I had to watch Senate Spy at a friends house. his DVR screwed up and actually recorded the dalogue at half volume for some reason, so when I turned it up the music was LOUD, much more apparent than the dialogue, so the first time I watched it it was almost like a silent film with an ochestr. The music tremendously exceedes season 1.
Ontop of that, I think they are just using it better. Its more aparent in the proper locations instead of just background noise.
Again, I missed this episode before it went offline, but such is life.
The Good:
It was nice to see an Ahsoka episode where she goes off on her own. Its also a real (perhaps second) girl-power episode where pracicatlly al the main action was solely female. I think Ashoka had a good deal of character development, taking an Anakin-like approach to interrogation...and of course in the ever-present Jedi-fail...Master Sinube does not stop her.
Its also nice to see Coruscant, but contrary to the dive into the underworld we were promised, I don’t think Coruscant delivered.
I really liked the scene where Ahsoka slid down Palpatine’s speech. Its stuff like this that adds depth the episode and I wish we saw more. Howe she stopped herself from sliding though...I don’t know.
It was nice to see a hostage...too bad Ahsoka had no real consequences other than her own personal fear to deal with though.
The Bad:
I thought the plot of this episode was a bit contrived. Its nice to see Ahsoka trying to grow up, but it became a really big production. There were too many “Cassie can randomly leap over x” and “random pipe exists here and bends outward over traffic.”
I also did not like that Cassie can be confused about a lightsaber and then suddenly use it, never mind that I don’t really like non-force-sensitives using the blades.
The speeder scene where they all break around Ahsoka...its nice to see references to the movies, but I’ve long held I wish they did something to evolve what was established in the movies instead of just repeating it with different characters.
The Ugly:
Ironically the worst part for me of this episode was the art direction, which is generally pretty solid, if not fantastic. I HATED the new alien species. First, there was just bad design. I hated the beak like protrusion on Master Sinube’s face...it was animated extremely awkwardly and didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the body. Nevermind he looked like a woman.
In addition, Ione Marcy looks pink and fopish, kind of an awkward love child of Dr. Vindi and the pink gungan from season 1. She just always looked like she was crying...especialyl with the triangular pupils. Then there was Cassie Cyrar, who belong more in a Chucky meets Raggedy Ann horror movie. The mask was lame, as was the faded pastel clothing and red dreadlock topknot. Even worse was that these characters were similar, with overempahsized eyes, lines in the same locations on their cheeks and foreheads, be it skin patterns or mask. It just reeks of bad design. I even don’t like their names. Ione and Cassie are much more suited to a gothic novel than Star Wars. In a story so rich with speicies, I’d rather see existing, undefined ones developed then brand new ones. We had one or two new species introduced and season one and I felt like with the exception of Ahsoka, this episode was entirely new species. It just doesnt fit with the precedent this show has established.
Even worse, while I expect them to re-use alien models...like reskinning for Bannamu or reusing the crazy quarren from Iego. But especially at the end, with the 4 bubble head children (2 of each species that had WAY to much similarity to not be easily confused) it just compounded its problems. Where was the diversity we saw in attack of the clones? Of course, these two models and Master Sinube were used in Greivous Intrigue
Lastly, I hated the train design. We’ve seen a lot of Corsucant dn it seemed like it totally did not belong, especially with that paint job.
I forgot to mention that, but Anakin stole away from Obi-Wan all the time in the movies. You'd think all Jedi would have a tracking beacon or something.
Yeah, I was disappointed with this one and disappointed that I have 3 negative episodes in a row (The Deserter, Lightsaber Lost, and The Mandalore Plot). I'm hoping its just the armpit of the season. I thought the story was ok but the art design was really disappointing...and thats something thats generally solid in this series. Aside from Ahsoka, I suddenly felt like I was watching an entirely different show.
Very mediocre epsiode. How can a non-forse user outrun and outjump a Jedi??? Hardly believable.
And after all the geonosion epsiodes I'm beginning to wonder if they run out of ideas for locations. I keep seeing all the same scenes (including the movies of course)... Episodes like this make me wonder what this series adds to the SW saga... it's all more of the same.
I agree some with the latter. We've had SOOO many Coruscant episodes this year, but they have shown new parts of coruscant (but keep using the same models). I'd like to see places from the PT or EU, like Felucia was a nice choice, but I think we should avoid very well fleshed out places like Coruscant.
The alternative though, new places EVERY new episode...isn't great either.