Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 301: Clone Cadets Discussion Thread

I've been a busy boy and haven't been able to watch these yet.

I'll probably watch them tonight and then give my reviews.

Glad to see the general comments have been favorable.

 

I liked the characters and story in this one. Too bad that the only "action" was a simulation with no tension. Still, I really liked the overall tone and the additional insight to the cloning process. (I have been wanting the show to address "genetic drift"...and while they didn't specifically say it, I'm pretty sure that that's what they are getting at, and possibly why 99 is the way he is.)

I think this one was the better of the two episodes shown tonight, even despite the lack of any cool action scenes.

 

This was a decent epsiode and an excellent companion peice with Rookies.

 

I really enjoyed this episode. I liked the clones so any chance to see an episode that focuses on them is a plus to me. I agree the story told wasn't close to original but I think it worked here. The visuals alone were amazing and we got the intro to Shaak Ti. Clone 99 was no doubt based on the hunchback in 300.

 

I thought it was just OK. No tension and very dull to look at.

"Rookies" had real tension and things like the giant worm/eel/whatever, which gave it that real fantastic feeling of classic SW. This had none of that.

The only moment with promise was the discussion regarding DNA.

It felt like a mid-season/Season 1 ep, not the Season 3 opener.

 

Just watched this in HD.

WOW. Does this show look great or what?

As far as an episode, I'd give this an 8/10. Took me back to reading Ender's Game, I kept thinking "Ender and Bean would have lost sleep to get in more practice time"

The music was a little much when 99 was talking to Heavy, but overall I was quite entertained.

Only real problems:

(1) So originally ARC Troopers, IIRC, were taken FROM BIRTH/CONCEPTION and were made much more like Jango Fett. Now they just take the best troopers out there for ARC duty? Like the old way better. I guess if they were having problems with the DNA, that could explain it I suppose.

(2) Couldn't suspend my disbelief when all of a sudden Domino Squad "were some of the best troopers I've ever seen". Isn't it enough that they learned from their lessons and finally passed? No, they suddenly had to be rock superstars.

(3) Whilst I really saw how they're trying to give the show a "painted" look, I don't think it worked very well with 99.


Also, Shaak Ti's voice was much better for most of the episode; still sounded like Sugi from time to time, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Kinda tired of the Western European accents though (British, French, Spanish, German), couldn't they come up with some bizarre alien accents?

 

I really liked this episode. Possibly even more than ARC troopers simply because it was much more character driven. 99 giving his speech to Hevy and giving Hevy his name was the best part of the episode. Rewatching makes it even more emotional since you know both 99 and Hevy don't make it through the war alive and its the last time they see each other.

The sad thing is you realize that they barely make it through training, they don't get much better as a team. In Rookies the majority of the squad still bit the bullet regardless of any teamwork they had established, it was kind of sad realizing the teamwork they forged didn't really pay off since only Echo and Fives are still around and with becoming ARCs they are both going to go on their own.

 

Did anybody else think the crane hanging in front of Bric in the Cutup scene looked like a Mando skull?

 

I saw that too. That was interesting, I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice.

 

Loved this episode. Agreed with GM on the 'best troopers I've ever seen' comment. That was just too much. Other than that, no complaints. I was just thrilled sitting through these two. Lots better than the second half of season 2, for sure.

There is something about these clone-centred episodes that makes them special. Even though there were Jedi in both episodes, it was all about the clones. I got that same 'Rookies' vibe from these two.

 

Doubly so given the beginning of Rookies said they were posted at the listening post because they weren't ready for the front lines. Shaak Ti must be new there

 

I thought it was kind of a lackluster start to the season. I felt like all of the characters were kind of one-dimensional, especially the Laurel and Hardy bounty hunter duo that I could not bring myself to care about...

I have to admit, I WAS blown away by the animation, though.

 

I especially liked the music at the very end of the episode, where all troops are ready to board the ship and leave. Stunning piece of work from Kenir .

 

The music in the premiere was pretty good, much better than the lackluster background noise we got in Season 2, but not quite on par with Season 1.

I'm almost afraid to like it, because I have the feeling that eventually we'll hear the exact same piece in a movie from 20 years ago.

I loved Aurra's theme until I knew it was copied!

 

Very good episode, great intro do Season 3. Let's see:

PROS
- Really liked the clone nicknames being assigned organically. Most of them felt really natural, especially Echo. Nice to see that at that point in history, apparently clone nicknames weren't a common thing. And some battle scenes made it clear how calling out "CT-2265 cover my left" just doesn't work.
- The training sequences were quite nice (if a bit repetitive). I especially liked in the final one, where the terrain kept readjusting. Very nice use of the Incredible Cross Sections, which introduced this concept.
- Very good character development all around. Very nice to the show giving each character some dialogue to develop himself. It really gave me a pang to see that great Cutup scene with Bric, knowing he'd simply get gobbled up by an Eel.


CONS
- It felt like there was an act missing. Hevy abandons them, they're about to wash out. Next scene Hevy comes back and they're all pumped with confidence and sure to win the final test. There was some scenes missing that really showed how these two pieces connected. As mentioned before, by the time they entered the final test, it was just about waiting for them to exit victorious.
- I would have preferred it if by the end they weren't the "best cadets I've ever seen", but just managed to scrape by. After all, they do get assigned to a quiet outpost, instead of being sent to the frontlines.
- It makes perfect sense in the episode, but god do I miss some clone customization. It was very frustrating not knowing who was who most of the time.
- Cheesy. Yeah, there's no way around it. From "poor" 99, to the ARCs speeches and all that. Of course, the fact that I'm complaining it's cheesy means I now hold the show in much higher regard, since not long ago I would be complaining that it was shoddily written, absurd and infuriating. Now I find it cheesy because I suddenly expect it to be grade-A drama.

 

I have to admit I got confused between Hevy and Cutup several times during the episode.

 

I knew Hevy had the "1" marking on his chest, but I didn't know who Cutup was until the end when he spoke to Bric. They actually changed the meaning of Cutup's nickname, too. In the Rookies decoded episode, they mentioned something else on how he acquired the nickname.

Fives had the "5" marking, and Echo was an easy pick because of his endless ranting/whinny dialogue, and usually the clones kept yelling at him.

 

I don't much mind the new ARC trooper difinition. The rank probably just became available to regular troopers because Jango couldn't personally train any more.

After all, it was already stated in canon that Alpha trained clone commanders, making them a sort of "honorary ARC".

On another subject, if you watch Dave Filoni's commentary, he said the ARC troopers' helmets aren't Phase 2, but ratherba combination of Phases 1and 2. That is good IMO, because I think the ARC helmets look terrible.

 

He said that way back at Comic-Con, IIRC.

 

Bric looks like Kelsey Grammer to me, who is no stranger to Sci-Fi (Star Trek TNG) and the "crane" reference could be a Fraiser Crane homage. I see someone else also sees the resemblance: http://sojarinn.blogspot.com/2010/09/kelsey-grammer-and-sgt-bric.html

And "99" is a THX1138 reference also. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=6804

All in all, a great start to the CW3 season!

 

I agree on all points.

The scene between Cut-Up and Bric was definitely my favourite of the whole episode. Great dialogue and delivery from the both of them. A really unpredictable scene. At one point I thought Cut-Up might push Bric over the ledge or Bric might injure Cut-Up causing Domino Squad to fail so they'd end up on the Rishi Moon Outpost.

Which got me thinking, would this episode have been better if the squads had been accompanied through the obstacle course by an outside person? Bric or even a Jedi/ Padawan perhaps?
IMO, that would have given the whole thing a completely different group dynamic and helped raise more tension on the course itself.

Had it been a Jedi/ Padawan, you could say he/ she was there to gain some non-lethal battle field training. Vice versa, it would have been a way for the Clones to adapt working together with a Jedi.

Some other points:

-Dee Bradley Baker did a great job reading 99's lines. Outstanding performance! I like how he kept defending his brothers and his sorrow having missed out on everything his healthy brethren.

-Sergent Bric is quite the hardliner! Wonderful character addition to the SW galaxy, mostly because of the natural line reading.

-The Clone Quarters are quite a nice set. The return of the red training gear was very welcome.

-A bit of cliché dialogue about courage and teamwork that could have been avoided.

-The dialogue exchange between the two Bounty Hunter's about Domino Squad they had walking around the quarter corridors felt a bit like a repeat, could have been shorter.

-LAMA SU is back and exactly in the same location as he was in AOTC- with a new interpretation of the Kamino theme. Nice!

-Commander Colt of the Rancor Battalion was great. His speech impressed me both in writing and delivery.

-The same outlook platform architecture from AOTC and then naming the specific training simulation THX 1138.

 

I actually truly expected Bric to fall off the ledge. I was honestly disappointed that he didn't.

 

Fun fact: Lama Su is voiced by the guy who usually does Luke Skywalker in Star Wars videogames. He's finally in the show, and who knows: Jeff Bennett (Kyle Katarn) might be next.

 

Upon rewatching, it really bugged me that the ARC Troopers are wearing Phase II (ok, Phase 1.5) armor. Clone Cadets is firmly set at the beginning of the Clone Wars, what with clone nicknames being a new thing and all. So it really bugs me that those ARCs have armor that shouldn't exist yet. We've seen lots and lots of ARCs with Phase I armor, so it doesn't really fit yet for a few of them to have prototype armor or anything like that. Our first instance of Phase II should have been left for the ARC Troopers episode.

In the commentary for ARC Troopers Dave talks about how in that episode we see that the ARCs get these prototypes for special training and all. But he apparently forgot that he used the same models for the previous episode, which supposedly takes place a long time before.

 

A long time before? I don't think so. Originally these three episodes would have been set back to back to back. But the third bit was pushed down a bit to give Echo and Fives more experience. But to say "a long time" seems to be looking for a problem.

Also, note that Filoni doesn't say his statements about the ARCs apply primarily to this episode. To the contrary. He talks about them being on Kamino training with a kind of hush hush operation. That sounds more related to the previous episode to me. And the clips the video editor show are ones from the previous episode.