Clone Wars S01 E21 (SPOILERS)

Episode #21 is The Clone Wars doing what it does best.

I’m surprised (again) at how little the story focuses on the established central characters, yet seeing as the first two parts of this arc cover Anakin and Obi-Wan (even if both again rely on supporting characters to tell most of the story) I shouldn’t be surprised that Mace Windu is such a prominent player here.

Right up until double-checking on wookiepedia, I was convinced Samuel L. Jackson was voicing Windu in the episode but it appears I was wrong, and so whoever Terrence “TC” Carson is, he deserves respect for so faithfully recreating the character for the series.

Other points of note for the show are the inclusion of Windu’s use of shatterpoints and the very traditional Phantom Menace/A New Hope ending.

I really do like the fact that the EU often seems to give Windu a certain kind of story and, for all purposes and intents, The Clone Wars recreates that kind of story with this episode.

If I didn’t know there was an episode next week that I suspect will have to end with a cliff-hanger in order to keep audiences psyched, I would have said that this was the natural cut off point for Season One.

Clone Wars S01 E20 (SPOILERS)

I have to say that, at least in respect to the multi-part arcs, the in medias res approach seems to work quite well.

Whilst the actual episode itself is an odd mix of Star Wars: Battlefront and war drama, it actually works fairly well. One of the things that is most striking about the Clone Wars as a series is its freedom to tell the story from the point of view of supporting characters – something a lot of established or recent shows don’t have the ability to do. There’s a fair amount of Obi-Wan in action during the course of the 20 odd minutes of this episode but the real focus is Waxer and Boil and their relationship with Twi’lek Numa.

If 2000 AD were to be stripped away of its acrid humour then I get the feeling that it might have been something like this episode, particularly in the final Twi’leks vs. Tactical Droid showdown.

It’s getting hard to find new nice things to say about the series, especially when it consistently achieves. This does of course make me somewhat concerned about Season 2 and the rumour that the episodes will be sliding around through the entire course of the conflict and not remaining as a clear line. I also can’t help but feel that Ahsoka has been a bit of a red herring; introduced early to shock and then left mostly to languish as a supporting character who rarely appears and takes the spotlight even less. Such an approach for Season 2’s format is unnerving for me because I can’t help but feel that it will make it even easier for writers and certain elements of fandom to ignore her.

On the plus side though, it means that, however unliklely, we might at last discover the true fate of Asajj Ventress and perhaps even see cameos from Yoda: Dark Rendezvous characters, Scout and Whie Malreaux, which would be awesome but is, at best, improbable.

Hope, however, springs eternal.

Clone Wars S01 E19 (SPOILERS)

Mixed feelings with this one.

Again, the idea of cramming all the story set up into the opening narration continues and I’m beginning to find the three-part-story format frustrating, especially as the ties between what were once frequent stand alone stories interspersed between larger stories is kind of weak.

Episode #19 is a great episode for both Ahsoka’s character and space battles but there’s the annoying spectre of how it all relates to ‘part two’ hanging over the whole affair and that detracts from what we’re actually seeing in this episode. All of this is par for the course now, I guess. 19 episodes in and when a new episode of Clone Wars now airs, it’s pretty clear exactly what we’re getting – I’m okay with that, I guess, I just wish these stories weren’t in so much of a rush to please everyone.

Nonetheless, episode #19 really did Ahsoka justice, perhaps not as a teenager but certainly as a young woman who initially had little military training yet has spent the last year/half-a-year or so living as a soldier in a very military environment.

Mar Tuuk is another interesting character in this episode whom, despite being new to the series displays something of ‘the Thrawn method’ to evaluating his enemies. Hopefully he’ll turn up again soon.

With that, I find we’re rapidly approaching the end of season one. Perhaps the new format of season two will help shake things up a bit but, even if it doesn’t, the Clone Wars TV series remains one of the highlights of my delayed Sunday viewing. It’s not a perfect show but it’s a long way from the car crash of some of Lucas’ canonical material and that means that, despite what you might think about it, it’s probably still ‘more’ Star Wars than you might expect and that in itself should be enough to recommend it.

Clone Wars S01 E18 (SPOILERS)

I really thought this was going to be awful, mostly because of the ties to the previous episode but, actually, I have to admit that this was quite a good episode.

As mentioned previously, I wasn’t really a fan of the fake-alien-Nazi-scientist in space angle – which is surprising as this is usually the kind of thing I tend to go for – however, once the angle changed (and I dearly love the amount of genres this show can cross) and the story transformed itself into an 80s low-tech/low-budget sci-fi flick, I found myself instantly warming to the episode – especially as I decided fairly early on that Jaybo Hood would be played, in a live action film, by Corey Feldman.

There’s a couple of almost Miyazaki moments as we see the city of Cliffhold from above where it almost seems like Nausicaä. It makes you realise how much love and/or money goes into making these worlds environments in their own right. I can’t help but feel a sense of admiration for the ’set designers’ here. Bonus points also go to the writers for fleshing out an Episode I reference.

As a final note, it would be remiss of me not to mention that, if I were Anakin Skywalker, I might find it slightly suspicious if I suddenly got a breathless call from my wife as she draped her arm across the shoulders of an underage girl. Just saying.

Clone Wars S01 E17 (SPOILERS)

Clone Wars episodes featuring Padme!Amidala as the principal character tend to be…well, bad, if I’m honest. I think it’s the ’spy gal’ angle the EU keeps trying to reinforce, as if Amidala couldn’t be intelligent without slipping into a cat suit and doing forward rolls down every Separatist fortress corridor from here to the Outer Rim.

Perhaps it’s a little harsh to blame the EU for this as the flawed storyline of Episode II also seems to substitute the Amidala of the first film for this Bond girl-lite caricature.

All of this makes it sound like I’m against the idea of Amidala being an action character – I’m not, I’m just against stories that solely seem to focus on this aspect of her personality. Episode #17 is one of them.

At first I was really excited about seeing Theed on the small screen. Even with Binks as one of the main characters, I was hoping that this episode might be something like an Episode I.5 story…but it wasn’t, it was just a biohazard in another fortress with a stock Nazi character type of story; Escape from Castle Naboo and all that.

Not the worst episode thus far but certainly an episode that could be considered a wasted oportunity.

Considering the setting and Naboo’s ties to the Prequel Trilogy, a lot more could have been done with this. It’s a real shame that it wasn’t.

The Old Republic: Threat of Peace #1 (SPOILERS)

Whilst I don’t seem to have found time to have read the CW webcomics (at all) or any of the SW related comics beccatoria has recommended me over the past 1000 years, I did manage to sit down and read the first three page issue of Threat of Peace on The Old Republic website.

My opinion is…okay. Nothing special really.

To be fair though, it is only three pages and I think the actual words used in the comic can be counted as just nudging a triple figure. However, the idea of the Sith Empire sitting down to negotiations with the Jedi/Republic is awesome in and off itself for what it suggests for Star Wars history. I *love* this idea so much and, even though there’s always going to underhandedness of one sort or the other to keep the story moving along, I still love the fact that we now have the kind of freedom to show this stuff.

Other than that, it’s nice that the Original Trilogy dynamic is represented by use of the term ‘Imperial’ in relation to the Sith and that the Sithtroopers now have a ful Imperial officer ‘redeco’ to compliment their Stormtrooper-like ways. There’s a lot of Prequel Trilogy style going on in Jedi quarters as well, something that wasn’t present in the original KOTOR game.

Hopefully I’ll find time to return to this comic as its posted.

Once again, I find myself more excited about this game than I really have any sort of right being.

Clone Wars S01 E13 – 16 (SPOILERS)

Clone Wars has been a bit of a mixed bag lately. I must confess that, after the awesomeness of episode #12, I sort of laid off it a bit. If I’d rolled straight into #13, I think the happiness would have continued mostly but #14 onward show signs of strain that don’t ruin the episodes but make them a little frustrating at times.

Being enamored with both science fiction science (and all the dread that this entails) and references, the highlights of #13 for me were primarily the sight of ‘Star Destroyers’ within the atmosphere of a planet and Anakin’s ‘distinctive, raspy breathing’ whilst on life support.

Having said that, the opening was frustrating in a way that has become increasingly regular during CW episodes: too much set up happens in the actual narrative opening, leaving the viewer to occasionally feel as if they’ve missed a preceding episode. #13 is a case in point of this.

I know that the argument for it may be that ANH drops you in the middle of the story and the narrative is the verbal equivelent of the traditional opening scrawl, but there are things you can do in a film that don’t always work in a modern cartoon. I love RKO, Universal and Republic as much as the next guy but this is not 1939 and these cartoons are not the equivelent of those old serials, as much as George Lucas will try and tell you they are. This is a modern, multimedia project focused on a CGI cartoon with attached toy sales and comic spin offs and, as such, it would be nice if a little more focus could be spent on setting up stories rather than throwing vital information into the narrative blurb.

As a testament to the modernity of the show, after the set up and interesting survival sequences, the rest of #13 and all of #14 go on to deal with an alien species that looks as if it wondered straight out of a Rare platform game – all this with comical psuedo-Gallic accents.

Episode #15 raises the bar by addressing similar themes – indigenous people threatened by violence – but goes about it in a different way. You might recognise the Talz from their Mos Eisley representative in ANH, the rest is a divide between a more engaging story addressing violence than #14 was (and possibly a commentary of Victorian Britain?) and the biggest Hoth-flavoured nostalgia fest in the world. All of which works quite well, especially when complimented by the Amidala-lite character, Senator Riyo Chuchi.

Episode #16 rounds out this review as being an interesting idea stapled to a somewhat plodding story. Not much to say other than the idea of a clone betraying the Grand Army is something I’d like to see explored in greater detail in different stories…by anyone but Karen Traviss.

And after all that, I *still* haven’t caught up to date with all the episodes!

Deathtroopers Blurb

I can’t wait for Deathtroopers. Like seriously. Reading the recently posted blurb for the book has my even more excited than before.

This is seriously the first ever SW book I’ve considered buying in hardback!

Hot N Cold

"You PMS / like a Sith / I would know."

I love it when pop music comes together with pop culture. (^_^)

CW S01E11 – 12 (SPOILERS)

As you might have guessed, I’ve been somewhat behind with matters in a galaxy far, far away.

After a disastrous attempt at watching the Holiday Special on Christmas Eve (I think I lasted under ten minutes), things have been fairly quiet. I have noted the publication of Matthew Stover’s Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor and am really excited about getting hold of a copy…but not before it comes out in paperback.

In the meantime, Clone Wars has been the order of the day, with my devoted and wonderful wife having recently brought me a copy of the unfortunately titled but brilliantly written Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, which is a contender for being the best Clone Wars era story ever.

Speaking of the era, it would be remiss of me to not at least mention episodes #11 – 12 of the cartoon series.

Again, like other multi-part stories, this arc, involving the capture of Count Dooku…followed by the capture of Obi-Wan and Anakin, starts off slow but culminates in #12 being one of the best episodes so far, and that’s even with a second appearance from Jar Jar Binks.

One of the things that certainly won me over to this arc was that it shows a vague camaraderie between Obi-Wan and Dooku without ever breaking the dynamic of who they are in the series. Dooku can still be a villainous general intent on overthrowing order in the universe ala Ming the Merciless, whilst Anakin can still be the hot headed, insolent youngster and Obi-Wan can still be the accommodating student of Dooku’s own former student. There’s a nice symmetry to their relationship, showing how much of a Jedi Dooku is (despite his protests) and how well the three characters work together.

When taken in context of the events of the canonical prequel trilogy, things begin to fall down a little. It’s difficult to associate the Dooku here with the person he is in the films, not least of all because, whilst they may seem the same, Dooku in this series seems to be far closer to the popular fan idea of him *not* being a Sith but rather being of some sort of Grey Jedi tradition.

That in itself is worth taking a look at these episodes for.

Hopefully, over the next month I’ll catch up with the more recent episodes.

I can’t believe we’re already approaching the end of Season One!