George Lucas should get more credit for "saving Anakin Skywalker" in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. — Page 3

G&G-Fan said:

NFBisms said:

I think if there’s one, individual Clone Wars arc worth watching, it’s The Wrong Jedi arc (season 5 finale arc). Written by a real crime TV writer - Charles Murray - it’s genuinely just good TV and has the chops to pull off its ambitions. When Ventress talks about turning Ahsoka in to “the bondsman”, I popped. It’s good stuff - just solid procedural genre fiction.

And so much of what the show nails is distilled into these four episodes. If you hadn’t watched previous seasons, it catches you up to the character dynamics at the top, and pays them off (for once) in a single taut plotline. Every other episode tables the character development for ROTS, and this is the only one to offer a new dimension to it.

I would agree if Baris’ plan made a lick of sense.
In order for her to have to have done everything she does in the prison, she would’ve either had to have an invisibility power or the ability to phase in and out of corporeal existence. And clairvoyance.

How did she know the exact second to choke Letta? How the hell does a Jedi run around a heavily guarded prison complex with troopers moving everywhere and literally kill some with lightsabers and not get noticed by anybody or caught on the CCTV? Tarkin literally says, “We don’t just have anybody running around in here”. In ANH, our heroes take over the control room (where the cameras likely feed to), disguise as troopers, blow up the cameras in the prison bay, and it’s also part of Vader’s plan for them to escape. Baris couldn’t disguise in trooper armor because her proportions don’t match. The prison is shown to have tip-top security, any Jedi entering immediately have their lightsabers confiscated, and are surrounded by troopers every second. They also can’t enter unless they’re asked there, so how did she get clearance to be in there, and why did her trooper escorts leave her alone?

The arc wants me to be mad at the Jedi and Tarkin, but like, it’s literally physically impossible for it to be anybody but Ahsoka. From their perspective, they did nothing wrong.
Even if Baris’ plan made any sense, Ahsoka’s only argument is, “But they should trust me!”… like they trusted Count Dooku, who Mundi and Windu stood up for, someone who was like a brother to them, only to then get betrayed on Geonosis? They gave him the benefit of the doubt and got their back stabbed, and you’re actually gonna pull that? What a complete lack of empathy. Almost as if we’re just supposed to see Jedi Masters as blocks of wood and not human beings. She expects them to just throw all evidence out the window, I guess. Guess they should’ve also trusted Vader even after those security holograms.
The logical inconsistencies have a ripple effect on every character (which is why, yes, plot holes do matter).

Peak TCW08 is the Umbara arc, Maul + Death Watch, and Fives Inhibitor Chip arc.

Eh, none of this moves the needle for me. Barriss can do what she does just as easily as any of the heroes have done anything they’ve done to the separatists throughout the entire show. It’s not like she doesn’t leave behind bodies. It’s consistent to the logic of a show where a few weeks prior was children going on an adventure through piracy and war zones. The important, written moments as they are presented are what really land.

The last part about how you feel coming out of it re: the Jedi is on you. You’re right about it not plausibly being anyone else, and that’s the point. The messiness of that situation and that you can see where the Jedi Masters are coming from is why it’s good IMO. Ahsoka’s decision (in her eyes) is about what’s right for her, not a critique of the Jedi as individuals, who didn’t unanimously vote against her anyway.

Re: those other good arcs, they’re good but they don’t have the sauce of this one.

G&G-Fan said:

Even if Baris’ plan made any sense, Ahsoka’s only argument is, “But they should trust me!”… like they trusted Count Dooku, who Mundi and Windu stood up for, someone who was like a brother to them, only to then get betrayed on Geonosis? They gave him the benefit of the doubt and got their back stabbed, and you’re actually gonna pull that? What a complete lack of empathy. Almost as if we’re just supposed to see Jedi Masters as blocks of wood and not human beings. She expects them to just throw all evidence out the window, I guess. Guess they should’ve also trusted Vader even after those security holograms.

I don’t agree with your defense of the Jedi’s actions. Yes, they had a bad experience with Count Dooku, but that shouldn’t cloud their judgment. If they can’t rise above their past failures, what’s the point of all their training? A Jedi should be able to control their emotions and fears, and while it’s wise to be cautious, they shouldn’t let previous bad experiences dictate their present actions. Sure, Dooku turned out to be a traitor, even after they gave him the benefit of the doubt. That was a harsh lesson, no question. But it doesn’t excuse them for letting that experience influence their decisions in the future. In the end, even they don’t seem capable of upholding their own Code, and yet they go around preaching it to others. And after it was revealed that Ahsoka was innocent, you’d expect the Council to at least formally apologize to her, right? But no. The only one who even tried was Plo Koon. Obi-Wan was so embarrassed he couldn’t say a word, and Mace Windu just washed his hands of the whole thing, with his “the Force works in mysterious ways” nonsense. That’s like telling someone who’s just lost a loved one that “God’s plan works in mysterious ways”. No surprise people didn’t like the Jedi in that arc.

This debate is pointless.

Lucas deserves even more of the blame for the fact that Anakin (and other things) needed fixing. Doesn’t particularly matter how much credit he should get for fixing things (or even if that was successfully done); it’s like crediting someone for partially filling a hole in when they dug the hole themselves in the first place.