Star Wars:The Clone Wars S3......so far

[fett51]

That was a solid episode, though I'm finding more and more I think TCW is at its best when it's expanding the SW universe rather than doing action episodes.

Glad to see Echo and Fives aren't stuck on Kamino, would have been nice if they'd done more though.

Also waiting to see what they do with Tarkin.

Very happy to see Ahsoka beginning to see the flaws in Anakin's teaching, and his person. Very curious how far they'll take that.

Was a bit disappointed in the way they supposedly break Jedi, prefer the KotOR 2 angle of breaking them psychologically rather than through physical torture. Guess that's a bit deep for TCW however.

I see dictatorships as inherently far less stable than democracies. They just hide their instability better. That's why one change can have catastrophic effects in a dictatorship. Remove Saddam, and Iraq explodes. But remove the leader in a democracy and everyone shrugs.

If we'd just assassinated Saddam power would've gone to his son and little would've changed, that we completely removed the entire government keeping sectarian tensions from boiling over evidently without a plan to keep the peace afterwards is more what led to most of the exploding. Regardless, compare to something like North Korea where everyone's so indoctrinated/terrified not even intense famines provoke serious revolts (which is what I think Palps had in mind for the Empire).

-Obi-Wan got a front row seat seeing darksided Anakin, who told him flat out "you won't understand what I need to do to stop the Clone War."

He may write it off as just being the Son's influence like what happened with Ahsoka. Also, per RotJ he allowed his pride to blind him to Anakin's flaws.

I suspect the purpose of the corruption episodes was to make us understand why Anakin later decides the Republic isn't worth salvaging, and decides to pursue his own strategy of bringing balance to the cosmos as the only solution.

Filoni mentioned at one of the Savage Opress screenings that it was setup for something later. I still think it was "Lucas bitches about the state of American politics" but we'll see.

 

[DarthPipes]

This episode was a blast. Nothing like an old fashioned Star Wars jail break!

Very impressive visuals with the planet and I liked that Anakin was the one who came up with the carbon freezing idea. Even Piell was cool but the first appearance of Tarkin was the highlight. And hey, Artoo gets to command some battle droids. All and all, pretty damn cool.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

This episode was a blast. Nothing like an old fashioned Star Wars jail break!

Very impressive visuals with the planet and I liked that Anakin was the one who came up with the carbon freezing idea. Even Piell was cool but the first appearance of Tarkin was the highlight. And hey, Artoo gets to command some battle droids. All and all, pretty damn cool.

I agree.

I believe this most recent one contends for the best episode of the entire series, so far.

 

[DarthPipes]

Looks like the next two episode will be the continuation of the Citadel storyline and the final two after that will be the Chewbacca storyline.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^
Major Spoilage!

 

[O'Dib]

Could it be that the citadel is located on a slightly reformed Malachor V?

 

[lennier1]

That line about "Do as I say, not as I do" was pure gold, considering where it was coming from.

And you gotta love R2. He's such a foul-mouthed bastard, but thanks to his droid language he gets away with things no other character on that show ever could.

 

[cbspock]

The Citadel was sort of like Star's End.


-Chris

 

[Christopher]

Could it be that the citadel is located on a slightly reformed Malachor V?

According to the official episode guide, it's on Lola Sayu.


I didn't enjoy this one as much as the past few. The scripting was pretty weak, particularly that prison warden whose dialogue consisted mainly of gratuitous, highly stilted lectures about plot points. Why would he just happen to go into a monologue about the importance of scanning for intruders just when a ship that actually has intruders is being scanned? Why pick that exact moment to remind the droids of something they probably already know and that won't really affect their performance of a routine, automatic scan anyway? Or is he so fond of the sound of his own voice that he's constantly restating the obvious as a matter of course?

The premise that Anakin had used carbon freezing before is kind of cute; evidently the idea is "This is where Vader got the idea for freezing Han Solo decades later." The problem, though, is that as I recall TESB, carbon freezing was some sort of industrial process and using it on a living being was an untried, risky endeavor. The whole reason Vader froze Han was as a test for his plan to freeze Luke; Han was expendable, so if the untried process proved too dangerous and he died, Vader would've lost nothing. So this episode's treatment of the carbon freezing of living beings as though it were already a proven, successful idea decades before TESB doesn't really fit.

As for Tarkin, I'm assuming that the events of the next two episodes will show Anakin and Tarkin forging a bond in the heat of battle, thereby setting up the partnership between Vader and Tarkin in ANH. I'm disappointed that they didn't get Wayne Pygram, who briefly played Tarkin in ROTS, to do the character's voice here. But I guess the voice recording is done in California and Pygram lives in New Zealand.

 

[C.E. Evans]

My favorite points:

"Commander Artoo"! That little astromech definitely knows how to improvise in a tough situation.

Captain Tarkin...yeah, I figured he would be a condescending little **** when he was younger.

But I loved the casual little exchange between Anakin and Ahsoka when they came out of carbon freeze before Anakin realized something...

 

[Dac]

Well, that was a really fun ep. The only problem I found was the rather abrupt ending, but I guess that's sort of a thing with Clone Wars, so I won't bitch too much about it.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

The premise that Anakin had used carbon freezing before is kind of cute; evidently the idea is "This is where Vader got the idea for freezing Han Solo decades later." The problem, though, is that as I recall TESB, carbon freezing was some sort of industrial process and using it on a living being was an untried, risky endeavor. The whole reason Vader froze Han was as a test for his plan to freeze Luke; Han was expendable, so if the untried process proved too dangerous and he died, Vader would've lost nothing. So this episode's treatment of the carbon freezing of living beings as though it were already a proven, successful idea decades before TESB doesn't really fit.

Obi-Wan's and the trooper's reaction to the idea made it sound like carbon freezing might still be a somewhat risky proposition.

Alternatively, Vader's insistence on testing the carbon freezing chamber on Cloud City could be a combination of not being sure if the unregulated facilities there were safe for freezing lifeforms (whereas an Imperial facility would be), and wanting to be extra careful when freezing his son.

 

[Christopher]

But I loved the casual little exchange between Anakin and Ahsoka when they came out of carbon freeze before Anakin realized something...

Again, cute, but problematical from a continuity standpoint. Han needed hours to recover from carbon-freezing and was blind upon awakening. I guess that could be rationalized because he was frozen for far longer, though.

Obi-Wan's and the trooper's reaction to the idea made it sound like carbon freezing might still be a somewhat risky proposition.

Alternatively, Vader's insistence on testing the carbon freezing chamber on Cloud City could be a combination of not being sure if the unregulated facilities there were safe for freezing lifeforms (whereas an Imperial facility would be), and wanting to be extra careful when freezing his son.

Possible. I looked up the ESB script (not sure how faithful it is to the final dialogue), and Vader says, "This facility is crude, but it should be adequate to freeze Skywalker for his journey to the Emperor." That implies that carbon freezing is an established procedure and it's just the crudity of the facility he's concerned with. Conversely, Lando says, "Lord Vader, we only use this facility for carbon freezing. If you put him in there, it might kill him." That does imply that carbon freezing is not a procedure recommended for use on living beings.

I suppose it could be rationalized by saying that Vader/Anakin, due to his Clone Wars experience, was more familiar with the idea of carbon freezing as a form of human hibernation than was Lando, whose only experience with the procedure was industrial. I guess that would reconcile it. Still, I just feel that the almost casual use of the process here undermines the sense of danger in the carbon-freezing sequence in ESB. The facts may be reconcilable, but it alters the emotional impact of the scene.

 

[DarthPipes]

Anakin and company were only frozen for a couple of hours or days while Han was frozen (based on the timeline) for about a year. Obi-Wan does have the funny line in regards to hibernation sickness in regards to seeing Ahsoka.

Actually, the reference Leia makes to Han having hibernation sickness might be another indication that living beings (whether they be human, alien, or animal) have been put into carbonite before.

I can see what you're saying about its use here. In ESB, you got the impression it had never been done before and that it really could kill Han. It's a unique thing in a scene that seems a lot less unique.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

In Empire, C-3PO is familiar with the process of encasing beings in carbonite, saying explicitly that it is known to be safe, but [only] if Han survived the "freezing process". Thus, according to the original dialog within Empire itself, the procedure is well established by that time, but there is a critical phase of freezing a living being that crude facilities may have trouble with.

On the other hand, even in their own prequel time, the Jedi will have the very best machinery available.

 

[O'Dib]

I just feel that the almost casual use of the process here undermines the sense of danger in the carbon-freezing sequence in ESB. The facts may be reconcilable, but it alters the emotional impact of the scene.

Another consideration is, they were so unconcerned about doing it because superhumans have a much better chance of surviving the process. By that I mean Jedi and enhanced clone troopers.

 

[Set Harth]

^Major Spoilage!

I don't think they're trying very hard to keep this one under wraps.
I went to the OS for a completely unrelated reason and immediately had

Spoiler: shameless OT tie-in hype

cartoon Chewbacca staring me in the face.

Oh well, at least they can explain how he knows Obi-Wan.

 

[JediKnightButler]

^Major Spoilage!

I don't think they're trying very hard to keep this one under wraps.
I went to the OS for a completely unrelated reason and immediately had

Spoiler: shameless OT tie-in hype

cartoon Chewbacca staring me in the face.

Oh well, at least they can explain how he knows Obi-Wan.

and just how "good relations" with with the Wookies Yoda has!

BTW was it established anywhere that Obi-Wan knew Chewbacca prior to ANH?

 

[Set Harth]

BTW was it established anywhere that Obi-Wan knew Chewbacca prior to ANH?

Not per se. I thought it was implied by ANH that they had at least met before, but that could have been on Tatooine. Hopefully Obi-Wan knows at least a little Shyriiwook, because otherwise I don't see how he even got the name "Chewbacca"... unless Chewie has personal business cards that he gives out.

EDIT: Or unless the assclowns at TCW have Chewbacca speaking Basic.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

That was a solid episode, though I'm finding more and more I think TCW is at its best when it's expanding the SW universe rather than doing action episodes.

I'm happy if they alternate between the universe-expanding mythology/political/personality stuff, and less-consequential episodes like this one where it's just fun action without any apparent larger consequences. To have all consequential episodes all the time would be untenable (there isn't that much mystery to be resolved, they've handled most of what they needed to do) and might get kind of exhausting to watch. They're only halfway thru the series run, so they need to pace themselves.

But there was an element or two in this episode that I'm sure will turn out to be consequential - Ahsoka is definitely imitating Anakin's approach to Jedi-hood, namely "frak the rules." Also, Anakin's attachment issues are causing him to be a poor leader. A good leader would assess rationally whether Ahsoka was ready for the mission. So far, she's acquitted herself well, implying that she was ready for it. Anakin should have recognized that.

So they've both got issues. it was treated rather lightly this time, but I think they're on a collision course.

I would like some follow-up to the Mortis Arc, though. Here we have a situation where two Jedi fell to the Dark Side and came back. Not an everyday occurrence. And they're master and student. Is it really wise to keep them together? What if they're not fully cured and have a relapse? It would be very inconvenient if it happened to both at the same time, so that one of them couldn't do something about it or at least warn others what happened.

I have a sneaking suspicion that some sort of relapse will occur sooner or later in the series. But the Jedi Council should have the chance to show they have a bit of smarts by trying to do something about the danger in advance, or at least acknowledge that they know about the danger. I hate it when characters are made to look unnecessarily stupid.