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| "In war, truth is the first casualty." ~Aeschylus |
"Never become desperate enough to trust the untrustworthy."This week's episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars followed Ahsoka's flight from Republic authorities into the underlevels of Coruscant where she receives the aid of fellow Padawan Barriss Offee and Sith acolyte turned bounty hunter Asajj Ventress. There is a very neat bit of story telling going on in this episode, but I'll get to that in a bit.
The fugitive Ahsoka escapes to the criminal depths of Coruscant.
This week's episode was written by Charles Murray and directed by Kyle Dunlevy, and while I don't like how I believe this character arc is going to effect certain characters, I have to say it has been superb.
This story revolves around trust. Anakin's trust of Ahsoka, the Jedi Council's trust of Ahsoka, Mace's trust of Anakin, Ahsoka's trust in Barriss and Ahsoka's very tentative trust in Asajj and Asajj equally tentative trust in Ahsoka.
The brilliance of the storytelling is that both Ahsoka and Asajj are being falsely accused in this episode. Ahsoka of the bombing and murder of the clones and Asajj of attacking Ahsoka and presumably next week being accused by Anakin of being behind framing Ahsoka. This works well because both characters are coming from such different personal histories but finding themselves in similar circumstances. How quick are the Jedi to doubt Ahsoka and how quick is Ahsoka to doubt Asajj and believe the masked assailant was Asajj. This pairing continues next week as both Ahsoka's and Asajj's fates appear to be hanging in the balance, I don't think both can escape this story arc unscathed.
I think we can look forward to three big events next week; 1) The trial of Ahsoka and her sentencing, 2) The revelation of the Jedi behind the bomber, presumably Barriss Offee, and 3) Anakin's confrontation with Asajj.
Ahsoka's trial will be fun because we will get to see Palpatine being all Palpatiney. It will also be interesting to see if Ahsoka is convicted and expelled from the Order and exiled from Republic or if the true culprit is revealed during the trial and Ahsoka is found innocent but her trust/faith in the Jedi and Republic is so shocked she leaves of her own volition.
All signs point to Barriss being the villain in this arc. If you look at the previous episode The Jedi Who Knew Too Much in light of this week's episode, all of Barriss body language points to her being guilty. In addition in this week it appears that she sets up Ahsoka by convienently sending her and Asajj to the munitions factory where she is caught red handed with nano-bombs.
The fact that the mysterious assailant is a slim Force using female and we have no other characters used in this arc that would fit for this big reveal makes it a pretty telegraphed shot.
I also found the mysterious assailant's fighting style to seem much more graceful and Jedi-like than one would expect. It was a nicely choreographed duel.
I also get the sneaking suspicion that Anakin is going to over react next week and not believe Asajj's denials about not attacking Ahsoka and being behind the plot. Is she able to somehow convince him, or does Anakin slip into darkness again and kill Asajj?
On the continuity front, if Even Piell's death was a continuity tremor, then Barriss Offee's turning bad will be much worse. Barriss Offee was the star of the Medstar Duology (MedStar I: Battle Surgeons and MedStar II: Jedi Healer) , a set of two novels written by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry set during the Clone Wars. These books are under appreciated gems in the Expanded Universe. Of all the Jedi to take this turn Barriss seems like the most unlikely of candidates and seems like she is being used simply because TCW team has not dedicated enough time to building up a group of friends or peers around Ahsoka. Outside of Barriss and Lux, I am not sure Ahsoka knows anyone her own age or in her peer group.
Direct Link to Watch Episode 5.19 To Catch a Jedi
Clone Wars Download 519: A Wretched Hive: The Coruscant Underworld
Next Time on Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Episode 5.20 The Wrong Jedi
SOURCE: StarWars.com
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And just misuse a good character like Aura Sing for the acolyte, and Barriss has no motives for do what she do...
ReplyDeleteI think they want u to think its bariss offee, but then again the fighting style, body movement, leads ahsoka to the nano droids warehouse, and being force sensitive, it's all pointing to bariss as the culprit. (I also found an interesting pic of anakin fighting bariss look)http://www.nexusroute.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/itsbarriss.jpg
ReplyDeleteLooking at Ahsoka's reaction about 21-22 seconds into the mini Preview of "The Wrong Jedi", it seems that Ahsoka was read a verdict of "guilty".
ReplyDeletesidious is the size of a small girl, anakin kills ventress, ahsoka is guilty and removed from the jedi order.
ReplyDeletePeople will probably angry about the continuity stuff, but I don't care as long as the story is good. I really wonder what was Bariss' precise motive. Could it be possible she is under Palpatine's control? Palpatine is powerful, and Bariss has never been a very strong personality. He could have used a mind trick on her.
ReplyDeleteIMPORTANT: folks, with the end of season 5 in less than one week, it is extremely important that fans show their support to the show to influence the decision at Disney. It's better to prevent than to repair, so we must tell Disney as much as possible that we want the show to keep on going. The best way to do so is to write a letter to Disney, at the following address:
Walt Disney Studios
500 S Buena Vista St
Burbank, CA 91521
Attn: Bob Iger
You can also send an e-mail at this webpage: http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/contact-us/corporate-communications There is even a petition to keep the show airing: http://www.causes.com/actions/1733395-allow-star-wars-the-clone-wars-to-remain-on-the-air-till-the-end We have to do all we can to minimize the risk of the show not continuing.
I guess the problem I had with this one was; if Ahsoka is as Force-powerful as she seem to be (and it's hard to accept that she can keep up with Anakin if she isn't at least "above average") then how does she NOT sense that her opponent is Bariss if it IS Bariss?
ReplyDeleteI mean, she knows Offee as well as she knows anyone in the Order. And from other parts of the canon (I'm thinking of Yoda's comments to Thire about how even the clone troopers are very distinctive as individuals in the Force) we know that 1) a strong Force-user can distinguish individuals in the Force, and 2) the sorts of creatures that are "Force-opaque" are quite rare - the Gurlanens are one of a handful I can think of.
So - how the hell can Ahsoka fight hand-to-hand with Bariss and NOT know that it's Bariss. That makes as little sense as...well, as Bariss being a secret Darksider.