Full Series The Clone Wars- Episode 104: Destroy Malevolence! Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

Point taken Rogue... it does then seem that Rising was not a Republic victory...

So then I look inside and see why I think otherwise...

And as I cook my hotdogs, the answer comes to me (maybe )

It the empathy thing. So the CIS took down the stormies/clones, big deal. Once Anakin et al. come on scene, this CIS juggernaut couldn't get any love.

Like I mentioned, stroll onto the ship, stroll onto the bridge, one shot kill for the super-ion-cannon.

I think its the bitter ol' Imperial in me. All of a sudden we're caring that clones die? No one cared for the Death Star contractors. No one cared for the crews in the Executor or any downed ISD in the OT. No one cared for the stormies massacred on Endor?

But now we care about Clones blown up in escape pods?

Yes I know, then we were the good guys, but its not fair I say!

Anywhos, I digress so I shall shut up now... I'll entertain PMs on this if people want to continue this.

-I_H

 

Oh now I'm just hearing Kevin Smith talking.

 

I could see that being the case in a technical sense. But it does seem that more negative ramifications would be possible since there was direct disagreement.

 

I can picture kids with SW figure collections doing all kinds of funny/absurd things with their Battle Droid figures... this show is absolutely chocked full of BD humor (or attempts at BD humor - I think in many instances it's overdone).

I enjoyed the episode... good to see Obi and Anakin together and some lightsabers.

 

Hammer, the question of compassion for clones vs. not for Stormies is a good one. One that I wouldn't mind continuing in it's own thread, though I'm not entirely sure of the right forum for it. Makes me think, you know.

 

Well, I think they're going out of their way to make us care about the clones.....why now, I'm not sure. I guess they're not really the bad guys until Order 66, and it would be hard to consider them (future) villains for the duration of TCW.

Just finished watching it, fantastic episode, had a good "old-time" Star Wars feel to it.

Some highlights:

- Obi-Wan and Anakin's banter "you taught me everything I know", "Oh, if only that were true"

- The droid covering his face when he tells Grievous they didn't get the full transmission they intercepted

- Threepio is just so awesome. "I'm lost. In enemy territory. All alone... I surrender!"

- Grievous was great again. "Jedi are so predictable."

- Obi-Wan was great in dispatching the droids, and I loved his last contemptuous backhand blaster deflection, a la Mace Windu in AOTC.

- Still a little too much droid humor, but I guess overall it's okay.

- oh yeah, that last droid officer launching the hyperdrive - I loved how he was puffing out his chest and acting all important!

 

I don't know what it is, but I feel the need to like the clones. Captain Rex was one of my favorites.

 

I don't think the Jedi "disobeyed" a direct order. The Jedi are not subject to the demands or orders of The Republic. They are sworn protectors of The Republic, they are not servants of it. Jedi outrank senators in every respect in my opinion, and I think it's pretty clear from the prequel trilogy in general. The Jedi are both warriors and internal affairs -- they don't answer to anyone, they fight where they are most needed. It's a private order.

I love the dialogue for the most part, there were a lot of good lines in this one, namely the Anakin-Obi-Wan exchange about how Obi-Wan taught Anakin everything he knew, and also the quote about Anakin putting droids together before, now he only tears them apart. That rocked. I like most of the droid humor, I think they could scale it back about 30% and it would work a bit better. I'm not sure we need quite SO much droid humor, it's funny but it's also kind of hit and miss. I think trimming it down might help that out, but it doesn't bother me. It mostly works.

My main complaint is trying to tie in some quotes too much to the main saga, which is something only a n00b Star Wars writer would do, not an experienced writer who really knows the saga. Like Plo-Koon saying, "There he goes again, craving adventure and excitement." Ok did we need a DIRECT quote from the OT basically? Do we need someone saying they have a bad feeling about this EVERY episode, even droids?! No, we don't. We get it. Throw in one of those quotes every 5th episode, maybe, but I don't want to keep hearing dialogue from the saga rehashed in not-at-all-clever ways, like with Plo-Koon's quote. Mostly they're doing great on the dialogue and it's funny stuff, it's good, I really enjoy it. So it's a minor gripe but I just don't think it helps "connect" the Clone Wars animated series to the Saga, I think it actually makes it seem like nobody has something original to say if they just repeat sayings we've already heard a bunch before. They've done that at least once an episode so far.

 

How many times will Dooku forgive Grievous?

 

Only a few more times, then he'll kill him. And then we'll see that Grievous has an evil brother who looks just the same, and has the same name, and he's who we saw in Revenge of the Sith.

 

This was easily my favorite episode yet. As soon as this shows up on Itunes, I'm definitely buying it. A tad contrived that Padme just happened to arrive there, but I could already guess that would be how it would happen from the webcomic. And it is so great to have Threepio back and wandering around with Artoo. That is classic Star Wars. All they had to do was throw in an Artoo-comlink joke and the classic situation would be complete. Although I do wonder how Threepio survived being hit by a train! Oh well, at least they didn't have to gather his parts or anything.

Before, I had been a bit annoyed that Obi-wan hadn't really done much, aside from stand on a bridge, but this episode pretty much makes up for all of it. Just like in the movie, I'm glad to see that even after Obi-wan is surrounded by several droids and Greivous he's still perfectly calmn, and nice homage line from Grevious when he shows up. And then Obi-wan takes out the whole force anyway, I like how they're dealing with droidekas in this series, as while they're still a significant threat to Jedi with their shields, the Jedi find lots of ways aroud it- I loved when Obi-wan was using one droideka's shield for protection and then retreated. I see Grevious is already wielding several lightsabers, but kind of sad we didn't get to see more Obi-wan vs. Grevious lightsaber clashes. Oh well, at least that means when they finally clash in Utapau, it won't just be rehashes of earlier duels then. Obi-wan still seems a bit too nagging of Anakin, but oh well. And like the droid said, it was impressive when Obi-wan casually deflected that blaster bolt witout even looking.

Looks like Dooku genuinely wanted to save that ship, considering how often he was calling to tell Grevious to hurry up, and with how Palpatine sent Padme in to give Grevious a hostage. And wow, even with most of the Malevolence in flames, three Venators still can't really knock it out, at least not anytime soon. Now that's an impressive dreadnought/battleship.

Padme was pretty good in this one, with how she at least escaped capture and even blew up her ship. Too bad it didn't harm Grevious at all, but at least she tried. Even her moments with Anakin weren't too bad, since they're already on pretty familiar terms with each other. Surprised they didn't get to kiss, but guess they'll be saving that moment for later (or unless they decided kids wouldn't be interested in that kind of moment).

And heh, love how Obi-wan mocked that spinning is not flying, but Anakin says it a nice trick. Oh, if only Obi-wan knew how nice a trick it was. The banter between Obi-wan and Anakin was great, and its much better than broody Anakin was for most of RotS. And yay, little to no Ahsoka. Although she did seem to note that Anakin purposely stopped attacking due to Padme being on board. Also not much clone appearances, which I'm perfectly fine with. I knwo they're playing up how hnice the clones are in this series, and the clones are somewhat likable, but I still don't bother to get too interested in any of them since its just going to lead to tragedy eventually (either the clones will die, or they'll kill the Jedi eventually). Especially with how next week's episode looks to be all-clones all the time.

I'm glad the Malevolence was actually destroyed this episode, I felt it would've been really annoying if it had managed to escape back to Seperatist space. And I also liked that it didn't feel too contrived that Grevious was off-ship when the Malevolence crashed into that planet/moon, I get tired of how frequently various Clone War villains escape (Dooku, Ventress, Grevious, etc.), but at least this time he was actually chasing down Kenboi and Skywalker, so he didn't just jump ship as he usually does. Also wonder how much trouble he'll be in when he eventually reports back in. Though odd that Grevious showed that much autonomy, usually he's completely obedient to Dooku. Although during the starfighter chase, you'd think having a Jedi like Obi-wan at the guns wo

 

The Last Starfighter.

 

Yay, story arcs! (Translation, spliced together into movie form when the DVDs come out! UGH!)

 

Indeed. I'm still waiting for some miswired jokes, tho. He is trying!

 

Few things that haven't been mentioned yet:

- Obi-Wan asking Anakin if he has a plan b, adding that you always need a backup plan. Nice foreshadowing to the opening of RotJ

- Given that in this ep Grievous does the whole jump down and say, "hello there" thing...not only is it a nod to RotJ...but it adds a dimension to that moment in RotJ. Now on Utapau Obi-Wan is being a smarty-pants repeating Grevous' little entrance.

- So, it seems clear given the episodes so far that some people (at least Anakin and Ahsoka) can understand R2 without the need for an interpreter or screen readout.



I think there were a few more...but I'm blanking.

 

Though I am sensitive to the idea of over-doing OT or PT quotes...

I don't have any problems with Plo Koon's "adventure and excitement" line, because I can see how in-universe it makes sense that he'd say that.

Think about it. The Jedi are, at least in part, a religious order. Most, if not all religions here in the real world have certain phrases, figures of speech, metaphors, etc. that are common among the religion's adherents. So no one thinks it odd that, for example, a Christian in Maine and a Christian in Texas use the same phrases.

So discussing the dangers of "craving adventure and excitement" could be a common Jedi-ism.

 

Sure, I guess you're right about that. But my problem was... how was he chasing adventure and excitement? It seemed to me he was trying to save someone's life in a daring rescue. That doesn't sound that adventurous or exciting to me, it sounds self-sacrificing and brave. I would have been like screw this, oh well, I'll find another hot young thing, blast the ship to pieces. Then again I'm kind of a jerk.

 

This was a really good episode. Im surprised that nobody commented on how much Anakin and Obi-Wan used the force in this episode though, in the prequels they almost never used them in battle, but here they used it all the time (lifting carts to block the droids, throw Padme to safety twice, Obi-Wan pushing the super battle droids etc..)

Anakin and Padme actually had good chemistry here, wow.
Obi Wan and Grievous is always fun.

Overall I must say this three parter has been great and if the series continue to be this good then it?s going to be 5 great years

 

LOVED IT! My favorite ep so far. I don't know what you guys are talking about. There are CIS victories happening all over the place during the clone wars. But we know that Anakin and Obi-Wan had numerous successes - remember 'the negotiator and the hero with no fear'???? The Republic was depressed with all of the death and defeat and then along came those two and everyone just knew everything would be all right because they had so many victories. So we have to see those because that is who we've been focused on up to now more or less. And we really could not have Yoda lose could we? lmao. Anyway, I am sure there will be heavy losses and such and we've already lost men and all of that rot.

Anyhow, I loved this one, R2 and C3PO together again! wicked stuff! I'm not huge on Padme, but her absence has been noted so it was great to see her as well. Also loved that Obi and Ani were at it together again. And when the Malvolence bit the moon, the explosion (on my screen) was awesome. Honestly, I could have written this it so perfectly fits what I had in mind for the series...I am jazzed big time.

ps. I love all the OT and PT references, quotes used and such - it cracks me up every time. Although the best was:

Droid: "that was impressive"
Grievous: WHACK!

 

So far... this is has been my favorite episodes. And I'll be the first to admit it, I laughed at a few of the battle droid jokes. This probably had the best script so far in terms of character interaction- like the Obi-Wan/Anakin banter. Even Padme/Anakin together wasn't even that bad. I liked the whole air they gave them while they where together, it felt different then the prequels-don't know why though

EDIT: oh yeah, I love the fire fighter battle droids-so cool- I want Hasbro to make a figure of that.

 

Is the Banking Clan Supreme Executive that Padme mentioned suppose to be San Hill?

 

Loved, loved LOVED this episode! Personally, I think the Obi-wan/Anakin banter is just right. I feel the OT/PT homages are great. Each episode, it gives us something to look for and recognize. Young kids and casual fans will not notice, but us nerds that are really into Star Wars will scour each episode to try and outdo each other to find all the references. That's why the writers put them there, for us. WOOO-HOOO!

 

Anakin and Padme felt different because they actually had chemistry. We were talking earlier about the devolution of Padme from TPM to ROTS, and this definitely felt more like TPM-era Padme.

I forgot about the fire fighters, they were great.


Also: does this mark the first time Obi-Wan has direct contact with C-3PO in the entire PT era?


EDIT: Also, cool shot when Padme's ship comes out of hyperspace and the Malevolence is right in front of her.

 

Also: does this mark the first time Obi-Wan has direct contact with C-3PO in the entire PT era?

I can't think of an earlier time off the top of my head... but doesn't he refer to C-3PO as "your droid" when talking to Anakin in this episode? Or maybe he was saying that to Padme, through Anakin's comlink.