Full Series A tale of two seasons

The third season of The Clone Wars was well....mismatched. The first half of the season, though there were some bright points, was ultimately dragged down by inane political episodes, and well, Corruption. The second half of the season has a completely different feel to it. More focused on action, more about character development than Padme running around solving crimes and shooting baddies (in a political fashion, of course). The character models changed, and we saw what I would say a jump forward in animation quality.

So what's the deal here? Is the first half of the season a mangled wreck of held back episodes form Season 2 renewed for the 3rd? Why wouldn't they spread out the boring ones, give us some padding?

How many people were jarred by the sharp difference between the 'two seasons' of season three?

 

Sorry if this thread doesn't receive a lot of activity, it's just that this subject has already been extensively debated before several times and I think everyone's burned out on it.

 

season 3 definitely failed as season it's the worst season yet while it also has some of the best episodes of the show (Last duology, Citadel-arc, Nightsisters, Monster, Heroes on Both Sides)

there was "two seasons" definitely and both had material i didn't like at all..... yet both had good moments.... i can like political stuff- but too much is too much and first half was filled with politics.....

 

Fanboy hit the nail on the head as far as some of us being burnt out on this subject. Season three has some stuff that's worse than anything in the previous two seasons, and some stuff that's better than anything in the previous two seasons. I don't think they should have aired season three in the order they did, so we're completely agreed on that. However, I feel that many people who complain about how much the first half of season three lacked action overlook the fact that it has some of the highest quality action episodes of the series: Clone Cadets, ARC Troopers, and Hunt for Ziro. (And parts of Supply Lines.)

 

All of Supply lines was good, until Jar Jar did his dish act. It was like the writers were like "Hey this is going to be a great episode. Lets think of a way to make it only okay." I swear to the Force that is what the writers do sometimes.

 

You speak the truth

 

Yeah, the dinner scene was terrible. I think part of the problem is they need to hire a writer or two who can write comedy and action instead of trying to force slapstick into episodes. TCW crew if you ever read this, you might consider getting Greg Weisman to write some scripts.

 

"Bombad Jedi" was pretty terrible and was written by the same guy that gave the world the brilliant Troops (The Cops spoof featuring stormtroopers). I think talent really has nothing to do with how bad comedy episodes can be, that's more down to the fact that TCW is still pitched down to kids rather than at them.

 

As stupid as Jar Jar's dish juggling was i must say i really loved the reaction of Lott Dod's aide - first time ever Jar Jar made me laugh and.... it could've been worse

 

I disagree, too many people on this site are generally clone wars haters as it is. Yeah, some of you are burnt out, but thats becuase of the petition driven at GL for his ideas, the fact that most don't want their EU trampled, and wanting it to make it the universe, almost if not more than GL. Season 3 had what they had done in the first two seasons....A match and plug. They didn't release any of the episodes in order, and just like I said many moon's ago, GL and company were going to do this as an Indiana TV series. Most of you don't remember but when they released them they wanted to make mini-movies out of them. This series is exactly the same way. What happened was that they released epsiodes all over the place. It wasn't until the end of the first half that we finally got all that mishmash complete. Now, the second season is going to be more in line with fluidity. No more stories from season 4 going to be completed and aired in season 5 or 6. It's straight through now until ROTS. On one coin, its good becuase now we don't have to worry about stories jumping around, on the other, some of you gusy will go balistic becuase GL with Filoni and Chritian Taylor are going to tell stories that don't have to fit with the all EU.

A good example, of the mishmash was the clone wars movie. That movie was clocked around 90 minutes, and that movie sucked. What made it worse is the deleted content with Ashoka, Anakin and Ventress fighting, then you had two more episodes in season 1 and then the other in season 2, that complimented the entire arc. Not cool. Star Wars the clone wars should take a page of Marvel's Avengers: Earth Mightiest Heroes. That is a serious well done series that has action, adventure, a little romance, and the story movies forward. I don't have to read any of the comics, just watch the show and enjoy. If I want to pick up a comic on the avengers then thats up to me.

Also nothing for nothing but the clone wars movie sucked, and season 1 was lame. Season 2 was way better due to the action, but the ending was bad.

 

Season 3 is behind us, 4 should be plenty of fighting.

 

Imo ARC Troopers and Hunt for Ziro are mediocre and Clone Cadets was focused on training and clone development, not action.

Supply Lines has about 30 seconds of good action ruined by Jar Jar and a terrible ending.

 

I'm finding a lot of these episodes from Season 3 actually don't have that much replay value. Pretty forgettable, in other words. Even the finale which nearly everyone loved when it came out, now it's pretty bleh.

 

I find ARC Troopers on its own, Supply Lines, and Monster on its own tends to have the most replay value for me for S3 episodes. Kind of sad its not entire arcs. However I'm intending to watch the clone centric episodes with Fives in chronological order for fun when I get a chance, so will be repeating Clone Cadets and the Citadel Arc which I've only seen once each. We'll see...

 

Of course the ending episodes were bleh, the only real good ones were the Witches arc, the Morits arc, and the Citadel arc. I did like though the clone training episode and the invasion of kamino, since that finishes the three part arc of rookies. The rest, well is forgetable to say the least.

 

On the show, or on the message boards?

 

"Of course" odd choice of words ending episodes were good- but yes they lacked replay value- they were not so cool to watch more than once or twice- animation was beautiful but story was that kind of story it did offer plenty of excitement once -but when it is lost- it was not so good anymore- still even if season4 would keep that quality it would be good..... at least episodes would be fun once of twice something like Academy was bleh during the first viewing - it was hard to stay 22 minutes to watch such cr*p it's not even long time but that duology was so boring it was hard to watch entire Academy after Corruption that was sooo boring and had only that stupid shoehorned actionscene....

 

Only thing wrong with the finale was the horrible voice of the Trandoshans...

As for Season 3: Season 2: & Season 1(Before the polls):

Watched Once Watched Once Watched Once
-Corruption -R2 Come Home -Shadow of Malevolence
-The Academy -Rising Malevolence
-Evil Plans -Destroy Malevolence
-Downfall of a Droid
Watched Twice Watched Twice -Duel of the Droids
-Supply Lines -Holocron Heist -Dooku Captured
-Sphere of Influence -Cargo of Doom -The Gungan General
-Assassin -Children of the Force -Blue Shadow Virus
-Pursuit of Peace -Senate Spy -Mystery of a 1000 Moons
-Grievous Intrigue
Watched More Than Twice -The Deserter Watched Twice
-Clone Cadets -Lightsaber Lost -Jedi Crash
-ARC Troopers -The Zillo Beast -Defenders of Peace
-Hunt for Ziro -The Zillo Beast Strikes Back -The Hidden Enemy
-Heroes on Both Sides -Death Trap -Storm over Ryloth
-Nightsisters -Lethal Trackdown -Hostage Crisis
-Monster
-Witches of the Mist Watched More Than Twice Watched More Than Twice
-Overlords -Landing at Point Rain -Ambush
-Altar of Mortis -Weapons Factory -Rookies
-Ghosts of Mortis -Legacy of Terror -Bombad Jedi
-The Citadel -Brain Invaders -Cloak of Darkness
-Counterattack -The Mandalore Plot -Lair of Grievous
-Citadel Rescue -Voyage of Temptation -Trespass
-Padawan Lost -Duchess of Mandalore -Innocents of Ryloth
-Wookiee Hunt -Senate Murders -Liberty on Ryloth
-Cat & Mouse
-Bounty Hunters

So I personally have felt that more Season 3 episodes have more rewatch value, although I did have to watch all of the Season 1 episodes I didn't rewatch again for fun but for purpose of polling.

 

I enjoyed watching all four of the arcs that comprised the second half of the season and, for the most part, thought that they were well executed. However, when it comes to rewatch value the Nightsisters triology is really the only one that I'm eager to see again. With regard to the first half of the season, I want to see the Kamino dulogy and Hunt for Ziro again, but that's pretty much it. With Seasons 1 and 2 on the other hand I find that I'll stick the DVDs on and only skip 4 or 5 episodes per season.

As I say, I thought that most of the second half of season three was legitimately well done. I just didn't feel the urge to watch any episode beyond the Nightsisters triology more than once when they were first broadcast.

 

Basically, the episodes of Season 3 fall into three categories for me:

Great: Kamino Arc, Hunt For Ziro, Overlords and the Predator Duology.

Good, but rushed/underwhelming: Heroes on Both Sides, Nightsisters Trilogy, Altar of Mortis, Ghosts of Mortis and Citadel Trilogy.

Bad: Everything else.

Overall, aside from a few excellent episodes, for me Season 3 episodes were either all-around terrible or had something holding them back from being really good. (Pacing, dialogue, etc.) While the second half was certainly 200% better than the first, it still was relatively low-quality compared to other seasons.

 

The spacing was really off in my post. Sorry people.

 

Season 3's first half consisted of left over episodes from the previous two seasons which weren't finished in time. We all survived the first half of the season and maybe one day we can get past it.

 

It's still fresh in people's minds. Unless we do a Season 3 poll after Season 4, it'll probably go away.

 

I started late this season renewed my interest right about when Monster was coming out.

That said, I did watch the entire first half and more in pretty much one long session and I was glad I missed them.

 

First half is the worst half of the first 3 seasons, the second half is the best of the series by far.