In AOTC, Padme falls out of the ship and Anakin nearly abandons his duty to go after her. To straighten him out, all it takes from Obi-Wan is a scolding. He puts his focus back on the mission, even though Padme might be getting killed at that exact moment.
Move forward to ROTS, and obviously things have changed. No longer does duty in any way take precedence over her.
So, what happened in between?
We saw it in this episode. We see one of the key precipitating factors in Anakin becoming Darth Vader: Padme telling him to.
Her reaction to him in this episode when he has to break away from her for a little bit was quite telling. She is angry and emotionally punishes him... throwing his duty back in his face.
The ***** basically demands that he ultimately acts the way he does. It's not like his ROTS personna is out of character. Killing the younglings? Not the first time he massacred men, women, and children.... and she knew all about it, all along.
In this episode she makes it quite clear that his devotion to her should come before his devotion to duty.
On the whole a good episode. Its nice to see a stand alone in here after a 3 parter and followed by a 4 parter...just wasn't amazing enough to get a real positive reaction.
THE GOOD
“Ehhhh...it blew up.” Priceless.
“I’ve een signalling him all night.” I bet you have Kenobi...insert Anakin-Kenobi slash....here.
Kenobi’s face in the hologram scene.
I like that Padme has some dirty laundry and we get to go through it. I especially like that it puts Anakin in a rough spot.
I LOVE that Anakin is dumped in the Naboo trooper uniform. It’s a really clever way to get him in the episode, fits nicely with the Naboo use of decoys (re TPM and AOTC) and he actually looks pretty good in it.
Lot Dod. Not to be confused with Lok Durd, It was nice to see Dod back from TPM. Dod was especially good, a wonderful mix of the appeasing politician and a conniving Neimoidian...the bad guy who can put you at ease. No wonder he became a senator. He strikes me as the only Nemoidian I’ve seen who is smart and actually has stuff together. Dialogue and voice acting was excellent on his character as was the animation. Actually one of the characters I’ve been most impressed with in the entire show.
New Characters: Captain Typho, Poggle, and Lot Dod (see above). I love it when they incorporate these types of movie-background characters back into the series. I’ve always like Typho. And who does not want to hear Poggle speak again?
Those fembots have HIPS!
I love that the password is “Padme” She had a great face when saying it too.
THE BAD
Padme cooks...how stereotypcially feminine.
Is not a click a unit of distance...not time? Fail.
Padme having her power moment with the big hairdo...just did not work for me.
‘If you get tired...you can rest your head on my shoulder”...PLEASE. Not only is he horrbile with pickup lines, but he is practically tying to make out with an ex girlfriend after they met for one night?
Glittering poisons are always the most deadly.
“What a wonderful meal. My compliments to the droid” Well haha thats funny, but it strikes me in the future when droids can do everything, that an opulent society like that of the Nemoidians would value organic chefs. Maybe Chinese food is so simple though even a droid can make it?
THE UGLY
Senator Clovis? Scipio? Banking Clan? Especially since the Muun have been presented as the leaders of the banking clan...including the whole assault on Munnilist in Gendy’s Clone wars...including San Hill being at the meeting on Geonosis and kenobi overhearing him saying that the IGBC is part of the Seperatist Alliance...and Hill being aroudn until the end of the war...why the hell is it up for debate that the banking clan MIGHT be with the Separatists? His voice is wonderful though...good ass too.
Racism... Nemoidians are never a good sign. Fake chines accents aside, when you start channeling Chinese culture directly (with the cohort of advisors in very Chinese inspired hats and dress..not that the thin wavy pupils, flat noses and down-turned mouths did not give it away...) it borders on offensive. I mean, its nice from a political commentary perspective, and having a strong and relatable cultural background gives a lot of depth to the species, but sometimes it just goes too far.
WHATS NEXT?
I’d like to see Anakin leaving Clovis behind come back to bite him in the ass, especially because it really was Clovis that got them out of there.
I'll disagree on the comment about the Neimoidians valuing organic chefs, simply based on the fact that the Trade Federation uses droids for everything in the films. The Neimoidians strike me as being heavily dependent on droids.
Definitely think they missed something when putting this episode together about the Banking Clan, though. That was never a mystery, honestly.
Well, if there were multiple planets that were a part of it...
They said that the banking clan was financing both sides of the war. Maybe it "reformed" into a neutral entity. Still though, they should have mentioned it in the episode to make it clear what the continuity was.
Yeah, the Banking Clan itself was not defeated in the Genndy series. Just Muunilist, where it was based. No doubt it survived that encounter with Kenobi.
I forgot to mention in my review. I was out of town and staying with a buddy, so I got him to DVR this episode on his TV so I could watch it when I got there. He was kind enough to do so, but the DVR screwed up and the dialogue volume was about half of what it should have been.
Thus, I got to watch this episode the first time as almost a silent film. I could kind of catch what was being said, but the background music overplayed everything. So it was kind of cool to hear all the background music up close without having to squint through dialogue. I was generally impressed with the range of music that made it into the episode.