Rebels: "Twilight of the Apprentice -- Part One" (Ep. 2.21)

-- "There's always a bit of truth in legends."

And now for the moment I've all been waiting for...!

It's Chopper versus an inquisitor, and Chopper...

Oh, wait, no. That's not what I've been waiting for.

I may have indicated in my review of Solo that I was quite excited by the reintroduction of Darth Maul into the movies. Not that I was ever one of those huge Darth Maul fans after The Phantom Menace. In fact, I wasn't all that impressed with Darth Maul. But, the truth is, he was never supposed to be dead dead. Lucas always intended to bring him back and the only reason he didn't come back in Attack of the Clones was because Ray Park opened his mouth about it within a few weeks of the opening of Phantom, so Lucas brought in Darth Tyranus instead. Still, I can understand people not being thrilled about him being brought back. Being cut in half is pretty final...

Unless you take into account that General Grievous was a heart and a brain and eyes in a robot body. I'm assuming that's all they were able to salvage of his organics. Compared to that, Maul was a veritable treasure trove!

All of that aside, I've found Maul to be a much more interesting character since they brought him back in Clone Wars. Not right at first, but, as they've gone along, they have deepened his character and complicated his motivations. I very much want to see what they have in store for him, and I am going to be sorely aggravated if we don't get the rest of the Solo trilogy, not for Solo but for Maul.

His first appearance here in Rebels is intriguing, which is about all I'm going to say about it until I get a chance to watch part two. I guess you'll just have to come back for that.
Or go watch it yourself.

"You don't exactly outrank me anymore."

"In my book, experience outranks everything."

"Then I definitely outrank you."

Clone Wars -- "Slaves of the Republic" (Ep. 4.12)

-- Those who enslave others inevitably become slaves themselves.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

Obi-Wan and Anakin need to track down the Togruta colony that have been taken as slaves by the Zygerrians. They decide to go undercover. There's no way anything can go wrong with this, right? Especially with Ahsoka posing as a slave. (Remember that I said that Ahsoka is Togruta?) Because she just has the perfect temperament for that, right?

With Anakin's baggage from being a slave and the fact that he's the one who is hotheaded and tends toward rushing in without a plan, you'd expect it would be Anakin's doing for things to go south. Right? But not this time. Nope. It's the levelheaded one that gets them into trouble.

There is a nice nod to Return of the Jedi in this episode, and a similar kind of arena scene from Attack of the Clones, but most of the episode is dedicated to things going from bad to worse for the heroes.

One interesting bit: Anakin has a conversation with the Zygerrian queen in which she accuses him of being a slave (no button pushing there!), but she quickly clarifies that to mean that he is a slave to his commitments and to the Jedi Order, a slave to the Republic. Of course, if he wanted to, he could join her and be truly free and rule the galaxy! Okay, she didn't really say that, but, clearly, that's the implication. Also, that freedom is getting to do whatever you want to whomever you want without any regard for anyone other than yourself.

Huh. That sounds kind of familiar.

Clone Wars -- "Darkness on Umbara" (Ep. 4.7)

-- The first step towards loyalty is trust.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

Finally! The show gets interesting again!
And I don't really know where I want to begin. Mostly, that's because I remember some of this arc, and I need to write this up without providing any spoilers.

Let's start with the planet.
Umbara is a planet shrouded in darkness. In fact, it is called the Shadow World and the Umbarans are known as the Shadow People. During an assault against one of the cities, the clones discover the planet itself (the fauna and flora) is as deadly as its inhabitants.
[This episode actually fits in perfectly with this month's theme of "creepy days" here on the blog. It is most definitely a creepy planet, shrouded in mists, and full of strange lights and glowing creatures.]

The major development of the episode, though, is the introduction General Pong Krell, a Jedi with a rather fearsome reputation. He relieves Anakin of command of his unit (against Anakin's wishes) because Anakin has been called back to Coruscant. It's almost immediately clear that Krell is an asshole. Um, I mean, a hardass. Despite the protest of Captain Rex, Krell discards Anakin's strategies for one that is, at best, highly reckless. It is also quite clear that Krell has no regard for the clones and refers to them each by their numbers rather than their chosen names. They are not men to Krell.

Krell is a very imposing figure, the same race as the diner owner from Attack of the Clones. With his four arms, he wields not one but two, two!, double-bladed lightsabers. And he doesn't hesitate about threatening his own troops with them. Because that's okay when you don't view your troops as quite sentient.

Now you see the setup...

Clone Wars -- "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" (Ep. 2.19)

-- The most dangerous beast is the beast within.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

Remember last episode and the conflict I mentioned? It was about whether to keep the zillo beast alive or not. You know, a philosophical conflict between the Jedi and Palpatine. One of the reasons Palpatine wanted to get rid of the Jedi is that you can't just say "no" to them, so, when Mace Windu wanted to spare the beast and move it to some other world to live on, Palpatine couldn't say "no" even though he wanted to. So, of course, he turned the situation to his advantage.

By having the zillo beast taken to Coruscant instead of wherever it was supposed to go.

You can imagine the results.
Actually, you should just watch the episode so that you don't have to imagine them.

I do have to wonder, though, how much of what happened Palpatine foresaw, because... well, again, you should just watch the episode.

All the creature stuff aside, I think the most significant thing about this episode is what's revealed about the relationship between Anakin and Padme. Padme takes Anakin with her to support her in convincing Palpatine to not have the zillo beast killed, but, during the conversation, Anakin waffles and comes to Palpatine's defense at one point. Padme pulls him aside and asks him whose side he's on. Anakin, of course, says hers but that he can see both sides and Palpatine has some valid points. Basically, he becomes the only Jedi who doesn't 100% believe the zillo beast should be saved. That's the implication anyway.

Of course, that's not just about the relationship between Anakin and Padme but about Anakin and his relationship to the rest of the Jedi. Hints of the growing rift between Anakin's ideology and the ideology of the Jedi as a whole. It's these little things that happen within the overall arc of the show that make it interesting and bridges the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and reveal how it is that Anakin came to betray the Jedi Order.


"A lot of the general's plans involve falling."

Star Wars: Clone Wars vs. Rebels

I've been a fan of The Clone Wars since it came out. We own the series on DVD. I was less than pleased when Disney announced, shortly after acquiring Lucasfilm, that they were cancelling production on it. Season six was in mid-production and season seven was in  the early stages of production and, while it wasn't a raging, everybody-must-watch-it-show success, it seemed to be doing fine. But, then, it was just over.

And, you know, I get it. From a business perspective, what they did made good sense. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

See, the thing is, The Clone Wars had a problem. It couldn't figure out its demographic. It wasn't a cartoon -- excuse me, animated television show -- made for kids. That is, they, the kids, were not the specific target audience. Clone Wars was launched for the Cartoon Network's prime time, adult viewing time slot. Clearly, it was an animated show that wanted an adult audience. It featured adult characters and dealt with a lot of mature themes. Sure, all of that was then presented in half hour blocks in such a way that kids could also digest the material and Ahsoka was included to allow the younger viewing audience a character they could identify with. But it wasn't a show for kids and, so, it also wasn't a show for adults. It just grabbed people like me who wanted to know more about the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith and all the kids who just like the excellent Star Wars action.

Rebels, however, is a show solidly targeting kids.You can tell because the protagonist is a kid. And, well, from what I can tell so far (only having watched the first couple of episodes), the overall action is going to revolve around the Empire's search for the "children of the Force" in its quest to exterminate the Jedi. So, still, maybe, dealing with some mature themes but, I'm going to assume, handled in a child-appropriate way. After all, we are quite used to things like dinosaurs and killer robots and gangsters chasing kids with the intent to kill.

And, well, Disney wanted to bring Star Wars to the Disney Channel, not Cartoon Network, so allowing Clone Wars to slip away allowed Disney to launch Rebels on its own network.

I'm glad to see that some of the characters from Clone Wars will carry over.

So, yeah, I'll be reviewing Rebels as I watch it, but it won't be on a weekly basis like we're doing with The Clone Wars. It will be interesting to see how it compares.

Clone Wars -- "Duchess of Mandalore" (Ep. 2.14)

-- In war, truth is the first casualty.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

"Duchess of Mandalore" wraps up the Mandalorian trilogy of episodes. In some ways, it's a stand alone episode in that the plot is self-contained; however, you really need to have watched the previous two episodes to understand the action in this one.

This episode is interesting to me in that it clearly shows Darth Sidious trying to manipulate a political situation... and failing. It actually reveals where the true front of the war is, and that is not on the battlefield. The Jedi never come to realize this. Well, at least not until it is well past too late, which we see in Revenge of the Sith. Sure, sometimes Palpatine's plans are foiled, but it's never because anyone is trying to foil those actual plans; it's always because someone is standing strong in their belief in what they're doing and the plan just doesn't succeed. It might be a fine distinction, but it's an important one.

Unfortunately, this episode doesn't go any deeper into the relationship between Satine and Obi-Wan. Well, not more than that Obi-Wan is pretty much willing to do anything for her, but you should be able to get that from the previous episode. Fortunately, if I'm remembering correctly, Satine will be back and there will be more development of the Ob-Wan/Satine story.

Death Watch is still wrapped up in the plot of this one, and we get to see Obi-Wan go toe-to-toe with another Mandalorian much in the way he goes up against Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones. It let's us see how these suits of armor they wear were really designed for combat against the Jedi.

Death Watch will be back, too.

As I said, this is a really good series of episodes and one of the ones that I remember best from my previous viewing of the series. It's not a bad place to start if you just want to test the Clone Wars waters.

Clone Wars -- "The Mandalore Plot" (Ep. 2.12)

-- If you ignore the past, you jeopardize the future.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

I'm not sure if I can say this is my favorite season two story arc or not, but it is one of my favorite arcs from Clone Wars overall, which I can say because it's one of the ones I remembered best before starting to watch the series again (for this thing that The Armchair Squid and I are doing). This arc has more than a few very memorable, and important, characters/concepts/things that it introduces.

Let's deal with the obvious one first:
"The Mandalore Plot" takes us to the planet Mandalore, a place every kid who got one of those early Boba Fett figures back in 1979/80 wanted to go. Face it, Boba Fett may still be the coolest character ever to come out of Star Wars, and they really never gave us anything to go on for decades. When they finally did, it was in the person of Jango Fett, and they still told us nothing. But "The Mandalore Plot" finally gives us some background.

For one thing, the episode reveals that the Mandalorians, or at least the warriors who wore the armor, had a longstanding animosity with the Jedi. I think the implication there is that their armor suits were developed specifically to counter the Jedi, which would explain why Obi-Wan has so much trouble with Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones. And, actually, again in this episode of The Clone Wars.

Another thing we get to see is the darksaber, an ancient Jedi weapon stolen by the Mandalorians long ago.

The darksaber is a cool weapon and works similarly to a lightsaber. The series never provides much background on what it is or where it came from or anything like that, but it does turn up in later episodes.

And then there's Satine. Satine is an important character for reasons I'm not going to go into yet: They'd be spoilery. However, I will say one thing: I find it completely amusing that they named the character Satine, the name of Nicole Kidman's character in Moulin Rouge. That's a hint, by the way, but that's all I'm going to say. Well, other than that she'll be back.

Oh, and the introduction of Death Watch. That's a thing, too.

Mostly, The Clone Wars doesn't contain this kind of world building. It does occasionally, but it's generally focused on characters or showing us places we've already been or creating an interesting side note that only exists for an episode or two. This arc, though, seems very foundational to me because of the depth it gives us for Boba Fett's background. You know at some point Disney is going to get around to doing a Boba Fett movie, so I would expect that at least some of this stuff from these episodes will come into play again.

Personally, I'd love to see the darksaber make it to the big screen.

"We'll have to stand and fight or, in your case, just stand."

Star Wars: A Discussion (Episode III)

No, we're not actually up to The Force Awakens, yet. Don't worry; we'll get there.
Eventually.

When my oldest son was not quite two, my wife gave me the boxed (VHS) set of Special Edition for Christmas. My son was not a TV watcher; I mean, we didn't even have TV (still don't). He wasn't (yet) a video watcher either. He wasn't even two and we didn't really have any videos for him to sit and watch. When I put A New Hope in to watch it, it didn't occur to either of us (my wife and me) that he would pay any attention to it. But he did.

He sat down and was mesmerized by it and, when it was over and he got up, he was someone different. He was Luke Skywalker. I'm being serious. He got up and immediately began running around the house as if he was Luke. It was, quite frankly, amazing. By the time we'd watched the full trilogy, the transformation was complete.

Amusing story time:
Those of you with kids will know that two-year-olds aren't the best talkers in the world. Well, ours started saying "fuck" to us. That, also, was amazing and a surprise, because we couldn't figure out where he'd heard it, since we didn't use that kind of language around him. But he'd run into the kitchen and yell "fuck!" and run out again and, really, just leave us bemused. So, one day, he and I were at Target together going through the toys (because I was still collecting Star Wars stuff at the time and, actually, the kid was starting his own collection, too). As we went down one of the aisles, he began yelling "fuck! fuck!" over and over again. People were looking and I was, frankly, embarrassed. I was trying to shush him and sped up to get off the aisle then, as we rounded the corner at the end, he started pointing, too, and stating "fuck!" even more emphatically. And, so, I looked to see what he was pointing at: an endcap display of Millennium Falcons. The "fuck!" That was all he could say of it. It was one of those "oh" moments and it all made sense.

Still incredibly embarrassing, though, because you can't go to everyone and explain to them that your two-year-old is not really swearing, as if they'd believe you anyway, right?


My oldest son was old enough to see The Phantom Menace in the theater when it came out, though he doesn't remember it -- he was only three, after all -- but my second son was released right in the middle of the trilogy. Oh, um, I mean, he was born during the midst of the prequels. He was a great baby, and we could take him to any movie with us, and he would sleep right through it. We couldn't take our oldest son to many movies, because all he wanted to do was get up and walk around. Star Wars was an exception. But, for the first year of his life, we took the second child to all of our movies with us, including Pearl Harbor, which we were sure was going to wake him up it was so loud, but he slept right through it. That lasted right up until May of 2002.

Don't get me wrong, Attack of the Clones was fine. He didn't sleep through it, but he also didn't fuss. What we didn't know was that our one year and change baby was watching the movie. How do we know? Well, sometime after the release of Clones, my wife and I had gone to see some movie that wasn't Star Wars. I don't remember what movie it was, but it was a date movie, and we took the younger boy with us because he had always been fine in movies. Not this time, though.

No, for that movie (whatever it was), he started crying and fussing almost as soon as the movie started. It was unprecedented.

So I did what any good person should do and I took my son out of the theater leaving my wife to watch our date movie alone. I wandered around the theater for a while holding him. When he finally calmed down, we tried going back to the theater but, almost as soon as I sat down next to my wife, he started back up again. After a couple of times of that, I gave up on going back in and had decided to just stand around in the hallway until the movie was over... except that Attack of the Clones was showing in the theater across the hall, so I decided to go just inside the door to see if I could watch a bit of that.

And this is where it gets interesting because my son, my son who was just over a year old, sat up to watch the movie. He almost instantly became totally engrossed in it. But it's hard to tell things with babies since they can't actually communicate with you, so I decided to experiment with him. Yes, I did an experiment with kid. I walked back to the movie I was supposed to be seeing where he immediately got upset again. Then, I went back to Clones where he started watching again. I went into every other movie in that hall, about half a dozen, and he got upset in every one of them. Attack of the Clones was the only movie he would watch. So, well, we sat down and finished the movie, and he sat quietly and watched the whole thing. By the time it was over, I only had to wait for my wife for about 10 minutes.

For the record, that was the last time we took him to the movies with us. Well, until Revenge of the Sith came out, at any rate.

I don't have any stories like that about my daughter, but she is as fully immersed as the boys at this point. She loves R2-D2, Wicket, and BB-8.
Incidentally, they are watching Return of the Jedi as I finish this up. My wife and I have been out, and they were watching it when we got home. That's the way our house is.

Next post, we'll start into The Force Awakens.

Clone Wars -- "Dooku Captured" (Ep. 1.11)

-- The winding path to peace is always a worthy one, regardless of how many turns it takes.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

I think I can safely say that this is my favorite episode, so far, of the first season. That, in and of itself, is interesting to me, because, while I remembered this episode from my first watching of the series years ago, I didn't remember any of the things about it that made me love it so much this time.

One of the purposes of showing us the Clone Wars, according to Lucas, is so that we can see the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan and how close they were. So that we can see the betrayal and, actually, trauma involved for Obi-Wan in the confrontation on Mustafar. Obi-Wan says, "You were my brother!" But we really have no experience of that.

This episode gives us that experience. It's the first Anakin/Obi-Wan episode, since almost all of the other episodes have really revolved around establishing Ahsoka and her relationship with Anakin. This is a full on Anakin/Obi-Wan adventure, and it's pretty awesome.

It opens in the middle of a plot to capture Count Dooku which involves Anakin allowing himself to get captured. Then, Obi-Wan comes to rescue him, which is where we pick up the story. There's an immediate argument between the two about why it is that Anakin is the one that always has to be the one to be captured. It's really a classic sibling argument, and it had me chuckling. But it gets better.

As soon as they finish the argument, they come across Dooku and he makes a comment about how Obi-Wan has had to come and rescue Anakin. Again. They don't show it, but you can just about imagine the eye roll going on with Anakin.

Dooku escapes, by the way. The title of the episode is not precisely what you might think.

Anakin and Obi-Wan spend the whole episode bickering and, well, acting like brothers. It's a nice dynamic and provides some good moments. Plus, there's the continued banter, started in Attack of the Clones, about Anakin and his inability to retain a lightsaber.

This episode also introduces another of my favorite recurring characters: Hondo Ohnaka. Hondo is a Weequay pirate who Obi-Wan and Anakin run into from time to time. Or maybe I should say they have run-ins with him from time to time. At any rate, Hondo and his band of pirates are always good for a bit of amusement.

This is a great episode and one that doesn't carry over any previous story lines, so it makes a great jumping in point.


"They are devious and deceitful. And, most importantly, stupid."

Clone Wars -- "Bombad Jedi" (Ep. 1.8)

-- Heroes are made by the times.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

This is probably the episode that no one was waiting for, considering the general view of Jar Jar, that is. Which is not to say that the episode doesn't have its moment, because it does. It's just that most of those moments are slapstick.

The actual conflict in the episode revolves around someone close to Padme betraying her in order to hand her over to Nute Gunray, who is still seeking revenge against her because of the fallout of The Phantom Menace. The real question, though, is why was Padme taking Jar Jar with her on a diplomatic mission. Maybe she thought this was a safe one to take him along on considering that she was going to see someone she was close to. And, yes, we know that Jar Jar becomes part of Padme's diplomatic contingent even by the time of Attack of the Clones, but it's unclear what his role was supposed to be during this particular mission.

What his role ends up being is "Jedi rescuer" as the battle droids mistake him for a Jedi after he throws on a cloak to hide himself during his attempt to rescue the captured Padme. Hi-jinks, of course, ensue.

My issue with the episode has nothing to do with the actual hi-jinks. For what it is, the episode is generally amusing. The issue is that it feels thrown in in order to give some screen time to characters who have mostly been left out of the narrative to this point: Padme, C-3PO, and, even, Jar Jar. So, while the episode does have an important plot point, overall, it feels a little strained and as if it's a bit of comic relief in the very serious story arcs that have so far dominated the series.

This is not an episode I would recommend to a first time viewer, but it's enjoyable enough within the context of watching the series.

"The ship has been destroyed."
"Battle droids?"
"No..."
"Jar Jar?"
"Jar Jar."

Clone Wars -- "Destroy Malevolence" (Ep. 1.4)

 -- A plan is only as good as those who see it through.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

This episode hearkens back to A New Hope and the Death Star rescue. See, the Malevolence is a huge ship. Massive. It's three times bigger than the standard Imperial Star Destroyer (though still dwarfed by the Super Star Destroyer). Grievous, through the machinations of Darth Sidious, is able to take Padme (almost) hostage while trying to escape from Republic forces. Anakin, of course, goes to rescue her. There are also overtones of the droid factory from Attack of the Clones.

This episode also has what I think is the first physical confrontation between Obi-Wan and Grievous. Without looking up and cataloging all of their meetings, this seems to me to be an ongoing theme in Clone Wars which, of course, culminates in their final duel in Revenge of the Sith.

Probably, the most interesting part of the episode has to do with transportation inside these huge ships. Imperial Star Destroyers are pretty close to a mile long. Haven't you ever wondered how people get around inside of them without it taking forever? Especially on something like a Super Star Destroyer, which is close to four miles long. Imagine: You have a meeting with Vader in half an hour, but you're on the wrong end of the ship. How do you get there?

Of course, the Space Balls answer was interior teleporters. But Star Wars doesn't actually use teleportation, so maybe being force choked for being late is your only option.

Or is it? The answer "Destroy Malevolence" provides is a kind of high speed tram system. Considering that the Clone Wars series is canon, I have to assume that this is the official answer as to how people (or droids) get around on these huge ships. We don't get to see much beyond the bridge area of the Star Destroyers in the movies, but I would love to see how these would look. Not that I expect that we'll get any better look at the interiors of Star Destroyers in episode VII.

At any rate, it's a fun episode. It's fun to see Anakin on the rescuing side of the whole rescue-the-princess thing.