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krpalmerIt turned out that Teletoon has now fallen behind Cartoon Network in showing new Clone Wars episodes, and where last season I just sort of shrugged that off and waited, this time around I resorted to underhanded means to see "Heroes on Both Sides." I suppose part of my motivation may have been the news of the new main character designs, but I may have also wandered off to some pretty involved speculation over one little bit of description. In the end, there were indeed things to think about in this episode...
One bit of the Revenge of the Sith opening crawl may, I fear, have played into the hands of those who found a reason to get upset with the start of the opening crawl for The Phantom Menace and never looked back, that there are "heroes on both sides." At last, though, we get to see "the civilian Separatists" instead of battle droids and glowering commanders, and with characters like an old friend of Padme Mina Bonteri they seem to be presented in a quite positive light. At the same time, with the episode built around a Republic Senate proposal to finance the war by "deregulating the banks" and benefit the corporate leaders even I sort of thought as leading the Separatists after Attack of the Clones but instead seem to have kept up "plausible deniability," I can imagine some of the people whose opinions I keep up with getting annoyed again that Clone Wars is dealing with "allusions to now." Too, the contrast between the idealistic Separatist politicians in their pleasant parliament and the underhanded actions of their military seem something to be considered; I suppose I can imagine the politicians being viewed with bemused contempt by the military so long as they keep building battle droids.
Beyond the large-scale machinations, though, there are the characters, and also the speculation I got into. A shadow hanging over Clone Wars for me has always been "what's going to happen to Ahsoka at the end?" It was the comment about her "emotional development" and "coming face to face with the enemy" that got me thinking, wondering if, just perhaps, she might somehow become disillusioned with the Republic at some point in the future and "go rogue"... it would, of course, need careful development. I might have wondered about Ahsoka talking with Lux Bonteri and worried about how "emotionally connected" characters introduced late always seem to be unpopular, but more than that there seems a risk that "going to the other side" might yet mean "the Dark Side," and that might well seem too much like her mentor's already established arc. If a big point is made of her "working with the other side" but not ending up "evil," though, then I can sort of imagine this seeming a little too much like certain comments I've heard second-hand about the idealisation of Mara Jade... Of course, this is still pretty much speculation even with Anakin's reaction to Padme and Ahsoka's secret mission at the end of the episode. If things turn out like "the Jedi Council finds a reason to reassign Ahsoka before 'graduation'" (as others have speculated) or just "she and Rex get left behind in the rush to rescue Palpatine" (as I may have hoped for myself), that won't be bad either.
In any case, the new character designs were interesting, the "autumnal" feel of the Separatist world Raxus was sort of an interesting touch, and the "transforming robot fan" in me got a kick out of the "infiltrator droids." Grievous's pep talk (such as it was) to them was also fun, but there was something impressive about the brutality of their attack on the hapless generator workers.
One bit of the Revenge of the Sith opening crawl may, I fear, have played into the hands of those who found a reason to get upset with the start of the opening crawl for The Phantom Menace and never looked back, that there are "heroes on both sides." At last, though, we get to see "the civilian Separatists" instead of battle droids and glowering commanders, and with characters like an old friend of Padme Mina Bonteri they seem to be presented in a quite positive light. At the same time, with the episode built around a Republic Senate proposal to finance the war by "deregulating the banks" and benefit the corporate leaders even I sort of thought as leading the Separatists after Attack of the Clones but instead seem to have kept up "plausible deniability," I can imagine some of the people whose opinions I keep up with getting annoyed again that Clone Wars is dealing with "allusions to now." Too, the contrast between the idealistic Separatist politicians in their pleasant parliament and the underhanded actions of their military seem something to be considered; I suppose I can imagine the politicians being viewed with bemused contempt by the military so long as they keep building battle droids.
Beyond the large-scale machinations, though, there are the characters, and also the speculation I got into. A shadow hanging over Clone Wars for me has always been "what's going to happen to Ahsoka at the end?" It was the comment about her "emotional development" and "coming face to face with the enemy" that got me thinking, wondering if, just perhaps, she might somehow become disillusioned with the Republic at some point in the future and "go rogue"... it would, of course, need careful development. I might have wondered about Ahsoka talking with Lux Bonteri and worried about how "emotionally connected" characters introduced late always seem to be unpopular, but more than that there seems a risk that "going to the other side" might yet mean "the Dark Side," and that might well seem too much like her mentor's already established arc. If a big point is made of her "working with the other side" but not ending up "evil," though, then I can sort of imagine this seeming a little too much like certain comments I've heard second-hand about the idealisation of Mara Jade... Of course, this is still pretty much speculation even with Anakin's reaction to Padme and Ahsoka's secret mission at the end of the episode. If things turn out like "the Jedi Council finds a reason to reassign Ahsoka before 'graduation'" (as others have speculated) or just "she and Rex get left behind in the rush to rescue Palpatine" (as I may have hoped for myself), that won't be bad either.
In any case, the new character designs were interesting, the "autumnal" feel of the Separatist world Raxus was sort of an interesting touch, and the "transforming robot fan" in me got a kick out of the "infiltrator droids." Grievous's pep talk (such as it was) to them was also fun, but there was something impressive about the brutality of their attack on the hapless generator workers.