Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 204: Senate Spy Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

The frustrating part of this episode is how it shows evidence of the technical difficulties that continue to plague the crew. While they're making such progress in environment design and character animation, they are still having trouble pumping out character models.

This episode showed an incredibly large scope in setting, which was betrayed by the background traffic. Whenever we see the Jedi Council, its always a very tight angle on the character models that we know are completed. When Anakin and Padme have that awesome, long walk-and-talk in the Senate, it is distracting that every model who walks by in a familiar character or character model. How distracting was it to have Bail Organa and Jar Jar casually walking through the background? Is Senator Chuchi stalking Padme?

Similarly, in the Senate restaurant, Padme and Clovis are surrounded by the same cast of "Clone Wars Senate extras" who were just in the hallway. Even in the Senate itself, almost every pod is empty. Obviously, it would have been awkward to have to put Senator Chuchi in every pod just to make them look populated.

Even on Cato Neimoidia, Lott Dodd is flanked by two guys based on the exact same character model from a Season One Ryloth episode. Is it not possible to just switch around their costume a tiny bit?

Finally, did anyone else find it odd to have Senator Amidala chilling in the Jedi Council chambers? Since it wasn't the complete Council, wouldn't it have made more sense to just have them in her office or meet in some Jedi office?

 

Now, I haven't got to see the episode yet (I don't watch cable) so I'm going to watch it on Monday on StarWars.com like I have been.
I'll confess, I have read some basic spoilers/trivia and watched the previews - I have a serious weakness for the pics in the episode guides btw...
So I have this weekly series on YouTube I just started with the second season of pics from the episode guides with music.

Watch the pics for Senate Spy here, with my specially edited John Williams soundtrack.

 

I'm baffled by the politics of this episode. Weren't the Trade Federation and the Banking Clan both fully apart of the CIS, and therefore, at war with the Republic? Maybe I have this wrong, but I remember some line of dialogue in AOTC that said something to the effect that Nute Gunray wasn't removed as head of the Trade Federation even after a Senate investigation. If I've got that right, and Nute Gunray certainly was fully involved in the CIS, that would imply that he brought his organization along with him... wouldn't it? Also, there's that line that someone already mentioned about the Banking Clan signing the CIS treaty. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm completely lost as to why Padme, a Republic senator, would even consider going to Cato Nemoidia with a member of the Banking Clan to do business with the Trade Federation, especially when the head of the Trade Federation is obsessed with trying to kill her.

 

I think somebody has mentioned this, but you guys should really take a look at Notorious and then watch this again. I'm not really sure if it's just an allusion because it's laid on so thick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notorious_(1946_film)

I mean, there's even a famous scene where Ingrid Bergman (which would be Padme in the episode) takes an important key (the disc) and maneuvers it behind her back while kissing/embracing Claude Rains (Clovis). And you've got to see the final scene, it's almost exactly the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6w-mPky7WE&feature=PlayList&p=07141A1A28D1A2AD&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=33

I'm not saying it's improper, but it does seem like they just adapted Notorious to fit into Star Wars... Well, at least they picked a good movie.

 

Meh, so-so episode for me. Anakin and Padme bickering for most of the episode wasn't really all that interesting, and while its already great to see Threepio and Artoo, neither did very much. Not to mention it seemed odd the way the Jedi Council presented the mission to Padme in the first place. Asking her to spy on an old friend but not really mentioning the reason why? When Anakin blabs that he's a traitor, then she's all for it, for the sake of the Republic (and maybe to piss off Anakin).

Ok plot, but still kind of simplistic. Padme just pretends to be his girlfriend so she can sneak in and steal a hologram. I liked that Anakin was smart enough to grab the data from her while she was distracting the other guy.

And it still seems silly that Padme can just suddenly visit Cato Neimodia, when Gunray is probably still obsessed with killing her. Diplomatic immunity probably won't help much there. Not to mention how easy it was to get the antidote. What if it had been a fake? Or the Neimodian could've called in 20 battle droids or something? I do wonder if that traitorous Senator survived or not. Probably not, but he could be an interesting recurring character. Better than that idiot Senate Guard captain who was stupid enough to gloat while Ventress was there.

Season two hasn't had the same spark season one had, so far at least. And I'm sad we won't be getting any more episodes this month, the next one looks a lot more interesting. I don't mind Anakin ad Padme, but not like this, they're just boring really. And did Obi-wan know about them or not? Its hard to tell, because he did so little in this episode, mainly being there for those Council scenes.

 

Looking at the episode guide I see that it claims the Banking Clan never established any direct ties to the CIS. Not sure how that makes sense with what San says in AOTC, but that's their explanation.

 

2 weeks for a new episode for no reason whatsoever. Just like Teletoon in Canada decided not to show HH AND CoD the first week no reason whatsoever.


Thoughts as I go:

- is anyone paying attention to the Jedi fortune cookies at this point?

- who's got the true heart? Padme or Anakin?

- ha ha Padme looks pregnant in that first shot. I guess we'll never figure out when exactly she got pregnant. Or will we?

- good job on Padme's apartment. Not quite ROTS-level, but impressive nonetheless. Thought ROTS never got the credit it deserved for the unbelievable level of detail on Coruscant, photorealistic to boot.

- "I can sense that you're angry." Then I must be a Jedi Master when I argue with my wife! Plus, Anakin should know the difference between anger and disappointment.

- they were "good friends" reminds me of Futurama. "Lee? When will I see you again? (gasps)... The two of you are good friends? But I thought we would be good friends. Well, let's see how friendly you get when you're sharing a prison cell!"

- "that was before we were together" - ah yes, how many times have how many people had this exact conversation in this planet/galaxy?

- Yoda didn't tell you Clovis was working for the Separatists?!?!? Yeah, Padme, Yoda wanted you to spy on some completely innocent Senator. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Reprehensible.

- "You're not going to let me?" Pretty good argumentative dialogue, far better than most of the PT discussions between them.

- wait. How old was Padme when she was intimate with Clovis?

- a pleasure trip to lovely Cato Neimoidia?

- ha ha, good line: "I hope it will be much better than old times". I like it. Almost halfway through the episode and nothing has happened.

- lolz good for Anakin, spying on Padme then banking the ship to throw off Clovis! That's old school SW right there.

- Senator Lot Dodd? So his voice is suddenly closer to the TPM one, or is it just me?

- "Clovis and I have some...business to discuss." Wouldn't you just wait 2 minutes until Padme was in her room? Or contact Clovis 15 minutes later? Tsk, tsk.

- Geonosis? *HINT*

- why does Clovis treat Padme as if she's some escort for the evening? That's completely unrealistic. He of all people should recognize her political talents and strong personality. Whether or not she's playing the doxy, it beggars belief that a Senator of his experience would believe her to be a mere bauble.

- "my compliments to the droid" - pretty funny/ironic/something sad.

- wow, she can instantly recognize not only the location of a random hologram, but the actual implications for the Republic! Bravo, Psychic Senator!


- she doesn't drop the glass?

- why would someone that poisons an annoying Senator have an antidote to that poison?

- "what you do not smell is iocane powder..."

- [narrator voice] WILL PADME DIE? FIND OUT NEXT WEEK! SAME BAT TIME! SAME BAT CHANNEL![/narrator voice]

- wow, pretty cold-hearted by Anakin. Then again, Clovis obviously is a traitor, so frak him.

- heh, from the Episode Guide: The take-out food Anakin carries is labeled "WARM FOOD" on the side, and "SUSHI" on the top. The crashing wave design printed on the box is taken from a recently produced R2-D2 tea towel.

 

the episode serves as a setup for the geonosis arc. i like the politics of star wars so i liked this episode. i know a lot of people don't though so i can see why this won't be one of the most liked episodes of the series. the holonet reference was very cool. i love the eu references. anybody else pick up on how anakin leaves senator clovis to probably die on the nemodian planet? anakin could have easily taken clovis back to coruscant for the jedi council to deal with him but instead he leaves clovis for the nemodians to kill him. that's pretty evil. i like how we are seeing anakin slowly turn to the dark side. i thought for once, anakin and padme's relationship was believable. somewhat immature and petty but believable. c-3po's complaint about how nobody wants to hang out with him was funny.

 

Overall thoughts? Worst episode ever. EVER.

This was so very lame. The funny thing was, the dialogue was actually pretty decent. But for Padme to go to Cato Neimoidia after the events of AOTC is laughably, abysmally terrible.

Other than that, the animation seemed pretty boring, although there wasn't a whole lot to show off for this time around.


Some of you thought "oh geez, the episode felt rushed." Really? I felt they stretched out the crappiest plot of all time to a 22-minute episode.

No growth in the Padme/Anakin relationship, no point overall in TCW, overall, an extremely boring episode and a terrible way to follow up on 3 excellent episodes to start the season.

Will never be watching this episode again. Ever.

 

why would someone that poisons an annoying Senator have an antidote to that poison?
They were going to blackmail Clovis...or something....it wasn't a well thought out plan...I mean, why not just poison Clovis?

Though I would like to point out that Nute Gunnery is not the leader of all Nemodians.

 

This episode was ok, I find it rather odd that Padme would be upset with Anakin for doing his duty. Normally she is the reasonable one.

 

No, but he was leader of the Trade Federation, the organization that Lott Dodd represented in the Senate, and the organization that Clovis was going to Cato Nemoidia to meet with.

 

No, but theoretically, Clovis and Dodd could still use their connections; did anyone either than the Jedi Council know Padme was spying?

It's just so hilarious that of course the villain would have the antidote to the poison.


No blasters, no lightsabers, no fun.

 

Is it just me, or was Lott Dod channeling Lao Che from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Lets see, poisoning an opponent at a dinner party, blackmailing the person for an antidote.... When the hell did this crossover idea spark off? Suddenly, I seem to be noticing more Indiana Jones references than Star wars!

 

Good episode! Def. exceeded expectations based on the synopsis. Meaty storyline, fast paced, enjoyed the break from the war to prep for the next couple episodes on Geonosis. I thought the Padme/Anakin dynamic was kind of off at first, but in the end I really liked that Padme was the one upset that Anakin was being called of to duty. An I thought they handled Anakin's "jealousy" really well without going over the top. There was a lot of tension and suspence with the Padme scenes - getting the hologram, the poison in her system -- even thought I knew she would of course be okay. I also liked how Anakin was the one who planted the idea of "duty first" in her head, and then came to regreat it. Seeing Padme's past relationship was nifty, as was seeing her in the council chamber. I felt lik there were some really big SW moments in this episode, and I'm glad to see the writers aren't afraid to go for those moments in this show.

Threepio was perfect in this episode. Good dialogue for him and good delivery and timing from Daniels. I only wish the characters would address the droids a little more... like Han and Luke would do in the classic trilogy. Even when Han was telling Threepio to hurry up Goldenrod you could tell he cared. Even just Anakin saying "Come on Threepio" as they left the room would indicate he actually cared about him.

Can't believe we have to wait so long for the next new episode! This show is by far my favorite series on air right now.

I am floored by the graphics and animation. The details are breathtaking at this point. The planets -seeing Cato Neimodia and the bridges was awesome! The shadows on the characters faces and the lighting in the different locations -- I hope this trend continues with the new locations we are going to visit. Just compared to when we first saw Rodia or the crystal world Christophsis it's gotten so far beyond all that with the animation.

 

Not necessarily an Indy reference. A lot of villains in fiction blackmail people by poisoning them and offering to supply them the antidote if they do their bidding.

 

Star wars fans are usually the hardest fans to please, so its not surprising alot of people did not like this episode. Even though I'm a hardcore fan of SW I enjoyed this episode. It was nice to get away from all the battles and have more social/political scenery, but it did have its faults.

The series has had improved its animation by leaps and bounds and keeps amazing me by the locations we see (Cato Neimodia was beautiful, as was Padme's room/veranda and the shots of Coruscant). But I think they should invest more time in new background models. Seeing the same 4-5 senators walking around in the same clothes and the same council members/council shots is getting VERY lame and very unrealistic (in universe). While Padme is arguing with her husband in PUBLIC, she walks by Leias future father and good friend Bail Organa, their other good friend Jar Jar, Padme's old friend Onaconda Farr, the fat twilek guy, the senator who Anakin knows from Trespass and the female senator extra (who was in the hostage crisis episode). Not only do they walk by not caring that alot of their friends are right there while they are fighting, they dont stop to even say hello or nod their heads at them. Also, in a building with thousands of senators from different worlds, all of ani and padmes close pals in the senate just so happen to be on the same level and the same floor as them. Give me a break.

As I said, Cato Neimodia and the Coruscant shots were awesome. Lok Dod and Poggle the lesser were animated beautifully, both with great voices that match their movie voices. Anakin and Padme's bickering was well done, and Senator Clovus was a cool new character. Overall, not a bad episode. I enjoyed it more for the scenery and new characters rather than the plot itself. For Padme to go to the homeworld of a guy who is obsessed with killing her doesnt seem too smart, no matter how badly she wanted to try to prove herself to Anakin. Peoples common sense usually kick in somewhere.

Yoda not telling Padme about Clovus' connection was stupid as well, shows that the jedi use people without telling them all the info they need to know. Not only that, but Padme acted so surprised when Ani told her, as if Yoda would have her spy on someone just for fun.

This episode has its faults, but I think it was pretty good. The next episodes look far better, but unfortunately for the next 2 weeks for no apparent reason we get no new eps. If we went months without the series, I guess we could go 2 more weeks even tho it sucks !

 

Still not sure what to make of this one. I thought Padme in particular seemed out-of-character somewhat, and rather naive and clueless to boot. But I really need to watch it again.

The art direction was exquisite, however, and for that alone I loved it. Just gorgeous.

 

I really enjoyed this episode--not really surprised other people didn't, but hey. I thought the first half of the episode moved really tightly and worked well, and the second half was a little weaker...got to agree with people, there were some definite leaps in logic there with the entire situation. I thought the best scene was when Yoda questioned Anakin's knowledge of Padme's personal life...and then Obi Wan's FACE.

Geez, Ben, you clearly know what's going on...you want to say something to the council?

I really didn't miss the lightsaber action in this episode...maybe its because there were so few Force-users in the OT, and so its what I'm used to, but I sort of think lightsaber fights should be used sparingly. I didn't miss them at all.

I felt so sorry for Threepio in this episode, he was just the Captain of Team Useless. Everyone kept ordering him away and he didn't even have Artoo to banter with. Poor guy

 

As an Anakin and Padmé fan I was really looking forward to this episode. After watching, I think some of the dialog pacing was awkward but overall it was not a bad show. A few people have commented on the stupidity Padmé taking on this mission, when I think about it in the context of her fight with Anakin, it seems to me Padmé took the mission to spite Anakin and ended up biting off more than she could chew.

I was tickled at all the "good friends" talk myself. I actually liked them giving Padmé more of a well rounded past. But I was also a little miffed at the A/P hugging. Really? Hugging? I did like how the episode ended though so that kind of made up for the hugging.

bran

 

This episode has the worst animation I've seen in the whole series. The characters had no movement, the lip sync seemed robotic. The body movements were robotic as well. The character animation looked like an old episode of Reboot from back in the 90's. Don't get me wrong, the animation in this series was pretty good up until this point. The large set pieces probably used up all the budget on this episode, which is probably whay the animation suffered.

 

Pros:
- Cato Neimoidia, a "neutral" Confederate base. Plus, I always wanted to see more of it, aside from the glimpse with Plo Koon getting shot.
- Always good to see familiar faces, like Lott Dod.
- Poggle the Lesser!!! (UP WITH BUGS!!!)
- Padme mentioning HoloNet (FINALLY some EU elements...kinda.)
- GOLDEN BETTIE BOTS!!!...I bet at least 7 people will comment on that.
- A new gun.

Cons:
- Is it just me, or was Anakin acting a bit immature, with the whole Padmé-Clovis thing? They said he was gonna mature in Season 2...Oh wait that was Ahsoka.
- As the Episode Guide states:

- Again, according the the Episode Guide: clicks - time, and klicks - distance. That bit was confusing me, like in ANH with the Falcon making the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs.
- Padmé getting in trouble again...But at least she didn't get kidnapped.

Comments:
- Lots of background chars, like Chuchi, Onaconda, that Gungan Captain, and I COULD HAVE SWORN I SAW THE CHAIRMAN!!!...Oh wait that could be a different guy. NVM.
- Padmé was half/a quarter naked in at two scenes...Apparently she ran out of clothes and just went with the "belly" dress...Gee thanks a lot Ahsoka!
- And also with the "exposed back"...THANKS A LOT VENTRESS!!!
- Two things regarding the Council Chambers:
- Obi-Wan moved to the seat to the right of him, apparently realizing he was sitting in Mundi's seat.
- There was a seat that looked like Yoda's in the background, apparently they forgot to remove Yaddle's seat after she died.

Overall, this was a disappointment. To tell you the truth, I actually preferred Trespass over this.

This deserves my lowest TCW episode rating ever: 6.5/10

 

Best episode from a technical standpoint so far. This is the quality filmmaking I would have expected if HBO made the series. Its written like it was an episode with human actors, not cartoons.

How they could go from 4-7 different sets and 1 new character each episode to this huge amount is just baffling. If the quality has jumped this much from s1 to s2 I cant even imagine what s5 will be like. I thought DF was hyping the improvements but it turns out he was being modest, wow.

I actually thought Clovis was pretty cool, he could potentially become the "Han Solo" of the Clone Wars

 

UGH. LAME. BORING. NOT STAR WARS.

How can you people say this was rushed? My sister asked what happened, she started teasing me because i told her thise show was good. thanks a lot. What a sad waste of great city CG animation. Are the same people writing this show? Whoever wrote this forgot to make it like Star Wars! Lightsabers? Spaceships? Hello? galaxy far far away to GL?

It actually felt more like Star Trek for some reason. Anybody else notice that? I am ashamed to admit this, but I saw a rerun of Deep Space Nine that has a story just like this. I don't know, maybe it was voyager. Either way, that is no good.

 

If he hadn't, how could he blackmail Clovis?