Penitent Tangent

Stop complaining, I'd very happily pay those prices. The US prices are going up, but the rest of the world still pays nearly double that.

This is a really great wave, pretty much all the sets are appealing. I'm still not a huge fan of the genosian starfgighter or the sith infiltrator but I think the minifigs that come with those sets more than make up for it. The Falcon and the Podracers are definitely my favourites. :)

I'm not sure why you continue to bring up the EU. Whether you like the stories or not, it's quite clear George Lucas does not consider them canon and has no issues with scrubbing it aside in order to make the series more interesting.. Which I'm definitely in favour of. The majority of the EU is garbage that was written by hacks. You can't expect them to keep some of it canon and ignore the stuff nobody likes. I have no problems with people being negative about the show and discussing the flaws.. But I'm sick of constantly hearing about the EU. Many of the later Star Trek movies also overruled fan fiction, novels and games. I'm not sure why Star Wars fans hold their EU in such reverance. I'm not saying you can't enjoy those stories.. Just don't expect later movies, games and TV shows to abide by them. The Clone Wars is not EU. That aside, I don't understand how this interferes with anything. I don't recall Leia's exact quote, but even if saying he was a Governor in the Clone Wars doesn't rule out the possibillity he was made a governor during that time. Personally though, I agree with Oky Wan Kenobi on this one, enough fan service. It's going to get slightly ridiculous if we keep having all of these characters meet up with one another and I'm especially against the idea of a young Han Solo appearing (even though this is bound to happen, as he was originally planned to be in Episode III).

Really happy to see that Anakin and Ventress have new torso's and they used the costume she used briefly from the Tartakovsky shorts, rather than her Nighsisters one. And it makes getting another Anakin a bit less boring. The set definitely looks better than it did in the early shots too, will likely be worth getting for the figs alone though. Really loving the MF, I've been waiting for a chance to get one of these and it looks excellent. Still quite disappointed with the Ewok Attack though. Would have preferred something a bit bigger, like last years Wampa cave.

If TCW does something I dislike, you can be sure I'll be complaining about it. See the Lux episode discussion, for example. It just seems every week, we have people complaining about every little thing that happens, even when the episodes are fantastic (I wouldn't regard the last episode that highly, but still). For some, it seems TCW can do no right, so I often find myself in the position of having to defend it more than I do on other sites, or in the case of these episodes.. pointing out that the plot is meant to be deeper than just what we're being told by the characters. I don't mean to insult anyone by what I said, but it is something that everyone else seems to have missed. I'm in the UK, and I have to say not being able to watch the episodes online is a huge problem. It's not going to make anyone wait to see them on local networks or buy the DVD's when they're released, it just means we have to resort to less legal means to see them. How does that benefit them at all? I know there's all sorts of international licensing problems, but it's something they really need to get sorted out. As for the EU, I can't say I agree there. I'm sure you've seen me post about it before.. but the EU isn't canon, it's created by fans and essentially exists as side stories to the movies. Filoni himself seems to be a huge fan of the EU and tries to incorporate it as much as possible, where it fits.. like by including the Republic Commando's or Ventresses backstory (which I hear was pretty much untouched) but in the end it's George Lucas who comes up with the stories and what he says in regards to canon goes.. He doesn't care if some EU writer has come up with his own interpretation of General Grievous' backstory, if that conflicts with his original plans.

What do you mean OT fans? Seems to be a decent mix of CW and OT but there's not really anything interesting on either side. Nute Gunray is hardly a popular character and I'm sure everyone has a Chewbacca, Clone and Rebel pilot.. the rest just seem to be droids. I was expecting them to go with the obvious choices, like Anakin, Han, etc, but that would at least have had some appeal. Unless you like the micro sets (which admittedly are kind of cool) I don't think anyone's going to be particularly happy with the calendar. Which is a shame, because I thought it had huge potential.

That is WRONG! But also slightly amusing.

Frankly, I have no idea why these episodes are getting such a negative reaction. For some, it seems they're never happy with the show and are just looking for excuses to hate on it more.. and others, well, I think the more subtle story telling devices and symbolic nature and references are going a bit over some peoples heads, so they aren't really understanding what the episode is trying to say. Personally, I love this kind of story telling and it's been fun finding the hidden meanings behind much of what we've seen. I will say that it seems odd that parts of these episodes are almost contradicting the movies but I'm going to wait until the next episode before judging that, because we really don't know what's going to happen or how certain things will be explained. Jumping in with "it doesn't make sense!" before we've seen the whole story arc is a little unfair. As for Ahsoka, even if she dies eventually, we're only half way through season 3, there's not even a slim possibility they're going to get rid of her now. The previous episode also gave her an escape route for that fate.. Leave Anakin and train on her own, which I think they're more likely to follow up on. It leaves her alive for future appearances (the live action TV show), it explains why she isn't in RoTS and it means they don't have to kill her off, potentially alienating younger fans who tune in mainly for her.

Next to Savage is Luke, the one we don't have yet. And the bottom right spaces are Vader and Palpatine, unless you mean the two empty spaces, those are just blank because there are no more characters. (the spaces where you can unlock someone have question marks, those ones don't).

So far, the pod racers set is shaping up to be the best of the bunch here, the set itself looked great in the pictures and those minifigs are very nice. I also really love the two new clones. Vos looks great too.. I'm not so keen on the head piece their using for Maul and Savage though, I guess it's nice that they actually have horns but they look a little odd, Maul especially.

So does anyone have the password to get Luke on the website? He's the only one I'm missing now

Thanks for posting that, I had no idea they had released any more codes. Though looking at the list, it probably wouldn't have been hard to simply guess them.

It causes bumps, but it's not completely impossible. Obi-wan was surprised to hear that Qui-gon had found a way to come back but he doesn't say that's impossible or anything to imply he hasn't heard from him since.. All he learned in this episode was that this cave was powerful enough to allow him to see Qui-gon. The fact that in episode III he can do this anywhere is still reason to be surprised. I do think I would have preferred if it was merely a vision/flashback but that wouldn't have had the same impact. But remember, there are still two episodes in this story arc to go. Could end up still being another explanation.

This eepisode was a little confusing, but remember, it's part of a 3 episode arc so it's a bit early to judge.. My only real complaint is that I do feel we were once again let down by the 20 minute run time. But I'm pretty surprised to see you guys not being so fond of this episode, I thought it was pretty amazing.. It explained a few points which have been annoyingly vague up until now and raised a lot of new questions, which is more the type of thing we need to see from the show more often, these past few episodes have actually had suspense, which has been sorely lacking from the series until now. Most importantly, it explained exactly what this "prophecy" and "chosen one" nonsense has been about. I found it very interesting to see a character that was just as powerful as Anakin, if not more so and that Anakin's destiny as the chosen one is supposed to have been to replace this figure as an "anchorite" between the two sides of the force. I really liked that we weren't just dealing with plain old black and white good and evil, but something a lot deeper.. Anakin himself is supposed to become something more than a mere Jedi or Sith and instead become the balance itself. It was also a return to the force being something less physical but more mysterious, which is definitely the right direction. We also saw Anakin struggling with his emotions and make even more choices that will eventually lead to his complete emotional break down. I think we're seeing the first stage of his slide into the character he'll be by Revenge of the Sith. We also got an interesting look at Ahsoka's possible futures.. She'll either break away from Anakin, seeing the corruption in him, which would explain why she wasn't around in RoTS.. or his darkness is going to consume her and lead to her own downfall. Everything was a lot less clear cut in this episode, it required you to actually think about what was happening and decide for yourself, that was a sign of much more mature and intelligent writing and a return to the stylings of the original trilogy.

This set is actually from the recent CW episodes, not EU. But I think the general consensus is that it looks horrible and is only really saved by the minifigs. Personally, I'll only be interested if Anakin and Ventress have their new costumes.

Also worth mentioning that he does seem to have a new lightsaber hilt.

Yeah, while I'm not a huge fan of what they did to the original movies in the special editions, I think the prequels could really use some touching up.. And if they could film this scene and add it in, it'd be pretty amazing, even if it was nothing more than a quick shot of Qui-gon being there. It was disappointing you never actually got to see him and it was pretty obvious we were supposed to. The preview for the new episode is pretty interesting too.. Grey Jedi?

I think the main reason the X-wing hasn't redesigned yet and the reason it's selling so well, is simply because it's a very reasonably priced set for arguably the most iconic Star Wars vehicle, plus it comes with practically all the main characters. It's a great place for starting a collection or even just a novelty item if you're not into Lego. The design could definitely be improved.. but yeah, I just don't see them stopping production of it anytime soon. There is a CW discussion on the off topic boards.. but the fact he was given a special artefact for helping him "locate" Maul, leads me to believe it is more of a spiritual thing and they aren't actually bringing Darth Maul back. (which would be a very cheap move). Obi-wan has visions of Qui-gon in the next episode to help him focus his training, I'm quite sure Savage will be doing much the same with Maul. Remember, Filoni has already changed things about the EU that are dumb or unrealistic, like Aurra Sing being a Jedi.. I really don't see him taking one of the dumbest aspects from the entire EU and making it canon and I doubt even more that Lucas would go along with that.

He'd be very expensive to get as a regular voice actor and he's a really busy person, I don't think it would be easy to get a hold of him every few weeks for just a few lines. The new episode was somewhat disappointing, it had some great action (and was really quite violent) but I didn't expect Savage to turn on Dooku so quickly, I thought they'd have kept it going at least until the end of the series and the way it ended wasn't very satisfying, everyone managed to escape. Killing off Ventress would have made it much more interesting.. but at the same time, they've only just turned her into an interesting person, getting rid of her now would have been rather disappointing too. I did like seeing Dooku training Savage, very similar to when Yoda was teaching Luke, only much more twisted :) and we really got to see how much they've improved Obi-wan and Anakin's character models, they look much better and move much more fluidly and of course seeing Delta Squad was great, even if it was a small cameo. The end did promise some interesting developments for later at least and I definitely look forward to seeing Qui-gon again.

The set itself actually looks quite good on display, I know not everyone is a fan of the design of the actual ship itself but I think it's fine and I do appreciate getting smaller/cheaper UCS sets. Lately it's just been big things like the death star, MF and imperial shuttle, which are just way out of my price range. I think the only reason the starfighter sold so badly was because of the price. I'm not usually one to complain about the brick/money ratio but no matter how you look at it, £100 for 600 pricks is just ridiculous. They clearly thought the set would sell for a higher price just because it's a UCS. I'm sure now that it's been discounted, sales have probably picked up.

The trials forced them to behave in a way they wouldn't normally. The two obviously didn't want to fight each other and didn't even want to be warriors. Again, I liked this twist on the culture by having the females as the ones in control, where as these two guys who had been picked to become great warriors, clearly wanted nothing to do with it. Ventress set up the trials to put them in a situation beyond their control and out of their comfortable element. Savage showed that he was a very capable fighter when pushed, which is clearly what she was looking for. Picking any random person and transforming them, likely wouldn't have had the same effect. It's been said in other reviews, but I also loved the parallels of when Savage was being taken away from his home by Ventress to become a Sith to the scene in Episode I, with Anakin being taken away to become a Jedi. The whole thing was handled perfectly, even if for some reason you didn't like the story.

Episode III? Another one of my problems with the general expanded universe is that they've turned the Jedi into super heroes. Jedi are not supposed to be invincible, unstoppable beings. I see no problem with a very powerful, skilled fighter being able to take them out. Again, it was supposed to show us how twisted and strong he's become and the scene illustrated that perfectly, in a similar fashion to when Grievous was first introduced in the original animated show. You're bringing up my Dragon Age point completely out of context. Also, all 3 of them fill extremely cliché female roles. Leliana is the rogue/cute girl next door. Morrigan is the somewhat twisters/mysterious girl - both of these exist almost purely for romance purposes and Wynne is the aged female teacher. What we saw with the Nightsisters was a complete role reversal of the culture, the females were the dominant gender, in control of the planet.. Where as the males are considered less skilled and simply stay at the villages, even giving the impression that they weren't interested in becoming fighters. This isn't something completely unheard of in fiction, but I still appreciated characters like Ventress being considered the more skilled, rather than the big, muscle bound men. I do agree that we need less disposable characters who show up simply to be killed, I'd very much like to see some of these characters fleshed out so that their inevitable deaths mean something later on. But again, the scene existed to show how powerful Savage is and it worked in this example.. As opposed to say, one of the earlier episodes this season with Master Di, where the episode relied on feeling sorry for the Jedi who we knew nothing about and saw for less than 15 minutes.

The bike itself looked fine in the episode, the model leaves something to be desired, but hopefully that will be fixed up a little when we see the finished models and not just blurry pre-lim shots! I also agree that the set will really be worth it just for the minifigs though, especially if we get new printing on Ventress and Anakin for their new costumes. Can only speculate.. but I think the Naboo fighter will be a midi set, so probably no minifigs.

I'm sorry you haven't been enjoying it, but I can't say I follow your complaints at all. These past two episodes have been excellent in terms of writing, character development and action.. Exactly what we've been asking for after that big string of senate episodes and it's easily been the most interesting story of the series so far. Yes, we know Dooku's ultimate fate, but that doesn't mean the things that lead up to it are boring. For example, we've only just found out what Dooku's real motives are, we may know that it's Anakin that eventually kills him in Episode III. But what happens to Ventress and Opress? Does Oppress eventually turn on Ventress and the Nightsisters? Does Dooku do away with another apprentice? Does he actually know what Ventress is planning and is simply planning something? Will both Ventress and Opress be killed by Jedi? Each other? Dooku? Introducing Opress was a great idea, because it gives us a new villain with interesting motives.. and one who's fate is unknown, which I agree, has been a bit of a problem for the series and Ventress has suffered up until this arc because she's had no personality or story at all, Savage is immediately a more appealing character. I also think it's nice to have more strong characters who aren't necessarily Jedi. The scene with him utterly destroying everything was supposed to show what a force he is to be reckoned with. And it did that perfectly. (even if it would be nice to have some of these "lesser" Jedi fleshed out a bit and not just have them show up to be killed!") That aside, knowing what eventually happens isn't always important. We knew Anakin became Vader at the end of the prequels.. We knew Starkiller couldn't kill Vader in TFU. And to use a few upcoming examples.. We know that Hawke in Dragon Age 2 becomes the Champion of Kirkwall from the very beginning of the game, the point is HOW he does this. Same with the new Hobbit movie releasing this year, we already know what happens to Bilbo, even if you haven't read the books. Sometimes the journey is more important than the end result :) I also have to say I liked the twist of having the females as the stronger and dominant gender and the males considered lesser. Considering how women are normally regarded in fiction, particularly sci-fi it makes a great change and really made the Nightsisters seem really twisted. I don't see why every alien species would look at genders the same way as us. Personally, I think it makes sense to having the typically smarter and more in control females in charge of everything.. and the males as simple warriors/slaves who stay at home :P

I meant it was good, aside from that point. They did a great job turning Ventress into a character and Dooku's reaction to the whole situation was subtle, but really well done. It really seemed like he didn't want to betray her and when he did, he used her "failure" as an excuse. It raises some interesting questions. Really don't know what there wasn't to like about this episode.. Other than the whole questionable assassination attempt, which wasn't that much of a big deal. To me it seemed like she wanted to kill him herself, really get revenge for what happened. Not simply poison him in his sleep. I only think they could have spent some more time on this point, but you do have to take into account the limited run time. Sometimes things are lost.