"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 13 - Jedi Crash - July 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 13 - Jedi Crash

"Greed and fear of loss are the roots that lead to the tree of evil."

 

Umm, you're talking about Anakin's descent to the Dark Side, right? No. Not yet? OK.

Anakin and Ahsoka are sent to help out Jedi General Aayla Secura in her battle with Separatist troops.

Those droids can just fly through the air and land on the Republic ships? Well, that's concerning. Droid in charge tells a battle droid to destroy the entire ship, but when the battle droid protests that many of their own droids are still on it, supervisor droid doesn't care. Because droids are expendable. Like clones...

Anakin saves the group by Force pushing them to safety and then closing the blast door (that was really cool), but then he gets the brunt of an explosion that severely injures him. Ahsoka and Secura go back in to retrieve him.

Their escape ship tries to dock with the bigger ship, but somehow, the hyperdrive is engaged and can't be disengaged, so rather than rip the bigger ship apart, the escape ship separates from the bigger ship before it's forced into hyperspace. Hmmm, ram one ship into another by going into hyperspace. I feel like that gets used in a later film by a Vice Admiral...

Their hyperdrive route is supposed to take them directly into a star, but they manage to disable it in time to avoid it and crash land on a planet instead. So many planets in the Outer Rim.

Those giant four-legged eagle things are scary. Awww, it kills two of the clone troopers. Secura, Ahsoka, a badly-injured Anakin and two troopers are left alive. They encounter the inhabitants of the planet, who are pacificists and came to this planet to get away from the Republic / Separatist conflict. The leader wants nothing to do with them, but when Ahsoka begs for their help for Anakin, the leader can't say no and sends his son, Wag Too, the healer, to help Anakin.

Cute that Wag Too and his people travel by rolling like the droideka.

As Rex is guarding hurt Anakin, the eagle-things attack. They manage to kill a few of them before Ahsoka and the gang arrive. Wag Too doesn't want to kill the creature and instead ties up its feet to neutralize it.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 12 - The Gungan General - July 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 12 - The Gungan General

"Fail with honor rather than succeed by fraud."

 

Switching the spiked drinks doesn't seem to have helped Obi-Wan and Anakin because they find themselves trapped in a cell with Dooku, all three tied together.

Pirates being who they are, some of Hondo's underlings plan to double-cross him by intercepting the Republic ship coming with the spice as payment. They manage to get the Republic ship to crash, but while the senator dies, Representative Jar Jar and the clone troopers survive.

When I first saw Hondo's ship and the smaller transport ships, they all looked like just the saucer section of the Enterprise-D. Weird.

Obi-Wan mind influences their guard to unlock their cell and then leave. Works on the weak-minded.

When the traitors come to get the spice, they also attack Jar Jar and the troopers. He says they should hide in the crater, and if they watch the beasties, they'll know when it's about to blow, so they know when to get out. Smart!

Hey, that's not Ahmed Best. Sometimes it sounds like him, but other times, definitely not.

How are they supposed to catch up to the traitors? By riding the beasties, of course. I'd figured that out, but I find it a little hard to believe that the beasties are faster than the speeders.

Dooku escapes. Again. Hondo is dumb-founded that Obi-Wan and the Republic are just going to leave, with no repercussions to him and his crew, despite what they did to and were going to do to Obi-Wan and Anakin. But Obi-Wan warns that Dooku is not as forgiving, and he knows what planet Hondo and his crew are on. Time to pack up and find a new planet, boys.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 11 - Dooku Captured - July 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 11 - Dooku Captured

"The winding path to peace is always a worthy one, regardless of how many turns it takes."

 

OK, that "fortune cookie saying" was really cheesy.

Anakin went looking for Dooku, but then he went radio-silent, so Obi-Wan went looking for him. The Separatist ship is a trap for Anakin to be captured - Obi-Wan told him not to bring his lightsabre. That should be a clue, right? A Jedi should always have their lightsabre with them?

Oh, that chute escape looks like a fun ride. Dooku escapes. I feel like Dooku and Ventress and Grievous are always escaping.

But now they're all crashed on a planet.

Obi-Wan and Anakin are wandering around inside caves looking for Dooku, but he traps them inside instead.

Hondo Ohnaka! Wow! Fans of this show must have lost their minds when they saw him "in real life" at Smugglers Run in Black Spire Outpost. Nice that they got Jim Cummings to voice him on the ride too.

He's head of a pirate group here. Much more menacing here than on the ride, obviously.

Obi-Wan and Anakin are attacked by some creature (gundark) in the cave, and they lament that they don't have lightsabres to defend themselves. Dudes, you're Jedi. You have abilities. Force push it to keep it away from you or into a wall. Throw rocks at it or something. And then they do in fact throw giant rocks at it. See? That's what Jedi do, throw rocks.

Hondo agrees to take Dooku to the nearest inhabited planet, which happens to be where Hondo's base is. And Hondo knows who Dooku is, and his henchman are enough to outnumber and contain Dooku, while Hondo takes his lightsabre and decides who and how much to ransom him for.

Ahsoka and her team rescue Obi-Wan and Anakin but they brush it off. Dudes, just say thank you.

Hondo first offers Dooku to the Republic because he figures they won't just send gunships to attack and then take Dooku back, like he expects the Separatists would. Obi-Wan and Anakin are tasked with going to Hondo (unarmed - without lightsabres again?) and making sure that he does indeed have Dooku before the Republic agrees to pay the ransom. Wait, the Republic agrees to pay the ransom in spice? Isn't spice basically a drug? That would be like paying ransom in cocaine or meth. I get that's what Hondo wants but that just seems weird for the Republic to agree to.

It all goes well until Hondo *insists* on a celebration reception. Of course, their drinks are spiked, but they manage to switch their spiked drinks with others.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 10 - Lair of Grievous - June 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 10 - Lair of Grievous

"Most powerful is he who controls his own power."

Jedi Kit Fisto is tracking Gunray.  Hmm, that name sounds vaguely familiar.  But he falls into Dooku's trap.

Grievous was cut in half during a battle, but he returns to his lair, where he has a droid who can fix him.  The repair droid sure has an attitude and seems to be the only thing that can talk that way to Grievous.

There's a mechanical creature that fights Kit Fisto, a former padawan of his and a trooper, and the trooper dies, which sends the former-padawan into a rage.

Dooku had let the Jedi into Grievous' lair as a test to Grievous, and when Grievous figures that out, he is not happy.  The Separatists all turn on each other at some point or another, it seems.

Kit Fisto's former padawan takes on Grievous, trying to avenge the troopers death, but he falls to Grievous instead.  Fisto manages to escape though.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 9 - Cloak of Darkness - June 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 9 - Cloak of Darkness

"Ignore your instincts at your peril."

These last few pre-episode declarations have been super fortune-cookie not-fortunes.  And then the husband and I got sidetracked and started discussing Jedi fortune cookies.  The factory would be on Coruscant, and those poor younglings would be made to do the labor of making the cookies and sticking the fortunes in there.

Master Luminara Unduli and Ahsoka are tasked with taking Nute Gunray to Coruscant for trial.  Oh, *that's* Luminara, who I'd only heard about because her lightsabre was being sold at Dok Ondar's on Batuu.  Turns out she was voiced by Olivia D'Abo.  Interesting.

Darth Sidious tells Dooku that Gunray needs to be rescued or at least silenced so that he doesn't give up all the information about them and their plans.  Dooku sends Ventress and tells her that this is a test for her, given that she has not performed well previously and Sidious is not pleased with her.

Luminara is interrogating Gunray, and Ahsoka jumps in and threatens to kill him if he doesn't talk.  Ummm, that's not how the Jedi are supposed to work, Ahsoka, even if you were only threatening and weren't meaning to hurt him.  And why is Ahsoka with Luminara when she's Anakin's padawan?  They can just pass them around?

Ventress has freed Gunray and they're trying to escape, but they run into Luminara and Ahsoka.  The two of them fighting Ventress was pretty cool.

Turns out that one of the troopers is actually working for Dooku to get Gunray.  And hey, he's voiced by James Marsters, Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", who by name I always confuse with James Marsden, Cyclops from X-Men.  Cocky traitor trooper gets taken care of by Ventress, who escapes with Gunray.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 8 - Bombad Jedi - June 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 8 - Bombad Jedi

"Heroes are made by the times."

OK, I don't know why this particular bit of info has stuck in my head, and I'm not sure I should publicly admit to it, but as soon as I saw the episode title, I knew that "bombad" was a Gungan word because I remember Boss Nass, the head of the Gungans, using it.  So I was thinking we might see more Gungans, but it turns out, the title is in reference to the one Gungan already in the picture.

Padme is on some kind of diplomatic mission, with apprentice Jar Jar and 3PO accompanying her.  She's going to the Rodians to get them to stay loyal to the Republic.

Hello, Ahmed Best!

Unfortunately, Padme's old family friend has turned on her to save his own people, and he's already made a deal with the Separatists to turn over Padme to Nute Gunray.  It's a trap.

OK, so why is there a Jedi robe in Padme's ship?  Presumably that's Anakin's?  Does he have more than one robe?  Where do they get it from?  Is there a special Jedi clothing and accessory store for Jedi like there are for Boy Scouts?  Somehow, Jar Jar ends up wearing the robe, and the Separatists think that there's a Jedi lurking about.

Jar Jar makes friends with some kind of giant worm that looked like the thing that was menacing the clone troopers from the last episode and also reminded me of the sand worms from the 1990s "Dune" movie.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 7 - Duel of the Droids - June 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 7 - "Duel of the Droids"

"You hold onto friends by keeping your heart a little softer than your head."

The Jedi know that the Separatists have a secret listening post where they are able to intercept Republic information and are intent on finding and stopping it.  Turns out, that's exactly where the salvage ship dude is going to meet Grievous.

Betrayal - R3 works for Grievous!

Cool fight between Ahsoka and Grievous.

That fight between R2 and R3!!!!  It was like rock-em-sock-em robots.  Good thing R3 wasn't fighting BB8, cause BB8 has a lighter.  R2 prevails in the end.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 6 - Downfall of a Droid - June 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 6 - Downfall of a Droid

"Trust in your friends, and they'll have reason to trust in you."

Obi-Wan tells Anakin to retreat from Grievous' impending arrival, but Anakin won't abandon the people.  So far, I haven't been too happy with a lot of things that Obi-Wan has said and done.  He's pretty quick to just abandon people that they're supposed to be protecting.  Ahsoka agrees with Obi-Wan but she's stuck with Anakin.

Anakin has plans for a sneak attack on the droid forces - they've landed the ground troops on the asteroids that the battle droids think serve as protection against being attacked by ships.  Great plan, Anakin!  But Grievous escapes ... again.

But there's one casualty - Anakin's ship is attacked, and when he wakes up from his rescue, he discovers that R2 is missing.  He finds his damaged ship, but no R2.  Ahsoka convinces Anakin to accept a "temporary" replacement in the form of an R3 droid, nicknamed "stubby" and "goldie", but this droid is pretty incompetent.  Anakin goes to a salvage ship in search of R2 but comes up empty.  He doesn't know, though, that the salvage ship owner has hidden R2 away and has already made a deal to trade him to Grievous.  Anakin hadn't wiped R2's memory banks so R2 has a bunch of information about the Republic that Grievous could use against them.

As Anakin and Ahsoka were making their way through the salvage ship, they came across some assassin droids that R3 accidentally activated.  They had Ahsoka for a minute, but Anakin was able to save her with a Force push.  See, Force push!  Great ability, right?  Would be handy to use more often.

R2 knocks off his restraining bolt by banging it against a wall corner.  Hmmm, that seems pretty easy, and I guess because it's metal, you don't have the same risk of tearing skin like you'd do with human flesh?  Still seemed too easy, though.

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 5 - Rookies - June 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 5 - Rookies

"The best confidence builder is experience."

Because of the war between the Republic and the Separatists, the clones are being forced into joining the battle before they have completed their training.  Great, so not only are they created for the purpose of being cannon fodder anyway, but now, they're being tossed in there without being properly trained.  And they don't even have life experience to fall back on to know how to handle situations.  This is getting worse and worse.  No one told me that I'd be so triggered by clones!

Hmm, different kind of battle droids and not super battle droids.  Commander droids, they say?  Grievous' droids infiltrate the station where the clones are bored and complacent.  Wait, how did they cut the door open like that?  What weapon do they have?  Cause that looks like what a lightsabre would do but they don’t have a lightsabre.

This is just the first step for Grievous.  He wants to take over this station because then he'll be able to attack Kamino so that no more clones can be made, and the Republic won’t have new troops to join the fight.

Captain Rex and Commander Cody (That means Rex is in charge, right?) happen to have an inspection scheduled for the station.  That whole interaction with the droids pretending to be clones sure sounded like an homage to the scene in Star Wars where Han pretends to be a stormtrooper and telling the officers that they're all fine, here, now, thank you, how are you <wince>.  The masquerading droid ends the conversation with "roger roger".  Umm, clones shouldn't be saying that, so that should have been a bigger clue to Rex and Cody that something is off, but they probably haven't had conversations with Separatist droids or heard them talking to each other, so they wouldn't know that.

4 clones managed to survive the attack and escape to the outside.  They see Rex and Cody arriving and want to try to warn them.  The clones trick the droids into opening the door by pretending to be a droid in a clone trooper outfit.  When the droid wants them to remove their helmet so the droid can see their faceplate, the clone trooper ducks and then we see a droid head, and then we see that one of the other clone troopers is pretty much holding the head on a stick in front of the camera.  One of the other clone troopers puts his face in his hands and laments that this is never going to work.  Ahh, but they underestimate how dumb a droid, especially a battle droid, can be.  We laughed so much at this scene that I had to pause it, rewind it, and watch it again!  Brilliant idea!

When the one clone stayed behind to try to fix the detonator to destroy the base, I knew he was a goner.  He sacrificed himself to the very end to fulfill his mission, for the good of others.  This show is killing me with how they're portraying the clone troopers.  I might not know them individually, but I'm sure feeling each of their deaths.

 

"Star Wars: The Clone Wars" (television show) - season 1, episode 4 - Destroy Malevolence - June 2023 review

"Star Wars:  The Clone Wars" (television show)

season 1, episode 4 - Destroy Malevolence

“A plan is only as good as those who see it through.”  I feel like they’re channeling Hannibal from “The A-Team”.

Oh, and this episode starts right after the end of the last episode, so the ship is still there, albeit in flames.

So his name is Plo Kloon, but they call him Master Plo, not Master Kloon.  But they refer to others as Master Windu and Master Skywalker.  Does that mean that “Plo” is his family name.  (Shout out to Din Djarin.)

Someone mentions Master Luminara.  I think their lightsabre was one of the ones released at Dok Ondar’s in Black Spire Outpost.

The Malevolence is ginormous and can withstand the barrage of firepower from *three* star destroyers?  Wow.

Padme & 3PO get lured to the area on some kind of fake diplomatic mission and instead get tractor beamed into the Malevolence

In a random segment inside the Malevolence, I laughed when I heard the repeated “mind the gap” announcement.  Ah, London Underground humour!

Anakin and Obi-Wan go to rescue Padme and 3PO, but Grievous escapes.  Anakin rigs the Malevolence’s hyperdrive to blow, destroying the ship.