Full Series The Clone Wars - 5.13 - Point of No Return - discussion thread

Gascon sounds more like Ironhide.

 

I haven't seen the episode, but judging by the explosion (which was very beautifully animated) as shown in the featurette, it's ridiculous to the extreme that there was anything to be found of R2 at all (though explosions are of course chaotic events so one would have to chalk it up to that).

 

Upon rewatching this series on teh Blu-Rays, I'm going to turn this 4-part arc into a 1-parter: "Missing in Action". Gregor is the only redeeming thing in this arc.

This is most definitely the biggest mistake TCW has made thus far.

 

It certainly (and easily) could have been reduced to a 2-part arc. And the unalterable fate of a major SW character should never have been toyed with so callously.

 

Yeah, they should have just replaced R2 with another astromech.

Honestly, there are two different arcs I would have rather watched than this one. If TCW team wanted something experimental, only feature the astromechs. Yep, two (three at the most) entire episodes just featuring beeps and boops. The other one would have been to focus on Gregor, his battle at Saresh, to his life on Abafar.

Hell, just get the focus off Gascon and WAC! Even Jar Jar would have been funnier.

 

I think it's clear the only episode of this arc that was at all inspired or ambitious was Void, and even that was just an art exhibit without any in-depth exploration of the subjects brought up.

This probably could have and should have been a standalone, but I guess they wanted to throw in some droid adventures, which I'm assuming was supposed to be fun.

That's TCW.

 

Humor isn't one of TCW's specialties, really wasn't the PT's either. The old school Looney Tunes slap stick is just out dated, its not going to play well. Most in the age range compare funny animation to stuff like Family Guy, Archer, and maybe even Venture Brothers. They also attempted some of that horrible crackbaby cartoon humor I despise in alot the cartoons on Nick, Disney, and CN these days. TCW tends to do better (atleast to me) when they attempt Joe Murray style social satire like in "Evil Plans" and "Mercy Mission" which are also droid episodes, where they take a really mundane situation and make a crazy adventure out of it. Those don't work either. Really should give up with that all together and stick to innovating with Politics, stuff like Mortis, and the Nightsisters arc. Those may be polarizing but they aren't as much of a waste of time.

 

The fact that they thought they could do a four-part arc just with droids sounded daft at the time and I see the reality just confirmed same.


Edit: I realize shows like X-Files had goofy episodes, but the writing quality and acting was usually so high it was often entertaining, and often a nice break from the conspiracy/alien arc.

Also, these goofy episodes did not go on for 4 episodes.

 

And to think that instead of this we could've had 4 episodes of Maul, Nightsisters, Clones, Mandalorians... oh, the cruelty.

 

They should look at the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena... heh, only the format and nothing else. Where the it has a few serious episodes (sometimes in arcs) in a row then a stand alone comedy sort of episode.

I think if this arc was going to air it should have been spread out. It actually could have worked fine that way. Onderon then one droid episode, Young Jedi then one droid episode, Shadow Conspiracy arc the one droid episode, The senate spy guy then one droid episode.

 

Alright, time for my assessment!

Overall, I liked this arc. It did drag in some places, but generally the first and last episodes of it were my favorites.I will say that I never played Republic Commando beyond the demo, but that might be because I was still deciding on whether to get it, and then my X-Box360 died. So pretty much I didn't have too much of an idea who Gregor was.

-Some low points, however:

The STDs. I quite like these guys. They are pretty much my favorite droid in these series, second only to the regular tactical droid that preceded them. But they didn't shine much in this arc. Granted, this arc is meant to be pretty comical, it just might be that their fallibility is due to the amounts to slapstick that pervades it. I think I can forgive this, since in the only other arc they've been in (the Onderon arc) they've been pretty badass. If there is anyway to redeem their cold-blooded status it would have to be:
-Make them more then a walking battle computer. If one of them is on the ship, and it's getting invaded, make him use the ship's own systems against the invaders.Like this situation--
A B2 Battle droid:"We have been boarded sir! We are under attack by the Republic!"
Super Tactical Droid:"Disengage all life-support. Disengage all force-fields to the docking bays. Cycle all airlocks open."
B2 Battle droid: "But why sir?"
Super Tactical Droid: "Organics must respirate. Droids do not. The lack of oxygen will suffocate them, and any surviving organics will be sucked out into the void of space."
B2 Droid: "Roger roger sir!"

The arc itself. This could have been broken up into two mini arcs. One being them getting the encryption key and saving the station, and the other of them going to that planet on a new mission to find Gregor. It would have served things better as it would have allowed each arc to have it's own feel. As it is, these two bits felt like they were only vaguely related and it gave the feeling that this arc was dragging on.

 

No! God no!

These episodes are bad enough as is, but at least they're out of the way. If they were spread around this season, I might have just stopped watching. This arc (minus "Missing in Action") has replaced "Bombad Jedi" as the very worst this show has created. At least it's over now.

 

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

"George [Lucas] said I want to do something different with the second episode [Into the Void] and everyone went oh no what does that mean and he said I want it to be an episode about nothing." - Brent Friedman (Clone Wars writer)

Thank god that George guy is no longer involved!

 

Badass? Have you been watching the same droids I have? The STDs ( Yes, I'm 8 years old) have been the least threatening, least badass droids on this show. The one in Onderon was a tactical failure who actually did nothing, and the two we've had in this arc have been even worse, being defeated by a small frog and a pit droid.

 

the 2 STD's in this Arc, were both defeated by R2

 

Let me put it like this: The STDs are badass. But thanks to TCW logic they can't really achieve something.

 

Guys, it's really no wonder I felt compelled to jump ship here. This FOUR PART arc was just depressing. This whole season just makes me very sad for this show I used to love. A four-part arc about R2 adventures where abominations like Gascon and Wac take center stage for the whole thing, and they can't even make a bleeding Republic Commando work?! That's truly abysmal.

This particular episode wasn't the worst in the arc, but there's just no way for anything to really work with these characters as protagonists. It all keeps boiling down to silliness and nonsense, even as characters are trying to nobly sacrifice themselves left and right. The only thing that could have redeemed this arc a little bit in my eyes is if in the end, after seeing Gregor and EZ selflessly sacrificing themselves for the mission, Gascon himself eventually had to get off his high horse and sacrifice his precious life so that a bunch of droids could complete the mission and "live" on (the "leave me behind" line in the previous episode doesn't count, as it was just a gag).

Anywho... I keep watching, out of routine, but boy this show is missfiring on all cylinders (Except for visually, sure. That's consistently awesome).

 

Put that star destroyer explosion on super-super-ultra slo-motion and watch, mouth agape.

 

I recall hearing out of Celebration that this arc is the best one they have ever done...

Yeah... it didn't feel that way to me. The only 'best thing' that happened in this arc was the explosion at the end of this episode. Now that is the best explosion they have ever done.

 

Who said that? And were they watching it on mute to better admire the visuals?

 

Think it was Filoni during one of the talks for Season 5?

Ah found it: http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/CVI_The_Clone_Wars_Season_5_Panel_147706.asp

Filoni: Filoni called this story arc "one of our best adventures of all time."

So, not exactly quoted correctly but near enough

 

Never a good idea to over-promise and under-deliver.

 

Concerning this episode: Seeing Tarkin again was cool. I thought it was funny, before the buzz droid attack, when the one droid couldn't get through the door. I always thought about that so it was funny to see it poked fun of. Speaking of, it was pretty cool to see the buzz droids get some screen time before the events of Episode III. This episode should have been the 100th episode.

As for the arc as a whole, I agree with what has been said above.