October 8 2010

view: (720p)



Episode Guide: Corruption

Episode Air No: 49
Production No: 304

Director: Giancarlo Volpe
Writer: Cameron Litvack

view: (SD HDTV)

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Well that was a really surprising episode. It flew extremely smooth (felt more like a 10 minute run) and was full of surprises. Season 3 is dealing with a lot darker themes than previous seasons and it's only doing good. Characters act more believable and the situations are more interesting as well. It's nice to see new character designs, environments and ships (Mandalore has the best speeder designs, that's for sure).

It's good that we have the Clone Wars because otherwise sci-fi would be half-dead (Caprica is only half true sci-fi and SG Universe is more like a joke to me)

Again going in with low-expectations I ending up enjoying it. Given that it was a political intrigue episode along the lines of Senate Spy and Senate Murders it could have been worse.

Instead we got something better: Mandalore Vice. There were even Mandalorian police speeders at the end .  The Mandalorian Guards themselves were awesome. It was also mentioned that a Jedi go undercover in the Mandalore Academy. Local political crime dramas such as this must be what Lucas has in mind for the Live-Action Series.

The previews for Corruption made it look like a fairly boring episode, chock full of political mumbo jumbo and trade route shenanigans. But as it turns out, it was really quite intriguing and it's interesting to see, that so many of the story lines (in both this series as well as the films themselves) parallel our own real world politics.

I really liked the Ancient Egyptian inspired Moogans. Great to see a new alien race created for the show and not just a reuse of designs from previous episodes.
What I particularly liked most in tonight's episode, was seeing Anakin and Obi-Wan's girls team up and in a sense, go have a little adventure.

The Minister of the Interior, reminded me of the lead singer of Jethro Tull; Ian Anderson.



Looking forward to next week's episode!

I must say I haven't much enjoyed either of the last two episodes. The animation was there, no question, but I really thought the stories were a bit lacking or just not interesting.

I know I've been spoiled by the quality of work from the last two seasons, and that's why I've been a little disappointed so far. DP touched on some of the the qualities of this episode that I did enjoy, including the potential set up for an undercover jedi. However, I don't think this show should benefit from low expectations going into a particular episode just so we're pleasantly surprised afterwards that it wasn't as bad as feared.

This show has proven to be better than that. There have been episodes in the past where I went in with high expectations, only to blown away by how much I enjoyed it. Now I'm not expecting that every week, but I do feel there has been a lack of consistency early on in this season.

I'm hoping that if this episode is used as a set up, it gets better on second viewings when combined with any future episodes. Kind of how Senate Spy improved for me when I took it as a part of the whole in the Geonosian story arc.

I enjoyed the episode -- particularly the thematic/political dialogue. I also really liked the practical moral dilemmas facing Mandalore as a result of its ideological decision to stay neutral -- neutrality is all well and good, but now they're stuck with black market commerce, leading to a spike in corruption.

But I'm still not quite sure why Padme was there to begin with. As a personal favor to Satine ("[She] has called upon her friend Padmé Amidala to make a diplomatic visit")? If so, how could Padme act in an official capacity by offering Republic support to open trade routes? Padme's presence isn't incompatible with the offer of support, but it's an awkward contrivance to pair her with Satine -- and, therefore, the weakest element of the episode.

720p + The Academy Preview

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[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/banHwwqy8vY?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash][/spoil]

Finally. The first good episode of Season 3. After the pathetic effort from the previous week I nearly lost my interest in regularly watching the series.

Hmmm that's strange, I feel like I'm the only one who is enjoying this one a lot more than what season 2 had to offer ... anyway, after seeing this episode once again, I can't stop the feeling of this ep having a lot of influence from other classic sci-fi flicks, especially the 5th element. Oh and seeing how the preview for the next episode shows mostly action, I guess it will be very straightforward and not as interesting, but I want to be wrong

Nope, I'm with you on that one. Season III so far, has been a lot more interesting than II. That's not to say that Season II wasn't any good.

From a casual fan's perspective - slow paced episodes featuring new or obscure characters could be a let down. At last summer's C5 Clone Wars Panel - Dave Filoni said Mandalore is like post WWI Germany and that Pre Vizsla may become the Mandalorian Fuhrer. So this episode is a build up for whats to come.

During the parade the citycape of the mandalorian city's was rather Metropolis-esque. Some effort was put into the design of the Moogan's ship which was cool. At the end I guess the warehouse was torched to destroy tainted drinks?

The below cap featuring Satine's elf-like ears.





Next two shows off her a huge rack wtf.

The warehouse was burned because Satine is a passionate character. Obi-wan and she are the flipside of Anakin and Padme. While Padme and Obi-wan are usually rational, Anakin and Satine can be hotheads.

I like the idea of Padme and Satine working together. I also think it's a good idea to explore the unintended consequences of idealism. However, I don’t feel that that the story was executed as well as it could have been. A good part the episode was focused on the expository and procedural investigation. For whatever reason, I didn’t find it compelling.

This is the worst episode of the season and might be the worst of the last two years, including Jar Jar episodes.

I love the concept that neutrality is having a negative effect on some systems, like Madalore, but this episode was about smugglers poisoning a tea drink to make more money....huh? Who the fuck cares? This had no interesting connection to that concept or the war in general.

Satine's character was completely opposite to how she was portrayed in the second season. Isn't she a non-violent pacifist? Why is she ordering that evidence be destroyed and threatening law enforcement officials for doing their job? Argue character development all you want, but this was a bullshit portrayal of her character.

Awfully conceived. This season has been mostly average so far.

Agreed. Although after watching it again I didn't find it as clunky as the first time I saw it.

I think the main reason I disliked it so much is because I really don't care for the character of Satine. Her pacifist ideals are pretty much thrown in our face (especially in season two), but she always seems on the look out for some confrontation. This quasi-hypocrisy really makes it hard for me to buy anything she's preaching. And the way she berates people with her sense of moral outrage is enough to send anyone to war.

It takes one of these episodes to show me how much I really do like the character of Padme. She is a compassionate leader who will try to take the diplomatic route as far as she can to avoid a fight. But when push comes to shove, she doesn't hide behind any moral high ground. She picks up a blaster and kicks some ass. On that note, Leia also has a fiery personality - but her character as a whole is much more believable so it comes off as compliment rather than a detraction.



This isn't a relationship I considered, but it's obvious now that you brought it to my attention. But I still feel the character of Satine has been mismanaged and as a result any episode she appears in the story has suffered.

Not that there's anything wrong with what you said, but it comes off quite humorous when you think about the fact that the hardcore Star Wars fans are let down by everything new in Star Wars since 1997. Slow pace and boring dialogs being some of the most popular gripes. Or did you mean "casual fan" in some other sense?

It seems like they're trying really hard to set her up to be the center of corruption on Mandalore (allowing Pre Viz to take control in a non-violent way) or is it possible that this is another "pre-quel" episode?

I didn't find Satine’s behavior to be out-of-character. She neither threatened anyone with violence nor commited a violent act against an individual. Therefore, her actions in the episode weren't in violation of her pacifistic stance. In terms of Satine's volatile temperament, she was pretty feisty with Obi-wan last season.

Here are clips for “The Academy” and “Assassin.”
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[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/TLljR4Jn4tE?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash][/spoil]
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[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/BhVHWepiKkI?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash][/spoil]

Spoiler warning for the “Assassin” preview even though the identity of said assassin was revealed in the Season 3 trailer

I think the major spoiler is in "The Academy" preview.

The Academy: