October 1 2010

view: (720p)



"A child stolen is a lost hope."

Episode Guide: Sphere Of Influence

Episode Air No: 48
Production No: 225

Director: Kyle Dunlevy
Writer: Katie Lucas & Steve Melching

Synopsis: Papanoida's daughters are kidnapped and held for ransom. Ahsoka Tano teams up with the Senator from Pantora - Riyo Chuchi to aid the new chairman in recovering his family before the Trade Federation can unduly influence the future of his planet.

view: (SD HDTV)

[align=center]STILLS[/align]
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Anyway, I started watching the episode and ... WTF - That's not George Lucas' voice there! Not even similar.

A good episode this week. Very entertaining, lots of fun homages to the films.

Yes, i liked the homages too ... but ... are they paying homage to Avatar, as well? I mean, the pantorans have some similarities with the pandorans (i know they're called Na'vi, but they're from Pandora, aren't they?). The blue skin, tatooed faces ... and the eyes are kind of similar too.

Papanoida was first - as seen in Revenge of the Sith in 2005.
Blue skin is nothing new to Star Wars. The EU had Admiral Thrawn and of course, Aayla Secura as well.

The episode was pretty good, I liked the variety in the locales and the constant change of pace. That ship the pantorans used reminded me of some Star Trek cartoon vessel sketches but I'm not sure if they were official or anything

Preview for next week's episode Corruption

[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/9olCOIFBrjw?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash]

Great to see the preview. CN won't allow anyone outside the US to view their previews, which is as annoying as hell.

Sphere of Influence was an interesting episode. The animation was incredible and I love how the TF try to make out that they're the 'good guys' in all of this - nice to see that actually shown. A little slower than previous episodes, but still good. I like the way they're handling Ahsoka's character. She comes across as less whiny and bratty now - seems to have grown a lot.

Papanoida was great and I thought that Corey Burton did an impeccable job, voicing the character. Pity I can't say the same for Seth Green (I'm guessing he voiced the son) his contributions to The Clone Wars have been sub-par and I really wish they'd hire a professional voice actor instead.

For me this episode's main purpose was for the final shootout between Papanoida versus Greedo in the Creature Cantina.

I'm down with the Lucas, Greedo, and the Neimodians presence. Though I could have done without seeing the re-use of Padme's Season Two outfit or Tan Divo for that matter. Lucas' daughters didn't even faze me though Seth Green voicing Papanoida's son Ion Papanoida did as the character comes off as snotty.

From starwars.com - Greedo's Clone Wars Trading Card:





From rebelscum.com - Quinlan Vos Gift Card.

The Quinlan Vos card is a nice reminder that new stuff is on the horizon given last and this week's episode (and presumably next week) which feature the re-use of models and environments, trade blockades and senate storylines. The Greedo card indicates that the character is the one and only from 1977.

Looks like they've given Vos Obi-Wan's first Lightsaber hilt?

Yes, Tan Divo is a crap and annoying character. If they're going to make human characters seem so bizarre, then they may as well have made him an alien species. The miscreant design is stupid. I'd rather watch another Jar Jar episode, than put up with 8 seconds of that lame cop.

They should have gone with something more suitable. Something less bizarre and more straight down the line. I'm thinking more along the lines of the Library Cop, Bookman from Seinfeld.

No. It's based on Qui-Gon's, but is still different from the rest.

Tan Divo doesn't bother me -- I actually find him to be amusing, in a whimsical kind of way. And in this episode, he was there merely as a punch line, so no harm done. I disagree though that this was slower than, say, "Supply Lines" which was positively glacial with its pacing.

I find "Supply Lines" still better than this episode.

I liked this episode for the single elements, not the story as a whole, which was pretty predictable.

Nice to see Trade Federation guys who aren't all Gunray-lite and they had differing opinions among themselves, even. Seeing Pantora was cool, but brief and a blue guy being friends with Jabba was something unexpected, given some comics I've read.

He said that in a polite way, only.

Sure, if a slow-moving, contrived plot and characters standing perfectly still doing nothing but having conversations that are rendered irrelevant and meaningless in the next scene is your thing, then obviously "Supply Lines" is better. There were only two scenes in that entire episode in which characters did anything active -- and one of those scenes was Jar Jar Binks. Clearly a recipe for success.

Lott Dod mentioned the "Treaty of 1647," - is this is the very first time, we hear a calendar year mentioned in Star Wars?

What do you mean with doing nothing and meaningless conversations?



Well, Jar Jar in that episode was done right. And Di and his clone last stand was a great moment. At least it wasn't an episode with a Chairman which had a specific device that analysis blood samples, a forced friendship between Ahsoka and Chuchi that was never explained in the episode just to get Ahsoka in it, etc...

Obviously, there is to be a prequel to this episode, where we see Ahsoka and the Pantoran's together.
This jumping around in the time-line is confusing a lot of people.

Really? Did you even watch that episode? Do you even remember: the opening scene between the Jedi and Organa; the scene with Dooku; the "procedural debate that proved to be pointless because the verdict was overturned in the next scene anyway" on Toydaria; the explanation of tactics on Ryloth; and the freedom fighter's "I'm not talking to you" tiff at Jedi Master Di? To name a few?

Yes, I did. They are explaining Organa the situation. How is that scene pointless? It's to explain why Dodd appears in Toydaria. I fail to understand how these scenes are pointless. They are explained if you watch the episode.

How so? Which veredict was overturned? What's wrong with those? I may give you one scene of the dialogue that may contradict what they say later, but it's nothing that important. "I'm not talking to you"?! Sorry, you have to explain that...

Oh goodie, message board tennis. I'll try explaining this one more time, lest I become as redundant as the episode. Keep in mind, in ALL Of these scenes, the characters DO NOT MOVE from where they are either standing or sitting:

[spoil][align=left]Jedi Master Di to Admiral: We need supplies, the Twi'leks are fixin' to all die!
Admiral: Well, shit. We can't help.

Admiral to Jedi: Yo, those people on Ryloth need supplies or the Twi'leks are fixin' to all die!
Jedi: Well, shit. We can't help.

Jedi to Organa: Y'know, them Twi'leks are fixin' to all die. They need supplies. We can't do squat from here, you go to Toydaria to do it. Oh, btw, Jar Jar is there to help.
Organa: Well, shit.

Droids to Dooku: Hey, Organa and Jar Jar are gonna smuggle supplies.
Dooku: Tell Lott Dodd to get on that shit.

Toydarians to Organa: You cannot pass until we help you.
Organa: Well, shit.

Jar Jar to Organa: Meesa here!
Organa (and Toydarians): Well, shit.

Organa to Toydarians: Them Twi'leks are fixin' to all die. They need, like, supplies!
Toydarians: Well, shit. Let's help.

Lott Dodd to Toydarians: I've got a bunch of procedural objections.
Organa and Toydarians: Well, shit.

Organa to Lott Dodd and Toydarians: But them Twi'leks are fixin' to all die. They need supplies.
Toydarians and Dodd: No shit.

Toydarians to Organa: Sorry, Dodd's procedural objections trump the fact the them Twi'leks are fixin' to die and need supplies.
Organa: Well, shit.

Toydarian King to Organa: Fuck the verdict, we're helping anyway.
Organa: Well, sheeeeyit.

Prissy Twi'lek freedom fighter to Jedi Master Di: The Republic is late, I'm not talking to you anymore.
Jedi Master Di: Well, shit.

Jedi Master Di to Clones: We're gonna have to sacrifice ourselves to save the prissy Twi'lek freedom fighter.
Clones: Well, shit.

[hr]
Action scenes:

Jar Jar provides a distraction so supplies can leave Toydaria
Lott Dodd: Well, shit

Jedi Master Di and clones sacrifice their lives to save the Twi'leks
Prissy freedom fighter: Well, shit.[/align][/spoil]


So if you don't understand that it's bad writing to spend 2/3 of a 20 minute episode having your characters rooted to one spot, regurgitating exposition or having a conversation that means nothing to the plot, then I can't help you. Either way, here's some advice: Lay off the quote button addiction. You'll go blind.

Since when is that relevant to the plot, or episode quality? I understand what is bad writing. But you seem to confuse bad writing with scenes where characters don't move. If you say that discussion in Toydaria is meaningless, they you haven't understood the episode plot at all. But just because you don't understand it, doesn't mean it's bad.

Don't worry, I won't waste anymore time with you, who just because don't understand the plot come with childish arguments to try to prove the unprovable. Sorry for this little discussion with Emperor's Prize, folks.

Yes, that must be it. I didn't understand the whole, "Twi'leks need supplies" plot. Very difficult to understand. Very complex. Definitely requires multiple scenes talking about it, repeating it, debating it -- rather than, oh I don't know, actually doing something about it. And criticizing a story in which nearly every scene features redundant and shallow dialogue is most definitely childish. Thank the maker you've set me straight. What the hell did I do before you graced this forum with your august presence?

"Corruption" clip:

[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/TkM4iIEnoFw&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash]

When the original Transformers series entered Season Three - Galvatron and Rodimus Prime were already introduced.

Even diehards like ourselves have to admit the first three of the four episodes were somewhat lackluster - the notable exception of course was ARC Troopers. The re-visitation of the ROOKIE crew, re-featuring Ryloth, and the "guest appearances" of Tan Divo, Jabba-Rotta, along with Embo thrown into Sphere Of Influence is a fast and cheap way to make new episodes. One could make the case the re-use episodes are filler or even de-facto re-runs.

That is not to say Supply Lines or Sphere Of Influence weren't good. After going in with low expectations and being spoiled with Hasbro's Secrets campaign, Supply Liness gave us a Clone Wars version of 300 in 30 minutes with Jedi Di and his Clone Trooper going out like champs. Sphere Of Influence had not only Lucas and Greedo but guest appearances by Jabba and Embo too!

Again I hope it's the

Medium quality pic of "Corruption":

That makes two of us.

So, I saw Sphere of Influence on the re-run last night. Pretty good episode, but Uncle George's character was kind of annoying, as was his son. Wish there was less of him, and more of the Tuchi/Ashoka dynamic going on.

Below is a except from Corruption Preview:

Dave Filoni: "There are bigger threats to peace than the Death Watch", "We've seen their approach in Season Two; they used violence as their message. But political corruption can be far more damaging in the long run."

Well at least we get to see Mandalore's background characters and environments. Next week Ahsoka is a teacher in The Academy.

Does anybody know what this Arc trooper is called?

Hooray for an Ashoka episode...


And if that turns out to be wrong DP, you better start sharing some of that sh!t.

He has no name yet, but he probably will when Hasbro makes an action figure of him.