02 - Rising Malevolence
"Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction."
03 - Shadow of Malevolence
"Easy is the path to wisdom for those not blinded by themselves"
04 - Destroy Malevolence
"A plan is only as good as those who see it through."
I am reviewing these three episodes all together mainly because I am behind and this is an easy way to get caught up on my reviews :) and these three episodes form a really cool 3-part story arc... so they go together anyways...
Thus far, each episode after the next has gotten better. Mainly because they have established themselves in my head, meaning I now know what to expect... so nothing really strikes me as jarring or unexpected. I am used to the character designs, the voice actors, the music. and the way these stories are going to be told... so now its all about enjoying the ride.
A brief synopsis of the story and thoughts on these three episodes...
02 - General Grievous' new battleship shows up, called the Malevolence, and it hold his "mystery weapon" which turns out to be an Ion Cannon of great size.. the ship (which is HUGE) blasts its Ion Cannon disabling all enemy ships, then rips them to pieces with its multitude of weapons.. the episode starts with Jedi Master Plo Koon's ship suffering this fate. Master Plo and a a few clones are stranded in an escape pod. Anakin and Asohka head off to rescue them. This episode was pretty cool... I enjoyed seeing Plo Koon in action, and there is more "clones are people too" morality.. which I find interesting. At one point the clones say "No one is coming to rescue us, we're just clones. we're meant to be expendable." A couple darker moments.. dead clones floating in space, others being vented into space.. the show at these moments really skirts its role as a "kid's show." There several references to the Star Wars movies.. the Ion Cannon fires very similarly to the Death Star, and the clones directly mimic Han and Chewie while repairing the escape pod. "No, this one goes there, that one goes there..." These references continue exponentially throughout the next two episodes.
03- This episode focuses on Anakin leading an assault on the Malevolence to shut it down. He leads a battalion of clones called Shadow Squadron, and they use the prototype Y-Wing Bombers. These are brand new Y-wings, not the old used up ones you see in the movies. :) They have to fly through a nebula to catch up with their target.. but find it to be a nest for giant Neebray Mantas, huge space leviathans.... they dodge them and then arrive at their destination. The Malevolence is after a Med Station currently housing 60,000 wounded clones.. and pretty brutal target... the med station is run by a Kaminoan (the race that created the clones, makes sense) which is cool. Anakin leads his squadron, and ends up disabling the Ion Cannon. Just in time for Obi-Wan and his fleet to arrive. Some cool space battles in this one... the mantas were cool, as were the Y-Wings... and the introduction of the 4-legged Power Droid.. the Plunk Droid!
Tons of references and quotes from original trilogy.. "I have a bad feeling about this", "Cut the chatter...".. "From a certain point of view..." I don't mind the references... but they are getting close to the point of having too many references.. More darker moments.. a clone, named Matchstick who you are introduced to, crashes and dies... several ships full of escaping clones are taken out by Greivous' ship...
04 - This is the first episode featuring Padme and C-3PO. They are captured and held hostage by General Grievous so the Republic ships have to cease fire on attacking the Malevolence until she can be rescued. Obi-Wan and Anankin head off to save her. They eventually meet up, and are able to disable the Malevolence's hyperdrive, or more accurately, rig it to crash into a moon. This was a good episode... the most satisfying so far. There was a high speed train battle, we get to see the romance of Anakin and Padme some (an important part of the fall of Anakin Skywalker), and General Grievous finally gets off the bridge of a ship and starts swinging some lightsabers! I think the reason I liked this one so much was the fact that Anakin and Obi-Wan were together again... and C-3PO and R2-D2 were together again.. the gang was all there! It definitely had a much more George Lucas-y and Star Wars-y vibe than the previous episodes. Excited to see where the series goes from here...
"Everything I know I learned from you." - Anakin
"Oh, if only that were true." - Obi-Wan Kenobi
"Ever since I've known you you've been playing with droids." - Padme
"I used to put them together. Now I only take them apart." - Anakin
No comments:
Post a Comment