Clone Wars: 2X7 "Legacy of Terror" (spoilers)

Yeah, you read that right. Zombies, alien ones, on a Star Wars cartoon.

This episode amounted to a zombie/ALIENS/Borg mish-mash, that was pretty dark, like this season has been (I'm not complaining.)

Spoiler: Legacy of Terror ending

Perhaps they should've called this one REGICIDE ON GEONOSIS, part of the GENOCIDE ON GEONOSIS Trilogy.

And we still aren't done, in 2 weeks we get more Geonosis fallout.

 

Does Luminara Unduli have Obi Wan out ranked?

 

Interesting episode though I wish that they would move on from the Genosis storyline. By now we could've had another "movie" with just the Geonosis material. I had just heard about the "Zombie Stormtroopers" EU book that was recently released ("Death Troopers"). Now, it looks like we've had "Zombie Geonosian Soldiers" and it looks like next week we'll have "Zombie Clone Troopers" (and "Zombie Jedi" too?). The scene with the Geonosian Queen reminded me a LOT of "Aliens", particularly the eggs the drones were placing on the ground around the Queen. I half expected there to be "face huggers" getting ready to pop out of them.
What I thought was pretty interesting about this episode is that the Republic forces have now captured TWO Separatist leaders whom have, at least so far, NOT escaped Republic custody (Wat Tambor was captured on Ryloth). We know that they will eventually escape like Gunray did since they were, of course, all free (to be slain by Anakin/Vader) in ROTS but I kept expecting that Poggle would found a way to break free from Obi-Wan during their escape but he didn't. Even though we know they will get away somehow, it's nice to know that the villians aren't invincible nor do they ALWAYS get away scot-free in the end every time.
Oh, and I liked how they threw in a line from ESB: "That's not true. That's impossible"- spoken by Anakin, no less.

 

Pretty good episode. Nice to have a change of pace horror episode. Nice to learn more about Geonosian culture/biology. So is the queen supposed to be the REAL leader of Geonosis then? Does this conflict with pre-existing information?

 

Yeah this one had several pretty good lines. My favorite was the exchange between Obi-wan and Anakin "I was going to study that!" "You can study the bottom of my boot".

 

Good episode. Much better Star Was zombie story than Death Troopers.

 

I was really impressed by the work the animators did with the lighting in this episode. Very moody and creepy and subtle and effective. And good work on the lights from the Troopers' helmets -- very realistic-looking, the beams illuminating the catacomb walls and such. The one problem I had lighting-wise was that I would've expected the lightsabers to produce a lot more interactive lighting with the walls and characters and such.

 

Actually I believe - at this time - they are both Jedi Masters. Obi-Wan, however, is eventually given a seat on the Council.

 

I was sickly amused by the Battle Droid "Don't leave without me!"

They used the K word, "kill" being forbidden in American cartoons for the most part.

I'm left wondering why the Queen could speak English ("Basic", is it called?), but no other Geonosians ever do.

 

^^ That's why she's the queen! She took a correspondence course in Basic

 

^ Makes sense to me.

Did anyone else get a Starship Troopers vibe from this episode too?

 

Wasn't the 90s CGI Troopers toon in the same format? A series of linked episodes showing one campaign on one planet before moving onto the next one?

 

^ Yeah, but I meant storyline wise I'm sorry I wasn't clearer.

Brain Bug - Queen (Said they had a hive mind collective consciousness)
Body Snatcher - Worm (Take over someone's brain).
Geonosian - Warrior Bugs

 

Not the best of the series, but still a good episode. Very dark. I really liked the character work between Obi-Wan and Anakin at the end -- showcasing how their different approaches lead to natural, but still fairly good-natured tensions. The beginnings of their subsequent hatred are being given some nice touches in these episodes.

 

Have to say I'm very bothered that we've got Jedi Masters--members of an order to whom "this crude matter" is supposed to be irrelevant--referring to the Geonosians as "bugs." (Anakin, sure, but Luminara?) Would've been nice to see a Geonosian Jedi in there somewhere, reacting.

 

I remember Kenobi's "pathetic life form" comment in The Phantom Menace. I found that odd, and still do...that Qui Gon's pupil was so arrogant.

 

Really enjoyed this episode. The Geonosian storyline has been excellent.

-I think dating back to her initial appearance last season in Cloak of Deception, Luminara has been a standout character on the show. The character just seems to have "it" whenever she's on-screen and I like the voice work.

-Speaking of excellent, the banter between Anakin and Obi-Wan. It gets more and more entertaining and well-written every time.

-Dug the whole zombie thing, which was creepy and pulled off well. An aspect of The Clone Wars I enjoy is the producers embracing other movies and genres, so to speak. The zombie thing this week, the use of Notorious as a basis for Senate Spy, and even taking one of the most famous shots from The Longest Day and working it into the Landing episode.

-The sandstorm itself was very well-done. It really gave the impression of a smothering, unbreathable enviroment and they pulled that off incredily well.

-Queen Karina was just plain bizarre. Don't know what to say about that one.

-So, Poggle is another Seperatist leader who gets captured only to escape for ROTS?

-Luminara seemed a lot tougher without a lightsaber and in binders than Anakin did last season when he lost his lightsaber.

 

Thats pretty srandard for any soldier in any war. Killing for most people is a very hard thing to do. So you dehumanize your enemy, so it seems as if you are not killing something alive. From Hajji, to Kraut and Jap, American soldiers have "nicknamed" their enemies so as to dehumanize them.

For an order that respects life as much as it does, this dehumanization (yes I know they aren't human, but I can't come up with a better term) would take on greater importance, as taking a life would presumably take an even larger toll on their psyche.

 

Also, she's hot.

 

I liked this episode. Particularly the bit with the battle droids fighting through the sandstorm only for one to die alone - these guys are an endless mine of pitch black humour. Don't let it up, fellas.

Otherwise, the mood was suitably creepy and there was the first bit of actual tension I've felt in this series, which was nice. The designs were also rather good - Genosians were a rather eerie swarm in their capacity to suddenly disconnect from the walls in Attack of the Clones. The Queen was suitably monstrous if unsurprising - wasn't anyone else expecting some sort of massive slug-like thing, or was that just me? Anyway, shades of Starship Troopers here, though thankfully without the vagina. Also a mite so in the useage of 'bugs', quite.

I'm less keen on the increased tendency for non-Basic speaking aliens to speak Basic in the series, though - to date we've had a Hutt (Ziro), some Rodians (chiefly Onaconda Farr) and now a Geonosian (Karina the Great). It typically makes sense from a plot perspective - we need these characters to talk to understand what the hell they're saying, and it is probably expecting too much of the young audience to sit through subtitles, but it's even more jarring when these characters are seen right alongside others who are still incapable of speaking Basic, like Jabba and - in this case - Poggle the Lesser.

Surely Poggle of the two would be the guy who knew the language, as he routinely interacted with offworlders while the queen was so reclusive that to many offworlders she was little more than a myth, but hey, I guess not and plot must plod along. It also sort of botched the impression I sometimes got - of the Genosians in particular - that they didn't speak the language because they couldn't articulate it, just as we wouldn't be all that good at the series of odd clicks Poggle had for a tongue.

Also, with retaking Geonosis more than once and as observed upthread we seem to be equally good at capturing leaders who will subsequently escape, the war does feel fairly vague and lacking in progression. Honestly though? Been true for the entire series to date. Even ignoring consistency cockups like "Senate Spy", the state of the war is whatever the hell works best for a given episode, and even though we seem to use the same dozen planets or so over and over for stomping grounds, the particulars clearly aren't all that important.

But I disgress too pointlessly on tiresome complaints, this was, again, a rather enjoyable half-hour. Not enough Ashoka, perhaps, but she'll be in the next installment. I like that kid.