Full Series Discuss/Regrade the Episode: S03E02: ARC Troopers

Episode 3.2!! ARC Troopers
Its a big day for Echo and Fives



"Fighting a war tests a soldier's skills, defending his home tests a soldier's heart.


The Republic learns of an impending Separatist attack on Kamino, andAnakin and Obi-Wan hurry to the planet. After the Republic repulses the Separatists' diversionary assault, the real attack begins. Asajj Ventress,General Grievous and an army of droids rise out of the oceans, bent on destroying Kamino's clone production facilities. Rex, Cody, Fives and Echo lead the clones in a desperate defense of their home planet.


http://starwars.com/explore/the-clone-wars/ep302/#!/about

Now that you've rewatch the episode lets regrade it. Feel free to discuss as much as you like.

 

Weakest episode of the Domino trilogy. For one thing, the Arc troopers that were so heavily promoted during the run up to this do almost nothing. One is killed in an instant by Ventress, and the other two pretty much blend into the background.

Got some decent action in it, and the scene of thousands of baby fetus tanks being shattered earns points for being pretty ballsy. But the pacing is all off, there is not enough interaction between the Clones (which is what makes Rookies and Cadets so good), and it gets incredibly overblown at times. 99's death is less tragic than it is hilarious. It's like the Hunchback of Notre Dam trying to run and looking like a gimped monkey. The death was so hackneyed and forced that I just laughed.

Then there is the "promotion". Now, I didn't have as much of a problem with this as some other people. It was established in the comics that Alpha returned to Kamino to start retraining promising Clones and Clone Commanders with the Arc Trooper program to make up for the heavy losses the ARCs took in their operations. Rex is presumably Alpha's replacement, so it makes sense that he would be the one to put in a recommendation for Fives and Echo.

The best memory I have from this episode, however, was the hilarious rage that happened in the comments thread. Some weirdo took umbrage that the Daniel Logan Clones were opening fire on the droids, saying that the show was endorsing Child Soldiers. It escalated to the point where he pretty much accused Gry Sarth of being a pedophile for using the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon to show that Child warriors have been in cartoons since the 80s.

EDIT. Suppose I should get my score. 6/10.

 

I ranked this as the third greatest episode of the entire series, it was a seriously amazing episode. Great action and a great storyline, with two great duels.
- Grievous was the highlight of the episode for me, and his ongoing duel with Obi-Was was fantastic.
- Anakin and Ventress' ongoing duel was great as well, and I could see the animation with these two duels had improved from seasons one and two.
- Was awesome to see Shaak Ti in action, I would've liked to see her have a brief duel with Grievous or Ventress though.
- Good Clones vs. Droids scenes, and great to see Rex and Cody join in the battle.
- Space battle at the start was good.
- The setting for the episode on Tipoca City looked great.
- The death of 99 was sad, I still think the Clones could've stopped the Droids was killing him though.
- Overall I give this episode a 10/10

 

I love that guy, the funniest JCF poster I've ever encountered.

I'm reading through the discussion thread now and l just can't stop laughing. If I don't stop laughing soon, I'm going to die laughing.

EDIT: I'm enjoying it so much, I'm going to go through S1 episode threads to find comments he mentioned in the "ARC Troopers" thread.

 

10/10

Fives and Echo were awesome, 99 was cool, the duels were cool, the battle was awesome, KAMINO!!!!

 

8/10

+Kamino was beautifully animated, again
+Asajj Ventress, you make every episode you're in, yours
+"My dear General, there's nothing you have that I could want."...
+Shaak Ti in action
+99
+Space battle
+Cool idea of debris
+Anakin/Ventress duel
+Battle was well-done
+The deleted scene

-Grievous versus Obi-Wan again?
-ARC promotion?

Weakest of the Delta Squad trilogy, but the moments Ventress and Shaak are on screen help the other ones. Missed opportunity with Shaak Ti in a potential duel with Grievous and or Ventress

 

**** it, removed.

 

This episode was one of the best in the series. It continued and in some ways, concluded, the story of Domino Squad with Fives and Echo becoming ARC Troopers.

10/10

 

A blatant re-tread of the Battle of Kamino from the Republic comics, I'll give it a 5 for the animation, especially all the vats falling down; that was epic. Other than that, I was really unimpressed. Another Grievous vs. Obi-Wan duel? Some more clones I never cared about? Shaak Ti's model is so fragile and cumbersome.

So yeah, 5/10

 

A delightful episode, and one of my favorites involving the clones. There was plenty of action and heroism for our friends from Domino Squad, and a nice cameo from 99, whom I find very likable. I do agree that his death could probably have been more meaningful, given how the way he dies just seems very avoidable. I suppose the titular "ARC Troopers" didn't actually make too much of an impact in the episode but oh well. I also loved the role the Aqua Droids played in infiltrating Tipoca City and getting troops into the compound. Shaak Ti in action against the CIS for the first and only time in TCW! I really wish we can see more of her in combat like in the microseries. Great character interaction between General Grievous and Asajj Ventress, one of my favorite parts in the episode; I loved how Ventress was so snarky and dismissive of the general. Nice duels between Obi-Wan and Grievous, and Anakin and Ventress. Too bad they cut out the scene where she kisses Colt after impaling him, that was pretty kinky, and obviously quite mature for a show like this.

Overall I give it a 9/10.

 

Ventress' kiss. That smacking sound.

Automatic 10/10.

 

I remember that too, I should dig that up and read that argument again, it was quite funny.

 

Yessss. That was the scene that made me buy TCW in the first place, so *not* giving this episode a 10/10 would not be fair.

 

But you gave it 1/10

 

First of all, this was quite the battle piece for a single, twenty-minute episode. Tipoca looked outstanding, and the platforms interlinked by walkways carried a nice Battlefront feel. The space battle was decent, if a bit short, and the idea of using the wreckage to mask a water assault was intriguing. I enjoyed 99's story, as much as something like the death of a character like that can be technically enjoyed. Seeing the young clones take action was a nice bit, as well, harkening back to Alpha's Republic line insisting that the young cadets could defend themselves with a bit of initiative. I'm not too torn up about another battle of Kamino storyline, since there was already another Mandalorian-launched battle in canon in addition to the one from the Republic comics, and it makes sense to continue targeting what is essentially the Republic's largest war asset.

What I'm not particularly thrilled by was the decision not to acknowledge the earlier Kamino battle even in the vaguest of passing lines, nor was I pleased by the scrambling of Grievous and Ventress' introductory timeline and the fumbling of Rogue's Gallery. Between the two issues, -1. The decision to censor Ventress' death kiss was a stupid one, but one that can't be blamed on the creative team. One that can, however, is the utter nerfing of the ARC troopers. These are supposed to be the best of the best; the only thing better than an Alpha-class ARC is a Null-class ARC, and even that's a slim margin. Yet they had them going out faster than the average whitejob trooper. Another -1 for the episode's main attraction being a thorough disappointment by design. The promotion of Fives and Echo to ARCs on the other hand isn't much of a big deal, we've already got the precedence for that with Nate and Alpha's whole advanced training program.

A mostly enjoyable episode with a few flaws, resulting in an 8 out of 10.

 

Okay here we go...

+Opening fortune cookie/Moral

+Rex & Cody's reaction to the droids attacking Kamino "If someones going to attack our home, they better be carrying a big blaster"

+Grievous/Ventress dynamic. Really set up their rivalry great. I loved Grievous' scene where he grabs ventress' arm and asks her if she wants an escort

+Fives and Echo... Amazing amazing episode for them. I loved when they saw the cadets and reminisced about the past.

+Shak Ti

+99... Such an awesome character, his sacrifice was noble and he was a great hero.

+Ventress being AWESOME... her kill on the arc trooper was epic and she had tons of great lines this episode

+The ARC troopers

+Ventress vs Anakin. Great fight and I liked when the clone grabbed the DNA jar when ventress was trying to call it over with the force

+GRIEVOUS... was BOSS this episode. I loved when his fleet came out of hyperspace and the droids where calling out the status and grievous is just standing there like a boss

+Obiwan vs Grievous... awesome, and grievous was more than a match for kenobi...

+Broadside

+Aqua Droids

+Them making fives and echo easily distinct from one another

+Epic shots of the clone blowing up the droid craft with the rocket launcher

+Fives cradling dead 99.... soo sad.

+Promotion to arc troopers & fives and echo's reactions to the news

+All the great quotes this episode... "Define easy general" "you werent planning on leaving without saying goodbye" "we lost a true soldier today" etc... I could go on and on

In short easily a 10/10... no negatives whatsoever. Easily one of the best episodes of the series.

 

I also remember some nut trying to apply the Geneva convention to Landing at Point Rain because he was appalled that they would issue flamethrowers to the Republic military. Guess nobody told him about Jango Fett.

 

Then why did you give it a 1/10?

 

Because there are so many haters in this thread, and he's one obviously!

 

Is that really what Rex's face used to look like?

 

10
Only negative I can think of is that Ventress wasn't killed. Man I love Anakin's line- "No I'm going to let the clones execute you...right now"

 

LOL! Sorry AF didn't mean to step on your toes but since Ventress' introduction in '03 I've just been waiting for Anakin to run her through. Er, with his lightsaber ofcourse. However her character is a lot better in TCW than the old CW material.