Full Series The TCW Duologies

There's been a bunch of The Clone Wars arcs that consists of just two episodes and not all of them have been great, but some of them are really enjoyable (in some ways I feel that these shorter arcs are generally overlooked on here since we focus the most of our attention on the longer ones).

Now, which one of them would you say is your favorite?

 

The "Hunt for Grievous" arc, as you labelled it, has to be my favorite. Grievous Intrigue provided us with a strong portrayal of Grievous, new ship designs and an interesting fleet battle, Adi Gallia and Eeth Koth, and all around enjoyable action. The Deserter offers a Rex-centric episode, a further on-screen exploration of clone identity, an extended look at Saleucami, and a unique firefight dynamic featuring the damaged commando droids. Back to back, they're nearly an hour straight of good Star Wars storytelling.

If I could pick a second, my vote would have gone to the "Trandoshan arc." The duology rather faithfully introduced Trandoshan hunter culture to the screen, in addition to Wookiee/Trandoshan animosity. Speaking of which, the Wookiees—especially Tarfull—were cool, we get a return of the ever-awesome Sugi, Wasskah had a great environmental design, and Jedi were allowed to die in a realistic manner. These episodes are also the series apex when it comes to making good use of Ahsoka as a strong yet believable Padawan hero.

"Dooku Captured," "Blue Shadow Virus," the "Senate" arc, and the "Droid Adventure" arc were generally awful. The "Mandalore Corruption" arc, while amusing to watch now in retrospect, is equally terrible in my eyes.

 

That's an unbelievably crappy list, the only duology that's actually good is the Trando one, which is legitimately great. I gave them both tens back when they aired but haven't watched them since.

R2 Lost is lame, Dooku Captured is awful, Maridun is mediocre, Blue Shadow is horrible, Grievous Intrigue is good but The Deserter is ****, making that duology mediocre, Zillo Beast is mediocre, Mandalore and Senate are total irredeemable garbage, and the Droid arc is pretty damn bad.

 

Senate arc is a kind of trilogy, the third episode being Senate Murders 02x15.
I voted Hunt for Grievous, really great duology. I hesitated between this one, Maridun arc and Trandoshan arc.

 

Trandoshan duology. The tone was dark and overwhelming. The action was visceral. The stakes felt high.

The concept of the story is that the Trandoshans wish to hunt and mount Jedi teenagers to their walls as trophies. That's pretty damn harsh, and I love it when SW steps into this territory, especially when it's executed this well.

The first episode managed to introduce and make you care about these padawans in a little less than 15 minutes, so I don't think it's an understatement when I say how impressive it is that Kalifa's death is perhaps one of the saddest of the show. It's so brutal and unrepentant, and the shot of Ahsoka defeated as she walks away from her lifeless body, even as more blaster fire is launched at her... it's one of the most memorable shots.

In terms of the combat, we get to see these Jedi work together to use the Force to bring down their enemies, as they don't have their lightsabers. This is something that was tackled before, but I feel was done best here. You really get the sense that the Force was keeping them alive, that without it they'd surely have died at any moment. You can take away a Jedi's lightsaber, but if you took away the Force, then they would truly no longer be a Jedi.

Chewbacca was introduced in a way that didn't feel shoehorned, and he was thankfully in more of a supporting role than the main star. Still, I wish we'd seen more of Wookiees. They. Are. Awesome.

The episodes were beautiful. From the flora-covered battlefield of Felucia to the dense forests of Wasskah, the animation was a step above even the prior arcs of Season 3. Seeing the Trandoshan ship spin out of control as it broke apart mid-air, tore up the ground and sent a wave of dust from it's impact... this looks good.

I liked the character development. It was nice to see Ahsoka try to maintain her ethics as she was forced to fight for her life, and also to see Anakin and his attachments play a part.

Excellent episodes.

 

I loved the blue shadow virus. I think it has an interesting concept. So many star systems and never an illness that leaves one unaffected and kills the other, completely different life form.

 

It was some time since I last watched that episode but I debated some with myself if it really would count as the third episode of the arc and now when I checked on Wookieepedia (dunno why I didn't check it up before making this thread) it does seem to count as the third part; my mistake.

(Well, if some of you weren't sure before, now you know that the senate one is not a duology and should therefore not be on the list above).

 

It's a duology in terms of release, just as Ambush is a standalone episode but is technically a duology with Supply Lines... or a 5-part arc with the Ryloth trilogy too.

 

Well, yes, it's a duology if you look at it that way, but I was aiming to include only the ones that are duologies as a whole.

 

I chose the Trandoshan Arc, not my favourite Arc of the series, since my favourite wasn't on the poll but i chose this one, cause it was fun and it had Chewie

 

I really liked the Dooku captured arc. I found it really interesting with the Obi Wan, Anakin and Dooku tied together trying to escape the base.

 

Very tough call for me between Zillo and Trando.

 

I like the Droid Adventure arc...

*Ducks from thrown objects*

 

Zilo beast (I loves me a good rampaging monster climbing / smashing a city)

 

I was stuck between the Zillo Beast arc, the Grievous arc, and the Trandoshan arc. I went with the Zillo Beast one in the end because I love the Zillo Beast and the terror it brings with it. So shocking that the team never thought about continuing its story. I also like the R2 lost arc (with its Separatist astromech R3-S6), the Maridun arc, and only the Blue Shadow Virus episode of its arc. The other two episode arcs weren't so good.

 

I also went for the Trandoshan arc, it was really enjoyable and, as you said, the cartoonistry was beautiful. Kalifu(or whatever)'s death wasn't really sad to me, but it was still an excellent arc. The Maridun/Greivous Intrigue arcs were really good, but like ct said the 2nd episode in that arc wasn't so good.