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Star Wars: The Clone Wars S4

The whole Dooku vs Anakin seemed to me to be the clone wars take on the Episode III battle.
 
Well Christopher may have been right seeing.

About what, specifically?


Also is Palpatine even trying to hide being a Sith Lord any more with all the evil smiling he was doing during that fight.

That was the most interesting part, seeing his reactions. I had the impression that he deliberately arranged for this, knowing that Dooku would try for him and making sure Anakin would face him alone, as a test to see if Anakin was worthy to replace Dooku as his apprentice. So in a way it is foreshadowing RotS, even if it wasn't the same abduction plot.

And yeah, I noticed Anakin saying "No harm will come to you as long as I'm alive, Chancellor." It turns out he was off by about five minutes... :D

It kind of bothers me how many deaths Obi-Wan allowed to happen in the course of a plot to save just one person. I have to wonder if there couldn't have been a way to protect Palpatine without such a high death toll.

Oh, and one thing that occurred to me last week -- I'm puzzled by the way "ray shields" have been portrayed these past couple of episodes. I recall having it explained to me a few seasons ago that in Star Wars, ray shields block energy weapons but allow material objects and people to pass through. I think that was actually a key element of the battle at the beginning of the pilot movie, that the fighters themselves could pass through the ray shields. But here, the ray shields were treated more like standard sci-fi forcefields in that they prevented anyone from passing through them except that one alien. What gives?

I have to agree with you on the death toll, Christopher. I kept wondering why Obi-Wan didn't try to put an end to things before they reached Naboo. He seems like he went through with the plot until the very last second.

I think the ray shield's purpose is to deflect any laser bolt. In the original Star Wars, General Dodonna tells the Rebel pilots that "the shaft is ray shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes." Which meant that they couldn't use blaster bolts to destroy the Death Star.

Really liked the end of this episode, with an excellent Anakin/Dooku duel. I enjoyed the tension here too between Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the Death Star. I've also liked how much they've established the Padme/Ahsoka friendship. Kind of fitting with the re-release of the first film how everyone was back on Naboo. I like the design of that planet on this show.
 
I thought the whole arc was a bore. The major problem is that, as with the PT part of the franchise as a whole, there is some assembly required in interpreting anything in the story beyond the superficial. But I can play devil's advocate, interpret, and find a couple of worthwhile elements.

From the standpoint of the characters, the biggest development appears to be the sowing of distrust, particularly with respect to Anakin. He seems unable to get over being lied to, as well as manipulated, and I think it's evident that that is supposed to be a contributing factor to his failure to trust the Jedi Council in ROTS. Obi-Wan is left pondering and inactive, unable to assuage Anakin's ill feelings, so it affects him too.

With respect to the number of casualties that Obi-Wan had to tolerate, I see this as the oppression of the Dark Side rising. Darth Sidious is creating situations in which it is necessary for the Jedi to compromise their principles in order to be victorious. So, I think this is a move by Darth Sidious to attempt to demoralize the Jedi.

Again, though, since some assembly is required, to interpret the events that have been dumped on us without having been interpreted by any character in the stories, it could simply mean nothing at all.
 
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The whole Dooku vs Anakin seemed to me to be the clone wars take on the Episode III battle.

More effective this time around, though. I thought that fight was very well staged.

From the standpoint of the characters, the biggest development appears to be the sowing of distrust, particularly with respect to Anakin. He seems unable to be able to get over being lied to, as well as manipulated, and I think it's evident that that is supposed to be a contributing factor to his failure to trust the Jedi Council in ROTS.
That does seem to be the sole purpose of this arc - to make Anakin's attitude in ROTS seem less like the tantrum of a self-involved punk with an overactive sense of entitlement, without actually making the Jedi Council look like a bunch of fuckups who deserve his distrust. It's a very fine line to walk, and they did a credible job of it.

With respect to the number of casualties that Obi-Wan had to tolerate, I see this as the oppression of the Dark Side rising. Darth Sidious is creating situations in which it is necessary for the Jedi to compromise their principles in order to be victorious. So, I think this is a move by Darth Sidious to attempt to demoralize the Jedi.
Interesting idea, but it needs to be developed more, because I really didn't see that realized in this episode. Maybe we can get some dialogue from Obi-Wan about the deaths of innocent people, in a future episode.
 
@CorporalCaptain...that is an excellent analysis of the character evolution and the war it's self. Indeed Darth Sidious is slowly compromising and breaking the Jedi...and the slow corruption of the dark side is blinding them so they can't really see what is happening. It isn't more powerful than the light side of the Force, but like any evil unless you actually recognize it there you're not going to be able to do much about it. As Sidious would say himself...all is going as I have foreseen.

I mentioned this earlier in the thread, I've not watched many episodes this season, just don't have time for it, I usually do my Clone Wars watch in the summer time anyway. I have seen a handful though and the continuing evolution of the characters is fascinating. I suspect we'll start to get more season six information at SDCC this year and of course later on in August during Celebration Six which should be interesting
 
If they want to get across the idea that "the dark side" is involved in this process (which would be a great addition to the plotline), they need to make that a lot clearer.

So far, all I'm getting is that it's happening on a perfectly mundane level and the story could unfold just like it has been, even if no Force users were involved. Anakin is impatient and frustrated because that's his personality, the political situation is a mess, the Jedi are trying to handle things well, but they're not omnipotent, and Palps is a patient and clever manipulator.

That's all psychology and politics. You can decide the dark side is in there somewhere, but it's not an overt or necessary part of the story. Not yet, anyway. I keep waiting for some follow-up to the Mortis Arc.
 
The arc was about one episode too long. Was last week's episode all that necessary to the plot? They could've just assembled a bunch of bounty hunters and had them go on this mission. They really didn't need to events of last week. What did it add to the story?
 
The arc was about one episode too long. Was last week's episode all that necessary to the plot? They could've just assembled a bunch of bounty hunters and had them go on this mission. They really didn't need to events of last week. What did it add to the story?

Like I said, it gave Dooku enough time observing "Hardeen" to become suspicious of him, and that was pivotal to the outcome.

On a more basic level, though, I think part of the reason they did this story in the first place is that, for whatever reason, many Star Wars fans seem to think the bounty hunter characters are cool, and they wanted to do a storyline that was heavy on bounty-hunter action. I even saw an ad/poster sort of thingy released before "The Box" that showed the whole lineup of bounty hunters and their stats (even the guy Bane killed for his hat), promoting it like a prizefighting event. So I guess the point of the episode was to give the audience a chance to see these new bounty-hunter characters in action. (Which may have been driven somewhat by the desire to get fans interested in action figures and merchandise based on these characters.)
 
I don't know how Dooku didn't sense it was Obi-Wan sooner.

There is hypocracy here by Obi-Wan and the Jedi. The Jedi are constantly stressing the need to control your emotions, especially when it comes to Anakin. But they didn't tell him about the Obi-Wan plot because they wanted to take advantage of his emotions. Obi-Wan told him that it would be his grief that would selll his death to Dooku. So they preach control your emotions to Anakin while at the same time they sought to use his emotions to sell their story to Dooku and the Seperatists. Worse, they didn't tell Anakin about it until he forced their hand. And they want to know why they have a problem on their hands with Anakin?
 
(Which may have been driven somewhat by the desire to get fans interested in action figures and merchandise based on these characters.)

Possibly.

But Hasbro reduced their focus on Clone Wars toys this year, with only a handful of actual new items, most based on lead characters and clones. So it seems unlikely that those bounty hunters will make it into action figure form besides maybe Hardeen and Cad Bane in his new duds, if that. (Lego might make them, though.)
 
On a more basic level, though, I think part of the reason they did this story in the first place is that, for whatever reason, many Star Wars fans seem to think the bounty hunter characters are cool, and they wanted to do a storyline that was heavy on bounty-hunter action. I even saw an ad/poster sort of thingy released before "The Box" that showed the whole lineup of bounty hunters and their stats (even the guy Bane killed for his hat), promoting it like a prizefighting event. So I guess the point of the episode was to give the audience a chance to see these new bounty-hunter characters in action. (Which may have been driven somewhat by the desire to get fans interested in action figures and merchandise based on these characters.)
It'll also make a kick ass level if they do more LEGO Star Wars: The Clone Wars video games.
 
I thought the Box was inspired by this:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZODzdqVptUs[/yt]

Whoever wrote this episode should DIE! :rommie: Never gets old...
 
(Which may have been driven somewhat by the desire to get fans interested in action figures and merchandise based on these characters.)

Possibly.

But Hasbro reduced their focus on Clone Wars toys this year, with only a handful of actual new items, most based on lead characters and clones. So it seems unlikely that those bounty hunters will make it into action figure form besides maybe Hardeen and Cad Bane in his new duds, if that. (Lego might make them, though.)

Hasbro has reduced their focus on everything. The company is being run by morons.
 
Well that was a bit anticlimactic. After all that buildup over three episodes, it basically ends with a small little firefight on Naboo. You almost get the sense the Jedi could stopped the bounty hunters and rescued Palpatine all on their own, without putting Obi-Wan through all the trouble they did.

I still thought it was a decent little arc, I just think it needed a bigger and more dramatic conclusion-- something besides just another, run of the mill lightsaber battle with Dooku.
 
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