Well, The Clone Wars are back on Cartoon Network, with Season Two having premiered this last Friday. As I did during Season One, I’m going to be posting my thoughts on the episodes. So, let’s get started.
Holocron Heist
Cad Bane infiltrates the Jedi Temple and attempts steal an ancient Jedi Holocron. It’s up to Ahsoka, Anakin & Obi-Wan to stop the bounty hunter from escaping with the valuable Jedi artifact.
Right away, this episode is up there with the best of Season One, which I think is a good way for the season to start. Season One was rocky at first but progressively improved and by the end was pretty solid. It’s good to see Season Two starting off on that pace.
The introduction of the bounty hunters adds a nice area of gray into the show and I think helps round out the animated universe. It’d be nice to see more “normal” characters (i.e. not Jedi, not Sith, not Clones) introduced as I tend to believe it is easier to identify with a Han Solo-type than a character using the Force. The bounty hunters give a bit of that normality, though working for the bad guys it’s still not there 100%.
My big complaint with this episode in particular is that, once again, the Jedi are only as powerful or weak as what fits the story. I found it kind of hard to believe that while tracking down Cad Bane in the Jedi Temple that Obi-Wan and Anakin wouldn’t be relying on the Force more to sense where he was. Instead, they’re easily fooled by diversions, and I just didn’t buy it. They’re Jedi: it should be quite a bit more difficult to trick them. And frankly, it seemed like Bane had a harder time infiltrating the Senate in last seasons episode “Hostage Crisis” than he did the headquarters of the Jedi.
Still, despite its flaws, this is the kind of storytelling I’d like to see the Clone Wars go after. There was a bit more depth to it, and the introduction of the Holocrons added an extra little layer to the Jedi. I’m hoping that as the series progresses, they begin fleshing out the details of this world and give us more insight into things like the Jedi, the Sith, the Separatists, and so forth.
Cargo of Doom
Anakin & Ahsoka intercept Cad Bane’s warship hoping to recover the stolen Jedi Holocron - but the Jedi underestimate the bounty hunter’s cunning tactics.
This episode was more or less a straight forward mission episode. As such, it was well done and I don’t really have a lot to say about it as the episode description pretty much says it all. What you expect is what you get, with some great action sequences and great animation. The only thing that makes it stand out more than just one giant animated battle is the Anakin and Ahsoka interaction, which seems to be growing in complexity over the previous season. Which of course, needs to happen as for whatever reason Ahsoka isn’t in Revenge of the Sith, meaning she’s ultimately what this series is hinged upon.