Liveblogging Season Five of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I think I am actually going to have to do this in chunks (sorry, I’m going to spam your comments threads) because I have SO many thoughts, especially about the last few episodes. Star Wars is just one of those things I am really invested in, more than any other fandom, so I think my opinions/reactions and previous expectations/thoughts about what should had happened are more extreme. There are some things I really enjoyed about this season, and some things I honestly hated.  I’m definitely still on the fence about Ahsoka and if I think she is a good addition to the canon or not. I love Ashley Eckstein, I love the idea of Ahsoka and more female characters, but I definitely found that consistently, my favorite episodes where the ones that did not feature Ahsoka.  I think in general I’m just more interested in the dynamics of the clones, the Jedi, the Force, the relationship between Anakin and Obi-wan, between Anakin and Padme, etc.  I understand wanting to add a new character but I think the show’s creators sometimes just loved her too much and focused on her too much and made her way too powerful.  But – I know I’m in the vast minority of this show’s fans, so that’s just how it is.  I want to love her but it’s a toss up in a given episode if I’ll find her completely annoying or not.  When I watch Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith I still find it hard to fit Ahsoka into that – wheras this show does a good job developing Anakin, his strained relationship with the Jedi, his growing relationship with Palpatine, his own conflicts regarding his emotions/attachments/passions and the darkness that led to, the general strained relationship with the Jedi/Republic (and explaining why public opinion could start to shift), and the general fall of the Jedi (partially due to Palpatine’s manipulation and orchestrating of their corruption and especially the moral implications surrounding the use of the clones). They did an okay job with Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship too (so you really can get a feel for that camraderie at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith).  What I don’t think this show has done a good enough job of (partially because of having to focus so much on Ahsoka) is developing Anakin and Padme’s relationship.

As a work of its own, Ahsoka’s existance doesn’t really need to be justified – she is a character in her own right, with her own journey.  Perhaps were this a standalone work I’d have a more favorable opinion of her.  But since this IS a work that is meant to bridge two existing movies, I do think it needs to be justified, and while certainly some of her and Anakin’s interactions with her help shed light on his development in between the two movies, especially in his proctiveness of her, and his maverick-ness/independence rubbing off on her, to the point where it causes her own strained relationship with the Jedi…I’m not sure yet if I think that is justified. I always felt like she was kind of jammed/inserted in by the show writers as their pet character.  Although actually, one thing that I found very interesting is how Anakin often finds himself in the position of having to give her advice that deals with his own struggles with his emotions, or the balance between doing what he feels is right and obedience.  That’s actually kind of interesting, and in a way it’s so sad that he is the source of inspiration of Ahsoka to stand up for the right thing, but that he himself actually goes the wrong path.  He an Ahsoka are in some ways very similar, so it’s interesting to look at why their paths diverged.  They are two sides of the same coin, and both end up leaving the Jedi, but obviously go down very different paths.  Ahsoka’s response to being disillusioned with the Jedi is just to leave (and presumably continuing fighting for right), and Anakin’s is…to slaughter everybody and usher in an era of darkness (although obviously there were way more dark forces coming to bear on him and manipulating him, and his own issues with attachment/possession he couldn’t get past).  Actually, in writing this I am attempting to come up with reasons to appreciate Ahsoka’s role in the story…perhaps with more time, distance and analysis I will be able to appreciate her contribution to the canon more :)

(As an aside, I don’t think this is just becuase ‘she’s a girl’ because I love some of the other new female characters in this show, and I also have the same reaction and feelings towards Ahsoka as I do to Starkiller in Force Unleashed – a too-badass/important character wedged into existing timelines/continuities)

Random nitpick – I also am slightly irritated by the fact that Anakin and Obi-Wan encounter/fight Count Dooku so many times since in Revenge of the Sith the impression is that this is their first time fighting him since AOTC (“this time we will do it together”) but that’s definitely a nitpick.

Regarding the first few arcs:

Revival – I kind of missed Hondo too, haha.  It’s always extra sad when I see a prequel Jedi (Adi) bite it.  Definitely some interesting stuff going on with Obi-Wan’s feelings towards Maul.

Onederon arc – this was kind of cool because I already knew who Saw was from Rogue One, and that he came from this Clone Wars arc. So it was neat to see him pre-breathing mask and all that.  Anyway – does anybody else find it vaguely disturbing that the Republic is training up armed rebels on supposedly non-affiliated planets?  I mean – I know story wise, they’re the good guys, we are rooting for them, etc, but there are definitely some dark real world implications here.  Even in-universe, the Republic isn’t exactly completely correct (I think the Separatists probably have valid points although of course they’re all being used by an evil party).  And it raises the ugly question (which in some ways they gloss over) about at what point are ‘terrorist’ type methods justified? Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad they showed that the Onederon rebels care enough about the actual people to actually actively try to minimize the civilian casualties because I’m sometimes kind of over the gritty ambiguous heroes.  But it definitely does make you wonder how the average Onederon citizen would feel about this.  Are there some that might favor the Separatists?  The show seems to imply they are pretty unified in not accepting the new ruler.  In some ways i twas almost too easy – I was waiting for the Seperatists or the fake king to start ordering the rounding up/execution of civilians in ‘retaliation’ so as to spark resentment amongst them for bringing their wrath against them.

I’m not that into the Lux/Ahsoka thing really (I agree – he comes off as dead weight sometimes) but it’s kinda worth it for Anakin having to give relationship advice.

I agree, Steela was great – I already knew she was going to die from Saw’s backstory, but man, that was painful :(

Baby Jedi arc – aww, I loved this!  Except that the entire time I was watching it, I was like, OMG, Anakin is going to slaughter all of them, isn’t he? :(  I’m excited they brought Ilum back.  I loved the little nerd Nautolan Jedi :)  But I thought the lightsaber cave ‘facing your own dark demons’ thing was pretty cool.  In some ways a little bit like the Dagobah cave but not quite as dark.  The lightsaber droid TOTALLY reminded me of Ollivander. Loved it. :)

Lightsaber black market – wonder if Ahsoka ever gets another, hm.  Does she buy one from Hondo? Haha.

That said – Hondo pretty much lost any goodwill. I can appreciate one of those love/hate antagonist relationships but once you start kidnapping children and wanting to sell women into some kind of nasty trafficking thing, I’m kind of done. You’re dead to me, Hondo.  The circus thing was honestly kind of hysterical.  And then, a few episodes later – stop trying to make me like you again, Hondo!

The secret mission droid arc – okay, it’s all downhill from here, in my opinion. I was loving this season, and then we got this. In fact, I think my hatred of this arc influenced how I felt about the rest of the season after it. I’ve found that in general I have not really enjoyed the droid-centric episodes – they are a little too slapsticky for me and it’s not really my brand of humor. This was actually painful for me to watch and I ended up zoning out for the last half of the episode.  Crazy pit droid kind of represents everyhting I hate about these kind of stories.  But honestly I don’t know if I hate him or Gascon more.  Both of them were just such incredibly annoying and grating characters to me.  AND THEN THERE WAS ACTUALLY MORE THAN ONE EPISODE.  I can’t believe how long that arc ran.  Also, as a short person, I was definitely over the ‘I’m tiny and disrespected so I’m going to act like a huge blowhard to make up for it’ gag that they kept going for with Gascon.  It might have been tolerable if it was just one or two episodes – I liked the other droids, there were some other interesting things going on with the evolution of Gascon’s attitude towards droids, but other wise, ughhhh. Also, the plot itself was dumb.  They stole an encryption chip, so wouldn’t the Separatists immediately change their encryption??? What is the actual gain???

The only interesting thing was the Missing in Action episode with the abanonded clone.  God, that was so sad – in some ways, I wish he hadn’t gotten his memories back because all that meant was that he was all gung ho about fulfilling his duty/finding meaning in dying for a government that finds him totally disposable. :(. I mean – obviously the diner owner was a jerk and I’m glad he wasn’t stuck there either, but it was really kind of a tragic ending to me.

We were going along with this season at a pretty good clip, but it took us a few weeks to get through these episodes. And then we heard a rumor CW was going to be pulled from Netflix in March (which didn’t actually seem to happen) so then we had to really binge the rest of 5 and 6, heh.

I’m gonna stop here for now – I have thoughts on the Death Watch/Satine arc (which was also pretty good, fridging aside) an dthe terrorist/Ahsoka gets kicked out arc (really disliked it and basically involved me and my husband yelling angry things at the TV). 

Clearly I have so many thoughts about Star Wars so that is obviously a good thing about the series.  There really is a lot to dig into here.  I wouldn’t have this much to say if I weren’t invested in the show in some way.

I hope I’m not ruffling too many feathers because I am pretty sure I’m in the minority opinion when it comes to Ahsoka. That’s cool; a lot of people love this show and also a whole new generation of fans that are really into it.  Ahsoka especially has meant a lot to other female fans, and I appreciate that as well (honestly, this is a cause close to my heart as well so I almost feel kind of guilty that I don’t love Ahsoka). They must be seeing something I’m not – and that’s fine.  I guess it’s not just me, since almost every episode my husband was also yelling at the TV about how stupid peoples’ decisions were.  But my reaction to Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order was basically, “Welp, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.”

When Emily wrote her review of Rogue One, it was titled something like ‘Rogue One Really Wants You To Like It, and That’s a Problem’. I really enjoyed Rogue One, but that’s actually kind of how I feel about Ahsoka – I feel like the creators just reaaaaallly want us to love her and constantly show us how badass and cool and right she always is and it gets on my nerves.  FWIW, I also instantly loved Rey, even though I know there was a lot of similar criticisms levied against her but I didn’t feel like I got that same vibe.  So…*shrugs*.

The last arc – the idea of people being disillusioned with the Jedi, their ethical responsibility in terms of the use of the clones, the war, the way Palpatine is manipulating both sides to create a no-win moral situation that destroys the Jedi from within, and the fact that Ahsoka, as she grows in her own strong sense of self, may decide to divorce herself from it, has the ability in some alternate universe to be an extremely compelling and interesting plot. I would be totally on board with that premise and support Ahsoka in that decision.

Instead, I feel like nobody’s character motivations really made sense. First of all, the idea that a terrorist who is against the Jedi and their involvement in violence choosing to express that by…a bomb that kills civilians…is a bit muddled.  But that’s not too far off from how extremists can operate in real life so I can go with that; that’s the least of my concerns.  For awhile I was also wondering if the wife/husband had something shady going on – abusive husband plot, perhaps.  (do they ever clarify if the husband actually was in on it at all, or they were all just being Force manipulated into it).  Actually, that brings up one of the nitpicky complaints I have which is, why would Letta have outed herself to the Jedi in the first place?  They didn’t have any other leads (maybe after doing some research they would have found her), and it’s not like Letta was ACTUALLY wondering where her husband was.  So all she did was to bring suspicion onto herself – unless the idea was that she was trying to reach out so she could out the plot, but she doesn’t really do that until after she’s in prison.

I was first predicting that Ahsoka perhaps was going to end up disillusioned because she just couldn’t accept that a Jedi could be behind it, which to me wasn’t satisfying (I know this is a reaction that people have in real life to all sorts of organizations, but it kinda bugs me there too), since you have to think that they were taught about things like Sith, the Lost 20, and the fact that yes, sometimes people fall short of ideals. 

Then we get the Fugitive plot and it just seemed way too fast – like everybody was just reacting too quickly, jumping to conclusions, acting rashly (both the accusers and the accused) and it seemed like a huge jump for Ahsoka to suddenly cut and run. The whole epsiode she is constantly doing things that she must know make her look inherently untrustworthy and guilty. And this is actually also a huge plot peeve of mine. I get really inordinately frustrated/anxious by plots involving little erorrs of communication, somebody not knowing some crucial piece of data, crazy circumstances that make something look like something it’s not, but that <I>any reasonable person</I> would still conclude it’s the other thing. I always hate how in those plots we’re supposed to think the accusers are wrong/stupid/bad for opposing the protagonist, even though in their minds, there is no reason to think of her as a protagonist (THEY don’t know they’re in a TV show, heh).  And of course she’s just so awesome that literally nobody – Jedi, whole clone platoons, etc, can take her down. The same clones, btw, that murder EVERY OTHER JEDI in Order 66. 

The best part was Assaj Ventress because I just pretty much love all of her teamups and she is such an interesting, conflicted character.  I was really hoping for more of that. (Emily your idea of a spinoff show in the signoff is just brilliant, I would totally watch that!)

I find that the user of power is inconsistent. This is something that has rubbed me the wrong way for a lot of the show, not just these episodes. First none of the highly trained clones we know are capable of killing other Jedi can take down Ahsoka.  Then Assaj Ventress gets her with almost no fight (although Assaj is awesome and a fully trained adult, so I’ll grant her that).  But then Barriss takes her down, AND gets the best of Assaj? And also somehow almost defeats Anakin?  It just seemed like people were always as powerful as the plot demanded.

Which brings me to my other question which is – aren’t these Jedi??? Don’t they have people who can READ MINDS?  Can’t they do some kind of interrogation, or mind sensing, or something?  So, I used to write a lot of fan fic and at least for me, I tried to always think about this – both in the sense of Jedi who were particulary skilled in this area, and Jedi who were skilled in withstanding it, projecting a false persona, etc. I get that some Jedi (or other less than ethical Force users) are going to be able to hide their true intentions better than others, and so it’s never going to be fool proof, but you’d think they’d have some super awesomely strong empaths who could help assist in things like this and be like, “yup, Ahoska is most likely telling the truth”.  Or even do things like undergo mutual hypnosis and experience what the other person experienced.   I just feel like the non-martial Jedi powers got a short shrift in this show and those powers would greatly influence the plot.  I mean, I don’t know, maybe they would have actually have done this if it weren’t for Ashoka just running off.

And oh, we have to talk about my girl Barriss.  Would you believe that my first thought about where this arc was going was that Barriss had a secret romance with the boy from her cohort that got killed and that’s why she was being so cagey about all of it?  I always had a huge soft spot for Barriss for two main reasons – I love purple, and I also had a thing about Jedi Healers, and in the EU she’s a Healer.  I even dressed up as Barriss for the RotS premiere, and a Celebration we went to, and met other people dressed as Barriss and got my picture taken with the actress so YEAH THANKS FOR THAT CLONE WARS.  But even aside from my personal irritation at them messing with a perfectly good side character, I couldn’t tell what they were going for. I had a sinking feeling that it was her as soon as somebody attacked Ventress.  When she’s fighting Anakin she talks about how the red lightsabers suit her. So are we implying she went to the dark side? But then her motives are apparently to make some statement about how the Jedi have all GONE to the Dark Side by being a part of the war and embracing violence and how horrible that is.  So her response is to…turn to the Dark Side and use violence?  It’s actually a really interesting concept (various Jedi becoming disillusioned, leaving – plus kind of gives a possible out for Order 66 and she could go rogue) but I think here they went more for shock value.  Barriss could have ended up a pretty interesting character but I think they short changed her here.

As for Ahsoka’s decision to leave, I don’t really sympathize. First of all, maybe I am just coming at it from a different perspective, but I see nothing wrong with the Jedi handing her over to a civil court. Maybe there’s something I’m not understanding about how the Jedi actually fit into the political structure/court system, or the kinds of penalties they can mete out on their own.  But, for example, who would think it was okay if a Catholic priest (just using that example because it’s what I know) was accused of a crime and was tried by an ecclesiastical court?  I’m Catholic, and I think that’s utterly insane.  Of course they should be tried by CIVIL courts. So I honestly don’t see why the Jedi are any different if one of their own (supposedly) goes rogue and non Jedi get caught in the fray.  It’s a little weird that the Jedi wouldn’t have any kind of external accountability.  Now, of course we know Tarkin has his own ulterior motives (hm, how suspicious that the sound was missing from the security recording of her and Letta. I guess Barriss also did that?) so in that sense we are supposed to root for the Jedi, but on principal – no, I don’t think it’s wrong at all for Ahsoka to stand a civil trial, and for her to leave the Jedi because of THAT just seems petulant and put-upon for not getting away with the same kind of crap she’s gotten away with for the past 5 seasons, and NOT an actual stance of integrity.  I can see being upset they didn’t all believe her, and yes, they should have pushed back at expelling her before it was even determined she was guilty, but they also don’t have the advantage the audience does of knowing what actually happened. There also are definitely in between a rock and a hard place (due to Palpy’s maneuvering and their own shortcomings in foresight).  Ahsoka was not exactly covering herself in glory.  I think there actually are totally legitamate reasons Ahsoka might decide to leave the Order but…the way it all played out just didn’t resonate with me.  Especially when it was clear that Anakin, Obi-Wan and Plo Koon WERE on her side but just got overruled.

However, I did want to slap Mace Windu when he was like, “Hah, yeah, this was just your trial, JUST KIDDING!” I was half expecting Barriss to come out and reveal Ahsoka had just been punked.  Mace Windu is definitely in the running for the Order’s Biggest Asshole, and he only loses because Pong Krell exists. (And yes, I did feel that the scene was harmed by none of the Jedi ladies being part of that decision.) But on that note, sometimes I wonder if this arc went a little too far in showing the flawed nature of the Jedi.  Obviously they are not perfect, and Palpatine is basically able to run circles around them.  And I also like to explore what happens when people put certain groups (or themselves, in that group) on a pedestal.  But they are almost so corrupt/incompetent or just flat out unable to understand/empathize with people that it almost makes them villains.  When Obi-Wan sadly reminicses about the Jedi in A New Hope, you’re supposed to feel somewhat sad and wistful, but this kind of takes away from that.  But maybe that’s the point :)

Regarding Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship – in some ways they have more chemistry than he and Padme (not necessarily romantic chemistry), which might just mean we didn’t get to see enough of Anakin and Padme and actually developing that relationship.  And it was always interesting/sad to see Anakin give her the same kind of advice about her emotions, her beliefs, etc that he couldn’t take himself.

Okay, that’s enough. Onto season 6 (spoiler alert: loved it)