Episdoe 12: The Gungan General
Season 1 Record: 5-(7)
Summary: Utter cr@p. "Fail with honor rather than succeed by fraud." was the fortune cookie. This episode was both a failure and a fraud. Its easily one of the worst episodes and the only episode I have only seen twice.
Pros:
Stone: When in doubt there are always clones. Stone was decently sweet for the pathetic part he played. His few witty comments, even if favorable to Jar Jar, were probably the highlight of this episode. The clones seemed to do most of the heavy lifting, even used TACTICS.
Pirate Treachery: It was kind of cute, especially since it would only be acceptable if BAD and traitorous pirates were killed in the end.
Dooku: Provided the last of the episodes bright spots with his deep voiced sarcasm and pirate killing.
Cons
Utter Failure: There are too many to list here, so I'll just to the highlights. many of these have been discussed. Its just not worth my time to go through tiny details when this episode failed on every major level.
Jar Jar: One of the most utterly annoying parts of this episode was Jar Jar, though not for the reason you might think. His voice was TOTALLY off. It seemed octaves deeper and he seemed to use proper words now and again. It was blatantly obvious Ahmed was not back as he was in Bombad Jedi. The voice acting was pathetic.
Happenstance: Anakin and Obi-Wan wake up passed out. If something is critical to the PLOT, don't put it in an online comic and expect the audience to figure it out, especially when YOU MADE A POINT of showing the Jedi dodging the trap last episode. Then, Senator Kharrus' seat restrain just MAGICALLY breaks off. Sorry, total BS. Try using plot instead next time. Als, Kenobi's saber....WHERE DID IT COME FROM?
Dooku: Why didn't he try to kill them? If he had tried and the guards had stopped him, that would be fine. There would be a REASON he didn't do it, something this episode lacked. Such actions were totally out of character (as was running away in this episodes equally disastrous prequel.) He never even used lighting. Lame. He also didn't get his saber back. How much to we want to bet it magically reappears?
Plot: Where was it. The ending was decent, at least Kenobi can play a Jedi now and again. The majority of the episode was the the Jedi running around aimlessly with an ever changing assortment of binders. There didn't even seem to be that much animosity between the three of them, just childish banter and an excess of sarcasm.
Torture: WTF. All this happy stuff, then RANDOM torture that isn't even really addressed? Also, if you're going to have a torture machine, don't have one that looks like a ethereal sculpture of a heart.
Title: Jar Jar made like two decisions, but that doesn't make him a general. Why is everyone who commands the clones magically a General? Jar Jar was really forced into this episode.
What I want to see next:
I never want to see this episode again. Though, it might be cool to have Hondo come back at some point and save the Jedi. This is probably likely, as Lucas Animation will jump on any chance to re-use a character model.