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?!"

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."

Clone Wars Season Seven: Some Thoughts

The Clone Wars has been one of the finest animated TV shows ever created. Not because it's Star Wars but because it actually deals with some of the difficult questions in life, usually without flinching, and in a way that kids can usually understand. It's a very adult show made with the knowledge that kids would be watching it. It didn't "dumb down" for them, but they did make it to be accessible to them. It didn't restrict itself to being episodic, unlike Rebels, which held to that formula steadfastly.

Look, I'm not saying that Clone Wars is, like, Animaniacs or anything, but I do actually find myself wanting to go back to Clone Wars more often that I want to sit down and watch a bunch of Animaniacs episodes.

I've already talked before about what happened to Clone Wars and the final half season, season six. Also, I watched and reviewed the unfinished episodes provided on starwars.com back when they were released on there. Now that Disney+ is available, they've gone back and finished the animation on those episodes and added a few more to round out this "final" season of the show. I say "final" because I'm really hoping that if it does well enough, Disney will decide to continue the series.

Or maybe they don't need to? I haven't watched Resistance yet, so I don't know if it's a successor to Clone Wars or Rebels, though, looking at the animation, I'm going to guess Rebels.

What I'm saying here is that I want a Star Wars show that tackles difficult topics, tells meaningful stories, and remains fun to watch. So far, only Clone Wars has accomplished that. Maybe The Mandalorian will rise to it, but I'm kind of doubting it. It's going to be a fun romp, but I don't think it's going to be a show that embraces moral dilemmas beyond the basic conflict of the bounty hunter turned protector.

All of which is to say that I'm excited to get back into Clone Wars for this final season.
And, just to note, with the episodes that I've reviewed in their unfinished formats, I'll provide those reviews along with any new thoughts I have.

Rebels: "Family Reunion -- and Farewell" (Ep. 15&16)

-- "You chose to be a Jedi."

I'm going to close out the last two episodes of the series in one post. In part, because it's one two part story but, also, just because I feel like it. Not that I would do it this way if these were two separate episodes, but they aren't, and I feel like wrapping this up by watching both episodes in one sitting without pausing in between to write up part one before going on to part two. So there you go.

Yeah, so I'm glad I did it that way. There was no real break between episodes.

And, well, it wasn't really the ending I expected.

Not that I had any real expectation, but it certainly went in a direction I hadn't contemplated.

I guess here's the problem:

Rebels created some very compelling characters that couldn't be left in limbo during the time frame of the original trilogy. Rogue One dealt with that issue by killing all of the characters it created, appropriately so, but I can understand not wanting to just erase all of the characters from Rebels, especially after already killing off Kanan.

But, then, what do you do with all of them?

Well, actually, some of them you do kill.

And the rest?

You have to give them a reason to not be around for the events of the original trilogy.

Which explains the death of Kanan.

And I suppose that's all I can really say.

Except, hey, oh, exciting news! It was recently announced that Ahsoka will be back for season two of The Mandalorian. I'm super stoked about that.

Otherwise, you just need to watch the final story arc of Rebels. I'm sure some or all of these characters will be back in some way or another, though. Actually, I know that Hera has had some further development in the comics and stuff, which I'm vaguely curious about, though I doubt I'll pick any of that. Gotta choose your poison and all of that.

Anyway... Good wrap up to the series. Now I'm eager to get to the newly completed and released final season of The Clone Wars.

"Fine, I'll do it, just call off your dog."

"In my experience, when it comes to Jedi, the worse the plan, the better the result."

"I serve the Empire until the end."

"So not much longer then."

"And remember, the force will be with you... always."

Rebels: "Heroes of Mandalore: Part Two" (Ep. 4.02)

-- "A Mandalorian with a jet pack is a weapon."

This is an episode that is a bit difficult for me to review.

On the one hand, it's a fine and good episode in the same vein as all of Rebels, all of Star Wars, in fact. It's exciting in all the ways Star Wars is exciting.

However, it fails in the same way much of Star Wars does in really making the characters have real stakes in the game. The most notable exception to this was Rogue One.

Maybe I've said this before, but Lucas' original idea for Jedi was that the Falcon wouldn't make it out of the Death Star explosion at the end of the movie, hence Han's "funny feeling" comment before they go off to Endor. But Lucas had a change of heart and decided that that would end the trilogy on too much of a down note, and he wanted it to be a full-on happy ending, so Lando and the Falcon come spewing out of the fiery explosion of the Death Star.

In much the same way, the tragedy at the end of part of of this two-part story is rolled back as we discover right away that Sabine's mother and brother did not die from the Empire's powerful new weapon. Just everyone else did. I feel it robs the story of its emotional impact. But I suppose it is a show that is supposed to be kid friendly, which is why so many of the stormtroopers throughout the series escape with their lives rather than being killed by the rebels. You can't have your heroes indiscriminately killing the bad guys.

Yeah, I'm in a bit of a mood after watching this one.

And I haven't talked about the deus ex machina ending.

I'm also not going to.

bah

"Mandalorian? I don't want to be a Mandalorian."

"It's time for you to prove your loyalty, not just to your family, but to all of Mandalore."

"It was a series of bad decisions, okay?"

"Don't move!"

"Oh, I'm movin'."

Rebels: "Heroes of Mandalore: Part One" (Ep. 4.01)

-- "Blowing things up definitely runs in your family."

Man, talk about heart-wrenching... Which is something you can't often do in Star Wars and even less so in the animated shows. But this episode...
Well, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Oh, fine, I know someone is going to make some comment about Han's death or this thing or that thing that have made people (my wife) cry, so, sure, Star Wars has those moments. But, mostly, it doesn't. Those are not the moments people think of when they think about Star Wars.
Except Rogue One.

Anyway, that's all beside the point.

The point is that Sabine leads a raid to rescue her father, who is being held captive by the Empire.
Yes, of course, it's a trap.
Also, Ezra learns how to use a jet pack. Sort of.

But the episode is kind of tragic. Not kind of. It is.
They played the sad Star Wars music as the end credits.
See what I'm saying?

"Wow, this just got more and more..."
"Interesting, The word you're looking for is interesting."
"Nope. Just more."

"Are you a Jedi?"
"Let's hope so."

Rebels: "Zero Hour: Part Two" (Ep. 3.22)

-- "There's a future for us, one where we're all free, but it's up to us to make it happen."

Spoiler alert: Kallus didn't die. I'm a bit surprised. Not that the way he didn't die wasn't cool, but I really expected that he would be one of the characters that they ended. Yes, that means some characters got ended in this season finale.

Sabine returned, so that was cool. Not that I think she'll be staying around, but involving the Mandalorians is always interesting.

And I suppose that's really all I have to say about this. These two episodes are mostly combat and anything else I could say would be spoilery.

They do leave me ready to get into season four, though, so that's where I'm heading.

"This way!

The other way! The other way!"

"This is your friend?"
"I might have made him angry."

Rebels: "Double Agent Droid" (Ep. 3.19)

-- You are mistaking my attention to detail for an attack on your obviously fragile ego.

One might be tempted to think that I've been inspired to get back into Rebels because of the recent release of The Rise of Skywalker. One would be wrong. Actually, it was the ending to The Mandalorian which has put the fire back into me to finish Rebels. Sorry not sorry for the spoiler but the first live action appearance of the Darksaber! Well, I have to know how it ends up where it ends up because, right now, Sabine has it.
This episode has nothing to do with any of that.

No, this episode is a spy mission gone awry. On the surface, it's a chance for us to get to know more about AP-5 and Wedge... except that that doesn't really happen. AP-5 is the same as he always is. Well, except for something that happens at the end of the episode, a something that is probably the most bizarre thing I've ever seen in Star Wars. That doesn't sound quite right. Star Wars, once accepted as a world setting isn't bizarre at all. I can't think of anything from any of the movies or animated shows that I would call bizarre -- okay, a case can be made for the Holiday Special being bizarre, but I haven't seen that since it first aired, so I'm not making that case -- but this was bizarre. So bizarre that my wife looked up from whatever it was she was doing that had nothing to do with watching Rebels to say, "What the fuck is going on?" I may need to watch it again.

The appearance of Wedge in the episode, which I was initially excited about, was a letdown. His entire presence seemed to hinge on a joke that he was on the mission with the two droids because no one else wanted to be. Mostly, he just hung out in the background and didn't speak. Zero character development. It was definitely a missed opportunity to give us some background on a beloved character.

In the end, though, this episode was just a stepping stone for me to get further along in the series so that I can find out what the heck is going on with the Darksaber.
Probably, you can expect a lot more Rebels reviews in the near future.

"The odds are with us."

The Mandalorian (s1ep1) (a review post)

--"I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold."

Well, I didn't really intend to do a review for this show. I mean, I figure they're going to be everywhere and that anything I say will be more than redundant. But we, the kids and I, just finished watching the first episode, and... well, all I can say is

😲

Should I feel this way? I don't know. Maybe if I kept up more with fan stuff leading up the releases of things, I would have known some of this stuff, but I actively avoid reading about the production of all sorts of things these days because I want to experience what I'm watching without knowing all the stuff ahead of time. For this show, that meant lots of 😲 moments.

No, I'm not going to tell you. Maybe once the series is over, we can all sit down and have a chat. For the moment, though, I can talk about the production value: amazing! The show looks incredible. And it feels, well, incredible, too. A little bit of western, a lot of sci-fi. In some respects it followed formula, so there's a lot of familiarity to it. But, then, it does things that push it to the edge of the familiar space and you're not quite sure what's going on. AND MAN I WANT TO SAY THE THINGS THAT 😲 but I'm not going to do that.

Which doesn't leave me much to talk about, but I do have two things I can say: one a "dislike" and one a "like."

At the beginning of the episode, during a very familiar-feeling scene (both Star Wars familiar and western familiar), a "guy" gets caught in one of those metal doors that close to the center and it cuts him in half. This door was the entrance to a bar, by the way, not that that matters. All I'm saying is that we have elevator doors that reopen if you get caught by them, so I find it a little difficult to buy into the idea that a bar -- you know, where you have drunk people stumbling around all the time -- would have an entryway that would cut you in half if you happen to get caught in the doorway. Seems bad for business to me.

Then there's the scene with the assassin droid. I need to go watch that again. It was amazing. So far beyond IG-88 standing on the bridge of a Star Destroyer. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to do a re-watch.

Honestly, I don't really have a good idea of how I feel about the show or what I think about it. What I know is 

 😲 

and that I'm ready to watch the next episode right now. All of us were.

And, well, what more is a show supposed to do than have you slavering for the next one everytime you finish an episode?

Rebels: "Imperial Supercommandos" (Ep. 3.07)

-- "Strategy is an art. Maybe I'm luring you into a false sense of security."

Oh, wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these. I've just been busy, I guess.

But this was a good, and exciting, episode to jump back in on.

Of course, the Mandalorian stuff is always good. Or, at least, interesting. This one was both.

This episode ties back to... oh, I don't know, some episode or other, back in season two, I think. Another Mandalorian episode, but I'm not going to go look it up, right now. At any rate, in the earlier episode, the Rebels cook up a deal with a Mandalorian outpost for safe passage through their system.  But that outpost has gone silent, so Ezra and Sabine, along with a "guest," go to check it out. They fear the Mandalorians may be setting a trap for Rebel ships passing through the system. Oh, the deal? Well, it wasn't exactly reached by choice on the part of the Mandalorians.

When they get there, though, the find that the base has been wiped out, everyone killed. Those responsible? Imperial Supercommandos. And they are pretty cool looking, let me tell you. They are also traitor Mandalorians who joined the Empire, which is part of why they're so cool. They're like hybrid stormtrooper/Mandalorians. And what kid didn't want that action figure back in the 80s?!?! Or now, probably.

The episode is actually a lot more complex than what I've gone into here, but, hey, no spoilers, right? Well, I guess I kind of did give a spoiler about the commandos... excuse me, supercommandos! But, hey, it's in the title, so I'm going to give it a pass.

And, well, we find out a thing about Sabine, and I think that's going to come back to haunt her. Or us. I am writing this on Halloween evening, so I'm going with the haunt... Hey, you know what? No one ever goes trick-or-treating as a ghost anymore. Did Charlie Brown ruin it for everyone?
Maybe no one ever went as a ghost? Except me... Because I did, sort of, when I was 11: the ghost of Scooby Doo. Yeah, I'm not going to explain that.



"What took you so long?"
"I was using strategy! It takes longer!"

Rebels: "The Protector of Concord Dawn" (Ep. 2.13)

-- "It looks like diplomacy won the day for once."

"There was a time when it always won the day."

You know, the dialogue in this show is pretty good. I always come away with more quotes than I can use. Well, almost always. This episode was one of those episodes where there were a lot of great lines.

And OMG! Sabine is Death Watch! That is something I hadn't seen coming! And not just Death Watch; she's from the house of Vizsla. You know, as in Pre Vizsla, the guy with the Darksaber during the Clone Wars. Things just got that much more more interesting and, then, that much more interesting again! Especially since we meet up with some Mandalorians this episode.

I would say that you should just watch this episode even if you're not a fan of the series, but I'm not sure this episode is one of those that would work without the background. To really appreciate it, you need to have watched Clone Wars, but they fill in just enough of the details that you don't have to have watched Clone Wars, but my "OMG!" is exactly because I have the Clone Wars background to know what stuff means.

Though this episode is exactly centered on Sabine, it does reveal more of her background, and, as I've said before, it's always a good thing when they give the female characters a bit more focus. They can't just be cardboard stand-ups for Ezra and Kanan to act in front of.

"This Jedi philosophy stuff doesn't work for everyone."

"That's why we're at war."

"Kanan, you need to stop talking now."

"When you set your mind to something, you're kind of frightening."

Clone Wars -- "Shades of Reason" (Ep. 5.15)

-- Alliances can stall true intentions.

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

[Well, actually, considering that we're into season five, now, probably no one new is going to sign up, BUT! Hop over to The Armchair Squid for his take on the current episode.]

Just thinking on my feet here, or, really, my chair, though I could be standing while writing this (I have a standing desk), I just happen to be in my chair at the moment. But, anyway...

What's the one thing that tends to differentiate teams when bad guys team up as opposed to when good guys team up? Good guys generally band together to achieve a mutual purpose; bad guys band together to gather power while each one strives to use the others to achieve his own, usually secret, purpose. It never ends well for the bad guys.

So, yeah, Darth Maul and Pre Vizsla have different goals, and, actually, Vizsla's are much smaller than Maul's, but it still leads to... "Conflict" really isn't a strong enough word for what it leads to, but it again shows us why the Mandalorians were a force to be reckoned with, even by the Jedi.

And, hey, I always love it when the darksaber comes out.

None of this is good for Satine, either.

I still haven't managed to get into the second season of Rebels, yet, but, from the tidbits I've picked up about what's going on in Rebels, it seems that this story arc may be more important for what happens in that series than it is for what happens in Clone Wars. I need to figure out how to work Rebels back into my schedule.

Anyway... Go watch this story arc.

Clone Wars -- "Bounty" (Ep. 4.20)

-- Who we are never changes; who we think we are does.

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

Asajj Ventress is alone and on the run after Dooku's second or more attempt to have her killed. Trying to both survive and lay low, she ends up in Boba Fett's gang of bounty hunters. Despite his young age (and lack of Mandalorian armor), Fett is already in charge. Both Bossk and Dengar are in the gang.

This episode has ninjas. Or close enough.

And Simon Pegg does the voice of Dengar.

As opposed to the previous arc, which included a lot of bounty hunters who were fairly superfluous to what was going on, each member of Fett's team has a place and a use. They didn't feel like mere window dressing. As such, this was a really good episode. We get to see them all in action and see some of their personalities. It probably helps that we already have some familiarity to Bossk and Dengar, and it's nice that they are not just standing around in the background.

It's a good episode. Part of an arc, yet able to stand on its own. We get to see more of Fett's evolution, which is interesting. I hope they some day do a solo Fett movie but, until then, it's nice to have his background explored somewhat in Clone Wars.

Also, Ventress may not be quite as mercenary as she would like to think.

Rebels: "Out of Darkness" (Ep. 1.6)

"Stay calm; it's all part  of the plan."

I was going to say, at some point you have to start revealing the back stories of the supporting characters, then I realized they've revealed the major points already on the male characters. Sure, it's only episode six, but they gave us the stories for each of the male characters by the end of the second episode.

1. Ezra: The protagonist. Orphan boy with special powers. Fantasy cliche hero. Same model as Luke, actually. And Anakin. And Harry Potter. You get the picture, I'm sure.

2. Kanan Jarrus: Jedi on the run from the Empire and trying to do it harm at the same time. Sure, we don't know everything about him, but that's really enough to place him in the spectrum of things. He's the mentor character. Flawed, but the best available.

3. Zeb: The strong man. One of the last survivors of his race. The Chewbacca replacement, down to the part where his race was exploited and killed by the Empire.

We get all of that in the first two episodes with nothing about the women other than that Hera owns The Ghost and is the pilot, and Sabine wears some pieces of Mandalorian armor.

We get to find out a tiny bit about Sabine in this episode. She was a loyal Imperial in the Academy on Mandalore, blindingly following orders... until something bad happened. Now, she has trust issues and hates it that Kanan and Hera keep her in the dark about things. The whole episode is an exploration of trust between Hera and Sabine.

There is some fighting of monsters, too.

And the repeated referring to someone called Fulcrum.

But, overall, this episode was back down into the "kids' cartoon" realm for me as the fight with the monsters had a very video game feel with even the characters referring to the combat as "wave one" and "wave two" and so on. So I'm back to waiting to see where the show goes after the brief moment of hoping that it was rising about merely being a cartoon for kids.

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 -- "Voyage of Temptation" (Ep. 2.13)

-- Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.

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

In this episode is politics. Sort of. At least, that's the backdrop to the story. Satine has to go to Coruscant to affirm that she is staying neutral in the war despite the actions of the Mandalorian terrorist group, Death Watch. Death Watch, of course, doesn't want her to go. In Star Wars, that means you send an assassin.

Or assassin droids, as in this case. Freaky looking spider assassin droids. That have baby spider assassin droids inside them. If you have arachnophobia, this is not the episode for you. I mean, I have no issue with spiders at all -- I'm the designated "take the spider outside" person in our home -- but this episode kind of made my skin crawl.

There are a couple of things we learn in this episode:

1. Obi-Wan and Satine have come down on opposite sides in regards to the Separatists. Obi-Wan is a general and fully invested in defeating the Separatists. Satine is a pacifist and the head of a group of systems that want to stay neutral. To say that they don't see eye to eye is an understatement.

2. Obi-Wan and Satine have a past. Which is all I'm going to say because you should just watch it yourselves. What I will say is that this situation provides an interesting contrast to Anakin's.

In conjunction with the previous episode, this story arc elevates in importance even more. The details we find out about Mandalore along with Obi-Wan's backstory make this one of the most essential arcs in the series. I would say that it's "must see" for any Star Wars fan.

"Senators, I presume you're acquainted with the collection of half truths and hyperbole known as Ob-Wan Kenobi."

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

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

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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."

It's a Lego Christmas (with a dose of Doctor Who) -- Part Two

Before we get to the BIG Lego events of Christmas, here is the first of the Lego sets that I got. These were sort of consolation Lego gifts because the Lego set I really wanted became unavailable. And was, actually, too expensive, but my kids had this plan to combine their money and buy it for me. That's actually a longer (and unimportant) story. As it turns out, though, that set was on its way to retirement, so there was no re-stocking of it as places ran out of it, and my kids waited too long to try to fulfill their plans. So I got this, which was pretty cool (and approved by Mr. Bunches):

I want to point out that Admiral Ackbar came with a beer mug. I have to assume it's a beer mug, because it's  not like the cups that come with other sets that are clearly coffee mugs. Ackbar comes with a space beer mug, and I don't really understand why. Han comes with his blaster, which makes sense, and the pilot comes with a large wrench (as seen in Han's hand because the pilot is busy about to take off), which makes less sense (because why would the pilot need a wrench?), but it makes much more sense than the Admiral and his beer mug. Unless Ackbar has a problem that we've never been privy to? What makes less sense than that, though, is why Han comes with an A-wing fighter. It's like they had an extra batch of Solo minifigures lying around so they just threw them in with the A-wing. And Ackbar. But Ackbar doesn't have his own ship, so I suppose they needed to put him somewhere. The A-wing is really cool, though, so I'm not complaining.

I also got

Okay, that's not actually true. My younger son got it, but he already had this one, so he gave it to me. It was part of his new planet Lego sets. That is not an A-wing, just so you know. Here are all of this year's planet sets together:

My daughter's Lego Advent calendar for this year:

After the fact, that is. This is the little Christmas party she made from what came in it.

Which brings us to the big Lego project for this year. My younger son, the most devout Lego enthusiast in our house (and at his school) got

the Republic Gunship! Here are some in progress shots:

But the BIG Lego event was actually a contest. My younger son and I actually received a duplicate Lego kit, so he challenged me to a race. I just want to make it very clear that I don't spend a lot of time putting together Lego kits at this stage of my life. In fact, I can't remember how long it's been since I've put one together. Probably half a dozen years, at least. But I couldn't very well say no. So we got set up:

I prepared with... tea. He prepared by sorting all of his pieces out so that he could find them more quickly. Clearly, my lack of recent experience in this worked against me. Our first time stop for progress pics:

That's my son's stuff right up front there. You can see mine to the upper left. He is clearly already in the lead.
The second time stop:

That's mine at the bottom, this time. My son's is at the upper right, and you can see that he is still in the lead. Can I come back for the surprise finish and win the race!?
Actually, no.

My son's model is finished, and mine is... well, not finished, as you can see from the picture. It wasn't as close as it looks from this shot, either. I had something like 15 more minutes of building to go. Or more. I don't remember, exactly. What I remember is that he finished way before me. But here are both Mandalorian Speeders sitting next to each other once I did get mine finished.

Clearly, I need more practice at this if I'm going to pose any kind of threat to my son next Christmas.

And that's our Christmas, or most of it, in a nutshell.
My daughter is already counting down to this year's Christmas. yea?