subtlety in animations, so everything comes across as either too big or too understated for me to be sure it's there or if I'm just assuming it should be. Ahsoka is overplaying her dissatisfaction and difficulty with her part. But I feel like we don't get enough of a reaction from Anakin to having contributed to that one slave's death/suicide. Not that I assume he was so far into his role that he didn't feel anything for it, or that it was some kind of shock to his system (it sure shouldn't be, and he'd only been there for an hour anyway); but the animation just can't convey it.
Maybe the music; about the only musical moments I can even recall from this show are when they use John Williams score from the movies, the rest of the time the music doesn't seem to be really trying. Maybe I should pay more attention to that going on.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x13: “Escape from Kadavo”
This episode was...fine. I guess. We're definitely to a point where, if I stopped doing the reviews I might keep watching as more background noise/late night brain cool down. It's just not interesting to me and after three and half seasons I have to conclude it probably never will be. I don't think anyone can say I didn't give it a chance, but it's just not a format I like.
Because this episode is bland. I don't dislike it the way I did Mon Cal episodes, but it's just nothing. More deus ex R2, more getting out of making any hard choices, lots of fighting, no character growth, status quo restored. Why do we get so few actual character studies on this show? Surely they can have a half hour that focuses on a character going through something and give us actual insight into who they are and what they want (again, I was watching Babylon 5 by the time I was 12, I'm basically hardwired to think stories about who people are and what they want in so many words). When the show is, on occasion, good that tends to be what we get. But so much of the rest of it is a flashy sort of bland.
This episode wasn't even interesting in the unintended ways the last episode was. And noting how every plotline fails to be about anything isn't actually interesting. In the eternal words, I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.
Why even tease us with a really gut-wrenching Obi-wan plot? Why not force Anakin to actually make a decision instead of having R2 come up and hand him a solution? Why does Ahsoka's ending come out of nowhere when the plot could have seeded her having some creative, out of the box ideas?
Was I supposed to be sad about rapey cat lady dying? Because she's a rapey slave master and I don't care. If there had been any indication that Anakin had even a modicum of attachment to her it could have helped; but it also would have been out of character for him not to see her as a terrible person.
Could they have maybe played up Anakin killing a bunch of people in the end as him being hungry for revenge? It can be read that way, and it's a lot more interesting if I do, but it's not in the text or even visible subtext.
Why are there never any complications about them escaping slavery? Like they absolutely should have been implanted with tracking/shock chips and there always being the danger that someone will pick up that code and interfere with their escape attempts. I could have sworn last episode did imply there were chips implanted in Ahsoka, but this episode is all about the slave collars.
I weirdly find myself less and less interested in Anakin the longer the series goes on. Anakin should have had the most interesting arc, and there are flashes of it, but they never commit to it. On the flip side, if they want to leave Anakin's turn to the dark side in ep3 as a sudden turn without a lot of lead up, then write arcs for other characters. You're allowed to write Ahsoka, Rex, other clones or Jedi or members of the government with character arcs if you make them more prominent characters; but everyone else seems to be held back by the inability to commit to Anakin's arc. I think that's becoming the most frustrating thing about this show. I find its 'main character' the least interesting aspect; which is saying something since no one is allowed to be a more interesting aspect than him.
I knew as it was happening that I was disappointed with the show for having Rex kill the slaver; in a 'makes it easy' for Obi-wan way. It also happened right after the point when Anakin kills all the turret people; which could have been a neat contrast between Anakin and Obi-wan, if Anakin's actions had actually been portrayed as going too far and unacceptable, but because Anakin is framed as being just like the soldiers it takes away some potential nuance. But then I remembered it's also a shame from Rex's arc too, since he wasn't given the final kill on Umbara. If execution is at best morally dubious, then it's still morally dubious here, but it's portrayed as a Jedi loophole. So I dislike it in even more ways than I thought I did.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x12: “Slaves of the Republic”
I liked that...I think. It's a good story and it progresses at a good pace, there are no glaring problems with it (and the issues that are there are mostly personal problems that bother me), if it can stick the landing I'll be prepared to say this was a pretty good arc.
So why don't I like it more? Lack of confidence in them sticking the landing is part of it. Those previously mentioned personal niggles are part of it. But I can identify those factors, and they're not quite what feels wrong here.
I think there's something a little off with the tone. But I'm not sure now much of that is on this episode specifically and how much is a consequence of other factors about the show. This episode fails to sell me on there being any real danger to anyone; in spite of our lead characters getting quite a few people killed. All the character reactions seem a little...off; mostly underselling it, but occasionally overdoing it. There are places where there's a bit more telling than showing. The elements never quite gel; though they could come together in future episodes.
Though I think I do need to acknowledge that the animation medium once again works against them with me. It's not that the animation is bad, not by a fair amount, but it never quite feels real. I'm not sure how it would work better; maybe this is just confirming my long time instinct that I can't take both live action and animation being in the same universe.
And let's talk about the big niggle that never quite left me through the episode. There's an undercurrent of...hypocrisy about everything that's happening here. The Jedi and the Republic don't actually care about the slavery that happens on the outer worlds; Anakin is living proof of that. They've taken an interest this time, because of the numbers involved and because it could mean a bigger threat, but they don't care about stopping the slave trade in general. I'll grant there is an undercurrent of more general disapproval from these characters, but they don't come to define their mission in broader terms, they only put themselves in danger for a select group.
The question of why they never went back for Shmii hangs in the background too. Even if no one was ever willing to try and bust up the slave trade on Tantooine, they could have gone and freed some slaves including Shmii. Because no one cared to put in even minimal effort, Anakin turns toward the dark side and all the Jedi die off.
And that's to say nothing of the treatment of the clones. There's the potential for a pretty powerful Rex arc here if the writers let there be one; but I'm sure they won't.
I also found myself really disliking Ahsoka in this one. I don't think it was a great idea to put her in this position, but I think the writing needed to pick a lane with her. If she went along with it, and we saw how it chafed and chafed at her until she finally got to cut loose at the end, that could work. But as much as they showed her not able to go along with it, there should have been consequences that made the experience a lot harder for her.
Which is where we cycle back to the animation being a problem for me. It's hard to do subtlety in animations, so everything comes across as either too big or too understated for me to be sure it's there or if I'm just assuming it should be. Ahsoka is overplaying her dissatisfaction and difficulty with her part. But I feel like we don't get enough of a reaction from Anakin to having contributed to that one slave's death/suicide. Not that I assume he was so far into his role that he didn't feel anything for it, or that it was some kind of shock to his system (it sure shouldn't be, and he'd only been there for an hour anyway); but the animation just can't convey it.
Maybe the music; about the only musical moments I can even recall from this show are when they use John Williams score from the movies, the rest of the time the music doesn't seem to be really trying. Maybe I should pay more attention to that going on.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x13: “Escape from Kadavo”
This episode was...fine. I guess. We're definitely to a point where, if I stopped doing the reviews I might keep watching as more background noise/late night brain cool down. It's just not interesting to me and after three and half seasons I have to conclude it probably never will be. I don't think anyone can say I didn't give it a chance, but it's just not a format I like.
Because this episode is bland. I don't dislike it the way I did Mon Cal episodes, but it's just nothing. More deus ex R2, more getting out of making any hard choices, lots of fighting, no character growth, status quo restored. Why do we get so few actual character studies on this show? Surely they can have a half hour that focuses on a character going through something and give us actual insight into who they are and what they want (again, I was watching Babylon 5 by the time I was 12, I'm basically hardwired to think stories about who people are and what they want in so many words). When the show is, on occasion, good that tends to be what we get. But so much of the rest of it is a flashy sort of bland.
This episode wasn't even interesting in the unintended ways the last episode was. And noting how every plotline fails to be about anything isn't actually interesting. In the eternal words, I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.
Why even tease us with a really gut-wrenching Obi-wan plot? Why not force Anakin to actually make a decision instead of having R2 come up and hand him a solution? Why does Ahsoka's ending come out of nowhere when the plot could have seeded her having some creative, out of the box ideas?
Was I supposed to be sad about rapey cat lady dying? Because she's a rapey slave master and I don't care. If there had been any indication that Anakin had even a modicum of attachment to her it could have helped; but it also would have been out of character for him not to see her as a terrible person.
Could they have maybe played up Anakin killing a bunch of people in the end as him being hungry for revenge? It can be read that way, and it's a lot more interesting if I do, but it's not in the text or even visible subtext.
Why are there never any complications about them escaping slavery? Like they absolutely should have been implanted with tracking/shock chips and there always being the danger that someone will pick up that code and interfere with their escape attempts. I could have sworn last episode did imply there were chips implanted in Ahsoka, but this episode is all about the slave collars.
I weirdly find myself less and less interested in Anakin the longer the series goes on. Anakin should have had the most interesting arc, and there are flashes of it, but they never commit to it. On the flip side, if they want to leave Anakin's turn to the dark side in ep3 as a sudden turn without a lot of lead up, then write arcs for other characters. You're allowed to write Ahsoka, Rex, other clones or Jedi or members of the government with character arcs if you make them more prominent characters; but everyone else seems to be held back by the inability to commit to Anakin's arc. I think that's becoming the most frustrating thing about this show. I find its 'main character' the least interesting aspect; which is saying something since no one is allowed to be a more interesting aspect than him.
I knew as it was happening that I was disappointed with the show for having Rex kill the slaver; in a 'makes it easy' for Obi-wan way. It also happened right after the point when Anakin kills all the turret people; which could have been a neat contrast between Anakin and Obi-wan, if Anakin's actions had actually been portrayed as going too far and unacceptable, but because Anakin is framed as being just like the soldiers it takes away some potential nuance. But then I remembered it's also a shame from Rex's arc too, since he wasn't given the final kill on Umbara. If execution is at best morally dubious, then it's still morally dubious here, but it's portrayed as a Jedi loophole. So I dislike it in even more ways than I thought I did.
