Star Wars: the Animated Series… The Force Personified Part 4?

Read Part 3 here.

So to recap thus far: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka have been kidnapped by the Force and trapped on an even more magical Pandora than the Na’vi home world, and stuff happened. What stuff? I’m not sure, but whatever it was, I’m quite certain it did an even better job at making the prequel universe an incoherent mess than… well, the prequels.

And despite wishing that “Overlords” would be a standalone episode, the almighty makers of this thing turned it into a three parts. This means that even though the last episode ended with them leaving wherever they are, we still have two more episodes of this shit.

First of all, let’s talk about the Jedi prophecy.

Okay, so we find out in The Phantom Menace that there’s a prophecy about a Chosen One—it’s Anakin, in case anyone’s brain died and missed it—who will bring balance to the Force. You may find yourself asking silly questions like:

• What’s the history of this prophecy?
• What does it entail?
• How does Qui-Gon know Anakin’s the Chosen One?
• What exactly will the Chosen One have to do?
• Why does the council seem not thrilled about the possibility of finding the Chosen One?

And if you’re like me, you probably asked yourself this:

• If the prophecy stated that the Chosen One will bring balance to the Force, doesn’t that mean he’s going to bring about the rise of another Sith Empire or destroy the Jedi, as there are almost no Sith in existence compared to the thousands of Jedi in the universe?

Following that, you may have asked:

• Why would Qui-Gon be happy about this? Why would Obi-Wan share that sentiment?

And with that line of thought, it now makes sense that the Jedi council wouldn’t have been happy about Anakin, because maybe they knew the Chosen One would be a Sith. Of course, then I have to question why they would even allow Obi-Wan to train Anakin. They clearly think it’s a bad idea. So what the hell?

But unfortunately, thus far, these episodes are the only thing I’ve seen in the franchise that actually tries to analyze this prophecy.

So let’s just go with Anakin’s going to somehow bring about equilibrium between Jedi and Sith, because that’s the only thing that makes sense to me. We’re just going to throw away all those terrible times in the movies when “bring balance” spontaneously changed to “destroy the Sith,” because the latter makes even less sense than the former, and I don’t want to go on a tangent as to why that is. Also because these episodes are clearly going with the “bring balance” interpretation.

So on this planet, the power balance of the Son and the Daughter affect the power balance in the Dark and Light sides of the Force in the rest of the universe. Somehow. I’m not too sure how this works, and if you read my last post, I briefly mentioned why it couldn’t. Also, I’m going to theorize that the Father is the one who made this prophecy.

But now, as we learned last episode, the prophecy isn’t for the Jedi and Sith; it’s for Anakin to take the place of the Father and keep balance between his children. But if you watch these episodes, the Son and the Daughter are already equal in strength, meaning that George Lucas and everyone else are under the very misguided belief that the Force is balanced at the moment. But there’s no way for Anakin to bring balance if it’s already balanced.

But while we’re at it, here’s another question I have that will probably remain unanswered:

• If this prophecy is for the Father, the Son, and the Daughter, why does everyone else in the universe know about it?

I would honestly very much appreciate if someone somewhere knew the answers to any of these.

So “Overlords” left off with our favorite trio leaving the planet—how, I don’t know, because I didn’t see an exit anywhere—and we would think that would be the end of it, but no. We can’t be that lucky.

So episode number two in this arc is called “Altar of Mortis” and it begins with this quote:

He who surrenders hope, surrenders life.

As they’re flying home, Anakin’s dreaming that he’s still on the planet. In his dream, he sees himself, who then transforms into the Son, who then calls him the Chosen One—because what else would the Son call him?

Jackass, maybe?

Anyway, the Son wants Anakin to join the Dark side, because of course he does. The Son’s reason is because light and dark need to be together. I don’t get it. His voice is then replaced with Palpatine’s, and he says that the Sith will destroy the Jedi—see what they did there?!

I guess, on a positive, I can say that I like that at this point the Son seems as though he wants there to be peace between Jedi and Sith, which is certainly more than what anyone else wants involving the two sides.

However, the Son turns out to be a bastard—big surprise—as Anakin wakes to discover him kidnapping Ahsoka. Again.

That’s two times in two episodes now.

And he kidnaps her by grabbing her and turning into a Ghoul. While in beast mode, he can out-fly their space shuttle, which is capable of traveling between planets in the course of a few days. That’s really fast, but they can’t seem to catch the Son with it.

Seriously, how can they not catch up? And depending on their speed, wouldn’t Ahsoka be ripped to shreds?

So Anakin and Obi-Wan end up crash landing—again, two times in two episodes—and we get a dialogue exchange that I actually enjoy. While flying their shuttle, they almost crash into a tower, and Anakin has to swerve their craft to avoid it.

After they land, Obi-Wan remarks:

“I didn’t think you saw it.”

And then Anakin responds with all the contempt I’m feeling:

“It was a giant tower. Of course, I saw it.”

Oddly enough, that’s how I would have responded to Obi-Wan, and in that same tone of voice. All too often in the prequels, Anakin is just randomly a dick who gets very angry, but despite all the faults of this series, his personality is a lot better here. And he doesn’t just get prissy for any reason. I can safely say that The Clone Wars does a much better job with him than the movies. And I felt the need to give some praise, considering all the negative reviews I’m giving, even if it is for just one line.

So now suddenly, Obi-Wan knows that whatever happens on this planet will have powerful repercussions for the universe at large, even though he doesn’t know what’s going on. You would think that not knowing what’s going on would make him a relatable character, but no.

This just leads me to question how he knows that and in what way these episodes have any bearing on anything. I’m not going to repeat myself on why they don’t, because there’s only so many ways I can say they don’t and I already talked about it.

Just having a character say something doesn’t make it true. It needs to be shown as well.

I’d much rather be watching this fight again. It was much more interesting than whatever is happening in these three episodes.

Furthermore, I’m going to give it away now: after this arc ends, it’s never mentioned again. Not for the rest of the third season, and after finally watching the fourth season, I can safely say it’s not brought up there either. Unless they talk about it in that one Jar Jar Binks and General Grievous centric episode—who are just my two favorite people ever—and I’m going to be honest; I skipped most of that episode, except for the part where Dooku captures and tortures Anakin.

Anyway, Obi-Wan thinks they should go talk to the Father, which seems to be the default action our characters are now taking when they don’t know what’s happening.

While all this is going on, Ahsoka’s tied to a wall, because what we needed at the moment is bondage. But I thankfully haven’t seen too many fanfics involving anything here. So thank the Force for small miracles.

So while Ahsoka’s tied up, a rat-toad talks to her—it just might be the Son, as no one else is on this planet, but she trusts him anyway—and he lets her go. They talk for a minute, then the rat-toad bites her and infects her with evil. This turns her into a Sith.

It is literally painful trying to think about this. I don’t often experience physical discomfort on this level while writing reviews, and I haven’t resorted to self-harm yet. So I guess at least I can say that. But here are some more questions I have:

• Why does the Son need to tie Ahsoka up and then release her in order to gain her trust if he was just going to infect her anyway?
• Did the Son need to be a rat-toad in order to do that, or did George Lucas think him biting her while in human form is too creepy?
• If he wants Anakin to join the Dark Side, why didn’t he just infect him?
• Is the episode trying to say that being a Sith is not a choice? Does the same go for being a Jedi? Like, if the Daughter escaped the planet, could she go and infect Palpatine with goodness?

I need a break from this damn episode.

Look out for Part 5.

About these ads