skygiants | (no subject)

As we approached the final episodes of Season 3 of The Clone Wars,

innerbrat had a small panic: "Oh no, we're almost done with the show, and we don't know what we'll be watching next!"

"...Debi, I'm pretty sure there's six seasons," I said, "don't worry, there is MUCH MORE CLONE WARS TO COME."

And there is! But nonetheless we are more than halfway through now, which feels like an achievement, since we've been watching Clone Wars for ... a year now? I think it's approximately a year. Anyway, onwards!

11. Pursuit of Peace

A politics episode! Padme's Separatist Friend is dead and peace talks are stalling, so after all the more moderate Senators get taken out of commission, Padme gives a heroic speech and manages to convince the Senate not to deregulate the banks and to consider weighting the budget towards social services. Notable for a.) current events relevance and b.) a scene of Padme's handmaiden helping her to select her most impressive Senate Politics Wig, because Padme's Wigs have become some of my favorite Clone Wars characters.

12. Nightsisters

In this episode, Count Dooku tries to eliminate Ventress, so she goes home to her remote all-female warrior clan to seek help from her mother, the Queen ...

innerbrat: OMG VENTRESS IS WONDER WOMAN???

Then we learned that Mother was an honorific title that all the warrior women used for the leader of the clan and the Nightsisters were kind of evil and it got a bit less Wonder Woman, but we were still very into it, especially the part where for the first time we saw a Force-based religion that wasn't just the Sith and the Jedi!

13. Monster

Ventress goes to recruit one of the males of their clan to be Dooku's new fake apprentice in what seems like it's ... normally the Nightsister/Nightbrother mating ritual when they don't have a Sith lord they're trying to murder? We weren't very clear on this.

Anyway, the process involves some Hunger Games-style elimination and is no fun for anyone except Ventress. Two Males Of The Species who are either brothers or boyfriends touchingly protect each other throughout the whole thing, and one volunteers as tribute!

... and then Ventress & co. brainwash him and make him kill the other one anyway. THIS EPISODE IS VERY DARK.

14. Witches of the Mist

Obi-Wan and Anakin go to try and figure out who Dooku's new fake apprentice is, but honestly that whole side of the plot was less interesting than Dooku's new fake apprentice getting caught between Dooku and Ventress and then deciding that he hates BOTH of them. "NEITHER OF YOU IS MY REAL DAD!"

Also, hints of future Darth Maul appearances? I don't care particularly about Darth Maul, though I know some people care quite a lot about Darth Maul. Perhaps Clone Wars will make me do so!

15. Overlords

Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan crash-land on a planet inhabited by some kind of Force gods with terrible animation design who explain to Anakin that he is the Chosen One of the prophecy and should therefore stay on this planet forever to keep an eye on the quarreling Force gods!

innerbrat: What if the whole problem the Jedi have during the prequel trilogy is that they've mixed up their Chosen Ones? I love the idea that Anakin's the Chosen One of this ENTIRELY DIFFERENT religion's prophecy and everyone's just gotten confused.

skygiants: That would be AMAZING, especially if this episode is a total one-off and they leave this planet and never speak of it again.

16. Attar of Mortis

Alas ... that episode was not a total one-off. Ahsoka gets kidnapped and turned temporarily evil by Dark Force God and we spend the rest of the episode being increasingly annoyed by the animation design of Light Force God, who is weirdly glowy with floating hair and cleavage and overall looks like she wandered out of an early Final Fantasy game:

Anyway, she gets heroically stabbed by the end of the episode to make her father and brother sad, as glowy women with deep cleavage are wont to do.

We're also annoyed because during a fight scene between Anakin and Evil Ahsoka, Evil Ahsoka shouts that she always hated it when Anakin called her Snips and then it's NEVER RESOLVED. Come on, what is it? Is this something Ahsoka really thinks deep down or a Dark Force lie? WE NEED TO KNOW AND WE NEVER WILL.

17. Ghosts of Mortis

Everyone is STILL on Weird Force Religion Planet and by now we're VERY over it. The team will never escape and NEITHER WILL WE.

...they do actually escape by the end of the episode, but first Anakin flip-flops between Light and Dark Side like three times in the course of twenty minutes, which ... as much as I didn't like this whole three-episode plot trilogy, that's hilariously in-character for Anakin, solid character work there, writing team.

18. The Citadel

We've stoppped keeping count of clone buddy death tallies because there were basically no clone buddies in all of s3, but now we've got to start again, because Anakin and Obi-Wan and a bunch of obviously doomed clone buddies are off on a secret mission! Ahsoka is not supposed to come, but she sneaks along for the ride.

Also on this secret mission: R2-D2 and A TRIO OF REPROGRAMMED BATTLE DROIDS WHO FOLLOW HIM AROUND LIKE A DUCKLING. This is the best team ever.

innerbrat: I mean of course there are ethical issues around the reprogramming of droids, but there's always ethical issues around droids in Star Wars ANYWAY, and ...

skygiants: AND THEY'RE SO CUTE!

innerbrat: They're SO cute!

skygiants: Give them their own show!

Animated Peter Cushing is also in this episode, as one of the people Anakin & Co. are supposed to rescue is Baby Grand Moff Tarkin, whom for the purposes of convenience I shall call Moffet Tarkin.

At least three clone buddies died in the making of this episode. :( Pour one out, boys.

19. Counterattack

Continued rescue mission! This is mostly solid escape-the-citadel-filled-with-traps stuff, while Anakin and Moffet Tarkin have some cheerful bonding moments about how the Jedi should be less ethical that are great for them, and great for us [narratively], and very uncomfortable for everyone else.

Two more clone buddies die in the making of this episode, including one of the clone buddies from the trio of episodes about Baby Clone Troopers. :(

innerbrat: Oh, no! We lost a NAMED clone!

...to be honest I did not remember which named clone it was until I went back and read the episode recap on a Star Wars Wiki, but now I see that it's Echo and I'm likewise very sad. He was my favorite, the one with no imagination who read regulations for fun! We'll miss you and your nameless clone buddy friend.

20. Citadel Rescue

The unkindest cut of all: not only have we lost most of our clone buddies, but ALSO R2-D2's squad of adorable reprogrammed battle droids! ;_; TRULY A SAD DAY FOR STAR WARS.

Anyway, everyone else gets rescued in the conclusion of this episode trilogy, and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are both uncomfortable with how buddy-buddy Anakin and Moffet Tarkin are, which is as it should be. It's nice when future co-workers have a chance to bond and form a solid working relationship!

21. Padawan Lost

Ahsoka gets kidnapped and dumped into the Most Dangerous Game on a jungle planet, where she befriends a bunch of other kidnapped baby Jedi ... and then promptly gets one killed when she encourages them all to fight back.

innerbrat: I knew Rue was gonna die!

In cut scenes back at home, Anakin freaks out, and the other Jedi are like 'slow your attachment roll, Anakin, it'll be fine, Ahsoka can escape by herself!'

22. Wookiee Hunt

...Ahsoka cannot actually escape by herself. But she CAN escape with the help of KIDNAPPED BABY CHEWBACCA, THIS IS THE BEST CLONE WARS CAMEO EVER.

skygiants: I hope they stay pen pals throughout the ENTIRE SERIES, including the original trilogy, and it just never comes up that Chewie's been hanging out with her sort-of younger brother.

innerbrat: Sort-of nephew?

skygiants: I guess probably more like sort-of nephew, Anakin's not really her dad.

Anyway, who's going to write me that epistolary fic?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

aberration

Yeah I think I remember messaging

varadia about the logic of Anakin's Mortis thing being:

Dark Side Son: You are going to cause HORRIFIC DESTRUCTION when you fall to the Dark Side in the future, and the only way you can prevent it is by falling to the Dark Side NOW instead!!!
Anakin: Sounds legit.

And then his memory is erased which clearly totally solves that problem nothing we need to ever be concerned about again, I guess.

Anyway a lot of fans have VERY STRONG FEELINGS about the Mortis thing and mine pretty much come down to "they were all just really, really annoying." And now for some reason my brain is trying to recast them as the Sapersteins from Parks and Rec.

From:

skygiants

"look, if your friends have to kill you because you're the villain NOW then you'll never kill THEM in the FUTURE so it all works out!"

I mean, it's very Anakin. I wish the show thought it was as funny as we did.

...people have feelings about Mortis? What and how???

(Honestly, that would have been a better three-episode arc.)

From:

aberration

Mostly that it is BAD but also a lot of objections in particular to the level of weird mysticism it brings in. Which I'm actually all for the mysticism, I just found those three characters to be incredibly annoying and didn't really want to spend more time with them. But that weird mysticism does come back and there were More Additional Opinions About It.

From:

skygiants

Yeah, I don't mind the ... spirit of it? I just thought it was poorly executed and I was annoyed and distracted by character design every second the Daughter in particular was onscreen. (Also, a wasted opportunity to do actual solid psychological delving with Evil Ahsoka.)

From:

aberration

Yeah, I guess I just thought the Son's a jerk, the Daughter's cloying, and the Father's useless. And none of this matters much.

And lol I'd forgotten about how awful that costume is. And how her breasts are so weirdly far apart! But it did remind me of the costume given to the Twi'lek woman who was married to the clone trooper, which also has that two-strips-of-cloth over her breasts deal and which I have always remembered and been kind of low grade annoyed about since then. In general, even with Ahsoka, the women's outfits in Clone Wars can be weirdly revealing, and that's not the case in Rebels, so it was a little weird seeing that having watched them the other way around.

Edited Date: 2018-04-09 02:25 am (UTC)

From:

musesfool

Ugh, the Mortis arc! So useless! Except it does kind of come up again in Rebels so if you make that far there is some payoff. And the whole "using the Daughter's energy or whatever to revive Ahsoka" thing makes for a nice handwavy way to have Ahsoka survive some of her more dangerous adventures.

I do love where the show takes Ventress though and I'm excited to see what you think of that.

Anyway, who's going to write me that epistolary fic?

You should totally write that!

From:

skygiants

I'm excited for future Ventress adventures too! I was spoiled for her having Some Kind Of Arc because we looked up the tracker Jedi from the Hutt episode a few weeks back and found out that there was a whole arc planned where he teamed up with Ventress and They Fell In Love; very disappointed that never actually happened.

I would write it, but I am going to have to wait until I finish all of Clone Wars and then Rebels so it would take a very long time....

From:

bookblather

I think they did write a book about Ventress and what'shisface the Jedi!... and promptly killed her off at the end, so the book is dead to me. But the rest of it is good!

From:

skygiants

OH NOOOOOOOO

From:

bookblather

IT'S OK WE'RE STAR WARS FANS WE CAN IGNORE CANON WE DON'T LIKE.

From:

musesfool

Yeah, I had a hold on it at the library and then I was spoiled for that and I cancelled my hold. I refuse to accept that ending for her.

From:

sovay

in what seems like it's ... normally the Nightsister/Nightbrother mating ritual when they don't have a Sith lord they're trying to murder?

Are the Nightsisters/brothers Ventress' species or a sociocultural designation within it? Or something totally different?

Edited Date: 2018-04-08 06:21 pm (UTC)

From:

skygiants

It's very unclear! [to me, at this juncture]. It seems like all the women of the species are Nightsisters (who hang out in an all-female conclave in the woods with pointy hoods and bows and arrows) and all the men are Nightbrothers (who live in a small village and look stressed) but it's entirely possible that this is just a weird subculture and most members of this species live in some entirely different sociocultural arrangement.

From:

nextian

I love Ventress (and Maul) and all of the Nightsisters' wild bullshit, but even more than that I love Moffet and Anakin's professional bonding exercises and friending each other on LinkedIn. God what a great show. I don't think I ever watched the baby Chewbacca one, though, this obviously needs to happen ASAP!

From:

skygiants

It was kind of embarrassingly predictable how immediately we both SAT TO ATTENTION when the Nightsisters arc began, like, oh, hi, sure, you came for us where we live and apparently it's in a land of pointy women wielding nonsense laser bow and arrows.

Honestly Clone Wars is at its best when it's just a big networking event. I think baby Chewbacca and Ahsoka hanging out falls legitimately into that category! I don't know Ahsoka's future except for vague Tumblr spoilers but it's handy to have contacts in Rebellion-adjacent professions.

From:

sdelmonte

Don't forget the unexpected Liam Neeson cameo.

And the worse Star Wars name ever...Savage Oppress!

From:

skygiants

Oh man, I didn't think there was a chance it could be real Liam Neeson so I didn't even check! AMAZING.

What's funny about Savage Oppress as a name is that he was such a nice boy before the Nightwitches came to pick him up! If he'd stayed a sweetheart his name could have been the best running joke ever; tragic missed opportunity.

From:

bookblather

OH BOY YOU SAW THE MORTIS ARC *giggles happily*

I think Savage and Feral are brothers (and Maul's brothers too) but they could also be boyfriends, who knows about Zabraks.

The Mortis Arc is Filoni getting... mmmmmmystical as is his wont. It does kinda sorta have some relevance in rebels, but apart from that is generally treated as a big-lipped alligator moment, to everyone's relief. That really was Liam Neeson though.

Moffet Tarkin is the best idea.

CHEWBACCAAAAAAA also yes I would 1000% believe that Chewie and Ahsoka have been writing to each other the entire time. "dear Chewie, weirdness has occurred." "Dear Ahsoka, finally managed to get my idiot dog involved in the Rebel Alliance."

From:

skygiants

Yeah, we were very unclear on the ... actual family relations .... between all the Nightsisters and Nightbrothers -- 'sister' and 'brother' and 'mother' could be actual relationships or, like, standard internal forms of address for each other? We honestly don't know.

LOL YES EXACTLY. I do want to know when and for what Ahsoka learned Wookie -- is it a standard extracurricular in the Jedi temple? -- but boy, it paid off in spades, she made the best friend in the entire series.

From:

ceitfianna

You've seen some of my favorite and least favorite episodes now. The Mortis arc is so weird, I don't hate it but it feels like it dropped in from another show. As said above, it does pay off better in Rebels but it oddly reminded me almost of first season TNG or almost a Q type of episode. Great cosmic powers think you're interesting and don't work like anyone else.

I've always found the Nightsisters' stuff fascinating and a kind of mystical that works better. I would have liked to have known more about how it all works.

Moffet is perfect and those episodes are one of those points when the Clone Wars is very much going look, he was already heading in dark ways.

<33s Ahsoka being badass and rallying everyone and Chewie.

From:

skygiants

The thing that we did like about both the Mortis arc and the Nightsisters stuff is the chance to see different Force religions! Like, don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly happy to sit back and enjoy some Jedi Force BS, but it makes the world feel much more lived-in to also have some other people's force BS.

I also do very much enjoy heavy-handed foreshadowing about Anakin Is Just A Straight-Up Ethical Mess.

From:

childofrebellion

Oh yes, I adored how Clone Wars made the galaxy larger and I think it helped to kind of pave the way for Rogue One to make me go, now to write all the Star Wars' fic. Sadly I've yet to find any good Clone books because I love the way the clones are written and wanted more of them.

Since its a big, complicated world and while Clone Wars only poked at some issues, it did take on droid and clone sentience, greater world politics and look at all the pretty planets and species. Rebels feels like a nice build off of Clone Wars but its focus is smaller.

And using my Cassian account as I'm logged in and it has Star Wars' icons.

From:

lizbee

Since everyone else is hating on it, I would like to drive through and say I LOVE the Mortis arc, even the ridiculous character design for the Daughter, because I am a big old sucker for foreshadowing.

From:

skygiants

I am glad to know that somebody loves it! I really did enjoy it as a one-off episode, although by the time it got to three it was too much for me for what it was doing.

From:

lizbee

It definitely would have been better as a two-parter.

From:

ceitfianna

This is true of a number of Clone Wars' arcs, there's one with a droid strike team that goes on a little too long. There are points when the show needed an editor to say, we've got the idea, time to stop.