Full Series Grade the Episode - 102 "Rising Malevolence"

7/10

After watching the season premiere, I was losing hope that this show would have any redeeming factors at all. I didn't enjoy the movie, Ambush or Rising Malevolence; they were Star Wars, that was undeniable, but not good Star Wars.

At first, I was excited that this episode seemed darker in tone than the previous one, but then the Battle Droids started speaking and that blew out the window, or pod window....whatever

And one more thing, "Artooey"? What is that???

Thankfully, we have Shadow of Malevolence coming up...phew...I've got through the hard ones now!

 

If that's a star, it's a red dwarf. Red dwarves are a lot cooler...

I don't know how realistic the scenario is in that case, but at least it makes it somewhat more plausible.

Wikipedia:

According to the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, a red dwarf star is a small and relatively cool star, of the main sequence, either late K or M spectral type.

They constitute the vast majority of stars and have a mass of less than half that of the Sun (down to about 0.075 solar masses, which are brown dwarfs) and a surface temperature of less than 4,000 K.

A 'normal' star looks something like what we saw in Jedi Crash.

 

Even a Red Dwarf is hot enough to burn stuff. It might not be on the level of our sun, but it transfers energy the same way, in this case radiation. If a person is not in a sealed suit, they will suffer from exposure. The only reason that we aren't burned to a crisp is because the sun's radiation is filtered through our atmosphere to a level where we don't spontaneously combust. If you are in outer space, you are taking a direct hit from the radiation, and even with cooler stars, you are going to be cooked alive.

 

I could find nothing wrong with this episode: 10/10.

This episode was my first introduction to Ahsoka Tano and I distinctly recall wondering who this bizarre girl with the strange headdress was (yes, I didn't know she was a Togruta)...and how the heck did I not know about Anakin having a padawan. I wasn't quite sure what to make of her, but after doing some wookieepedia research, I became very intrigued by her character; especially given that her final fate was still unknown.

I especially like some of the homages this episode gives to ESB with Ahsoka sensing that Plo Koon is still alive much like Leia sensed Luke as the heroes were departing Cloud City. Also, the final escape of the Twilight is reminiscent of the Millenium Falcon escaping at the end of ESB with similar reactions from the villains; fury and resignation.

Finally, I've always be intrigued by Plo Koon and this was a fantastic way to give him the spotlight. His characterization was perfect.

 

7/10 I rewatched it today solid episode and at the time it came out Plo was so new and fresh and so bad*ss too- podhunter-idea was nice and ruthless and Grievous was really a threath with his ioncannon-
this spaceaction is bit risky though because of all these obvious physical impossibilities but anyway i guess clonearmor protects from radiation and heat as well and Plo just is superpowerguy or then Abregado is abnormal red dwarf following it's own SW-physics completely.... one thing that bothered me is this odd jedilogic really- sometimes they go to save every single lost jedi like Eeth Koth, Even Piell(ok he had that info) and sometimes not- how does saving Plo is now thing not to do while they need to find and destroy that weapon? I guess council don't really like Plo then if they need Anakin's fleet to protect supply convoys from Malevolence why they need Anakin- are Yularen's fleet and clone pilots so poor they need that one superpilot there to be safe?

Can someone explain more the logic of all those actions by the council and Plo- he is also contradicting with himself- in Padawan Lost he was that kind of calculating jedi now he was not while jedi were about to leave them as clones thought he was sure someone would come- shouldn't he know jedi should never risk many lives to save few- yet they sometimes do so- like in AOTC i think jedi are so many times so hypocrite....

 

One of the biggest pluses for this episode is definitely how intimidating they made General Grievous, especially since much of TCW portrays him as not-so-intimidating.

 

Agreed. The awesome super-weapon helps a lot though.

 

I also like that aspect, but at the same time that could also kind of go in the Single Episode/Arc Characters thread because I really wished they had built that up through maybe the first third or half of the season and then have it destroyed, instead of destroying it in its debut arc.

 

Yeah, I said the same thing. Would have been awesome if the Malevolence had been a 'lasting' factor in the first season. I also expected it to be that way when it first aired.

 

Also VERY much agree on that point. For such an awesome weapon, its reign was far too brief and we didn't really get to see it terrorizing the Republic much.

 

He was definitely pretty badass; I enjoyed that.

 

I disagree about Malevolence it had to be destroyed in it's debute arc because it was too super - just like Death Star- baddies cannot have such a acecard for long- but this arc was far too early during the season- it should've been after R2-arc and maybe even Lair of Grievous- so GG would've had great revenge with some victories after those defeats- now they started with a bang and GG-embarassment marathon continues Destroy Malevolence, Rookies, Downfall of the Droid, Duel of the Droids (at this point i felt they made this show just to make Grievous look like complete clown and loser- he is coward in ROTS too but cool coward- in this he was a joke after so many defeats- good that Ahsoka didn't beat him up like she did to Bane) Good that Lair showed he is capable of killing the jedi while his fleet-actions are always ruined by Skywalker he never even sees face to face ..... ROTS should've had a line "Anakin Skywalker- considering that you've destroyed my ships and stations all these years- i thought you would be a little... older...."

 

This episode covers a lot of territory, from how Ahsoka came to the Jedi, to the intro of Plo Koon.

I wonder how old Ahsoka was when she came to the temple since she seems to remember the experience.

"Twice the trouble saving Plo Koon is" - Master Yoda....OK, thats not an exact quote but its nice(or not) to see Yoda back in character and not caring about the little people again.

"POD 1977".....Hey, thats a familiar number ins't it.

The only major fault with the episode is that it makes Grievous look like a clown(as this whole series does). I mean can't he scan for lifeforms the same as Anakin did on the Twilight? How dumb.

2-1B ending his sentences with "Sir", just like he did in ESB.

7/10

 

7/10. More of a clear cut grading that the last two

The narration is a bit off, the reading is flat (probably because it was one of the first episodes made) but it makes it feel a bit weird compared to other episodes.

Plenty to like in this episode - getting used to the no Christopher Lee. A strong story and a great example of how a trilogy can work with a nicely wrapped up 'ending' of sorts. But they go too far with this later in the season.

I liked Anakin's calm mentoring side plenty of 'good advice' for Ahsoka on how to act around the council... too bad he doesn't remember his own lessons in RotS. Some creepy and disturbing scenes with the clones under threat of the droids coming around to kill everyone and nice touches from Plo & good background exposition for Ahsoka without getting too far in the way.

Am I right in saying that if the "New Padawan" episode hadn't been made for the movie, then this would've been her introduction? Because it probably wouldn't have made as bad an impression on people as her "Skyguy", "Artooey" entrance in the movie made had it been her first.

Nonetheless a great episode, and has me looking forward to Shadow of Malevolence now!

 

Given this episode a 7. Everyone's made all the main points already, so all I'll say is that there are some good points to it, but the whole Malevolence arc falls into the large 'meh' category for me. Just don't care for it.

 

3 or 4 years old

 

3 years old according to the original Decoded episode.

 

So wouldn't a three year old have already developed attachments to their parents?

 

They were probably crappy parents, who didn't let her stay awake late watching TV.

 

Exactly what I was about to type before the phone rang and my internet lagged out

 

then it would explain Ahsoka's rather rebellious nature....