The Clone Wars: Massacre

[Staff]

The four part season finale of The Clone Wars starts tonight with Massacre

Count Dooku is determined to have revenge against the Nightsisters of Dathomir after their betrayal. General Grievous launches an all-out droid attack against the magic-wielding witches, and Mother Talzin and Asajj Ventress lead the defense with all the dark powers at their command.

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Permalink: http://www.fbtb.net/2012/02/24/the-clone-wars-massacre/

[RancorRider8]

Heard that this ep was horrific.

[sparkart]

I didn't like it. It was technically beautiful, animation and art were cool, with lots of action and violence, but it was so pointless. It felt like watching a talented animator's resume reel, very flashy, but who care about the characters and stories?

Also, I hate those episodes that feel more Final Fantasy than Star Wars. When I was a kid, the cool stuff in Star Wars were the spaceships, the droids, the weapons, the armor...hardware stuff, physical things. The Force was this mysterious thing, and you didn't know if it was real, or just an allegory for the human spirit. Maybe that's why it was such an effective and dramatic turn when Luke goes against the Death Star, and chooses to not use the computer, loses his droid/buddy co-pilot R2, and still is able to destroy the Death Star.

[majortom]

I find that the series always fails to convey the scale of the conflict of the clone wars. At least, I always imagined them as 'epic' (in the true sense of the word) battles, but I only ever tend to see a handful of clones etc. on the screen at one time. I just expected to see more than what, 10 witches to live on Dathomir, to give this episode as an example.

I agree with sparkart on Filoni's team delving into 'the mysteries of the force'. It often looks good on the screen, but ultimately removes the 'mystery' and wonder from the equation. I think the creators have taken far too many liberties in this area (and indeed, the Star Was universe in general); reanimating corpses was (another) step too far, and in a direction that seems, 'away from Star Wars'. I'm considering Clone Wars less and less canon, the content of this episode I'd expect from any other kid's TV series, or maybe a computer game but not Star Wars.

But heck, I'm still watching them.

[Blacknight]

This was another episode written by Katie Lucas. 'Nuff said.

Actually, no, I'll add that this episode bordered on the satanic/blasphemous of both Star Wars and Catholicism. And with those utterly lame zombies, it completely jumped the shark.

This series has become a massive train wreck - you can't help but stop and watch it all pile up at the end.

[OOM-9]

Grievous just slaughtered all those witches and zombies..... whoo hoo! They were totally lame characters that needed disposal anyway. I agree this was pretty horrible but on a better note, more MTT's made an appearance!

[StoutFiles]

I didn't like it. It was technically beautiful, animation and art were cool, with lots of action and violence, but it was so pointless. It felt like watching a talented animator's resume reel, very flashy, but who care about the characters and stories?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hgxbpV6kgY

[MrCRskater]

The level of violence in this series is through the roof, it's incredible to me that this can still be considered a "children's series." If I had kids, I sure as heck wouldn't let them go near this. They probably get away with a technicality and claim that violence is "implied," but it seems pretty explicit to me.

More on-topic, this episode was no great shakes. Truthfully, none of season 4 has been very impressive. Sure, the animation is cool, but the stories are half-baked and any nuances are glossed over, like Ventress' association with Cariss or whatever her name was. They said 2 words to each other, and suddenly we're supposed to believe they had some kind of deep connection? Please. . . And quips with violence aside, some of the action is so over-the-top, it's hardly believable, even in the context of a sci-fi universe.

[emmtwosix]

Truthfully, none of season 4 has been very impressive. Sure, the animation is cool, but the stories are half-baked and any nuances are glossed over [...]

Sadly, I agree. I did like most of the business on Umbara, and some of the plot to kidnap Palpatine, but not enough to warrant buying this season as I have done for the first three. Who knew that the two episodes with R2 & C3P0 as the main characters would be two of the best? Unfortunately that's not saying much.

IMO, the biggest problem is that they need to stop killing off all of their characters within an episode arc. No one's ever around long enough to care about them, so even if the story is interesting, at the end we're left with nothing. No progression, no new interesting characters, no storylines outside of the main ones that need developing or that we're left wondering about later which they could revisit. They almost killed off Embo in season 2 until the majority of the staff within complained. Why kill off the only characters that could be developed beyond an individual plot point? Kill all the nameless clones and as many droids as you like. Blow up more starfighters and tanks if you feel the need, but try keeping some good characters around for a while, please!

And yeah, the whole magic business just feels outside the scope of Star Wars in general, but it was somewhat intriguing until this episode. Hopefully this is just the filler and they're saving the best for season 5, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Blacknight]

Grievous just slaughtered all those witches and zombies..... whoo hoo! They were totally lame characters that needed disposal anyway.

I'll agree that was the one and only saving grace of this episode. I was rooting for the droid army the whole time. I hate those witches and all the magic stupidness they represent polluting starwars. The attempt to make us care about Ventress' friend was laughably pathetic.

I skipped buying Season 3 because of all the witches/Savage Oppress/Mortis garbage in the second half of the season (and the first half was just politicians talking). Outside of the excellent Umbaran episodes, I don't feel any warmer about this season really.