Saturday, October 28, 2017

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.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

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.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

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.