Star Wars: The Clone Wars 1 X 16: "Trespass"

[JediKnightButler]

The Good: This episode was visually impressive and evoked fond memories of the Hoth scenes from "Empire Strikes Back", especially with Obi-Wan and Anakin's outfits and the Clone Troopers' helmets. Two new alien races were introduced in this episode (I think we saw one of the Talz in the Cantina on ANH but I can't be sure- I know I've seen them somewhere before). I think that the Chairman and his people were new as well. Visually, they reminded me a little of what the Chiss are supposed to look like. It was nice to see C-3P0 again. Some of his scenes reminded me of ROTJ when he was "serving" as Jabba's translator. It was nice to see Obi-Wan- the famed "negotiator"- decline to assume the responsibility for brokering the peace between the Senator and the Talz and allow the young Senator assume that responsibility- as it should have been.

The Bad: One of the weaker episodes IMHO in terms of storyline. The Chairman seemed OTT in his overwhelming and seemingly unjustifiable desire to obliterate the Talz. The conflict/battle between the Chairman and the aliens just seemed completely unnecessary/forced and the resolution seemed all too predictable. Totally needless slaughter/bloodshed. Not to say that doesn't happen sometimes but the Talz's only "crime" seemed to be the fact that they existed on territory claimed by the Chairman's race. Sure, the Republic lost some troops but the Chairman and his people had not been attacked and were apparently not going to be attacked until the Chairman threatened them with annihilation.

Interesting: Not much interesting in this particular episode other than exposure to two new alien races. It might've been interesting to see how the Separatists might have reacted to the destruction of their outpost- in contrast to how the Republic forces reacted- and whether or not the Chairman might have sought out an alliance with them due to the Republic failing to support his rabid push for war.

Overall Conclusion: A weaker entry in the "Clone Wars" saga IMHO although perhaps it may simply be that it was intended to be geared more towards younger audiences.

 

[DarthPipes]

Great episode! Once again, I love the way they brought the planet's environment to life. The details were nice too, as you could see each breath in the cold. The action was fantastic, particulary the Zulu sequence and the Talz were done quite well. Good use of Threepio here as well. Nice reference to Son of the Suns.

The only weak point is the one-dimensional, cartooish Chairman. He was just there to be evil, nothing more. I am glad though they didn't have him aligned with Dooku. Basically, he was just a greedy politician with his own aspirations.

Next week is actually a prequel to the CW film.

 

[JediKnightButler]

Next week is actually a prequel to the CW film.

Cool! Where can you find more information about that? I thought that the world that they were on looked slightly......familiar.

 

[Christopher]

(I think we saw one of the Talz in the Cantina on ANH but I can't be sure- I know I've seen them somewhere before).

Yes, the Talz are based on one of the cantina aliens from the original film. The one in the cantina has been retroactively named Muftak and featured in some EU fiction.

I think that the Chairman and his people were new as well.

Their Starwars.com databank entry says the Pantoran species was seen in Episode III, but doesn't specify where.

The Bad: One of the weaker episodes IMHO in terms of storyline. The Chairman seemed OTT in his overwhelming and seemingly unjustifiable desire to obliterate the Talz. The conflict/battle between the Chairman and the aliens just seemed completely unnecessary/forced and the resolution seemed all too predictable. Totally needless slaughter/bloodshed.

True, but as you say, it does happen that way sometimes. Given the accents, the Pantorans were clearly supposed to be British Empire types, with the Chairman being your classic racist/imperialist type. People like that unfortunately did exist and were responsible for some horrible atrocities in colonial India, Africa, and elsewhere.

Besides, as over-the-top as the Chairman may have been, after last week's "pacifists are fools" episode, it was refreshing to see an episode that took a "warmongers are fools" stance instead and showed the Jedi fulfilling their role as peacekeepers and peacemakers.

Interesting: Not much interesting in this particular episode other than exposure to two new alien races. It might've been interesting to see how the Separatists might have reacted to the destruction of their outpost- in contrast to how the Republic forces reacted- and whether or not the Chairman might have sought out an alliance with them due to the Republic failing to support his rabid push for war.

I think it's nice to have the occasional episode that gets away from the Republic-vs.-Separatists stuff and reminds us there's more going on in the galaxy. Besides, the SW.com summary says that the Pantorans established the outpost as a defense against invasion, presumably by Separatists. It was Chairman Cho's paranoid fear of Separatist invasion that made him so fanatical about maintaining the outpost. So there's no way he would've sought to ally with the Separatists. And that's cool, because it shows there can be more than just two sides in a conflict, that people nominally on the same side can be driven by profoundly different and clashing values.



And yes, apparently next week's episode is a flashback story that leads into the battle of Christophsis in the CW movie:

http://www.starwars.com/theclonewars/guide/episode016.html

So presumably Ahsoka won't be in it. Interesting that they'd do it that way. I wonder how -- or if -- they'll set up that it's a flashback.

 

[Basill]

I am pretty sure George Lucas appeared as a Pantoran in his Ep III cameo. His daughter Katie was a Twi'lek I think, even though they never showed her "head tails". They were both blue though.

As for the Talz, I loved seeing them, but wished they hadn't been portrayed as a completely unknown species since one will appear as a Jedi in the second portion of the earlier animated series.

 

[DarthPipes]

I think the aliens were from the race Lucas cameoed as in ROTS.

I think it's nice to have the occasional episode that gets away from the Republic-vs.-Separatists stuff and reminds us there's more going on in the galaxy. Besides, the SW.com summary says that the Pantorans established the outpost as a defense against invasion, presumably by Separatists. It was Chairman Cho's paranoid fear of Separatist invasion that made him so fanatical about maintaining the outpost. So there's no way he would've sought to ally with the Separatists. And that's cool, because it shows there can be more than just two sides in a conflict, that people nominally on the same side can be driven by profoundly different and clashing values.

I agree. My problems with the Chairman's portrayel aside, I was glad he didn't end up being a Seperatist. Not only would it have been too obvious but it's good to get some of these "side adventures" once in a while. If they do make 100 CW episodes as they planned, then to me it's fine to do one every so often that doesn't deal directly with the war. It's a chance to flesh out the SW universe even further.

 

[Mr Light]

Good episode. Nice to see Ani and Obi paired with no Ashoka to be found. Loved the snow planet, loved the Talz, they came off pretty bad ass. I thought the animation on the Chairman was amazingly good so I'm a little more forgiving of his assholery (which made sense to me, I assume they wanted the planet for commercial reasons and the natives were screwing their mineral claim).

 

[Christopher]

^^I thought the best animation was on Senator Chuchi. There was some great subtle expression work on her face when Obi-Wan told her she had to do the negotiating herself.

I also liked the unconventional wardrobe for the characters. Usually cartoon characters rarely change their clothes. And there was pretty good simulation or animation of the wind effects on clothing, breath condensation, and so forth.

 

[DarthPipes]

^^I thought the best animation was on Senator Chuchi. There was some great subtle expression work on her face when Obi-Wan told her she had to do the negotiating herself.

I also liked the unconventional wardrobe for the characters. Usually cartoon characters rarely change their clothes. And there was pretty good simulation or animation of the wind effects on clothing, breath condensation, and so forth.

Good point about the wardrobe change. Also, the main character spent most of the episode with their faces and heads covered up. Even the clones kept their helmets on. Must make the voiceovers a hell of a lot easier.

 

[Mr Light]

What I loved about the Chairman was his glowing angry eyes. The face just seemed to have a lot of texture and life to it. And the stance and movements were very realistic. The Senator looked good too.

 

[Christopher]

Also, the main character spent most of the episode with their faces and heads covered up. Even the clones kept their helmets on. Must make the voiceovers a hell of a lot easier.

No, since the voices are recorded before the animation is done. It makes the animation easier, since there's no need to animate mouth movement.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Continuing the strange Star Wars trend where old guys in positions of power are warmongering assholes and young girls in positions of power are wise and competent.

Okay, this episode throws off the Jedi Knight Talz from the first Clone Wars series, unless that dude really, really got through training fast. Or was somehow removed from his low tech world years before anyone knew his race even existed.

 

[firehawk12]

Was that supposed to be a South African accent?

Anyway, I'm enjoying the series for what it is. I almost wish that the series took place in some alternate timeline, because inevitably, we know what will happen to all of these characters. There is that "well, all these Jedi will be dead in a year" feeling that hangs over the series.

 

[Psylent1]

Continuing the strange Star Wars trend where old guys in positions of power are warmongering assholes and young girls in positions of power are wise and competent.

Okay, this episode throws off the Jedi Knight Talz from the first Clone Wars series, unless that dude really, really got through training fast. Or was somehow removed from his low tech world years before anyone knew his race even existed.

Concidering that C-3PO was fluent in their language, the Talz might be a colony race, traveling from frozen wasteland to frozen wasteland. So the Talz Jedi in the CW mini-series might be from a different colony and the one in SW4 might just be one that got tired of the cold.

 

[Christopher]

Concidering that C-3PO was fluent in their language, the Talz might be a colony race, traveling from frozen wasteland to frozen wasteland. So the Talz Jedi in the CW mini-series might be from a different colony and the one in SW4 might just be one that got tired of the cold.

Except that Obi-Wan said they were too primitive to have spaceflight. Possibly they lost that technology after settlement? Or maybe they were seeded Preservers-style?

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

C-3PO's fluent in EWOK for chrissakes.

He's just that damn good.

 

[JediKnightButler]

There is that "well, all these Jedi will be dead in a year" feeling that hangs over the series.

You're sure not the only one that feels that way. It is especially rough to watch this show because the Jedi seem to have developed such positive relationships with their Clone Troopers and really look out for them (in stark contrast to how Grievous, Dooku, et. al treat their droid soldiers)- Yoda and Plo Koon really set the tone in terms of how they see their Clone troopers for the series in the first two episodes- "Ambush" & "Rising Malevolence". It's really hard watching the writers develop the Clone commanders and their relationships with the individual Jedi Knights knowing full well that the troopers ultimately turn on the Jedi on a dime in ROTS (well, at least nearly all of them- if you've ever read James Luceno's "Dark Lord" novel). :-(

I've said it before and I'll say it again: After this series, somebody NEEDS to do a post-ROTJ series where we don't know what is going to happen to any of the characters (assuming they don't adapt any of the EU). Even a series set between ANH and ESB would be fun to watch, especially since we know that the good guys win at the end (in direct contrast to the PT where we KNOW that the bad guys ultimately win)

All of this is not to knock "Clone Wars", which is so far a very well-done show (I had my doubts at the outset) but knowing the tragedy that will soon befall all of the Jedi characters really does makes the experience of watching the show rather bittersweet most of the time. *sigh*

 

[nx1701g]

^ It reminds me a lot of the Battlefront game where you play as the 501st and have to conduct the operations to kill many of the Jedi. The main character even comments on it in a journal/cutscene.

 

[captcalhoun]

yeah, thoshe acshentsh were more Dutch or Shouth African than English.

it kinda weirded me out since the Talz are supposed to be pacifistic according to the EU and X-Wing: Solo Command in particular... and from Alzoc III...

good ep though...

 

[Saul]

This should be 1x15?