TV Discussion LACWAC Member Interviews (★☆★ SpecialOpsUnit & Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes ★☆★)

It initially came as a surprise to me, too. But, with their cultural focus on beauty and pleasure, it does make a certain amount of unpleasant sense that there might be elements of that culture that would be particularly harsh toward any Zeltron that doesn't meet the expected norms. And I suppose it goes to show that no society is ever truly perfect, though I'm also curious to know whether the exclusionary prejudice shown to Vianna was an excepted social norm, or merely the awful actions of the circle she grew up around.

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Haha, yep. One of my friends from the Mercs made that for me a while back, based on Tali's ME2 alternate loyalty outfit. The hybrid quarian skirt/Mandalorian kama is one of my favorite things about it. ​

 

Gar ven bintar chaablane bal cyare'alor be oyu'baat!

Love the Tali-Mando armor too!

Okay, I'm surprised no one's asked this question yet, but I swear this is my final off-the-record question...so consider this a question asked with my non-interviewer hat.

So what are your favorite television shows and series?

And now I'm really out of here for the near future.

 

Haha, vor'e bur'cya.

Thought you might, fellow Tali fan.

Well, I'm a big Game of Thrones fan, eagerly awaiting the start of the fourth season. I love everything about the series, from the stunning settings, to the characters, and the rather striking action pieces you don't usually get the pleasure to see from a television show, cable or otherwise. I just found Falling Skies this summer, marathoning my way through just in time to watch the season three finale with a couple friends; I was honestly disappointed with myself for not watching it sooner, as it's an excellent character-based scifi series pretty cool alien species and tech designs. Person of Interest is spectacular, and ridiculously underrated; nothing like seeing modern day Assassin's Creed, The Dark Knight, and Eagle Eye tossed into a blender and getting absolute gold out of it. I've been enjoying Agents of SHIELD, though elements of it could be better, Castle's always fun, and Breaking Bad was excellent. Young Justice and the combined series that comprise the DC Animated Universe are forever favorites, and the Avatar universe is great, even if the second season of The Legend of Korra left a little to be desired at times. The Clone Wars has been enjoyable on the whole, and I'm eager to see the last episodes as soon as possible, though I honestly mourn the comparatively much earlier loss of Green Lantern more. I watched Burn Notice almost devoutly while it was on, and Trigun remains one of my favorite anime series of all time.

 

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Nice look. Dig the black plates; they go well with the purple.

 

Tell me about it. I'm playing it for the first time right now. I've had it for awhile but it just didn't interest me so I've replayed the KOTOR's, Battlefronts, and older games for NES, SNES, PS1, and N64 millions of times before trying it. I have to admit it's a lot of fun and I shouldn't have avoided it for so long based on a simple hunch. But it's also pretty damn tough. I just beat the second level today after taking at least three days to figure it out (not playing the whole day obviously). And since I'm a little OCD I have to tie everyone up and check if they have a bounty before killing them which becomes tedious when there's tons of people coming at you at once.

 

A Hardy Welcome to Our New Participant: Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes!​

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1. What is the story behind your username? ​

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First off, thank you for having me here, I'm thrilled to be able to share some of my personal relations and thoughts on such an amazing topic as Star Wars with such wonderful people as all of you LACWACers out there!

As for my Username...I came into TCW pretty late after seeing the film back in '08 and being disappointed. Every time they released a season on Blu-ray, I'd buy it since I couldn't justify not having every form of Star Wars visual media, but I didn't get around to watching it until season 3 had been released. After binge watching the first 3 seasons and catching up on the 4th, I fell in love with the individual personalities of the clones and Fives was by far my favorite (even beyond Rex). After the Umbara arc, my character preferences were settled and Fives had permanently taken the top spot in my mind. I know other people disagree with the individuality of the clones as portrayed in TCW, and I can see why they feel that way, but I had always felt frustrated about their droid-like execution of orders - especially since these are human soldiers - which we know in real life have very unique personalities. (I think the BC did a great job of reconciling the issue of clone soldiers vs. individual soldiers, btw). But If you know my posting history, you know that I've often provided very thorough (IMO) analysis of these issues by way of obnoxious WoTs.

Umbara in particular stood out to me as an arc that represented so much that I had desired but had never got to see in the films. My greatest confusion was concerning Order 66 and why, seemingly, so many of these clones who had developed close-knit relationships and respect for their Jedi leaders would turn on them without a second's hesitation or internal ethical debate. Umbara changed that and Fives lead the greatest revolt against "bad orders" I have ever seen in Star Wars (on screen). I developed a complex fanon scenario of Fives' actions during Order 66 and after and from that point on, I become obsessed with the notion that there is no way Fives went through with Order 66 when it came down - Fives says no to 66 = Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes!

As a related side note, I've been working on my Fives armor to cosplay at conventions and had planned on incorporating some things related to my fanon not only on the costume, but also on the new car I plan on getting at the end of April - a few decals and such featuring the crossed out "66" from my avatar and some other Aurebesh quotes and self-made logos and was hoping that the BC wouldn't render those efforts moot and irrelevant. I am happy to say, that based on the context of the entire arc, I have convinced myself 93% that my post-war fanon scenarios are still plausible - I'll maybe get around to my theory on that and such some day in a later post if people are interested...

EDIT:
btw, Not really related to the question but related to my answer I suppose: I recently discovered that my signature does not show up the same way on other people's computers - the lines "Remember Umbara, Forget Order 66" are in aurebesh and I had always loved the way it looked but recently I logged on here from a different computer and noticed that since the computer did not have that font saved in the computer, it showed up in plain english. this disappointed me - if anyone has a way to make it show up in aurebesh no matter what computer is viewing it, let me know? Thanks!

 

You gotta show off your cosplay armor when you're done!

 

Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes interesting story behind your name, though now it seems so obvious I feel dumb for not seeing it!

 

@Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes: 2. Name your Top 10 Clone Wars episodes and why.

 

HEy, yea....sorry for the delay...I'm actually typing up my response right now....be prepared for a giant WoT.

 

Okay....So I apologize for the delayed response, Its been a crazy week and with such a heavy question, every time I sat down to reply, I felt like I needed to give myself more time to craft an intelligible answer - So here's the best that I can do:

The thing is, I can't really answer this question specifically - I can answer a similar question, but its kinda cheating but oh well. Basically, since (as stated above) I didn't get into watching the show until after the 3rd season, I binge watched the majority of the episodes. And when you do that, the episodes that are a part of 1 unified arc, tend to blur together. I know that each episode in a single arc is very different and some are better stand-alone episodes than others, but b/c I tend to see episodes as storylines with clear beginnings, middles and ends, many of these stand-alone episodes fail to feel like actual "episodes" to me, and more just as "acts." So I'm going to cheat a little and change this question to top 10 Clone Wars Episodes/Arcs. I'll mark stand-alone episodes with asterisks.

Also, to me, the series had so many different focuses throughout its run that 2 of these "focused themes" stand out to me as apples an oranges when they're compared to each other. Those 2 focused themes are "War Stories/Clone Trooper Stories" and "Stories about Jedi/Sith/etc. and the Force in general." So, because I see these 2 kinds of stories as equally entertaining, yet similar to comparing apples and oranges, Instead of ranking them 1-10, I'm going to rank my top 5 "War/Clone Trooper Stories" and my top 5 "Stories about Jedi/Sith/etc. and the Force in general."

Sorry about the whole conditional prologue and my failure to make things simple.

So here goes:

Top 5 War/Clone Trooper Episodes/Arcs

1. The Umbara Arc
2. The Domino Squad Trilogy
3. The Order 66 Bonus Content Arc
4. Landing at Point Rain*
5. The Citadel Arc

Top 5 Jedi/Sith/The Force Focused Episodes/Arcs

1. The Yoda Bonus content Arc
2. The Ahsoka Arc (season 5 finale arc)
3. The Shadow Conspiracy Trilogy (not all 4 from the book, just the last three)
4. The Mortis Arc
5. The Rako Hardeen Operation Arc.

Also, I wanted to give these episodes "honorable mentions" since they were on the cusp of being included:

The Hidden Enemy
Cloak of Darkness
Brain Invaders
Nightsisters
The Deserter
Bounty
Kidnapped
Revenge
Slaves of the Republic
Wookiee Hunt
Escape from Kadavo
The Gathering
A War on Two Fronts
Holocron Heist
Front Runners
Brothers
The Soft War
Tipping Points


So now for the reasoning.....

Top 5 War/Clone Trooper Episodes/Arcs

The Umbara Arc -

With this one arc, my love for TCW became permanent. The portrayal of the violence of war held nothing back and by making the opposing forces both organic beings, there was a weight, relatability and seriousness that could not possibly have existed in droid fought battles. The Apocalypse Now homage was brilliant for the themes the arc would deal with, the brotherhood between troopers was appear ant and potent throughout, the reality that watching your friends and "family" gunned down beside you will inspire any soldier - even genetically obedient clones to form their own, unique, strong opinions on right and wrong and the idea that making individual decisions based on those beliefs was explored with such depth and clarity that the maturity factor of the show increased immensely. There were great moments throughout the arc, but overall, the theme that resonated were everything I had hoped for in a "War" Story.

The Domino Squad Trilogy -

While it did not air together, the 3 Domino Squad Episodes are often seen as one coherent story about the individuality of Clone Troopers. While this is the prevalent theme - and one I was so happy to see early on in the series, the episodes together tell the tale of overcoming one's "individuality" in oder to work together as a whole group. The reason I place this arc so highly in my rankings is that the beauty of this arc is the juxtaposition between the value of both individuality and groups. In "Clone Cadets," we see a group of clone troopers who cannot overcome their own self-identities enough to work together and graduate through "The Citadel Challenge." They finally are able to find the balance and make it through, eventually moving on to the Rishi Moon Outpost. Where they demonstrate that individuality is still not something to abandon when working together - it was Hevy's individual headstrong courage that made a sacrifice for the group and allowed the remaining members of the squad (by the end just Echo and Fives) to survive to fight another day. Then again, in "Arc Troopers," the idea of balance between an individual and a group is highlighted with the sacrifice of 99 and the return, reverence, and defense of Kamino by Echo and Fives. They all prove their individuality can work to help a group.

The Order 66 Bonus Content Arc -

While some may think Fives' "death" in this arc would sour my opinion of the arc, as I stated above, I have a different theory than what is portrayed within the limited scope of what we see during that final scene. I'm not going to get into that all right here, but…one day I will. Anways, this arc mostly ranks up here because of what my theory is as well as the sheer "Jack Bauer" nature of Fives throughout the Arc.

Landing at Point Rain* -

I have nicknamed this episodes the "Saving Private Ryan" episodes to my friends. To me, it feels very much like the storming of the beaches of Normandy as portrayed in SPR and it also was the first hint of such realism and high stakes that should always be present in a war story. Like the Umbara arc, I feel this episode helped bring TCW to a different plane of TV shows and made it, not only more enjoyable, but also more visceral.

The Citadel Arc -

Coming full circle from the Domino Squad Trilogy, this arc has great parallels to demonstrating individuality in problem solving while making sacrifices for the group. This is most obvious when you consider Echo's death - a sacrifice that helps relate this theme to the previous themes of Domino Squad - but it is also very apparent through other characters such as Anakin, Ahsok, Tarkin and Piel. Ultimately, However, it is the exciting adventure of a prison break mission that brings this arc into my top 5. The action and intrigue as well as the skills of the Arc Troopers is incredibly entertaining to watch and is a thrill ride that not too many othe TCW episodes can match, IMO.

Top 5 Jedi/Sith/The Force Focused Episodes/Arcs

The Yoda Bonus content Arc -

So I have to preface this by saying, this blew away my expectations. I don't have anything against Yoda, and there are obviously some great Star Wars moments involving him, but he's really not one of my favorite characters of the franchise. While everyone else on the boards were going on and on about how this was the arc they were most excited for in the BC, I was really kinda apathetic about it. I didn't think it would be bad, But I was almost certain that I wouldn't love it more than the Order 66 arc. I was wrong. Although I see the first episode "The Lost One" as its own episodes in a way, since it deals exclusively with Sifo-Dyas and the rest move on the Force Ghost immortality, I do see that they are connected and I loved the Sifo-Dyas episode for a number of reasons, different than the reasons I loved the final 3 episodes. I suppose you could split the arc into 3 episodes and 1 episode and put it in my rankings and Sifo-Dyas would sit either before or after the Mortis Trilogy. I'll explain them as 2 separate "mini-reviews." The Sifo Dyas episodes finally gave us some high level canon closure on the extent that the Jedi knew about the Clone Wars true motives come ROTS and it did so by way of a brilliantly told mystery tale - one I feel was executed far better than what AOTC tried. As for the final 3 Episodes, It would take at least a 10 page essay for me to explain everything about the arc that I loved but I'll just say this for now....I feel like TPM tried to give answers that people wanted about the nature of the force but it did so by going the scientific route and everyone hated it. And then, I feel like most poeple felt like the force was better left completely mysterious. This Arc proves that there can be some information revealed about the force and do it well - but it has to be information that is similarly spiritual - not scientific. Like I said, too much to say in this post but ultimately, I enjoyed this Arc better than any other visual Star Wars - including the 6 films. Bold Claim, yes, but, If you're really inteerested in why I feel this way more specifically, tag me in that arc's thread and I can slowly dive into some of those things - I'll do my best to avoid WoTs.

The Ahsoka Arc (season 5 finale arc) -

Whether its the distrust of the Jedi by the general public portrayed in Sabotage, The cinematography and moving final scene of The Jedi Who Knew Too Much, The Ahsoka/Barriss fight scene and Ahsoka/Ventress team-up dynamic of To Catch a Jedi or the wide implications of the Jedi Council's arrogance and untrustworthy actions, coupled with an emotional and potent character decision in The Wrong Jedi, this arc has so many great things about it that I don't know where to begin. I'll start by saying this, Before the Bonus Content was released this was my favorite Jedi centered arc. To me, I began TCW hating Ahsoka with a passion, but she very quickly grew on me (around the time most people start to feel like she was growing into her "Mary Sue" stage"). Nevertheless, as you can tell from my avatar, she became my second favorite character (After Fives of course). To watch her come to such revealing realizations through this arc and make such courageous and astonishing decisions as the episodes went on…to feel her emotional roller coaster, to see the cluelessness, the confusion, the desperation, the growth towards understanding, the betrayal and the sadness - The execution of this arc, to me is flawless. The Character development of Ahsoka culminated to such beautiful closure (I love watching that reminiscent trailer before watching the arc). And Ultimately, I was happy that she didn't die, but also that she recognized some of the problems with the Jedi Order and went a route that didn't involve killing younglings.

The Shadow Conspiracy Trilogy (not all 4 from the book, just the last three) -

From Obi-wan's grief over Satine's Death and his post-death speech, to lightsaber fights, lightsaber fights, beheadings and more lightsaber fights, this Arc by far had the least substance when it comes to my Top 5, but it did have some - Obi-wan's turmoil, Maul's manipualtion skills, Bo-Katan's loyalty - all of these things were explored so wonderfully and were topics that I had great interest in. That alone is enough to rank it highly but it really comes down to the action on this one. With everything that happened, its easy to say that the action in this arc surpassed any other arc, IMO. The Vizsla/Maul fight was amazing but it was really the Maul/Savage/Sidious fight that took the cake - not only for this arc, but also, IMO as best lightsaber fight in TCW.

The Mortis Arc -

The Force. Whaaaaaa?????? Ahsoka turning evil (I love that laugh she does), Anakin's premonition, The Son's various incarnations, Force Ghosts and future selves speaking to the characters - This Arc was filled with crazy, powerful and sometimes downright confusing moments - but thats what made it great! The Force Should be mysterious and powerful and crazy! The Yoda arc did a better job of revealing secrets than this did, IMO, but a great "Force focused" story by any measure!

The Rako Hardeen Operation Arc. -

The deception of the Jedi Council, Anakin's furor, Palpatine's manipulations, and of course....The Box. Such an exciting "thriller." Definitely a story that I feel holds great weight in regards to Anakin's distrust of the Council and an all together, wonderfully exciting arc.


Okay....Done. So I wasn't as thorough as I planned to be, but I still think I covered all my bases. Once again, I apologize for the delay in my response - shouldn't happen again and I apologize also for the enormoty of my response as well as my failure to answer the question of "episodes." I tried to rank episodes, I really did, I just felt like It was going to be 3 arcs included if I did that and I thought that wouldn't be very insightful, IMO. Don't hate me too much.

Also, Barriss_Coffee , I definitely will post some pics when its all said and done!

 

That is an awesome response! No need to apologize!

3. Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes: Which five Clone Wars characters would you have in your team and why?

 

Since it appears that Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes has gone completely MIA, we've decided to proceed with the next interview. Honestly though, we did all we could to search for him, but like the clone whom his username refers, he's essentially become a fugitive from LACWAC. We've got good men on the case, scouring the depths of Coruscant, which unfortunately is too large to be able to find FSNTS in an easy manner. The Coruscant underworld is a good place to disappear to...provided the cthons don't get you. He'll turn up when he chooses to.

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The search for Fives_Says_No_To_Sixes​

Alright we're back and better than ever! ​

Prepare to be amazed by my copy/paste skills!​

Welcome to this edition of our....​

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LACWAC!!!!​

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MEMBER!!!!!​

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INTERVIEWS!!!!!!​

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*Applause*​

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Let's hear it for our brave subject, ​

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SpecialOpsUnit!​

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...Alrighty. Shall...we...begin?

Firstly, to avert the issues we had last time with the interviewee not showing up after a lengthy period of time, I've hired an assistant for the purpose of conducting these interviews. For lack of a better name, I've decide to call him "The Encourager". He promises to take good care of you, so please be our guest. We would be most honored if you could join us.

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Anyways, for those unfamiliar, how this works is I will ask our guest a variety of questions, ranging from personal to Star Wars, and specifically TCW-related, with a hint of Rebels now that we have more information about the upcoming show. As usual, some questions will be stolen borrowed from other interviewers, and some will be original. You never know which ones I might or might not use.

Remember, SpecialOpsUnit, to tag me each time you respond. I don't need to keep track, but it's a good ego-boost!

Now, without further ado, I give you...the interrogation interview.

1. Tell us about your username, what it means, and why you chose it. And what is the best way to address you?

 

Circular Logic

1. Tell us about your username, what it means, and why you chose it. And what is the best way to address you?

Hmmm, I really couldn't remember much about this username, I made it in 2005 when I joined Rebelscum forums when I was only 14 going on 15. I was just getting into the Gentle Giant LTD mini-bust game and wanted somewhere to talk about it at the time. I think I chose it because the 501st were known for being a special unit, I really honestly don't remember lol! I joined here a few years later to talk about TCW before it started airing and just went with the same name. I was just really bad at making usernames when I was younger and now I'm stuck with them lol. My PSN name for PS3/PS4 is blah as well and I forget why I chose that one.

On rebelscum and here, they just shorten it and call me SOU, which is fine with me.

 

SpecialOpsUnit

Cool! So you are one of those LACWACers who were there from the very beginning, even before this forum became known as LACWAC, let alone SWTV. Impressive, most impressive. Talk about some dedication. Thanks for making me feel like a n00b still, despite being here for ~15 months now. On that note:

2. What is your overall impression of LACWAC/SWTV? How "LACWACy" are you?*

3. Where in the world do you live, and have you always lived there? What are the best parts of where you live?

*Credit to CT-867-5309 for creating that quiz over a year ago.

 

Circular Logic

2. What is your overall impression of LACWAC/SWTV? How "LACWACy" are you?*

My first impression was great, I loved coming here years ago. We used to have really great discussions on the episodes, especially those first 2 years. (Not saying we don't now) It was a lot different because at the time not everyone loved TCW so much and not everyone hated it with a passion. A big change happened at the beginning of Season 3 during those politic episodes and the Mortis storyline and honestly LACWAC has been the same since. I still enjoy coming here but so many veterans are gone and I'm honestly older doing my own thing but it still is a place to talk Star Wars t.v.

3. Where in the world do you live, and have you always lived there? What are the best parts of where you live?

I live on Long Island in New York. I was born here, I went to school in NYC though and commuted for 4 years so I became a city boy and look forward to living somewhere in Queens or Brooklyn soon because I'll be a cop soon(I hope lol!). Honestly Long Island is pretty boring, definitely a nice and safe place to raise a family though but as someone who is 23, I look forward to moving somewhere with a bit more going on.

 

SpecialOpsUnit

Best of luck on your journey to become a cop! A most respectable occupation.

4. What draws you to Star Wars How positively does your interest in TCW contribute to your fandom?

5. What other franchises besides Star Wars are you most passionate about?

 

Cop in NY? Whoooboy! Remind me not to get on your bad side bro.

 

Circular Logic

Thank you! Yeah the process has been long but I can't wait to get going, always wanted to do it.

4. What draws you to Star Wars How positively does your interest in TCW contribute to your fandom?

My grandfather got me into it before I can remember, the earliest I remember is playing with those terrible figures in the 90's where all Hasbro/Kenner's products were jacked, Tattooine Luke looked like he went to the gym two times a day, six days a week. I even entered a contest when I was 8 or 9 and had a picture of me with all these damn Star Wars toys lol. I just stayed with it, everyone has likes and dislikes when they were kid and most of the stuff you grow out of, but Star Wars and Batman stayed with me, which I'm fortunate for. What draws to Star Wars, its just a great story, I feel like it is so out there and it just works. I can't really put it into words. TCW shows me what the PT should of been. It is very difficult for me to watch the PT now after watching and enjoying the hell out of TCW.


5. What other franchises besides Star Wars are you most passionate about?

Hmm, I'm big into DC Comics, more importantly Batman and Nightwing, B:TAS got me into it when I was younger and it just stayed. Not a huge fan of the reboot/relaunch but it happens, doesn't change how you can enjoy those previous stories but the continuity is a huge mess. Besides that, I'm into Spider-Man comics and obviously the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe(who isn't nowadays?), what Marvel has done these past 6 or so years is amazing, I'm more impressed with how great their casting has been honestly. Chris Evans as Captain America? Who would of thought how great that would of been. Besides that, I can't really think of any other major franchises I actively support.


Barriss_Coffee Haha no worries! I hope I don't become one of those dick cops where the power goes to their head.

 

SpecialOpsUnit

6. What are your favorite films outside of Star Wars?

7. How would you rank the six Star Wars movies and why?

 

Circular Logic

My apologies, past week has been a bit hectic.

6. What are your favorite films outside of Star Wars?

Hmmm, off the top of my head Sin City, Fight Club, Spider-Man 2, The Avengers, Batman Begins, Skyfall, Wedding Crashers, Anchorman, Terminator 2, 500 Days of Summer, Pulp of Fiction all come to my head.

7. How would you rank the six Star Wars movies and why?

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Star Wars
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Phantom Menace
6. Attack of the Clones


I think 1/2 are self explanatory, ESB is usually listed as one of the best films ever and the original Star Wars is a classic. I put Revenge of the Sith before Return of the Jedi because Carrie Fisher was too coked out during the film and I feel like Ford mailed in his performance. The last 40 minutes or so is fantastic and I love Jabba's Palace but the middle drags on too much for me. I also don't feel the magic during ROTJ that I do with the first 2 films. I usually watch SW/ESB once or twice every few months but ROTJ is only once or twice a year.

Attack of the Clones really doesn't do anything for me nowadays, the romance is absolutely pathetic and Hayden's wooden acting doesn't do it for me, at least Phantom Menace had the cool duel at the end and the decent space battle.

 

You just broke the first rule of Fight Club.