Full Series The Clone Wars - Episode 5.4 - The Soft War - discussion thread

robots are called droids in star wars. because robota means slavework, and you cant tell R2 he is a slave. He will give you an electrocutting.

p.s. i learned something about girls with this arc and AOTC reference, if a girl says "Please dont look at me like that." than she means actually "I have noticed how you look at me, i can understand you want me, because i am gorgeus. You can look but not touch. Not yet. Maybe later... But dont stop looking or i will be pissed!"

Very clear now!

 

thats justice!!!

 

I was wondering about that -- maybe it had been done just to scare him and they knew he wasn't there, but we have no real information about the details of that assassination attempt. So for all we know, they want him dead. Sure, we may assume Dooku would just install another puppet because we're familiar with the CIS, but would the rebels know that? Most of them don't necessarily strike me as the politically-rational types... members of their troop just died, so I'd think at least SOME of them would want to take a potshot at the guy responsible.

 

I don't think we can criticize Lucas for creating new monarchies as being ridiculous but then turn around and say that they should observe Onderon's just because the EU had previously established it as such. If it were really that big of a deal then they just shouldn't have used Onderon IMO. Dendup's personality not only makes me think that he was a poor choice of character to set up as the focal point for the Rebels' motives, since he seems like he's completely given up, he's initially critical of the Rebels' rabble-rousing, and when he's finally rescued he just strikes me as being arrogant and not at all grateful, as though his safety is the Rebels' responsibility. I hate Dendup too much and I don't hate Rash enough for this story to really work. And I just don't think it really works when the Rebels' are trying to liberate Onderon from the CIS to give control back to such an impotent, spiritless king.

They could have made Dendup the first of a new line of non-monarch leaders with Rash as someone that wanted to seize the crown and refused to see Onderon as a democracy and sided with the CIS to get support for his claim. I'm thinking more along the lines of the Partition of Poland and how the "enlightened absolutists" like Catherine the Great and Frederick the Great feared the prospect of Revolution and challenges to their rule.

 

The transition from Monarchy to Democracy would have been so much better than just ripping off the Mon Calamari arc.

 

A much, much better episode than the last one.
Although I was about to give this episode a -10 for not having Ahsoka tear through those droids like the cheap paper-mâché that they are. My fury was momentarily quelled when she subsequently Force-pushed all the droids over. Oh TCW, tempting my wrath so!
pros:
++ Great character development.
+ More believable battles than the previous episode.
+ the clinically efficient guillotine was a nice touch.
+ really like how Ahsoka was gearing up to go DEFCON padawan on those droids! But then the writers stopped her! Noooooo!
cons:
- the General’s turn to the rebel’s side was too quick and not quite believable, but there are time constraints – but still.
- “stop looking at me like that” – No, not a Padme-from-AotC line! Nooooooo!
- there’s just no way to say “King Dendup” with any regal authority.

 

STRIKE!

 

She forgot 4 droids

 

I want to see Maul brothers and Satine.

 

I don't think it matters much since this episode is better than both "A Wars on Two Fronts" and "Front Runners" IMO.

 

Soft War was ok but there's still alot of the typical dumb stuff that goes on in Clone Wars

the big bad evil assassin droid - he got knocked over and didnt do anything
the neutral general quickly helping out the rebels at the end. Really? you decide to help out that fast to dethrone the jerkwad younger prince/king?

 

He is not a assassin, he is a General

 

I thought Tandin was swayed by his argument with Saw over ideas and freedom or whatnot. When the time came his true loyalties got the better of him. I didn't think it was something that happened randomly.

 

Finally, some story advancement! There wasn't much plot advancement however. This ep even touched on parts that were completely absent from the previous. I don't know what it is with TCW and their four-part arcs where at least one of them needs to be filler, but that's been their MO for a few seasons now.

Kalani was a nice addition to the CIS lineup but I don't see any real difference between him and a regular tactical droid. He was pretty much a waste of a character. As JackG pointed out, the continuity that was created in the S3 ep Heroes on Both Sides is now pretty much gone. According to Mina Bonteri(?) in that ep Onderon chose to leave the Republic and join the CIS due to corruption (amongst other things I'm sure) and she seemed very proud of that decision. Yet here we're led to believe they were neutral and the CIS just sort of took over. No wonder this arc has been lacking in so many places; in just two years they seemed to forget how they got in this situation and now don't know what to do with themselves. TaradosGon pointed it out nicely; the ex-king doesn't seem to care very much and the new king isn't really bad-enough for me to be invested in 'restoring Onderon'. In AWOTF Saw pulls the head of a droid off and it semi-humoursly still walks around; here he does it and it 'dies' immediately. Also, Steela shoots a Magna droid in the head and it falls over, yet in RotS we see a headless MD still function just fine. Strangely enough neither Anakin nor Obi-Wan seemed at all upset by Ahsoka's unnecessary reveal to save the general. The next ep will indeed have a rushed feel to it because this arc could've easily fit into 2-3 eps.

 

Remember Dendup tells Saw "stop interfering in the affairs of the Throne" until he mentions the Jedi.

Would have liked more talk about the role of the Jedi, maybe how things have changed wrt their roles as well.

But yeah, if I'm Saw, do I really want to fight for an old fogey who tells me not to interfere.

 

This was so much better.

Great visuals as always but personally this episode kinda showed us even more how the previous episodes were boring and repetitive with having a recycled discussion with Dendup. "blah blah AGAIN. Not my will, but theirs."
It would have been better if there was only one episode before this one that was fast paced and awesome - again A MERGED version of episodes 2 and 3 would have been better. Cause at this point, after the boredom from the previous episodes, I can not enjoy so much this arc cause it is just been dragged on too long. At this point I am close to wanting it just to end.

Motivations were odd with many of the characters.... Except for King Rash, everybody else has not clear rhyme or logic behind their actions. Only Rash is consistent.
Dendup is the biggest problem I have with this arc. He both accepts the new rule but just the mere mention of Jedi makes him rebellious

I was really disappointed that there were no Gunships or Hondo in this episode. AND it makes me wonder how are they going to fit everything in the next episode.
The lack of gunships is painful and even more thanks to the commentary on the official guide. GUNSHIIIIPPPPSSS.... where are you?!

I loved the chaos in the end during the "execution" scene.

I would give it a 8.5 out of 10 cause finally something happened in this arc and I can not wait for the Battle of Onderon next week.

 

Ya know, it may be more like Dendup was trying to protect Saw by telling him to stay away or run to avoid capture and worded it as "Stop interfering with the affairs of the throne". Dendup was pretty much getting used as bait after he refused to tell the rebels to stand down twice, once in "Front Runners" and now here in "Soft War". Maybe the Jedi thing can be explained as Dendup being the one guy not impressed by the rebel's show of force blowing up the power generator. Then when the Jedi mentioned he had a spark of hope. interesting how both the republic and C.I.S. in his eyes are a hell spawn of corruption and yet the Jedi are golden. Gah... I'm still all hung up on where Mina Bonteri fits into this, particularly after Dendup told Lux his mother would be proud.

 

ok, you begged for it, punk..



i am not responsible for this!!! its not my fault!

 

Hah, wow...

 

G-man

 

When I think of it, I wouldn't mind if this was the only time we'll see it which would make it unique, but I can't help but sort of wishing to see it be used successfully on a living being at some point (not in graphic detail of course, but shown as a discretion shot like maybe just the body going limp or something; maybe if the show becomes dark enough, it might happen).

 

A clone trooper in armor with helmet would be a likely candidate to get space guillotined.

 

My point was simply that a few monarchies here and there are fine, and add a bit of diversity, since it's not likely that every world would be ruled in the same manner. In contrast, the sudden influx of royalty and nobility on every other world we come across makes monarchies somewhat stale, diluted, and we lose much-needed variety.

And yes, I truly do feel that Onderon's establishment as a monarch-governed world should be respected all the same. It was created more than a decade ago, when the array of planetary governments in Star Wars was varied and interesting. I would certainly prefer that in the rush to make so many planets monarchy-ruled, they didn't suddenly decide that of all worlds, it should be Onderon that's changed to create some diversity, when it's one of the few that are established to be monarchy worlds. Let the variety come elsewhere.