And that couldn't have just been an animation error? I think you're overanalyzing this.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars S4
- Thread starter Mysterion
- Start date
And that couldn't have just been an animation error? I think you're overanalyzing this.
ReadyAndWilling
Fleet Captain
how is producing far weaker droids who get demolished by jedi good business? running the war as a business would mean they're ultra efficient. producing droids that are weak is ultra inefficient.
that's why i'm always waiting for the sepies to introduce something to counter the jedi. maybe some intelligent droid who can engage in melee combat and lead them into battle. something like a combination of a tactical droid and a magna guard.
There are quite a few businesses out there that compromise quality and long-term profits for the sake of short-term cost-cutting, because they just don't have the vision or patience to recognize that you can make more in the long run by investing in quality in the short term. Surely you've encountered plenty of shoddy merchandise in your own life. We all have.
Well, there's rarely any real continuity from one episode/arc to the next consecutive one; episodes tend to jump back and forth through the timeline somewhat randomly, so you can watch them in just about any order. So skipping the Umbara 4-parter wouldn't have any impact on the experience of watching what comes next.
If you're talking about what's worthwhile within the Umbara arc itself, though, I think you could follow the story of parts 3-4 well enough without having seen part 2. The recap at the start of part 3 sums up the events of part 2 pretty well. And parts 3-4 are the strongest episodes in the 4-parter, IMHO. (Personally I'd consider part 1 to be the most expendable since it's mostly just one long running gun battle, and that sort of stuff bores me.)
Santeria
Lieutenant Commander
So if something happens that doesn't follow your explanation, it's an "animation error?" That's convenient.
The show becomes so much more interesting when the Jedi are dealing with opponents who are not disposable scrap metal.
I had to laugh at the very overt Return of the Jedi homage, what with the nods, R2 and the lightsabers, the salute, and the music.
I had to laugh at the very overt Return of the Jedi homage, what with the nods, R2 and the lightsabers, the salute, and the music.
Don't be insulting. I'm just saying it could've been. Animation errors happen. It's usually a mistake to obsess on every tiny detail and assume it has to be absolute gospel truth. It just makes the viewing experience frustrating, because every work contains errors and inconsistencies.
To put it another way: Just repeat to yourself, "It's just a show -- I should really just relax."
Finally playing catchup on this season. Phew, what a lot of disposable, boring episodes to slog thru. Yeah, yeah, we get it, the Seppys strongarm worlds into poorly chosen alliances and Jar-Jar is silly and Artoo is spunky and Threepio is supercilious and the clones have a tough time of things.
The problem is that this series is either Filler or Killer. There are only two actual storylines that require any further attention: "Why Anakin Went Squirrely" and "Ahsoka's Fate." Everything else is just killing time. (They could give Obi-Wan a running subplot of some sort if they wanted a third arc.)
Finally with the last two episodes, we're getting to the Killer stuff that keeps me motivated to keep watching. If they're setting up the notion that Anakin starts to equate serving the Republic with slavery, well there's an interesting twist and one that plausibly could wreak a lot of havoc. (And was that a midseason cliffhanger or are there more episodes before the new year?)
But even so, the animation is so stunningly gorgeous that it's worth slogging thru the battle episodes for. Mon Cala and Umbara were beautifully and imaginatively realized. For the first time, I've been wishing I had one of those expensive, big-ass HDTVs.
The problem is that this series is either Filler or Killer. There are only two actual storylines that require any further attention: "Why Anakin Went Squirrely" and "Ahsoka's Fate." Everything else is just killing time. (They could give Obi-Wan a running subplot of some sort if they wanted a third arc.)
Finally with the last two episodes, we're getting to the Killer stuff that keeps me motivated to keep watching. If they're setting up the notion that Anakin starts to equate serving the Republic with slavery, well there's an interesting twist and one that plausibly could wreak a lot of havoc. (And was that a midseason cliffhanger or are there more episodes before the new year?)
But even so, the animation is so stunningly gorgeous that it's worth slogging thru the battle episodes for. Mon Cala and Umbara were beautifully and imaginatively realized. For the first time, I've been wishing I had one of those expensive, big-ass HDTVs.
Excellent episode. This adaptation of Slaves of the Republic is getting even better.
Loved the animiation on Zygerria. It's got a real fantasy field to it. The Queen is a vile person but a fascinating character and her interaction with Anakin is good.
I'm glad they kept Anakin Force-choking her and the scene where the slaves are killed in front of Obi-Wan. Between that and the slave killing herself, Clone Wars is about one sex scene away from being an FX show.
Loved the animiation on Zygerria. It's got a real fantasy field to it. The Queen is a vile person but a fascinating character and her interaction with Anakin is good.
I'm glad they kept Anakin Force-choking her and the scene where the slaves are killed in front of Obi-Wan. Between that and the slave killing herself, Clone Wars is about one sex scene away from being an FX show.
I found it interesting that the Queen referred to the Republic as 'corrupt' in front of Anakin. He's also expressed that opinion and now he's hearing it confirmed by someone from the outside, who he wouldn't be otherwise sympathetic to. The Queen may represent a system that disgusts Anakin, but she seems intelligent and perceptive.
The Queen could play a key role in Anakin's story. She's reinforcing Anakin's fear that the Republic might not be worth fighting for, and might be just another exploitative system, no different from the Seppys. Jedi are expected to be paragons of perfection, allowed to have no personal life and no feelings even for their fellow Jedi, yet the Republic that demands these things is hardly a paragon of anything. Anakin's gotta be wondering whether the Republic deserves the Jedi.
Add to that the knowledge he already has from Mortis that everything may continue to spiral out of control unless someone steps in to stop it who is outside both the light and dark sides, and able to control both. There's only one person like that in the galaxy, and that person can't afford to be hampered by the petty rules of the Jedi. He'll need to step in for everyone's sake, not because he's evil and corrupt, but because he isn't.
The Queen could play a key role in Anakin's story. She's reinforcing Anakin's fear that the Republic might not be worth fighting for, and might be just another exploitative system, no different from the Seppys. Jedi are expected to be paragons of perfection, allowed to have no personal life and no feelings even for their fellow Jedi, yet the Republic that demands these things is hardly a paragon of anything. Anakin's gotta be wondering whether the Republic deserves the Jedi.
Add to that the knowledge he already has from Mortis that everything may continue to spiral out of control unless someone steps in to stop it who is outside both the light and dark sides, and able to control both. There's only one person like that in the galaxy, and that person can't afford to be hampered by the petty rules of the Jedi. He'll need to step in for everyone's sake, not because he's evil and corrupt, but because he isn't.
She also kept bringing up how he "enslaved" himself to the Jedi and Republic. But of course, he ends up enslaving himself to the Emperor and the Empire.
I'm not too engaged by this storyline, though I guess it's okay. It is a good idea to confront Anakin's feelings about his past as a slave, but it doesn't seem to be getting confronted enough. And I still have trouble getting past the whole "distinguishing alien species by giving them regional Earth accents" thing.
I could've also used a better answer to Ahsoka's question of why anyone would need live slaves in a high-tech society -- especially when they have trillions of droids that are already essentially slaves. Sure, the whaddayacallem cat people, the Zygerrians or whatever, do it for the profit of selling slaves to others, but why do those others need them? Is it purely a luxury item, something people want merely so they can have a power trip by bossing other beings around? The queen took that attitude herself, but is that what motivates all her people's customers as well?
Ahsoka could've used some more practice in how to pretend to be a slave. Her contentiousness didn't help sell the illusion any. She did look fantastic in that blue dress, though. Not quite Slave Leia hot, but still lovely. And I love how calm she was meditating in that cage, and that casual Force-telekinesis move she did. (Though if she can throw that guy around so easily with her mind, why can't she use the Force to break that shock collar around her neck?)
If you're looking at it from the perspective of "What does this contribute to the movies' storyline," sure. But if you look at it as its own self-contained work, neither of those is really an issue here at all (except maybe the former, occasionally), and the show has established a number of worthwhile self-contained threads of its own. Ahsoka herself, her journey from callow apprentice to seasoned Jedi, is of course the primary thread, and I'm more interested in that than in the purely technical question of why she's absent from some movies that were made before she was created. But one of the most successful and engaging elements of the show is the one that makes it live up to its subtitle -- the continuing focus on the clones themselves as major characters. I mean, we just got a 4-part, movie-length story that was almost entirely about the clones, with hardly any of the film series' main characters appearing at all. If ever a story deserved to be called The Clone Wars, that was it. It really underlined what this show can do with its own characters and continuity, how it can be more than just a fill-in between movies.
I could've also used a better answer to Ahsoka's question of why anyone would need live slaves in a high-tech society -- especially when they have trillions of droids that are already essentially slaves. Sure, the whaddayacallem cat people, the Zygerrians or whatever, do it for the profit of selling slaves to others, but why do those others need them? Is it purely a luxury item, something people want merely so they can have a power trip by bossing other beings around? The queen took that attitude herself, but is that what motivates all her people's customers as well?
Ahsoka could've used some more practice in how to pretend to be a slave. Her contentiousness didn't help sell the illusion any. She did look fantastic in that blue dress, though. Not quite Slave Leia hot, but still lovely. And I love how calm she was meditating in that cage, and that casual Force-telekinesis move she did. (Though if she can throw that guy around so easily with her mind, why can't she use the Force to break that shock collar around her neck?)
If you're looking at it from the perspective of "What does this contribute to the movies' storyline," sure. But if you look at it as its own self-contained work, neither of those is really an issue here at all (except maybe the former, occasionally), and the show has established a number of worthwhile self-contained threads of its own. Ahsoka herself, her journey from callow apprentice to seasoned Jedi, is of course the primary thread, and I'm more interested in that than in the purely technical question of why she's absent from some movies that were made before she was created. But one of the most successful and engaging elements of the show is the one that makes it live up to its subtitle -- the continuing focus on the clones themselves as major characters. I mean, we just got a 4-part, movie-length story that was almost entirely about the clones, with hardly any of the film series' main characters appearing at all. If ever a story deserved to be called The Clone Wars, that was it. It really underlined what this show can do with its own characters and continuity, how it can be more than just a fill-in between movies.
Presumably that was not his goal.
After all, his experience on Mortis told him that he should be able to control both light and dark sides. So why should he predict that he would be enslaved by the Emperor, being a mere Sith and therefore inferior to the Chosen One?I wonder if Anakin's story is a whole lot like Dukat's. He thought he could control the paghwraiths...
I haven't noticed there being much of interest beyond those two plot threads, and Ahsoka's story obviously has nothing to do with the movies. She wasn't in the movies because she didn't exist then, which is part of why Anakin is so dissimilar in the movies vs this series.
I've never found the clones interesting and I could barely get thru those episodes (I still haven't seen the one where Krell is outed as a darksider, maybe that will be more fun.) A big problem is that they're all voice-acted by the same actor, using the same inflections, so that they don't come across as separate characters. It's like one guy arguing with himself, and his arguments are boring.
I still wish the Clone Wars label had been justified some other way, such as the Seppys cloning people to use as slaves, which the Republic disapproves of, and that kicks off the war. (And that would segue neatly with Anakin's backstory.) The whole clone army thing has always been a misstep. Maybe there was a way to make it work, but neither the movies nor the series has found it.
I see this series as a separate reality from the movies, since by this point there's no way to match up this storyline with ROTS. Anakin is a completely different character. What he knows about himself and his relationship with the light and dark sides has huge implications for how he should respond to events in ROTS. For him to be that naive and reactive to events no longer makes any sense.
I wonder if it's even possible for voice actors to invent accents that have no parallel to Earth accents. What would an accent like that sound like? They need some sort of source material to go on.
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