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Noble713 wrote: I don't think I've clearly expressed my point:

If the shields are a) hull-hugging, and don't cover open spaces on the craft

Except they aren't just huhll hugging. They can project outwards to protect disembarking troops. The AOTC novelization was very clear on this when the Cloens rescued the Jedi from the arena.

Bresides which, we have ample examples of "hull hugging" and "non hull hugging" shields in the movies alone, nevermind the novels. THey clearyl can alter shield distance and geometry at will.

and/or b ) angled to the rear so again they aren't covering the open spaces on the sides, then NecronLord's statement that the shields were lowered to disembark passengers (otherwise they'd fry) doesn't hold up.

No, it doesn't. Disengaging the ray shields to avoid hurting padme makes perfect sense. Hell, since they have parrticle shields its quite likely they HAVE to disengage them anyhow to let troops through (If they didnt have partticle shields they'd be easy meat for any projectile attack and we know they use em.) The "angled to the rear" bit only explains why Padme wasn't fried on falling out, but that doesn't require all that large a gap (just luck and a small one.)

Wow. that was an unusually..... dark season finale.

Chalk another win up for the bad guys.

Oh please. The only thing dark is the total lack of music in most of the scene, creating a grim atmosphere. It's still Clone Wars. They've even brought out that stupid Hutt.

Darksider wrote:Wow. that was an unusually..... dark season finale.

Chalk another win up for the bad guys.

Indeed. I'm always a bit surprised by the level of violence that the show's producers are willing to include; I guess I'm just not used to that sort of thing from Cartoon Network, particularly considering the exceedingly child-oriented nature of their advertisements (CW included). Were it not for the Hutt, the finale would have been nearly as grim as Episode III.

In any event, I'm fairly impressed with the bounty hunter and his team. They're a bit generic, but even a moderate degree of competence is always welcome in a Star Wars setting, and their ruthlessness was demonstrated effectively. Actually, the thing that impressed me the most was that Bane (or whatever his name is) didn't pull the Joker's "We won, so I'm going to kill the rest of you" routine at the end and off the other bounty hunters. That cliche rears its head far too often, and I'm glad that the show's avoiding it, at least for now.

Connor MacLeod wrote: Except they aren't just huhll hugging. They can project outwards to protect disembarking troops. The AOTC novelization was very clear on this when the Cloens rescued the Jedi from the arena.

and/or b ) angled to the rear so again they aren't covering the open spaces on the sides, then NecronLord's statement that the shields were lowered to disembark passengers (otherwise they'd fry) doesn't hold up.

No, it doesn't.

Ok, I think we are on the same page here.

Disengaging the ray shields to avoid hurting padme makes perfect sense. Hell, since they have parrticle shields its quite likely they HAVE to disengage them anyhow to let troops through (If they didnt have partticle shields they'd be easy meat for any projectile attack and we know they use em.)

1. How would the crew even know to disengage the shields? Her falling out was a complete, near-instantaneous, fluke. Could it be possible that the collision with the sand dune overloaded the shields for a short time?
2. In the first quote of this message you state that they DON'T have to disengage the shields, but in the second quote you state that they DO. So which is it?
3. If the shields can be projected in such a way as to provide protection for disembarking passengers, then the system should be able to do so (or alternatively, simply provide a large enough hole for safe debarkation) without seriously compromising the protection of the craft. And if that is the case, then how did the LAAT get destroyed by the Geonosian fighters?


Returning to the thread topic, though:

1. Competent, ruthless, stylish (I like his hat) bad guys = win.
2. I wonder how much of a role Aurra Sing will play in Season 2?
3. The Senate's security was abysmal. The most important government structure on the capital planet of a 20,000 year old civilization that is fighting a galaxy-spanning total war is protected by 2-3 squads of roving infantry? No combat air patrol? No main security office full of CCTVs? Only one guard at the central power terminal, which isn't even locked? The Invisible Hand had better internal security!
4. It's pretty sad that a spin-off animated TV show can write a better romance scene than Lucas ever did in the prequels.
5. Anyone else notice that the floors in the Senate are close to 2 feet thick?

Other than the cool bounty hunter with the hat and the phallic lightsaber gag, this felt like more of the same to me. Short and generally uninspired.

I really enjoyed the season finale. The enemies were dangerous, competent, the main bad guy sounded and looked really cool and the bad guys got away at the end. This is the portrayal of combat droids I like to see. No dicking around with the Million Stooges nonsense. It was a rather violent episode (no longer surprising, but still interesting), with head shots, neck-crackings and shootings-in-the-back. Quite excellent overall. The acting was pretty good too, even between Padme and Anakin's voice actors.

Hmm, the season finale was good, though I agree that Senate security was too easily breached. I was watching Palpatine closely throughout the episode for any indication that he had intended for this to happen, and had perhaps arranged for the bounty hunters to be let in, but I saw nothing to indicate such. In fact, the bounty hunter at the end asking the Hutt to pay him seemed to suggest the opposite: that this whole thing was an individual effort and not approved by Lord Sideous. Though that seems rather implausible.

Also, I was disappointed by the slow response from the Clone troopers. It looked like it took them quite a while to figure out something was wrong and send in reinforcements. And for that matter, why did no Jedi sense that their was something going on? All in all, a really bad showing by Republic security all around. The only alternative conclusion that makes any sense is that Palpatine let it happen, but there's no evidence for that either way.

One thing I did like was Anakin's use of the Mind Trick. I don't think I'd ever seen him use that technique before, since Anakin usually seems to favor a less subtle approach. Of course, we got some of the brute force approach as well when he beat up the droid with his bare hands. However, I did find myself wondering why he didn't just Tk their asses.

Finally, how has no one picked up on the Padme/Anakin relationship? It seemed rather obvious, at least to me. I kind of hope Senator Organa picked up on it, at least. Of course, you might also get an interesting story out of a political rival figuring it out and trying to blackmail Padme or something.

At this point I really don't know what to think of the series. I rather like some of it, due to the starship porn and an actual look at the Clone Wars that you don't get in the saga. However in the same vein, the way they portray the war is horrible in that it is minimalist. Three Republic Cruisers seems to be the norm for all offensive operations and that's just silly, along with the depiction of most planets as sparsely populated and what there is is very low tech looking small villages. The war is also depicted as helter skelter as we watch our hero's jump all over the fucking galaxy instead of any sort of campaigns or theaters of war. Kind of hurts the SoD for me.

I rather like some of the characterizations, but then sometimes the villains are two dimensional and well...cartoonish. Also, a healthy chuck of the shows seem to be cookie cutter plot lines where they just add a few different things and call it the day. So I don't know, I rather like the show, it's simple minded fun and good space ship porn, but some of the overall set up and actual mechanics of the plot is just bad.

The finale was OK I guess. Anakin being deprived of his lightsaber was sooooo cliche and could have been avoided if the main villain had been smart enough to have way more droids or the overall problem of no responses from the Clone's or the Jedi due to a distraction made else where on Courscant.

The Romulan Republic wrote:Hmm, the season finale was good, though I agree that Senate security was too easily breached. I was watching Palpatine closely throughout the episode for any indication that he had intended for this to happen, and had perhaps arranged for the bounty hunters to be let in, but I saw nothing to indicate such.

The only hint that it may have been intentional on his part was that he seemed to tell the big blue guy, "we all have our duty" (or words to that effect) with almost a smirk in his voice. On the other hand, he seemed genuinely angered that the attack happened at all, but Palpatine is a good actor.

How did the bounty hunters get the guard schedules? It suggests that someone on the inside slipped that information to them, but who knows.

Of course, what would have Palpatine's motivation to let it happen in the first place? To further stir some dissent?

The Senators that were nearly killed were those opposed to the "Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill", so there's your motive. The whole thing is less retarded if it's an inside job.

FSTargetDrone wrote:Of course, what would have Palpatine's motivation to let it happen in the first place? To further stir some dissent?

To get than enhanced privacy invasion bill passed ?

After all, weren't all the hostage senators opposed to it ?

Though the senate building had horrible security. I can buy war protesters as an excuse for them ignoring the trouble outside. But when you have weapons fire inside the building and a large explosion within the troops barracks, I'd expect alarms to go off. Even if it's only the fire alarm.

The only thing that annoyed my about the bounty hunters behaviour was him trying to kill the hostages while he was riding the same vehicle he left the senate building with. Not only is he less likely to get people cooperating with him if he tries it again, he also loses his ability to deal with anyone following him.

Also, was that a sex droid in one of the rooms ?

Darth Raptor wrote:The Senators that were nearly killed were those opposed to the "Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill", so there's your motive. The whole thing is less retarded if it's an inside job.

I really hope that wasn't the actual name of the bill, and just a term the senators opposed to it were using.

bilateralrope wrote:The only thing that annoyed my about the bounty hunters behaviour was him trying to kill the hostages while he was riding the same vehicle he left the senate building with. Not only is he less likely to get people cooperating with him if he tries it again, he also loses his ability to deal with anyone following him.

While he does stupidly toss away his hostages before he's necessarily clear of danger, he doesn't necessarily lose his trustworthiness. Not only was his setup apparently rather sensitive to being set off by the hostages, but the hostages will be able to testify that they didn't start to go off until Anakin started his escape attempt. "If anyone so much as breathes on the sensors" vs cutting a chunk of the floor away gives a pretty good cover story for his pointless act of evil.

Although he does get motivation for killing them anyway if that was part of his job, which adds more circumstantial evidence for Palpatine commissioning the job.

Darksider wrote:

Darth Raptor wrote:The Senators that were nearly killed were those opposed to the "Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill", so there's your motive. The whole thing is less retarded if it's an inside job.

I really hope that wasn't the actual name of the bill, and just a term the senators opposed to it were using.

Consider the source. It helps that we only hear Senators Amidala and Organa use that name, because yes, it would be massively retarded if the bill's authors and sponsors called it that. I'm almost positive it's a Republican epithet for what would probably be called the "Enhanced Domestic Surveillance Bill" or something similarly less odious.

Any news on when season 2 will start? I must say I'm looking forward to it. Apparently last episode's bounty hunter will make further appearances. Hell, I've even learned to put up with Ashoka.

The Romulan Republic wrote:Any news on when season 2 will start? I must say I'm looking forward to it. Apparently last episode's bounty hunter will make further appearances. Hell, I've even learned to put up with Ashoka.

Blurbs say 'This Fall' so expect September.

There are still some episodes left here in Germany (though I prefer to avoid those, the german localization is rather bleak). Oh well, I might compare the original with the german one just to know how bad it becomes in the later episodes.

How many seasons are planned? I mean we only have roughly three years for the Clone wars at all.

wikipedia is still showing the infamous "100 episodes" quote. I frankly can't see it lasting that long, but who knows. So far it seems like half the episodes have been decent, the other half have just been silly/filler. Of course it plays fast and loose with the canon (and blah blah blah we can always fall back on the "it's for kids/casual fans!" excuse, right?), but it's far more enjoyable than the theatrical film was.

I think we're still pretty early in the war, though. The clones are still wearing their Phase I armor, after all. When they start looking more like stormtroopers, you'll know we're getting close.

I think there was a talk of 100 episodes by Lucas, but that was some years back. They seem to be working on season 3 last I remember (no, don't have the link) but the official site had an interview with the writers where they mention season 2 being all over the place, timewise.

My guess is that they'll stop at the 65 episode mark typical for animated series.

No long running series is good all the time and especially in TV and sci fi. Hell, look at B5. IT had some good episodes, but also some very crap ones, and some p urely filler ones, and so on and so forth. You can't always have it your way.

That many were good at all, especially in the first season, I think is an amazing feat. (Although I'm not sure how it "shits all over canon")

Knife wrote:At this point I really don't know what to think of the series. I rather like some of it, due to the starship porn and an actual look at the Clone Wars that you don't get in the saga. However in the same vein, the way they portray the war is horrible in that it is minimalist. Three Republic Cruisers seems to be the norm for all offensive operations and that's just silly, along with the depiction of most planets as sparsely populated and what there is is very low tech looking small villages. The war is also depicted as helter skelter as we watch our hero's jump all over the fucking galaxy instead of any sort of campaigns or theaters of war. Kind of hurts the SoD for me.

Not for me. It looks alot like what we see in the prequels to me, so I'm pretty much used to it by now. I know alot of people I know were pissed we onyl saw Venators in ROTS, for example. lol.

I rather like some of the characterizations, but then sometimes the villains are two dimensional and well...cartoonish. Also, a healthy chuck of the shows seem to be cookie cutter plot lines where they just add a few different things and call it the day. So I don't know, I rather like the show, it's simple minded fun and good space ship porn, but some of the overall set up and actual mechanics of the plot is just bad.

Well it IS on Cartoon network. They seem to be splitting down the middle as far as target audience - getting kids because its Star Wars and animated, but also trying to snag Star Wars fans, which is why it doesn't seem as outright KIDDIE as it would. And I dont mind that, I like some mindless fun myself, even if the characterizations are simple (Then again so are alot of them in the movies too. Its not really as if a visual format can develop alot of depth.) Anakin is vastly more likable in this one, which is a huge plus there (the only 'developed' character in the prequels and they more or less blew that.)