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Full Series The Clone Wars - Episode 5.3 - Front Runners - discussion thread

Discussion in 'Star Wars TV- Completed Shows' started by Seerow, Oct 12, 2012.

  1. fistofan1

    fistofan1 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 8, 2009
    I hate to say it, but this episode was pretty disappointing. The main thing that bothered me was the dynamic between the citizens of Onderon and the rebels. "The people don't trust us because we aren't doing enough!" No, they don't trust you because they think you're trying to kill them...

    The droid occupation was another gripe for me. If the droids are treating the citizens so badly, why is there any question whether the Republic should intervene? Why did Mina Bonteri support the occupation? Didn't she say that she was against the actions of Grievous and his droids? Well, it looks like Onderon's situation is no different than that of other worlds under Grievous' control. Judging from the reactions of the bystanders, the mean ol' king is the only one in favor of CIS leadership.

    Then there was the ending. What did Steela having a brother have to do with anything? It doesn't change her feelings toward Lux. Besides, wasn't it common knowledge? It seems to me that the scene was there just to reference ROTJ.

    All in all, the episode was just eye candy for me. The animation got better and better while the storytelling got weaker and weaker. The arc is focusing on droid humor and tank hijacking while main story points are left unexplained. Hopefully next week we'll be shown why the Senate upholds Onderon's occupation, why anyone would support the obviously corrupt king, and why Saw's relationship with Steela is important to Lux's relationship with Ahsoka.
     
  2. Saga_Symphony

    Saga_Symphony Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 30, 2010
    This episode was OK, at least more eventful than the last one. Lots of sneaking around, planning, shooting. Low on lame droid humor..

    The king's throne room was really great to look at, and the king himself seems almost like a character from Shakespeare.

    Leaving Ahsoka behind as an adviser was dumb, but I guess it's for the convenience of the story to deal with the whole romantic tension and "duty over your feelings" thing.
     
  3. Esg

    Esg Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Pretty much I give this episode a C- for minimum annoyance but everything else was forgettable to average
     
  4. SithStarSlayer

    SithStarSlayer Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2003
    This is not sounding good.
     
  5. KeltheDor

    KeltheDor Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 21, 2011
    I actually really enjoyed it.

    Pros:
    +Great character interaction throughout
    +Interesting Plot developments
    +Enjoy the discussion of insurgency vs terrorism
    +Neat camera work gives Iziz layers
    +Some decent action sequences

    Cons:
    -"Twist" ending
    -Other random writing hiccups

    Anybody catch the name of the new droid character?
     
    Knight3440 likes this.
  6. Knight3440

    Knight3440 Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 29, 2012
    Good episode Lux proved he good at coming up with strategies and plans. This episode show how much the rebels have improved also we got to see the king and the former king.
     
  7. Garth Maul

    Garth Maul Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 18, 2002
    Who was the writer?
     
  8. KeltheDor

    KeltheDor Jedi Padawan star 1

    Registered:
    Jan 21, 2011
    Chris Collins wrote the first part, I'd assume its a safe bet he did this one as well.
     
  9. DM99

    DM99 Jedi Padawan star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 26, 2012
    Its all about directing. Writing is nothing. You can serve the exact same story twice. And it can be Awesome or dull. A good director makes an epic movie/episode out of any story.
     
  10. Dark Lord Tarkas

    Dark Lord Tarkas Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 29, 2011
    I really had my heart set on this being better than the last one, and after the first viewing I have to say it was actually worse. After all the emphasis placed on the importance of both Anakin and Obi-Wan being there, they both leave for no particular reason. Bending what would seem normal Padawan protocol to put Ahsoka in convenient plot situations with no explanation has bothered me about this show since S1, and this was as bad as any of the older examples.

    So while the last episode had the whole Skywalker/Kenobi dynamic to make up for its general mediocrity, this episode didn't have anything doing that for me.

    I don't get why the citizens of Iziz take their electricity going out as a sign that the terrorists are on their side rather than against them.

    It just feels like they're artificially stretching out the arc again like they did with the majority of arcs in S4. No real plot developments. All this could have been covered in the intro.
     
  11. fistofan1

    fistofan1 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 8, 2009

    Exactly. At the beginning of the episode the citizens were terrified of the insurgents. At the end they were treating the rebels like saviors. The same thing happened with Onderon's government. During Season 3 it was described as positive and ideal. Suddenly it's a brutal dictatorship. This inconsistency is why I'm really not liking this arc. It's a shame, too, because I was really looking forward to these episodes.
     
  12. KED12345

    KED12345 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 10, 2012
    Onderon's leadership was taken down between Season 3 and Season 5, and replaced with a puppet government which is a brutal dictatorship. Things change fast.
     
  13. Deputy Rick Grimes

    Deputy Rick Grimes Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Seems like i'm the only one that thought this episode was great [face_laugh]
     
  14. fistofan1

    fistofan1 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 8, 2009
    But didn't Obi-Wan say that the king was put into power at the start of the clone wars? I thought that Onderon was with the Republic before Rush came into power. :confused:
     
  15. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Pretty much my thoughts on the episode. It was decent, but nothing really stood out.I liked the king as well, and Iziz looks great.

    Was that supposed to be a huge reveal at the end, 'cause didn't they already identify the relationship between Steela and Saw in promos? Eh. Love triangle/quadrangle/whatever is still annoying, as is the macho competition between Lux and Saw.

    At least the B1 humor wasn't as bad as the previous episode's. The action scenes were OK, but nothing great. Overall, I'd give the episode a 6/10.

    Hey, those battle droids gotta be useful for something.
     
  16. DavidIX

    DavidIX Jedi Knight star 1

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    They took a big step back again with this episode. I give it 5/10.

    Cons:
    *The Droids continue to be a joke. BORING!

    *The king. I thought he would be interesting. Maybe something more complicated and entertaining. But nope, he's just another pawn with no direction or thought of his own. Can we say we've seen this before. Please something original next time.

    * A room with no more than 8 people decided who their new leader was going to be. So much for the voice of the people. Unless that was all the rebel forces * confused*.

    * This episode in general was anticlimatic. I had the feeling this was going to be a little more epic. You know, a decent rebel force literaly trying to free their people. But, we had some Robbin Hood feel to the episode instead.

    The only thing I liked about the episode was the city itself. Nice design and animation.
     
  17. Swashbucklingjedi

    Swashbucklingjedi Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2010
    They should have shown two episodes at once I felt little underwhelmed. It was not bad episode but small things would've made it much more better.

    pros and cons:

    +Nice to see some action
    +Iziz looks even better than in previous episode
    +King Rash was a rather nice bad guy
    +Return of Sionver Boll's species and Imperial era foreshadowing with that alien servant, human bad guy and rebels.
    +Droids hit a one person actually killing him with one shot... wow

    - Otherwise droids have terrible accuracy- they could have at least wounded someone of the main characters.....
    -"Sniper- get her!".... well... droids seem to be programmed more gender-neutrally than viewers of the show:p but it still sounded bit funny....
    - Cutting of power makes people to believe in you? I would think that such act could have an opposite reaction.....
    -Contacting Dooku or Jedi doesn't require power then? Well maybe they used communicators with other energy sources like batteries or something....
    -Steela calls Lux "Senator".... well maybe she does call him "senator" as a nickname.....


    I think that Mina Bonteri served that old guy and Rash was put to power after she died. I dunno but there definitely was oddity in that dialogue because the "true king" Saw speak of was obviously not allied with the Republic either...... I guess that Saw just doesn't care about the politics but thinks that Sanjay Rash is an a**hole:p

    During the time of that previous king Onderon was peacefully part of the CIS but after Mina died king understood what Dooku really is and he had to be replaced by someone.
     
  18. Garth Maul

    Garth Maul Manager Emeritus star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 18, 2002
    Nope. A terrible script and plot holes,cliches, etc can more easily ruin an episode for me.
     
  19. DM99

    DM99 Jedi Padawan star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 26, 2012
    This Episode was lousy. I cant believe that these Droids managed to kill nearly all Domino squad.Thats ridicoulos. Even Bonteri killed them so easily.

    0 of 10 Points.

    I hope this Arc will be better with that new general
     
  20. Swashbucklingjedi

    Swashbucklingjedi Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2010
    It was excellent that they didn't. It would be pain to see Grievous losing once again- next time he is in the show he needs to win something. Massacre was not part of the actual war I don't count it.....

    Both good writing and good directing are needed of course for good episode. They compensate each other only very little. This episode was normal TCW- good idea but story was rough around the edges. Little changes and it would've been so much better..... additional rebels to be killed and some of the main characters being wounded to create illusion that droids actually can fight- such a little thing yet affects strongly to the audience.
     
  21. Dan_Grievous_Tikkes_Fan

    Dan_Grievous_Tikkes_Fan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Well.... that was lamer than I thought.

    I loved the look of Onderon's capital - felt exactly like a Roman city. And the king with the horrible name was fun and had a perfect Voice actor voicing him.
    The advisor I... do not know what to say about him. He was ok but they could have easily put anything in his place including a cameo from a CIS leader.

    Ahsoka was useless and she was "not in the episode". She was so unnoticeable that I forgot that she was even in the episode after it ended.

    Obi-Wan was ok but Anakin and Rex sucked so much. I mean the show can not decide what to do with these two bozos. I mean Rex is to prideful and spineless... and Anakin... is Anakin.
    On the subject of the Chosen One, is it me or was it really the most forced thing I have seen in the show when Anakin started to lecture people on Focus and attachments... HIM! The master of focus and being unattached.
    That was so dumb and they should have given some other Jedi this role to say these lines...

    The action was fun but I felt like these episode could have been condenced and fit together into one fast-paced episode. All these episodes do is stall with pointless repeats of scenes. Intead of one or two Steela being a sniper scenes, we have 5 or so. It is the same mistake like in the last episode.

    I see this arc has reverted to S1 slapstick.

    Dooku was a doomkopf and they should have put somebody else and not countinue the lame tactic of overdoing Dooku in terms of "One Man Confederacy".

    The final scene with the celebration and the overreacting was too prolonged and forced.
    I was surprised that the show was trying and failing to trick us that the Saw and Steela were something more than brother and sister. IT WAS TOO OBVIOUS but for some reason the show needed to put epic drumbs as if somebody died in the end of the episode.
    It was like Steela said "He is my brother and he is a woman" intead of just "He is my brother" .

    Overall, an ok episode with needless stalling for time.

    6 out of 10 cause I liked the King with horrible name.



    Dude, you proclaim every episode good or horrible as great. After a dozen posts like that people stop taking your opinion seriously...
     
    Apophis_ and DM99 like this.
  22. Deputy Rick Grimes

    Deputy Rick Grimes Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Dude, you proclaim every episode good or horrible as great. After a dozen posts like that people stop taking your opinion seriously...[/quote]

    Meh, don't really care, i love the show, and i like to post my opinion about the show on here soooo, don't take it seriously, i do not mind
     
    Garth Maul likes this.
  23. DM99

    DM99 Jedi Padawan star 3

    Registered:
    Sep 26, 2012
    Grievous + Lux + Ahsoka + stupid droids + Holo Anakin talking bla bla

    i would throw out my lunch.
    [face_sick]

    -
    this arc does need to get some sharply boost in the next episode.
    I hope for this things to happen:

    - New CIS General is a Grievous like Maniac and will give rebells heavy losses.
    - Saw getting killed because of Lux stupidity.
    - Steela begins to lose hope and moral because of heavy losses.
    - Ahsoka getting her ass handed over to her from that CIS Gunships.
    - Hondo bringing some fun into this nonsense
    - Bla Bla Anakin stoping talking and beginning force choking of Bonteri.

    This Arc is on the low point now. It just can be better. I am disapointed after 2 of 4 episodes.
     
    Dark Lord Tarkas likes this.
  24. Dan_Grievous_Tikkes_Fan

    Dan_Grievous_Tikkes_Fan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    Meh, don't really care, i love the show, and i like to post my opinion about the show on here soooo, don't take it seriously, i do not mind[/quote]

    [face_laugh]
     
  25. Super_Battle_Droid

    Super_Battle_Droid Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 8, 2002
    The new droid general's name is Killawnee(sp?).

    I wonder what better droids Dooku is sending, or does he just mean the gunships?