Week 28 - The Onderon Arc

So far behind now.... been working nearly 40 hours as week lately

I don't think I ever rewatched this arc or the next two... From what I recall, this one is fine, but the Youngling and D-Squad arcs are bloated.

I don’t think I’ve watched this since it came out. I forgot Ahsoka and Steela even had a rivalry thing going.

Front Runners underwhelms a bit in my opinion. The attacks on droids at the beginning feel a little bit silly and don't flow all that well. And they really do make the rebels look more like hooligans than actual freedom fighters (believe it or not, they made a whole show like that later)

I liked what we saw of Iziz in the last episode, but here it feels a bit blander. It doesn't feel as populous as it should at some points, and sometimes that lowers the weight of what they're doing. The attack on the iDroid Charger disappoints because while it's supposed to feel like a huge victory and inspiring moment, only like half a dozen people see it. If it had been a crowd at the end, it could have been epic.

Also, we get the two kings. I'm not exactly sure why Dendup is kept alive but these two characters are too cliche for me to ask a whole lot of questions.

And then we get the kinda weird moment at the end. Like the episode ends on Steela epically revealing Saw is her brother. Like I'm not sure what we're supposed to take away from this. I don't know if I knew they were related when I first saw this but even if not, then what? Was Ahsoka hoping they'd pair off so she could get Lux? And so we're supposed to be sad bc they probably aren't into that Ilhan Omar shit and Steela will get Lux? I don't know.

This episode isn't bad, but just a bit meandering and weird in places. I'll give it a 6/10.

Whenever they showed Onderon footage in the Season 5 trailers, it was always from Tipping Points. And it's easy to see why. Tipping Points is easily the best episode in the arc. There's a lot of cool things here, from the rough setting, cool new droids, Hondo, and a shocking death that added a lot to the arc.

In a way, this episode makes the last three episodes feel worth it, even though they weren't always that good. This arc probably could've been taken down to three episodes with some rewrites. But this episode makes you forget all the shit you didn't like and ends it on a definite high. It's the opposite of "Crisis on Naboo."

None of the characters annoy me in this one. Even Saw is pretty cool here. It's interesting as he says "it's war" as a justification for possibly killing innocent civilians. It's surprising that someone who's supposed to be a good guy says that. As for Lux, it's kinda surprising of how little consequence he is throughout this arc. You could probably remove him and it would barely make a difference. But well at least he's not screwing shit up with stupidity anymore so I'll take it. Now that I think about it, Saw is in many ways what Lux could've been if he continued down the vengeful path but was still less of a bitch.

There's not a whole lot to say about Ahsoka here as she's kept out of the action and honestly doesn't have many meaningful interactions until the end.

Steela is at her best here. I do like the determination she has to win and to protect the King. She became more calm and levelheaded as the arc went on and grew into her role. As for her death, I really think it works. Up to this point, there had been very little cost and it felt like the Onderon Scooby Gang would all have a happy ending. I like how they remind the audience of the real cost of war. It adds a very good layer to the episode that improves the whole arc in retrospect. There's a great poignancy to her death and it's a bold note to leave on.

Also glad Hondo was in this one. The timing is a bit odd though. Anakin flies from the Core to the Outer Rim and Hondo goes from the Outer Rim to the Inner Rim and barely any time seems to pass. It's not Game of Thrones Season 7 bad, but it sticks out.

The Droid Gunships are also much appreciated. It's a shame they turned out to be the coolest droid introduced here and not Kalani but oh well. But Kalani does good his moment of casually executing Rash. I like that end for him.

This episode is surprising in how well it works, especially given the forgettable nature of the last three. It's a very strong end and one I'm comfortable giving an 8.5/10.

We open up with the Jedi discussing the idea of arming local groups hostile to the Separatists on CIS-occupied worlds. The concept is pretty interesting, and sets the stage for an arc that is much more relatable to our current society than most other stories on this series.

Although it is kind of slow to watch, seeing the Jedi and Rex train the rebels is cool. I think these scenes do just enough to get the point across and showcase the characters without becoming too tiresome. Lux is much more tolerable here than before, and if not for his previous iterations, I probably wouldn't overthink how he is in this arc. However, his voice is still off-putting and some of what he actually says is strange. Saw, surprisingly, is not very likable as a character in this part of the arc. They really aim for an arrogant and rash figure, but I think this choice sits better upon viewing the entire story. Steela is definitely the strongest character of the trio, and this one does a good job of setting up where her character goes in the subsequent episodes.

The jungle setting on Onderon is very immersive and looks great with the noticeable animation improvement in S5. Although the droid attack at the end doesn't feel super threatening, it does give the insurgents their final push to start toward the bigger goal. There's not much in A War on Two Fronts that is bad, but nothing really stands out either. Given it's only the first part of four though, that's not a terrible thing. The overall story is still somewhat fun. I'll go with 7/10.

Everything gets taken up a notch in The Soft War. The opening sequence is really neat, and I like the small speech Steela delivers. It's interesting that the rebels used actual grenades in that ambush versus droid poppers though. The scene in the palace is nice as well, since we meet Kalani and Tandin. I think their tense relationship works well throughout this episode, particularly during the torture scene. However, if we had known Tandin earlier, it would've been even better.

Tandin's turn from King Rash to the insurgents feels natural, but it would've been more effective if we had seen him do more as a "villain" beforehand. On another note, it seems really risky to keep Dendup imprisoned on an open rooftop area of the palace, even if there is a one way shield.

The whole execution scene unfolds nicely, with the continuous camera shot of the rebels running into that skirmish adding to the intensity. I thought it was neat to see Ahsoka struggling to decide what course of action to take throughout this sequence as well. My main complaint is it's a little underwhelming how easy it seems to defeat King Rash and the others. Also, it's odd they chose not to take Rash hostage or destroy Kalani.

The characters develop nicely in this episode, especially Saw and Steela. Lux feels somewhat unimportant unfortunately, but I think the way the relationship between Ahsoka and Lux is handled throughout this arc is not as bad as some people make it to be. In fact, I think it's an interesting and important development for Ahsoka's character to sort out her feelings. Iziz looks great visually, and I personally think it's a really cool setting. I've also loved this arc's usage of robes/cloaks.

A lot of the groundwork laid is now starting to pay off, making this episode the strongest yet of the arc. 8/10.

A War on Two Fronts is better than I remembered and probably one of the best episodes in the first half of season 5. I liked that it featured Anakin and Rex as well, we barley get to see them in season 5. This episode has a nice charm to it and Onderon is also fairly atheistically pleasing. It’s quite ironic though that future Darth Vader is training Rebels and someone like Kenobi is against it.

Lux is still an annoying character and the love triangle is kind of unneeded... could have made Ahsokas love interest more interesting but I’m glad that Anakin obviously takes notice to it while Kenobi seems to be as dense as ever.

Anyways I’m gonna say 7/10, it’s simple yet very charming and it gave hope that season 5 was heading in a decent direction, oh how we were wrong.

The Soft War is definitely better than Front Runners but I’m starting to see a pattern in these season 5 arcs that the later episodes just don’t feel very connected to the start of the arc other than introducing a few new characters. It’s the flaw of these 4 part arcs when they don’t have exceptional stories to guide them. Even looking at something like the Deception arc the goal was clear from episode 1, stop the chancellor from being killed/ captured. The deception arc flows fluidly from my memory but I haven’t rewatched it yet.

I also don’t like that the General is basically first seen now, he should have been established a bit earlier. Dendam also doesn’t have much development prior to this episode. Oh and Kalani just doesn’t seem that menacing here but I feel like that’s cause they made these Rebels way too strong in a short period of time.

Still I enjoyed the buildup of this episode and the action was decent so I’m gonna say borderline 7/10. Not amazing but an improvement.

Final arc score is 28/40 or 70%.

It feels like with both Season 3 and 5, the writers were really excited for the back half, so they really just neglected the fall episodes.

Even worse with Season 5 IMO. Season 3 had some shit that didn’t work at the beginning but at least it felt like they were taking risks. Season 5 on the other hand felt so generic and like they were playing it safe with stuff like Younglings and Droids.

That's an interesting thing to look at