Clone Wars -- "Old Friends Not Forgotten" (Ep. 7.09)

"I am cautiously optimistic."

Enjoy your Revenge of the Fifth...

It seems that this arc is going to use slightly modified quotes from the movies as titles, though last episode wasn't really part of this arc, just the prelude to it. They're definitely gearing up to the end of the series. The opening of this episode was more like a movie opening than a Clone Wars episode, so much so that my son accused me of having played the wrong show when it started up. And I believed him(!) and backed out of the episode and started it again to make sure. It was the correct one. No opening quote, which was weird, so I pulled a line from the episode instead.

This episode opens with one of those epic Star Wars battle scenes, which we actually haven't had a lot of in Clone Wars, now that I think of it. They come along every so often, but they're not as frequent as you'd think. It's a good scene. Obi-Wan is on the ropes, his troops about to be overrun by battle droids. Until... Oh, but that would be telling. It's fun, though.

Two things are happening in this episode.
One, Ahsoka has returned to Anakin and Obi-Wan for help dealing with Darth Maul. On the one hand, this is clearly an effort to on the part of the writers to bring some closure to this plot line in the series. From an outside view, I'm not sure I like this. Considering what's coming in Rebels (and The Mandalorian, from what I've read), I think the better ending was just having Ahsoka leave and that being the end of it. It's more real. Like Obi-Wan's duel with Vader on the Death Star. From the inside, though, the emotional view, it's very satisfying to have these characters come back together again. So I like it, and I very much enjoy it, but I think it's the easy answer to Ahsoka's departure, not the one that deals with how things really are in life. Like Lucas deciding at the last minute to have Lando and the Falcon survive the assault on the Death Star II rather than having the Falcon consumed in the explosion as was originally planned.

Two, Clone Wars is definitively crossing into movie territory with this episode. [I've just realized I'll have more to say about this later, but I'll get to that in my season wrap up as it doesn't actually pertain to this episode.] Ahsoka has come for help but, at the same time, Coruscant has come under attack by General Grievous. As we know from the opening scene of Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan and Anakin are at Coruscant for that battle, so we know, to some extent, what's going to happen here. They are definitely not going with Ahsoka to help deal with Maul.

This is a good episode and, while it may not turn out to be "necessary" or essential viewing, it seems as if this arc is going to make a very nice accompanying story line to Revenge.

"Loyalty means everything to the clones.

"By the way, I killed Maul once; best to capture him. He doesn't seem to stay dead."

Moya Art (a local-ish color post)

I mentioned last week that my wife and I recently did some non-pleasure travelling, which doesn't mean you can't find some time to stick in some site-seeing. On the way back home from all of this travelling, we stopped in Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world! (where we did have some garlic ice cream), and happened upon Moya Art, Gallery and Studio. I couldn't help myself but to poke my nose in and look around. The owner, Nacho Moya, was awesome enough to allow me to take some pictures.

Yes, I really liked that Earth-bomb theme.
You should stop by his page and take a look at all the stuff!

Rebels: "Twilight of the Apprentice -- Part Two" (Ep. 2.22)

-- So, the rumors are true; Darth Maul lives.

Star Wars has a long history of apprentices confronting their masters, going all the way back to A New Hope. I suppose this confrontation was inevitable.

And heart-wrenching.

And about time, I suppose.

This is one of those episodes where long-running story threads all come together, and things get serious. Really serious. Consequences happen.

And, then, there's Maul, the wildcard of this two-episode arc, who seems to have set his sights on a new apprentice.

Actually, there's not much to talk about here without being completely spoilery, and this episode is too good for that. It's almost necessary viewing, which could do without watching the whole series if you were willing to be a little vague on some things.

Let's just say this:

Confrontation with the inquisitors.

Maul's motivations revealed.

Confrontation between Ahsoka and her old Master.

Things... change.

I'm really looking forward to season three!

"You're such cowards that you would run from this chance to defeat your enemies."

"I need a lot more training."

Rebels: "Shroud of Darkness" (Ep. 2.18)

-- "Don't worry; I wouldn't do anything you would do."

A note before I start watching this episode:

I always pull the image for whatever episode I'm about to watch before I watch the episode. It's a bit of a teaser for the episode in question, but, usually, the images are fairly innocuous. You know, Ezra or Kanan standing with a lightsaber or something. Oh, but not this episode! This episode gave me the above image, which is hella cool! AND this episode has Vader and Ahsoka! So, yeah, I'm stoked for this one, so I'm going to go watch it now.

And, no, I don't know who those guys are in the image above, but I certainly want to find out!

After watching:
The guys in the picture? Jedi Temple Guards. So cool...
Evidently, the Grand Inquisitor was a fallen Jedi. And, possibly, a Temple Guard. That's probably a bit of a spoiler but not so much of one that I feel bad about saying it.

This is a big episode. Ahsoka, Vader, Yoda (yes, Yoda!), and, even, Anakin. Yes, Anakin is Vader so, of course, Anakin, but it also has Anakin before he was Vader. Let me explain:
Ezra walks in on Ahsoka watching old training holograms that Anakin had made. We find out that Ezra uses them for his training, and Ahsoka tells Ezra about Anakin as she knew him, not as the most fierce warrior of the Clone Wars. It's a very touching moment.

I really loved this episode.

BUT!

I am reminded again how different this series is from Clone Wars. The very best episodes or story arcs in Clone Wars were the ones that dealt with questions, usually moral questions, but Rebels really doesn't have that. There is little to no moral ambiguity in this series. It's all about putting together a resistance movement against the Empire. It's, generally speaking, an action/adventure show. Also, there are no story arcs. Each episode is self contained. And, while I am enjoying Rebels, I miss the deeper questions that Clone Wars asked and seldom answered. The only real question we have in Rebels is whether Ezra will turn to the Dark Side or not, a question, actually, that this episode touches on.

Anyway, it leaves me feeling like my reviews for this series are nothing more than plot synopses, and I hate doing plot synopses. Anyone can do a plot synopsis.

Rebels: "The Siege of Lothal -- Part 2" (Ep. 2.02)

"We're going to have to smuggle ourselves off Lothal for a change."

Ezra meets Vader...

It doesn't go well.

It doesn't go well for anyone. 

Vader takes on a whole rebel fleet in his special TIE fighter, and we see why he's so feared as a pilot. Seriously, the stuff he does with his TIE is so far beyond anything we've seen from him, and we saw Anakin do a lot of impressive flying during Clone Wars.

The take away, though, and this is spoilery, is that Vader discovers his old apprentice is still alive.

Really, that's all I'm going to say about all of this (almost). It was a great start to season two and bringing Vader and Ahsoka together has me fully invested in where this is going to go.

All that and Lando makes an appearance.

And the Emperor.

Rebels: "The Siege of Lothal -- Part 1" (Ep. 2.01)

"I guess there is no going home."

It's Rebels week here at StrangePegs, which means two thing:

1. There will be an episode of Rebels reviewed each day!

2. No politics this week.

Except that it's Rebels, so there's a good chance there will be politics.

So... Kanan isn't happy. His and Hera's small rebel band of hooked up with the larger Rebel Alliance after the events that ended season one, and Kanan is feeling uncomfortable being a part of a larger organization. And taking orders. He really doesn't like having to take orders and be part of a chain of command.

Probably, he doesn't like having Ahsoka around, either, but that's just me saying that.  It doesn't come up in the episode.

Vader's not happy with the fact that our group has joined the larger organism, either, but that's because they're not on Lothal anymore, and Vader wants them back. Which means a plan...

Remember The Empire Strikes Back and that whole part where Han and Leia go to Bespin and... it's trap! This is kind of like that. Vader knows what's going to happen since, you know, he can see the future and all, which makes it a bit unfair. Evidently, Kanan never progressed in his training enough to be able to get glimpses of the future? I don't know. It's not a thing all Jedi can do, anyway, so maybe he just doesn't have that skill.

But, anyway, part of what happens is that Vader and Kallus order Minister Tua to make things... difficult... for the population of Lothal. This also echoes Empire; however, Tua doesn't have the stomach for it. Although she's a good little Nazi, um, Imperial agent, it seems that there are some things that go beyond even her ability to condone, very unlike our very own Republicans who seem just fine with rape as long as it's a good Republican boy doing the raping. [See, I told you. Politics.]

This episode is a good start to the season, and I didn't want to stop watching to write this.

Clone Wars -- "Front Runners" (Ep. 5.2)

-- To seek something is to believe in its possibility.

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

What I'm finding myself wondering as I'm watching this story arc is whether Saw Gerrera, as we saw him in Rogue One, ever knew that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker, one of the Jedi who trained him as a rebel. My understanding is that Saw goes on to be in Rebels, but I'm not that far into Rebels, yet, so I don't know.

The small force on Onderon has quickly become competent enough that the Jedi head back to Coruscant, leaving only Ahsoka to supervise the band of rebels fighting against the puppet government installed by Dooku and the Separatists. I'm sure the intention here is to mimic the way the CIA has helped to equip and train rebel groups over the last few decades. Ahsoka is there as an adviser, not as a participant. She can watch and defend, but she's not supposed to actively engage in the conflict.

This, of course, causes conflict for her because of her latent feelings for Lux.

All of that said, here's some outside info that you guys might find interesting (or some inside info, depending on how you look at it):
Saw and Steela were created by George Lucas, and this story line was his. It's considered one of the most important story arcs in the entire Clone Wars series, because it lays the foundation for the Rebellion and shows where and how it forms. This is where it all started. After digging up that bit of esoterica, I wonder even more about the question I started this post with. The whole thing becomes, well, rather ironic.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (a movie review post)

Before I get into the review itself, let me say up front that I loved this movie. I was very trepidatious about this movie ahead of time. It's not like Gareth Edwards, the director, has made anything prior to this worth watching: Monsters was the cliche of every indie movie out there, full of dialogue that was written to verbalize the personal philosophies of the director, and boring; and Godzilla was... well, it just was. That coupled with the fact that Disney took the movie away from Edwards back in June or July to do re-shoots because it was testing so poorly with audiences leads me to believe that the quality of Rogue One is due more to Disney than to Edwards.

But I did love it. In so many ways, it was like being a kid again and watching Star Wars for the first time. Not in a nostalgic way, which is what Abrams was going for with Force Awakens (and which didn't work for me at all, because I don't want to see the same thing again because I already saw that movie(s), and Lucas did it better than Abrams), but in that way of seeing something new and brilliant for the first time. Something that excites you. Rogue One did that.

Which is not to say that there aren't plenty of nods to the original trilogy, but that's the thing: They are just nods, not throwing the same story back at us.

Rogue One sets itself apart from the very beginning: There is no opening crawl. The lack of it was... weird, and I immediately went to a negative space of, "Oh, man, this is going to be bad." It went on from there to offer place name subtitles, which reinforced that initial internal groan. The movie, however, quickly overcame those initial misgivings.

So what is there that I can say about it that is not spoilery? Rogue One gives us a real view of what the Rebellion is all about. I think there is a lack of understanding about how much Luke Skywalker changed the Rebellion and what it was. The Rebellion grew out of the destruction of the Jedi. We see that at the end of Revenge of the Sith, normal humans witnessing the destruction of the Jedi Order, the protectors of peace and freedom in the galaxy, and determining to resist and fight back... on their own.

Fight back against the Empire, which includes both the Emperor and Darth Vader. With no Jedi.

That's the world we find ourselves in, and there are no holds barred. As such, this movie is... there's no other word for it than brutal.

And it's excellent.

The cast, also, is great. Felicity Jones, whom I was also trepidatious about after her performance in The Theory of Everything (which probably wasn't her fault; it just wasn't a very good movie, and her role was rather weak), performed admirably as Jyn Erso. There's not a moment when you don't believe she is not a strong, street-smart young person. You can tell she is trouble right from the beginning of the movie, unlike Luke.

In fact, there are so many great performances (from the most diverse cast of any Star Wars movie and, possibly, one of the most diverse casts of any movie (no, I haven't done the research on that, but, at least, on the rebel side of things, there are virtually no white, male cast members, highlighting the white male human supremacy of the Empire)) that it would take too long to go into them all. The only performance I was disappointed in was that of Forest Whitaker, an actor I really like, but I think that was mostly due to the very brief screen time the character of Saw Gerrera was given.

This next thing might be considered a spoiler, but it's something definitely worth noting, especially since, as far as I can tell, no one is talking about it. At least, no one is talking about it in any of the more mainstream reviews that I've seen.
Rogue One contains what I believe is the first homosexual couple in Star Wars: Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus. It's not explicit, which is what makes it beautiful. These are definitely two men who care deeply for each other, and I think anyone would be hard pressed to make the case that they are just "good friends." Not without some creative bending of the facts. They bicker like an old married couple and are just as affectionate. And I would really like to delve into this more, but I really can't without giving actual spoilers. Maybe I'll come back to it at a later time.

Unfortunately, I haven't had time, yet, to go see the movie for a second time, but I have a great desire to. I walked out of this one wanting to go right back in, and that desire hasn't diminished. At the moment, Rogue One is in my top three Star Wars films. It will hit you on a visceral level (my wife cried often during the movie) and leave you not knowing what to do with yourself. Other than seeing it again, that is. There's more I could say about that, but that, also, would be a spoiler. It shouldn't be (because no one ought to actually be surprised at the ending of the movie), but it would be. Just go see the movie. If you are at all a Star Wars fan, you will in all likelihood enjoy the movie immensely. If you don't like Star Wars, you might like it anyway.

It's that kind of movie.

Rebels: "Fire Across the Galaxy" (Ep. 1.14)

"Yep, you definitely missed me."


The rescue attempt continues, and I'm just going to say, right now, that this is going to be full of spoilers, because I'm not going to hold anything back.

This is the episode where everything takes off and the title of the show really means something. Which means that we find out that there are, indeed, other rebel groups working in a coordinated manner with each other spread across the galaxy and, actually, our rebel group is one of those groups. We get the confirmation that Bail Organa is a part of it, which, come on, who didn't know that? So not really a spoiler.

But we also get the reveal on who Fulcrum is, something I had figured out or, at least, hoped I had figured out, so it was great to find that I was correct. A very welcome confirmation, and I was going to reveal that, but I've changed my mind, You should just watch the series. It was quite gratifying to see the reaction of my kids to who Fulcrum is, which is why, I guess, I'm not telling you. You should watch.

The big deal in the episode is the final duel between Kanan and the Inquisitor. And, when I say "final," I do mean final. Ezra is also involved in the duel, but it comes down to, as it should, Kanan and the Inquisitor. It's a fight, if you watch the series, you'll find you'll be longing for by the time it gets to it. Because, really, someone needs to shut the mouth of the Inquisitor.

We also get a reflected moment from A New Hope as Tarkin is given word that he needs to evacuate his star destroyer because, as it turns out, lightsabers are not good for hyperdrive engine cores. Tarkin doesn't argue in this circumstance and lives to fight another day.

However, he's not happy and brings in an old friend to help deal with the fallout of the loss of the Jedi prisoner, the death of the Inquisitor, and the first coordinated effort of multiple rebel cells. Oh, come on, you don't really need me to tell you who the old friend is, do you? I'll give you a hint: I recently reviewed their first meeting during season three of Clone Wars. You can find that review here.

This was a great final episode for season one and had everything you could reasonably want as season finale. No cliffhanger, which is also good, unless you count the revelation of whom Fulcrum is and the arrival of Tarkin's pal as cliffhangers. You could make an argument for that, I suppose, though there's nothing in the specific plot that you could call a cliffhanger ending.

I'm bought in, now, and am looking forward to getting started on season two. Whenever I get around to that.

That said, I'm not going to do a season one recap. To put it simply, it got off to rather a rough start but got better as it went on, working up to several really great episodes here at the end of the season. Still, I'm not ready to say that Rebels is as good as Clone Wars. Rebels still hasn't delved into the same kinds of philosophical struggles that Clone Wars was willing to take on, which was one of the things that made Clone Wars such a strong series. Rebels is well worth watching, though.

Clone Wars -- "The Citadel" (Ep. 3.18)

-- Adaptation is the key to survival.

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

At some point in the past, probably the far past, a prison was built -- it sounds like it was built by the Jedi -- to hold Jedi who turned to the Dark Side. Having been built to hold Jedi, it's a very secure facility, the kind of secure from which no one has ever escaped. I'm inferring from the presentation in "The Citadel" that the prison has been unused for quite some time. That's probably why the Separatists were able to get their hands on it.

It's also of note that the Separatists haven't put the prison to use holding Jedi any earlier than this, but that's probably because, really, they just kill Jedi rather than taking them prisoner. Mostly. Maybe it's because of Grievous' earlier failures at holding Jedi captive that Even Piell has been taken to the Citadel for torture and questioning.

We don't get a lot of background information on the Jedi in what is now canon material, so this is an interesting piece to pick up. Both that the Jedi at one time took precautions against themselves and that they haven't had to use them in so long that they have no recent records of the interior layout of the Citadel.

This is also what I think is the first meeting between Anakin and Tarkin. And Tarkin's first appearance in Clone Wars? I can't remember (having already watched the entire series before confuses the issue, and I'm not going to do the research, right now, to find out). At any rate, it's an interesting meeting and beginning to what will become one of the essential pairings in the Star Wars universe.

All of that and carbon freezing, too!


"Are you sure this thing is safe? I don't want to end up a wall decoration."

Your Lack of Sharing Disturbs Me (pictures I like)

From the "sourdough cinnamon roll" experiment.
They were good.

Clone Wars -- "Death Trap" (Ep. 2.20)

-- Who my father was matters less than my memory of him.

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

I have in my head this picture of the young Boba Fett first going off with Bossk and Aurra Sing, of him climbing the ramp into the ship with them, but I don't remember where that happened. The Clone Wars is not all in chronological order so, maybe, that's an episode later in the series. In this episode, though, the young Fett has already joined the bounty hunters, and he's undercover for them as, you guessed it, a clone trooper cadet.

It's unclear what the actual objective of the mission is, but Fett's objective is to assassinate Mace Windu. And it could be that that is the overall mission objective, but it seemed to me that that aspect of it was not actually what was important to Aurra Sing, she being the one in charge.

In effect, this is another episode about clone differentiation. Boba, going by the name Lucky, of course, blends right in with the other cadets. They look at him as a "brother." But Boba, while a clone, isn't actually like the other clones. He's the same but different, because Boba is actually a true clone of Jango, not a modified one like the other clones. Boba, though, still feels a kinship with the clones, the other cadets and the full troopers. He doesn't want to hurt any of them.

Aurra Sing doesn't care about any of them. Including Boba; he's just a tool to her.

The other thing of interest has to do with origin stories for established characters. It's not like Luke or, say, Spider-Man; we got to watch those origin stories as they happened. But you put in a character like Darth Vader or Wolverine, and everyone wants to know their origins. The problem is that the characters are so cool that no origin story can possibly live up to it, although it's entirely possibly that people would have been pissed if we'd first met Luke as full Jedi only to find out later that he started as a whiny farm boy from Tatooine.

Boba Fett suffers from this problem, probably even more than Darth Vader. When I was a kid, everyone wanted to know who Boba Fett was. It was great speculation. Finding out that he's just a clone of Jango Fett was a great letdown for a lot of people, although I think it works rather will considering the implied relationship between Vader and Boba in The Empire Strikes Back.

Effectively, this is an origin story episode. How did Boba Fett become the hardened bounty hunter that we know in Empire? This episode is how. Or, at least, the beginning of that how. There's a moment... but, well, that would be telling.


"When I show off, it is instructive. And inspiring."

Rebels: "Spark of Rebellion" -- Part 2 (Ep. 1.1b)

"You're about as bright as a binary droid."

The real question in this two-part opening to Rebels is, "Is Ezra a good guy?" Ezra doesn't seem to think so. He looks out for himself. Period. At least, that's his perception of himself. It's all rather Han Solo. Of course, as with Han, Ezra finds out he can't so easily turn his back on those in need.

Which gets him into trouble.
And allows him the opportunity to find out whether he can depend upon the crew of the Ghost.

Oh, and, also, Kanan, the captain of Ghost, or at least the leader of the little rebel group that operates on the Ghost, is a Jedi.

But... Wait! What about Order 66?
Yeah, I hear you out there.

Order 66 didn't quite get all of the Jedi, just almost all. There's that whole thing about Darth Vader hunting down and killing the remnants of the Order. Kanan was one of the survivors. So the question is simple:
Did he get lucky or is he that good?
That, I suppose, is something we'll have to wait and find out.

And, yeah, I want to find out.
I'm still not happy about losing Clone Wars, but I'll take Rebels as a reasonable substitute.
I'll note again, though, that Rebels is a show that is unambiguously targeting a younger demographic. You can even see it in the animation style. I don't know. Maybe that it clearly targets kids as its viewing audience allows adults to feel more at ease watching it. It's clearly defined, and adults seem to need stricter definitions than kids. So it's okay to watch a "kid show" if you know that's what you're doing, but it makes you ill-at-ease to watch a show that skews to both markets. Or something.

Rebels: "Spark of Rebellion" -- Part 1 (Ep. 1.1a)

"I'm in space... and I'm going to die!"

So... the opening. The opening of "Spark of Rebellion," the first episode of the seemingly very popular Star Wars Rebels, is... well, let's just say it's foreshadow heavy. I mean, right off the bat you get Darth Vader telling some guy called The Inquisitor to hunt down and destroy the "children of the Force." Why, golly, I wonder who that could be...

That's not really part of the episode, though; it just serves as the prologue to the series. I'm assuming that's so that we'll know who The Inquisitor is when he shows up. Also because they wanted to get James Earl Jones in there as the voice of Vader, which they did.

Ezra, our young protagonist, is an Aladdin-esque kind of hero. Or, maybe, Oliver Twist for those of you more classically inclined. He's a street urchin who steals to eat and gets up to all kinds of mischief but who is, basically, good at heart. Sounds like just the right kind of recipe for a show like this, especially when we find out, almost immediately (so this isn't really a spoiler), that Ezra is one of those "children of the Force." No Inquisitor in this episode, but I'm sure it won't be long.

Oh, yeah, and, of course, Ezra gets tangled up with a group of Rebels. Because, well, that's what the title of the show says, right?

Clone Wars -- "Lightsaber Lost" (Ep. 2.11)

-- Easy isn't always simple.

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

Sometimes I think there is too much emphasis on the importance of the lightsaber in Star Wars; after all, Darth Vader deflected blaster bolts with his hand. It seems to me that the lightsaber should fall as a distant second to the Force. But, then, Vader is extremely powerful and, maybe, the lightsaber is that important to your "average" Jedi. Certainly, "your lightsaber is your life" seems to be an everyday teaching of the Jedi, one even Anakin ascribed to.

So it comes as no surprise when Ahsoka is dismayed at the loss of her lightsaber to a pickpocket during what should have been a simple mission. It's also not surprising that she doesn't want Anakin to find out.

She enlists the aid of ancient Jedi Tera Sinube. I mean ancient in the way your great-grandfather is ancient and will suddenly just be asleep at odd moments but, yet, do things that will constantly amaze you. To say that he's slow moving is an understatement. The episode becomes an exercise in patience for Ahsoka.

Which, in the end, is the point.

Ahsoka is fairly frantic over the loss of her 'saber and her anxiety interferes with her ability to focus and concentrate. Tera's lesson to her is, basically, "Calm down. Take your time." It's a hard lesson for Ahsoka to learn and not one she's going to get from Anakin, the resident hothead of the Jedi, but she does seem to get it.

There's also a bit of intrigue.

It's a good, solid episode. A good one-shot for people who aren't closely following the series as it doesn't involve needing to know anything that isn't provided within the episode itself. And, hey, it's always fun to get to meet other Jedi.

Star Wars: A Discussion (Episode I)

This is not a review; that will come later.

Those of you who know me at all or who have been following for a while probably know (ought to know) that I went to see The Force Awakens at the earliest possible showing. What that turned into was seeing it twice on "opening day," which was not, actually, opening day, because it was the day before opening day. Fortunately one of those showings was at 7:00 because the main thing I learned is that I am definitely getting too old for midnight shows, which the second viewing was. I also learned that my boys have nowhere near the stamina I did at their ages as both of them also struggled with the midnight viewing. Up until a few years ago, midnight shows where commonplace in my movie viewing repertoire.

All of which is, of course, beside the point other than the fact that when I said to my sons, "I'm getting too old for this sort of thing," as we were leaving the theater (at 2:30am!), they didn't get it. Yes, I was disappointed.
Anyway...

I want to provide some context for the upcoming review and the things I say about Force Awakens before I actually get to talking about that movie.

I have always said that Star Wars changed my life, and I mean that in a very literal sense. Even as a teenager looking back at my childhood, I could see the point where Star Wars came into my childhood and changed my path. Before Star Wars, everything was dinosaurs and cowboys and Indians. Everything changed when I seven. I was one person entering the theater and someone else when I came out. To again borrow the words of Ben Kenobi, I'd taken my first step into a larger world.

Star Wars never faded from my life, though it faded from the world around me. My Star Wars toys decorated my room all the way through the 80s, long after everyone had forgotten Return of the Jedi, and into the 90s just waiting for the resurgence that happened with the release of Zahn's Star Wars novels and the Dark Empire comic book series from Dark Horse in the early 90s. Needless to say, I was elated when Lucas announced the special edition versions of the movies.

And I remained elated after I saw them.

Let me be clear, I am not a part of the "Han shot first" crowd. I am from the "Han shot" era. That was it. Han shot. The whole argument over Han shooting first annoys me to no end. That being said, I have no issue with Lucas adding in the thing with Greedo shooting. It doesn't destroy my childhood or the movie or, even, damage them. I get it. Star Wars became a thing that's much bigger than Lucas ever imagined it would be and making Han a better role model for kids is something I can understand.

There was only one thing they added to the special editions that I didn't like, the scream by Luke as he dropped into the shaft in Cloud City after the duel with Vader, and they later took that back out.

And then there were the prequels...
Let's make that next post, shall we?

'Tis the Season (pictures I like)

Star Wars season, that is.

And here's a look behind the Halloween curtain:

Clone Wars -- "Cloak of Darkness" (Ep. 1.9)

-- Ignore your instincts at your peril.

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

I'm going to lead on this one with the fact that James Marsters does a voice for this episode. That should have caught the eye of some of you pop culture/Joss Whedon people out there. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just move along. Move along.

Betrayal is one of the themes Star Wars returns to over and over again. Even from A New Hope, we have, "He betrayed and murdered your father," not to mention the betrayal by the clones against the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith and Vader's betrayal against the Emperor at the end of Return of the Jedi. We encounter betrayal frequently, too, during the Clone Wars, this not even being the first episode dealing with betrayal just nine episodes into the first season.

I don't know what to say about all the betrayal. It's just part of the fabric. Against the background of the Clone Wars, you can't trust anyone. Well, okay, you can trust R2-D2 and you can trust Obi-Wan and you can trust Yoda. You don't really want to go putting money down on anyone else, though. I think that's why we encounter it so frequently, though, so that we understand that you can't trust anyone. And it doesn't matter how innocuous the "person" seems.

Another thing the Clone Wars series does well is to let us get to know Jedi we've only previously had glimpses of. This episode is a closer look at Luminara Unduli. Again (as with Plo Koon in the Malevolence episodes), we get our look at the Jedi through the eyes of Ahsoka. Luminara is less good at listening to Ahsoka than I think Ahsoka is used to and gives Ahsoka some orders that Ahsoka doesn't really agree with. There's not an inconsiderable amount of angst while Ahsoka tries to figure out whether to follow them.

And there's a great good cop/bad cop bit when Luminara and Ahsoka are interrogating a prisoner. Luminara, being the good cop, is trying to logic the prisoner into talking when Ahsoka goes all, "I'm gonna gut you like a fish" on the guy. Luminara, though, thinks Ahsoka is being serious and goes all teach-y on Ahsoka about proper Jedi ways. It's an interesting exchange.

All of that and Ventress makes an appearance. Things always get interesting when she's around.

It's a good, solid episode that fits well into the story flow and can probably even be watched without having seen other episodes. Probably.

Clone Wars -- The Movie

-- A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

I got to see The Clone Wars at a special Lucasfilm premiere event. It was a pretty big deal, and they had a special display area set up at the Presidio offices with original, concept art and maquettes, which are like concept sculptures. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures, so I don't have any to show you. However, we got lunch in Star Wars lunch boxes created specially for the event. My friend didn't want his, so he gave it to me. I'd show you a picture of the lunch boxes, but they're in storage somewhere, and I'm not going to go dig around for them right now.

I'm not sure how widespread this information is, but one of the things we were let in on at the event is that the movie actually started out as individual episodes of the series. It was the first story arc. If you pay attention and are familiar enough with the series, you can actually see how the movie breaks down into its constituent episodes. On the one hand, I think launching the TV series with a movie was a great idea; however, I think they probably would have done better to have actually developed a movie rather than to string the several episodes together into a movie.

Which is not to say I didn't like it, because I enjoyed it very much, but the general response to the movie was a little underwhelming and I think part of the reason for that is that it didn't play like a movie. Because it wasn't.

The other failure of the movie was to involve the offspring of Jabba the Hutt. I think that's something people didn't want to look at. One, they don't want to see slug babies and, two, they don't want to view Jabba with any kind of sympathetic light. It's hard not to have sympathy for a parent who just wants his kid back. Personally, I found it an interesting take on Jabba, but I can see how it could cause people difficulty.

All of that said, the movie opens with a tremendous battle scene between the clones and the droids. It's, in a word, spectacular. The movement is very much like a video game, say Battlefront, and it's almost worth the whole movie just for that battle scene.

Also, this is where we're introduced to Ahsoka Tano, so the movie is essential from that standpoint. Anakin doesn't want a Padawan, but they send him one, anyway. A plot between Yoda and Obi-Wan, though they don't admit to it. He's set to get rid of her until he has to work with her during the battle, at which point he changes his mind. His comment to her is something like, "You wouldn't have made it as Obi-Wan's apprentice but, as mine, you just might work."

There are some other significant elements as well.

• Anakin faces off against Dooku. The Anakin vs Dooku dynamic is important not just in the series but in the movie mythos as a whole. Anakin has to rise above Darth Tyranus in order to become Darth Vader, so it's always interesting to see how that relationship develops.
• There is this incredible vertical battle between the clones and the droids during which the tanks walk up the face of a cliff. I know it's animated, but it's amazing.
• Anakin comes by his ship, the Twilight.

Basically, the movie serves to set up all the essential elements for the ongoing television series. It's not that you can't watch the series without having seen the movie, but the movie helps, especially for the dynamic between Ahsoka and Anakin. I think, also, if the approach to the movie is that of watching several episodes of the series back-to-back that it becomes much more satisfying. It's all in the frame of reference.

It's not, by any stretch, the best story arc in the series or, even, the best story arc in season one; however, it possibly does have the best battle scenes. I'm not remembering anything more epic than the one the movie opens with, at any rate. It's a solid arc, and it ought to be included in anyone's watching of the series.



"Why can't you be a tiny, little mouse droid!"

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

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

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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.