Did the antagonistic title get your attention?  Did it?  Sensationalist journalism, folks!  Actually, I jest.  The title does tie in though because wow do we have a sorry excuse for a Jedi in these episodes but I’ll stop there.  Wouldn’t want to give away the arc too much now would I?

Darkness on Umbara
This is possibly one of the more battle heavy episodes I’ve seen.  I think the first 10 minutes or so were almost all action?  Episodes with this much fighting stand out to me for some reason.  It’s fun getting to see them fighting the war and to see more of how Anakin’s battalion in particular works.

Okay, this replacement Jedi general?  Pong Krell?  He’s a real ass.  Something bad had best happen to him by the end of the arc.  Alternatively, he will not be one I will be sorry to see Order 66-ed.  Honestly, you’d think that a Jedi could at least manage to use a trooper’s name.  Every time he used Rex’s number instead of his name, I wanted to punch him in the face.  I’m surprised Rex didn’t punch him, honestly.

Krell was put in charge Anakin’s battalion because Palpatine had recalled him back to Coruscant.  This has a very fishy smell to it.  Why would the Chancellor just pull one of his Generals back before a big battle?  Sometimes, it surprises me that no one realized that Palpatine was evil before he went all crazy lightsaber Sith.

Seriously.  Someone remove Krell from command.  His plans are bad.  You know nothing, Pong Krell.

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Season Four!  Can you believe we’re already here?  I certainly can’t.  The good news is that it’s off to a crazy good start with a trio of episodes set on Mon Calamari and some excellent animation and design.  But what will the rest of the season bring?

Water War
I can’t even begin to describe how much I love that they’re showing the Mon Calamari Senate in an underwater forum.  It seems such an obvious choice but oh man am I glad that they followed through.  I also love that they used the Mon Calamari/Quarren quarrel for this episode.  It’s great when they pull things from the Expanded Universe.  Honestly, all of the animation and design for this planet is fantastically done.  It’s so cool looking and different that you can’t help but pay more attention to the episode.  It’s a great opening for Season Four.

The episode does make me wonder how the Mon Calamari and Quarren’s biology works.  More specifically, I’m wondering their respiratory systems are set up since they seem to have no trouble going from water to oxygen.

Also?  The Mon Calamari prince is so cute and tiny and cute.

Obviously negotiations are short (did you see what I did there?) and it turns into an all out underwater battle which is really just an excuse for some more cool thing… well, everything.  Of course, this got followed up by the Separatists have some crazy new weapon that’s clearly tailor made for this world.

Something that’s always intrigued me has been the use of a lightsaber under water.  I’m no engineer or mechanic or any vaguely sciency person but I’m wondering if they really should be able to function.  Apparently this episode is making me wonder about a lot of science related things today.

Also, shirtless Kit Fitso.  That’s a thing that happened in this episode.  Thought I should mention it.

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The good news is that I’ve recovered from that bad taste Mortis left in my mouth.  The bad news is that I am somehow already at the end of Season Three.  How on earth did that already happen?  Well, I guess that’s only really bad news depending on your point of view and whether you wanted these posts to go on forever or not.

The Citadel
Is this the episode that made the internet scream about continuity and Even Piell?  I feel like it’s going to be judging from the previous clip.  No really.  I’m kinda excited to see this happen.  It’s much more fun to observe these things when I’m not invested in the outcome.

Anakin Skywalker.  You have a lot of bad ideas but this one probably takes the cake.  Carbon freezing your team so you can sneak into the Citadel without any life signs being detected is a TERRIBLE idea.  (And yes, all the tongue-in-cheek references to Empire Strikes Back were amusing but that’s really not the point here.)  This is going to go badly.  It must go badly.  If this idea works, I’m going to be really disappointed.

It didn’t go badly.  They didn’t even get hibernation sickness.  This is not fair.

At least he’s getting his comeuppance with Ahsoka sneaking onto the mission.  At least.  You’d think he would’ve learned that ‘do as I say, not as I do’ doesn’t work very well but nooooo.

I definitely need to give this episode applause for surprising me in a way that I absolutely did not expect.  It turns out that Tarkin is the Captain in question here.  I didn’t expect him to show up here.  Well done, show, well done.

And now the group is splitting up to try and make it out of the Citadel which OBVIOUSLY means that we’re about to end an episode.  I’ll admit it: I’m intrigued to see what happens in the next one.  Good thing I don’t even have to wait.

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It’s all about arcs with today’s disc of episodes as we dive first into Dathomir and the Nightsisters and then into the Mortis arc.  My reaction to the two was… well, let’s just call it varied for now.  I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise for you.

Nightsisters
The idea of Sidious being mad at Dooku for having his own apprentice is rather hilarious given that he did the exact some thing with Maul to Plageuis.  This is basically the way of the Sith, after all.  But hey!  Sidious is going to be a hypocrite so now Dooku has to dispose of Asajj.  This will clearly end well.

Being a sucker for Dathomir and how it’s portrayed in the Expanded Universe books, I was unsure if I was going to like how the Clone Wars portrayed it but so far, I find myself intrigued.  It’s an interesting take on the established Witches and Nightsisters that is actually able to work within the existing canon.  Planets are quite large after all so it’s not difficult to believe that there would be different sects in addition to different tribes.

If nothing else, the flashbacks that explain Asajj’s history make the entire episode worth it.  It adds some depth to her character that was previously lacking within the show.  Actually, the entire episode is a great showcase of the show’s villains who are albeit fighting each other instead of our heroes.  The movies definitely showed it off but it’s near to see what an incredibly master duelist he is.  There aren’t that many people who can fend off three invisible assailants by themselves.  Plus, I appreciate that he looks so dapper even in his pajamas.

I’m intrigued to see how this quest for revenge plays out in future episodes.

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Bounty Hunters, Ziro, and Bad Decisions!  (Oh my!)  As we reach the halfway mark, it’s a handful of episodes filled with both Ziro the Hutt and a fair amount of politics.  Make of that what you will.

Assassin
I sincerely appreciate how at the start of this episode, they animated Obi-Wan stroking his beard.  No insinuation, no joke there.  I just really appreciated the attention to an actor’s mannerisms.

Once again, we’re starting off the episode with Anakin and Ahsoka being separated from one another.  Honestly, when does he ever get to teach her anything?  On the other hand, at least we’re getting to see more of Padmé and Ahsoka together being friends.  They’re evolving towards such a wonderfully sister-like relationship and it makes me happy.

You know what else makes me happy?  Seeing Alderaan for the first time and hearing Leia’s theme as the musical cue in the background.  No wait, did I say happy?  I think I misspelled ‘emotionally destroyed.’

I’m not surprised that Aurra Sing is back though.  After all, this is the Greatest Hits of the Clone Wars.  What’s next?  Another Ziro episode?  For all my ribbing though, I did enjoy the episode.  It’s nice to see Ahsoka work her way through figuring out her visions and then figuring out how to act on them.  Padmé, on the other hand, must be 300% done with all the attempts on her life.

Okay, I need to clarify that I made that Ziro quip before Ahsoka had her vision at the end of the episode.  Honestly.

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Aaaaaand we’re off with Season Three of the Clone Wars!

Clone Cadets
I’ll admit that when I saw the episode title that I was worried that I was going to start screaming about how won’t someone think of the children again but no, there was no need for that.  Instead we’ve got an episode about some clones nearing the end of their training and who aren’t quite measuring up.

I get what they were going for with this much older clone that washed out of training and is a janitor now.  However, it just doesn’t work out mathematically.  Clones age at double the normal rate and there’s no way he could be quite as old and decrepit as he’s depicted here.

Also, I swear that one of the Domino Squad clones sounds vaguely more Scottish than the others.  Not that the clones are supposed to sound Scottish to begin with.  One of them just sounded like he had a bit of an accent.  It’s so strange.

Even though it’s predictable, this was an enjoyable episode.  I’m a sucker for seeing the apparent underdog figure out how to succeed especially when the secret comes down to teamwork.  I also can’t recall if this is the first episode where we saw Shaak Ti but if not, it’s definitely been a while.  I like her as a character and I like that she seems to have a good handle on being the General in charge of training.  She should be around more often.

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We’re wrapping up Season Two today with more Hondo and some super bad life decisions on the part of, well, most of the characters in the show.

Bounty Hunters
I’m already amused by the parallels between this episode and the MedStar duology and by parallels, I just mean that they are both stories that have to do medical stations in trouble near/on a planet with an incredibly valuable crop.  Okay, it’s a stretch clearly.

Hondo is back!  Although I don’t exactly know where he’s coming from calling bounty hunters scum since he’s, you know, a pirate…

“Let’s get down to business/to defeat the pirates!”  Honestly, I’m just waiting for Anakin to break out in song as he trains these farmers into soldiers.  It’s been a few years.  Please tell me that someone in the fandom has made this music video already.

Wait and now the metal suit pirate is actually just a small little ranat sized alien?  That is straight out of Men in Black.  I swear, is this entire episode just riffing off as many other films as they possibly can?

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