Oh, Solo is the one that I saw that has been produced since Clone Wars. If you're talking about Darth Maul inexplicably being alive there, I did see that and have been waiting for Clone Wars to fill it in. Obviously got the first nibble at it during the Nightsisters arc in S3.

I really don't like any mechanism that calls into question just how final any character's death truly is, but I realize it's not something specific to Maul within the Star Wars universe.

I have not yet seen Rogue One or Episodes VII through IX.

Okay, yeah. The obvious explanation is Obi-wan failed to cut him in thirds.

But more seriously, you probably shouldn't expect too much there either, but they do at least use him pretty well going forward.

Yeah, I’d already written that off as something where I would not accept the explanation as a good one. He’s still a good enough character that I’m sure I’ll enjoy seeing him.

Bringing back dead characters seems like such an act of desperation that I’m glad that it seemingly didn’t just signal a writer’s room that was out of ideas. Which is to say that it wasn’t 24 bringing back Tony Almeida. I still can’t believe they did that. I suppose that’s a show where you can’t just impregnate a main character when you’re running on empty.

I haven’t watched Rebels yet, really been meaning to start.

...though I guess he also turned out to be pretty chill about "we traumatized you by faking your master's death, and we just didn't tell you because we think you can be kind of a dumbass sometimes."

Alright, I said that an episode too early.

Lolll, what a fun arc.

Plot stuff aside for the moment, I’m curious as to your thoughts on the voice acting? I’m constantly blown away at how good Obi-Wan is. In a lot of ways, that’s become *the* voice for the character in my head.

Well, by now I've spent so much more time with the Clone Wars Obi-Wan than the Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan that I'm sure it's what resonates as the official Obi-Wan voice in my head too.

I've noticed that the voice actor for Mace Windu sounds exactly like Samuel L., but I hadn't really made significant note of the voice acting for the most part. Certainly no complaints with it.

Yeah, Mace is great too. That actor did a recent audiobook rendition of Shatterpoint, Mace’s book. It’s great, both the performance and novel.

I keep starting to post some big ponderings and musings, but then keep unintentionally stumbling into spoiler territory. I can tell you’re at least past the BIG struggle hump and are moving along at a speedy clip now.

Yeah, I've definitely graduated beyond the point where I would only ever watch one episode in a sitting. In the early going, it was very seldom that I would finish an episode with any need to immediately see more.

Glad to see that round two of Dooku vs. Ventress is up next.

Yeah, that didn't seem right from what I'd remembered, so I didn't know if you'd finished the arc yet and kept my mouth shut.

One of the key themes of the entire series and a major reason for it's existence is to help illustrate the rift of mistrust between Anakin and the Jedi that isn't completely covered in the films in order to avoid a GoT situation where the main character seems to go bat **** on a whim.

Alright I'm done with season 4. As noted above, bringing back a dead character is silly and indefensible, and there was nothing clever about how they did it, but at least Maul is a cool character, and at least it was something they foreshadowed a full 1.5 seasons prior rather than just trotting it out quickly due to a lack of ideas.

I have always found it curious that there is this implicit admission that Jedi are just not as powerful as their enemies in combat, and that if they don't have a numbers advantage they're probably ****ed. Kenobi actually explicitly saying to Ventress that they were outmatched in a 2-on-2 fight was the first time I can remember it being verbalized.

I don't know to what extent Ventress and the Jedi will align going forward, but it is interesting that she seems to be getting a face turn related to the template of the worst sort of face turn in wrestling: the "heel group kicked them out, therefore they're a face now" turn. Thankfully, unlike with most of those wrestling turns, they did it in a way where Ventress really didn't lose credibility. The problem with that turn in wrestling is that the heel didn't do anything noble to turn; they were actually just so pathetic that the heels didn't want them anymore either. That's...nothing to rally behind at all. And that's why it's important that the origin story of the Dooku/Ventress divorce was Dooku reluctantly carrying out an order he wanted nothing to do with.

I guess they can escape some complaints by saying it depends on the ability of the individual jedi, which is on some type of spectrum, but they just seem to be as limited as the story needs them to be. Some were so easily taken out by Order 66, but others can take out an entire platoon by themselves. It's one of the things I like about the Marvel movies. It's a pleasant surprise to see their powers remain consistent.

As far as Ventriss goes, I have a lot to say. Being one of the very few characters that doesn't we don't the fate of makes her entire arc so great, but saying much more by responding to your statement would likely be a spoiler. However, unlike wrestling, I don't see it as a snap turn. Yes, she hates Dooku because he turned on her, but that doesn't immediately make her a "face". It just means she hates Dooku. (Enemy of my enemy and all.) You still have a long way to go with her though, which will probably need to be talked about after you finish S5, but be prepared to be inconvenienced. I hope I haven't already said too much.

Nah that wasn't saying too much, I'm intrigued rather than spoiled. I agree that it wasn't a snap-turn, though the moment that she became Dooku's enemy she was acting as de facto babyface as she and the Nightsisters tried to take a run at him. As soon as he double-crossed her, it seems that every scene thereafter (at least through season 4) is one where I'm on her side.

On a non-Star Wars note, there sure seemed to be something funny about that Georgia/Bama game yesterday.

A) Either Georgia was "holding back" because they knew they'd probably have to face Bama again. Not something you could ever prove, but the supposed greatest college defense of all time looked atrocious.

or

B) They were just that over-rated.

Either way, Bama kicked the **** out of them last night and I would be okay with them leaving Georgia out of the playoff entirely after that performance. They didn't just lose. They got their asses kicked and if it's a case of them holding back some of their playbook, then the hell with them. If conference championship games aren't going to have any integrity (and I'm not saying that's the case) and nobody cares about non-playoff bowls anymore, then what's the point?

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen though and even more unfortunately, even if it did, Notre Dame would be the team to sneak in and I certainly don't want to see that either.

It's also possible I'm just bitter about my pre-season future on Georgia to win the SEC at +250 too.

I didn't watch the championship games yesterday (except for that crazy ending to Oklahoma St. vs. Baylor) because of the usual problems, every top team being a heel and me being unwilling to root for any of them. I don't have any issue with Cincinnati, but I am not in this group who thinks it's wonderful when a non-P5 team gets a seat at the table. I hate Michigan and Bama (**** all of the positive sentiment I'm seeing toward Michigan on Twitter), guess I would default to Georgia over those options, but blech.

In March Madness, we're always drawing live to an actual likable team winning it all, but that always seems like all but a dead possibility with college football each year.

I've more or less liked this early season 5 arc in Onderon where the Jedi assist an insurgent group - it's way the **** better than that waterworld/droids garbage from early in the prior season - but it's hard to get away from the feeling that the creators of this show would get ordered up for 22 episodes and only have truly inspired ideas to fill about half of them, leaving them to go, "Welp, let's figure something out to fill that whole order."

I'm assuming you've just met a young Saw Gerrera, a somewhat significant figure in the rebellion with more extremist and violent views. One of the very few CW original characters who you'll see pop up again if you go beyond this particular show.

Isn't that the issue with most network serialized shows. I remember the infamous Paulo/Nikki episode (which Billy Dee Williams cameos in ironically) that fans **** all over along with a good portion of the middle of S3, which ended up getting them to shorten the last 3 seasons going forward. It's not as much of a problem for "____ of the week" type shows (procedurals), but you rarely see many serialized shows blast through 20+ eps anymore. I guess Blacklist would be an exception, but they also employ a freak of the week type thing along with the overall main story. But shows are better off from shortening up more often now.

You're probably coming up on the dreaded droids arc soon.

I remember one episode of that was actually pretty good. But yeah, oof. That commander dude is ****ing painful.

Luckily, I think that's actually the last "terrible" arc in the series.

Yeah, when I looked at the big dip that showed up on Ratingraph for this season, I immediately assumed, "Aw ****, there's more droids episodes coming up."



Yes to Saw Gerrera being a thing now.

He is awesome. Great character.

He hasn't really made an impression on me yet, but it's early.

Yeah, I saw him elsewhere before his introduction in TCW. So, that kinda added to the moment.

They seriously gave the droids a full four-episode arc and just plopped it into the middle of a season.

At a conceptual level it was less annoying than the droids episodes of the prior season, since those were just "let's watch C-3PO and R2-D2 wander around pointlessly," and at least this time the droids were carrying out a mission in service of the war. But still, aside from that one story of the clone being found and reminded of his origins, that arc was not good.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing higher points during the final stretch of season 5.