I decided to watch all 5 episodes back-to-back tonight, so I'll post my thoughts in this thread. I'm putting it up ahead of time in case any assembled LACWACers (or other board-goers, since we're temporarily merged) also want to participate, or just comment on their memories of the arc.
Your 'tonight' will probably be too late for me, otherwise I'd definitely be in for this. Absolutely love that arc. Oh, and people are calling you HJ, LOLAR xD
Nice! I'll take that over the purposefully-misspelled-despite-my-protestations "Tarkus." People will be SO confused when the new boards are up and suddenly there's no H_J or HJ_hating_troll. Hahaha. And it's already nighttime here, I just need to finish some work before I indulge in the finer things. Whenever you get to it feel free to jump in, hopefully there will be some conversation you can get in on even if you don't have time to watch.
Bought Landing at Point Rain with my iTunes cash. I am very impressed with just how well they managed to integrate strong dialogue with intense action. In this show, we usually get one or the other. But this episode has some great banter between Ahsoka and Anakin, as well as the cameo by Waxer and Boil. And the visuals. I need an HD TV after what I got on my PC.
Senate Spy So I noticed for the first time that in the beginning, after Anakin breaks one of the seats so Padme and the other Senator can't sit next to each other, after they're strapped in and out of the shot, the middle seat is no longer broken! I can't be the first to spot that can I? The great thing about watching this series as a fan of the bigger SW saga is that Anakin isn't just some generic hero. When he gets really angry in this episode, it's reflective of the kind of Jedi he is and what makes him different from the other Jedi, and ultimately why he falls to the Dark Side. There are also a few moments where he seems overwhelmed by other emotions, which should never happen to a Jedi. Landing at Point Rain Ki-Adi Mundi's only episode as a main character! A great war episode of course. Master Mundi's "What do I win?" moment at the end is classic. It's one of the coolest uses of the Force in the series without being mind-bending and new when Anakin and Ahsoka throw Rex off the wall with the Force, dive after him, and break their fall after an insane drop with the Force. Weapons Factory My favorite thing about this episode is the dynamic they show between Anakin and Luminara as they face the prospect of their Padawans dying and Luminara sees Anakin's emotional reaction and eventually calls him out for not being able to let go. This further hits home on why Anakin eventually turns to the Dark Side. When they rescue the Padawans at the end it should have taken a little bit longer. An entire complex collapses on top of them, and the Jedi come along and move one piece of scrap metal and poof, they've found them. It's way too fast, you forget how dire the situation was moments ago. Legacy of Terror This episode is just fun. Plenty of pulp, old school sci-fi feeling moments. The one thing I thought about this I hadn't considered before is that once again we have Luminara insisting on going on a really ambitious mission by herself. She does that with Ventress after being warned by Ahsoka in Cloak of Darkness, gets her ass handed to her and has to be saved by Ahsoka, and at the end is extremely humble and talks about how she learned from the experience. So then her very next appearance she's doing the very same thing, insisting on going after Poggle alone and needing to be rescued? That's a little weird in context, especially since most Jedi don't even get two episodes as a main character. Not to be overly negative, because I do enjoy this episode, but I also thought Luminara was way too banter-y with Obi-Wan. In the beginning of Landing at Point Rain, she cuts off Obi-Wan and Anakin's banter. If they kept her kind of matter-of-fact it would be more consistent and flesh out the character, having her switch to engaging in banter herself so readily isn't the best choice. Brain Invaders More old school science-fiction fun from TCW. Ahsoka being attacked by a friend under mind-control is a classic sci-fi dilemma. They adapt it perfectly to SW by connecting it, explicitly so at the end of the episode, to how Anakin rationalizes his attachments and unwillingness to let go of them. This was my favorite TCW episode for awhile. The Alderaan shuttle interior looks just like Tantive IV, one of my favorite SW environments. This is also Anakin's first major Dark Side moment of the series, foreshadowing things to come in S4.
My listing goes Landing at Point Rain Legacy of Terror Weapons Factory Brain Invaders I loved Legacy of Terror for its sheer goofiness, and the at the time stunning lighting effects. The Geonosian Queen was utterly ridiculous however. Weapons Factory strikes lower for me due to the overblown music and rather moronic tactics used by Anakin. I still prefer it over Brain Invaders however. Brain Invaders does not understand the meaning of subtlety. LOOK ANAKIN IS EVIL BECAUSE HE'S CHOKING PEOPLE WHILE THE IMPERIAL MARCH PLAYS LOOK THIS IS FORESHADOWING. "If there's one thing we clones know how to do it's stop a Jedi." Could you be any more blatant?
How do you make a Force-choke more subtle? He asks Poggle politely? That's what the other Jedi did, and they failed. He had to try something different to get Poggle to talk, and he tried the Dark Side because he couldn't let go of Ahsoka. And then the resolution showed how he is able to rationalize his behavior. Kevin Kiner almost never uses Williams' motifs, you're complaining about the Imperial March during a Force-choke? That's the PERFECT music for it! This is Star Wars, it's supposed to be a space opera, there are motifs, that's how all the music should be structured if you ask me. Ep. IV had it right. It's the culmination of the arc, I think all of these episodes have moments where you see Anakin's emotional issues come out in different ways, and the climax is an explosion of anger.
She should be careful. Obi Wan is like a reverse succubus, using up women until they are old withered husks before moving onto his next lover/victim.
It was my absolute favorite TCW episode before the Mortis trilogy came out, now I'm kind of heading into "I can't possibly pick just one" territory like my favorite band situation.
Landing at Point Rain-The visuals were stunning and I am still floored by the gunship sequence. Ki-Adi-Mundi was fantastic, Obi-Wan was written well, the Anakin/Ahsoka/Rex trio was excellent, and the Jedi overall were shown with a degree of vulnerability. The brutality also increased with the flamethrowers sequence. Brain Invaders-Barriss and Ahsoka are one of the show's best pairings but they worked better here than in their previous installment together. The foreshadowings were done very well, and the Ahsoka/Barriss moment towards the end where Barriss begs Ahsoka to kill her is fantastic, one of my favorite TCW moments of all time. Legacy of Terror-This was a creepy and cool episode. Luminara's streak showed her weakness of arrogance well and the subsequent capture was a nice result of that weakness. Obi-Wan/Anakin were done very well here and the only thing here that was jarring was Karina's voice. Weapons Factory-The action was well done, Luminara's interactions with Anakin were a joy to watch, Barriss/Ahsoka once again were good, and the only thing that stopped this episode was the end rescue. A cliffhanger would have been better. Senate Spy-Some of the jealousy bits were overdone, but overall good episode. Cato Neimoidia was beautiful, but the plot overall fit well and the use of what was then a cliffhanger at least was very well done. Anakin's anger at Clovis was a great demonstration of his deviations from the path of a normal Jedi.
Such a great arc. It showcased how well the episodic format of the show can be used. There was something for everybody, and the episodes were consistently epic. Watching this arc after most current episodes makes me really depressed.
Anything with any hint of John Williams gets my respect. Yoda's theme in the series premiere, the uses of the first few notes of the imperial march and force theme used sporadically throughout the series - especially on Mortis, Zygerria, and Hardeen arcs. Battle of the Heroes was also briefly used during the temptation of Anakin by the Son.
