Clone Wars Debriefing: "The Soft War"
Oct. 21st, 2012 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lazypadawanThe third installment of the Onderon arc finds the rebels making their boldest move yet: save the former/true king before he is executed by the current King Rash (ha!). Throughout the episode, various characters must decide whether to follow “purpose” or their feelings, putting them in great moral dilemmas.
Saw breaks into the palace prison to spring the captive King Dendup (almost impulsively). Dendup is reluctant to run off with Saw because he’s not satisfied yet the rebels aren’t just a bunch of chaotic troublemakers. They still haven’t quite won over everyone. Dendup finds the Republic corrupt. When Saw mentions the insurrection has the approval of the Jedi, Dendup warms up to the rebel. But the trap is sprung and now Saw gets to be executed too. D’oh! At first Lux and his fellow rebels want to run out and save Saw, but Steela puts aside her impulse to save her brother and directs everyone to focus their efforts on saving Dendup.
Then there’s General Tandin, who’s working for Rash but starts to have second thoughts over the course of the episode. The droid general is cruel, cold, and unyielding. The king is well, a fink. At first Tandin believes Saw is just a terrorist but comes to understand that he and his crew are not after all. It is his actions, choosing to do the right thing, that save the day.
And finally we have Ahsoka, who cannot get involved beyond the limited parameters set by the Council. (It’s as this point Anakin tells Ahsoka to choose “purpose over feelings,” causing fans who know the Star Wars saga to burst into laughter.) What she decides to do at a crucial moment demonstrates she is what’s best about Anakin and Obi-Wan without what’s worst about them.
King Rash turns out to be the personification of 0% approval rating. He manages to totally blow whatever trust his people had in him with his cruelty.
Once again, Clone Wars pulls no punches when necessary. Here we have our first torture scene of Season Five, a rebel coldly murdered in a crowd, and the GFFA’s version of a guillotine.
All told, a great episode. I look forward to seeing how things wrap up next Saturday.
Saw breaks into the palace prison to spring the captive King Dendup (almost impulsively). Dendup is reluctant to run off with Saw because he’s not satisfied yet the rebels aren’t just a bunch of chaotic troublemakers. They still haven’t quite won over everyone. Dendup finds the Republic corrupt. When Saw mentions the insurrection has the approval of the Jedi, Dendup warms up to the rebel. But the trap is sprung and now Saw gets to be executed too. D’oh! At first Lux and his fellow rebels want to run out and save Saw, but Steela puts aside her impulse to save her brother and directs everyone to focus their efforts on saving Dendup.
Then there’s General Tandin, who’s working for Rash but starts to have second thoughts over the course of the episode. The droid general is cruel, cold, and unyielding. The king is well, a fink. At first Tandin believes Saw is just a terrorist but comes to understand that he and his crew are not after all. It is his actions, choosing to do the right thing, that save the day.
And finally we have Ahsoka, who cannot get involved beyond the limited parameters set by the Council. (It’s as this point Anakin tells Ahsoka to choose “purpose over feelings,” causing fans who know the Star Wars saga to burst into laughter.) What she decides to do at a crucial moment demonstrates she is what’s best about Anakin and Obi-Wan without what’s worst about them.
King Rash turns out to be the personification of 0% approval rating. He manages to totally blow whatever trust his people had in him with his cruelty.
Once again, Clone Wars pulls no punches when necessary. Here we have our first torture scene of Season Five, a rebel coldly murdered in a crowd, and the GFFA’s version of a guillotine.
All told, a great episode. I look forward to seeing how things wrap up next Saturday.
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Date: 2012-10-22 04:33 pm (UTC)"The upright military figure who at last does what's right, not what his ursurping civilian supervisors tell him" seems a familiar enough figure, and yet General Tandin did feel sort of new to me in a Star Wars context... I'm sure, of course, that people more familiar with the Expanded Universe might be able to correct me.