Who knows. We know the armor isn't powered, I just think whearing magnetic armor leaves you too vulnerable, though, perhaps plasteel has E/M properties that help deflect blasterfire.
I dunno, the action was wierd, and more importantly the medals looked out of place.
Its a series about my hands down favorite era in the SW universe, something I've been wanting for 6 years, and the largest scale representation of what made me fall in love with Star Wars...
unfortunately its this episode that gains another negative, rather, that exemplifies what is wrong in this saga.
In the movie, droids take clones as prisoners...they even call them prisoners. Thus, when the dorids ask "do we take prisoners" allowing heavy to blow up the base...once again, the series doesn't even have its OWN canon. Droids DO take prisoners. We've seen it...in the movie and in "Bombad Jedi" but maybe taking clones priosner doesnt equate to taking political figures prisoner. Its just annoying to have these inconsistanceis to create contrived solutions to plot problems. "Should we take prisoners" is amuch better line, implying that droids are just dumb at making choices and not incapable of calculating thier programming.
Mixed reactions. The series is not going where I thought it should and right now, I think it has a losing record. Two or three good episodes out of 8...(Ambush, Rookies, maybe Duel of the Droids)...
My three main problems with it are that 1. There are too many inconsistencies within the series canon. These are not 5 min Gendy episodes, the series is a half hour primetime show and trying to be more realistic, yet...there are times when it is not. In addition Filoni isn't managing the writers and there are inconsistencies across episodes and with the movie. I can understand discrepancies with he comics or books, but there should NOT be any with the movies or within the series canon. You should be able to at least make your own show coherent.
2. There is a lot of EU being ignored. Aside from Ventress, there is really no character form the comics (and Ventress doesnt really count because she appeared in many different media outside of the comics before the CW series. Also Travis and her prolific writings about the clone wars are practically being ignored. Filoni has a "happy" conception of the clone wars where little Jedi go skipping through fields of battle and everyone gets a medal at the end. There is no grit, no loss, no Republic getting their areses kicked. The series is set against the backdrop of the war and isn't yet about the war. War sucks. This series has yet to show that.
3. Episode structure: Having a three part series is WAY too much for a TV series. especially episodes 2-3-4 in Season ONE. Then we had a two part siesta about R2, followed now by two more related episodes in Bombad, Cloak, and possibly the one after that. I dont understand what is going on here. Its this series episodic or not? If its not, then the show should have a longer running time so we dont have to endure plot mincemeat over 2-3 week spans before lurching to another unrelated plotline. I can see some season ender like [SPOILER - highlight to read]: Ryloth being a muilti-part episode, but some of this other stuff is pure junk imo. Filoni claims that "all these episodes can stand alone" but if I watched Downfall of a Droid by itself, I'd end by saying "wtf was the point of that!" It was an episode added in to get us to an irrelevant plot location that detracts from the series. Same with Bombad Jedi. The only point is to capture Gunray to set up Cloak of Darkness. That's bad seriesmaking imo. if you want to do 23 episodes...have 23 episodes of either 23 stories with a few links or 23 episodes furthering one plot with a few sidetracks. Dont chop it up into 7 stores of mixed length. Filoni is trying to make this series all things to all people in all ways. That just sets it up for failure imo.
I'm more optimistic about where this is going than where it is now. I know it is the first season...and I hate first seasons of shows I like. I really want this series to succeed and I hope it does. I'm just not convinced at this point that we're really going to do something good here. Clone Wars is my favorite era in SW, with my favorite characters etc. Maybe I'm being a hardass about it. I think the Movie (in terms of plot and story) is stronger than the series now...and I don' think thats a good place to be.
The first Clone Wars (the cartoons) were much shorter and were able to stand as one single episode.
Now the animated series always need to be linked to eachother which is boring me to death. I have to wait a week or even more to see the next episode to know where the story is going. Actually when you think of it, it's better to wait for the dvd release and then watch them all in a row.
On one hand, having non sequential episodes gives the writers more freedom to explore other things we havent seen before, without making every episode into 'The Adventures of Obi Wan and Anakin'.
But the other hand, the series has no structure, no plot, no real desire to see next weeks episode to find out what happens. Hence these 2-3 part episodes.
I like the little 2-3 part episodes because they give you a nice portion of a story without needing to watch the entire series to understand it, but what I don't like is that they don't tie together at all. One minute Anakin and Obi Wan are chasing off Grievous' superweapon, the next Anakin is off looking for R2. What the hell is Obi Wan doing all this time? Where are the major battles? Why are we watching Jar Jar be a douchebag when clones are being slaughtered elsewhere?
Well, thats kind of my point. If we look at the Gendy series, both groups of shows had strong plots. Season I and II was Muunilist which led into Anakin vs Ventress. There were detours along the way to show other characters, but the show still had a strong central line. Season III was just two plots, all the time.
Filoni is trying to do the former, but there is no connection, leaving things feeling aimless. I dont mind that major characters are abandoned...its good to sea other guys, but there is no common goal of the series, no synergy between the plotlines working towards a greater goal.
I disagree on the "not wanting to tune in next week" doing 2-3 arc has the same problem. What happens when the arc is over? You still have to wait. Imo its better to get a weekly resolution and satisfaction rather than loding the candy just out of reach. I just hate having a pointless episode to get us to a plot point. Such is the way with Downfall and Bombad. If you want to have 2 episodes arcs all season, do an HOUR long show instead. If not, I expect these 23 minutes to be jam packed with relevant material, not footage of wreckage drifting through space.
in their defence: it doesn't help when episodes gets moved every time when GL thinks it's necessary
__________________ Kyuzo: Don't you see? A real sword will kill you. Mr. Earl Brooks: If I were here to kill you, you would already be dead. Mercedes: My mother told me to be wary of Fauns. Mr. Le Chiffre: No, I believe in a reasonable rate of return. James Bond: Now the whole world will know you died while you were scratching my balls!
yeah, I heard that from time to time episodes that were schedualed for a specific date got moved forward (or sometimes backward)
__________________ Kyuzo: Don't you see? A real sword will kill you. Mr. Earl Brooks: If I were here to kill you, you would already be dead. Mercedes: My mother told me to be wary of Fauns. Mr. Le Chiffre: No, I believe in a reasonable rate of return. James Bond: Now the whole world will know you died while you were scratching my balls!
I think it's all a bit childish. Just watched Bombad Jedi... and well, it doesn't get very exciting anywhere and the Separatists continue to be displayed as complete bumbling idiots.
Yes. Somethign I was going to write in my Bombad review, which I will probably write after watching it again tonight, was that we have yet to see that this war is serious beyond personal peril, which apparently the Jedi always face.