Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 302: ARC Troopers Discussion Thread

Alright episode. The action was pretty good. However, during that little lightsaber exchange between Anakin and Ventress, it was going good, then they reached the halway, and then Anakin got stiff as a board at one point. The arm movements looked good, but his body had no moton. Other than that, it was pretty good.

 

D: I'm sorta glad they cut the kissing scene now! Gah grimaced through that whole scene!

 

Over all the set of the two episodes was excellent. In this second one particularly I really enjoyed when Ventress told Grevious he had absolutely nothing that she wanted. I'm sure the older among us got that one right away (or maybe it was just me).

From a technical perspective I'm really loving the look of the series. I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, honestly, but all the textures seem substantially brighter, more vivid and more detailed. It's almost like someone turned up the color saturation and bucked up the resolution of the textures, and it works really well. Particularly in the way Ventress is rendered. When she's in the DNA vault, at least in the HD presentation, the detail on her skin and the fabric of her clothes comes out really well. I look forward to more of this. It also seems to me the shadowing and lighting effects are much improved as well particularly when lightsabers clash.

 

Wow these 2 episodes were top notch. I'm still in awe with how much action they crammed into this episode. So much death, I especially didn't expect to see several of those ARC Troopers to die but they went out with style.

Also a nice return appearance of Broadside! I loved that. I'll probably do a full review a bit later.

 

I love watching them keeping Anakin and Grevious apart. It is like you can see them thinking it out.

 

99's motivational speech to Heavy at the end of the first episode was touching. Very powerful way to start off the season. Both episodes were great, with the highlight being the feeling of desperation from the clones throughout the second episode as they were being overrun (before the tide turned). I've looked forward to seeing Shaak Ti, and she didn't disappoint, though I probably would've liked if she would've dueled Grievous or Ventress instead of Obi-Wan and Anakin again.

Though the final little fight with Ventress and Anakin was the best lightsaber dueling of the series. Very fluid and not as jerky as it's normally been.

 

wow i just got that.

 

Also the scene with the clones backing up Anakin and staring down Ventress was amazing.

 

Really liked these two episodes but they were not without a few minor issues. First, for being titled ARC troopers the arcs did surprisingly little aside from getting killed as fodder. I don't even know if I would want to be promoted since it seems to be a ticket straight to being murdered by Asajj. Next episode should've been titled ARC trooper since they have the awesome arc with the great helmet design in it and he looks to be kicking butt.

Secondly was Shaak Ti. They hyped her up and had amazing model and animation but she only got 1 action scene for all of 5 seconds. Really disappointed she didn't do more. Tying in with that is the constant Obi vs. Grievous and Asajj vs. Anakin fights are growing thin. They had a perfect opportunity to show an original and great fight scene with Shaakti fighting either one of them and they missed it. I know they are main characters but it really gets boring seeing Grievous fight for 2 seconds then run and then escape for the tenth time now.

I really really hope she is in another episode this season and gets a saber fight but since she is stuck on Kamino having to train clones it seems unlikely and a waste of a great character. When other jedi like Adi Gallia, Aayla, Mace or Plo get episodes they get tons of screentime and she was shown in action very briefly. If she gets brought back later on it won't be a complain but how they used her in these 2 eps made me sad as she is my favorite character.

 

Need I say more? Well, I'm going to anyway. First off, the animation. The best seen in the show yet. The lightsaber fight between Anakin and Asajj was like watching one of the films. And this is coming from the person who created a whole thread how stiff the lightsaber battles were!

The story was pretty good. I'm a little disappointed the Seppies didn't get at least a partial victory. The pacing was great, but it seemed that some scenes were cut too short. 99 died, and what happened? Pretty much nothing. Nobody really said anything. Nice death scene, though. A morbid compliment, but still a compliment!

Obi-Wan definately shined here. I love his little comments. "We have to stop meeting like this" was prerhaps the best line in the series thus far, even if it is recycled from another source.

And Ventress. Ventress, Ventress, Ventress. She has so many sides to her. There's aspiring student, punk rocker, and now lithe seductress. After the exchange with Grievous, I had to put a bucket under my mouth I was drooling so much.

Grievous wasn't half bad. Once again he doesn't say much other than "Kill them all", but what else can we expect? That's obviously the way the show intends to portray him.

My only gripe: Promoted to ARC Troopers?! Seriously?! They were not trained by Jango, they just defended a planet.

ANyway, 9.999999999/10 for me.

P.S. What the kriff was with that escape ship? Just seemed really out of place for me.

 

Yeah I loved that. Especially when she pushed everyone over buy Anakin.

 

Where to begin with this episode...
I simply did not like this episode at all. Everything seemed pushed into the episode. The space battle was completely ridiculous, those goofy Anakin and Obi-Wan moments, Ventress' annoying "I want to be sexy" persona, and just the overall story of the episode was bad.

No, I'm not joking. This episode was not good at all.

After Clone Cadets, which was the best episode I've seen since The Deserter, I thought they are really stepping it up. But, I guess episodes that "drop the ball" still exist. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the animation; the animation is better. Visually, it was nice. But at the same time, they really need to watch out for their edit cuts. The space battle itself was waaay too cutty, and it jumped around. I realize they're trying to set up space battles even more higher in terms of "PT quality" perhaps, but something is not working. I don't understand those moments were Anakin is sitting in his cockpit with a big smile in his face and just going about his day. Scenes really jumped and jumped and jumped, and it really made me want to turn off the TV after a while.

Obi-Wan vs Grievous: bah.. Anakin vs Ventress: ugh.. Honestly, I think Shaak Ti could have engaged either one, instead of showing us the same pair going after each other again. One thing I enjoyed about Clone Cadets is that we got to see characters that are not main characters having action. I like that, and not seeing the Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex show every week. When Obi-Wan fell down and got help from a Aiwha (2 times in the episodes), that "joke" part was just a brief moment of "wait...was I suppose to laugh at that cheesy dialogue?". Obi-Wan knowing what Aqua-droids are, ect, felt strange.

The music. Simply awful. When 99 was about to die, and I knew something was going to happen to him, that vocal music took me out of the episode. I don't like that, and I expressed my opinion on TCW's vocal music in my Death Trap review.

Overall, just a lackluster episode. They should have changed the episode title, in my opinion. ARC Troopers? Oh wait, the only ARC Troopers we've seen in the episode died... I'm just going to ignore Five and Echo's "promotion" to ARC Trooper as well.

 

Oh I forgot about Shaak Ti. Not much to talk about here. Great charcter, great model, great personality, but she didn't do much. I was really hoping to see her fight Grievous. I would have rather seen that then Obi-Wan. For the fourth time.

I will say, though, that the Obi/Grievous battle was pretty cool visually.

 

An excellent episode all around. Lots of action and suspense. The only real complaint I have is 99's death. To me it just seemed kinda pointless.

 

I loved this episode. Absolutely loved it. The duels definately showed Anakin's anger, and Grievous finally kicked some ass

Glad to see 99 bite the dust though (I never liked him).

 

Sacrifice is never pointless.

Also does it irk anyone else how much more fun Anakin, Obi-Wan and the show in general is when Ahsoka isn't around. They are like completely different people.

 

99 never sacrificed himself. He offered to get more ammo, but ended up getting shot. Multiple times because he wouldn't stop walking away.

 

Man, oh man. This entire premiere was just what the doctor ordered. Since this episode was my favorite of the two, I'll just post here.

First off, I enjoyed the storyline quite a bit. It's your typical hero vs. villain thing, but they played it well. Villains try hijacking something from the heroes. Heroes find out and try to stop the villains. Fun had by all.

99's fate was pretty unexpected and it made me sad. I mean, I guess I figured that would happen, but not so soon. I'm just so used to the characters I like being pretty death-proof (Obi-Wan, Anakin, Cody) that seeing one bite the big one was surprising. Way to get me attached to a character just to off them in the next episode, guys.

Of course, I loved all the Obi-Wan scenes in the episode, although, him fighting Grievous yet again is getting a bit stale. I mean, I understand that Anakin can't fight Grievous, but that doesn't prevent any other Jedi from doing so. I would've preferred that Shaak Ti take on Grievous and Obi-Wan stay behind fighting droids. Obi-Wan had some great lines in this episode and JAT did a great job voicing him. He just gets better and better with time.

Oh, and the return of Ventress! Loved it! Glad they edited out the whole kissing scene. Not necessary. Her character development is going fine without that scene being in there. Especially with her line to Grievous right after about him not having anything she wants and stroking his mask. She's an assassin that oozes sensuality. I think we've got that pretty well established by now.

Anyway, her fight with Anakin was okay. On TCW, the lightsaber duels kind of all blend together to me. Just another duel where no one dies or gets hurt. Just kind of filler until someone runs away...which both Ventress and Grievous do. I was a bit surprised about Anakin's line of letting the clones execute her on sight. That was a bit much, but I guess that's the "let's show Anakin being darker" aspect of the show. That was the only negative I found with the episode.

But hey, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Grievous and Ventress in one episode? I'll take it. 8.5/10.

 

Missed the episode; did any continuity with the ARCs change? I saw that some Troopers were promoted to ARC (*facepalm*). Anything else?

 

Excellent episode, great action, great acting! One of their best to date for certain. I definitely liked the Ventress/Grievous exchange. What's this cut kissing scene people are talking about?

Also, somewhat related - there's a new Hasbro battle pack featuring the 2 new ARC troopers, Rex and what appears to be a red Phase I ARC like Fordo. Did anyone spot this "Fordo" in the episode? If not, I wonder why it was included in the pack.....

 

Yes...

 

Well, I liked Ventress in here; the tension between her and Grievous was top-notch: they're on the same side, but it's clear that they lack the unity that most Jedi and clones have. I loved the animation, especially when Ventress was in the DNA chamber.

I didn't like the Obi-Wan/Grievous fight, though. The idea of them having met multiple times somehow seems to detract from the final battle on Utapau.

Also, there was something unintentionally hilarious about giant squid-ships jumping onto the cloning facilities.

I give it 7.5/10.

 

That is the very definition of sacrifice. He was doing all he could for the cause and lost his life in the process.

 

I wonder when this will be up somewhere? I hate the fact this show isn't on in my country... Oh well.

I hate to say it -but I am enjoying the Clone Wars series more than the prequels!

 

This is easily one of the best episodes we've seen. The animation was visually stunning, especially during the space battle and it was impressive how they crammed so much into this episode and how nicely fluent it seemed.

I loved the appearance from Broadside like I said before, I was really hoping he'd make a few more appearances since Shadow of Malevolence. The entire battle was great though, the only nitpick I had was Anakin just smiling and chatting in his cockpit while a huge battle was going around.

I don't think enough can be said about the battle of Kamino, except this episode was terribly named. The cool ARC Commander we see in Clone Cadets dies(awesomely though), I loved the animation on his face when he saw Ventress ignite the lightsaber the look of desperation was evident and he knew he was going to die and the blue ARC Trooper goes down as well and all we see of the yellow one was about 15 seconds. The banter between Ventress and Grievous couldn't of been more perfect. The lightsaber battles especially between Ventress and Anakin, which is their first 1v1 duel so I don't know why people are whining about it was beautifully executed and the shouts from the clones "It's the General!" was great. Grievous and Obi-Wan was pretty boring to be honest but the force pushes Obi-Wan used were different and I liked it, they actually had some force and obviously a little anger in them. The Rex, Cody, Echo and Fives group battle was great but I am bias as I love most clone battles. I really don't see how people don't like 99 or his death scene, it was amazingly shot with dramatic music and reactions from the other clones. He went out like a soldier, the very soldier he always wanted to be.

Unfortunately there was little Shaak Ti action which disappointed me but I quickly overcame with how great this episode was.

Overall might be my favorite episode yet and looking forward to future viewings.