Star Wars The Clone Wars Season Five News and Discussion

Finally it's over. I have to say that the Droid arc was the worst arc of the series so far. Gascon and his droid frenemy were just beyond annoying. And until this episode R2-D2 did almost nothing. Finally he got to play hero. If you're going to do a droid arc why not make Artoo the main star? Why some dopey alien and a dopey droid as the central characters?

 

Wow, is this series fucked for good now? Nearly this entire season has been a train wreck. I know it's aimed at kids and all but I was just thinking as a kid, I think I'd be insulted with Gaston as a character in contrast to the previous offerings and scope of character depth.

Luckily I was able to get through both latest shows in one sitting, which made the Gaston pill easier to swallow. It seemed for a moment there that the plot thread with the (re)activation of slave Gregor was going to save this 4-story arc. The excessive and pedantic exposition by Gaston throughout both of these episodes was unbearable. He spelled out everything constantly I wondered if he was going to ask us to stand up and count things a la Dora the Explorer.

Would kids have enjoyed this? I know it's the general goal at Lucasfilm here but: parents, am I right in assuming that kids found Gaston amusing?

For a moment... I thought maybe (hoped) he'd died in the explosion.

 

Most of the arcs are too long for the actual amount of content they offer.
I'm really getting tired of the protagonists getting stranded or captured every second episode, just so the developers can squeeze in one or two more episodes.

 

I just realized, this arc would have been infinitely better if Threepio were in it. Why in the world they decided to make this into 4 episodes is beyond me. It might've been ok as a two parter. I liked it at the beginning, but this was just ridiculous.

And I can't believe Artoo survived that huge HUGE explosion. That was so lame. At the very least they should have totally destroyed his body but salvaged his hard drive and put it into a new chassis.

 

They must really like Mustafar. It's back again for the next arc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSOe7MzFs2w

 

It had such a huge effect in the movie because it was quite different from the usual fare, but showing it every other week simply turns it into yet another episode backdrop.

 

That would've been an improvement, but it's hard to justify a Senator's personal protocol droid being sent on a strictly military mission. Although I guess they could've arranged some mixup where Threepio ended up getting caught on their ship by mistake when it launched.

Every arc this season has been a 4-parter. Even the seemingly standalone season premiere was actually a bumped-up part 1 of an arc that resumes next week. I guess the 4-part arcs last season such as the Umbara arc and the Obi-Wan undercover arc were well enough received that they decided to do the whole season that way. Or maybe they're "writing for the trade" -- doing 4-part arcs that can be released on home video as movie-length stories.

I thought that was what they were going to do with the droid that was lost in hyperspace, the one Gascon had been riding around in. They made a big deal in part 1 about how that droid's memory was being removed to make room for Gascon's cockpit. I figured that would be a Chekhov's Gun and that the payoff would be that the droid's personality survived and could be placed in a new body. Instead, they just forgot about it.

 

Ah, I was wondering why the female Jedi who got killed by Maul was alive again in the next arc. This explains it.

 

I thought this last one was a slight improvement over the rest of the arc. I don't know if I would say it was good, but it wasn't as bad as the others.
I think I enjoyed the clip more than I did any of the last 4 episodes.

 

There's just not enough Jedi action this season and I do miss seeing more of the Clone troopers. I'm not hating this season but I think that last season was better. This droid arc has soured me on the season.

 

The problem was that there were too many clowns. You can't play the story right without the clown and the straight man. This was a horrible mess.

Last night I re-watched the series opener and maybe there is hope after all... that story is excellent. Maul and Savage, flying around the galaxy being dicks and killing for sport... Obi-Wan overwhemed.... oh, I want to go to there! Wash over us and let us forget the suffering that was this first half of season 5.
I also rewatched The Mortis Trilogy again to make sure it was the worst... and it still is.

 

That's the good thing about the next arc, its likely to have the rest of the good stuff from the season 5 trailer.

 

Holy cow, that was visually sumptuous! I need to pay attention to who directs and storyboards episodes because some are really better. I suppose they probably choose which ones to dump more resources into as well but man that was gorgeous. I really dig those Mandalorean ships and Maul's eyes are fantastic.

Maul and Savage are a lot more interesting than Plankton and his droids I have to admit. It should be fun to see this one play out.

 

The body count for this episode was rather high. I love how this series can have very light-hearted, almost kiddy arcs and then have the next one be totally hardcore.

Maul is a far more better villain in this series than he was in The Phantom Menace, IMO.

 

Considering what the brothers were able to accomplish, I'm surprised the body count wasn't much higher. Wow so much happened in this episode in comparison to the last 4 which seemed to move along at a Gonk droid's pace!

 

Not very hard since all he did in TPM was jump around and get sliced in two by Obi-Wan.

I guess Satine is going to die down the line. Was really expecting the two bounty hunters to die, but glad they didn't kill them just to make the Savage-Maul-Vizsla troika more threatening.

 

Finally the Clone Wars is back on track this season.

 

Smoke if you got em. Back to business here, if only the entire season could be as good as this. Or have scenes from this episode sprinkled throughout season 5 to show the building momentum of Maul and Savage.

 

Damn, now that's more like it. Definitely the best episode of the season so far. Was that Katie Sackhoff again as the female Death Watch member?