Lull (pictures I like)

Clone Wars -- "The Phantom Apprentice" (Ep. 7.10)

"I wonder if the moment may be upon us"

This episode... wow... It's epic in scope. And completely entwined with the events of Revenge of the Sith. In the opening moments we find out that Anakin has, between the previous episode and this one, which is saying a lot considering this episode picks up exactly where the last one left off, murdered Dooku. We learn of the Jedi Council's distrust of Palpatine and the ramifications for Anakin. Well, everyone, but I guess we don't know that, yet, from a chronological perspective.

And Maul still doesn't know that Palpatine is Darth Sidious, at least as far as can be told by the way he talks about Sidious.

I still don't think this arc is "essential" viewing, but it's damn good viewing.

There's a huge battle between the clones and Maul's Mandalorians, then between the Maul's Mandalorians and Bo-Katan's Mandalorians.

And an epic lightsbaer duel between Ahsoka and Maul.

Also, Maul gets excellent dialogue.

This is one you just need to watch, so I'm finished talking about it.

"...I'm afraid your way of thinking is behind the times."

"How charming that you actually believe that statement to be true."

"I can thrive in the chaos that is to come."

"You'll find I have many qualities for you to dislike."

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."

Clone Wars -- "Together Again" (Ep. 7.08)

-- You can change who you are, but you cannot run from yourself.

May the 4th be with you...

This arc, what I'm going to call the Trace arc, comes to a close. It didn't redeem itself; it just transitioned into something else.

On the surface, this adventure with Trace and Rafa serves only to put Ahsoka in a place where she can run into Bo-Katan and get caught up in the Mandalorian mess dealing with Darth Maul. And that's fine.
Sort of.
The issue here is that if what they wanted to do was get Ahsoka involved with the far-reaching Maul story line, they could have done it more directly. Having Ahsoka crash onto Trace's landing platform (three episodes ago) is just as arbitrary as having her cross paths with Bo-Katan. They could have gone directly to the pivotal story rather than futz around for four episodes doing nothing.

Except...

Except it seems that they wanted Ahsoka to have an epiphany about her Jedi-ness, and they used the convoluted story with Trace and Rafa to get her there. Not that they couldn't have brought Ahsoka to the same place with any number of stories, but I do understand the appeal of using Trace and the whole idea of 1313 to bring Ahsoka to the mental space where Rafa could say to her, "You're the Jedi we always hoped Jedi would be," and Ahsoka would accept it and take back the Jedi mantle, just from outside of the Council.

Sure, I may be jumping the gun on that, but...
Ahsoka goes off with Bo-Katan to deal with a Sith issue, something that's not really her responsibility anymore. Unless it is.
And I know where she's headed, development-wise, since I've already watched Rebels.

I don't know. Maybe I would have enjoyed this arc more if Trace and Rafa weren't so stereotypical and the plot device of not-using-your-powers not so cliche. I do like when we get to see other bits of the SWU we don't usually see, and we got to see both Kessel and the Pyke home world during this arc. I just wish the story had been more engaging.

"You and I were always good, good until she showed up."

"We have to trust each other."

"You're going back to help her so you can one-up her?!"

Churn (pictures I like)

Come At Me, Bro (pictures I like)

Clone Wars -- "Dangerous Debt" (Ep. 7.07)

-- Who you were does not have to define who you are.

As I admitted last post, I'm not particularly enjoying this arc. I mean, it's fine; it just doesn't feel... significant. This episode seems like a good metaphor for the whole arc.

So... last episode Ahsoka and her friends tried to pull a fast one on the Pyke after bungling a spice job for them. After seemingly escaping, the Pyke captured them. This episode picks up with them in a Pyke jail cell and being tortured, one by one, for the location of the spice. The spice Trace dumped into space.

BUT! They escape! So it's a prison break episode with no real development as the whole episode is spent with them running from the Pyke. And, spoiler alert: They get re-captured and are back in the jail cell at the end of the episode. Right back where we started.

Unless that's the gag, I hate these kinds of episodes... in anything. What's the point? It feels so throwaway.

Except! While they were cavorting and hi-jinking and trying to get away, we see that they are spotted by some mysterious, hooded figures. Spoiler alert: It's Mandalorians.

Which seems to be the whole point of them escaping, so that they can be spotted by the Mandalorians.

It seems like there should have been a better way to introduce that plot development than an episode of them running away just to end up back in prison.

But what do I know?
I'm only a writer.

"You can't profit from other people's suffering or, at least, I won't let you."

"Looks like you two are getting along better."

"Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving."