Full Series Grade the Episode - 101 "Ambush"

Voting a 9. This episode is one of the few that just seem like good simple Star Wars. Seeing Yoda fight is always fun, but it's his talk with the clones that make this episode special. Truely a great way to kick off Season 1.

 

I didn't watch the film until after seasons one and two, and as my first TCW I felt Ambush set a high bar. It has tons of action, the planet looks very alien, and that they'd have a scene where Yoda speaks with the clones about their individuality which we learn they don't believe they have was something I wasn't expecting from the series so I was very pleasantly surprised. It's the only episode in which Yoda is the main character, after 3 full seasons. Also, my scale basically consists of 6 - 10 and 1.

 

Gave it an 8.

Yoda. Clones. Ventress. The scene in the cave, all made this episode. We still haven't seen Thire, Jek or Rhys again either. Though the battle droid humor now is a bit hard to take, the animation is the early Season 1 animation which compared to now is a joke. They did a great job with the environments though and I wonder how good this episode would look if it was made during Season 2 or 3.

Bonus points for Yoda embarrassing Ventress at the end too.

 

8/10

Solid series opener, Yoda was great and the clones were cool. King Katuunko was a great new character and it was refreshing to see a respectable Toydarian for once.

The action was good, the storyline was good, but my favorite scene was where Yoda talks to the clones in the cave. It reminded me a lot of ESB Yoda.

 

Yeah, I?m not positive, however I am fairly sure it was just 16:9.

Yeah I had also calculated this. I can only assume that they will run repeats following July... but it would be cool if we got an early premier . I?m just glad we will finally be getting the show premiering at a date close to the actual US premier...

Yeah the nostalgia value may have something to do with it. However at the same time I genuinely feel this is classic and innocent Star Wars. Nothing earth-shattering, however never-the-less a good and enjoyable watch. To be honest I don?t know how I will react to Rising Malevolence and Shadow of Malevolence however... perhaps the ?Bismarck? storyline will be refreshing. We?ll see.

 

Malevolence is fantastic. It was a complete thrill ride for me, especially the first episode.

I remember being really impressed by the threat of the super weapon. As it was the start of the series, I had different expectations and thought the Malevolence was going to be a major factor in the war for a lot of episodes to come. But alas, they destroyed it at the end of the arc, of course.

 

they should do more episodes like this this started show very well- not great cons nice Yoda action... i guess biggest con in episode is extremely incapable droids- they are not capable anywhere but they had some kind aim in AOTC for example- i mean really superbattledroids have no aim at all now "die republic dogs" ok they would die more easier if you would shoot at them not above them
ok setting that aside it was good episode environment was not as lifefilled yet but they still added those little animals and all.... not a bad episode at all though- i give 9

 

Yoda. Is. Badass

I thought this episode was very good. Yoda showed exactly why he's the Grand High Poobah of the Jedi Order and everyone else . . . what's the word . . . isn't Some great action here. I thought the Ventress escape was meh 00 Yoda should have figured she would try something -- but all in all, I was impressed with him.

The clones were good. I like that they took a little time to differentiate between their personalities. The battle droids were fun. Stupid, but hilarious I appear to be in the minority, but I love the droid humor. I want a droid of my very own to make constant lame jokes with.

I didn't like the Toydarian king at first, but I actually think he's very smart. Don't piss off Ventress right off the bat when she can decapitate you as easily as slicing through butter. And even though he didn't try to get rid of her at the outset, he remained loyal to Yoda the whole time.

One criticism I have is that the plot was pretty simple and predictable. The other is that the Yoda-centric episode is first. While I love him, The Hero With No Fear is a greater draw for me. I realize the movie was supposed to act as the series beginning, but I think that for the regular episodes, they should have had Anakin and Obi-Wan be main players for the first couple episodes. (Though I have no beef with a Yoda-centric eepisode in general.)


I give it an 8.

 

Nice to see you getting into LACWAC discussions, Nat!

 

Thanks! I intend to become a LACWACer by the end of the summer

 

You've reviewed the movie and the first episode. I regret to inform you... you're already a LACWACer!

 

And some of us who consider ourselves LACWACers have not reviewed a single episode. Instead we visit the page every day and sometimes give non-helping off-topic comments and try to sound smart or funny while doing it.

I should probably stop talking about myself in plural, now.

But about Ambush. I re-watched it some months ago and was surprised how good it was. We need more Yoda, let Ric Olié have his role back. And it has been a while since we got new clones in prominent roles. Were Waxer and Boil last ones?

 

*nagging song*

NAT IS A LACWAC-ER!
NAT IS A LACWAC-ER!

NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA!
NA-NA-NA-NA-NAAAAA!



Ahem...

Well, if you're in for some Anakin & Obi-Wan, get ready for the Malevolence Arc!

Oh wait... first episode 'Rising Malevolence' is starring the one and only ... ....!

They'll be around though.

Also, I like the goofy droids too, but I'm too ashamed to admit it. Gotta work on my LACWAC-cred.

 

You guys crack me up I'm looking forward to seeing Ric Olie.

 

As a statement of intent for the direction Star Wars was being taken in TCW Ambush worked far better than the movie. Despite enjoying the first third burping huttlets and rather poor animation had me somewhat worried. Ambush did a lot to soothe those fears about what was to come.

But I don't feel Ambush has aged paticularly well. It no longer has the advantage of basicaly being the only episode around. So things like battle droid humour and a non-existant plot are complaints that I initialy overlooked that I have ended up despising. And the animation is incredibly dated. Compare the shot of Ventress running into the solar sailer to the exact same sequence of Aurra Sing running into the Slave I in Lethal trackdown, the difference is incredible. So much so you can't help but wonder if GL should have waited for a few more improvements in the animation department befroe unleashing TCW unto the world.

That being said Yoda's characterisation was well and truly nailed, and Yoda is a family favorite. That goes to help this episode a long way. And the cave sequence is a classic. for these reasons alone Ambush is a 7/10.

 

7/10. Not a good episode, but better than poisoned tea.

 

If this poll was right after the premier I would give it a 9 for awesomeness, but upon re-watching I took it down to 7. The animation is a little too dated, but the action is still 'stellar' (pun intended)

 

I decided to just skip the film and review Ambush. I ended up giving it 10/10 because I felt it had a great plot line. It makes me wish the entire of season 1 had focused on sending Jedi diplomats or Confederacy diplomats and secure the joining of a planet to either the Republic or to the Separatists. One of the things I really liked about it was how it had a major focus on the clones, unlike many other episodes, besides the Rookie trio. Plus, I starred Yoda, the only time he's gotten a starting role so far. One of the other great things about the episode was it gave each clone a personality, and we got to see some philosophical views from Yoda. These to me all add up to a ten. The oboe piece I didn't like was the Battle Droid humor, but it wasn't too bad. On the side of animation, yeah it wasn't good, but it was also one of the earliest attempts, so I don't take anything off there.

Before watching the episode, I re-read The Clone Wars: Prelude, and it does a good job of setting up for the episode, but it's what causes the arrangement problems by including Skytop Station. Other than that; I loved the episode.

 

I would give this episode a 7/10. I thought it was a decent start to the series. For one I loved seeing Yoda in action and interacting with the Clone Troopers. I enjoyed watching him teach the Clones important lessons about individuality, which in a way is quite sad knowing what the Clones will do to the Jedi in ROTS.

I liked Ventress and King Kontukko in this episode as well.

I would have given this a higher score if it weren't for the Droid humor being a little overly excessive.

 

I'll admit, I was dismissive of TCW after the mess that was the movie. However this episode went a long way towards bringing me back into the fold.

First of all: the story. Both the Separatists and the Republic are vying for control of the system of Toydaria. Based in politics, yes, but simple enough that it doesn't bog down the rest of the tale (Mandalore anyone?).

We also get a wonderful portrayal of Yoda, one that kicks ass while simultaneously harkening back to his impish ESB portrayal. The clones were also very well done. While in recent seasons it seems like every clone we see will be relegated to cannon fodder, we get to know and understand (to an extent) Thire, Jek and Rys in the scant 23 minutes the episode provides. IMO, the cave scene with Yoda and the clones is one of the strongest in the entire series.

There are few detractors for me though. While Yoda and the clones hold up in terms of animation, the rest of the environments, frankly, don't. And after all this time the droid humor is still cringe inducing. "You bucket-head. That's the jedi!" just doesn't do it for me.

Overall, I'd give this episode an 8/10.

 

TPM, anyone?

Just wanted to note I think this is the one and only time the droids refer to Ventress as "Supreme Commander"?

 

Good that I'm not the only one - i sometimes hate droidhumour though- but usually it's just so well chosen point of the episode to have droid saying "Uh-Oh" or like in Rising Malevolence that humming droid- haha priceless -they didn't bother me at all.....I didn't like them much first- but when they stopped adding them i noticed I missed them and it was nice to see those goodguy bd:s in Citadel-arc oh I miss OOM-10 at least as much as Echo....

 

I was pretty sure that I posted my review.... I may be going insane...

So sure that I'm going to do dot points... before I go on to watch the Malevolence eps

- missed Christopher Lee after just watching the movie

- Some of the animation and backgrounds felt a bit awkward throughout this... I think someone mentioned in the thread about the bushes/tree crashing looking like they hit a bit of cardboard... I agree.

- the droid humour sometimes went a little too far.... worst line was "it's in my programming" wrt being a bad shot and I usually like small doses of it

- Yoda seemed a bit short when fighting the SBDs

- overall a good episode, I was on the edge of 7.5 but I voted it down a 7, being for too much droid humour and and no CHristopher Lee (I know it's not fair but it stands out after the movie)

 

I gave this a 10, for all of the above reasons.

I watched this the first night when it came out with the kidses and they just loved it. To this day, they request watching this episode the most next to "Rookies". Yoda is awesome, the humor, even the droid humor --is fun, the music is wonderful, the visuals are decent, but very Star Wars in their feel. Plus, it actually covers aspects of the war (unlike certain later seasons' episodes ), it has space and land combat (novel concept ), and it shows that the clones are not just wet-droids. They have personalities and feelings. While they may look alike, it is their unique differences and experiences that give them an advantage over the droids.

And nothing beats Yoda giving "the giggle" as he cuts stuff to ribbons. Pure win. This episode is definitely in my overall top 10, if not top 5.