Season 1, Episode 19 - Storm over Ryloth

Storm over Ryloth, the first of a "trilogy" of episodes that even have their own trailer, isn't exactly the "grand and operatic" epic promised by the Lucas Animation crew. Instead, it's a fairly pedestrian affair for Star Wars, and a rather large missed opportunity.

Anakin has been tasked with leading a strike force against the Trade Federation blockade of Ryloth, whose citizens are starving due to the brutal and oppressive regime of Wat Tambor. As we open the episode, Ahsoka is leading a squadron of clones against the Trade Federation cruisers. When the intriguing new character Captain Mar Tuk of the Separatists springs a trap, Ahsoka fails to follow orders and loses a bulk of her men. Her confidence shaken, and with few resources, Anakin still must find a way through the blockade, to set the stage for Obi-Wan's ground assault.

Where to begin? This episode has two basic components that need to work in order to be effective. Sadly, neither of them do.

The first is that the action of this story is that of a duel between strategic captains: Mar Tuk and Anakin. Battles like these are like chess between leaders, or they should be. Unfortunately, Mar Tuk's trap (that entirely fools Anakin and winds up getting Ahsoka's squadron decimated) is to call in reinforcements at the last minute. That's not exactly what I'd call advanced tactical strategy. Anakin's rebuttal? Fly a big ship into the other guy's ship.

All of this is underwhelming. There's clearly the desire here to reference Grand Admiral Thrawn from the original Timothy Zahn trilogy (Ahsoka's one "idea" is an homage to Thrawn); but the space combat scenes themselves are shot in a relatively dull way. There are a few moments that look "cool" but in Star Wars, that's par for the course. After episodes like Shadow of Malevolence or Jedi Crash, where we can see just how much fun the series can have with battles such as these, this episode felt uninspired.

The second part, though, is Ahsoka's crisis. This is the first time in the series we are shown Ahsoka not only making a huge mistake, but that mistake costing her men's lives, and risking many more. This could have been a significant deepening of the series and of Ahsoka's character, given the proper handling of the material. Instead, Ahsoka, both in animation and in the voice acting of Ashley Eckstein, seems mostly nonplussed. It appears as if having men die because of your mistake is mostly a... bummer, and its the sort of thing you can get over with a little faith in yourself.

Anakin's response, which is to be momentarily annoyed with her and then quickly encouraging, seems to happen too quickly and seems entirely out of synch with what she's done wrong. To later her put her in charge of the entire mission seems more like an act of incompetence than of mentorship. It seems almost sociopathic that Anakin should risk the success of the mission, and the lives of the citizens of Ryloth, in order to provide Ahsoka with self-confidence.

What works? I did like the idea of Mar Tuk, and was glad to see him live to fight in a better episode. I also enjoyed seeing Admiral Yularen take a more active role than water carryer for the Jedi. His character is a blank slate, and I'd love to see them give him more of an active role in the series. He is, after all, an Admiral in the Clone Wars.

All in all, though, the entirely mismanaged treatment of the emotional core of the episode, combined with the mildly staged space action, makes Storm over Ryloth seem more like Tryouts for the Swim Team Over Ryloth. I'm hopeful that in retrospect, this will seem like a bump in the road towards an exciting next two chapters of this 'trilogy.'

Rating (out of five): * 1/2

Season 1, Episode 18 - Mystery of a Thousand Moons

Following Blue Shadow Virus immediately is Mystery of a Thousand Moons. This installment embraces a larger view of the Force: it's one of those wonderful moments in Star Wars, like with the Cantina or Jabba's Palace, when we're presented with a wealth of new designs and characters. It's also more than just the successor to Blue Shadow Virus chronologically; in both episodes' DNA is The Phantom Menace.

When Padme, Ahsoka, Jar Jar and the Clones find that the virus has been set free in the underground laboratory, they battle to keep the Droids from breaking through the outer shell and releasing the airborne virus into Naboo's atmosphere. In the midst of this, they find themselves exposed to the virus. The only way to save them is to find a cure, and quickly. Obi-Wan and Anakin rush to the planet of Iego, to find the rare root from which an antidote can be fashioned.

Iego (as anyone bothering to read this blog will remember) is name dropped by Anakin Skywalker in Episode I, when, as a 10 year old boy, he tries to put the moves on Padme. "Are you an Angel?" he asks. "I've heard the deep space pirates talk about them. They're the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They live on the moons of Iego, I think." 

Ahem. 

The quality of the line not withstanding, here, our patience is once again rewarded. Not only do we find ourselves in Iego, but Iego is richly realized. Abandoned and trapped by what the denizens call Drol (because their terrifying God tells remarkably good jokes at dinner parties), the characters we meet on Iego are eccentric to say the least. And yes, we get a look at an "Angel" (voiced by Padme's voice performer Catherine Taber in a nice touch). We also meet a few new creatures, and an Anakin-esque boy named Jaybo Hood.  

Jaybo, for his part, wasn't a part of the episode I relished. Maybe it was that David Kaufman's voice work lends Jaybo a decided Saturday morning cartoon tone. Or perhaps it's because there seems to be no limit to the remarkably smart children in the Star Wars prequel universe.

There also seemed to be something "off" about the timing. As Padme and Ahsoka are rapidly dying in a small contained area, Obi-Wan and Anakin go to Theed, interrogate a prisoner, fly to a completely foreign planet, find a cure to a disease, escape the inescapable, etc. It felt a little like time was being truncated for the heroes, but stretched out for those in peril. Also, if opening the laboratory at all would cause the virus to kill most of the life on Naboo...how did they get Padme, Rex and Ahsoka out of there?

The episode has its definitive strengths; most prominent among them is how well Anakin and Obi-Wan's differences are played. While we know that Anakin's headstrong nature will lead him astray in the long run; it's also hard not to sympathize. His wife is, in fact, dying. It's also wonderfully obvious that Obi-Wan is no fool. When Anakin refers to the Senator as Padme, it's Obi-Wan who gives him a non-verbal reminder to keep up appearances. 

Also, as with many of the later episodes, the animation has matured. I love the brilliant blue of the virus's haze; which stands out against the yellow uniforms and red safe room. The look of the re-purposed battle droids, and the Angels, are all memorable as well.

All in all, I definitely enjoyed this episode, but it didn't have the compact plotting of its predecessor, and a few logistical issues nagged at me as I watched.

Rating (out of five) *** 1 /2 

Season 1, Episode 17 - Blue Shadow Virus

I confess: I have a soft spot for Naboo.

In 1999, I was sitting in a theater, watching someone called Qui-Gon Jinn run away from a weirdly bulbous tank, on a planet, a completely new planet, a planet I'd never heard of... I think there was something so completely satisfying about the experience that I've never really shaken it off. It's that feeling that made me love the prequels; that feeling of getting something you wanted after being about as patient as a, well... a Jedi Master. The planet of Naboo said, "Star Wars is back and it's new." I was anticipatory and nostalgic all at once.

Now, Naboo conjures its own form of nostalgia. That's how terribly old this is all making me feel.

I say all this because Blue Shadow Virus, an action packed episode, and the first of a two-parter, has The Phantom Menace written all over it. As much as the previous episode, Trespass, embraced the imagery of Ralph McQuarrie; Blue Shadow Virus gives the nod to Doug Chiang. Chiang's designs are less angular than his predecessors, more sleek. He embraces the Buck Rogers elements of the saga. Where the original trilogy has a hardscrabble, 'lived in' feel, the prequels show an ornate and peaceful galaxy, built not only for use, but also beauty. Blue Shadow Virus captures, aesthetically, that spirit.

What it also gives us, for the first time in Star Wars, is "The Mad Scientist." Amazing that we haven't come across this particular character type before in the Star Wars saga. Here, we get Dr. Nuvo Vindi (gleefully voiced by Michael York) who is creating a biological weapon for the Separatists. The weapon is based on the Blue Shadow virus, which we're told was wiped out entirely because no life form was immune to it. Not only is Vindi bring the virus back, but has created a strain that is airborne and sticks into into a bunch of bombs. (I expect novels and comic books about the Blue Shadow virus's history any day now.)

The episode is teeming with life. We see Captain Typho for the first time in the series; we see the return of the "rabbit droid;" we meet two new characters; and the entire prequel trilogy cast is present. Even Mace Windu and Yoda stop by for a cup of hologram coffee.

What is a marvel, given all this, is how well everything fits together without ever feeling rushed. The episode feels more like the Escape from Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi than anything else: a series of discreet set pieces and objectives all edited together hyper kinetically. Even though this episode aired originally back-to-back with episode 18, it feels entirely complete on its own, in just about 22 minutes of actual airtime. Quite a feat.

If there's anything that pulls the episode back from perfection, it's the silliness that pervades the plot. Vindu, though hilarious and cunning, is also played so broadly that it was hard to take him seriously as a threat. I was also unclear (as I often am) about what the Separatists had to gain by releasing a deadly virus. Aren't they Capitalists? Can't sell anything to the dead, can you?

Balancing that effect out is the note-perfect dynamic between Obi-Wan and Anakin. We shouldn't forget the primary struggle in Anakin and Padme's troubled lives is their secret love. When Padme is in danger, Anakin can barely contain his edge, his desire to protect her above all else. Obi-Wan's slightly raised eye brow, and counselings of caution, are both foreboding and endearing. It's always good to see the writers in this series highlight the complex character dynamics from the prequels. Those complications add a necessary depth to what could be just very well-made Saturday morning cartoons.

Ratings (out of five) ****

Season 1, Episode 16 - The Hidden Enemy

The Hidden Enemy is a brief prequel (or at least precursor) to the Clone Wars movie. It, therefore, takes place prior to the introduction of Ahsoka Tano, but after Attack of the Clones. The entire Clone Wars series leads into Revenge of the Sith, which is the last of the trilogy of prequels. To which I say: Star Wars continuity officially needs a spreadsheet. Maybe two. I haven't even mentioned those, you know, original three movies.

I bring this up because The Hidden Enemy has lots of little nods to the Clone Wars movie. It takes place of Christophsis, it mentions "heavy cannons" (which were the focal point of the first battle in the movie), and Asajj Ventress makes a point of getting off-world just in time to be on her mark for the start of the film. Why, exactly, it was deemed necessary to give people the events immediately prior to the Clone Wars movie isn't immediately clear to me. At least now we know.

All these little references make The Hidden Enemy a sort of oddball of an episode. At its core, beyond the obligatory set pieces, is a story that I suspect will have a big impact on fan's understanding of the clones. The idea of a clone traitor, despite the fact that the clones were bred for "obedience" and loyalty (according to the Kaminoans) means that the clones aren't brainwashed, but instead, participating in a culture of service. The line is a thin one between service and servititude where clones are concerned: they're bred (heck, grown) for combat, by the truckloads, but they're also individuals in their way. To see a clone trooper that openly disdains the Jedi opens the door for the story to come.

And so, the main story of Commander Cody and Captain Rex as Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson works very well. Cody and Rex have been well-established as characters now, and watching them feels familiar and fun. The interrogation and subsequent hunting of the traitor are certainly fun and full of fun character notes and smart moments.

The rest of the episode, though, isn't as well thought out. Obi-Wan and Anakin have a secret plan to, apparently, drive directly up to the front door of Separatist central. If that's your plan...why make it secret to begin with? Then, when they fight Asajj Ventress, she announces to them that she has an informant. What good is an informant inside your enemies camp if you announce his existence to them?

Why, I'm forced to ask, are they really fighting her at all? Not that I don't enjoy a good lightsaber duel. I do. It's one of my favorite things. (It's on the list with Brooklyn Lager, Kettle Chips and comfortable shoes.) I just like there to be a reason for the fight. My standards are low on this point. If it was "If you want to leave here, you'll have to get through me" or "I am going to make a very real attempt to kill you" I'd be satisfied. In The Hidden Enemy, it's pretty clear we're watching a lightsaber duel so we know why Obi-Wan and Anakin aren't around while the clones are sorting stuff out.

(Let me go on record, though, of loving the Asajj vs Obi-Wan flirt/fight dynamic. I can't wait until we get an episode in Season 2 that sounds like Who's Afraid of Virigina Woolf? with lightsabers. I pray for it at night.)

With these three disparate elements (the mystery, the movie lead-in, and the lightsaber duel), The Hidden Enemy tries to do too much and feels, as a result, thinner than it should with such rich material. The core story, though, answers a burding question about the clones' psychology, and rolls out in an entertaining way. That makes it an episode that's required viewing for clone wars fans, flaws and all.

Rating (out of five) ***

Season 1, Episode 14 - Defenders of Peace

I was, when I read the premise of Defenders of Peace, concerned that the showrunners would wind up treating the pacificism of the Lurmen as misguided or somehow cowardly. My lack of faith was unwarranted: more than any other episode thus far, Defenders of Peace allows for ambiguity.

It helps that the Separatists aren't just asking for the Lurmen's lunch money. The Separatists are led by Lok Durd (voiced with smarmy relish by Star Trek veteran George Takei); and he's testing a weapon that wipes out all organic life, leaving droids intact. The Lurmen are done for, and the Jedi feel obligated to protect them. The Lurmen (or at least their leader) seem willing to die before the compromising their values.

This premise not only sets up a dramatically interesting conflict, but just good old fashioned fun action sequences. There's a grand scope to Lok Durd's weapon that makes it worthy of all this bluster. The Jedi and Clones work together to remain hidden, sneak into the Separatists' outpost, and, finally, do battle against tremendous odds.

The action is all tremendously put together; especially the dimly lit sequence when the Jedi steal a Neimoidian shuttle. The final stand, with the energy shield, is reminiscent of the battle between the Gungans and the Battle Droids on Naboo in The Phantom Menance, with a bit of a Seven Samurai twist. The action is well-supported by zippy dialogue and increasingly nuanced animation.

Tee Watt Kaa, the Lurmen elder, closes the episode worrying about the unrealized cost of the events in Defenders of Peace. It would be interesting to see if the show revisits this planet in later episodes and explores the impact that these episodes had on their leadership and traditions.

The episode's "fortune cookie" is "When surrounded by war, one must eventually chose a side." Instead of wagging its finger at pacifism, Defenders of Peace sees that war itself forces those with good intentions into choices they'd rather not make. Why else would else would the war be an end unto itself for the Sith?

Rating (out of five): **** 1/2

Season 1, Episode 13 - Jedi Crash

At the beginning of Jedi Crash, the viewer is thrust into swirling action. Super Battle Droids dive through the atmosphere; gunships roar; war ships lurch to and fro. Jedi Master Aayla Secura desperately needs reinforcements. They come, almost too late, from Anakin Skywalker and his battalion of clone troopers.

It's a rousing start, and it leads quickly into daring escapes, and finally, the titular crash itself, on a grassy planet. (According to the episode guide it's called Maridun.) Anakin has been severely injured in the escape, and its up to Aayla Secura, Ahsoka, and the remaining clones to figure out where they are, and how to get home.

As with Duel of the Droids (also directed by Rob Coleman, Animation Director for the prequels) the color palette and the perspectives are all artfully combined. Where The Gungan General felt rushed; Jedi Crash feels carefully put together.

It may be that a little extra care was put into the episode: it was written by Katie Lucas, daughter of He Need Not Be Named. To her credit, the action here isn't the only thing to recommend the episode. As the episode goes into its second and third acts, the script takes over from the action, and has a few of the series strongest moments. (It also features at least one line that's a remarkable groaner, but heck, that's a pretty good batting average.)

The major theme here is, once again, attachment. Ahsoka doesn't want to leave Anakin's side, but Aayla rightly gets her to think about more than her own immediate needs and attachments. They leave Rex behind with Anakin and head out to find help.

(Here's the groaner: they find a piece of wood that shows, plainly, GIANT TREES and people living near them. Ahsoka looks at it and, like Encylopedia Brown, says "I think the people around here live near GIANT TREES." "Very perceptive," says Aayla. Ouch. Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.)

What they do find, though, are the Lurmans. They look a whole lot, frankly, like Nelvaanian women and children from the original Clone Wars microseries. But they're more adorable, and they're pacificsts. And they live in giant seed pods. And they can roll like Droidekas.


The Lurman leader, Tee Wat Kaa, espouses his values to the Jedi, before agreeing to provide Anakin with medical supplies. There's a bit more non-descript action before the episode closes on a cliffhanger as well, and pacifism seems to rule the day. I don't have to tell you (I hope) that Anakin lives.

Jedi Crash is a largely exceptional episode. The action (as I stated) is fantastic. More than that, there are moments where the Jedi's role in the war is questioned, and there needs to be more of this in the series.

Think about telling a story about the war in Iraq without ever mentioning how the war was started. It doesn't make any sense. The Clone Wars are the reason for the fall of the Republic. They were started under false pretenses, built around trade routes and an arms race. In short: the war is a trick. The Jedi claim to fight for freedom, but have the Separatists claimed to fight for fascism? There is a very real difference between the World War II inspired battles of the original trilogy and the morally ambiguous Clone Wars. The Clone Wars are Vietnam or Iraq; the Galactic Civil War is a war against a clear evil.

So, I was incredibly happy to hear even a hint of that in the voice of the Lurmens. The series will only be more rich if the sourness of the war and its irony is allowed to breathe a bit in the emotional life of the characters.

It was also nice to hear Ahsoka learn something. I mean, seriously. Aalya Secura turns out to be yet another strong female Jedi character, this time with a french accent, and a tougher edge. (There must be some theory of the Lucasverse that we can better remember characters with simple traits like accents.)

For all that good stuff, then... why is there something I feel was missing from this episode? Maybe it's that I find it almost impossible to invest emotionally in Ahsoka Tano. At this point, I've watched a film where she was all but the star, and maybe 5 of the 12 episodes aired before this one featured her prominently. That's plenty of time to get to know the character, and still, she comes off as entirely unlikeable to me. I also don't find myself concerned with her "fate" and how it affects Anakin's fall to the dark side.

Here's why: we don't need it. Anakin's mother dies, he kills out of anger, he fears for the death of his secret wife. His mentor is, unbeknownst to him, the biggest bad guy of all bad guys. That's the mythology that matters. Ahsoka's fate isn't really a blip of that kind of drama's radar.

So, I fully admit that bias. If Ahsoka's in an episode, it has to work three times as hard to impress me. She's a product of someone's idea of how to appeal to a certain demographic, and I don't care of "she" learns about the Jedi Code.

Also, unfortunately, is the problem with the Duel of the Droids two-parters: Anakin lives. Putting Anakin or R2-D2 in danger are dramatically inert choices. If you know the outcome you can still mine dramatic tension (the prequels figured out how to do this because the questions were "how" and "when," not "if"); but if the question is who survives...the question is asked and answered.

Add Ahsoka's anti-charisma and Anakin's dilemma being sort of dramatically uninvolving, and I'm left with an episode I found impressive and satisfying intellectually; but that never really hooked me.

Rating (out of five): ***

Season 1, Episode 9 - Cloak of Darkness

Cloak of Darkness is so elegantly plotted and so fantastically directed, that it pains me to admit I found its one major flaw so frustrating. Somehow, the writers of The Clone Wars have the relationship between Ahsoka Tano and, well, everything utterly upside down. They did, though, finally start to get Asajj Ventress right.

Before I go there, let me get the important part out of the way: Cloak of Darkness is an episode that could be proudly shown to almost any skeptical Star Wars fan as proof that The Clone Wars series rocks. The twists and turns of the plot all add up perfectly, the characterizations are spot on, and the choices made are, generally, good ones. Also, the action is phenomenal here: the best fight choreography that the series has seen yet.

One major plus for this episode is the deepening of Asajj Ventress, making her seem legitimately threatening. So far in The Clone Wars series (not counting her original 2003 introduction), Ventress has sneered and run around, but generally been bested by the A-List Jedi like Yoda and Obi-Wan. Putting her up against Luminara Unduli gives her room to kick ass, and Cloak of Darkness takes advantage of the opportunity.

Luminara is also well-realized here, and well-voiced by Olivia D'Abo (of Wonder Years fame). Since her first appearance in Attack of the Clones (for seconds) she's captured fan imagination, mostly because of the uniqueness and beauty of her design.

We also see the introduction of the Senate Commandos, a cross between the Imperial Guard and a Clone Trooper in design, who are decidedly NOT Clones. Where they take that storyline is rather telling: the Clones are shown the be dedicated to following orders. We see the upside of that in Cloak of Darkness. (There is, of course, a rather serious downside...)

The only problem I have with Cloak of Darkness isn't actually a small one: what the hell are they doing with Ahsoka? Are we intended to believe that Luminara Unduli, Jedi Master, is not only more naive about Asajj Ventress than Ahsoka is, but also would declare herself a fool and thank Ahsoka for saving her life by the end of the episode? Suffice to say, I feel a bit like the Master-Padawan relationship between the cloying Ahsoka Tano and just about every other Jedi is entirely backwards. She tells Anakin what to do, defies Yoda and Obi-Wan, has a personal relationship with Plo Koon, and now, all but shames Luminara. Whe does this padawan start learning from Jedi Masters, as opposed to teaching them?

Rating (out of five): *** 3/4

Season 1, Episode 7 - Duel of the Droids

Duel of the Droids is the second of a two-parter, and a thoroughly entertaining one at that. It's also directed, notably, by Rob Coleman himself: the animation director for the prequel trilogy.

His experience shows in every frame of this episode. Lightsaber duels are performed with moody panache; the dive onto Skytop Station is bathed in autumn hues; the final "duel" of the episode's namesake is staged with racous tension, and wouldn't have looked out of place in one of the films.

Essentially, the story is of the rescue of Artoo from the clutches of the Separatists. Much like Destroy Malevolence, it involved infiltrating on Separatist ground, racing against the clock, and outthinking superior numbers. It's got all the best elements of a good Star Wars adventure, and it delivers.

While the action soars, Duel of the Droids doesn't overlook the details. Grievous's dispatching of Gha Nachkt comes as a violent shock (and a shoutout to a deleted scene in Revenge of the Sith), for example. We also see, for the first time, Artoo completely disassembled, in an amusing sequence.

It's also inventive. The quoting of other adventures is at a minimum here; as well. We see the first duel between Ahsoka and Grievous, and the battle is uniquely suited to these two relatively new characters. R2-D2s battle with his unlucky replacement shows Star Wars fans something they've never had the pleasure to see, as well. Even if (as stated in the previous episode's review) there is never any real question about Artoo's safety, it's a vibrant episode, one of the series best so far.

Rating (out of five) **** 1/2

Season 1, Episode 2 - Rising Malevolence

Also airing on October 3rd was Rising Malevolence, the second episode of the series, and the first of a three-part story arc. This episode's focus is Jedi Master Plo Koon; the member of the Jedi Council who looks like a cross between Predator and a Samurai. Plo Koon is reportedly the "favorite character" of showrunner Dave Filoni, who also directed this episode.

Rising Malevolence was an immediate tonal departure from Ambush. It features a variety of characters (including Anakin, Obi-Wan, General Grievous and Ashoka); its far more dire; and it furthers the Star Wars mythology by establishing a character Plo Koon, and a bit more backstory for Ahsoka.

The Malevolence is Grievous's flagship, a massive Separatist cruiser, equipped with an ion cannon that dismantles ships without destroying them. Once the Republic ships are dismantled, of course, they're easily wiped out, and Grievous has been ruthlessly leaving no survivors. The Republic doesn't know what it's up against, but it's certainly deadly.

Upon facing the Malevolence in battle, Plo Koon and a small squad of Troopers find themselves adrift in an escape pod, with little chance of being rescued. What's worse, the Separatists send out hunters to crack open all remaining pods and kill all the survivors.

We learn here, too, that Ahsoka and Plo Koon share a bond: he was the Jedi that discovered her and brought her to the Jedi Temple. It goes without saying that despite there being little hope of finding survivors, and against the direct orders of the Jedi Council, Anakin and Ahsoka go after Plo Koon anyway.

The episode works on a variety of levels. First is how quickly the series moves into a rather dire circumstance. Watching the clones picked off and killed in deep space by a glorified can opener, while the Battle Droids gleefully make cracks, is surprisingly dark without being graphic. It also provides a peek into what makes the Separatists so dangerous. It's the first time that the Battle Droids have a little menance, if only because they seem to take pleasure in killing the clones.

The episode also takes advantage of the blank slates that are Plo Koon and Ahsoka. Because these characters have almost no background prior to this episode, it's easy enough to give them an emotional bond. It adds to Ahsoka's character a great deal and makes her a bit easier to bear.

Plo Koon, on his own, is fine. I could wonder (and I do) why they decided to have yet another Prequel-era character speak basic, or why his voice is so uninteresting and generic. But... it's action that defines character, and the rest is window dressing. Plo Koon, in this episode, proves to be a heroic and capable figure, and there's clearly more to see. It's a decent introduction, at the very least, of the sort of character he is. If there's a major flaw, it's the lack of flaws. Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ki-Adi Mundi, and Plo Koon have remarkably similar personalities. I'd love to see this series do more to show what it is that makes them different from one another, and ultimately, unique.

Rising Malevolence also continues a sort of odd theme that plays throughout the prequels and appears here as well: the Jedi are pretty heartless. I'm not sure if this is a conscious decision, or part of the necessity of the plot, but you rarely see Obi-Wan blink an eye when he suggests that Anakin and Ashoka suck it up and accept the death of a comrade. It's an interesting choice: it makes Obi-Wan (who is a beloved character and heroic) into a sort of authoritarian scold. I wonder if it would have been better to be told to leave Plo Koon behind by a pre-Imperial officer than, say, Obi-Wan Kenobi.

One might call this splitting hairs... but at the end of the day, if there is a value to these prequel adventures, beyond a few more excuses for Star Wars adventures, its to illuminate and deepen our understanding of the characters.

At the end of the day, the episode's survival story is effective, dark, and well-played. It does have a complete story within it (the rescue of Plo Koon), but also sets up a larger story. All in all, interesting stuff, even if the characters are a bit stiff.

Rating: (out of five) ***