January 13 2012

view: (720p)



"Friendship shows us who we really are"

Episode Guide: A Friend In Need


Synopsis: A peace conference between Separatists and Republic delegates is interrupted by Lux Bonteri, the son of a late Separatist Senator, who involves Ahsoka in his dangerous search to find justice for his mother's death.

view: (SD HDTV)

A better than average episode with some really interesting parts. I really liked how savage the Death Watch were portrayed. But I guess they had to be in order to justify the quadruple beheading by Ahsoka.

Holy shit was that awesome and totally unexpected! I also liked the creepy scene with R2 and the broken droids asking to be repaired. And the ending, when Lux and Ahsoka are separated by a window as Lux departs in the escape pod was really touching and sweet.

Again, a better than average stand-alone episode.

Filoni has a wonderfully cinematic mind. The episodes he directs always have a refined story and ambitious visuals.

I like that Death Watch’s "farewell" battle with Dooku remains off-screen. This approach is a callback to OT Boba’s more mysterious portrayal. I also like how the Achilles heel motif still stands with jet packs. (Live by the jet pack, die by the jetpack.)

I think we’re headed for a unification of Death Watch and the Nightsisters. Both factions have the same goal: Dooku’s death. So, it makes sense that Pre and Asajj would pool their resources.

The final scene was pure Tartakovsky:



Update: From Filoni’s Facebook page:
[hr]I hope you all enjoy the episode tonight. I think the Death Watch has gotten significantly cooler, and we are going to build on that next season. One of my favorite things about this episode was the introduction of female Death Watch troopers led by Bo-Katan named The Night Owls.

We were incredibly fortunate to get Katee Sackhoff to join the cast and portray the deadly Bo-Katan. Her character didn’t originally exist in the script; she was simply a character called “Death Watch Lieutenant” and was a man. I changed that when I went to direct the episode.

This was done late in production, and while we were able to create her armor we didn’t have time to do her head, which requires much more complex rigging and time to develop the facial shapes. I decided to leave her helmet on and do a more developed, expressive face in season five.

So, for a little sneak peak at what’s to come, I did this quick illustration for all of you. It gives you a glimpse of her face, and who knows, if you can make it to Celebration 6 in Orlando you might get to see more Death Watch action than ever before.[hr]

Yeah that was a great episode once again ! The part with droids begging for help was really awesome.
Oh and I see yet another ship from the sketchbook, once again the Imperial shuttle.

Not a bad episode and it is great to see the return of Death Watch and seeing Mandalore again. The Ahsoka X Lux scenes were kinda cringe worthy at times for me. I wonder how will they develop this friendship/relationship even further...

I liked how they gave Death Watch a traditional tribe feeling with tents, leadership, etc. I laughed a little when some of the Death Watch soldiers were making the broken assassin droids dance by shooting at them. I loved how they tried to make Death Watch diverse on screen by having a nice distribution of male and female. Bo-Katan is a nice addition to the series and I hope we get to see her more because I think she will be a good rival for Ahsoka.

[align=center]STILLS • CONCEPT ART • TRIVIA[/align]
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that was so cinematic.... felt like classic Star Wars (lots of thing reminded me A New Hope in some way), AND like classic Clone Wars too: there was a little something feeling like the "old school" the 1st episodes of the series have become, that's very fresh... awesome

Season 4 is groundbreaking

Star Wars: The Clone Wars S04E14 720p WEB-DL Itunes Version 720P (Download, Mirror)

After re-watching the episode, I realized that the unpainted Death Watch look is an homage to animated Boba.

Not a bad episode.

Talk about your bit parts - Katee got what, 5 lines and kicked off a speeder?

No. The Death Watch armor is not unpainted. It's blue and grey as requested by George.

I loved this episode. Very cinematic, very well animated. It was also one of the more violent and adult episodes: we got cold-blooded murder of a young girl and a bunch of decapitations. That moment when Ashoka got her sabers back and kill those mandalores with one swipe was badass.

This series knocked the mandalores out of the park with death watch. Oh how I wish they were the antagonists of the PT.

The warrior below reminded me of cartoon Boba. His blue and grey paint has withered away.

Since we are on the topic of armor, I think it is very cool how the art design people made some Death Watch warriors unique. Some of them look the same, but some have small differences like different color patches on their shoulder pads, the box or triangle symbol on their chest armor, etc. They did an awesome job changing Pre Vizsla's armor around a lot.

I hope we get to see the confrontation between Count Dooku and Pre Vizsla since it was mentioned, but I doubt it. It can explain how there were less Death Watch warriors in this episode compared to the episode where they were getting ready to invade the capital of Mandalore.

Actually, that's something I did not like. I'll transcript something I've posted on :

I've noticed something with the latest episode (although I hope I'm wrong). I like that GL is materializing and canonizing (?) his ideas about certain characters or groups in this series. Like the Mandalorians, for example.

Before, they were just a bunch of rebel, nomadic people, with customized armor (as Dave puts it: a bunch of Boba Fett's).

After the Mandalore trilogy, we now see that they were an organized military elite with an army. Closer to George's original vision of these "super commandos".

I liked their uncompromised boldness on trying to bring back the original concept. However, after seeing the latest episode "A Friend in Need", it looks like they were trying to appease those who were unhappy with this change, and compromised. It's no longer their "original" concept. It's the old EU rebel and nomadic look, and I didn't like it.

Now, was this "sudden" change due to their in-universe condition of being in hide of both the CIS and the Republic? Will it be changed back when they finally take Mandalore? I hope so. But I have a hard time believing in it.

Really liked this episode. Ashokas duel with Vizsla was really well animated, and demonstrated really well how much Vizsla had grown in ability. The Death Watch comes off as a genuine threat to the Jedi, unlike the droids, which is something this series really needs.

Death Watch feels to me exactly like the Mandalorians from the KOTOR era, which I personally prefer. I think the change in the group from the Mandalore trilogy could be attributed to them being on the run and bitterness over failing to take control over Mandalore initially.

The slaughtering of the villagers was pretty shocking, cudos to the team and Cartoon Network for allowing it. This was my favorite episode after Carnage of Krell.

RATING: 9/10

On a side note: I’m really glad forums like this exist. TCW forum on TFN has turned into Bashers heaven, It’s not possible to read a thread there anymore without a million overly negative responses polluting it.

I find this especially weird since s4 IMHO is easily the best season yet (assuming this level of quality continues for the rest of the season), this should be a great time to be a fan, but most of those forumers act like every second of a TCW episode is an insult.

I stumbled upon this cool picture. I am not too sure if it's fanart or an actual concept art.

Fanart. And the title of the picture confirms it.

It says fan art or real.

That is concept art for the Old Republic MMO by Thomas Szakolczay.

Filoni said they wanted to show Bo-Katan's face, but couldn't get the animation done in time. So she'll return next season.



He put this sketch up on his FB page: