Clone Wars season 2

[Vympel]

While I wasn't too impressed with the Zillo Beast's design, the episode looked awesome. The parts in the sinkhole just looked wonderful. The Stun Tanks were pretty cool too.

[VT-16]

Having seen the follow-up episode, I can definitely say there's some collatoral damage on Coruscant. Spoiler

Loved that the whole episode is focused mainly on Palpatine vs the Zillo Beast. Palpatine goads everyone around him into doing what he wants in the interest of ending the war, gets the doctor to do painful tests on the beast, orders it killed, the Zillo doesn't want that and goes after him, tearing through Coruscant to get to the Senate.

Predictably, the beast is killed at the end (there's a lot of gunship action in this one) and the good Chancellor ends it all with giving the doctor a new task, cloning the Zillo... Shades of the Chrysalis beast program there?

[Srelex]

As a question for those who've seen the episodes, how big and durable is the monster? Does it really rival Coruscant skyscrapers?

[VT-16]

Nah, it's more King Kong-size. At one point, the beast climbes up a residential skyscraper on its way to the Senate. It crawls around on the Executive Building alot, but doesn't come close to encompassing it.

[Rama]

The casing on that bomb seemed wastefully large for the amount of boom it was giving off (although the explosion was not the intended damaging component), plus Anakin's "shock and awed" expression of disbelief at the scale of detonation seemed out of place when you realize that even a glancing strafing run from those ARC-170's would have flattened and slagged the Napole- I mean Droid army anyway just for kicks alone without disabling friendly vehicles or any prosthetic limbs that a nearby General may need in the immediate future (which I thought was a nice touch).

"Doomdsday weapon" my ass.

Overall, not a bad episode, however it never ceases to amaze me how Dave Filoni and Co. continue to minimalize the scale of the Clone Wars conflict by having the same Jedi characters conduct everything from starship command, front line combat, piloting, testing experimental weapons, body guard duty, treaty negotiations and training farmers to defend themselves against Tanks from week to week; give me more Clone-centric episodes such as "Rookies" or "Innocents of Ryloth" and I'll be a very happy fanboy.

[Srelex]

The casing on that bomb seemed wastefully large for the amount of boom it was giving off (although the explosion was not the intended damaging component), plus Anakin's "shock and awed" expression of disbelief at the scale of detonation seemed out of place when you realize that even a glancing strafing run from those ARC-170's would have flattened and slagged the Napole- I mean Droid army anyway just for kicks alone without disabling friendly vehicles or any prosthetic limbs that a nearby General may need in the immediate future (which I thought was a nice touch).

"Doomdsday weapon" my ass.

Overall, not a bad episode, however it never ceases to amaze me how Dave Filoni and Co. continue to minimalize the scale of the Clone Wars conflict by having the same Jedi characters conduct everything from starship command, front line combat, piloting, testing experimental weapons, body guard duty, treaty negotiations and training farmers to defend themselves against Tanks from week to week; give me more Clone-centric episodes such as "Rookies" or "Innocents of Ryloth" and I'll be a very happy fanboy.

Maybe he was worried about being so close? I mean, he looked more intrigued to me, but that's the animation. Anyway, the actual blue shockwave thing certainly encompassed a good few kilometers, and at least the droid forces looked decently big in this episode.

[Anguirus]

I thought the Zillo looked pretty cool, actually. I can't believe what a perfect homage the SPHA-Ts turned out to be to the masers from the Godzilla series. (Yes, you guys have finally gotten me to watch a few episodes of this. Disappointed in the "submarine" space action of "Cat and Mouse" but the Zillo Beast was at least good fun.)

[Vympel]

The casing on that bomb seemed wastefully large for the amount of boom it was giving off (although the explosion was not the intended damaging component), plus Anakin's "shock and awed" expression of disbelief at the scale of detonation seemed out of place when you realize that even a glancing strafing run from those ARC-170's would have flattened and slagged the Napole- I mean Droid army anyway just for kicks alone without disabling friendly vehicles or any prosthetic limbs that a nearby General may need in the immediate future (which I thought was a nice touch).

The only thing that really makes sense is that they eschewed conventional munitions because it'd fuck up the planet. The Dug leader was already expressing concern about the relatively harmless Electro-Proton bomb upsetting the planet's "delicate balance", one can only imagine what a conventional boom would've done.

Anyway, its clear the EP Bomb has only a temporary effect - notice the Dug's finishing off droids that were starting to get up again. There was no permanent damage done to Republic equipment.

"Doomdsday weapon" my ass.

Overall, not a bad episode, however it never ceases to amaze me how Dave Filoni and Co. continue to minimalize the scale of the Clone Wars conflict by having the same Jedi characters conduct everything from starship command, front line combat, piloting, testing experimental weapons, body guard duty, treaty negotiations and training farmers to defend themselves against Tanks from week to week; give me more Clone-centric episodes such as "Rookies" or "Innocents of Ryloth" and I'll be a very happy fanboy.

Its odd, at least in Season One we had several entire episodes where Anakin and Obi-Wan were nowhere to be seen, yet in Season 2 they're everywhere. It is indeed annoying. Have some standalone episodes with Kit Fisto, Aayla Secura, Luminary Unduli, Mace Windo, Plo Koon - the list goes on and on and on of who you can be using instead of Obi-Wan and Anakin over and over and over and over again.

[Rama]

The only thing that really makes sense is that they eschewed conventional munitions because it'd fuck up the planet. The Dug leader was already expressing concern about the relatively harmless Electro-Proton bomb upsetting the planet's "delicate balance", one can only imagine what a conventional boom would've done.

The only problem is that they were later dumping fuel (or some highly toxic sludge) into the pit. Sure, the presence of the Zillo Beast may have forced their hand into performing more extreme measures to cauterize the threat, but there just seems to be too much of a disparity between merely cratering the area around the Droids with lasers, and flooding an underground cavern with some weird green shit intended to kill a multi-story Japanese nightmare.

Anyway, its clear the EP Bomb has only a temporary effect - notice the Dug's finishing off droids that were starting to get up again. There was no permanent damage done to Republic equipment.

Which is why when it is used, you would hope that the enemy doesn't land reinforcements via dropship five minutes later. After all, nothing would fuck up a Clone army more than having their armour and artillery temporarily decommissioned just as a Separatist air raid arrives. If anything it needs to be either relegated to deep strike missions with a dramatically decreased profile for artillery, missile or infantry use, or just keep it around for a last stand type weapon intended to keep vital positions out of Droid hands.

I may just be finicky, but I really hate the idea of friendly tanks, artillery, heavy equipment and even prosthetic limbs shutting down during a firefight.

Its odd, at least in Season One we had several entire episodes where Anakin and Obi-Wan were nowhere to be seen, yet in Season 2 they're everywhere. It is indeed annoying. Have some standalone episodes with Kit Fisto, Aayla Secura, Luminary Unduli, Mace Windo, Plo Koon - the list goes on and on and on of who you can be using instead of Obi-Wan and Anakin over and over and over and over again.

So far this season both Obi-Wan Anakin have been: Jedi Temple Security, recovering stolen Jedi artifacts from bounty hunters, rescuing kidnapped children, escorts, spies, front-line combatants, naval officers, saboteurs, bug hunters, delivery men, a rescue team, Coruscant police, negotiators, senatorial bodyguards, experimental weapons testers, guns for hire and diplomats. Reading the above is almost like watching an episode of the Simpsons, in which Homer has gone through more careers in the past twenty years than most people have had hot meals.

I understand that the Jedi usually have their plates full during the midst of a Galactic scale conflict, but what the "visionaries" on the TCW production staff don't seem to quite understand is that when in the space of one episode the general of a stellar conflict goes from commanding the battle, preparing the mission briefing, directing the admiralty, leading the first wave assault against heavily armed forward positions and charging the outer walls of a fortified factory...

...And then in the very next part of the arc, have them deliver medical supplies (something that bulk Droid controlled freighters would be very good at doing) to a station on the opposite side of the Galaxy...Well it really just diminishes the scope of the conflict. Sure, there are battles out there and I'm sure they are pretty epic, but I can sacrifice an entire episode in which Spongebob Squarepants investigates a tedious live action version of Senatorial Cluedo even for a brief glimpse of a real planetary quagmire.

You know, the real CLONE WARS, not some whodunit nonsense.

[Balrog]

The nuclear explosion electro-proton bomb going off was very cool visually. Also like that we're starting to see the actual scale of the war; it looked like an actual battle for once and not the same "dozen or so combatant on screen" we usually see. Anyone know just how big the Droid army was?

The only problem is that they were later dumping fuel (or some highly toxic sludge) into the pit. Sure, the presence of the Zillo Beast may have forced their hand into performing more extreme measures to cauterize the threat, but there just seems to be too much of a disparity between merely cratering the area around the Droids with lasers, and flooding an underground cavern with some weird green shit intended to kill a multi-story Japanese nightmare.

All other concerns about minimizing collateral damage to the environment were probably put aside when the giant 'prophesied' monster of doom showed up.

Which is why when it is used, you would hope that the enemy doesn't land reinforcements via dropship five minutes later. After all, nothing would fuck up a Clone army more than having their armour and artillery temporarily decommissioned just as a Separatist air raid arrives. If anything it needs to be either relegated to deep strike missions with a dramatically decreased profile for artillery, missile or infantry use, or just keep it around for a last stand type weapon intended to keep vital positions out of Droid hands.

It seemed the latter was the case in this instance, or they had the Doge out there because he wanted to witness its use personally for some reason.

[Darksider]

Hmm. The latest episode has an explosive about the size of a large battery that is able to critically damage the bridge of a (derelict) Venator. The last one had an explosive about the same size that was able to obliterate Mace Windu's quarters, blow through the deck, and damage one of the ship's engines. That's a lot of firepower for something that small.


Also, do NOT threaten Artoo's master, or he will fucking end you.

[recon20011]

About the EP bomb, it managed to knock gunships out of the air, presumably it would have done the same to any droid aircraft in the vicinity, which would help to minimize the likelihood of a counterattack. Also, in order to take advantage of the EMP burst's effect on Republic equipment the CIS commander would have had to have an attack force hovering just out of range of the EMP, otherwise the clones' equipment will have returned to functionality by the time the attack force arrives. Although I do wonder to what extent the clone troopers were disabled by the EMP burst, because don't their helmets have loads of electronics in them? I also don't recall seeing any clone troopers helping to clear the battlefield afterwards, only the locals.

[VT-16]

Just saw the finale. Nice use of previous locales and they're getting better and better at showcasing the scale of places now. Spoiler

The literal underworld of Coruscant was awe-inspiring and the pirate base on Florrum now had a nice panoramic view.

No hint of Aurra's Force-sensitivity, though. Not sure if they're ever going to address that, but she had some nice character-interactions. I find myself liking this series more and more when it focuses on non-movie or background movie characters. Plo Koon and Ahsoka's investigation and confrontation with the bounty hunters was a highlight as well. Though I wonder if the Slave I was destroyed and Boba just got a new ship. They kept the crash hidden, so I guess it can be showed as repaired later on.

Boba and Bossk end up in the slammer at the end, with Boba having a pseudo-resolution with Windu. Wonder if they're going to show up later on. I liked the trilogy, but feel like there's little more to add to Boba's story at this point in his life. Being in prison and hanging out with all the ruthless criminals so far can't be good for his outlook on life. Not to mention Aurra letting him get caught and running away in the end.

[RogueIce]

Well, I have to wait for Star Wars.com to upload the last two episodes I guess, but in the meantime I got to catch up on Zillo Beast Strikes Back and Deathtrap. Both of these were quite good episodes, and once more I'll give praise to the music. The sequence where the Zillo Beast is brought down was quite moving and the music was appropriately tragic. And in Deathtrap, where Boba abandons the clone cadets, that little bit was also good (though yes, it did sound a little LotR-ish). I can't recall being as moved by the music in the show as I have been since Weapons Factory, when Ahsoka and Barris had their "death sequence" (which to me is still one of the more moving moments of this series, and would serve as an awesome way to handle a dramatic death, even if they did live after it).

So it's good to know Kevin Kline can still deliver. It's not John Williams, but still worthy of being called Star Wars music, IMO.

[Vympel]

My favorite theme in the Clone Wars so far remains the music used for Christophsis in the pilot movie, during the opening battle. Rubbish battle, but I liked the music.

[AndroAsc]

After 2 seasons of Clone Wars, does anyone feel a bit underwhelmed? While I try to moderate my expectations, Clone Wars is starting to fall short. Actually, it was never great to begin with... but my patience is soon running out.

The highly episodic nature without any over-arching plotline is a big minus point. The series is directionless and meaningless to put in very bluntly. It's basically the adventures of Anakin Skywalker and friends. Sure, there may be some multi-episode arcs that depict a particular large scale battle... but still the story is uninspired and getting nowhere.

Since the movie release of Clone Wars... what new plot developments have we learnt? Oh... let's see... nothing!

I find it quite unbelievable as to how Lucas is going to sustain a few more seasons of Clone Wars without degenerating it into pure crap. For fuck's sake... this is killing Star Wars. It's a fucking popcorn flick with zero "entry requirements". You can just pop in and watch any episode, because they are by and large all unconnected to each other.

WTF... I hope the future live action Star Wars series won't be this kind of shit.

[Vympel]

It airs on cartoon network dude. It's not meant to be some grand episodic epic arc, its mostly for kids.