WARNING!: contains spoilers for the Clone
Wars episode arc about Younglings (little Jedi). You may want to see this before reading on.
Ok, so instead of doing all the episodes in this arc I decided to do just do the arc as a whole and kinda rate it as such. Overall I would rate the arc a 5.5 out of 10 for my regular reasons (not enough plot, kinda random Jedi action, not much intellegence from the characters, and NOT ENOUGH CLONES!!!!). However, the two ending episodes were actually quite enjoyable simply because they showcased two great characters (in my opinion): General Grevious and Commander Cody!! Not only did I really miss Cody in season 4 (because that season was so dark and more indepth than any so far and I wanted to see him in all of that chaos), but I just really missed him in general. XD He's such a great character to expand on (I'm speaking from experience ;) and comparing the following seasons after 1 didn't really contain the same amount of clones, much less Cody. He really should be showcased more. Not only am I still worried about what they're planning to do with him (possibly bad stuff :/ ) but I would just like to see more of him on screen before we all leap into the New Republic era/Disney's versions. :L I also missed seeing Grevious be, well, Grevious! :D In the books he was always so crafty and viscious. I could remember him using his foot to crush clones before. I was really hoping for more a fight from Obi-Wan though. Kenobi has been coming off as kind of a wimp in this show. I'll get into that later though. ;) Grevious and Cody literally made this arc for me. The Cody episode I rated 7/10 and Grevious garnered a 6.5/10 for me. First lets go into the younglings themselves though.
I liked the prospect of Illum as a screen version of the planet has never been done before. That's one of the reasons why I love the Clone Wars era so much. You get to go to and see all these amazing new planets and cultures untouched by things like the Empire. I liked the layout of the planet and interior of the 'cave'. However I was ultimately disappointed. I've read multiple Jedi Apprentice books featuring Illum, and what I learned from them is that the crystal cave is filled with illusions that require them to use their physical, mental, and Force skills to manuver. This excusion was timed, which added an unneeded rush to the whole thing. I thought some Jedi spent days searching for their crystals. True, in the end, the ice barrier proved to be of no hinderance to the Jedi, but I always thought of the journey being more thoughtfilled rather than just a race against time. They were more focused on finding their crystal to escape than finding their crystal to find their crystal. :( It seemed like they were just more interested in finding their crystal and getting back, and building their lightsaber than the other purposes such as understanding their fears or what the lightsaber should be used for: protection. I missed all the crazy hallucination-like Force illusion things that were in the books too. In one, I think the most memorable one, Anakin saw Darth Maul and had a confrontation with him. I liked them because they revealed the inner fears of the individual Jedi. All these younglings did was complain to themselves (which is weird enough) about their situation. This was more annoying than interesting. I didn't like how some of them acted out of anger/frustration but still reaped their reward, like the Nautolan. There didn't seem to be that many lessons learned from any of the Jedi as I didn't really see them change all that much in the following episodes. :p
Overall, the parts with Younglings bored me. They weren't changing, as one would expect, from their experiences. They complained about their situations and were too lucky for their own good. I did find it interesting to compare them to young clone troopers. The mentalities were completely different. (sorry if I digress a lot right now XD ). The clones congradulate each other, and though a few of them were not too terribly nice to "Lucky", they ultimately worked together. The Jedi younglings were too quick to leave each other and work to satisfy their own needs. True Petro resqued that one girl but it didn't really seem that honest to me. They were bonded out of fear not compassion. I would have liked to see her stay with him so she could help him escape the iceflow at the end. There was just not really any cooperation between anyone. Though this improved somewhat in the later in the arc, I still found it lacking in these younglings more so than clones.
I think this represents well, that the Jedi teachings are lacking in some discipline that is allowing the younglings to guiltlessly leave eachother for their own selfish reasons. :/ Sorry to say, but this makes total sense to me. Jedi are powerful individuals who are made even more so by their ablity to be attatchmentless and carry on even when their allies are dead. Clones on the other hand are taught to be completely selfless and though they still are to carry on the mission even when their brothers are killed, there's this undeniable humanity about them that develops into a huge respect for life. It's interesting to see these two upbringings/morals clash in Cody and Obi-Wan in my books and, though subtly, in this arc.
Which brings me to my next high point: Cody. I loved seeing this guy in action again. What's more, I loved seeing his face again. I don't know why the writers for this season find it nessessary to still put so many shallow episodes on even though probably the majority of the audience is young adults. We can understand that stuff! Even little kids watching this show would probably rather watch clone troopers than Maul, who, by the way, I don't like his character any more. He speaks in broken sentances and makes ridiculous plots that are only geared at killing Jedi. For some reason I can never justify his reasons like I do Grevious. No one is commanding Maul and the Jedi don't seem to be openly confronting him, if he really wanted to he could just build his forces and then just show up and attack the Jedi and the Republic troops across the galaxy. Sorry but Maul is coming off as another unintelligent character who seems like he knows what he's doing. XP
Anyways, back to Cody. XD I loved how they kind of showed the friction/difference of beliefs between him and Obi-Wan. It totally backed up what I'm doing in my books!!! I also loved how Obi-Wan was so inept at fighting Grevious. He was relying totally on his lightsaber skills and open confontation, when, sorry to say, that didn't work on the cyborg before. Didn't he learn from his past mistakes?!? To me, it was clear he had not, and it cost him the lives of countless clones. Also, the fact that all of these deaths were for a group of younglings who weren't really in any danger and, ultimately, a single Jedi. It just goes to show the lengths some of these Jedi endanger their troopers to save only a handfull of Jedi. :'(
I loved how Cody basically ordered Obi-Wan to throw the fuel barrel so he could blow it up when it hit the Separatist when Grevious threw Kenobi into the gunship. I think this shows how intelligent the clone really is and perhaps how much he holds back to let the Jedi have things their way. This also was a brilliant display of how creative Cody is. Thinking back to another episode, I think in season 2, Cody and his men literally monkey pile on Grevious to slow him down. Not a single Jedi has EVER gotten that close to punch Grevious in the face like Cody did!! I find that so amazing. It worked this time with the fuel barrel and it worked with the monkey pile because Grevious was not expecting it. The Jedi have become predictable and so Grevious will always beat them. I'd like to think that this is what Cody would have done if he had the force. That the fuel barrel-toss move and probably a million others would have been executed in steady succession until Grevious was nothing more than a black smear on the deck. In a way this saddens me because it seems as though the people who would actually use the Force to it's full potential cannot because they simply haven't been gifted with it. :L
On to Grievous. I loved his duel between he and Ahsoka in the final episode in this arc. Like I mentioned before, she was using tactics he'd already seen in hundreds of Jedi so he could have easily beat her. >:) I loved seeing the Youngling's scared faces when he was roaring and crawling on all fours. I was like, "Yep! That's the probably the guy who's going to kill you someday! >XD Look long and hard at him because he will always be better than you!!" . Yeah, I'm not really a fan of the younglings. Wookie or not I hope Grevious gets all their precious lightsabers in the end! >:D I also loved how Ahsoka, all confident and 'grown up', was clearly floundering during the fight. If he had grabbed her with any of his limbs it would have been an insta-kill. I think that battle put her in her place again. Reminded her that she and the Jedi are not all-powerfull and they need to shrink their head sizes a bit. I guess that's the main thing I saw in this arc: Jedi get their butts handed to them because they're letting their powers and "their" victories (notice I put that in quotes...probably because it was more of a combination of the clones' efforts too! ) get to their heads.
Anyways, hope you enjoyed my ranting about this arc. I haven't been watching the Droids arc (save for the beginning of the first episode that began with Cody and Rex meeting up {war-buddies!!!! XD } and Neyo's appearance ) but I'm almost positive Commando Gregor will be in the mix soon so I'm super excited for that! XD
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