Wherever you find Star Wars, a trilogy is never far behind, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that episodes 2-4 of this season make up their own Malevolence triology.
“A plan is only as good as those who see it through.”
1. Welcome to the show, Threepio
There’s something weirdly comforting about C3PO popping up in a Star Wars property, even if he’s usually the absolute worst thing about said property. This show has done a good job making itself feel like a natural extension of the universe, and the Threepio appearance only solidifies that. The show also reinforced the idea that Anakin built him, which is something that you’d think would get brought up more than it does.
This is also the first time all the ‘major’ characters – R2D2, C3PO, Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and Padme are together in the animated film or the series. That seems sort of nuts.
2. “Is that your lightsaber on your hip, Anakin?”
Padme horny, Anakin.
I found it interesting here that Padme and Anakin would be so brazen as to make out mid-mission. I know it wasn’t exactly giving each other handjobs in the back of a landspeeder, but this is official Jedi business, and Padme is a Senator. They both know what’s at stake here, but their emotions (and hormones) get the better of them.
In a narrative sense, it both works and doesn’t. On one hand, it enhances the love story between the two, which fell short in just about every way in the films. To see them not able to keep their hands off each other is a nice change from their usual awkward giggling and side glances, amid rants about sand.
But if you look at it slightly differently, this sort of shows why the Jedi were against romantic love. Sure, it all works out in the end, but part of the reason it works out is because Anakin is literally the best Jedi there ever was, from a pure talent standpoint. He can make things like this work because he’s got more midichlorians than Jacoby and Myers has suits, but what about your rank and file Jedi? What about Ahsoka? As a padawan, Anakin was already stepping outside of the rules, but his natural abilities masked this. If a padawan like Ahsoka stepped out of line, would she have been able to handle it?
3. Middle management
When I was in middle school, I remember someone saying how Darth Vader was essentially ‘middle management’ in the Empire, and that he’s nowhere near the badass he carries himself as/we’ve come to think of him as. While Rogue One sort of destroys that idea, that comment sort of opened my eyes to look out for stuff like that in Star Wars, and I think it is a relatively common theme in the films, especially in the Empire: everyone is trying to look like they’re top dog, even when they’re just a force choke away from being nothing at all.
The same idea is true with General Grievous here – when we meet him in Revenge of the Sith, he’s wielding a bunch of lightsabers, is coughing like he’s smoking three packs of cancer sticks a day, and has an aura about him that begs the imagination. He’s not unlike Boba Fett in the sense that his look accounts for 90% of his popularity.
But here, again like Fett in subsequent comics/books, we get a fuller picture of Grievous, and it’s not really that impressive. He’s Dooku’s lackey, and isn’t even particularly good at being that. Sure, he’s smarter than your average battle droid, but that’s not saying too much. Grievous is a character I want to see more of here, or at least I did before he was made into sort of a joke. I am genuinely curious to see where the show takes him from here.
4. Obi-Wan’s potential
I was thinking about this the last time I watched the prequels – are we supposed to infer that, due to his training being cut short by Darth Maul’s blade cutting short his master’s life, that Obi-Wan could’ve been an even better Jedi or trained Anakin better if he had Qwi-Gon around for longer? I’ve always sort of thought so, but on this show, Obi-Wan is clearly great at just about everything. He’s a skilled diplomat, great in a battle, understanding and kind – how much greater could he have been?
5. The second Clone Wars film
I mentioned this up top, but this trio of ‘Malevolence’ episodes almost feels like a second film, along with the introductory feature. The Yoda-centric first episode quickly gave way to this trio of connected, far more ‘classic’ Star Wars tale. Again, this is my first time watching, so perhaps this is how the show operates. Maybe we get side quests in between larger, more connected episodes. I wouldn’t be surprised, although I would greatly prefer more disparate episodes, as part of the fun here is to explore as much of the universe as possible, and that is decidedly less possible if stories are playing out over multiple episodes.
