The Clone Wars strikes back
Warning: major SPOILERS for episode 2-19: "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back", which airs on April 16 in most places.
- There's a lot of déjà-vu. This episode recycles or subverts a dozen ideas from ROTS and at least one from AOTC. I also see a parallel with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (a deadly magical creature and Padmé Hagrid vs Tom Riddle).
- The Zillo beast is the smartest character in this episode, as Dave Filoni confirms in the commentary. That's why it has to die, for the plot's sake. Otherwise ROTS and the original trilogy can't happen. But I was still hoping it would escape. The ending is unsurprising but depressing.
- Palpatine is much too obvious. All he is missing is the Sith cloak. With the way he acts in this episode, he might as well have a sign on his forehead saying "I am an evil Sith Lord". And the only character who notices is... the Zillo beast. My suspension of disbelief was close to snapping. The Jedi can't be that dumb.
- That's some brilliant dramatic irony in the dialogue. Also, am I the only one who noticed the subverted lines from TPM?
- Obi-Wan is a sly fox. He told Padmé about the "problem" knowing that she would feel sorry for the Zillo and that she'd be able to convince Anakin. Meaning he knows more about their relationship than he has told the Jedi Council. And he knows Padmé better than Anakin does. Anakin had no idea that she would "feel so strongly about this", but Obi-Wan knew. That's why he told her even though he wasn't supposed to (it was a military secret). And I'm sure he put the problem in terms of freedom and free will to get Padmé so worked up about it. Yeah, this is the same Obi-Wan who tells her that Anakin killed younglings so that he can sneak onto her ship when she goes to question him in person.
- Padmé is a sly fox too. She is better than that at hiding her emotions - see "Senate Spy". It's not what she says, it's her puppy-dog eyes look that gets Anakin to agree... to Obi-Wan's idea.
- Hagrid!Padmé would make more sense if she knew that the creature was intelligent or that it was being tortured, but she didn't know anything more than whatever Obi-Wan told her. And she didn't have much of a problem with Anakin killing "animals" in AOTC. Since when is she an animal rights activist?
- The really weird thing is that for once, Anakin is being more rational than Padmé. What we see in this episode is a caricature of her character: she is blinded by her compassion for a monster. She still defends it even after seeing how dangerous it is. I get what the CW team is doing here. A lot of people still don't understand that compassion is the basis of Padmé character and her tragic flaw, so they have to exaggerate it to near absurdity.
- Padmé is a hypocrite. She says there should be a discussion/debate, but what does she do when Anakin tries to reason with her? Does she debate with him? No. She gives him those nasty looks until he gets the point and shuts up. The I despise you looks from "Senate Spy". At least in "Senate Spy", her resentment is somewhat justified or at least in character: she doesn't like him telling her what to do and then trying to sabotage her mission. Isn't she supposed to be in love with him, anyway?
- The "ANI!" moment is silly. I like how they look at each other and the terrible expression on his face when he think she has fallen. (No, this journal hasn't been hijacked by an Anakin/Padmé shipper.) But her screaming "ANI!" cheapens the moment. It reminds me of Satine shrieking "OBI!" in "Duchess of Mandalore". Hilarious.
- Her interaction with Anakin notwithstanding, Padmé's characterization in this episode makes sense if you realize they are trying to show the progression of her beliefs from "I did it for the Republic! You're a traitor!" (TCW: Senate Spy) to "we may be on the wrong side" (ROTS). We are seeing how and why she loses some of her idealism and faith by ROTS.
- Interesting insight into the compassion and respect for life aspects of Jedi philosophy. We don't see a lot about that. Also, I really liked Mace Windu in this episode. He is a voice of reason and he sticks to his position to the end. "How can it be a plan if it's improvised?" is one of my favorite lines.
- It gets really funny after someone says "Oh, no." I bet Palpatine didn't foresee that. Or maybe he did - it isn't like he'd care how many people the creature killed - but he surely didn't foresee that it would go after him. Best twist in the episode, and it was the idea of George Lucas himself, says Dave Filoni in the episode commentary. Typically, Palpatine thought it was just an unintelligent animal and so he seriously underestimated it. From how fast he was running, it looked like he was genuinely afraid.
- Padmé gives the order to evacuate the staff, which apparently includes Mas Amedda. Or she gives the order to Amedda, which would also explain why he disappears at that point. Either way, since when? Isn't she just a Senator?
- And why doesn't she go to the bunker? I get that Anakin stays because of her (it sounds like his idea was to go to the bunker right away), and Palpatine stays because he is underestimating the danger (some unintelligent beast a danger to him, really? But he changes his mind after that hilarious staring contest through the window). But why does Padmé stay?
- Anakin is (mostly) likeable in this episode. Yes, laughing at Padmé's compassion for the Zillo isn't a nice thing to do, but it's true that he has seen what it's capable of, and her talking about it as if it's a harmless kitten has to look ridiculous to him. It also isn't nice to imply that she would leak secrets to the enemy - I'm sure that's how she hears it - but...
- "Whose side are you on anyway?" How quickly Anakin says "Yours". No hesitation; no conflict. He doesn't agree with her, but he is on her side because he knows it's very important to her, and that's enough for him. This isn't ROTS!Anakin.
- But it is ROTS!Padmé right out of the "You sound like a Separatist" scene. After "Senate Murders", I suspected we'd be seeing her soon. She looks like she is in pain all the time, except when she looks angry (four times in one minute, three of them against Anakin) or terrified. She looks like something (deeper than her sympathy for the Zillo) is destroying her. And there is no mystery about what that something is. She says it: "what we're capable of". Oh, yeah, about that...
- "What we're capable of." "I wish we had never brought the beast here." Her use of the word "we" implies that she participated in the decision, but then what was that about secrets? She didn't even know about the beast until Obi-Wan told her, and we all know - she knows - whose decision it was to bring it to Coruscant. So why "we"? Just being polite? Or is that how she thinks? Okay. Wow. What did I say about reading my fanfiction? Then why "Whose side are you on?"? Conflicted, isn't she?
- It's very interesting how the nonverbal contradicts the dialogue sometimes. If you pay attention to Padmé's body language, what it's saying at certain moments is very different from what she is saying. Keep in mind that The Clone Wars is created by George Lucas, who has this to say about his filmmaking style:
"I see film as a visual medium with a musical accompaniment, and dialogue is a raft that goes on with it. I create films that way - very visually - and the dialogue's not what's important. I'm one of those people who says, yes, cinema died when they invented sound. [...] I prefer to use the old style. People take it in different ways, depending on their sophistication."
- George Lucas, as quoted in Star Wars: The Making of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
I'll stop here. Overall, I liked this episode. It was funny, sad, and chilling all at once. It was entertaining and complex, which is as far as you can get from boring. But I'm not sure what to make of some of the characterization. I won't go as far as to call it out of character, because I can't claim to know the characters better than their creator does. But trying to compute episodes like this one and the prequel movies gives me a headache.
- There's a lot of déjà-vu. This episode recycles or subverts a dozen ideas from ROTS and at least one from AOTC. I also see a parallel with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (a deadly magical creature and Padmé Hagrid vs Tom Riddle).
- The Zillo beast is the smartest character in this episode, as Dave Filoni confirms in the commentary. That's why it has to die, for the plot's sake. Otherwise ROTS and the original trilogy can't happen. But I was still hoping it would escape. The ending is unsurprising but depressing.
- Palpatine is much too obvious. All he is missing is the Sith cloak. With the way he acts in this episode, he might as well have a sign on his forehead saying "I am an evil Sith Lord". And the only character who notices is... the Zillo beast. My suspension of disbelief was close to snapping. The Jedi can't be that dumb.
- That's some brilliant dramatic irony in the dialogue. Also, am I the only one who noticed the subverted lines from TPM?
- Obi-Wan is a sly fox. He told Padmé about the "problem" knowing that she would feel sorry for the Zillo and that she'd be able to convince Anakin. Meaning he knows more about their relationship than he has told the Jedi Council. And he knows Padmé better than Anakin does. Anakin had no idea that she would "feel so strongly about this", but Obi-Wan knew. That's why he told her even though he wasn't supposed to (it was a military secret). And I'm sure he put the problem in terms of freedom and free will to get Padmé so worked up about it. Yeah, this is the same Obi-Wan who tells her that Anakin killed younglings so that he can sneak onto her ship when she goes to question him in person.
- Padmé is a sly fox too. She is better than that at hiding her emotions - see "Senate Spy". It's not what she says, it's her puppy-dog eyes look that gets Anakin to agree... to Obi-Wan's idea.
- Hagrid!Padmé would make more sense if she knew that the creature was intelligent or that it was being tortured, but she didn't know anything more than whatever Obi-Wan told her. And she didn't have much of a problem with Anakin killing "animals" in AOTC. Since when is she an animal rights activist?
- The really weird thing is that for once, Anakin is being more rational than Padmé. What we see in this episode is a caricature of her character: she is blinded by her compassion for a monster. She still defends it even after seeing how dangerous it is. I get what the CW team is doing here. A lot of people still don't understand that compassion is the basis of Padmé character and her tragic flaw, so they have to exaggerate it to near absurdity.
- Padmé is a hypocrite. She says there should be a discussion/debate, but what does she do when Anakin tries to reason with her? Does she debate with him? No. She gives him those nasty looks until he gets the point and shuts up. The I despise you looks from "Senate Spy". At least in "Senate Spy", her resentment is somewhat justified or at least in character: she doesn't like him telling her what to do and then trying to sabotage her mission. Isn't she supposed to be in love with him, anyway?
- The "ANI!" moment is silly. I like how they look at each other and the terrible expression on his face when he think she has fallen. (No, this journal hasn't been hijacked by an Anakin/Padmé shipper.) But her screaming "ANI!" cheapens the moment. It reminds me of Satine shrieking "OBI!" in "Duchess of Mandalore". Hilarious.
- Her interaction with Anakin notwithstanding, Padmé's characterization in this episode makes sense if you realize they are trying to show the progression of her beliefs from "I did it for the Republic! You're a traitor!" (TCW: Senate Spy) to "we may be on the wrong side" (ROTS). We are seeing how and why she loses some of her idealism and faith by ROTS.
- Interesting insight into the compassion and respect for life aspects of Jedi philosophy. We don't see a lot about that. Also, I really liked Mace Windu in this episode. He is a voice of reason and he sticks to his position to the end. "How can it be a plan if it's improvised?" is one of my favorite lines.
- It gets really funny after someone says "Oh, no." I bet Palpatine didn't foresee that. Or maybe he did - it isn't like he'd care how many people the creature killed - but he surely didn't foresee that it would go after him. Best twist in the episode, and it was the idea of George Lucas himself, says Dave Filoni in the episode commentary. Typically, Palpatine thought it was just an unintelligent animal and so he seriously underestimated it. From how fast he was running, it looked like he was genuinely afraid.
- Padmé gives the order to evacuate the staff, which apparently includes Mas Amedda. Or she gives the order to Amedda, which would also explain why he disappears at that point. Either way, since when? Isn't she just a Senator?
- And why doesn't she go to the bunker? I get that Anakin stays because of her (it sounds like his idea was to go to the bunker right away), and Palpatine stays because he is underestimating the danger (some unintelligent beast a danger to him, really? But he changes his mind after that hilarious staring contest through the window). But why does Padmé stay?
- Anakin is (mostly) likeable in this episode. Yes, laughing at Padmé's compassion for the Zillo isn't a nice thing to do, but it's true that he has seen what it's capable of, and her talking about it as if it's a harmless kitten has to look ridiculous to him. It also isn't nice to imply that she would leak secrets to the enemy - I'm sure that's how she hears it - but...
- "Whose side are you on anyway?" How quickly Anakin says "Yours". No hesitation; no conflict. He doesn't agree with her, but he is on her side because he knows it's very important to her, and that's enough for him. This isn't ROTS!Anakin.
- But it is ROTS!Padmé right out of the "You sound like a Separatist" scene. After "Senate Murders", I suspected we'd be seeing her soon. She looks like she is in pain all the time, except when she looks angry (four times in one minute, three of them against Anakin) or terrified. She looks like something (deeper than her sympathy for the Zillo) is destroying her. And there is no mystery about what that something is. She says it: "what we're capable of". Oh, yeah, about that...
- "What we're capable of." "I wish we had never brought the beast here." Her use of the word "we" implies that she participated in the decision, but then what was that about secrets? She didn't even know about the beast until Obi-Wan told her, and we all know - she knows - whose decision it was to bring it to Coruscant. So why "we"? Just being polite? Or is that how she thinks? Okay. Wow. What did I say about reading my fanfiction? Then why "Whose side are you on?"? Conflicted, isn't she?
- It's very interesting how the nonverbal contradicts the dialogue sometimes. If you pay attention to Padmé's body language, what it's saying at certain moments is very different from what she is saying. Keep in mind that The Clone Wars is created by George Lucas, who has this to say about his filmmaking style:
"I see film as a visual medium with a musical accompaniment, and dialogue is a raft that goes on with it. I create films that way - very visually - and the dialogue's not what's important. I'm one of those people who says, yes, cinema died when they invented sound. [...] I prefer to use the old style. People take it in different ways, depending on their sophistication."
- George Lucas, as quoted in Star Wars: The Making of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
I'll stop here. Overall, I liked this episode. It was funny, sad, and chilling all at once. It was entertaining and complex, which is as far as you can get from boring. But I'm not sure what to make of some of the characterization. I won't go as far as to call it out of character, because I can't claim to know the characters better than their creator does. But trying to compute episodes like this one and the prequel movies gives me a headache.