September 30 2011

view: (720p)




"Who a person truly is cannot be seen with the eye."

Episode Guide: Shadow Warrior

Director: Brian Kalin O'Connell
Writer: Daniel Arkin

Synopsis: When the leader of the Gungans, Boss Lyonie, is injured it's discovered there is an uncanny resemblance between the Boss and Jar Jar Binks. Binks must sway his people from rising against the Naboo and stopping a Separatist invasion led by General Grievous.

view: (SD HDTV)

[align=center]SHADOW WARRIOR • STILLS & CONCEPT ART[/align]
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Haven't had a chance to DL and watch yet, but after checking out the screenshots I just needed to say - holy crap has this show evolved visually! While staying in the same general aesthetic they've really turned what I found pretty irritating looking into a thing of beauty, particularly in how they've evolved in terms of camera and lighting work. Just wow.

To me, the visuals in the Trandoshan and Mon Cala arcs were much better. It’s a shame that the grass textures look like flat Astroturf.

I like this one in concept more than execution. I did think it was nice to see Grievous get his comeuppance. And, I agree that Jar Jar is doing best the he can. Padme’s decision is a bit of a surprise. I had assumed that Padme would do the right thing if she and Anakin’s roles were reversed in ROTS. Now, I’m not so sure.

Since Kagemusha is probably my favorite Kurosawa film, I feel like an idiot for not catching on to the title sooner. Previously, I had thought that kagemusha translated to “the shadow.” However, it literally means ”shadow warrior”.

YAY! we disagree on something! When I first started seeing concept and production art for this show I was really underwhelmed, well, actually HATED it might be a better description of my reaction. To the point of not watching it when it was on first run because it looked so absurd.

I was really just idly thinking about that stuff when I popped open the stills from this week and, while maintaining that vague supermarionation look to the design, there's no denying that the CW team has come a long, long way in three seasons.

so far this season, this is the rating I give each episode: ep1: 1/5, ep2: 1/5, ep3: 3/5, ep4: 4/5

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[align=left]First half of the episode made me feel sad for how silly this show is starting to feel but then the second half kicked butt and also made the story make sense as a whole. Now I see the Gungans in entirely new light, I mean everyone is trying to capture Grievous since forever, even the Jedi and all have failed every time but then comes one of the humbles species we've seen in the Star Wars Universe and takes him down and does it awesomely.

Also, I guess the assumption most of us had about Anakin not meeting Dooku since the battle of Geonosis until ROTS was wrong, since they meet in this episode; also a great fight scene.[/align][/spoil]

Just watched this episode. Loved it. Is that Captain Panaka hanging around in the very last scene?

Nope. Chuck Testa.

But seriously, it's not Panaka. Just a regular Naboo soldier.

Preview of the next episode "Mercy Mission":

[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/Py8LsNt49aI?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash]

Description:

After groundquakes have devastated the planet Aleen, a Republic relief effort arrives, including the 104th battalion of clone troopers along with droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. When the native Aleena's pleas go unheard, it becomes the duty of the droids to embark on a surreal journey through Aleena's subterranean world to save the planet.

As usual the visuals were groundbreaking (especially while ). The Phantom Menace characters, environments, and wardrobe looked brilliant.

While kicking off Season Four with three Gungan-heavy episodes may have been too much for some - I enjoyed this Kurosawa episode. Grievous was absolutely ferocious and then there was the awesome final performance Tarpals