Full Series The Clone Wars - Episode 5.11 - A Sunny Day In The Void - discussion thread

WAIT WHAT?! Now the Commentary is Copyrighted and can only be viewed in the stinkin US?!!?!?!?!?!!

It is a desert of salty sand.

 

Not thrilled with spending another 22 minutes with nothing to do about nothing, I am not fond of this arc at all so far. I sure hope Gregor is not some crash victim with amnesia, because well, do I really?

 

I prefer this arc to the slavers arc so far cause we still do not know what will happen next while last year we had to wait several weeks for a weak payoff we knew from the comic.

 

I think the reason we saw this episode is because what happened to Gascon probably happened to Gregor in the past: stuck on that lifeless planet with no human-interaction. I smell another homage coming: I Am Legend.

Edit: I just realized, if there's no sun on Abafar, if the sky constantly glows (such a cool concept), then there's no natural indication of time per the sun's placement in the sky. Its like time just stopped.

2nd edit: The design of this town is from a The Phantom Menace concept for Mos Espa! I think it was Doug Chiang's idea.

 

This stuff is not worthy of four episodes.

 

That sucks! Hopefully it will get to Youtube soon.

Filoni doesn't say a thing the whole time -- they've got the poor writer defending the episode on his own. I'm under the impression even Filoni didn't want to have anything to do with it -- according to Friedman, after Lucas detailed his idea for the episode "[sic] everyone else pulled out of the project."

 

Upon second viewing, I have come to appreciate the camerawork a lot. It was incredible. The philosophies are a lot more intriguing but I still stand with a 7/10. I felt that some of the dialogue from Gascon/WAC was unnecessary and could have been told through expressions/body language, the lack of John Williams music is infuriating, Kiner's score was good but compared to the original CVI clip, a lesser work. While I cannot forgive the writing for Secret Weapons really, I do appreciate Brent Friedman's attempt at a Star Wars existentialist narrative. A good chunk less dialogue, and this would have been a 9.

 

There are little amount of stories in TCW that are worth of four episodes. Geonosis and Young Jedi are the only perfect four episode arcs... That excludes the Hardeen arc, Onderon, the S4 finale (that did not need "Brothers") and especially Umbara.

 

Hmmm... I'm surprised I enjoyed this episode. I think part of my enjoyment came from WAC's dark humor and Gascon's descent into lunacy.

 

A Lepi? It's outfit is even similar to Jaxxon's.

 

Same here...
Madness is fun, especially when it is portrayed by a brilliant VA.

You might be onto something. Those teeth. I did notice them but I totally forgot that there was a rabbit species in SW.

And the suit is similar to the one in the image.

Maybe the artists and CGI model makers were fans of this EU species...

 

I was wondering what kind of species the skeleton belonged to after I watched the episode and I thought "since the skeleton had those buck teeth, maybe it was the same kind as that rabbit guy" and that pretty much seals the deal; it's gotta be a nod to the EU character.

 

Anyone else find it odd that there's no Trivia gallery in the Episode Guide?

 

I am disapointed that I can not watch the commentary due to copyright and no trivia made this one of the worst guides since they changed the site.

 

This was discussed last week in the 5.10 thread, (and as so very very so very far-fetched as it is) but the continuing actions of Gascon and WAC are just so....ugh. Perfect example: before going into the 2nd commercial break, Frogger looks up into the sky and yells WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

My hope for why: the Republic's mission is to find Intel and little else using incredibly expendable but still microscopically capable personnel, with only plot shielded R2 being in on it. Or even all the droids, not like Frogger or Cyclops will take anything they say for any value....even though the mechs got to this abandoned city (awesome pic cwustudent) first, are responsible for capturing the device from part 1 of the arc, and saved the ship and the mission and the lives of their dumb, ignorant leaders.

Dan_Grievous_Tikkes_Fan
"with turrible episodes come turrible guides"

 

So deliciously evil, those guys at Lucas Animation!
Now that you mention it, that skeleton did look slightly familiar when I first saw it.

 

I think at least the commentary is fixed.


http://www.starwars.com/watch/a-sunny-day-in-the-void-featurette.html


Well, Order66Survivor I quite love the episode.

 

Well this episode just dragged for me. Didn't like it one bit. I think I will skip watching this particular episode. Hopefully the final two episodes of the arc make the last two weeks worthwhile! I'm ready to move on from droids and back to the war!

 

Very polarizing episode.

I will agree with most, from a visual perspective, the comets scene was excellent. I think if there's one thing most of us can agree on, it's that. I loved the minor technical detail that after they lost power they still had momentum as they maneuvered through the field. Seems like some ships in the star wars universe, when they lose power, just stop.

I was momentarily thrown by the lack of a sun. I wondered how the place was lit. Then I thought perhaps there IS a sun, and the planet is perhaps enveloped by a thick haze...much like cloud cover that would hide the sun but allow diffused light. That's my own theory anyway.

They make an interesting discussion about programming versus training. At first there seems to be little difference, however as I thought about it more, it occurred to me that even if training is similar to programming, there is an important difference. Someone who is trained needs to make a physical and/or mental effort to retain the information he or she is given, to practice it until it becomes second nature, even if such practice takes weeks, months, or even years. The burden is on the one doing the learning. Whereas with programming, a droid need only have the correct software/hardware installed with all the information they require. Virtually no effort is required in learning it, they simply know it. Instead the burden is on the one doing the programming to ensure the correct information is fed to them.

The other topic they touch on, though this was somewhat more subtle, was the concepts of life and death. WAC seems to not care particularly whether the Colonel lives or dies and to most that seems somewhat cruel, but it raises and interesting question. Presuming they possess consciousness (and I understand whether they do or not in the star wars universe is open for debate), how must a droid perceive the concepts of life and death? It's been demonstrated on numerous occasions that a droid can be practically blasted to pieces and still rebuilt into a fully functional unit. Professor Huyang and C-3P0 being the two most famous. In this arc, M5-BZ is electrocuted, seriously. Yet in the next episode he is repaired and acts normally. These are things that, obviously, can't happen to a human being. However, because a droid can be repaired so comparatively easily, and they themselves know that, presuming all their parts are recovered, or at least adequately replaced, their view of life and death must certainly be a very casual one. So I think it would be only natural many would not regard death as a particularly big deal, thus there would be some that would treat it somewhat callously.

So, was it a good episode? Well, Dave Filoni was right, it was abstract and experimental as TCW episodes go. I'd say, for me, it was good because it was thought provoking. Still, I can readily see why others wouldn't have liked it so much, and that's ok.

Time for a break I guess. I guess we'll see how they tackle the remainder of the story line next year.

 

That's one thing I did like: the fact they went out on a limb and experimented with an idea. Guns and glory are all great, but it takes guts to try something new. And the subtlety is something we don't often see in these shows -- I hope they don't backtrack after this and shy away from these types of moral dilemmas.

 

*scoffs* SEPARATIST SCUM

 

Well said...

I do have to agree that with Lucas's idea of an episode about NOTHING, it turned out to be quite something.

MUAHAHAHAHHAHA! Yess.....

 

Another disappointing episode in this (so far) pointless arc. "Void" indeed.

 

You know, even if the rest of this arc turns out to be bad, this episode will still stand well on its own. I can actually see it getting more and more liked over time.

 

i can too but because hopefully we were treated to some actual Star Wars material in the aftermath.