Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Clone Wars -- "The General" (Ep. 4.8)

-- The path of ignorance is guided by fear.


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They've done a good job with making Umbara a creepy place. I may have said some of this last time, but it's full of strange, glowing lights; strange, glowing creatures; and strange, glowing death machines that look like strange, glowing creatures. It's fortuitous that these episodes have fallen during the month of October. The only other episodes I can think of that would work so well this month would have been the zombie Geonosian episodes.

General Krell continues to be completely casual about the deaths of his troopers. He doesn't care to explore options because he doesn't have a problem with throwing clones against a wall until the manage to break it down. The lives don't matter because, to Krell, they're not lives. This is brought to light early on when one of the clones, Fives, points out that the general's outstanding record of victories comes along with the highest, by far, casualty count of any other Jedi. This is contrasted to Anakin leading from the front, because Krell leads from the rear. From camp, actually, without, so far, getting involved in any of the combat, something I find odd from a Jedi who is supposed to be such a fearsome combatant.

[Actually, I don't find it odd, because I know what happens from my previous watching of the series; however, I would find it odd if I didn't know. I'm sure my first response to Krell was "what an asshole." Well, now, I already know why.]

The episode is full of some great fight sequences, and you might want to say that they're gratuitous, but they're really not. They serve two purposes:
1. To show Krell's complete disregard for the lives of his clones as he continues to tell them "frontal assault!" no matter how bad things get.
2. To show the divide within the clone ranks themselves as they dissent about whether Krell's orders should be followed.

This is a good story arc and much needed for the redemption of season four.

Also, the opening quote (seen up under the picture) is very appropriate for our own current election season.

2 comments:

  1. Such an interesting story and I totally agree that it rescues season 4.

    The best fight scenes in any story are laced with narrative, in their own right and in connection to the broader story. A lot of the current action adventure franchises seem to have forgotten that.

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    1. TAS: Yeah, Clone Wars has done a good job of not being action just for the sake of action. It needs to carry the story forward or not be there at all.

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