THE CLONE WARS: Season 4

[JediTricks]

Last week's episode was alright. I think they should have spent another episode building up the Naboo/Gungan story instead of wasting 3 episodes on Mon Calamari. There was a lot more story going on with Naboo, and more villains, more betrayals, more reactions that could have been explored.


As for this week's episode, what was that, someone's homage to the old Droids cartoon? It wasn't bad, per se, but it wasn't good either, and it definitely wasn't Star Wars. Underground Tron tree people? Hairless, technologically-mixed Ewok-types? Why couldn't they just say "close the seal"? Because the episode would have been over in 3 minutes? And madame Deus Ex Machina... um, wha? Just weird. And everybody was an extra big jerk, and Wolffe's prosthetic eye all the time was gross.

I didn't care for the clone voice acting here, for the first time I can remember, it felt just plain and lifeless, nothing really to say except "big jerks who don't like 3PO or the natives" which is all very samey.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

I somewhat saw this episode. My dad called about halfway through, and I was watching on the non-DVR set, so in between the convesation I caught the gist of the show. R2 and Threepio as stars can hold an episode or two. I'm sure I can see it again on the replay this morning if I want; but I think I'm good.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

Well, I liked this one. I'm not sure what's going on with all the supernatural stuff going on lately (the Gungan magic, Orphne, etc.) but at least it shows there's still more to Star Wars than what we already know.

I really liked the animation on the Kindalo (the tree people). The jerky way they moved looked more like stop-motion than CGI.

I thought it was interesting that Artoo used his little water hose here just a few weeks after the Blu-ray deleted it (it was in the shield bunker freakout scene, and has since been replaced by moving parts).

It was also good to see Sinker and Boost again, and I liked the clones' new armor. Though I wonder why the pilots (including Warthog) still have the old phase I helmets.

I just realized that all the stories this season have involved two different peoples living on the same planet and the animosities between them that they must either overcome or, in this episode's case, reinforce. Quite strange that they're hitting that topic so much so far.

[JimJamBonds]

I really liked the animation on the Kindalo (the tree people). The jerky way they moved looked more like stop-motion than CGI.

Seemed like a LOTR rip off to me.

I'm not much of a fan of the droid episodes, especially when 3PO acts like a jerk to R2.

[Tycho]

JediTricks summed up my opinion on this episode pretty well.

Regarding last week's, I forgot if General Grievous is in custody or if he got away? - Oh yeah - didn't they trade him to get Anakin back?

That was sort of stupid.

Anakin is a soldier when it comes down to it. Let him go as a casualty of war and let him attempt to escape or have the Jedi rescue him later, like he rescued Eeth Koth in a previous episode (and also tried to get Even Piel out alive, too).

Grievous is the leader of the Droid Army, and capturing him is akin to capturing Mace Windu or Yoda - the Jedi leaders of the Clone Army.

Trading for Anakin just didn't make sense - and Padme might be a Senator - but she doesn't have that kind of authority. Although, maybe Palpatine signed off on it - pretending it to be in deference to her - but actually so Grievous could be let go to keep the war going so that the Clones could occupy more worlds of the future Empire he's planning.

Dunno. But even Padme should know that trading Grievous for Anakin is a tactical error.

Cad Bane should have been called in, maybe holding a dozen Senators hostage or something like when they traded to free Ziro the Hutt. But speaking tactically, even a dozen Senators should have died patriotically for the Republic so that the government could hold Grievous and stop the war.

[Bel-Cam Jos]

Whoa! I think I need Threepio's talents to translate "all over the place" in Huttese or Ubese...

Literary allusions:
- Gulliver's Travels
- Wizard of Oz

Star Wars references:
- "I have a bad feeling...," "be destroyed for sure," and other lines I cannot recall now
- Jawa-like mumbling and stun beam firing (plus R2's whine-and-fall-over)
- walking down canyon-type area, beign watched by small creatures
- firefight in corridor, with droids passing across, then seeking an escape pod
- Artoo hiding in small enclave
- Y-Wing crashing in similar fashion of snowspeeder on Hoth, or foggy clouds of Dagobah

Aside from the frequent storyline switching and brief confusion, it was pretty good. Especially considering it was basically the droids all the time. A protocol droid wielding a handheld weapon? And 47 forms of astromech combat?

[edit] I re-watched the DVR, and would add the following:
- Star Wars lines (opening crawl moral was the "Who's more foolish...?" line, plus "Did you hear that?" after an attack on the ship, "disintegrated for sure," "your worshipfulness," and "I heartily agree" )
- Padme on a hologram from R2, while in a narrow corridor on the ship

[Tycho]

Even with all that, I was really indifferent to the episode.

I'm not a huge fan of the droids, and to be sure, there were much better episodes from the 80's Droids cartoon than this.

So I guess I should say who I'm a fan of:

Han Solo
Anakin in a temper tantrum
Obi-Wan on a day he's feeling wise for his years - no matter what his years

Anyway, these 3 are my major favorite characters.

[JimJamBonds]

I was suprised not to have hated this newest episode, as BCJ it was full of not so subtle references to other stories. I'm ready for a more 'regular' episode.

[Darth Metalmute]

I just got caught up on this season since the baseball season ended today.

The Mon Calamari episodes were okay, but needed major editing. If they took out all the times the prince said something like, "The next time you see me I will be king" or "The next time you see me you must fight" they could have saved an entire episode. The shark guy was ridiculous until he died, which was cool. I mean, come on, a shark guy? Millions of species in the universe and they create a sentient being that is a shark or sharklike? It just seems lazy. I just got a HD TV and the first breathtaking Clone Wars episodes I get to watch on it are three dank, dark underwater episodes.

The Naboo episode was interesting; should have been a two-parter. Was I the only one that found the fact that Amidala thought Jar-Jar looked like the leader to be sort of racist... "All Gungans look alike." What was the point of Anakin chasing after the bad guy? They all knew he was a traitor, why bother the chase? It's not like they were going to accept him back in the clan. In fact, why not force slam his speeder into a tree? I believe the writers are losing the ability to write for jedi. Amidala is a senator and is not in position to negotiate the trade of prisoners. Besides, Anakin deserved his fate. The trade of Grievous trivialized the sacrifice of Tarpals, considering he was the only Gungan worth a dang.

The droid arc was a waste of time. The first one was okay, but it just seemed pointless. It didn't continue or move the Clone Wars story in any direction except stop. I did like the tree people and at least it had a story. The second one was just horrible. It's almost as if they needed a filler episode and said, "Hey, I got an idea. Lets have R2-D2 and C-3P0 crash land on planet, solve a political dispute, take off, and just to be unique, repeat those very ideas. Then lets have them get captured by pirates, have them get attacked and captured by Grievous, have Grievous get attacked by the republic and save the droids." The word "coincidence" is thrown around a lot these days.....
And R2-D2 can fly a ship perfectly without any pilot and can take out multiple ships?!? If that's the case, why not fly all ships with astromech droids? Save the manpower for ground battles. Or for that matter, why not create a droid army to fight for you since the republic is supposed to value life? It's not like the technology doesn't exist, look across the battle lines. I'm coming to the realization that the Separatists are the real good guys. Had the Republic just accepted that Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme broke Separatist law, and not sent an entire army to save them, this whole conflict could have been avoided.

[Tycho]

The Separatists want the galaxy to be like what America would be like if the 1% of Wall Street used the free market as a method to rule over everything....oh....wait. Nevermind.

I think Season 2 of the Clone Wars (bounty hunters) is the best they've done to date. The show's not bad, but it has gone downhill since Season 3 began. I wonder if there was a change in writers or if their expresso machine broke?