Clone Wars Debriefing: "Counterattack"

[lazypadawan]

Picking up where "The Citadel" left off a couple of weeks ago, the great galactic prison break becomes more complicated and more dangerous.

It turns out that warden Commander Sobeck has some tricks up his villainous sleeve, especially after a little chat with his boss Count Dooku. Sobeck manages to anticipate every move and thwarts our heroes' attempts at escape. To paraphrase one character said at the end of the episode, it's why they call it the Citadel!

The episode is pure action and excitement. If you love lightsabers, 'splosions, laser battles, and narrow escapes, "Counterattack" is for you. It kept me riveted all 22 minutes. The animation continues to look almost as cinematic as the live action films. If you pay attention, you see some very subtle but very cool details, like the way Anakin moves his lightsaber around before turning it off and hooking it onto his belt in one fluid move or Ahsoka retrieving explosives from the trooper's pack just before crawling around like a little spider or Even Piell's acrobatics as he rides behind Anakin on a STAP.

As per usual, Clone Wars doesn't fear to tread on the realities of war and violence. Sobeck activates a bunch of doors to close off a passage and its implied off-camera that a poor schlub trooper is cut in half. Ouch. Poor Echo dies, making Fives the only survivor of Domino squad. It's a blow to fans who have been following their story and its reminiscent of the kind of thing you'd see on "Band Of Brothers" or "The Pacific."

That doesn't mean though there is no room for humor. Artoo leads his "troops" in a rescue and it's amusing to see Artoo interact with droids that aren't Threepio. It's an interesting change to see battle droids, the red shirts of the prequel trilogy, commit acts of heroism that save the Jedi.

There's time for character development too. Tarkin acts like a condescending jerk, as you might have expected. He openly muses about his admiration for the effectiveness of the Citadel and thinks it's a pity it's a Separatist prison, which makes Ahsoka raise an eyebrow. Anakin then shocks her by agreeing with Tarkin. But before any more could be said about it, they're distracted by something else. Tarkin and the future Darth Vader also have an exchange about the effectiveness of Jedi as warriors because of the strictures of the Jedi Code, where they also find agreement. Wuh-oh. The guy who voices Tarkin is doing a terrific job.

James Arnold Taylor goes double-duty with playing Obi-Wan and Sobeck. At one point, the two characters actually speak to each other. I don't know if they were recorded at once or separately but either way, it shows you why he's practically a legend among voice actors.

The arc wraps up next week with a Jedi rescue...then it's on to the Season Finale on April Fool's Day. Noooo! Do not waaant!!

Comments

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

This is one case where my impressions of the episode seem to line up point-by-point with yours. I suppose it's just possible the whole thing was an exercise in "stretching out an escape that could have been summed up in a hurry," but something about the reversals of fortune was sort of interesting.

The implied "cut in half" fate did get my attention (I wondered just a bit about balancing "what they can get away with" with "when it's left to the imagination, is it more impressive?"), but so did the trooper shot in the head by Sobeck to get the others to talk. Then, though, Echo getting killed was sort of a statement that just as there's something to being able to kill off characters, there's something to killing off ones we've followed for a while in sudden and shocking fashion...

Anakin and Tarkin's second conversation seemed to work without over-emphasising how things are going to end up. While a part of me did sort of think "Artoo saves the day as usual," the battle droids with him were quite effective assistants. In any case, I'll be interested in seeing if things escalate next episode.

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

The clone getting shot in the head was pretty hardcore! They don't play around on this show.

[designersdilemma.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Am I the only one who thinks that Echo's death was given short shrift? The only way you'd know it was him is if you recognized Captain Rex's handprint on his armor. I was really hoping he'd be one of the troopers we'd see live to the end-- I was always wondering which side of the Order 66 fence he'd fall on (I'm almost convinced that Filoni & Co. are building up to some of the clones rebelling in the end, or at least hoping).

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

It was rather sudden.

[quidawn.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe death always is, in the end (like something the character Tara once said on BTVS, re: her own mother's death...."No....and yes. It's always sudden...") no matter however much it might seem to some extent sadly, tragically inevitable in certain circumstances, maybe "only a matter of time"....though perhaps never more so than in the midst of an hellacious far-and-wide-raging war zone in general and the positively murderous confines of the Citadel in particular. Meep!

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

He openly muses about his admiration for the effectiveness of the Citadel and thinks it's a pity it's a Separatist prison, which makes Ahsoka raise an eyebrow.

I really liked Ashoka's eyebrow raise.
I'd like an icon of that.

They killed the Clones in some violent ways.