lazypadawan | Clone Wars Debriefing: "Rookies"

Although it was hard to top last week's episode, I thoroughly enjoyed this one...

Of all of the CW episodes on t.v. thus far, this one is hardcore. Clones get eaten by giant land eels, plugged full of holes, and blown to bits.

It also has a dirty joke: "a big gun doesn't make you a big man." Either that or I've been on LiveJournal too long!

Anyway, "Rookies" focuses on a small group of mostly noob clones stuck at a dull, out-of-the-way outpost. They listen to what sounds like Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's "The Message," arm wrestle, and tease each other. Then a meteor shower turns out to be--shocka!--a battle droid invasion. Only these battle droids (a new type introduced for the show I guess) can really kick butt and they're smart. The clone sergeant is killed and soon the clankers have taken over the joint. Why would the Seps want the outpost? It's on the way to Kamino, where General Grievous plans to attack next.

Not to worry! Captain Rex and Commander Cody are on their way! Once they arrive, the few remaining rookies go all out to reclaim the post at any cost. The survivors are given medals and Anakin tells them he'd love to have these guys fight beside him any time. They are then made part of the 501st and assigned immediately to attend a convention.

Well, what's there to lose with clonetrooper action? It's kind of like a Karen Traviss story without all of the Mandalorian culture stuff and the grudge against the Jedi. Come to think of it, it's also a little like Starship Troopers, only with battle droids instead of bugs, and without the gratuitous nudity or the jokey fascism. It was fun and exciting and I enjoyed all 22 minutes of it. There are references to the SW films as always but I give bonus points for a reference to the battle on Jabiim, covered in the Republic comics.

Anakin and Obi-Wan show up for some drive-by snark aboard the Resolute. My favorite is this little exchange:

OBI-WAN: It appears your captain (Rex) follows orders as well as you do.
ANAKIN: Hm. Perhaps Cody is boring Rex with standard procedures and protocol.

The only thing that made me LOL harder was the big gun/big man comment. I also liked how Rex pretended to be a battle droid pretending to be a clonetrooper.

My only quibble was seeing Grievous back in charge after his cut and run act last week. Uh, what happened between abandoning the Malevolence and going on another mission?

No big deal though. CW is the only show this season with consistently good episodes each week.

No show on Halloween! Waaaah! But in two weeks, Artoo is lost! NOOOOOOOO! Not Artoo! And did Obi-Wan say, "R2 units are a dime a dozen?" NO, HE DID NOT SAY THAT!! Obi-Wan, how could you????? Anakin says Artoo has his memory intact, meaning he has all of these tactical plans and stuff that cannot fall into enemy hands. Fifty bucks says Artoo has no such information and this was merely a ploy for Anakin to go rescue his little buddy.