November 19 2010

view: (720p)



"Fear is a great motivator."

Episode Guide: Heroes On Both Sides

Episode Air No: 54
Production No: 306

Director: Kyle Dunlevy
Writer: Daniel Arkin

Synopsis: When the Senate begins debating a bill that would eliminate government oversight of the Banking Clan's activities in order to fund the war - Padmé and Ahsoka travel in secret to the capital of the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

view: (SD HDTV)

I'm rather curious about this one.

Murderous terrorism; Anakin and Padme in disharmony; earnest diplomacy undercut by greed and duplicitous leaders – this was an intelligent and ultimately depressing episode. Having the final vote cast in the red back-up generator lighting was a perfect touch. It fittingly foreshadows all the blood that will be shed in ROTS.

Thanks again Thundercracker. "You would do the same - you do the same all the time". Again the background characters and elements standout. Also: transformer droids


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A very enjoyable episode. I really liked everything in this one, the politics and points of view from both sides was very interesting. The new character models and environments most of which were very stunning were a nice breath of fresh air. Also this show always surprises me with how dark it can get at times, overall the episode felt kinda foreboding and a grim indicator of the toll the war is taking on the galaxy. It finally feels like this season is hitting its stride.

I really liked this episode. Loved the complexities. And I really enjoyed the "Jawa Droid" theme that was playing when we saw the Infiltrators. Good stuff!

Yeah I liked all of the aspects of this episode as well. A lot of new characters, fresh environments and a dark story. I wasn't too thrilled about the planet being Raxus and not Raxus Prime but anyway the scenery was breathtaking.

New ships are great as always but the droids were the best of them all. It's good to see that Dooku somehow manages to get an upper hand on almost everything
Oh and the generator design feels familiar

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Interesting to see what looks to be a Selkath from KOTOR 1 in that preview.

We're they supposed to be extinct by now?

I don't think so...

Loved the episode. Best "political" episode in the series by far.

Also, I'm really digging the new character models for Ahsoka and Anakin. I didn't think much of them when they were first released, but now that I actually see them in an episode they look legit. Especially Anakin's model, which I thought looked kind of pale in the release photo with Ahsoka and Obi-wan. (Not that that's a bad thing. I like how they are showing that the war is starting to wear on Anakin).

But in this episode he really did strike an imposing figure. No longer does he look like a kid just out of high-school; he's definitely stockier and broad-shouldered. And the way they shot him in this episode, often from Padme's or Ahsoka's eye level, made him seem even taller and more intimidating. For the first time in the entire series the model made me feel like he could actually be the future Darth Vader.

Hey guys,

First I wanna say I've been watching every episodes from the beginning thanks to this website and had great fun reading your comments and debates! registered since last summer this is my 1st post, at last lol... am from france and been a fan for years so hello to ya'll!

As some have said it seems this season is finally taking off for good! there were some good episodes this year but overall it was kinda lacking this mystery, epic, classic(...) star wars feel Clone Wars has been delivering so amazingly... my very favourites being malevolence, geonosis and boba fett arcs, which are in some ways even more enjoyable than the movies i think

back on topic, after the thrilling and very funny last week episode, this one is very solid and intriguing, the political parts are interesting, not boring at all, there is a sense of suspense, great scenes and dialogs, and definitely stunning visuals. Sounds like very good star wars

Among your comments I've not read it yet so I want to point out Ahsoka really looks great, not only the new outfit but some very little details make her look and feel more mature i think that was really greatly done. Also this kind of "erotical" tension when meeting a boy as she grows up, they made it quite subtle with the 2 characters communicating mostly with their eyes rather then some cheesy dialogs... unexpected and nice touch

so... good stuff all the way!!

^ Yeah, Ahsoka really did use her physical allure when she met Lux. Interesting to see Star Wars explicitly acknowledge at least one aspect of sexuality. I guess now that they've matured her character a bit, they may be exploring some more mature themes. We'll see if it was just a one-off, or if it's the beginning of a trend.

Where's that from? I didn't think that the Selkath were force sensitive either.

I believe that image is from the Jedi Academy Training Manual. Also, there were some Selkath in KOTOR being trained by the Sith so I assume some can be force sensitive.

The only species from that era that had explicitly gone extinct were the Rakatan (native to Lehon -- aka Unknown World) per the novel Darth Bane: Path of Destruction.

Wow! Great episode! Both in terms of presentation, as well as writing. Though it seems to confirm my suspicions that previous Season 3 episodes were sloppily written and put together to meet the early deadlines while the real effort went into creating the second half.

I'm very curious to see if the show will stay on this level from now on.

I like the new looks of Ahsoka's and Anakin's outfits. It's about time we had an update to them.

The blackout sequence was very well done.

Totally forgot and confused the two. thanks for the clear up.

You are certainly welcome. I figured you may have had the two confused.

Still, it's a surprise to see a species from that era featured in the Clone Wars. Just based on this last episode it looks like the team has come up with a lot more character models for this show -- especially for the separatist parliament scene. I'm not sure where I saw it, but I remember Dave Filoni talking about how they no longer have the limitations they used to when building new character models. It will be interesting to see what other EU species/characters they decide to put in the show in the future.

They may not have now, but they still had when they made Season 3. That Mandalorian face appears all the time...

I notice it all over the place too. It's like their go-to generic dork, à la Robot Chicken, who only needs a new haircut and he's a different person. Or they only need to paint his skin and eyes a different color and, poof, we got ourselves a whole new alien species.

It'd be nice if they showed a little more diversity in their human background characters and not just character models that would only shop at L.L. Bean if they lived here on earth. I'm really starting to think that Mace and Lando are the only black men in the star wars universe.

Interview with The New Clone Wars designer Kilian Plunkett



Admiral Kilian is named after lead designer Plunkett

EXCERPT

SKY HD: The characters in Season Three are going to be going through a redesign. Can you tell us why that's come about?

Kilian Plunkett: The clones are being redesigned in Season Three - It's sort of staggered. There isn't one episode where magically everyone looks different. There's some episodes where the clones look different but Obi-Wan and Anakin look the same, but slowly it creeps in. I think by the end of Season 3 every character has a new look.

It's just to sell the passage of time, so that we end up with the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith clone armour. There is a general evolution to the hardware that is dictated by the films. Fans all know how things look when we get to Revenge of the Sith, so it's just up to us that when we get to that point it's all switched over. But we're not going to throw a switch so suddenly everybody has their new gear.

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Speaking of SKY HD - Episodes S0301 to S0307 are now available in 720p OAR format

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These Padmé episodes are getting boring... Why so many of these in a row?

Relax. We already knew after "Heroes On Both Sides" that "Pursuit of Peace" was going to be another Padme-centric installment, leading into "Senate Murders" -- making another three-episode arc.

FYI the Pursuit Of Peace 2.0 video has been fixed to the newer one.

Below are ratings for the series so far (courtesy of TV By The Numbers - formatted by me).

SEASON THREE

S03E01 • Clone Cadets & ARC Troopers • 2.422 Million Viewers
S03E02 • ARC Troopers • 2.422
S03E03 • Supply Lines: • 1.690
S03E03 • Supply Lines Halloween Rerun • 1.853
S03E04 • Spheres of Influence • 1.876
S03E05 • Corruption • 1.777
S03E06 • The Academy • 1.795
S03E07 • Assassin • 1.853
S03E08 • Evil Plans • 1.838
S03E09 • Hunt For Ziro • 1.764
S03E10 • Heroes On Both Sides • 1.754

SEASON TWO

S02E01 • Holocron Heist • 2.581 Million Viewers
S02E02 • Cargo Of Doom • 2.581
S02E03 • Children Of The Force • 2.8
S020E4 • Senate Spy • 2.05
S02E05 • Landing At Point Rain • 2.07
S02E06 • Weapons Factory • 2.08
S02E07 • Legacy Of Terror • 2.09
S02E08 • Brain Invaders • 2.12
S02E09 • Grievous Intrigue • 2.14
S02E10 • The Deserter • 2.06
S02E11 • Lightsaber Lost • 2.11
S02E12 • The Mandalore Plot • 2.13
S02E13 • Voyage Of Temptation • 1.21
S02E14 • Duchess Of Mandalore • 2.16
S02E15 • Senate Murders • 2.10
S02E16 • Cat And Mouse • 2.17
S02E17 • Bounty Hunters • 2.19
S02E18 • The Zillo Beast • 2.22
S02E19 • The Zillo Beast Strikes Back • 2.23
S02E20 • Death Trap • 2.15
S02E21 • R2 Come Home • 2.18
S02E22 • Lethal Trackdown • 2.20

SEASON ONE

S01E01 • Ambush • 1.08 Million Viewers
S01E02 • Rising Malevolence • 1.07
S01E03 • Shadow Of Malevolence • 1.09
S01E04 • Destroy Malevolence • 1.11
S01E05 • Rookies • 1.14
S01E06 • Downfall Of A Droid • 1.02
S01E07 • Duel Of The Droids • 1.06
S01E08 • Bombad Jedi • 1.05
S01E09 • Cloak Of Darkness • 1.10
S01E10 • Lair of Grievous • 1.12
S01E11 • Dooku Captured • 1.16
S01E12 • The Gungan General • 1.20
S01E13 • Jedi Crash • 1.22
S01E14 • Defenders of Peace • 1.24
S01E15 • Trespass • 1.25
S01E16 • The Hidden Enemy • 2.01
S01E17 • Blue Shadow Virus • 1.26
S01E18 • Mystery Of A Thousand Moons • 2.02
S01E19 • Storm Over Ryloth • 1.15
S01E20 • Innocents of Ryloth • 1.17
S01E21 • Liberty on Ryloth • 1.19
S01E22 • Hostage Crisis • 2.04

As you can see Season Two was the most watched of the series with the current Season Three showing declining numbers. This could be attributed to the slow political pace of this season and viewer fatigue. For a series that uses war as a backdrop one would expect to see bodies piling up. Instead we get a teenage boy sizing up Ahsoka and school lunch poisoning.

Padme in the POP 2.0 clip kind of looks like she enjoys causing that little Selkath pain and/or potentially killing him. That level of disregard is not something I expected to see from her. Looks like she and Anakin are more alike then I previously thought.

Pursuit of Peace:

No, I mean ever since Corruption.