Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 4 Episode 8: The General
What is it ? : Continuing from the last episode, General Krell continues to be inconsiderate of the cost of lives under his command. With Kenobi's forces under air attack, Krell orders his Clone forces to destroy an airbase near to their position, and doesn't allow them time to scout the area for the best attack path, instead ordering them into a full frontal attack. The Clones fight a number of centipede type walkers, and then come under attack from heavy artillery walkers. A number of the Clone Troopers manage to sneak into the base and steal Umbaran fighters, turning them against the walkers, saving the day.
High Points : While it may appear that there's not much plot above, the episode is wall to wall action, with the battle continuing from almost the very beginning to the end.
Again the animation is excellent, but in this episode the design of the Umbaran walkers and fighters is the main attraction, we've never seen walkers which look anything like this, with multiple sections and legs, and bristling with weapons, these look totally unlike anything shown before, but fit into a lovely visual style they are developing for the Umbarans.
Also again credit to the writers for making the clones interesting personalities in their own right, and I must note that there are only 4 voice actors in this episode. The voice over guy at the start of the episode, Obi-Wan who is on screen for around 10 seconds, Krell, who is perhaps on screen for around a minute tops, and the rest of the time it's just one guy doing all of the different voices and personalities of all of the Clones, and they really do come across as individuals.
Low Points : I'm stretching to find much wrong with this episode, although it does seem to be stretching the storyline a little and while there was loads of action, not much seemed to happen. Also Krell isn't the most interesting of antagonists (I was going to call him a bad guy, as it's obvious that's what he is), they make the point he's successful at the expense of casualties, but I'd like to know why he's like that, why doesn't he care about Clone Trooper lives (Clone Lives Matter?). Does he not consider them people, does he dislike them as a Jedi because they are essentially born to kill, was he touched in an inappropriate manner by a clone when he was a child? We don't know, and Krell is less interesting because of that.
So what do you really think ? : I enjoyed the episode for what it was, and it was a lot of action and battle. It looked great, and the action was great, with some tense scenes as they face off against technology they've never seen before, and the characterisation of the Clones is brilliant.
Final Words : Although I'm really enjoying this storyline, I hope they move things on quickly, as I really felt that they were beginning to tread water during this episode. If the story doesn't progress in the next episode, then I really feel as if this story will begin to overstay its welcome.
Score : 8.5/10
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