I think its nice that there are additional Durge-calibur baddies. I also think its positive that some of the villians will now more immediately fit in with the series. I dumbs down the "SURPRISE! Its Ventress again!" repetativeness we've seen. Its also cool that he's alien. Duros is a good species to push further because it has a lot of ground in the series, all the way back to Star Wars, and has barely been developed.
However, with increasing quantity comes dilution. Not only will Bane (Wait? isn't there ALREADY a Bane in Star Wars? ....that was rhetorical, highlighting the unoriginality of the name) take screentime away from important, yet undeveloped baddies like Ventress, Grivous, and Dooku (even Tambor, etc Seperatist leaders). I also feel he's a BIT too Western with the hat and trenchcoat. THe little breathie things help some, but he's a bit retro.
I would have rather seen a kickass Mando liek Ghez Hokan or something from fandom that could have pushed the boundaries a bit. But, at least its original, and I'm always willing to give original ideas a shot.
I think he looks ridiculous and out of place as a hardened bad guy, honestly. I will leave off on actual judgment until we see him in action, but he is nowhere near Durge...
However, accompanying Cade Bane in this episode is going to be the bounty huntress Aurra Sing. If they decide to hold to her Expanded Universe backstory, she is a former Jedi-in-training and now a Dark Jedi who kills Jedi, whether she is paid to or not. So we have a potential for a lightsaber duel, here...
...unless they stray away and keep her to her blasters. Which will annoy me.
However, the situation is that they're supposed to take the Senate hostage on Coruscant. Their reason? To free Ziro the Hutt... yes, Ziro. From the movie.
I'm not excited.
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Last edited by REXXXX on Mar 17th, 2009 at 10:21 PM
Aside from the offensive gay stereotype, his brand of villainy was horribly, horribly lame. I was not threatened by him at all. It also shows that Jabba didn't have him violently executed as was implied.
It's not just the homophobes (no offense taken). There are homosexuals who viewed Ziro as an offensive gay stereotype, what with his appearance, his voice, his ill-natured ways.
As I bi-gay man, I did not find Ziro offensive. Gays can be bad people too. I reject the notion that any minority must be portrayed in a positive light all the time. That aside, Ziro cant even be gay because Hutts are hermaphroditic. ALL Hutts are portrayed as jerks, feathers and tattoos aside.
Star Wars (especially Clone Wars) is full of such BORDERLINE stereotypes...the East Asian-like Nemoidians, the crazy German doctor from the Shadow Virus episodes, the Jamaican inspired Gungans, pompus British/German Admirals from the original trilogy (and Yularen)...all of these groups carry a LOT of stereotypes. I find these to be more species based than individual-based. But this is more one of the innate flaws of Star Wars...its too much about good v. evil. There is little middle ground.
I would like however, that if Lucas would portray exceptions to these rules. I'd love to see a gay Mandalorian couple, a Neimoidian with a backbone, a crazy German doctor that helps people, and a Gungan with motivation, maturity, and a brain.
I do find a good deal of the criticism against Ziro offensive and homophobic though. That is more aggravating to me than the character.
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That aside, I'd LIKE them to tie together more episodes. Ziro is a CHARACTER, if nothing else, and has a lot more personality than some of the pointless baddies we've had to endure. And if Aurra Sing can come in and get some back story, great! That's tying three things (clone Wars movie, series, TPM) together. This series needs to do more of that. I'm all for the attemept.
I wont hold my breath on the authenticity of her character though. I've already had to endure the complete bastardization of Alpha (who was renamed Rex because of Anakin, Artoo, Ahsoka (which is a friggin MANS name) and Alpha would be too many A's according to Lucas. So, he took an established badasss character and renamed him (and re characterized him). This is a wound for me that wont heal. Thankfully, I dont know anything about Aurra...and really don't care lol. (I just know how it feels)
I'm still going to be giving this episode a shot. All in all, every episode is about execution, and I haven't seen it yet to tell if it was executed correctly.
Aside, I just watched the preview [SPOILER - highlight to read]: ...it has commando droids, the Weequay Pirates, Aurra Sing, the IG87 models vs the Senate Commandos, Bail Organa, some of the other senators from the deleted rebel alliancescenes in ROTS...
This episode is going to be one giant clusterf*ck of characters. I hope Filoni doesn't go SEASON FINALE! and everyone gets lost in the crowd. There are a lot of powerful characters here, especially for introducing about 27 new ones.
Whoa, clustf*ck indeed. Neat to see the commando droids back, though. Should provide entertaining fight scenes, if not story. But here's rooting for the story.
Good to get your opinion on Ziro, Ordo. Personally, I just found him to be painfully annoying. His voice grated. Fair enough that he has characterization and tie-in, though.
So far the Neimoidians with backbones have only had them to start with. The Neimoidian who tried to exterminate the Lurmens and the Neimoidian who engaged Skywalker over Ryloth both exhibited cunning and intelligence to begin with, but once their plans went to shit they bailed (or were captured). Unfortunate.
Actually, the commando droids were in Liberty on Ryloth too They beat up the two clones that go in to reactivate the bridge. I loved that they just charge in unaddressed in the film, especially because I'm lukewarm to their concept.
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Ziro is a bit annoying, but he's a slug. I don't think his intention was really supposed to be a badass character. If that was the intention Darth Maul would be there shirtless seducing Padme (or a clone!). I've kind of grown to like him because he is so different. He doesn't entirely fit the Star Wars mold. If he was in EVERY episode, yeah, that's annoying, but once a season? I can live with that.
You can't deny that he's a character lol.
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I didn't see Lot Durd as having a spine. He lands on a rural planet to test a gun, with Dooku's permission. And is kind of incompetant...then fails miserably. lol.