Here are my first impressions of Season 3 of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (8 p.m. Central Fridays, Cartoon Network).
1. I have a confession to make: I can’t tell the clones apart. A lot has been said about how the “Clone Wars” team does a nice job of giving individual personalities to each clone, but I still don’t have a great sense of who is who within the clone army. Clone stories, oddly enough, might be best suited to novels like Karen Traviss’ “Republic Commando” series, because somehow a person’s mind’s eye can distinguish between physically identical people, but when the actual eye is involved, it confuses matters.
2. Season 3’s tagline is “Secrets Revealed.” That’s odd because “Clone Wars” isn’t about secrets; it’s about filling the gap between Episodes II and III by telling vignettes from the war. I’ll admit that it can deliver interesting surprises — for example, who knew before Friday that the Separatists attacked the clone production facilities on Kamino, trying to win the war in one fell swoop? But I don’t know of many “secrets” that need to be revealed, other than the ultimate fate of Ahsoka Tano, which I assume we’ll find out much later in the series.
3. We see a room — similar to the Danger Room in “X-Men” or the Battle School room in “Ender’s Game” — where the clones-in-training are tested.
4. Shaak Ti, a Jedi who hasn’t been explored much so far, makes an appearance. Perhaps she’ll be featured more this season. It would be interesting to see how she and Ahsoka relate to each other, since they are both Togrutas.
5. The animators portray water for the first time with the battle on Kamino, and it’s pretty cool. What I’m hoping for is a beautifully rendered forest or jungle planet before Season 3 is over.
6. Yet again, Anakin ALMOST meets General Grievous in battle (Obi-Wan says he’ll take Grievous, Anakin can take Ventress). Because in “Episode III” Anakin and Grievous meet for the first time, the writers can never have them meet in “The Clone Wars.” I appreciate their appreciation for continuity. Fortunately, at least Obi-Wan can fight Grievous.
Verdict: The quality of the show so far, combined with the passionate fandom of the production team (which shines through every time they are interviewed), convinces me that “Clone Wars” will be one of TV’s elite shows for as long as it’s on the air.
What are your thoughts on Season 3 of “The Clone Wars?”
Comments
The show rocked. I didn’t have any problem telling the clones apart.
The producers of the show took some risks including the old clone, 99, meeting an untimely end. I applaud them for that.
I’m not keen on seeing Jar Jar in the next episode though.# Posted By trevor | 9/18/10 5:43 PM
Within a given episode, I can follow which clone is which because they do a pretty good job of giving them blatantly different personalities. But they kind of have to be reintroduced to me every time. I don’t have a good sense of the character arcs of any clone. For example, Heavy was killed off between episodes on Friday, and I assume that was a reference to an episode or story that has already been told, but I don’t remember it. Then again, I couldn’t find him on Wookieepedia, so maybe that was his first appearance.
I could see where things were going with the “Bad Batcher” 99 character arc. He died happy because he finally got to contribute and truly become one of his brothers. They could’ve done more with that, though. Really show that he is ignored by the other clones except Heavy. And then have him show more emotion when he finds out Heavy died. There was a lot of good stuff that they chose to keep off screen. Great idea to show a Bad Batcher, though.
It is absolutely ridiculous how Jar Jar keeps popping up in “Clone Wars” even though he is widely despised by fans. Even I don’t relish a new Jar Jar episode, even though I am a Jar Jar Apologist. It’s especially hard to watch episodes where someone other than Ahmed Best voices Jar Jar. If Ahmed is doing the voice, I’m more open to it, but otherwise something just seems a bit off, like the actor is doing a bad Jar Jar impression.# Posted By John Hansen | 9/18/10 6:10 PM