Full Series For Discussion of Old TCW episodes...

Speaking of the Malevolence arc, I will always remember that classic line by Dooku: "Grievous! Those battle droids are expensive"

 

Which means still a couple episodes to go before Rookies on Toonami. =(

I've been recording them on my DVR from Toonami to try and show some kinda of support for the show but haven't watched them yet.

 

I am not very good at keeping to my self-appointed schedule. I can only watch episodes on certain days and I'd laid out my schedule perfectly so that I finish S4 in time for S5 blu-ray to arrive. I don't want to go out of order for anything. Ended up watching 6 episodes today!

So, moving on... last few eps of Season 1, in chronological order (ignoring Hostage Crisis since that is later on in the timeline).

Trespass
First thing I'll say about this: I loved the snow in this, I thought the animation of their surroundings was done fabulously. Onto the episode. I feel Anakin is really at a loose end in this episode. He wasn't really needed other then to show Obi-Wan that drawing pictures for the Talz would help with their communication problems. The Pantorian leader just comes across as a - I hesitate to say this - racist? Not sure if that is the word to describe him, but he seems very bigoted. I liked Senator Chu-Chi.

Blue Shadow Virus
Jar Jar again. Thankfully he does have a some sort of useful role in this so he is bearable. Padme needs rescuing again. Doctor Noro Vindi has a very annoying voice, he's like a pantomime villain.

Mystery of a Thousand Moons
A good concept but rough execution. I enjoyed the inter cutting between the two different locations. Once again Padme's life is in danger, but this time from a deadly disease. I sense her needing rescuing may become a pattern... I love Obi-Wan's line after Anakin had destroyed defenseless battle droids! The trap around Iego just makes me think of it as a test for a Death Star laser.

Storm Over Ryloth
Ahsoka disobeys orders, gets her men killed, doesn't like it, has a strop, has a brilliant plan and feels better about herself. I liked Anakin's tactic of driving his ship into the Trade Federation one. They did seem to be a little slow on the uptake though.

Innocents of Ryloth
Waxer and Boil. Enjoyed those two with the little Twi'lek girl! Obi-Wan's technique to deal with the gutkurrs is different. I liked the Twi-lek's getting their own back on the droid commander at the end, Obi-Wan unsuccessfully shielding the girls eyes from that!

Liberty of Ryloth
Mace Windu has an episode (almost) to himself! He seems quite a hard Jedi. A good lesson is conveyed in this episode: Working together with rivals can help the greater good. In this case Syndulla and Senator Taa agree to work together to help Windu free the capital city. I love the Ryloth trilogy however.

 

The trap in MoaTM reminded me of the Tholian Web.

 

The 3-fingered Taa and 4-fingered Cham were interesting - I liked the sense that their shared planet meant something to them beyond their individual interests, as you said, and that neither knew what exactly would become of their home, but struggled onwards, anyway, Taa being for the status quo, I suppose. He's a fun character to read about.

 

The Ryloth eps also suffer since they screwed up the planet. It's supposed to be tidally locked to its star.

Maybe the action all took place near the terminator, and the effects of libration cause a night-day cycle there... It would make sense.

 

I keep forgetting to post here after watching episodes. But I remembered this morning.

So, now I'm moving onto Season 2 material for this chronological viewing.

Holocron Heist
Cad Bane's first episode! Ahsoka is far too overconfident and doesn't think of looking behind her which could have resulted in her going up in a fireball if Obi-Wan and Anakin hadn't got to her position in time. Ahsoka doesn;t like guard duty - next time, don't argue with your superiors who have far more experience then you. Good to see Jocasta Nu.

Cargo of Doom
Again Ahsoka gets herself into trouble resulting in Anakin having to save her by opening the Holocron. I liked the fight without gravity. Cad Bane is a rather good villain.

Children of the Force
Impressive mind trick by Obi-Wan, Anakin and Mace Windu on Bane. The little Jedi children are actually quite cute. "Among the children of the Jedi, there are no innocents." That is an omen of what is to come in ROTS. Mustafar. Why???? Mace setting off Bane's alarms... Bane has quite a stringent security system set up.

Bounty Hunters
Hondo is back! But is pillaging farmers crops. Not good. The advancement in animation since Hondo's first appearance makes his character model really stick out. I liked the different Bounty Hunters. Embo is cool.

The Zillo Beast
Dugs. Big massive beast. I liked that Mace fought for the creature's right to live. The bomb at the beginning was impressive, why wasn't it used again?

The Zillo Beast Strikes Back
Star Wars meets King Kong. I found it hilarious that a massive beast seemed to want to get back at Palpatine. If only the beast had actually succeeded... I liked that it was emphasized that despite its size, the Zillo Beast was intelligent. It recognized Palpatine. Using the Force to hold back the toxic green fuel was impressive.

Up next: the five-part Geonosis arc.

 

I liked the appearance of Aurra Sing more than Bane at first. Because she was an introduction of a character everyone had speculated on at the time of TPM, and then... nothing. She was in the comics of course, but then finally she turns up in something onscreen and gets a chance to shine. Yay! Course then Sing became kinda a nobody after a while, while Bane became a Bad Mother ****** and featured throughout the show...

Edit: Just remembered Aurra isn't in this episode. This is the one with the shapeshifter, right? I was mixing it up with the senate attack.

Ahsoka getting herself into trouble I thought was meant to show how she is in many ways the image of her master. Particularly her reckless solo pursuit of Cad Bane in Cargo of Doom. It was very reminiscent of Anakin's reckless charge on Dooku in AoTC... "I'm taking him NOW!" ignoring Obi-Wan's shouted command not to... and which quickly got him a healthy dose of Force-lightning.

I thought when Ahsoka stood up to the gloating Bane and told him "enjoy it while you can, this burning boat is about to finish off the both of us" it was possibly inspired by Luke's very similar-in-spirit retort to Palpatine in RoTJ. "You're wrong. Soon I'll be dead, and you with me". In both cases hoping to wipe the grin off the bad guy's face by pointing out the external factors that were likely to spell doom for everyone present.

I never really cared for the Zillo Beast too much. Maybe it seemed to fantastical. Or was too much of an obvious Godzilla ripoff (right down to the name and the roar). But hey, ESB had the giant space worm thing that Han accidentally parked the Falcon inside. So I shouldn't be overly concerned I guess.

Ah, the five-part Geonosis arc that should have been a four-part arc. "Weapons Factory" should never have happened, it was unnescesary, the droid factory destruction should have been tacked onto the end of Landing at Point Rain, and it should have gone something like this:

Rex: Well that's the theater shield neutralized. Now all we got to do is take care of that clanker mill.

Anakin: Luminara here has come up with a plan on how to do that. The main force of the army is to assault the front gate along the main access road and across the bridge. Meanwhile my padawan Ahsoka, and Master Unduli's padawan Barriss will sneak down to the canyon floor, and cut their way...

*Anakin stops as he sees the incredulous look forming on Capt. Rex's face*

Anakin: Captain?

Rex: Permission to speak freely sir?

Anakin: As always Rex.

Rex: Did I not just tell you that we have deactivated the theater shield protecting this facility, sir?

Anakin: Yes... and?

Rex: And do we not have orbital overwatch on station? The Geonosian fighter forces have been cleared from orbit last I heard.

Anakin: Yes, this is true also... I think I see where you're going with this Rex...

Rex: Then why are we going ahead sir with what would seem to be to be a completely unnecessary operation that will sacrifice the lives of many clones and may well get your padawan killed, when we can destroy the factory with orbital gunfire support without risking a single man?

Anakin: Would you believe it if I told you that it's to let Luminara look good?

*Anakin leans close and whisperes*

Anakin: Between you and me Rex, Luminara is a crap general, but to humor her they're letting her plan this assault so she can put the successful command of a major ground assault on her Jedi resume.

*Rex looks stunned. Then his expression hardens.*

Rex: You do realize sir, that I am now duty-bound to report what you have just told me up the chain, sir. This is militarily irresponsible and frankly reprehensible conduct. Unless of course... you were to go over the head of Unduli... it might take some, uh, patching up on your part, sir, but I could forget this conversation and need not pass it up to command. With all due respect, sir.

Anakin: (drily, through gritted teeth) Of course, Rex. I guess I'll have to... handle Luminara and her coming hissy fit once this is over. But I'm glad you were here to remind me to do the right thing, Rex. Doing it this way is what's right. And that's all that matters...... Captain Rex?

Rex: Yes, sir?

Anakin: Want to call it in?

Rex: (chuckling a little) You bet I'm callin' it in.

*He activates his comlink*

Rex: Resolute, Resolute, Domino five-oh-one, fire mission, over!

RSD Resolute gunnery chief, over comlink: Domino five-oh-one, Resolute fire control. Go ahead with co-ordinates, over.

Rex: (Utters a series of co-ordinates) Fire for effect, spotter adjustment not required, over.

RSD Resolute gunnery chief, over comlink: Roger that Domino, commencing orbit over target area. Stand by for support. The hammer's comin' down.

*Cut to a shot of the LAAT's flying back up into space towards the waiting starships, while a stream of turbolaser bolts plunges down past them towards the planet's surface.*

*End credits*

 

The Zillo Beast and Zillo Beast Strikes Back are great for a lot of reasons, but a big-scope-of-TCW reason is that it shows Mace Windu (thus the Jedi Council) clashing with Palpatine, and Anakin slightly ambivalent but mostly with Mace Windu/the Jedi Council. It's the perfect set-up for the S4 Rako Hardeen arc and the S5 finale arc.

 

Darth Valkyrus

While I applaud your use of logic to prove that the plan to infiltrate the Geonosian catacombs while providing a distraction at the bridge was completely and utterly unnecessary, I will grant that Weapons Factory did give us some decent Ahsoka-Barriss interactions that would result in the beginning of a friendship that would lead naturally into Brain Invaders. This plot point would become much more significant later thanks to the Fugitive arc, where it's implied that Ahsoka and Barriss' friendship has further developed. Having gone through a life-and-death situation together while contrasting the Master-Padawan relationships between Anakin and Ahsoka and Luminara and Barriss, respectively, gave us further insights into Jedi training outside of the Big Three, which I for one welcomed. It then flows naturally (pardon the use of that phrase from that song again [thanks, CT...]) into Brain Invaders, where the stakes are obviously raised since the two had bonded from their life-and-death experience earlier, and so it made sense that Ahsoka would refuse to strike Barriss down despite the latter's pleas to end her life.

Remove Weapons Factory from the equation and suddenly Brain Invaders loses much of its impact and worse, the close relationship established between Ahsoka and Barriss in The Jedi Who Knew Too Much becomes more jarring. Really, TCW should have given us more opportunities to see the two together to better establish this relationship beforehand so as to increase the impact of Barriss' betrayal in the final arc. Without Weapons Factory, this problem becomes magnified.

I guess the solution would be to make another episode or something before Brain Invaders focusing on the two Padawans battling Geonosians, and perhaps putting an emphasis on Barriss' abilities as a healer as a shout-out to the EU. Some sort of friendship has to be established prior to Brain Invaders and The Jedi Who Knew Too Much. Although the two episodes of the Geonosis arc with Barriss likely led to the birth of the Barrissoka ship... In any case, the point is, I thought the main purpose of Weapons Factory was to establish the friendship between Ahsoka and Barriss, while contrasting the different beliefs and perspectives of Jedi training based on the styles of their Masters. Destroying the factory might have been the main goal, but it was largely secondary to this.

 

It flows naturally, when you feel it, baby.

 

Circular Logic You're right of course about the weapons factory plot feeding into and driving the subsequent Barriss / Ahsoka story, but it maybe could have been handled another way. There's loads of ways they could have put those two together on a special mission and in mortal danger, even down to the details of their would-be kamikaze sacrifice, and the subsequent differing attitudes of their masters re: getting them out.

The Weapons Factory plan jumped out at me and stuck in my craw a bit because of the seeming... well, to paraphrase master Qui-Gon... "There's no logic in their move here."

Circular Logic and anakinfansince1983 I did find it a little odd that Ahsoka was apparently prepared to sacrifice her own life to stop Cad Bane from getting the Kyber crystal info ("No master, don't do it") with barely a second thought, but was not ready to kill another person for the greater good, even when she had that person's express permission (indeed, a demand) to do it. Weird rationalization / logic there.

Spock would definitely have killed Barriss in that situation.

 

Makes sense to me. Of course a Jedi would be willing to sacrifice themselves to save others, but less willing to kill an innocent without exhausting every option.

Spock ain't even close to a Jedi, he's supposedly pure logic. A Jedi is supposed to be full of love and compassion while relying on instincts and the Force. I really don't think logic means much to a Jedi, despite Qui-Gon's quote referring to the Neimoidians.

 

Senate Spy
Padme given an assighment, Anakin doesn't like it, Padme goes anyway, Anakin plays jealous guard, Padme gets poisoned, Clovis is creepy, and Anakin leaves Clovis in the hands of Lot Dod after 'rescuing' Padme again. A good set up episode for the following four episodes.

Landing At Point Rain
"I shall be waiting for you when you finally arrive." Prophetic words which nearly turn out to be true since Obi-Wan is the one who reaches the landing zone, though overshooting it a bit, getting shot down and needs rescuing from his downed ship. Anakin telling Ahsoka off for not noticing the giant wall, in which she did. Good to see Ki-Adi Mundi in action, the one and only time I believe. The counting of kills... nice light relief at the end with Ki-Adi wanting to know what he has won. Anakin stumped for an answer and then talks about everlasting respect. I wonder if Anakin still has respect for Mundi when he becomes Vader?

Weapons Factory
Luminara and Barriss. Anakin does not appear to trust Ahsoka enough to give the briefing without interrupting. He doesn't like it when Luminara proposes Ahsoka and Barriss infiltrate the factory. He should really have more faith in his Padawan. Ahsoka and Barriss work well together and its understandable why they might have forged a lasting friendship considering what they went through in the episode. Both were ready to die for the cause. Ahsoka is smart enough to find a way out for them however. The music is quite sad when the factory blows up.

Legacy of Terror
Luminara is stubborn: wanting to grab Poggle while they can. Which leads to her needing rescuing, which in turn allows Obi-Wan and Anakin some good banter exchanges as they walk up towards the Queen. Walking dead soldiers, always useful. But yay they captured Poggle! Best line goes to Anakin: "Study the bottom of my boot!" Oh and Anakin likes to think with his lightsaber hahahaha! And Obi-Wan takes a lesson from Anakin about disobeying orders. Ok there is so many good lines in that episode.

Brain Invaders
Ahsoka struggles with quiet-time. Being out in war has affected her. Worm infection. Barriss and Ahsoka split up, a wise choice which ultimately goes wrong when Barriss becomes infected. The infected clones show how their training/programming. Anakin uses Force choke on Poggle, further cementing his unorthodox ways, and is a hint towards his future dark nature. Ahsoka does what she needs to do, thereby saving Barriss' life. Anakin gives Ahsoka a lesson on attachments.

Overall: a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable arc! Still remains one of the best of the entire series.

 

And somewhat strangely enough the only five-part story of the series (which definitely gives it an advantage with the quality of the plot; the story gets the right amount of time without feeling rushed).

 

I liked the design of the hospital space station and the way ships approached and docked with it. Proper use was made of the three-dimensional, directionless, gravityless nature of space, something rare in SW where the "2d Space" / "Space Is An Ocean" tropes are usually played dead straight.

 

I would argue that Supply Lines + Ambush + Ryloth make a complete 5-ep arc, as well.

 

Hmm... Thinking back on Brain Invaders I seem to recall Ahsoka contacting Anakin while her ship was in hyperspace.

Is that another sneaky retcon?

Or maybe both ships were in hyperspace at the time, I can't remember exactly. That could avoid a retcon by saying that one ship in hyperspace can talk to another ship in hyperspace, while remaining incommunicado with realspace.

 

Well, I guess that would count as one as well even though the episodes weren't consecutively aired (but thinking back to those episodes, the narrative doesn't flow as well as the one in the Geonosis arc).

 

What about C&M, THE and the TCW Movie? Since the movie was itself 4 episodes welded into one, from a certain POV that could be called a 6-episode arc.

From another POV though, the movie was mostly a separate trilogy, with the final episode of the Christophsis arc (TNP) welded onto the start of it, thus C&M through CoS is actually two separate trilogy arcs.

 

Every time I watch Landing at Point Rain I'm still surprised by two things: there's practically no plot, just 100% action - and yet it's still completely riveting. The dialogue with Ki Adi Mundi at the end is the only thing that makes you think, perfect icing on the cake though. To each episode its own, I say!

 

Landing at point rain is possibly my all time favorite episode of TCW. The only other one that would stand about equal with it is the first episode of the Umbara arc. The rest of the Umbara arc is right behind.

Apparently when they were making it, they already had it halfway made, and someone... either Filoni or Lucas, I forget who exactly, said he didn't like the look of it and it could be better. He then brought in dvd's of Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and The Longest Day and had everybody watch them, and pretty much told them to do the episode based off elements from those.

 

That's interesting. The action hits you so hard, it's very easy to believe that. (I haven't actually seen any of those films - just that it was based directly off war films - just like the X-Wings versus TIE Fighters fights in Ep. IV!)