Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Clone Wars Review: Supply Lines

Su cuy'gar, everyone, and welcome to another Clone Army Review. Today, we will be looking at a particularly interesting episode pulled from Season 3- Supply Lines.

You don't know the power of the SPOILERS!

Remember what I said about Season 3 having to be REALLY GOOD to survive an episode with Jar Jar?

Well, turns out that the Force is strong with this one, because Supply Lines gave me quite a shock. In that I was able to survive this episode with Jar Jar in it, somehow. I bet you're dying to know how, too. So, dive right in!

So remember Ryloth? Yeah, when we left it, it was kinda liberated a bit. So why is it warring? 'Cuz this takes place before even the beginning of Season 1- this is a precursor to the episode Ambush, and, somewhat indirectly, the Ryloth Trilogy. (Wow, we're jumping all over the canonical map here, aren't we?) So, during the beginning of the attack on Ryloth, we are introduced to Jedi Master Ima-Gun Di (Say that out loud and I don't even need to tell you what happens to him.) on the planet's surface, trapped with his troops and a handful of Twi'lek freedom fighters (Who happen to inconveniently have their ENTIRE FAMILIES with them [what]) without supplies or ammo and surrounded by droid armies.

Aw man, this is gonna suck, isn't it.

Anyways, on Toydaria, Bail Organa meets Jar Jar Binks to discuss-
*collective groan*
I KNOW I HATE HIM TOO, give him a SMALL chance, guys.
So Jar Jar Binks and Bail Organa walk into the Toydarian throne room (and no, that's not the start of a bad joke) and attempt to convince King Katuunko and his band of Watto clones ministers to help send supplies to Ryloth, but a pair of Nute Gunray cosplayers Trade Federation ambassadors show up and convince him to do nothing. However, the King eventually decides to secretly allow the Republic ships to head to Ryloth, if Bail can keep the Trade Federation from linking Toydaria to the mission.
Meanwhile, back on Ryloth, Master Di and his men are still trapped. Di promises Cham Syndulla, Twi'lek freedom fighter leader, that the Republic will assist them, but they are unable to meet eye to eye. Di then creates a plan to prevent the droids from attacking from two fronts, stalling them until the Twi'leks can get their families out of harm's way Cham feels betrayed, Di comments that war dashes promises to hopes, and prepares for battle, resigning himself and his men to their fate.
As they prepare for the attack, Bail's plan begins to bear fruit- while the senators, King Katuunko and some Toydarians are having a formal dinner, Bail organizes the ships to leave with the supplies while Jar Jar distracts them in a strange manner that I will not describe. However, I will say that Jar Jar does not break everything within a ten foot radius, and the "conceptual gungan art ritual" is actually somewhat amusing because he doesn't totally fail at it.
And the attack begins.
I won't spoil the battle (it's really cool) but... I will say that Jedi Master Ima-Gun Di lives up to his name. It's big and dramatic and I really will miss him. The supplies reach Ryloth, and the King decides to reconsider his planet's neutrality... but that is for another episode. ROLL THE CREDITS.

Say what you will about Jar Jar, but he actually was able to serve up a decent performance here. Ahmed Best I have missed you so very much. But there's so much more to this episode than Jar Jar, and while IGN thought it was rather "busy", I think the ideas are all very well balanced, but I think Di's quest to liberate Ryloth could have been expanded in an episode all its own. In any case, some of the cool things to note about this episode, we finally get to see the infamous blockade runner, famous for being the very first ship ever seen in Star Wars, actually run a blockade after all these years! Master Di overall rocked, with a cool design and an awesome voice. Captain Keeli had REALLY cool armor (And, note, he is the only other Phase I ARC commander to have a rangefinder on his helmet other than Rex). All the troopers shared a great armor design. The battles were big and busy and really fun to watch, and the designs and voices of some of the Toydarians were pretty neat. I like how they expanded on the species of one little Tatooine-residing junk dealer into a species with compassion literally written into their constitution.

So, overall? A very good episode, but I think Season 3 will give us better. After all, ARC Troopers was amazing, so more of that, please! (Also, does it strike anyone else as weird that we haven't seen Mary Sue Ahsoka yet in this season? Oh well, Greedo holds George Lucas at gunpoint in the next episode! If nothing else, this'll be a lot of fun to watch.

Until next time, k'oyaci, everyone!

-Commander Ben

1 comment:

  1. "Oh well, Greedo holds George Lucas at gunpoint in the next episode!"

    When you put it that way, it makes me feel a little better about that episode. xD

    ReplyDelete