събота, 27 октомври 2012 г.

Dan Grievous reviews Tipping Points

This was an awesome episode.

From start to finish this should have been the feel of the entire arc but better late than never.
Every scene mattered and was needed in the episode. Something I could not say for "A War On Two Fronts" or "Front Runners".

The action was so fun. Finally a battle I love from "The Clone Wars", it has been a while.

In terms of characters, the heroes really shined while the villains of Onderon as usual did nothing much but sit around and send forces for the Rebels to defeat.
I sure wished Kalani and King Rash did more in the episode but I have nothing against villains that do not fight. After all, I am a huge fan of Tikkes.
Even if Kalani did not do much like other villains from recent seasons, he has had really good lines these past episodes. Especially the one "His army will not withstand the Power of the Confederacy!". That for me as a fan of the CIS and a video maker is a line that can only dream of these days. A line that is perfect for videos.



King Rash was there and he went out as I expected.

For the second time in this arc I care for the good guys. 
As I have said before Saw is my favorite hero of this arc who once more was totally badass. He has proven to be so much fun and worthy of a video tribute.
Lux, General Tandin and the rest were all fine. I even cared and I liked the way Steela's death was done. This was a truly epic moment where everything seemed perfect in my opinion.

Having Hondo Ohnaka in this episode just added even more flavor to the episode. He is always a treat when he comes on screen. He is a real delight even for a few seconds...



In terms of story, this episode was a standard "Heroes win the battle" episode that was executed perfectly.
The end was also great cause for the first time in a while the CIS characters act really reasonable and logical. Yes, they left Onderon but the fact is, as others have pointed out, the Separatists did not lose. They just decided that it was not worth the time and money to continue this conflict with the Rebels. I loved the logic of the villains of this arc. Well, half of them at least. 

But the things that stole the show were the amazing Heavy Missile Platforms aka The Droid Gunships.
They looked amazing, they sounded amazing and they caused amazing havoc and death.







This episode was worth the wait and made me very happy. 

9,5 out of 10 for "Tipping Points".

I just can not stop thinking about the Gunships, they were stellar!

сряда, 28 март 2012 г.

Most and Least Favorite Episode by Season


Season One Most Favorite episode: "Lair of Grievous" - NUFF SAID!

Season One Least Favorite episode: "Jedi Crash" - the episode did not work for cause it focused on my least favorite thing on the show. And the show always loses my interest when they try and try to make us worry about a person who is "dying" but in the end lives up until the end of ROTS! That always sucks. But the sky battle of Quell was kick-ass! Stunning rocket droids!

Season Two Most Favorite episode: "Cat and Mouse" hands down! I know it had Anakin in it but Admiral Trench stole the show. This episode also had a lot of something I loved about the first seasons - they really managed to show the POV of the villain of the episode. And Trench was so awesome to watch and listen!

Season Two Least Favorite episode: "Deathtrap". I really did not like the Fett arc finale. It was not that good. It was supposed to be about Boba taking revenge on Mace and it all went down the toilet after most of this episode and the arc focused on... you guessed it.. ANAKIN! And they do not even hide what a show off and a spolight thief he is! Boba was not that fun in it as he just moved around and played "Assassin's creed" with the crew. But Kilian ROCKED!

Season Three Most Favorite episode: The hard part now is there were not many good episode in S3 but the one that I love the most out of it is "Counterattack"!!! It was so fun! It was the most Star Wars-y episode of the series. If you ask me, it was the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK OF TCW! It had awesome Sobeck scenes, Tarkin banter, Jedi action, heroes losing and all the good stuff! I LOVE THIS EPISODE!

Season Three Least Favorite: There was a LOT OF S#%T that season but the most vile and disgusting episode was "Evil Plans"! What a waste of time and the story in it - there was NONE. Or if there was it, it could have been summed up in a newsreel. All the scenes were horrid and another droid episode failure. Note to self: If an episode has its own title in the newsreel then the episode will suck big time! WORST EPISODE OF THE SERIES!

Season Four Most Favorite episode: "MASSACRE" - do I even need to say why after all the praise and love I have been giving this GENIUS EPISODE!!! GENIUS, GENIUS, GENIUS... BEST EPISODE OF THE SERIES!

Season Four Least Favorite episode: "Shadow Warrior" - again it needs no explanation to why it is the worst for me! Only good thing to come out of it - Rish Loo! He is awesome!

петък, 3 февруари 2012 г.

Shifting focus in "The Clone Wars"

Seeing how this week we are entering one of the last arcs this season, I wanted to point out exactly what is wrong with the show for me at this point in time.

You know what is the problem with the show these days the most and why, for instance, I am not  fan of it so much anymore!?

The main reason - the shift in the show's focus!

The first two seasons were very good in terms of balance between story, action and visuals. The first season did not have the eye-candy of Season Four but had the solid stories that made up for that fact. That was also evident in Season two with the animation getting a lot better.
And I think everything changed with the underwhelming Boba Fett arc that chaged this show forever.
Because it was one of the first to go into the OT lore and get a cameo for the marketing ploy of Lucasfilm animation. That is the first major change - relying on an foreign element to drive your show. They continued that all the way into Season four and now with the bland Return of Darth Maul who by this point in time has been overused in marketing and commercialism.

The other thing that I feel the Fett arc changed was the way the episodes and arcs were built. Well, at least, that is the first most obvious arc/episodes that made me feel a wind of change in the show.
The second thing - making the War take a backseat to main character exposition. That is what the show is killing me with!

In the first two seasons, the War came first and we got stories about it with the characters' personal stories part of it. Best example would be the Ryloth arc - to this day one of the best arcs.
The thing about the arc is that it focused on the Battle of Ryloth and featured personal stories in it like the one of Numa and the one of Chum Syndulla!
We got battles in each episode of the arc and personal struggles that arose from the battles. And it was fun and the way the episodes' stories were built, no character was too exposed or too annoying. Even Anakin in the overall finished arc was not so annoying as he did not "eat up" the time for other Jedi and because of that we had a nice exposition of Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

But from the end of Season two to the latest episode of Season four, the show has been going in the wrong direction. At least, that is how I feel about it.
From the start of Season three (with slight feels in the second half of Season two) the show changed it around and now focuses on the character's issues first and the War is used just as a backdrop that at times can be ignored entirely!
This is where the show kinda started to suck for me. The visuals were getting better but little by little I started to feel that the show had stopped telling stories about the war and how it effects everyone in a different way. Instead we got only how the main characters interact with each other over and over with a little hint that a war is going on. The best example of this would be the latest episode "A Friend in Need" and before that the stupid and overhyped trainwreck called Umbara.
The problem with these kind of episodes was that they missed the point of the show in showing the WAR FIRST, CHARACTERS REACTIONS SECOND!
Let's start with "Plan of Dissent" which was the most painful example of where the show has sidetracked at! The episode was basically 17 minutes of just talking and 3 minutes of flying, shooting and destroying the supply ship. The problem was that in this episode and the next one we all forgot there was a War waging on Umbara and there were many parties involved! The only thing we got was the clones blab and share feeeewiiiiings in the comfort of the taken base without having to do any fighting and that is the main problem. They just talked and never even mentioned the battle until the very last scene of the arc.
The same is with  "A Friend in Need" where the war was totally forgotten and was barely mentioned just because we needed interactions between our main characters. And the episode failed to deliver cause of that fact.

I know it might sound like I am sucker for only action but the thing is focusing first on characters would be so bad IF the characters were the least bit intersting. Focusing on Anakin, Rex and Ahsoka is the reason why the show sucks these days cause they are bland and uninteresting characters. The only one who got a little better as the seasons went on is Ahsoka and she still suffers from the Hero blandness syndrome!

The shift of focus is not more evident than ever with Filoni's people confirming that Darth Maul is going to be an integral part of the show. This means that we will have to forget about the War and deal with the awesome person that was actually dead for the last 13 years!

The last episode to show the War in a very good way was the brillaint episode called "Water War". It did not spent to much time on the characters that over exposed and got to what the show is supposed to be about - the War. The Second Battle of Dac in the new Clone Wars show was one of the best opening episodes of this series, a series that visually does not cease to amaze! The reason is that the episode was traditional TCW stuff - war, clones vs droids, explosions and in all that some interaction between the characters. That is why it was sooooo good and is my favorite episode of Season Four!

Maybe when the show remembers that it is supposed to tell the stories of the war, a war that is shown in the title itself, then maybe, just maybe we could get the epic feel of Season One's greatness once more. Until then we will get episodes that focus on characters we know ALL about and in the end will result in seasons wasted in learning/ watching something we already have.

събота, 14 януари 2012 г.

Dan Grievous reviews "A Friend in Need"





My most hated part of the episode with a little joke!

What an underwhelming episode! Please, do not leave after this statement... there were little good things in thise episode!

Right from the start of the episode we got our first issue - we begin with Padme and that is never a good sign! I don't remember the last time we had a good episode that opened with Padme! The only ones that were did not begin with the words like "sanctioned meeting" and, for instance, in Season 1's really good episode "Blue Shadow Virus" Padme right away ventured in a hazmat suit to search for trouble ( I know I hate when she is asking for trouble everytime by going into the lion's den). Now she is just in one of her episode III dresses (this is the one she wore on the balcony when Anakin accused her of being a Separatist). By the way, I do not like Padme but I like how well most of the outfits she has translate from the movies into the show. 
The start of this episode almost doomed it as I expect more TEA-rrible moments on Mandalore.
Mandalore's main city still looking like a huge zit on the planet's surface! 
Then I, not the viewers, I get stupidity on the CIS side of the story. Instead of investing time into the movie Separatists like Tambor and San Hill, the show loves to give us a few seconds of these idiotic, "made in an afternoon" cameo losers! Seriously! 
Then we get a stupid statement from our resident hypocrite Padme Amidala. I am surprised that the show still wants more of her in this season. I think we had enough of Padme in "Shadow Warrior" where she clearly showed a huge (place rude gesture of choice here) to the entire pacifist nature that she claimed to have. SO how am I supposed to believe that this bimbo wants NO war since she gladly continued this war cause of her love of Anakin!? 
BY THE WAY ( sorry for chewing this political scene so much) why does the the Republic even call this meeting with woman with stegosaurus plates on head, brainy guy who is voiced again by Corey Burton and Not-Shu Mai gossam representative since Palpatine/ Padme know that the CIS "senators" would bring up the only question that the Republic lackies are afraid to answer?! Padme knows that the senators against her wanted something like this before and would agree only to return to the Grand Republic if that request is granted. So why would she call this meeting (knowing of this separatist request) and then have a "DOH" look when the separatist ask her that very same question to recognise them as a legitimate government?! 
Of course, our bimbo in distress is spared the embarassment by the entry of one Lux Bonteri who enters loudly like he enters a pub. 
Then Satine has her "I am too important to talk to you but proceed to the stand" moment and Lux starts his speech like a normal senator and then... he goes BERSERKER MODE! I mean I know he had a plan but WOW! 
Then brainy goodie two-shoes separatist who I want to die a most painful death soon orders his droids to take away the psycho Bonteri. And they do with Ahsoka doing what she does best - sneaking ninja-style!
Then we get the next in a long line of painful Dooku appearances and he basically shows in this scene how much of an A-hole he is. This is what the show does with villains these days - put Dooku in, give him a boring statements like "I am EVIL, EVIL, blah blah blah!" and then proceeds to delay the death of the one who stands before him. The same he did in dozen previous episodes like in the "Escape from Kadavo" and "Kidnapped" episodes where he prolonged the Jedi/ heroes' life long enough so they could win/escape! 
Dooku, you officially are my most disliked and hated villain on this show! Go somewhere, do not show yourself and return for Episode III! (do a Dick Cheney move) 


Dooku, you are annoying so just go **** yourself!

Lux traces the signal ( what a convinient deus ex machina) and then the droids proceed to strangle Lux, I guess, cause they have no weapons. How the mighty have fallen! 
The show or writer in this case has turned these once powerful droids that made the Jedi have a hard time into basic B1s who get defeated by a simple kick and that is what Ahsoka does and takes Bonteri.
Is it me or if these people here start being an item, Ahsoka will be the one with the pants in the family. I mean look at how rough she pulls Lux. Yes, Ahsoka, he was coming so you did not need to rip his arm off. ( he even massages his shoulder cause of the rushed pull by Ahsoka).
The when the doors open we get a useless shot to show how empty is that part of the ship. 
Then we get a short chase, some Senate Commandos square off against droid commandos and then our heroes fly off! And the Senate commandos for once did not all die like flies but maybe they did that after the transition of the scene. 
We get an amazing cameo by our frequent dumbass Anakin Skywalker and I must say I was amazed they squuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuezed him in. I would have loved to see a Padme headlocking the brainy separatist and talking how Ahsoka ruined everything thus creating a brawl between Senators! WOW! Can you imagine Mon Mothma going all The Rock on us and beating the living daylights out of those silly separatist.
Whatever...
On the ship, Lux does not want to join the Republic (Why does he not want to go) Ahsoka gets zapped again by someone this season! Yes... Season Four: Electrocuted Jedi! I ROFL-ed hard there!

Then she wakes up and sees Lux is waiting for the Mandos to come and take him to their settlement. And what a shock, the very advertised Bo-Katan arrives and proceeds to do the most unexpected thing in the episode: 
Slap Ahsoka on the butt and start an Akon music video! No... I am kidding, she does that cause Ahsoka says she is bethroved to Lux a synonim for fiánce! 

But here is my question: 
Do you proceed to slap your friend's wife on the ass if your are told that she is your friend's fiánce?! Of course, NOT!
If Christian Taylor had used a different term or position towards Lux, it would have been better!
Like having Lux saying that she is his Echani bodyguard and then Bo proceeds to play the drums on Ahsoka's bottom. 
Or the final theory - Bo has a lesbian tendencies! 

So they are taken to the camp of the Death Watch. (With nice music from Kevin Kiner, a rare happening) Man, is this a letdown as well. The last time we saw them I could not wait to see the Battle of Mandalore as there were dozens upon dozens of Mandos with Pre Viszla  and now the Death Watch looks like a bunch of armored hillbillies!

Then Bo-Katan leaves our heroes in a tent where they will meet Pre Viszla and Lux then provides exposition  to his plan. Then Ahsoka starts to babble on and trying to blow their cover but when Lux sees Pre coming. Then he does the thing many fans are devided on: 
He KISSES Ahsoka for a few seconds that makes Pre Viszla himself question if they are not interrupting something but, at least, Lux managed to make Ahsoka shut up!
Some fans are annoyed and disgused about, others like it.

I myself like the character of Lux Bonteri over most of the good guys and would like for this rebel to be the love interest of Ahsoka. Let's fact it, before this scene Ahsoka was usually linked to that jerk Anakin but now thanks to Lux we have somebody likeable to associate her with. I welcome that. 
Many times you judge somebody on the crowd he/ she is part of and now I have started to think of Lux and Ahsoka more than Anakin and Ahsoka.

The next scene with Pre getting the tracker of Dooku's location really, really pissed me off! WHY!? 



Look into my face and see what you missed! ARGG!

The reason is how Pre Viszla explains that he is no longer in good terms with the stupid Count Dooku and explains that the two even had a fight where Dooku scarred him, I am sure, with his lightsaber. My gripe with this is not that Pre looks different and not as classy as before but how little story of the scar could have been a 1000000000000000 times a more interersting episode/episodes in S3. I mean the first thing I said to myself was that while we were deep into Tea bulls**t and Corruption on Mandalore, we could have seen Mandos vs Droids and battle between Dooku and Viszla himself. Now that would have made S3's dreadful first half better for sure!

AND I must say that Pre Viszla is the best thing in this episode and I loved every minute with him!
Then we have a scene of R2 making friends with the poor messed-up droids in the camp that are used as target practice and I must say that these droids were the only thing I found emotional and sympathetic. Not the lazy humas we see later, not Ahsoka and Lux but the metalic killing machines that now have been reduced to walking targets for the Mandos to shoot. 
And we get our most FORCED theme in this season - slavery. The droids out of nowhere start talking that they are slaves. Yes, Season Four: The Slavery Issue!

We meet some innocent girls who are from a village close to the camp who are as boring as possible. 

Then Ahsoka is turned into a waitress and makes funny banter with Lux. I must say I enjoyed the words "choke on your stupidity" but now Pre calling her "your woman"! :D 
But right after that we get more boring characters to see and hope to die. We are presented to the leader of the Ming Po who are basically the most basic chinese stereotypes you can find. Chinese/Japanese/Eastern culture/ style is beautiful and I love to see more but not here and now. That wouldn't be a problem if this was some other series but in the trivia section of the official guide, it was originally stated that we were going to get the infamaous Yakface race. I must say that this is the second time the show leaves out an element of the episode on the floor that would have been 10 times cooler. (last time it was TIKKES) 
But the reason for the leaving out the Yakfaces seemed more normal than "canon issues". Official explanations say that these Ming Po were meant to be more relatable and sad to see suffer. Here is the thing:
the original Yakface looked sad and sympathec in the movie "Return of the Jedi being seen here. And these Yarkora would have made the episode a little better cause Star Wars is famous for its cool aliens!


Look into those eyes and tell me you wouldn't shed a tear!


 I must say I find its wet eyes and long face, sorry for the pun, to be more moving that these lazy characters that, frankly, I would have been happy to see them burn! But anyway...

The chieftain ( can you believe were are getting another chieftain this season) is rude, demands of Viszla to get out and leaves. Here is the thing, chieftain, when you are rude to people who look like a bunch of armored , you ask to be stabbed and your family to be slaughtered.

So the following morning, we get Death Watch visiting the Ming Po and BAMB the girl that Ahsoka met a few scenes ago gets stabbed and was I cheering cause I did not like her.
Pre proceeds to do the villain of the week-thing and tells his men to destroy everything/everyone!


Pre Viszla - Epicosity at its finest


This was a cool scene! The show does manage to get scenes of death and killing to look very cool and epic!

Then Ahsoka takes action and makes most of the mandos to shame. That would mean that she is better than Obi-Wan got his Jedi robe handed to him by these guys and now Ahsoka does not even break a sweat!
But ultimately is captured and back in the camp Pre proceeds to execute her but R2 comes to the rescue.


This is a priceless look and says "If you are crazy and you know it, clap your hands!"


 He does he trademark "R2 goes mental" move from "Revenge of the Sith" and distracts the Death Watch. Pre is pushed aside by Lux and Ahsoka (given Lightsabers by R2) does something that I did not expect the show to ever do - she does quadruple beheading.

*And they DO show the heads falling! Funny note: This is on the same idiotic channel that censored Ventress's kiss of death but they left this in.

Pre starts dueling Ahsoka and they go outside where the "droid army of missfits" is ready.
Then the music goes epic on us and wants us to feel that this as an amazing climax.  Pre Viszla gets bested by Ahsoka and our heroes flee to their ship. Bo-Katan and crew are sent to stop them but fail.
While the chase is on, Ahsoka falls on the side of the speeder and does something that we wold only see in a Looney Toons cartoon ! lol 


It is like something from Road Runner!


But all funny moments and Bo-Katan failings aside, the heroes make it to the ship and run away!
Now, in previous episode the villains would be in Lux/Ahsoka's place and would be driven off/ captured. Stopping the suffering of the local population. 
The heroes leaving like that would mean that Death Watch are still on the same planet. They could just decide to go back to that village and finish the job they started. So for me that is hole that makes the end weaker.
Speaking of the end, we got to the end with Lux still talking dumb things that he is not going to Coruscant and he departs with Ahsoka. Not before doing a romantic "hands on the glass" cliché that we have seen so many times before in media. 



Ah! Love!


Still I DO NOT get this fake "I can not come with you" attitude from Lux! Ahsoka's backing him, Anakin seemed welcoming of him and so I do not see the reason for Lux's pointless departure! But hey, whatever, they will make a big deal in S5 about the return of Lux.

The episode ends on Ahsoka's turning back.



So... was this episosde good for me?! NO! 
The setting was wrong, the story was wrong, most of the characters were wrong. The writing by Christian Taylor was weak. Overall I felt the episode went nowhere and added nothing except the fact that Lux and Ahsoka are officially an item now... maybe! Oh, and the fact that we were reminded that we missed out on an awesome possible episode with Dooku vs Pre Viszla but, hey, you can't beat episodes about a poisonous tea! So in short, there were parts of the episode that annoyed me too much!

But to its credit, the episode looked beautiful and the mandos were animated very nicely. Pre Vizsla was the best thing for this episode and the poor droids were the only thing I felt sympathetic to.

So I would give it a 5/10 in the end!


Thank you for reading and May the Force be with you!!!




четвъртък, 12 януари 2012 г.

I find your lack of Jedi disturbing!

  

The Season is officially now in its second half and given what we have coming, there is something that doubtfully would change in terms of numbers - the amount of Jedi in this Season Four of "The Clone Wars"!

Have you all noticed how this season is the one with least new Jedi and the old ones we got back in previous season are mostly absent!?


For example, let's compare S2 and S3 then S3 and S4 but S1 will be skipped cause all the Jedi in were first seen in The Clone Wars movie:
(only those who made their TCW TV-series debut are shown below)

S2 had: Jocasta Nu, Bolla Ropal, Ki-Adi Mundi, Barriss Offee, Eeth Koth, Adi Galia, 

S3 had: Shaak Ti, Ima-Gun Di, Quinlan Vos, Halsey and Knox, Saesee Tiin, Even Piell, O-mer and Jinx. 

S4 has: Krell...



I am a CIS fanboy but what the ****, The Clone Wars? 

I know that counting Krell is kinda cheating cause most now consider Krell more a villain than a Jedi. Especially after making so much 501st clones dead (yay) but still he was introduced to us as a Jedi first and as a murderer and maniac later. 


Now I know that given the unpopularity of the CIS leaders and the CIS, I will have to live with the fact that Poggle was the last movie CIS leader I will see on this once stunning show but the Jedi and Jedi Order are a totally different thing! 

They are shoving Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan in our face now non-stop! Ok, Obi-Wan not that much.

I am sure that there are hundreds of people who want to see the many Jedi that populate this very Jedi-populated. I mean given just the Jedi in the movies, not to mention the ones in the EU of this period. I can devise a nice list of how many cool Jedi we could see in the time we see Anakin make faces or Obi-Wan get beaten to a pulp: 

  • Agen Kolar  ( He would have been better instead of Eeth Koth's pointless inclusion)
  • Serra Keto (She was fun in the Episode III game)
  • Sev (We can not have Sora Bulq so why not this guy in terms of Weequey Jedi)
  • Nem Bees (the Max Rebo of Jedi and why not visit his home!?)
  • Whie Malreaux (Whie's father, the Viscount, was extremely interested in the midi-chlorian phenomenon, and tried to genetically enhance natural midi-chlorians in Vjun's population. The experiment was only a partial success; the people went mad and started killing each other. Whie's mother Whirry, half drunk and crazy, gave him away to a passing Jedi - THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN EPIC EPISODE)
  • Cin Drallig ( We ALL want him)
  • Zett Jukassa (A good Jedi the show can give us a friend of Ahsoka and give us more how she acts with people her age and not just hanging out old geezers and so on)
  • Bene (it would be awesome instead of doing nothing with the overused Anakin, the show could show this padawan and present how she was a very close friend... and then in Episode III we see how Anakin chokes. In this way the show will finally make a scene in the movie stronger, unlike the way they are ruining the "My powers have doubled" moment with the bland overuse of Anakin and Dooku)
  • Ood Bnar ( Let's have this thing! He is a Neti and we haven't still seen them on the show or in the movies and they live for eons. Thanks to him we could have episodes connected to secrets of the Old Republic 5000 years BBY)
  • A'Sharad Hett AKA Darth Krayt (( Instead of wasting our times with the stupid past of the main "protagonist" (yeah right, he is more evil than Dooku) and portray a Jedi who is from the same planet as Anakin. By this they could give us an awesome foreshadowing of VADER!  He eventually became friends with the young Anakin Skywalker and helped Anakin come to terms with the destruction which had been wrought by the galaxy-wide war. I may HATE Anakin but I would love to see Hett!) 
  • Kai Hudorra ( A chance to see the famed Bothans in the show)
  • Rahm Kota  (We all know why we need Kota here - it would give so much weight and depth to his portrayal in TFU and TFUII by seeing him HATE clones but not being Krell. Imagine how Rex would react to clone-hater who is after Krell. It would be awesome...)
  • T'ra Saa (Another Neti Jedi who lives on 130 years after TCW so she would be nice to see cause she is basically a plant Jedi)
  • Kina Ha (A Kaminoan Jedi - nuff said)
  • Dass Jennir (Legolas of Star Wars who goes on to fight with Separatists who looks like Triceratopses against clones)
  • K'Kruhk ( No need to explain, his epicness and HAT tell you why we need this stunning Jedi Master on the show)
  • Zao ( He was a blind, elderly male Veknoid Jedi Master and an accomplished chef active during the final decades of the Republic Classic era. He is the same as podracer  Teemto Pagalies and he BLIND. For me it could be like a Kenshi from Mortal Kombat but in Star Wars form)
  • Beldorion ( Hear me out! A Hutt Jedi who survives Order 66. It is breaking of the Hutt stereotype of being just being evil and imagine / the show will more and more rely on using only the main bland characters/ how Ahsoka would react to a good Jedi after all the hate Anakin had fed her on Hutts but it is justified given how nasty and are Jabba & Ziro)
  • Vima-Da-Boda (it would be fun to see this crazy hag)
  • Ylenic It'kla ( He would be awesome cause he is of the alien species called Caamasi)
  • Quarmall (I really want to see a Jedi or anything from the Abyssin species, I love those cyclops) and many more that could make the show more diverse and interesting than what it is...



So I hope more awesome Jedi appear in the show soon...
What is your opinion on the matter and which Jedi do you want to see as soon as possible!? 
Thank you for reading! I hope you Jedi fans get more and more diverse, interesting and memorable Jedi!

May the Force be with you!



понеделник, 9 януари 2012 г.

Dan Grievous and the S4 Second Half trailer


The trailer for the second half of "The Clone Wars" "Battle Lines" arrived with the conclusion of the Slavers arc.

How should I said it but I found it underwhelming! It looked beautiful but the content was the problem.
I love how that John Williams's music is again used only for trailer fuel. Let's face it! Anything that tries to advertise something is right away epic if it has any of Williams's Star Wars themes. Maybe cause of the sense of nostalgia for the old days. But anyhow...


The first new thing that pops up in the trailer is the return of Mace Windu. Just seeing him waving a lightsaber is awesome to see as the show had forgotten how badass Windu is. 



The curious thing and also annoying is the fact that Embo (that is the amazing thing) but the annoying thing is that he has captured Palpatine. That is kinda lame cause they are using again an element from ROTS and it feels lazy or demeaning to Episode III's somewhat good story.


I have nice little theory: 
This week Death Watch returns and....

What if Filoni was WRONG again! And he meant that the four part arc of Cad Bane and Obi-Wan starts on the 13th of January with the episode "Deception" and then it proceeds to end in... DUMB DUMB DUMB... "Crisis on Naboo". 
Again, the show's writers would prefer rehashing movie plots than giving us Gunray and Haako. I assume Palpi goes to Naboo for some stupid reason (He is Sidious after all so I expect his identity to explain why he is there and not actually saying on screen of visit's reasoning). 
So I doubt the Mandos will have anything to do with Bane and indeed it would like that guy Christian Taylor said a standalone Mando return and not an arc!


And back to the trailer! 



We are happy to see Pre Vizsla is sporting a new outfit and later in the trailer a new hair style. It is obvious Lucas is screaming "HASBROOOO, make this! I command it!".
And there are many blue blaster bolts behind Ahsoka and Pre in this show so maybe the Republic attacks or Lux gets a blaster!

Right with the first shot of Cad Bane and what I am 100% sure is Morallo Eval, a member of the Phindian race that Osi Sobeck was part of. We get Embo, a Rumi Paramita-like character and a bald guy in what appears to be one of the challenges all hunters seen in the trailer will take part to prove how badass they are. 

btw: I know I am being weird now but I think the bald guy with Chewbacca gear might be Obi-Wan in disguise. I mean the character does not look that creative and it seems it could mean Kenobi had a shave. And I know many have said it is impossible but you can grow/ perfect a nice Obi-Wan hair and beard in less than a year. Only time will tell.

Then we have more fan service in the form of Greedo in an obstacle course as well. 

The scene of all the bounty hunters in a room with sabers being shaked from the wall looked really silly. That and the line "More bounty hunters than you can shake a lightsaber at" made the scene even more goofy.
Way to go CN, another trailer/promo/preview you have ruined with your idiotic narrations. 
Next: Anakin's face was dumb as usual attacing maybe Dengar but the starting music was pretty awesomr for a trailer.


Ahsoka kicking mando bucketheads, I mean Death Watch. Now Ahsoka is beating them. Does that mean she is now more powerful than Obi-Wan cause he was beaten by these guys in S2. Maybe that or Pre and that Bo-Katan chick are not training them right! 




The animation on Cad Bane when he flies off the top of that ship was really well executed and it seemed we had a world pipes behind him. Malastare?! Doubt it...



Morallo Eval in full gear looking like the Phantom of the Opera. By the way, the style of his armor is quite alike the one Osi Sobeck wore and it looks a little like Dengar's TESB suit so maybe Dengar will kill Eval and take his armour as a trophy. Also, I think Eval is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. 



And the scene that seals the deal on how lame this second half could be - Obi-Wan getting shot again! Really!? 

What did happen between the writing of S3 and S4!? What is with the sudden hate for Obi-Wan from Lucas and company. For half a season Obi-Wan makes only cameos here and there but now since Umbara he has been beaten to death, strangled, shot, electro-shocked, whipped, humiliated and now shot again. If that is not somebody on TCW crew dishing hate on Obi-Wan then I do not know what is. That is also compared to what a god-like moron Anakin is who has gotten electrocuted this season around 4 or 5  times and in the end manages to come out on top again. So I am sad for the treatment of Obi-Wan.

So that is it from the trailer. Not much. And I am saying that it did not feel that good because I compared it to the last season's second half trailer and that one felt so much more better! Mainly based on the scenes shown in both trailers, the S3's second half  trailer bashes the new one for S4's second half into the ground. 
The last season's second half showed a lot of promiss, even though out of that promiss only the Citadel was an amazing addition to the show, the other two arcs not so much. But still better than just rehashing ideas over and over. The S4 second half felt like I was rewatching clips from S2 Rise of the Bounty Hunters, clips from Hostage Crisis and Shadow Warrior. The last one being the AWFUL THIRD TIME this season of Anakin vs Dooku that I did not mention above. 



That is the worse and not cause of how much by this point I hate both Dooku and the Chosen One but how this is the Clone War and it has tons of Jedi opponents for Dooku to fight. How cool would have been if they removed Anakin and put in Plo Koon!? EPICNESS right there! 

I hope this part of the season turns out better than I expect but I doubt it.
I hope you all enjoy it! I know some will just for the appearance of Cad Bane again. Here's looking at you, Josh Mekola! 

So thank you for reading and May the Force be with you!




петък, 6 януари 2012 г.

Dan Grievous reviews "Escape from Kadavo"


This is my review of the finale of the Slavers arc episode “Escape from Kadavo”!


Right from the start the episode looks great visually! Agruss in the last episode might have looked boring and stupid, now proved awesome in the right lighting and with the right lines! He WAS so cool!
The idea of how Obi-Wan fell on his knees just to save others was a great concept. It was even greater when he did so to save a togruta and then the Togruta was ungrateful and said that the Jedi make things worse. What a FUN concept! The Zygerrians are really cunning and I love them!
Sidious – pointless as usual! He was just shown to remind us that he exists but does nothing. So boring! If Filoni wants to use Sidious, use him and not just put him like some Christmas decoration.

Obviously the preview clips we saw were right after each other and together they were even more of what I said – regurgitated stupidity from the last episode. These two episodes show that while THE CLONE WARS wants to convey passing of time, the fact that they never mention how long has Anakin been on Zygerria/ Kenobi on Kadavo makes the series suffer. If they said that it has been a month or something, it would show that the Zygerrians have a good control on things and that the Jedi are suffering but not loosing hope. But if only two days have passed then I must say that Anakin/Obi-Wan/Ahsoka are a bunch of whiners who are too easy to break unlike other Jedi in the past like Bolla Ropal or Even Piell!
Anakin’s lines in the scene were both annoying and very contradicting. The moron says he runs from nothing and by that promising that he keeps his word. Then in the next scene when the Queen leaves, he escapes and runs away! Oh, Anakin, you are a great role-model! No wonder why GL is so fond of you!
Still surprised the Zygerrian flew, yes, flew 100 stories down managed to lift his head… I think after such a fall he would be jelly on the sidewalk at the bazaar!
Dooku enters like a king but being alone with no cape makes me think he is some lost mental patient coming to Miraj for directions. He looks so un-COUNT-like! More like a peasant!

Atai Molec’s making of that animal growl makes the entire Zygerrian concept in the show the more beastly. So far, I must say as the arc is closing I LOVE THE ZYGERRIANS and I did not dislike anything about them. One of the best built SW societies on the show. They are leaders with schemes/ ideas, they are backstabbers, they are powerful warriors, they are cunning and corpulent and more. The arc might have been weak but the race of villains (face it, some races in SW one might think are just villains and maniacs). Back to Molec! I must say that the show doesn’t like Prime Ministers and makes all of them backstabbing bastards who betray female leaders. I am not saying that because it is sexist but it is fact that the only other such relationship was with Satine and Almec. Even the names sound alike. Satine – Scintel, Molec – Almec.
The transition with the glass was superb. I must say that I think that for the first time in the show we have seen some character narrating scenes other than the narrator in the newsreel.
When Dooku said that Atai might do his bidding that reminded me of the great episode “Ambush” where Katuunko refused Dooku’s proposal and then the Count expressed his faith in Katuunko’s successor. Sweet and dark echo!
Atai Molec’s face was so epic when he was enjoying the Queen being choked by Dooku. By the way, is it me or is Miraj one of the most either stupid or the bravest character that does not have the Force and stands up to the Sith Lord. In the end, I think she was both and she just forgot who she was talking to. Maybe Zygerria is out of touch with the galaxy and Queen Scintel has not heard of the horrid things the Count does to even people who do GOOD for him. Let us take a moment to remember Rish Loo…
The duel or repetitiveness number 3 was underwhelming and boring! One thing – thanks to Dooku for the fourth time has suffered for his “crimes” in the show! I might not like Dooku but he, at least, gives me some pay off at times.
The way how Dooku pointed the guards to Anakin as the killer of the Queen has been done to death in all media! So that was not that stunning.
Outside Ahsoka awaited with the ship and is it me or the way Ahsoka has started to talk in the show is like if she is bored/tired of living or something.
The music when Anakin was jumping through the window was very beautiful but knowing that was Anakin there is no suspense!

The change of the line in the end of Scintel’s line made me glad cause to the end she was evil and even laughed a little at the Chosen One!

The scene when Anakin/Ahsoka attacked, I was reminded of something I hate on Dooku. Everytime he is can allow his henchman to kill Obi-Wan, Dooku always postpones for some stupid reason and gives Obi-Wan a window of opportunity to get free or fight his way out. Here with Agruss, before with Darts D’Nar. Dooku just order them to shoot and get it over with.

Anakin AGAIN /gasp/ makes the most idiotic faces. At this point is like mandatory for him to look like an pig in the face.
I love Plo Koon but again he did what he has done for the last three seasons – be the last hope and come to rescue the Heroes who failed! Go Plo!
During the battle, I must admire how cool-looking is all Zygerrian tech. Bravo, TCW!
The move that Plo Koon did with his fighter was really cool and kind of shows that they are doing with him what they should have been doing since last season with Master Tiin  - show off how badass of a pilot he is!
The scenes where Agruss was working on the computer and bashing the living daylights out of it, made me laugh hard. Maybe cause it felt relatable to anybody who has had tantrums with their computers! I said myself “Man! Agruss must be using Windows Vista, the poor guy!”.

The scenes with Ahsoka talking about the Kiros people being “her people” felt fake and unreal. The reason is that sources have pointed out many times that she is from the same planet as Shaak Ti Shili and making Ahsoka say “her people” to the people of Kiros does not make sense even if they are togrutas. It would be like me, a Bulgarian, to say “my people” for Germans or Russians just cause they are Caucasian. It is just silly! But anyway, Ahsoka gets to the slaves and then I must say we see how effective the Zygerrians are – from 50 000 citizens of Kiros to just over 20 or so. It could be really sad that over 40 000 people found their death while Anakin was making faces or maybe the Clone Wars team was lazy to animate a really huge pile of people leaving. We will never know.
We get another final Wolf Pack cameo for the fans to enjoy and, of course, they rescue the slaves. DUH!
And with this scene I get another annoying reminder from TCW team. They go out of their way to bring in cameos of Republic characters from the past like Coburn and Warthog BUT a cameo from my favorite Tikkes or the mandatory appearance from Shu Mai is TOOO TABOO! Damn double standards…
SO, Obi-Wan finds a loop-hole in the Jedi code and does not kill (he wanted to, we all saw it) but makes another person do it. Way to go, Kenobi, you evil cheating son of gun. Making others do your dirty work. Agruss is stabbed by the overused and annoying Rex. Then the dead Keeper proceeds to fly full speed into a monitor – unnecessary but The Clone Wars team loves being cruel to villains and villain fans. That was another thing they changed as Agruss did not die in the comic but the killing is done.
The heroes are victorious as the slaves are saved (all 10 of them), the Hub is destroyed and the episode/ arc ends on a painful boasting of how amazing Ahsoka is! That felt really really forced and out of nowhere as everybody contributed their fair share to the conclusion of the arc, not just the padawan. Yes, she did suggest the whole cruiser under the Hub plan but the group could be also worshiping Plo for coming or Anakin for destroying for less than 10 seconds turrets that many gunships could not for more than 5 minutes.
Whatever, it is over!

The episode was good as whole. Mainly cause of the evil contained. If it did not have that going for it, it would surely suck more than Umbara. Come to think of it, this arc was also kinda written by Henry Gilroy and this arc had one of the best villain in a while.  Maybe I think he was the man who gave me all the epic villains of the first season. The villains Miraj Scintel, Atai Molec and Agruss ruled.
The heroes were lame and overused as always. Except Obi-Wan. I feel sorry for him as he suffered the most in this adventure. Poor Obi-Wan.
The action in the end was decent and it is always epic to see my favorite Jedi Plo Koon.

Overall, good episode 7 out 10 and good arc in the end 7/10.
Not the best mainly cause it focused on something I despise very much and do not want to see. Maybe also cause it was based on a comic I red 2 years ago might have not helped with my enjoyment but I never knew they would adaptations one day.
But what the arc sucked in subject matter, it made up with amazing villains and they made me really, really happy! The Zygerrians rule and one of my favorite species now!

Thank you for reading my first review and May the Force be with you!