Full Series For Discussion of Old TCW episodes...

SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS, part 5.



META: Whenever a Jedi tosses someone from a height, in RL it would result in fatal injury, but the victim evildoer falls onto a convenient awning or even another villain, and then groans a little or raises his head to let us know he's going to be all right. This prevents us from seeing a lot of murders, I suppose. Also, this far into the series, we've seen close to totality of Jedi culture: from near-birth, undergoing the Gathering to make a lightsaber, Masters training Padawans, solo knighthood such as Nahdar's, old age courtesy of Tera Sinube, and final farewells and funerals such as those of the Jedi victims of the Temple bombing. What's left out is middle age. Where are the midlife crises? balding? thickening waistlines? Now we shall never see those stories.

Escape from Kadavo: Anakin tosses a baddie from a palace wall *see above para*; Obi-Wan, still sporting a black eye, begs for the life of his fellow prisoner, a Jedi-like action but the man inside the Jedi would curdle. Anakin shows contempt for Obi-Wan's whole POV in saying 'well I see you're always ready to negotiate but I've had enough!' We don't see anywhere near 50000 Togruta, just sayin.' Ahsoka says 'these are my people,' somewhat surprising for a Jedi. And Rex's 'I'm no Jedi' as he spears the master guard after a pointed look from Obi-Wan who won't/can't do it, well. Until Obi-Wan's unexpected delight in living Rako Hardeen's brutish life, we don't see much of the darkness that the war has elicited from Master Kenobi.


A Friend in Need: Separatists want recognition, and that Padme cannot give, it simply wouldn't be in her authority, so the whole meeting just was impossible - passions reigned, sigh. Without Mina Bonteri, no hope for progress in peacemaking there. Captain Taggart has an ancient Greek looking helmet. Viszla's 'well that was painless wasn't it' upon bullying a teen Lux, well, the Boss is amiable, once he gets his own way. Bo-Katan's slap to Ahsoka's bottom, a rough, tough gal is she. Had to laugh at Ahsoka's 'sweet' face when playing the betrothed.


Deception: In the voiceover, Obi-Wan sags in his Council seat with a most unhappy expression - I'd like to think that he realizes that his plan to be thought dead will damage his friendship with Anakin. It makes some of his later actions more acceptable. After shaving, wow the animators did a fine job making his features resemble McGregor's! Moralo speaks of himself in the third person, what a hoot; his VA was trying to sound like Kirk Douglas, maybe? I thought so, anyway. Kinda creepy that Obi-Wan says he enjoys playing the villain. Uh, Hardeen/Kenobi got no trial?


Friends and Enemies: Sometimes Moralo seems like a papa with two bickering sons and he makes peace - not a family I'd want to belong to. Obi-Wan's head shows stubble. More of what JAT called Obi-Wan's 'Season of Pain' when Anakin knees Hardeen in the crotch. Fantastic long shot when Ahsoka sees the duel from hundreds of yards away and busts a gut to reach it to defend Anakin, now that's a Padawan to have.


The Box: Moralo looks more and more simian, complete with sagittal crest. Yoda tells Anakin he's batty and a danger to both friends and enemies - why didn't you deck him, Anakin? What happened to Kiera Swan and Sinrich, because I didn't see them buy it on Level 2; they didn't make it to Level 3. Hardeen offered a hand up to Cad and got slapped down; the next time Cad accepted it, aw, they're bonding! When Obi-Wan/Rako beat up Moralo, he enjoyed it and he did when beating up Anakin in Friends and Enemies, brrr, don't cross this guy in either incarnation.


Crisis on Naboo: Mace is almost cheerily friendly to Obi-Wan, well Obi here's your next best friend if things with Anakin turn sour. The holomatrix disguises well-done. Anakin is rightly angry with Obi-Wan, he really doesn't see beyond emotions in this case. Dooku was arrogant in the duel's beginning, then really scared for a moment - Anakin seemed maturely concentrating on the fight, not making faces or flaring up with trash talk, Dooku's parting jibe was inaccurate, perhaps a way of reassuring himself that Anakin was truly no threat to take over as Palps' Sith apprentice?


Massacre: Asajj's 'and then?' to Mother Talzin's offer of a life with the sisters - Asajj wants more than that, but seems to accept it as a stopgap. Kharis gets a teensy bit of characterization because she was Asajj's companion on the mission to Serenno to fight Dooku, though it doesn't make her death resonate much with this viewer. Dooku contemptuous of voodoo and by extension, all of Talzin's witchy talents. She nearly got you, boy.


Bounty: 'Pretty bald babe in a place like this,' ha, and then Asajj spears him in the crotch. Major Rigosso has a majorly fascinating mouth as it opens sideways and then lengthways. Boba's 'I'll protect you!!' was kinda cute and shows his youth, while Asajj's assessment shows her maturity. We see Embo and his doggy. That train and its chasers riding milodons have a Western movie vibe, each individual's movements like people riding horses.


Brothers: Laats and Asajj drink, showing a measure of rapport, while we learn that Talzin is alive! Or what passes for life, as she returns to the Green Glowy Zone occasionally. Savage's ship has feet that run when it brakes into a landing, ha. Savage's hulking walk is good, almost like Frankenstein's. The firebreathers eat trash? Talzin pulls madness out of Maul's brain, what a psychoanalyst! Definitely a Gollum/Shelob vibe with the scenes in the cave.



Revenge: Obi-Wan gets clotheslined, yet another smashdown in the Season of Pain. 'I learned from watching you!' oh Negotiator, you fooler you. And somehow you got a new black eye! And so Season Four ends, to your relief.




A War on Two Fronts: 'Rotation' gets used a lot as a term, starting now to really notice, though Kidnapped had the first mention, I think. 'day' is too plebeian? The Republic is giving the insurgents supplies and credits, quite obviously supporting them, keeping them going, shades of Vietnam ... food for thought. I was not bored by the battle lessons and thought them neat - never had considered that droidekas needed to be able to roll over things and thus could be stopped by slow-moving weapons, like playing bocce ball *scratches head* The beasts of Onderon all especially appealing, particularly the flying light tan colored one who resembles Zok of the Herculoids *references old cartoon nobody has heard of*. The beginnings of love triangles, shaped by knowing looks, hurt looks, curious looks - the animators really had a time with those teen emotions.




Front Runners - Ahsoka is offered a chance to return with Obi-Wan and Anakin and refuses - she wants to do her job, and see how Lux does his. King Rash continues to resemble some ancient Greek monarch and talk a little like James Mason.




The Soft War - 'Purpose before feelings' spouts Anakin, and butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. One insurgent resembles Tecla of a past ep, Padme's aide. Is this a predecessor to what happens on Mandalore, in that the Republic won't interfere in internal political strife, due to some take on the Prime Directive of Star Trek fame?



Tipping Points - Saw evinces sheer joy in getting the new weapons, a nod to his and the other insurgents' youth in playing with wonderful, effective toys, on some level at least. Lux is mad at Ahsoka when she obeys her mandate and won't fight more openly, then everything goes to pieces. Sad ending, and Obi-Wan's 'our Padawan has learned a lot' says volumes about this arc.




The Gathering - Baby! Ahsoka is too cute for words! These kids are the top of their class, a little competitive for Jedi, or does that make them more understandable? *ponders* We hear 'rotation' again. Petro sounds like Michael J. Fox. 'The Force made physical' is a Jedi, per Yoda. Byph, the most scared, is the most alone in his quest for his crystal, awww. Gungi skidding on ice made me laugh. Katooni's VA has adenoid problems, or is very realistic to portray her as congested in the bitter, sniffly cold.



A Test of Strength - Hondo is all about profit, according to his mood this ep, and we hear no more mention of his dear, departed Mama, I miss that. Professor Huyang is like Mad Eye Moody of Harry Potter, with gadgets galore sprouting all over him. Gungi's snaggle fang is adorable!



Bound for Rescue - Hondo cuddles with two Twi'leks, well good for him. The fearful Ugnaught clown, so funny! Florrum has a very sci-fi green and yellow sky, way to go colorists. Preigo sounds like Professor Marvel of The Wizard of Oz, and in general, the plot point of a circus fits in well with this more lighthearted episode. Ahsoka is gracious enough to thank the younglings for their rescue and mentions Anakin's 'bending rules' to get the job done.




A note in passing: this last ep was from November 2012, with ads for Christmas galore on my tape: 4 for CN holiday programs, 1 for Lego Hobbit kids, 1 for Lego Board Game, 1 for a movie *Monsters, Inc. 3D*, 1 for a Lego set, 2 for the WWE, 1 for Hexbug Nano and 1 for something called Eyespy. Oh yes, and 1 for Verizon. That's 13. As Hondo will say in the next ep, 'I am semi-speechless.'

 

Just taking a look at some pictures.



Ventress is wielding Luminara's lightsaber!

 

CT-867-5309

The pommel end looks a bit reminiscent of Exar Kun's saber.

 

If look at AOTC very closely you notice that they used that hilt a lot. many of the Council members and a lot of the backround Jedi have that same hilt. Plo Koon uses it as does Kit Fisto, and in fact though it is hard to see it, in TPM Mace Windu is wearing a lightsaber with the same type of Hilt. The hilt designs in SW especially in the PT seem to have several standard basic designs though a few Jedi have some customizations. Yoda and Anakin for instance have very similar designs for their weapons in fact the Yoda lightsaber looks to me a scaled down version of the lightsaber Anakin lost in the droid factory. Quinlan Vos's saber is nearly identical to Qui gons except for length. Obi-wan though apparently likes to be very different from the other Jedi and no one else is seen with a hilt like either of the ones he uses.

 

I have noticed that Ahsoka's primary saber is pretty much a rearranged Anakin. Where Anakin has the single angled emitter shroud and the two fins up top and the kinda seam running the length of the blade, hers has a split over-under shroud with one fin top and one bottom... And a slot in place of a seam. Compared to most of the other sabres out there, it's clealy of the kinda aesthetic lineage of Anakin's saber rather than anyone else's. Most of them don't have those iron-sights style fins on them.

Vader's saber is also kinda reminiscent of his former saber as Anakin.

I always wondered if Vader was a little shocked in ESB when Luke turned up, and outta nowhere pulls out the aforementioned saber, whch he had lost on Mustafar.

 

The novel Dark Lord actually has a paragraph in it explaining that Palps tried to get Vader to make something similar to his own saber even as far as letting his apprentice study it(Palps must have been pretty confident he only needed lightning to beat Vader) in the hopes he would create something similar. Vader muses that even that he wanted something with more ballast( with the meaning structurally strong, not the naval term) and only ended up creating a black version of his original, the AOTC, Lightsaber.

 

SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS, aka TCW rewatch, part 6, COMPLETE: Meta: Regarding s.5 and its longer arcs, it didn't take 4 eps to make me like Michigan J. Frog Meebur or Saw or Katooni better - I liked them as characters in the first place, and did not come to love them by adding one more episode - but that's all right, like is good enough! Not everything needs to turn to love. Moving on, the total series hangs together well, Anakin's guidance of Ahsoka a standout which makes the end of their walking the Jedi path together more poignant. The words of Yoda from s.1 make me dislike him: 'but will Anakin release her when the time comes' as if Ahsoka is simply an experiment that Yoda conducts to test the Order's Chosen One. It seems it was, and I understand the Council hate more. Turning into an Anakin apologist, I am!

A Necessary Bond - Grievous has one nifty speeder! A droid, upon being dismembered as we see in a hologram: "My knees!!" which was disturbingly sentient. I laughed, though. Ahsoka has various scrapes on her face, nice, if painful, realism. Hondo says at one point to Dooku 'A Sith Lord!' so he knows about the Sith, one of a select group, it seems. I'm not at all clear on who exactly knows about the Sith.

Secret Weapons - WAC seems to be putting moves on QTKT, or maybe it's his outgoing personality only. The musical themes for this ep reminded me of the tootling music of ANH, especially the droid scenes in the sandcrawler, comic in tone. BZ is dead, but he gets better. Good scenes of Meebur acting like the semi-amphibian he is, leaping and using sucky pads on his feet to stick on surfaces. WAC dogpaddling in zero g made me laugh, as did his being bopped on the head and compressing.

A Sunny Day in the Void - This episode screamed 'art' right away. First the swooshing comets and then the sunless sky of the planet, wow. I sort of turned off my TCW continuity sense and enjoyed the ride. The EVA and droid lifeline got to me, and the themes of life and death among different sorts of sentience provoked thought, and not a few laughs: "Just let me die with dignity." "Is that even possible?" ; "Why am I here?" "Who is he talking to?" "Maybe it's his Maker."; "Why is he climbing?" "Maybe he'll jump!" now that last was disturbing, coming from a droid. The water in the pond resembles mercury. The overhead shot of the settlement looks like Nazca lines.

Missing in Action - Strange, practical use of chipping in clones, a whole new look at the Republic's use of them, or was it the Kaminoans who initiated this? Probably the Kaminoans. They would want to track their 'product.' Two more disturbing bits: cockroaches and the prostitute soliciting a Dug. The cook seemed opportunistic, yet not without a glimmer of concern for Gregor, in that he warned of the outside world. Gregor took the bit in his teeth, though, and did what he was made for, in tune with his revealed persona. The prejudices concerning droids and little aliens *there was a larger sort of alien being served right next to the Colonel* was a good object lesson for kiddies watching this show. At what size do the prejudices kick in? Knee high? Knee high to what?

Point of No Return - Eerie, tubular bells music when D Squad lands in the rigged ship. The ramming plan is disturbingly close to the 9/11 bombings. More emphasis on droid battling droid action! D Squad gets more physical. We get to see a fantastic explosion and an Obi-cam reaction to it, that's his hands waving in front of the camera while he staggers.

Revival - Many think of the Jedi when they see Maul and Savage, nicely written. There's a green mist when Talzin's manufactured legs for Maul get destroyed, and also when Savage loses his arm. Hondo stands in full view with laser bolts hitting all around him, one crazy Weequay. Adi dies in an especially unlooked for way, gored and then speared through the back. "Insolence! We are pirates - we don't even know what that means!" haha.

Eminence - "Should we rub 'em out?" asked Bo-Katan, what a gangster-like question from someone who purports not to trust thugs or gangsters. Viszla knows about the Sith's Rule of Two, what the heck? Maul drinks tea, now where that tea goes eventually is beyond the scope of this rewatch. Savage's head hits the overhead lamp, ha. Sugi and Embo and the rest, all in an exciting battle - in which Savage roars like a lion.

Shades of Reason - Buzzwords are 'gangsters', 'monsters,' and 'saviors,' heard endlessly. Pykes say 'my masters' the Black Sun, weird. Maul says 'Viz-uh-luh' 3 syllables, while Almec says 'Viz-ler.' Loved the Almec-Satine dialogue as Satine's shoulders slump and she rubs her head: she is seeing the end of her world of endeavor, as did Padme. Viszla actually looked happy, for once.

The Lawless - Somehow Obi-Wan does physical comedy so well, as the Twilight has mechanical problems. The guard at the dock sounded like Temuera Morrison. Korkie helped his Auntie board the vehicle in gentlemanly fashion, aw. In the previous ep, Satine was attired like Mary, Queen of Scots, and we all know what happened to her, so her fate came as no surprise. Obi-Wan was gutted by it and it was poignantly portrayed. A cackling Palpatine scores sparks with his lightsabers on the floor, that's a neat use of the weapon, something out of the ordinary.

Sabotage - The buzz droids' infestation of Anakin's ship made me urpy. Something about those globular bodies, like ticks ... Cato Neimoidia showed bridges, good nod to continuity. Russo flips goggles like that character on NCIS, kinda fun shoutout. Up until now, I thought everyone in the Temple was Jedi, so there would be Jedi janitors, pilots and suchlike, everyone serving according to his gifts. Now the idea of civilian employees is strange to me, though it appears to be canon. You writers can stop right here with this as a standalone, no need to pursue it until Ahsoka leaves! *wishful thinking*

The Jedi Who Knew Too Much - 6 Jedi in funeral shrouds, all humanoid shaped. 'Nothing will ever change,' says a dispirited Barriss right after the funeral, depression if ever one heard it. Guard clone congratulates Ahsoka on capturing Letta and she makes a face, like she doesn't know what to say, excellent animation. Ahsoka moves slowly as if she's exhausted in the waterpipe/tunnel, that was neatly done, as was her slip and fall.

To Catch a Jedi - Obi-Wan is ruthlessly practical as he says 'we'd be foolish not to use Anakin on the search team, who knows her better?' I couldn't tell if the police were human or droid - they moved like humans, I guess. Ahsoka again moved slow and tired in her duel. I'm having trouble figuring out the levels, because each destination on the elevator looks like the bottommost level on the ground, and then there are more underneath it ... Anakin looks sick at heart as he sees Ahsoka stunned, in the capture of the clones. You just know he'd do anything to help her.

The Wrong Jedi - I am not fond of the Jedi guards' design, faceless, longrobed and wielding lightsabers like robots. It saved on animating faces and legs, it would seem *is grumpy* Ki-Adi-Mundi again is a menace to society, in RoTS he said that the Jedi must take temporary control of the Republic and then in The Lawless he brings up the fact that the Senate will not intervene in Mandalore's internal political strife, though they did years before, when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon spent an entire year interfering with Mandalorian politics, eventually placing Satine on her throne! Get rid of this guy, Council! We see the last of Asajj, brutally honest as she puts Anakin in his place about abandoning his Padawan. I shall miss her. Barriss was praying or meditating to some statues, that was a neat look at private Jedi quarters and practices. Ahsoka, you've just endured an ordeal and you're not to be blamed for wanting some peace and quiet for a while! Mace was particularly offputting, and you crossed your arms at his speech, as if you'd maybe been considering returning, but Mace decided your action. Goodbye, Ahsoka.


It was a blast to rewatch - good summer entertainment. From 2008 to 2013, each show was looked forward to a great deal, and since my other program's retired *goodbye, Desperate Housewives!* this was the last one I'd been watching regularly. Much of the appeal was based on the animation's technique, and if more mature themes came out of all these stories, kudos to the writers and Mr. D.F. Goodbye for now!

 

Thanks! It was great fun to consolidate thoughts on the show - little unnoticed bits popped up, really, it had a great amount of detail upon rewatch.

Asajj needs some time at a day spa to rejuvenate her body and spirits! Loofahs work wonders.

 

Definitely, it will be a day long remembered. For curiosity, what was it about s.5 that didn't hit right?

 

Fair enough - it's not what we want to see from them, regarding her, because we've grown to care for her, at least I did. I saw her rejection of their overtures as being mad at them, like anyone would be at injustice personally directed. She might get over it, she might not, just like anyone. I, too, felt sorry for Anakin and peeved that Plo's hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder held the Negotiator back from following the two of them, and perhaps Negotiating some kind of compromise.

 

I felt sorry for Anakin too. I also felt sorry for him when he is immolated in ROTS. That is tragedy for you. It is his character weakness, despite all his strengths, that makes for such an interesting character. Same is true of Ventress and as anakinfansince1983 said: she will be back. Her character development could go in any direction it has become so deep during TCW. (...Incidentally I loved the D-Squad arc....).

 

If they can make advanced cybernetic prostheses that interface seamlessly and perfectly with the nervous system to the point where they serve as replacements 100% as good as the original limb, I'm pretty sure they can make robo-guts too. Complete with robo-anus at the end of it.

 

As much as I'd rather not think about it, I must applaud your efforts in trying to find any sort of reasonable explanation as to how Maul can potentially process food and drink... I recall actually musing about the tea scene months ago, but I couldn't provide an explanation as to what became of Maul's digestive and excretory system... But your explanation makes sense, given that technology in the GFFA is apparently advanced enough to sustain the life of a being who ended up being at least 90% mechanical in General Grievous*. Keeping this in mind, then it makes sense that the new robotic legs and abdomen that Death Watch provided Maul could (or rather, should) come with a means of processing and disposing of waste. And I always thought the tools and resources Death Watch used on Zanbar were largely scavenged. But maybe it's not as costly to produce this tech as I imagined it would be in the GFFA. I still think it would have been better if they could grow Maul new organs via tissue engineering/organ printing and then store it in an organ sac inside the mechanical abdomen, but that would probably have taken more time than the apparent timeframe of Eminence allowed. So I guess your explanation will work as my headcanon now.

*Speaking of Grievous, I imagine that his mechanical body was able to provide him all the sustenance and nutrition that he needed? And how exactly did he dispose of waste? Perhaps it is somehow liquified or evaporated, and/or dissipated as waste heat? A lot of things to think about. Thanks for bringing this up, Darth Valkyrus!

 

Not a fan of the Onderon arc, huh? Yeah it's definitely not good, but I don't remember it being that bad. Maybe it's because I was away from TCW for so long that I didn't mind. I need to pick up where I left off, the season three finale. But nah.

I remember thinking that Saw was jealous of Lux going after Steela, then I found out online that Steela and Saw were siblings. I had a good laugh over it.

 

Some good points. All we got from the citizens was shot after shot of crowds yelling things I don't even remember. I don't remember seeing any suffering, or any reason presented for wanting the establishment gone.

And now that you mention it, yeah there wasn't much suspense in the action. The love square was a complete waste of time.

 

Random observation which would have derailed the entire concept of kiddies-based program which Lucas aimed for: after rewatching the entire series, I would have liked to have seen one hour shows with an overarching series arc. but with no long arcs per season, and perhaps a season-ending cliffhanger. This is worth hoping for in the live action show, should it ... ever ... come to fruition. 108 eps would have given leeway for plotty or h/c based or even answering-questions-about-the-Force shows, without turning into Monster of the Week programming, though I love monsters.