Full Series Grade the Episode: 104: Destroy Malevolence

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Now that you've watched this episode again, how would you rate it?

Remember, unlike our Season 3 polls, please feel free to discuss the episode as much as you'd like in this thread. Did the episode seem any different than the first time you saw it?

Grade average (28 votes): 6.71

 

6/10

First filler of the series.

 

^This.

But I gave it a 5.

EDIT: Also what GG said.

 

I found the dialogue to be cringe-worthy.

Grievous' "Hello, there" and then Anakin's "Someone has to go save her skin."

Like I said in Shadow of Malevolence's grading thread, the repetitive, annoying use of film dialogue was just too much.

 

Anakin's line about building/destroying droids was.... probably the worst in the entire series. Ever. I'd have to double-check with some of the tea dialogue in Corruption to make sure, but I remember watching this episode with a friend back in 2008 and I'm pretty sure they stopped watching the show based partly on the dialogue from this one episode.

 

Gave it a 5.

A pretty disappointing ending to an otherwise great trilogy. The shoehorning of Padmé and Threepio only bogged down the episode.

VERY frustrating to see the grand destruction of the mighty Malevolence reduced to a pityful burst of lens flare far in the distance. I know this is the early days of the series, but I'm sure they could have done better even then.

 

7

IMO It was not that bad really as you made it sound.... but weakest of the three- there is great irony now when Padmé mentions Banking Clan leaving the separatist Alliance and negotiating peace while it's insanely neutral later TCW don't steamroll only over EU it's steamrolls over itself....
When does Grievous meet Obi first time they seem to know each other already in this?.....
3Po's voice actor is extremely good when we had Anthony Daniels in few episodes i didn't notice the difference really.... but we didn't really need Padmé to this....

Obi-Wan jumps ship oddly- he arrives in some other ship in Shadow of Malevolence- probably in his own flagship Negotiator.... now he is aboard Resolute.....why- does he enjoy company of Anakin and Yularen so much - Cody (who has strange way to disappear oddly anyway ) or Rex was not seen in this- makes me wonder where they are?

Grievous has interesting way to put his cloak on at some point of the arc- why he always starts his arcs without it and then uses it in sequels (This and Deserter for example) it looks odd really when watching them in chronological order?

Some droidjokes in this actually work with me- like when Grievous jumps to the train and three droids follow- only one lands safely and is then hit by a train haha

 

Yep, the only times Daniels hasn't voiced Threepio is in a few video games. We should be thankful really that he's become so attached to his character that he would rather sacrifice his kids than pass up the opportunity to reprise his role.

 

Um, I gave it a 10...

The dialogue was bad in some places but overall didn't detract much from the episode for me. And although I am 100% against Obi-Wan vs. Grievpus the duel was short enough not to bother me. The episode was, IMO, creative and had the classic SW feel throughout.

 

Didn't like this one at all, gave it a 5.

Dialogue was cringe worthy, Padme and C-3PO were definitely just thrown in there. Not to mention C-3PO should of been destroyed a couple of times.

I enjoy the Malevolence trilogy but this episode brings down the entire trilogy for me.

 

Wow, I didn't expect so much negativity! This was the episode where I fell in love with the series. It had all the elements of the original Star Wars with imaginative prequel-styled spins like the transport trains. It certainly wasn't earth-shaking, but IMO is was swashbuckling SW fun!

And it's one of the few episodes where Padme didn't make me want to send a brick through my TV, so that's definitely a plus...

 

Don't get me wrong, I did like this episode the first time round. But now...ugh. The 'ZOMG new episode' factor has long gone and now we can see this episode for what it really is - crap.

 

Gave it a 7, a generous 7. Padme was annoying, I really don't think they have the right VO actor portaying her. There were some(maybe 2) good parts in the episode, but overall it was not entirely good.

 

8

I liked the Grievous/Obi-Wan duel and I also enjoyed all of the sequences on the trains.

Putting the main cast of the PT in the malevolence definitely made it one of my favorite S1 eps, however it was far from perfect.

 

Don't get me wrong, I did like this episode the first time round. But now...ugh. The 'ZOMG new episode' factor has long gone and now we can see this episode for what it really is - crap.[/quote]

After watching Dm again about a month ago I'll admit I didn't feel as excited about it as I did when it first aired, but it's still one of the best episodes so far in my mind. Certainly not as great as Voyage of Temptation or Innocents of Ryloth, but pretty far up there.

 

6/10. Wasted potential after the end of the last episode. I went in hoping for a massive counterattack, and I got Padme shoehorned into the episode for no reason.

She literally had no reason to be there apart from making a needless rescue scenario. We know she can't die, so it removes all the tension.

The droids strangely enough were among the highlights of the episode. The suicidal jumpers, and Grievous backhanding the snarky one were pretty damn funny. Also, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!

But the ending bothered me the most.
Ship hits the planet with a little blip, hooray, the end, all taking place in about the amount of time it takes to read this sentence.

It was so bloody abrupt. Huzzah-cut to black.

 

I know I'm constantly playing the devil's advocate here, but I found the Malevolence's method of destruction refreshing. Nearly every destruction scenario in SW involves blowing up the main reactor. (ANH, ROTJ, TPM, Weapons Factory, etc.) I thought that ramming the ship into a moon was pretty clever.

 

Me neither. But hey, to each his own.

 

It's not the idea, it's the execution we are dissatisfied with.

 

7/10

It was okay but not great. Some of the dialog between Anakin and Padme was annoying IMO. Also the scene in where Obi-Wan defeats the destroyers so easily by rolling them I thought was a really cheap way of getting out of that mess and I would have like to have seen him maybe get wounded just to show how dangerous that situation was.

Had the aspects of a star wars film but it really didn't do much for me.

(Prediction for Rookies: 95% will be 10's, 4% will be 9's, and 1% will just be trolls )

 

You certainly have a point there, but think of the circumstances at the time. The TCW team had literally just started out and was probably lacking resources. Between building the massive ship and train network and making the neccessary new models, it was most likely beyond their capacity to make such a mega-explosion.

I will admit that the great ship Malevolence absolutely went down with a small whimper, though.

 

6/10. Really just felt flat. Padme has pretty much annoyed me throughout the TCW series and the same was true here.

Whatever she says when they come out of hyperspace "something's not right" or whatever, god that was a bad reading.

The Anakin/Obi-Wan relationship was pretty good, and the droid jumpers was actually fantastic. The firemen droids looked cute but didn't really make sense (why would they have hoses if they couldn't use them?)

The Obi-Wan/Grievous stuff was okay besides the terrible dialogue. Kinda seemed like Obi-Wan coulda run right back to the hyperspace drive after he kills 5,306 droids in 10 seconds, rather than simply fleeing. Oh well.

 

When we're done with all of these polls, we should crunch some numbers and see if there's a distinct pattern to the ratings Padme-centric episodes get.

Although I suspect that effort's pretty futile since we already probably know the answer.

 

[/quote]
Exactly. The idea of sabotaging the navicomputer to send the ship into a planet is great, but if all we get from it is a little glowing dot, then it's not really a good idea. The Malevolence was this awesome threat throughout a whole trilogy, it needed a proper send-off. Even with the limited resources of season 1, I'm sure they could have cooked up something better than that if they really tried.

To be fair, the writing is greatly to blame there as well. I mean, Padmé comes out of hyperspace practically inside the deadly gullet of the titanic Malevolence, turbolasers spewing glowing death all around her, and she says "something's not right"??!!