I’m baaaaaack! After a longer break than anticipated, I’m going to start digging into season two of The Clone Wars. This season appears, at least from what I’ve been told, to be more arc-based, so I’m going to be clustering my reviews together. This has two purposes: one, I hope to finish the series before it is pulled from Netflix, and two, I think I can have more substantive discusses if there’s more to work with. So, let’s dig in!
1. Cad Bane
One of the things I’ve praised about this show before is how completely it is able to bring some of George Lucas’s inspirations onto the screen. Cad Bane is a cross, visually, between The Shadow and a western villain, and really hits on Lucas’s love of that era of storytelling. The character himself is relatively one dimensional, but acts as a good enough villain for the Jedi to fight against.
The target of his quest, the Holocron, is something that hits close to the heart of just about anyone watching, as no one wants the Sith to get small children under their control. We’ll get to the younglings more in a second, but I feel like this is a really good way to demarcate absolute evil, which is important for this show. At times, even in these episodes, the Jedi do things that are dumb, selfish, or myopic, and it can be easy to throw your hands up and say “fucking Jedi!” But this shows you that, for as clueless as they can be, they aren’t the Sith.
2. The Last Jedi parallels
Spoilers for The Last Jedi follow
This is a really interesting batch of episodes to watch right after seeing The Last Jedi, as there are a number of thematic elements that carry over. The idea of the Jedi texts and their import are on display in both places, as are the questions of what sort of training a Jedi needs/gets. In addition, we see Ahsoka attempt to win a battle instead of safely retreating, and somewhat echoes what Poe Dameron says to Leia after the initial space battle. They both want to win, and care more about winning a battle than winning a war. Luckily for the Jedi (at this time), cooler heads prevailed.
While taking out a Dreadnought was dope, Poe cost the Resistance a lot more than he initially thought. Ahsoka was spared that – for now, at least.
3. Action packed
These episodes felt more focused and action packed than prior episodes, and I’m wondering if that is, partially, a product of how I’m watching them. To see the story continue instantly gave the show a less herky-jerky feel, and let the pacing smooth out a bit. But more than that, it seems like the team realized that certain stories work better than others in this setting, and so focused the first three episodes on those types of stories. I doubt this will last the entire season, but this was a really exhilarating way to kick off.
4. The youngling shit is really sad
I mentioned before that the Jedi aren’t pure evil, but watching the age of some of the younglings that are already labeled to be removed from their families was heartbreaking. Sure, being a Jedi is great, but for a single mom, having her only child ripped from her in the name of galactic peace doesn’t exactly seem fair, does it?
I’m not saying that from my point of view, the Jedi are evil, but I can see why some, like Luke Skywalker, perhaps, feel the Jedi order needed to change – or die.
5. A partial victory
What I, perhaps, liked best about this batch of episodes was that they felt very much like real life, in the sense that there wasn’t a clean and decisive victory. Sure, they got the kid and the holocron back, but Cad Bane escaped, and they really aren’t any closer to figuring out just what is going on. They certainly won the battle, but the verdict is very much out on the war. We also got to see some cool Jedi stuff – the multiple Jedi-mind manipulation tops among it – and still found time for smaller character moments.
The Clone Wars is back, and it’s good again. Awoooo!
