Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S6E7 - "Crisis at the Heart"

The post might contains some spoilers.

While watching "Crisis at the Heart," I noticed an element of symbolism.  A droid starfighter shot down by a clone pilot crashes into the office where Clovis is desperately trying to convince Anakin and Padmé that it's Count Dooku who's deceiving them, not Clovis himself.  The office is at the top of a tower, which starts to tilt because of the damage it's sustained.  Anakin catches both Padmé and Clovis as they slide off the edge:

Significantly, he's holding Padmé with his remaining human arm (his left arm) and Clovis with his artificial arm (his right arm).  It's a bit difficult to tell because he's wearing gloves on both, but the glove on his artificial hand is a bit thicker and has what look like clasps:

The arms with which he's holding these two characters illustrate the different type of connection he has with each.  He has a very close relationship with Padmé, so he's holding her with his remaining human arm.  On the other hand (literally), he hasn't trusted Clovis throughout this arc of episodes (thinking he's too involved with the Separatists), so while he's holding him too, he holds him with his artificial arm, which symbolizes that distance between them.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S6E5 - "An Old Friend"

This post contains some spoilers.

After working with Rush Clovis to discover that the Banking Clan vaults have no money in them, Padmé Amidala is arrested for espionage.  Anakin Skywalker comes to free her, and when the prison door opens, there are two visual references to A New Hope.

First, there's Anakin's silhouette, which resembles Darth Vader's, particularly Vader's helmet.  I don't think this has any specific relevancy for this episode, but it is a foreshadowing (almost literally, since it's his silhouette) of what's to come.  When he steps into the room, his shadow becomes more rounded and loses this resemblance:

Second, there's Padmé's posture.  She's laying on a bench in a prison cell in the same way that Princess Leia is when she's imprisoned on the Death Star:

I've watched the whole Star Wars: The Clone Wars series twice now, and I've noticed a lot of little references to the Star Wars movies.  Many of these are pretty obvious, so I didn't feel they were worth writing about, but since this scene has two and because they're a bit more subtle, I thought I'd write about them.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S6E3 - "Fugitive"

In re-watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I recently began season six (although since season five, I've been watching the episodes in English again because I've seen seasons five and six only once).  I noticed a small detail in episode three, "Fugitive."

Having heard from AZ that his mind is going to be wiped, Fives escapes the custody of his fellow clone troopers, taking AZ with him and stealing the chip that was removed from Tup's head.  Later, they sneak back into the medical facility in order to "continue our research," as AZ puts it.  Convinced that there's a chip inside his own head, Fives tells AZ, "You have to take it out."  However, AZ is hesitant and tells Fives that it's a "dangerous surgery" and "you may die," to which Fives replies, "It's a chance I have to take.  I trust you."

Throughout the episode, AZ's mouth lights up when he's speaking.  But after Fives tells him, "I trust you," it lights up without his saying anything and stays lit for a few seconds before he finally says, "All right, I will do it."

Because it's been established that a lit mouth is a speaking mouth (in other words, an open mouth), AZ's mouth being lit here without his saying anything is the droid equivalent of his mouth hanging open in surprise.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S1E9 - "Cloak of Darkness"

This post contains spoilers.

A couple months ago, I started re-watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars from the beginning.  Rather than just watch the episodes again, I'm watching them with the French audio to try to improve my French.

I recently watched the four-episode Geonosis arc in season two, which got me thinking about "Cloak of Darkness" from season one (the first episode Luminara Unduli is in, as more than just a hologram, at least).  I'd watched it weeks before, but it was only recently that I realized something about the fight between Commander Gree and Captain Argyus.

Early in the fight, Argyus kicks Gree, dislodging his helmet.  The remainder of the fight is between a helmeted Argyus and a helmet-less Gree:

Their respective head gear reveals their characters.  Argyus is the leader of the senate commandos, but he's betrayed the Republic and is helping Nute Gunray escape.  He seems more concerned with himself than either side of the war though, telling Gree that he wanted "a life with more than empty servitude" and gloating to Gunray after a successful escape that "I'll be a legend for this."  His shifting loyalty is represented by his retaining his helmet, which obscures his face:

Gree, on the other hand, is steadfastly loyal to the Republic.  When Gunray tries to bribe him at the beginning of the episode (saying "I am a man of great wealth, and I can be very generous to my allies"), he doesn't even consider it, and he's indignant about Argyus' betraying the Republic.  There's no deception with Gree, which is represented by his not wearing a helmet here.  He's not hiding anything.

As far as their positions, Argyus and Gree are parallel characters.  Argyus is a captain, and Gree is a commander.  By the end of this episode, their character arcs reveal the value of their choices.  Gree has a virtuous morality and survives the incident, but Argyus, who seems concerned with only his own interests, is killed by Ventress:

Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope

A couple days ago, I re-watched Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope in preparation for seeing Rogue One in the cinema.  This isn't the usual type of post I write here, but I noticed something about the sets.

Over the summer, I watched a panel from Star Wars Celebration 2016 titled Star Wars Archaeology in which it's mentioned that design elements in the Star Wars movies are re-used.  For example, the set of the Death Star corridors was filmed from different angles to give the impression of different areas.  Re-watching A New Hope recently, I found something else that was re-used.

Near the beginning of the movie, stormtroopers blast through the door of the rebel blockade runner:

Here's a close-up of the door:

This same door (orange now instead of white) appears again in Mos Eisley.  Right before Luke sells his landspeeder, R2-D2 and C-3PO hide behind this door when more stormtroopers come walking down the street:

Here are those two screenshots side-by-side:

Cast Away

This post contains spoilers.

Back in May, I watched Cast Away for the first time, and I noticed a clever bit of framing.  After Chuck has been rescued from the island and learns that - in his absence - Kelly has gotten married and started a family, he goes to visit her.  She invites him inside, and he leans on a sort of bookcase as she makes him coffee.  Over each shoulder is a picture; one of her wedding and one of her family:

Because of the way this shot is framed, with a picture over each of Chuck's shoulders, there's a visual representation of the burden of all that he missed out on while he was stranded.  It's as if he has to bear the weight of Kelly's marriage (to someone else) and her family (which he's not a part of) on his shoulders.

Grimm - S4E21 - Headache

This post contains spoilers.

I noticed a couple things about this episode, and when I re-watched it recently, I found a couple more.

To some degree, this is also in the previous episode (and perhaps even in some before that), but it's very noticeable in this episode that Juliette is wearing a coat that is much darker than ones she usually wears:

The darker color seems to represent the darkness involved in her accepting and even reveling in being a Hexenbiest and in her joining forces with the royal family.  She's become a literal turn-coat.

She takes Prince Kenneth on a tour through the house she used to share with Nick, and when they get to the bedroom, she reaches out and touches the dresser drawer in which Nick keeps the ring with which he proposed to her:

There are a few other touches like this in the episode (like the slight hesitation before she tells Kelly to come in) that seem to indicate the old Juliette within her new Hexenbiest-self.

Meanwhile, Renard is being taken over by Jack the Ripper.  In one scene, he looks at himself in the mirror, which seems to spur Jack's taking over:

I think using mirrors to show a dual nature is a relatively common feature, but it works well here.  Like the original and the reflection, there's Renard himself, and then there's Renard as he is when Jack the Ripper takes over.  Using a mirror to illustrate this is particularly evident when - in a later scene - Jack the Ripper writes on the mirror with the blood from Renard's phantom wounds:

Finally - and this is just a minor point - when Nick and Hank find that Wu has been taken by Renard/Jack the Ripper, Nick calls dispatch and says, "I need to track patrol car 421."  421 is the number of the car, and this is season 4 episode 21.  Using the season and episode number in the episode itself is a common conceit in Grimm, but usually it's done in an apartment or hotel room number.  Here, there's not even a visual component.