Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Pursuit of Peace"

Spoiler Level: High

Another politics- heavy episode, which I always enjoy.  It's great to get to see Bail Organa doing his thing.  There is some action as well, in the form of a very cool speeder chase scene through the streets of Coruscant.

This episode also does a wonderful job of building up Rodian senator Onacanda Farr, who's killed in the second season episode "Senate Murders."  Padmé had talked about how good a friend he was, but that friendship was off camera before; now we see it first hand, so his death has more impact.  (Or at least it will, when I rewatch these episodes in chronological order when this is all over...)

I also loved the look of Selkath bounty hunter Chata Hyoki.  Now that's a cool alien design.

The final scene with Chancellor Palpatine came very close to revealing his true intentions.  Which is of course obvious to the audience, since we all know that Emperor Palpatine is Darth Vader's master, but everything I've seen set in the Prequel Era, be it books, comics, this show and even the movies themselves never came straight out and admitted it until the climax of Episode III.   So when Palpatine says "For now, we must adhere to the principles of our democracy," it's coming very close to crossing that line.  Not that I would necessarily be against it; I find Palpatine's machinations fascinating, and the lesson that comes with him-- that under the right conditions, people can be willing to sacrifice their democracy-- is a crucial one.  I'm just surprised to see it come so close to happening here.

"Pursuit of Peace" is the 56th episode aired and #55 in the known chronology to date. This will be the last new episode until January 7, 2011, which hopefully means I'll be able to keep up with NextGen for the next month!

As of this writing, this episode is available to watch for free at http://www.starwars.com/video/view/001161.html.

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