So . . . I loved these two episodes and I'm going to tell you why
Spoiler!
This was a great political thriller, that had Palpatines hands all over if from the start. It brilliantly linked to both a discussion in ANH and back to the Clone Wars.
But lets look at some things overall.
The animation and music and production values are so good. The whole scene with the Assasin especially trying to kill Chuchi was so well done. And at first I thought the Assasin was Crosshair in a fancy new piece of armor.
Realitically it was cool to have an episode of the show without the Bad Batch in it, as we set the stage for some real reveals involving them in Episode 8. But the first episode is all about how the Empire works.
So the first question, if Palpatine is in charge why does he need the Senate to vote on funding? I mean what Palpatine wants, Palpatine gets right?
Because its political theater, Palpatine first of all going back to ROTS is the Senate, he controls it, he's corrupted it. While he might let some small victories happen, like Chuchi and Organa delaying the recruitment program and talking about the rights of the Clones, they no matter what werent going to win.
But right now, with the republic transferring to the Empire, with brush fires springing up all over the place, and Palpatine not having the Military that he wants he needs the Senate to control the bureaucracy. Remember that very question was asked in ANH on the Death Star, and Palpatine when he had his pieces in place, the system of Moffs and a true terror weapon, he needed the senate to give legitimacy to his rule.
So if he has to give in on minor points and then assert himself and his control on the Senate on the stuff that he wants, he appears to the galaxy to be a benevolent and fair dictator who got the republic through a horrible war.
The second episode is where we really see how good Palpatine really is as a political master mind. We see the Batch swooping in to steal the evidence of the slaughter of Kamino, and the Batch and Organa and Chuchi while doing the right thing literally slit the throats of every clone out there.
Especially when Palpatine who hasn't bothered with the Senate and makes a extremely reasonable and sympathetic speech about Rampart going rogue, and that the Clones are perhaps too good at obeying orders blindly and thats why we need to get rid of the Clones and bring in the Stormtroopers.
Back in the Clone Wars series Palpatine miscalculated when he tried to originally grow more clone troopers and deregulate the banks and took a loss in the Senate. Later when he talked to Mas Amedda (sp?) about it Palpatine stated that sometimes you have to let the wheels of democracy turn. This is what he literally did here, and with one speech he won his major victory and got his storm troopers. And what will happen with Clone rights, and a pension. While we saw what probably happened to most Clones in Kenobi. Because frankly after the news reports the slaughter and atrocities of the Clones at Kamino. Any sympathy for Clone rights and supports are gone. People won't support a brutal army.
Simply put, Palpatine again was incredibly far ahead, and what makes him so brilliant is he's ever so able to dispose of chess pieces to win the board. Grievous, Dooku, Maul, Rampart.
So what happens next. We're about to see the decommissioning of the Grand Army of the Republic. We're likely to see a Clone uprising and it will probably be Rex that causes that to happen as he and Echo are it feels like creating a underground railroad to smuggle clones to safety. And Rex will again play right into Palpatine's hands. Think of it, A clone uprising put down by the heroic StormTroopers, and at the same time, he'll be able to discredit his enemies in the Senate who supported the Clones and Clone rights.
There's a reason we don't see Echo with Rex and Wolfe and Gregor in Rebels, or a hole lot of Clones with him.
Because Order 66 will look like nothing compared to what happens with the Clone Troopers.
This episode feels like a key episode for the direction of the show. My feeling is that yeah, we got dark moments in Rebels and we got dark moments in Clone Wars. But that's going to be nothing as a dark times truly arrive in a GFFA.
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The last two episodes were a big improvement, but I am finding Omega to be a terrible character. I am not feeling the need for the doe-eyed naivety angle that posits obvious statements about the empire’s dubious morality like a child.
I haven't watched season 2 yet for many reasons I've seen confirmed in this thread... a lot of filler and Omega was a bad addition to the show..
I'm trying to work myself up to start it, but I just can't get there.
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There have really been two filler episodes, the racing one and the treasure hunt one. The racing episode wasn't great. I didn't mind the treasure hunt one.
But outside of that, the last two episodes as well as Ruins of War and Solidary Clone were really in my mind good. The last two episodes felt more like Clone Wars with a lot of politic machinations coming.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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I will give it a shot for sure it's still Filoni damnit.
Has there been any mention of any more animated shows in development? Clone Wars was so epic, especially the reboot seasons.. I'd love to see them flesh things out even more in that era.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
BTW I had a misquote in my earlier right up, so I've added the scene from the Clone Wars.
What you see here is the power of Palpatine. Its not his peerless power in the Force, nor his lightning or his lightsabre skills.
Its his scheming and planning and control of political realthink
I wish I had time to look it up, but in Revenge of the Sith, we got this really smart segment from dooku's thoughts as he was about to fight Anakin and Kenobi and he looked at all the participants.
With Kenobi he described him as a sunny meadow, that was peaceful.
With Anakin he was a dangerous lightning storm
With Palpatine he was like an event horizon of a black hole.
Then he talked about how Sidious was always outside of every door and window testing the locks and seeing how he could slide in and infect every situation.
Its a shame that Palpatine was bought back in the sequels, I've said that that wasn't Sidious, it was a malfunctioning clone and a poor replication of it.
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After two really exceptional episodes that moved the potential of a Clone uprising forward. They had not a filler episode, but an establishing episode. There wasn't much in the way of action, or new reveals.
Spoiler!
I won't go too into detail with it.
Its not that its a bad episode, I just don't know if they couldn't have done this quicker as a secondary plot in another episode?
But this episode was all about the loss of echo, and the changing of the squad with Omega being broken by her family seemingly breaking up or changing, and Tech not knowing how to handle it.
Not one of my favorite episodes. But I can forgive it because there have been some really exceptional episodes this season.
Some after comment.
The stealing of the Ship, or their home, by what looks like a kid. I expect they'll spend some time getting it back.
I like Omega, they're trying to make her this series Ashoka. And having Tech not dealing with her in a good way was a good storytelling direction. But We have to remember that even now these Clones are the equivalents of 14 year olds, not really all that more mentally mature or emotionally secure then Omega.
The animation, especially in the caves is so top notch.
Having Cid initially refusing to help the Batch, even as they reminded her of the score card and they were going to run out of rations, and Cid literally telling them that they're on their own, links back nicely to the racing episode when the Batch was told that Cid was in it for herself and would stab them in the back.
I have a feeling that if the Squad becomes too much trouble that Cid is going to call the Imperial hot tip line of 1-888-traitor
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Yeah, the last three episodes have really picked this season up and I get the feeling things will eventually end badly for almost all of them.
Well yeah
Spoiler!
We don't see Echo with Rex, Gregor or Wolfe in Rebels.
We don't see any signs of clones except for those three in Rebels.
We don't see Cody with Rex in rebels.
We know that the Empire wants to decommission the Clones in favor of the Stormtroopers.
We can assume that Rex is trying to set up a safe route for defecting clones.
There is in my humble opinion a version of Order 66 for dealing with the Clones. That's why they emphasized Chuchi (sp?) talking about Clone rights and pensions and taking care of them. Because we know that this series always leads to heart break.
While I would normally say Disney wouldn't dare kill off these characters. They haven't been afraid of killing off main characters in both animated and non animated shows and movies.
In the words of Ezra "Somethings coming" and its going to be bad.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I don't know if I'd class the latest episode of Bad Batch as a filler, though it had elements of it. I think I'd classify it as a motivation setter for the squad.
But it wasn't great in terms of pacing or excitment level. I think after the last 2 weeks that they do need to hop back to the Empire and the clone decommissioning story line. We haven't seen Crosshair for a long time.
One speculation
Spoiler!
Clone-X was Sergent Slick
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The return of the Zillo beast. At least the clone of the Zillo beast that Palpatine wanted for its indestructible hide.
They did an amazing job of monster design as it originally looked like the Monster from Alien and then grew into the Zillo that we know and love.
I still love that they bought Mount Tantiss into Canon. Clearly they're still working on a cloning experiment
Spoiler!
Cloning Palpatine probably
The end is near for Cid.
Great atmosphere
Mandalorian
Spoiler!
Pretty solid episode 1 where they're just trying to establish things. No shocking returns tonight. Love that Greef's cloack of office was so heavy that they had to have droids carrying it.
We know that Mando has to return to Mandalore to redeem himself and end his exile.
You kinda have to feel for Bo, she's lost everything and just given up.
The pirate thing was a nice touch as a throw away enemy.
Grogu doing baby things is still cute. No they're not pets.
Piurrgles, is this an easter egg of Ashoka?
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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If a crazy lady in a hat asks if you've ever taken your helmet off you say NO!!
Lie. Lie to her.
Seriously! How is she supposed to know? Whats she gonna do? Not to mention, the remedy for this otherwise seemingly innocuous misdeed is absolutely batcrap nuts! These people are crazy.
Mando dude, you should totally just be chillin with Carl Weathers in Pimpland, go and tell crazy helmet lady to kiss your shiny metal ass.
And yes, Carl Weathers is a Pimp. To have a robe so ostentatious as to require a pair of servants to lug it around for you is the penultimate pimp-flex.
I enjoyed it overall, a little clunky at points but this show has done nothing but ooze goodwill so I'll allow it.
I'd also say...I have some notes about their CGI. I dont want to get into it and bury the whole thing in Spoiler tags, but suffice it to say that I am almost universally the last person to complain about CGI, I usually roll with it, so for me to say anything much less something negative usually means its quite noticeable....lookin' at you Mr. Cavill's moustache!
Anyways, good stuff overall.
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