A braggart with a black accent says to his droid assistant that it will take 50 Jedi -- maybe a hundred -- to take his fort. He looks through binoculars and spies two Jedi on horseback riding toward them -- Obi-Wan and Anakin, the latter sporting long hair. The battle with this tough guy and his droids lasts all of four seconds. Anakin is pretty dominant.
Cut to another battle, this time in space. Again, Anakin saves the day. He saves Jedi Master Saesee Tiin, who grins appreciatively.
[Note: Anakin in general seems incredibly mature and relaxed throughout this episode.]
Cut to yet another battle. Three Jedi -- Aayla Secura, Eeth Koth and a wolf dude -- are pinned down by crab-like droid tanks. They get trapped in large pink bubbles and are in serious trouble when Ani swoops down out of nowhere. He Force-pulls the crab droids and destroys them by flinging them into each other.
He waves his hand and the pink bubbles burst, freeing the three trapped Jedi. They pump their fists and cheer him.
[Note: It's clear that Anakin's peers really trust and like him now. All the more devastating when he backstabs them.]
Cut to Anakin's Jedi-fighter ship slipping into what may be Theed, Naboo. He meets Padme under a bridge. She reaches out and touches a long scar on right side of face. He pulls away at first, then hugs her tight.
[Note: The scar wasn't in the previous scene. No explanation is given, but I've recently heard online that he got the scar from Asajj Ventress. Which means he didn't kill her on Yavin IV. I'm so confused.]
The camera pulls back to show the dusky skyline of the city. In one building, a single light is on. Then the light goes out.
[Note: Padme's bedroom, anyone?]
Cut to Obi-Wan apparently on the docks by a wooden ship. He's unsuccessfully trying to find a place out of the rain where he can sleep. He looks positively miserable.
Clone trooper Commander Cody swoops in and says, "The siege goes well. With our continued barrage, the shields should go down in 3 months."
"But we've been here a month already," says Obi-Wan, unhappily.
"Yes, sir! We're right on schedule," says the clone, flying away again.
Obi-Wan groans.
Anakin shows up carrying a dirty sack. He places it down on a box or table in front of Obi-Wan and rubs his hands gleefully.
"What is that?" asks Obi-Wan, raising an eyebrow.
"Lunch!"
Anakin opens up the sack and reveals a pile of dirt swarming with live worms and bugs. He proceeds to eat them with gusto.
"How can you eat that?" says Obi-Wan, looking disgusted.
Anakin replies with his mouth full, "But master, you're the one who always taught me to feed off the living Force."
"That's not what I..."
Obi-Wan gives up. Fuck it, his eyes say.
"Where did you get that stuff anyway?"
"From the enemy camp," Anakin nonchalantly replies.
"What! You were there? What were you doing?"
"Reconnaissance."
"How did you penetrate the shield?"
Anakin takes his time answering while he sucks down a three foot long pink worm.
[Note: Yo, what was up with that last bit? And what's this eating dirt thing, anyway? Is that some filthy Tatooine habit?]
Anakin points at the "sack," which turns out to have a map drawn in it.
"I found this ancient sewer. It goes right under the old city."
A resigned look comes into Ob-Wan's eyes.
"So, I assume the plan is to crawl through the sewer, work our way to the shield generator, fight our way through the defenses, blow up the generator, knocking out the shield, and all our troops swarm in and overwhelm the enemy," he drones.
[Note: I think I've heard this plan before.]
"Yep. Let's go."
Obi Wan looks very ill and very British.
[Note: The role reversal in this sub-story is amusing. Obi-Wan gets to be whiny and Anakin gets to be laid back and reasonable.]
[Note: I noticed from the first Clone Wars series that Obi Wan wears the clone trooper armor either under his Jedi robes or openly. The other Jedi, including Anakin, don't wear armor. I wonder why Obi-Wan feels he needs armor. Is his fighting style such that he expects to get hit and the others don't?]
Scenes of the pair wading through the sewers, neck-deep in filthy water. Obi-Wan is not happy.
"What an incredible smell you've discovered," he gripes, as Han Solo will to Leia in Episode IV.
They come across large boulders blocking the passage.
"What now?"
"We swim," says Anakin, diving in.
"I knew you were going to say that," Obi-Wan complains, imitating Han Solo again.
The pair peek out of a manhole. They see some droids looking at a power core.
Anakin wants to jump out and lay waste to the droids, but Obi-Wan says, "There are alternatives to fighting."
[Note: As he will say to Han in Episode IV. This whole episode is an homage.]
"That's no fun," Anakin says mildly.
Obi-Wan releases a dozen or so marble-sized metal balls and Force-pushes them to the feet of the droids and the base of the power core. The "marbles" blow up, the shield goes down. The Jedi stroll out, and the clones move in.
Obi-Wan compliments Anakin as they walk away. "Nice job, my friend, nice job."
[Note: Great sequence. The pair work so well together. It's times like this that Ben is thinking about when he tells Luke twenty years later that his father was his good friend. And then he proceeds to lie to Luke about Vader. But that's another story.]
Cut to the Wookie homeworld. A Wookie father and son swing through trees, trying to hunt a goat-creature. The son throws a spear that impacts off a camouflaged structure. The father pulls off the camo to reveal a large ship. The pair flee and hide in the trees as their world is overrun.
Quick scenes of three other worlds where droids forces are winning. Blue elephant people cower and look pitiful.
Cut to Dooku and General Grievous in a practice duel. Dooku, switching hands constantly, tells Grievous to forego standard attacks, be unorthodox. Grievous complies, and starts using his feet to wield his lightsabers. Dooku first chides Grievous for holding his saber too tight, then for holding it too loose.
[Note: I believe Dooku's speech is a paraphrasing of one from Scaramouche, one of my favorite films. The plot of that movie reminds me a lot of Star Wars, though it's set during the French Revolution.]
Dooku disarms Grievous. Dooku inspects the lightsaber, and sees it's a new one.
Grievous says Dooku's tutelage has served him well. He pulls back his cloak to reveal at least five lightsabers around his waist.
"If you are to succeed in combat against the best of the Jedi, you must have fear, surprise and intimidation on your side. You must break them before you engage them. Only then will you ensure victory."
"Wise council, my apprentice," says Darth Sidious, whose hologram appears out of nowhere.
"Report, General. What news from the front?"
"Our strategy is working perfectly, my lord," answers Grievous. "The Jedi and their allies are stretched thin across the worlds in a vain attempt to contain our new offensive."
"Now is the time to launch our final operation," says Sidious. "Is everything ready for your special mission?"
"The unsuspecting fools know not what awaits."
Cut to Obi-Wan, Anakin and the troopers as they break camp.
"Typical," says Obi-Wan. "The weather clears as soon we're leaving."
[Note: I'm starting to think that Ben isn't the outdoorsy type. Or he just hates getting wet.]
"Urgent message from Coruscant," interrupts a trooper.
The pair sit in a tent to view a holo transmission of Mace and Palpatine. Palpatine congratulates them on the success of the mission.
But, says Mace, for every system that is liberated, another is taken, prolonging this conflict. "We must stop this war at its source."
Anakin makes a mean face. "Greivous!"
"We have questionable intel on this at best," Mace says.
"On the contrary," Palpatine disagrees. "My intelligence assures me that my information is quite accurate."
Mace glares down at Palpatine.
[Note: Surely a dis?]
"General Greivous has been spotted on a number of occasions traveling to planet Nelvaan, deep in the outer rim territories. I am told he is there right now," says Palpatine.
"I do believe Greivous is the key to bringing an end to this conflict," says Mace.
"One can only hope," Palpatine says lightly. "You are to leave immediately."
"May the Force be with you," says Mace.
Obi-Wan frowns. "Sending us on a reconnaissance mission? This doesn't feel right."
"Don't look at it that way, master. Think of it as reconnaissance in Force." Anakin smacks his right fist into his left hand and grins.
"Your favorite," Obi-Wan says with a wry smile.
The two share a laugh.
[Note: They're acting like real buds now.]
Cut to about a dozen large ships heading to planet.
A trooper says that no enemy ships have been spotted, but there is a large geothermal reading in one sector. Anakin says they'll check it out.
They land on a snowy planet with trees. The Jedi lead about a dozen troopers.
Shy animals scurry away.
"Something's startling these creatures," says Anakin.
"And it's not us," says Obi-Wan.
"I feel it too."
"A disturbance..."
More animals scurry away.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Obi-Wan says.
A huge blue-skinned animal with tusks and an armored tail bursts from the ground and the troopers open fire.
Anakin slices off piece of its body, then leaps in air. Obi-Wan yells, "Wait!"
Too late. Anakin buries his lightsaber in the thing's brain, then slides off its back, looking pleased with himself.
He looks at Obi-Wan's face. "What?" he asks, seeming puzzled.
There is a rustling in the bushes. Angry blue-skinned humanoid natives carrying Polynesian-type shields jabber at them.
"I don't think you should've done that," Obi-Wan says mildly.
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