Rewatching the Clone Wars

[XimenaPaulina]

Good review Oky Wan, thanks. This episode is pretty good, I particularly love the gravity-less fight sequence. As for the wishlist, Bolla Ropal can be easily made since Rodian heads are already available. Spacesuit Anakin and Ahsoka just need the spacehelmets (Sandy Cheeks anyone?) and plain dark red torso for Ahsoka.

[Corvus]

Hey, why haven't I looked at these? I don't know. I just spent the last hour looking at all the previous reviews.

I think Cargo of Doom was one of my favorite episodes. The only negative things I have to say about it were the recurring issues- bad battle droid humor. Another design flaw was that Magnaguards only seem to be lackeys- they can't even talk. In the Ep. III book, these guys were battle-scarred, intelligent hunters. But oh well. I've complained about it before.

My favorite part about this episode was the zero-grav battle. This is something that I've always wanted to see in SW. The battle was very well done, with combatants floating around everywhere or magnetized to the floors or ceiling. Battle droids and clones just suddenly stopped moving after being hit, and started drifting around was very cool and just slightly chilling.

[BrickClick]

I actually really liked this episode!

I agree that the zero-gravity battle was the best part!

I like Cad Bane and I think he makes a pretty good villian!

Cant wait to see the next part!

[Commander_Rob]

Good to see this thread again. Great reviews so far, and I#m very much looking forward to the later episodes I haven't seen (yet).

On the specific episodes: Holocron Heist: Pretty good, but with some flaws. Once again, we saw why a fourteen-year old shouldn't be in command of any sort of military unit, even if she's a Jedi. And the Juggernaut was seriously underpowered. One E-Web-sized blaster and the damage resistance of a cardboard box? Not really the enormous, scary monster that Episode III showed us...

Cargo Of Doom: Also quite good, some very original ideas and a cool Cad Bane. Apart from that though...

[Oky]

I think Cargo of Doom was one of my favorite episodes. The only negative things I have to say about it were the recurring issues- bad battle droid humor. Another design flaw was that Magnaguards only seem to be lackeys- they can't even talk. In the Ep. III book, these guys were battle-scarred, intelligent hunters. But oh well. I've complained about it before.

Well, yeah, but I'm not counting those things that are generally wrong with this show. Otherwise I don't think any episode would get anything better than a 6/10 from me.

Holocron Heist: Pretty good, but with some flaws. Once again, we saw why a fourteen-year old shouldn't be in command of any sort of military unit, even if she's a Jedi. And the Juggernaut was seriously underpowered. One E-Web-sized blaster and the damage resistance of a cardboard box? Not really the enormous, scary monster that Episode III showed us...

Good point. I guess the only thing the Juggernaut is good for is to run over its enemies. Hence the nickname "Turbo Tank".

Cargo Of Doom: Also quite good, some very original ideas and a cool Cad Bane. Apart from that though...

though what?

[def]

I really thought the second episode was phenomenal. If I reviewed it, it would lose a lot of marks for that massive story telling gap. I genuinely think they had written another episode in between, but it got cut somewhere. If they had taken their time, it would practically be a movie, and would be far better. Still, the no-gravity battle is one of the best Star Wars-things I've ever seen, including the original trilogy. It was conceptually great, and carried out with skill. I just wish the three episodes worked together better though.

Commander Rob: About your comment of Ahsoka being too young to command, you should really love these episodes! They directly addressed that issue and proved your point! She's stupid in these episodes, and almost causes the Republic to fail. there's problems with Ahsoka, and these episodes highlight and address that point. And they agree with you! She's immature.

I know Eurobricks has a no kids policy, but I wonder if there are any Ahsoka fans out there. I can't imagine adults finder her anything more than tolerable. (and I find her tolerable myself.)

[Commander_Rob]

I can't really imagine any adults liking Ahsoka for reasons other than... things I couldn't mention here without getting banned...

But really, shouldn't they have known she is completely incompetent after she lost a complete fighter squadron in the assault on Ryloth? No, it seems nobody learned from that... She is given command again. Did she promise to do better? I bet she did. And did she stick to that? Of course not.

Some people just never learn.

[Just Imagine]

"Rookies" and "Landing at Point Rain" were my favorite eps. I find the Clone Troopers far more interesting then the Jedi or other "Good Guys." I wish they would make a Star Wars movie that was like WWII, except with Clones and for adults, so no silly Ahsoka or Jar Jar Binks. I think that season I was pretty weak, it had some good eps here and there but overall is was pretty bad. Season II was a great improvement, but still not amazing. I think the finale was a bit of a disappointment, I liked the trailer for the finale better then the finale for S2 itself.

[def]

Episode 3: Children of the Force

A thief hunted! In a daring assault Anakin Skywalker and his Padawan Ahsoka boarded the warship of cunning bounty hunter Cad Bane to recover a stolen holocron containing a list of the galaxy's Force-sensitive children and future Jedi Knights. After a desperate chase and duel with the villain, Anakin and his troops defeated Bane, but were forced to evacuate his doomed vessel without the holocron...

Nope, didn't care for this one. It's not terrible, just middling. At least it properly continued from where the last episode left off though. Cad Bane has a MacGuffin, er, "holocron cube" and can use it to track force-babies down. Anakin and the Jedi council use their force powers to see where Bane will strike next. Why don't they just do that all the time? Why isn't there a Jedi pre-cog division? Anyway, the episode manages to work in a number of locales, Rodia, Naboo, Mustafar, and an asteroid hideout where the holocron gets recovered, which adds to the business of the episode.

The first half of episode plays out a lot like an episode of Law & Order. They get a lead on Bane and he escapes, then they get a second lead and catch him. For the middle part of the episode, Bane's in the interrogation room, with Obi Wan as good cop and Mace Windu as bad cop. Obi Wan later goes on to say it's "an internal Jedi affair"

The episode ends with a battle on Mustafar against two nanny robots. Sorry, but nanny-robot-battle doesn't make for a great climax. While the episode had some good character moments for Bane, the Jedi, and Darth Sidious, there just wasn't much focus in this cluttered episode. And I hate the word 'youngling'. Rating:7/10

There were some cool ships, first of all, we got to see the V-19 with a hyperspace ring on it! The hyperspace ring is a notoriously boring build, but they look so good!

And we saw Obi Wan's fighter with a hyperspace ring too, which I think we first saw in Attack of the Clones.

Obi Wan and Mace take Bane on this ringless cruiser that has a large wing that turns vertically perpendicular when in flight. Very cool looking.

T-6 Shuttle

And we see Bane's ship, which looks like a modified Magna Guard ship. This would have been a more sensible ship to make than the Corsucant cruiser they made in the 2010 sets.

Xanadu Blood

This episode has Jedi babies, er... younglings. Does anybody want Jedi younglings?

And it has nanny robots. I've written before about how I'd like to see the series expand beyond space ships, but these had no impact on me. To their credit, I doubt they were designed as nannies, rather, they were modified for the task.

And just a little nastiness to end the recap. Ahsoka getting kneed in the tit by Cad Bane. Did nobody think of this for the Epic Scenes contest?

Lego ships appearing: Separatists Shuttle, V-19, Obi Wan's Starfighter, Republic Gunship

Added to the Lego wishlist: Xanadu Blood, T-6 Shuttle

[XimenaPaulina]

"Children of the Force" was a so-so episode.

What I like: The group "Force-mind-trick-interrogation" of Bane by Mace, Obi-wan, and Anakin.

What I didn't like: How Bane made Mace and Obi-wan look foolish when he cleverly escaped from them. I mean, the great jedi master Mace Windu (who has single-handedly annihilated hundreds of droids in the cartoon series) got outwitted by a lone bounty hunter? Sheez.

Nice to see the hyperspace ring for the V-19, very much doable but yeah it'll quite boring. The T-19 shuttle is also an interesting new ship, if ever TLG releases this one, I'm sure it would be way off-scale (much like the Republic Attack Shuttle).

[Forresto]

Jedi never seem to have trouble with thousands of battle droids and stormtroopers but when it comes to just one lone bounty hunter, man they just don't know what to do. Durge, Boba Fett, Cad Bane, Bossk, etc.....

[CMP]

Jedi never seem to have trouble with thousands of battle droids and stormtroopers but when it comes to just one lone bounty hunter, man they just don't know what to do. Durge, Boba Fett, Cad Bane, Bossk, etc.....

Bounty hunters have skills, droids don't.

[Oky]

I actually liked CotF. It had good action and some cool stuff in it. Maybe it's just because I really like Obi Wan, Mace Windu, Cad Bane, Mustafar, and the T-6 Shuttle. However, I agree that it's stupid that Mace Windu foresaw that it was a trap and Bane still got away. But what's wrong with Obi saying it's an internal Jedi affair?

[def]

But what's wrong with Obi saying it's an internal Jedi affair?

On the heels of the faux-police interrogation scenes, it's too much. Which was my main point.

But, in the larger picture, it's the type of thing that makes Sidious' arguments against the Jedi viable. I feel the same way when there is a military scandal, they are public workers. There is no internal affairs.

[Oky]

I see. Well, that's your opinion, I guess. Anyhow, here is the next review. But be warned, it's not a pretty one.

Episode 4: Senate Spy

Treachery in the Senate! The Jedi Council suspects that Senator Rush Clovis is secretly taking part in a Separatist conspiracy. But to find out what the Senator from Scipio is up to, the Council will need a spy of its own. Meanwhile, Jedi Anakin Skywalker has been away from Coruscant on a lengthy tour of duty leading the clone army. Now Anakin returns for a long-awaited reunion with his wife, Padmé Amidala...

Hm, how should I put this. This episode was lame. Really, really lame. It begins with Anakin and Padme having some alone-time. Then Annie gets called to the Jedi Temple and told to convince Padme to spy on Rush Clovis, a senator from the silly named planet of Scipio (seriously, they couldn't come up with a better name?) who the Jedi are suspecting to have affairs with the Seps. Anakin meets up with Padme and they bicker for a while until Padme decides to do it. She has a little date with Clovis, and they depart for Cato Neimoidia to "negotiate" with the Trade Federation. Of course, Anakin gets all jealous and comes along disguised as a pilot, doing childish things to keep the two senators apart. While on Cato Neimoidia (which eerily reminds of Plo Koon's death scene from ROTS), Padme finds out that Clovis is indeed working with the CIS to build a new droid foundry. She steals the plans for this foundry (which were left carelessly in the holo-table protected by a cheesy password that took only seconds to guess) and gets the plans to Anakin. Meanwhile, Clovis' associates poison her in an attempt to make Clovis cooperate with them. Clovis offers to help her and Anakin in return for the disk. They manage to escape with the antidote, but Anakin leaves Clovis behind, and so he has to face his Neimoidian partner's firing squad. Good riddance, IF he really did get shot, even though it was kind of an un-heroic thing for Anakin to leave him to die. Oh well.

In conclusion, this episode was pretty bad; no action whatsoever, no interesting characters, and a pretty predictable plot, plus some annoying bickering. It's nice that they wanted to try something different, but it did NOT work. This series has too much potential to be wasted on episodes like this. I could rant on about it, but I'm just gonna say that the only things I liked in this ep were Threepio's frustrated comments on not being needed and the way they snuck the disk past Clovis. 2/10

As for new stuff, we have Padme's star skiff from Episode III. Who wouldn't love to have an all-chrome starship like this as a Lego set?

J-type star skiff

Then there is Clovis. Not an exciting character, but if we do get a Padme's Star Skiff, he would probably be the bad guy in the set. Who knows, he might be good for a new hairpiece.

Senator Rush Clovis

There is yet another new Neimoidian with a funny hat called Lott Dod, and Poggle the Lesser makes his Clone Wars debut in this ep, both of which would make neat, useful figs.

Lott Dod & Poggle the Lesser

We also see Anakin in a Naboo pilot uniform. This outfit could be useful too, even though the helmet would probably be the pilot hat we already have.

And what's better than luxury droids? Golden Luxury droids! There are two of them in this ep, and like def, I'd like to see these as figs!

BD-3000 luxury droid

Lego ships appearing: None

Lego wishlist: Padme's Star Skiff, Rush Clovis, Lott Dod, Poggle the Lesser, Naboo pilot Anakin, (golden) Luxury droid

[XimenaPaulina]

Sheez, this has got to be one of the most boring episodes of this season due to one fact - it revolves around the 'yucky' love story between Anakin and Padme - which most SW fans can live without.

The only positive thing I can get out from this episode is that Padme's successful acquisition of the plans for the secret droid factory will lead into the next and BEST episode of this series, which we'll have to wait the review of by def/Oky Wan.

Also, it would be really very cool if we do get Padme's Star Skiff, of course along with the long-overdue updated Padme minifig.

Edited July 11, 2010 by KielDaMan

[RileyC]

Haha its really funny how Oky grades a lot harder than Def.

You guys are really doing a great job on these and its good to see what you think should be lego-fied. Some of the characters would be great as minifigs!

Keep up the good work guys

[AndyC]

But, in the larger picture, it's the type of thing that makes Sidious' arguments against the Jedi viable. I feel the same way when there is a military scandal, they are public workers. There is no internal affairs.

I liked it for precisely that reason. It seems to be a running theme in the PT, culminating of course in Mace Windu's "He's too dangerous to be kept alive." The war is pushing the Jedi into an uncomfortable position, where they start to act in ways that are questionable at best. I think that's important to making Palpatines convincing of both the senate and, more importantly, the general populace that the Jedi have become a threat.

[Penitent Tangent]

I can't really imagine any adults liking Ahsoka for reasons other than... things I couldn't mention here without getting banned...

But really, shouldn't they have known she is completely incompetent after she lost a complete fighter squadron in the assault on Ryloth? No, it seems nobody learned from that... She is given command again. Did she promise to do better? I bet she did. And did she stick to that? Of course not.

Some people just never learn.

I disagree with that, I think she's been a rather likable character. She did start out very bratter, especially with those nicknames.. But she's grown up a lot over the two seasons and many of the best episodes of the show have revolved around her having to grow up and learn things. There was even the episode (it was reviews a few pages back) where she screws up badly enough to be sent away to just help in the library for a bit, in the later episodes, she really had to prove herself again. They've definitely moved away from her just being the annoying kid who's always right, and is only there to appeal to 11 year olds.

The arc with her and Barriss Offee has probably been the best in the entire show thus far, along with Lightsaber lost, which again really went deeper into her character. If you haven't been paying that much attention to the show, you should definitely watch these episodes.

Good reviews though, it's really great reading through these and remembering all the nice action scenes. And I definitely agree that Senate Spy was a pretty weak episode.. I think they wanted some that focused a bit less on the action and space battles, but again, I think they've done this far better in other episodes.

[def]

Haha its really funny how Oky grades a lot harder than Def.

You guys are really doing a great job on these and its good to see what you think should be lego-fied. Some of the characters would be great as minifigs!

Keep up the good work guys

Thanks!

I think Oki grades harder than me too, and we know it, but variety is the spice of life. I'm certainly no authority on Star Wars. I'm just a fan. Anyway, very rarely am I angry after an episode of Clone Wars. The Lurmen episodes neared it, and so did the second pirates episode in season one. S2E4 was just meh to me.

I liked it for precisely that reason. It seems to be a running theme in the PT, culminating of course in Mace Windu's "He's too dangerous to be kept alive." The war is pushing the Jedi into an uncomfortable position, where they start to act in ways that are questionable at best. I think that's important to making Palpatines convincing of both the senate and, more importantly, the general populace that the Jedi have become a threat.

That's interesting, and it gives credit to the writers, so maybe that was the intent. We all know the notion that the prequels hurt the OT, but there were some interesting ideas in the PT. Perhaps this is one of them, that Sidious had a point

[Forresto]

I like politicol episodes so personally I rather enjoyed this episode. Sure there was not that much action but it realy explains more about the trade federation and their standing in the war. Also this episode kicks it off for the amazing "Landing at Point Rain"

[SirWacky]

Good idea reviewing the clone wars episodes

Can't wait to see more!

(Notice how I cleverly didn't say anything about senate spy? )

[The Legonater]

It's the same basic design, but the TPM speeder is fatter and lime green, and the pilot sits in the middle seat of the front row.

Nah, shouldn't been more specific. On coruscant, there is a blushish speeder just like this one, seen very well in a deleted sceane.

[Brickdoctor]

Nah, shouldn't been more specific. On coruscant, there is a blushish speeder just like this one, seen very well in a deleted sceane.

Okay, sorry, didn't get your meaning.

[Corvus]

An interesting detail in Children of the Force: This was the only episode in which the designers freed the elbow and knee armor plates from the forearm and knee plates. In the next episode, they put them back. It was a shame really, I liked them the way they were supposed to be in the movies. Except for Obi-Wan- his elbow plates looked like they were going to put someone's eye out.

Children of the Force bordered on good. I don't remember enough except for bits and pieces, so I'm not going to give a full score, but I agree, using the Force to determine where Cad Bane was going seemed really weak.

Senate Spy- Ugh. One of the things that killed the prequels to me was t he political talk. It was boring, it wasn't logical, and the characters always sounded so stale...but those were the prequels.