S01E17-18 - The Blue Shadow Virus Arc - Objectionable
I know I’m watching through the early mop-up episodes but I’m already getting burnt out on the volume of the shite ones. It’s episodes like these which are what put people off this show.
Padme and Jar Jar go back to Naboo because separatists have been seen there. We’re immediately presented with featureless grasslands (reminding us that episode one featured featureless grasslands even in live action), we get goofy costumes and more goofy gungans and a goofy villain with a dumb motive (he’s got a German accent so you know he’s an evil scientist), and the plot about a virus is handled in an extremely boring way. Plus, a lot of the plot points depend on Jar Jar’s antics so they can’t be cut around.
There are two gorgeous shots of Naboo.
The second episode has them contract the virus and have 48 hours before they die, so they go to Iego (reminding us that Anakin thought Padme was an angel from Iego in some of his worst dialogue) where they meet a goofy kid who’s hacked a bunch of battle droids who helps save the day. Add in some carnivirous plants behaving like animals and an energy net in space and this is just an absolutely horrible mess. We see Anakin obviously care for Padme over most other things, but again, that’s done elsewhere. The Iego angels are also fairly interesting, but it’s like one shot and one line. It’s not worth preserving.
This is also the arc where Padme and Ahsoka are first seen together (other than briefly via hologram), but they don’t acknowledge it at all so you lose nothing by cutting this. I guess it’s just implied they got to know each other in the interim.
And look, I know some people like Jar Jar. I know there’s no right way to enjoy Star Wars, a lot of variety for a lot of tastes, and I don’t want to gatekeep it for people. I’m not a prequel hater or an episode one hater. I just feel like the parts of Star Wars represented by this episode are far removed from the Star Wars that makes your spine tingle at key moments like when Mando’s speeder makes its long run across the Tattooine desert, when Luke looks out across his homestead at the Twin Suns, when Ahsoka walks away from the Jedi order, or when Luke shows Rey how to feel what the force really is on Ach-To. I’m not saying this edit will be anywhere near that quality, but I feel like that’s the side of Star Wars I want to be swinging this edit towards.