SPOILER Angelman’s PT & Clone Wars viewing extravaganza

Here's my overview of season 2.


The Holocron Arc
CW 201 – Holocron Heist: Alright. Ahsoka guards Jedi archives. Cad Bane introduction. Clawdite infiltrator.
CW 202 – Cargo of Doom: Alright. Bane tries to aquire a kyber crystal containing names of all younglings
CW 203 – Children of the Force: Alright. Bane kidnaps younglings for Sidious

The Bounty Hunters Arc
CW 217 – Bounty Hunters: Alright. Anakin, Ahsoka, & Kenobi + 4 Bounty Hunters train villagers to fight off Separatists forces. (Homage to Seven Samurai)

The Zillo Beast Arc
CW 218 – The Zillo Beast: Alright. Battle of Malastare awakens a creature thought extinct; the Zillo beast. Interesting politics (and Lovecraftian homage).
CW 219 – The Zillo Beast Strikes Back: Alright. The Zillo Beast goes on a kaiju rampage on Coruscant. (Homage to Godzilla). Better than expected.

The Senate Spy Arc
CW 204 – Senate Spy: Awful. Separatist conspiracy involving Padmé’s childhood friend, Senator Clovis. Threesome conflict between Clovis, Anakin, & Padmé. (Argh! They sure try hard to keep the Padmé-Anakin relationship as terrible as possible. Note to self, don’t watch any Anakin+Padmé episodes again if you can help it)

The Geonosis Arc
CW 205 – Landing at Point Rain: Awful. Kenobi, Ahsoka, & Anakin fights Poggle the Lesser over his droid factories. Soooo much boring fighting.
CW 206 – Weapons Facotry: Meh. More fighting and some infiltration. Ahsoka is annoying. Still, this episode has some tension.
CW 207 – Legacy of Terror: Alright. Hunt for Poggle the Lesser. “Zombie-ant” Geonosians. Meet the Alien Queen! (Homage to Aliens).
CW 208 – Brain Invaders: Meh. Geonosis recaptured. Outbreak of “zombie-ant” condition among good guys. Despite an interesting premise, there’s a lot of fighting but little interesting stuff going on. No need to watch this arc again.

The Grievous Arc
CW 209 – Grievous Intrigue: Alright. Master Eeth Koth captured by Griveous. Off to Saleucami to save him. Interesting exploration of droid culture in this one, but the fighting feels like a repeat of every Kenobi vs. Grievous fight)
CW 210 – The Deserter: Essential. The Kenobi vs. Grievous battle rages on, quite uninterestingly, but the side plot concerning the deserter Clone Trooper is superb! This is one of my all-time favorite Clone Wars episodes.

The Lighsaber Lost Arc
CW 211 – Lightsaber Lost: Alright. Ahsoka’s lightsaber is stolen. Coruscant investigations with a convoluted (but interesting) clues-hunt. Special shout-out to the scene with a speaking Palpatine holo-poster in the background, reassuring the public that the rumors that the Jedi started the Clone Wars are false = SUPERB RotS foreshadowing!

The Duchess of Mandalore Arc
CW 212 – The Mandalore Plot: Essential. Mandalorian culture introduced. Political tensions (pacifists Mandos vs. Death Watch “hooligans”). Great writing, tension, and characters.
CW 213 – Voyage of Temptation: Alright. Separatist assassination attempt against Duchess Satine. Ally traitor. Satine & Kenobi are an item.
CW 214 – Duchess of Mandalore: Essential. Death Watch assassination plot against Satine. Separatist forces maneuvering to have the Republic send an army to the pacifist Mandalore, undermining their creed and sovereignty in the name of protecting them from the enemy.

The Boba Fett Arc
CW 220 – Death Trap: Alright. Boba infiltrates Clone cadets to kill Mace Windu. Boba is part of Aurra Sing’s gang.
CW 221 – R2 Come Home: Essential. Windu learns who Boba is. Anakin trapped under rubble; R2 to the rescue!
CW 222 – Lethal Trackdown: Essential. Everything goes wrong for Boba (poor lost child!). Lots of great drama and character development in this arc


This was part filler-season and part fantastic Star Wars, with a couple of cringy and borring pieces in the early arcs. (The 3rd season overview is coming up soon)

 

I think I've got a much lower appetite for fighting and action than most fans; it just bores me out of my skull. So that probably colored my judgement here quite a bit. I thought the Ahsoka & Barriss sub-arc was interesting enough, even though Barriss felt like a "red shirt" right from the start, heh heh.

Are those episodes something coming up later? I can't find an entry for "Mindless War" in Wookieepedia

I will when I post my 3rd season overview But I can't be bothered to go on at lengths about it, 'cause I don't want to dwell on that stuff, heh heh

 

Got it! For some reason I thought you were naming a specific arc or episode But yeah, we all like different things; I can't stand mindless war myself. It's just boring, (the same way as watching a Michael Bay movie - loads of spectacle and zero substance to make you care)

 

Why, thank you, ma'am! I was unsure if this would just come of as some bloke ranting, so it is nice to hear that people actually find it to be interesting content (I mean... 'cause it _IS_ just some bloke ranting! )

 

No, not yet. I'm wading knee-deep in real life stuff right now, and we haven't watched CW for a while. We've just started season 4 and have finished the Mon Calamari arc, so Umbara is only a few episodes away I hope we'll manage to get back to some CW next week.

 

Cool. I'm looking forward to it

 

Season 3



The Mandalore Corruption Arc
CW 305 – Corruption: Alright. Mandalore school children poisoned by toxic levels of deluding agents in their tea.
CW 306 – The Academy: Alright. Mandalorian students take it upon themselves to investigate.
Cool intrigue on Mandalore, but ultimately not particularly important.

The Assassin Arc
CW 307 - Assassin: Alright. Aurra Sing hired by Ziro the Hutt to kill Padmé.
Not bad, but not particularly interesting either.

The Domino Squad Arc Part 3
CW 302 – ARC Troopers: Essential. Domino Squad defends Kamino from Separatist attack
Every time we hit a Domino Squad episode, we know this is going to be great! These are some of the best episodes in CW thus far.

The Sphere of Influence Arc
CW 304 – Sphere of Influence: Alright. Pantora might change sides in the war. Chariman George Lucas Papanoida gets to be heroic and save his children.

The Ziro Arc
CW 308 – Evil Plans: Awful. C3P0 gets to bumble about and be tortured and stuff, all to get Cad Bane floorplans to the Senate Building.
CW 122 – Hostage Crisis: Awful. Anakin conveniently leaves his lightsaber with Padmé. Padmé and some other folk gets kidnapped by Bane in the Senate building, demanding Ziro be freed from prison. Anakin saves everyone and the bad guys get away.
CW 309 – Hunt for Ziro: Alright. Kenobi & Quinlan Vos pursue Ziro to Nal Hutta. Ziro & Sy Snootles used to be an item (and their relationship/romance scenes are MUCH better than such scenes between Anakin & Padmé; just sayin’). Pretty alright twist in the end and Sy is actually a great character.
This was basically them taking a cringe worthy episode from season 1 (122) and expanding it with two more episodes. By the Whills, why?

The Senate Arc
CW 310 – Heroes on Both Sides: Alright. Convoluted plot to deregulate the banks, allowing the Banking Clan to lend the Republic warmachine unlimited amounts of money for insane interests (i.e. thereby funding the Separatists).
CW 311 – Pursuit of Peace: Alright. On the eve of Senate voting for the banking bill, thugs strike the opposing side. Eventually, Padmé delivers a moving speech and the bill is opposed.
CW 215 – Senate Murders: Alright. As the anti-banking bill gang (Padmé & Co) celebrates, “Uncle” Onaconda Farr is poisoned to death. Murder investigation (Sherlock Homes/Hercul Poirot homage). For reasons I didn’t get, the banking bill is passed after all, ordering 5 million new clones for the Republic war effort.

The Nightsisters Arc
CW 312 – Nightsisters: Essential. Dooku ordered to kill Ventress. Ventress flees to Dathomir and allies with Mother Talzin to trick Dooku unto taking on a new assassin that they control.
CW 313 – Monster: Alright. Nightbrothers tests determines Savage Opress will be Dooku’s apprentice (and Manchurian Candidate to assassinate Dooku).
CW 314 – Witches of the Mist: Alright. Dooku sends Savage to kidnap King Katuunko of Toydaria. Anakin & Kenobi intervenes and Katuunko dies. Dooku is mad; Ventress & Savage vs. Dooku; Kenobi & Anakin joins the fun. Savage escapes back to Dathomir and is told he has a brother in the Outer Rim whom he must seek out for additional training…
As a whole, this arc opens up a whole new can of worms for Star Wars and is pretty important because of it. Essential stuff, I’d say.

The Moris Arc
CW 315 – Overlords: Meh (tries to be brainy but ends up stupid, annoying, and boring). Anakin, Ahsoka, & Kenobi sucked into a box in space, blacks-out, and wakes up on Mortis. The entities living here – Son, Daughter, & Father – wishes to confirm whether Anakin is the Chosen One. Anakin & Ahsoka tested by various visions. Kenobi & Ahsoka kidnapped by Son, and then rescued by Anakin. Anakin is declared “the Chosen One” and asked by (the dying) father to replace him to keep balance between Son & Daughter.
CW 316 – Altar of Mortis: Awful. Everybody fights everybody; dualism in the flesh, so symbolical. Father arrives to end the fight; Son attempts to kill Father. Ahsoka grabs Excalibur and gives it to Son, who kills her and strikes at Father only to hit Daughter… Son is distraught. Father loses hope but Daughter convinces him to heal Ahsoka using Daughter’s life-energy
CW 317 – Ghost of Mortis: Awful. Anakin the Chosen One must face who he really is. Father takes the blame for unleaching the Dark Side upon the galaxy. Qui-gon tells Anakin to discover himself. Anakin goes to Well of the Dark Side. Father kills himself with Excalibur, thereby killing Son. The dying Father declares that Anakin has brought balance to Mortis (by killing everyone)… Everyone wakes up back in space; it was all a dream... OR WAS IT!!! Dumdumduuuuuum (and dumb).
I hate this arc. It offends my intellect and taste in storytelling. I shall do my very best to never watch Mortis ever again. Can’t understand why people love this reductionist drivel (and here comes the red marks!)

The Citadel Arc
CW 318 – The Citadel: Alright. Jedi Master Even Piell is captured by Separatists. Anakin, Kenobi, & Cody + a stowaway Ahsoka rescues Piell. Turns out they also rescue Tarkin.
CW 319 - Counterattack: Meh. So much escaping and battling. Oh, and Tarkin is an unlikable a-hole.
CW 320 – Citadel Rescue: Meh (yaaaaaaaaaaawn). More escaping. Piell dies but gives Ahsoka one half of secret Nexus coordinates; Tarkin has the other half. Even more escaping. Tarkin attempts to bully Ahsoka into giving him the other half of the coordinates to turn them over to Palpatine. Anakin waxes poetic about honor; the End.
Largely boring and pointless. “Important” only for introducing Tarkin, although Tarkin is absolutely awful.

The Padawan Arc
CW 321 – Padawan Lost: Essential. Ahsoka & some younglings find themselves captured by Trandoshans and hunted for sport. Pretty dark stuff. Lots of character development and drama.
CW 322 – Wookiee Hunt: Alright. The hunting continues, but now a ship crash lands on the planet. Onboard is a captured Wookiee called Chewbacca. Chewie & and the Jedi kids join forces. Chewie builds a communicator and phones home. Everyone are recaptured and rescued by arriving Wookiees.
I really like this small arc. It adds tension and threat to the Clone Wars series.

 

I can't say why people like the Mortis arc, but it may be people are attracted to the "spiritual" flavor of it? I dunno. In any case, TESB & TLJ does spirituality MUCH better, IMHO.

To me, Tarkin was a wasted opportunity. They could've made an interesting study into loyalty and the kinds of people who get caught up in evil regimes by portraying Tarkin with some redeaming features and making him interesting. Instead, they just wrote Tarkin as a bad guy bully. Very uniteresting.

The Padawan arc was cool I like it when the heroes face actual threats.

I like politics in Star Wars a LOT, but, like all things, it has to be done well. The political stuff in season 2 were often not very interesting, for instance. The Senate Arc of season 3 was ok, but I don't particuarly feel Feloni & Co has a good grasp on politics or who to do political thrillers *shrug*

 

We're about halfway through season 4, which has seen a marked jump in quality! This bodes very well for my personal enjoyment of the series