Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x14- 15
Jun. 7th, 2021 08:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsStar Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x14: “A Friend in Need”
This show is developing a bad (or maybe good) habit of getting me to the brink of giving up on it, then pulling out a really good episode to keep me hoping it can be better.
I don't want to forget to acknowledge that this episode looks really good. The snowy pallet has always suited this animation and it's used well here.
This definitely didn't end up being the episode I thought it would be from the opening voice over. I also remain worried for Satine every time she shows up that she's going to be offed. And I can't decide if this episode makes me more or less worried about that. On one hand this episode shows they will eventually return to some dangling plot threads; on the other, Satine has already been a picked up plot thread a few times so they could still be planning to get rid of her. That said, I do think they would need to do something more between her and Obi-wan; because it's been two seasons since we had a story built around them, so it would need to come up again before they would kill her off. For all I know she's still around in Rebels, but this is the vibe I have.
I am really glad to see them starting to pick up old plot threads; plots don't have to end when the episode or arc ends, you can later come back and examine the consequences of a previous arc while starting a new one. Granted, I had kind of forgotten about these plot threads, and it's only been a handful of weeks for me; but I think that speaks to how much this show doesn't stick with me. It was good to see it here, and hopefully they can continue to build their own catalog of plot arcs. I feel like I should have said that a while ago...maybe I did.
This is also kind of a gruesome episode. While I'm not sure I expected native-girl to get out of this alright, the way she was killed was surprising. Also, at one point Ahsoka kills like four Deathwatch people at once; the show doesn't really comment on that, but I found it disturbing. These aren't battle droids where being hacked apart by Jedi is pretty much their fate/lot in life; these are people. I'm not saying she was wrong to do what she had to to get them out of there, but I would have appreciated some acknowledgment of there being a difference.
The R2 side of this is also interesting. This episode opts to show the droids in a sympathetic light,but it does so in kind of an odd way. Because when we first see Deathwatch's treatment of the droids, I found myself at odds with the portrayal. It's kind of hard to see how this makes Deathwatch look bad when the heroes of the show do the same thing constantly; unless that's the point, but it didn't seem to be. When R2 was sent to repair them, it was still a little odd; because again it seems to be framing this as a sign of how bad the Deathwatch are, but again it's not that different. I found the attitudes of the droids themselves one of the stranger parts, they want to be fixed, but they don't seem to be seeking a 'kill all humans' end. They just want to be whole I guess. Once they were fixed, my mind went to kind of an odd place; but I was recalling that in the Citadel arc R2 was shown as a leader of droids. I still don't know what the intent quite was, but it seemed like another small arc being picked up to me.
But there is generally going to be nothing I need to nitpick at; so even though I liked this episode I have space to ponder something. Why do they treat Ahsoka the way they do? It reads as sexism, but there was women among the Deathwatch (not many but some); not that those factors can't coexist, but if they were going for sexism then maybe don't invite the confusion. Or maybe show that Deathwatch had taken a couple male hostages as well as women. Is it anti-alien sentiment? I would believe that, this does seem like a Mandalorian purity group. But does that mean that Mandalorians are human? This 'verse is never real clear on whether all the human-looking beings are actually human or not; and being more involved in Star Trek through my life I don't default assume that beings who look human necessarily are. Also, is it related to the Empire's anti-alien sentiment (assuming that's considered canon and not just something I remember from some of the books)?
If I wasn't already a little confused about the treatment of Ahsoka I might not have noticed, but how did they conclude she was a Jedi? I didn't notice her using any Force moves when she tried to save the natives' village. I could let this slide, say that she fights like a Jedi and they would know that, but it seemed a bit of a narrative shortcut.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x15: “Deception”
This was also good, and sets up a possibly very good arc. I'm not going to bet on it yet, since I have been known to jump the gun on some arcs, but at least this is starting well.
I was a little annoyed at first since obviously Obi-wan wasn't dead We know he'll outlive a good chunk of the people at his funeral. But they also didn't leave us hanging very long before revealing the real plan. That said, don't Jedi funerals tend to involve burning the body? And wouldn't other Jedi wonder why Obi-wan's funeral didn't?
This plan also seems to have a lot of points of possible failure, and that's before he even gets into prison. It would have served them right if Tuskan-Raider-killing Anakin had gotten angry and murdery after Obi-wan was killed.
I didn't recognize Boba, but I like that they continue to bring in previously established elements of the show's continuity. I also find I don't remember if Bane had been captured in his last episodes or if that happened off-screen. The dialog sounds like it's been a recent development, but I wouldn't have minded them being a little clearer. Again, I like him being brought back (well, in a sense, you know he's never been my favorite character), but it's a bit of a coincidence.
This is another time when the time constraints of a 22 minute episode become clear. Because I would have liked to see more of how Obi-wan's believed death affected the people in his life, but there's no time for that because they have to do plot things. It's a pretty good plot so far, but it has that same problem that so much of the show has with being an action show rather than a character one. At least this time the action felt natural to the plot instead of feeling forced in for the sake of a flashy action scene.
But I still really want to see things like Anakin and Padme discussing Obi-wan's death. I want to know how Cody reacts (and would like it if we had previously seen more of their dynamic, I just trust that it's there and would like to see what happens with this development). While we probably wouldn't get it, I'm curious what Palpatine thinks about all this. I want them to show rather than tell how hard Anakin's taking it. Even though we know Obi-wan isn't dead doesn't mean his funeral couldn't have been moving and sad and a real reflection of his character and his relationships with those around him.
Again this is partly a problem with this being a prequel (or a mid-quel), we know there's no danger of Anakin ending up killing Obi-wan in anger without knowing it. We know Anakin can't fly off the handle in a way that the Jedi or Obi-wan would see. We know Obi-wan's life isn't really on the line; but prequels that are character driven, showing how we got from a point to another point have room to make us care and feel the danger and twists even if we know more or less how they have to end. This show...doesn't.
So this is a good episode of a show I still have mixed to bad feelings about. Make of that what you will.
This show is developing a bad (or maybe good) habit of getting me to the brink of giving up on it, then pulling out a really good episode to keep me hoping it can be better.
I don't want to forget to acknowledge that this episode looks really good. The snowy pallet has always suited this animation and it's used well here.
This definitely didn't end up being the episode I thought it would be from the opening voice over. I also remain worried for Satine every time she shows up that she's going to be offed. And I can't decide if this episode makes me more or less worried about that. On one hand this episode shows they will eventually return to some dangling plot threads; on the other, Satine has already been a picked up plot thread a few times so they could still be planning to get rid of her. That said, I do think they would need to do something more between her and Obi-wan; because it's been two seasons since we had a story built around them, so it would need to come up again before they would kill her off. For all I know she's still around in Rebels, but this is the vibe I have.
I am really glad to see them starting to pick up old plot threads; plots don't have to end when the episode or arc ends, you can later come back and examine the consequences of a previous arc while starting a new one. Granted, I had kind of forgotten about these plot threads, and it's only been a handful of weeks for me; but I think that speaks to how much this show doesn't stick with me. It was good to see it here, and hopefully they can continue to build their own catalog of plot arcs. I feel like I should have said that a while ago...maybe I did.
This is also kind of a gruesome episode. While I'm not sure I expected native-girl to get out of this alright, the way she was killed was surprising. Also, at one point Ahsoka kills like four Deathwatch people at once; the show doesn't really comment on that, but I found it disturbing. These aren't battle droids where being hacked apart by Jedi is pretty much their fate/lot in life; these are people. I'm not saying she was wrong to do what she had to to get them out of there, but I would have appreciated some acknowledgment of there being a difference.
The R2 side of this is also interesting. This episode opts to show the droids in a sympathetic light,but it does so in kind of an odd way. Because when we first see Deathwatch's treatment of the droids, I found myself at odds with the portrayal. It's kind of hard to see how this makes Deathwatch look bad when the heroes of the show do the same thing constantly; unless that's the point, but it didn't seem to be. When R2 was sent to repair them, it was still a little odd; because again it seems to be framing this as a sign of how bad the Deathwatch are, but again it's not that different. I found the attitudes of the droids themselves one of the stranger parts, they want to be fixed, but they don't seem to be seeking a 'kill all humans' end. They just want to be whole I guess. Once they were fixed, my mind went to kind of an odd place; but I was recalling that in the Citadel arc R2 was shown as a leader of droids. I still don't know what the intent quite was, but it seemed like another small arc being picked up to me.
But there is generally going to be nothing I need to nitpick at; so even though I liked this episode I have space to ponder something. Why do they treat Ahsoka the way they do? It reads as sexism, but there was women among the Deathwatch (not many but some); not that those factors can't coexist, but if they were going for sexism then maybe don't invite the confusion. Or maybe show that Deathwatch had taken a couple male hostages as well as women. Is it anti-alien sentiment? I would believe that, this does seem like a Mandalorian purity group. But does that mean that Mandalorians are human? This 'verse is never real clear on whether all the human-looking beings are actually human or not; and being more involved in Star Trek through my life I don't default assume that beings who look human necessarily are. Also, is it related to the Empire's anti-alien sentiment (assuming that's considered canon and not just something I remember from some of the books)?
If I wasn't already a little confused about the treatment of Ahsoka I might not have noticed, but how did they conclude she was a Jedi? I didn't notice her using any Force moves when she tried to save the natives' village. I could let this slide, say that she fights like a Jedi and they would know that, but it seemed a bit of a narrative shortcut.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – 4x15: “Deception”
This was also good, and sets up a possibly very good arc. I'm not going to bet on it yet, since I have been known to jump the gun on some arcs, but at least this is starting well.
I was a little annoyed at first since obviously Obi-wan wasn't dead We know he'll outlive a good chunk of the people at his funeral. But they also didn't leave us hanging very long before revealing the real plan. That said, don't Jedi funerals tend to involve burning the body? And wouldn't other Jedi wonder why Obi-wan's funeral didn't?
This plan also seems to have a lot of points of possible failure, and that's before he even gets into prison. It would have served them right if Tuskan-Raider-killing Anakin had gotten angry and murdery after Obi-wan was killed.
I didn't recognize Boba, but I like that they continue to bring in previously established elements of the show's continuity. I also find I don't remember if Bane had been captured in his last episodes or if that happened off-screen. The dialog sounds like it's been a recent development, but I wouldn't have minded them being a little clearer. Again, I like him being brought back (well, in a sense, you know he's never been my favorite character), but it's a bit of a coincidence.
This is another time when the time constraints of a 22 minute episode become clear. Because I would have liked to see more of how Obi-wan's believed death affected the people in his life, but there's no time for that because they have to do plot things. It's a pretty good plot so far, but it has that same problem that so much of the show has with being an action show rather than a character one. At least this time the action felt natural to the plot instead of feeling forced in for the sake of a flashy action scene.
But I still really want to see things like Anakin and Padme discussing Obi-wan's death. I want to know how Cody reacts (and would like it if we had previously seen more of their dynamic, I just trust that it's there and would like to see what happens with this development). While we probably wouldn't get it, I'm curious what Palpatine thinks about all this. I want them to show rather than tell how hard Anakin's taking it. Even though we know Obi-wan isn't dead doesn't mean his funeral couldn't have been moving and sad and a real reflection of his character and his relationships with those around him.
Again this is partly a problem with this being a prequel (or a mid-quel), we know there's no danger of Anakin ending up killing Obi-wan in anger without knowing it. We know Anakin can't fly off the handle in a way that the Jedi or Obi-wan would see. We know Obi-wan's life isn't really on the line; but prequels that are character driven, showing how we got from a point to another point have room to make us care and feel the danger and twists even if we know more or less how they have to end. This show...doesn't.
So this is a good episode of a show I still have mixed to bad feelings about. Make of that what you will.
