Terrific episode, just the quality of writing that I've been hoping to see in this series. It adds a lot to the story to
at last see a plausible depiction of the Republic undergoing severe social, economic and political stresses, which was a big gaping hole in the PT that contributed to the plotline feeling contrived and just not all there.
Padme is coming off far better in this series, and it's impossible to reconcile her depiction here with the weepy useless pregnant girl in ROTS, and I certainly can't see how someone with her fire and drive would ever "decide to die" just because her husband goes off the rails. This isn't a woman who would peg her self-worth to the man in her life, ever. Even if she didn't have two newborn babies to look after, which just makes it all the more hilariously idiotic. The TCW writers, who are clearly vastly better than Lucas, need to be allowed to rewrite ROTS in order to make the whole story cohere.
The good news is that so far TCW has solved two huge problems from the PT: Anakin's characterization and the plausibility of the larger political/economic/social aspects of the war. Good job. Now they have something that seems like a good
Star Trek series, where the story is focused on the characters and politics. And I want
Star Trek back on TV, so I'm not unhappy if it's gotta be called
Clone Wars.
But when is this going to be
Star Wars again, with the focus on the eternal struggle between good and evil represented by the Force, and no, occasional lightsaber duels between Jedi and Sith isn't what I'm talking about. The plotline needs to be about that conflict, with the personalities and the politics as tangental (if interesting) plotlines. A plotline is not a series of lightsaber fights.
i think that order was necessary so that the clones would be the perfect trap: in case some Jedi was observant to detect rebelliousness, the order keeps the clones sincerely loyal to the Jedi. So the Jedi, when order 66 is executed, truly would not have a clue. Otherwise the Jedi might sense a disturbance in the Force.
The problem with Order 66 is that it's poor drama. It's just "bad guy lays trap, bad guy springs trap." Too dull. There needs to be some sense of the good guys being able to participate in the conflict - there
is no conflict, because the good guys never have a chance. Good drama is like a sports game. You want the teams to be evenly matched, not have one team playing a completely different game that the other isn't even aware of.
But that's just part of the larger problem of the PT, that for 2/3rds of the story the good guys aren't even in the game. Instead, just use that 2/3rds as off-screen backstory and start the game when the good guys are actually playing, not sitting on the bench or getting dressed in the locker room. The nice thing about TCW is that the first season or so, they were in the locker room, okay that was setup. In S2, they got all the way onto the court. Now they're actually starting to play the game. It's important to know when to start a story, not just at any random point in the narrative, but when both sides are reasonably close to being ready for the game.
The Banking Clan admits to Padme that they giving the Seperatists loans to build more droids and they (and the rest of the trade guilds) are STILL part of The Republic? How fucking ridiculous is that?
I found that detail to be both chilling and enlightening. It demonstrates the degree to which powerful interests would be just as happy to serve an Empire as a Republic, and it shows that the Senate is powerless to stop them! That gives credence to the Separatists - shit, I'd defect from this rotten Republic, too! - and sets up the fall of the Republic as happening not from fear, but because powerful interests don't value it, and the common people are clueless, apathetic or helpless. We've heard very little from the common people of the Republic until this episode, but I'm getting the sense that they identify with their individual homeworlds more than the Republic.
Now I'm starting to understand: The Republic is less like America and more like the UN. People would put their lives on the line to save their nation, but how many would put their lives on the line to save the UN? No wonder they have to clone soldiers to fight for them, while indigenous forces defend their homeworlds and not the Republic per se. The problem here is that, unlike the real world, this UN has the power to turn into an oppressive force. This is the right-wing wackjob paranoid fantasy of One World Government come to life!
Padme calling the clones people (and that Senator not caring),
Finally! Thank you!
I also noted that she gives some credit to the indigenous fighters all around the galaxy who are defending their worlds. She might have given a shout-out to the Jedi, but as a politician, maybe she doesn't want to been as being "in bed" with them.
Which raises interesting questions about what Anakin's going to think about wifey interfering with the war effort. I can't wait till January! Stupid Christmas!
Padme's constituents don't have electricity or water yet Padme still spends tons of money on elaborate wardrobes and wigs?
Speaking of the wigs, that certainly solves another problem of the PT, namely, when did she have time to spend hours with the hairdresser five times a day?
Oh, those were
wigs! That's bugged me for
years!
