Clone Wars Debriefing: "The Citadel"

[lazypadawan]

Go, Bulldogs!

Oh wait, not that Citadel. Instead of a Southern military-style academy, The Citadel in this show is a prison designed to hold Jedi. And the Seps are holding Evan Piell as an honored guest. It's up to Obi-Wan, Anakin, Rex and Co., and Ahsoka to bust him out.

It's simple, straightforward, and after the heavier and headier themes of the prior two story arcs, it may just be what the doctor ordered. As The Gleemo Blog put it in its review, it's a Season One adventure with Season Three animation. All of the classic Clone Wars elements are there: clones, battle droids, lightsabers, Michael Bay fireballs, derring do, torture, banter, narrow escapes, and movie references.

There's an interesting dynamic between Anakin and Ahsoka at the beginning of the episode. Anakin, due to what we know is his attachment issues and perhaps an effect of his experiences on Mortis, bans Ahsoka from the mission because it's too dangerous. Ahsoka sulks, then talks to Plo Koon, who reminds her it's Anakin's call but is clearly disturbed by the situation.

The plan to get into the prison is to get some battle droids who are now Artoo's "troops" (they're even painted with blue markings) to pilot a ship supposedly full of supplies. To hide themselves from life form scanners, Anakin comes up with the idea of freezing everyone in carbonite. Ah, so that's how he knows you can carbon freeze someone. Ugnaughts run the machines, which of course is a reference to TESB but now makes you wonder if carbon freezing is some kind of Ugnaught specialty.

The plan works brilliantly and we find out, once Artoo has everyone thawed, that Ahsoka has defied Anakin. He gets annoyed and Obi-Wan laughs at him. Ahsoka even throws it back in his face, in a nice way. Then, the rescue mission gets going. It's all pure excitement.

The commando droids turn out to be forces to contend with. They are tough, effective, nasty fighters. The action sequences, such as one where the heroes scale a cliff face earlier, and a Jedi/clones vs. commando droid fight in a corridor, are just as good as anything you'll see for $10 at the theater these days and nothing like what you find on television at all.

Evan Piell is rescued, and he sounds a bit Russian. He asks for some vodka and tells his rescuers they have to get the captain of Piell's captured ship from his cell. The captain has some valuable information. During the fight sequence that ensues, a big magnet is turned on and everything metallic gets sucked to the ceiling. This includes Anakin's robo claw, and unfortunately he is stuck right along with it. Then he gets a round of electroshock therapy.

Once they bust out the captain, it turns out to be none other than "Captain" Tarkin. No time is wasted before Tarkin and Anakin rub each other the wrong way. The whole thing ends on a cliffhanger...to be continued in two weeks. Bah!

The prison warden sounds like it's Christopher Walken, but it's really James Arnold Taylor. I hope he brought some Ricola for doing double-duty!


The animation is awesome. There are lots of little things to notice during the fight scenes, some of which happen so fast you have to really pay attention to catch them. Ahsoka for instance has some very fancy lightsaber moves.

And there were many other pitch-perfect moments, like Rex shooting out the camera or the warden having someone literally shoot the messenger.

My favorite pure adventure/action episode since "Landing At Point Rain."

Comments

[darth-pipes.livejournal.com]

I agree, this episode was a blast. Nothing beats a Star Wars jailbreak.

I was really impressed with the animation of the prison planet, which was like a world destroying itself. Commander Artoo was cool. Piell is another good addition to The Clone Wars although Tarkin is definitely the main attraction.

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

It seems that this season of Clone Wars has been featuring a "change of pace" every so often, and I can see this one as appealing to certain people... although I also wonder if those who will complain will latch on to "this diminishes the impact of the carbon freeze scene in TESB!" (I suppose my own, more amused thought was imagining Vader thinking something like "aah, you big wimps, I went through it!" Then, I recalled earlier speculation he could have remembered Padme's own "love pledge"...)

In any case, though, the revelation of Ahsoka sneaking along (after the earlier "did she stow away? Will she be found?" tension) seemed particularly well-done to me. As for the little details of the animation, I was noticing how Obi-Wan and Anakin's hair was actually moving a bit climbing the cliff...

[quidawn.livejournal.com]

*tee hee* Aaaaaahhhhhh, yes, and....well, for one thing, I guess 'tis true that I'm still enjoying a bit o' the giggles even just to think back on Anakin's positively cah-*lassic* reaction like in that very split second when he's just emerged from that little round of carbon-freezing, and he's only just in the midst of working out all the kinks and I guess massaging the feeling back into his limbs, his fingers and some such, but I swear to goodness that very instant when he looks over and so casually remarks on Ahsoka's presence, of all things - just, "Hey, Snips," like it was the most perfectly straightforward and expected thing in all the world even though nothing could, of course, ever be further from the truth....so maybe 'twas something of a by-rote, easy and instinctual response as much as anything, like he's naturally become so well and long-accustomed to having her close by that he doesn't think twice about it....
....at least, not until I'm guessing the very millisecond instant he actually *said* it, right, and it's like for all the even momentary disorientation which might be typically associated with even a relatively short carbon-freeze, well, all's the same it seems like the gears must've been clickin' over in his head as soon as he remarked on it and it must have been like the equivalent of, Hey, *wait* a minute-!....and I swear to goodness as I was absolutely in *stitches* all throughout here, too, like even just for the sake of what to me is probably the most spectacular and singularly, wordlessly memorable double-take reaction imaginable on Anakin's part, right....how he just sort of - stops for a sec, really seems to think back on what he just said and so what it actually means, and even though maybe he wasn't necessarily saying much about it at first, oh, but the sheer look on his face spoke just vivid *volumes* in and of itself, I daresay....
....indeed, yeah, I guess on some level one could maybe interpret it as like the - "Oh no she *didn't*!" kind of on-the-spot reaction, how he doesn't at all explode in frustration or launch right into lecturing her or anything of the sort - because, of course, where they are right then, well, what would be the *point* I suppose, true enough - because what's done was done and she was there with 'em now and there was just nothin' else for it evidently....but still, though, it absolutely was the particulars of his reaction here - that slow-dawning, *wait*-a-second! realization, followed immediately by the mother of all double and quite possibly even triple-takes, and he doesn't really have to say much of anything about it....but hoo boy, is he ever so memorably *looking* it, and indeed, yeah - even apart from however perturbed, more than mildly vexed he obviously was to have her suddenly show up as part of the team when he expressly hadn't wanted any such thing....
....and awwwwww, yeah, so fiercely protective was he of her then, too, how even apart from all the life-and-death situations they'd obviosly been in and hence fought through shoulder to shoulder on just any number of occasions thus far, and so there's no doubt as she was plenty more than capable of handling herself through most anything at all....*still*, though, all the same he remained as ever so fiercely, stalwartly protective and so loyally devoted, and wanting more than anything to not have someone he so cared about put in such eggregious and *gravely* extreme danger as this situation obviously presented, too - of course I only love and admire and appreciate 'im for it all the more that really now more than ever before, in a way, he's absolutely seekin' to protect her, safeguard her from (especially beyond-the-pale perilous) harm wherever and however possible....
But indeed, yeah, even so (and even though I'd say as Anakin did have rather legitimate grounds for vexation there) - I still couldn't help but derive some serious enjoyment from his singularly memorable reaction when it happened....how he just *looked* his annoyance and bemusement, much as anything....no doubt o' course that *he* wasn't much laughing over it, but hey, I guess we at least were....and in an episode like this, surely we'll take any chuckle-worthy or lighthearted reprieve-type moments we can e'er get....true enough. :)

[quidawn.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also, that's a most excellent point too about what happened with Anakin's mechanical hand once that ceiling magnet was so *very* sneakily switched on (and can I just say for the record how much of a total *dastard* that prison warden is, and if you ask me he's in serious need of a date with the point end of a lightsaber blade) and then nigh-well everything got unceremoniously yanked all the way up there....*including* Anakin himself by way of his mechanical hand, which of course was a sight which had me in an *eeek*ing frenzy just all over the place and I was plainly aghast from start to finish there, I must say, really was freakin' out in earnest when the warden then decided to top it off with a nasty little bout of electrocution into the bargain which I suppose was only all the more horrific unto itself because, well, right then and there Anakin himself really wasn't in any great position to optimally *deal* with it, is the thing....

....heck, it's never at all like he could do anything to evade it or steel himself against it in the slightest, he was in probably the most precarious and vulnerable of all positions right about then and I don't doubt as that bastard of a prison warden knew it, and was clearly and perversely revelling in it all the while (and did I mention just how much *grrrrrr*, incidentally?! :) ) which in turn, too, only made it ever harder and really just all the more distressing to see it being done to *him*, then, plainly put....seems the kind o' thing I'll just never be getting accustomed to and so as a result I'll just always be left *eeek*ing every which way and even fair covering my eyes and openly cringing into the bargain. :) But sitll, though, yeah, I guess somehow apart from any other considerations (!!!) there, it actually did strike me as a neato little bit of continuity there that once the magnet turned on, not only the weapons went up but then he was hauled into the air by his arm, at that....

It just seemed to me yet more most excellent attention to detail then, that they would, of course, full well be thinking of it and really make an especial point to touch on it just like they did back with "Zillo Beast", right, with the detonation of the proton bomb which sent that massive electronics-frying shockwave every which way and so not only did all the droids and even all the Republic and clone hardware and machines get momentarily frazzled and fried, understandable enough, ut then we even had that little glimpse of how it affected *him*, at that - even most briefly fritzed out his mechanical arm and had it sputtering and sparking a bit - which, of course, just like with what happened with the ceiling magnet and how he ended up pinned to the ceiling, hand-first, because of it - well, yeah, I guess it's naturally expected enough under the circumstances, makes perfect sense really....

And it's this exquisite attention to detail and how they're touching upon and incorporating even these marvellous little subtleties and yet treating them like they're just perfectly ordinary, and straightforward, and it's after all just what's liable to *happen* when you have giant electromagnets and electronics-frying proton bombs all over the place, let's say, and yet that they would make such a point of incorporating the "little things" like this, how maybe most others wouldn't necessarily think of it but, of course, *they* do....and surely we can but only love and appreciate them even more for it, too, because to my way of thinking anyway it only further proves the awesome and exacting attention to detail they take with the show in general - but also, just how much care they take with even the seemingly "little"st of things in particular. :D