Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 4 "Prisoners" Review

The Mon Calamari arc that kicked off season 4 of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series reached it's conclusion in the episode "Prisoners". Read on to check out my thoughts on it!

As the title states, there are "prisoners" in this episode. Having been captured at the end of the last episode, "Gungan Attack", our heroes Kit Fisto, Anakin Skywalker, Jar-Jar Binks and Padme Amidala are brought before the villain Riff Tamson. Riff wants information on where Prince Lee-Char is: And he isn't afraid to torture our heroes for the information. One part I didn't quite like about this bit is, at one stage: Riff grabs Padme and Jar-Jar, tossing them to a couple of Quarren Soldiers. Anakin then says "Let go of her!", referring to Padme. That doesn't make sense because Tamson wasn't holding her, all he did was grab her and throw her aside. Strange quote if you ask me...

The torture scenes overall were done well. Padme and Jar-Jar watching on helplessly from where a couple of machines held them still, while Anakin and Fisto were tortured by eels. A single movement inside the eels that were around you, or even talking, would electrocute you, as Anakin later in the episode finds out, after Fisto tells him, "Less talking helps".

I liked how Riff Tamson kept trying in vain to get Lee-Char's whereabout's out of the Jedi, but they refused to tell him. Not just because they wouldn't tell Tamson in the first place, they didn't even know themselves where Lee-Char was!

One moment which was rather creepy, Tamson got fed up with the Jedi's resiliance to the torture by the eels. So, Tamson took the matter into his own hands and attacked Padme. Crushing into her scuba helmet with his teeth. Once part of the glass on the helmet was broken, the water could then infiltrate inside, and too much water inside her helmet would prevent Padme from breathing. When Tamson got word of where Lee-Char was. Anakin told him he had to save Padme from dying. Tamson coldly replies "No, I don't!" before leaving. Anakin shouts his name furiously "TAMSON!" before getting electrocuted ferociously by the eels, as Anakin struggles to contain his anger.

In my opinion, there wasn't much to think about in terms of animation in this episode. Due to most of the thinking being about how our heroes would escape captivity. The animation wasn't as epic as in the opening episodes, however the lighting surrounding those eels was quite nice. Even if the eels themselves weren't so nice...

Two of the more impressive characters of this arc appeared here: Captain Ackbar, the white-geared one. Fan-favourite from the movie "Return of the Jedi" made his Clone Wars debut in this arc. He didn't get to say his famous line "It's a trap!" but he was given a similar one, "It's an attack!" when the Quarren attacked the city in the first episode. The other one, Prince Lee-Char. Having been childish, and not a good character in the first two episodes. He definitly improved in this one, and was a great character to watch in "Prisoners", having been unbearable in "Water War" and "Gungan Attack"...

One of things that perked my interest during the episode: Our loser, Nossor Ri: What sparked my interest, he had pledged himself to the Separatist alliance, but was against the torture methods used by Tamson and Count Dooku. Nossor Ri continuously looked like he was considering changing sides, due to how Dooku and Tamson acted on Ri's world. Nossor Ri eventually realized that he had picked the wrong side: when Tamson told him he would be taking over this world. Dooku had lied with his arrangement to Ri, and was planning to give Tamson, and his species: The Karkaradon, full control of Mon Calamari. This shocked and annoyed Ri, and is likely the reason he went against the Separatists and fought against them towards the end of the episode.

After it was announced when Lee-Char went to speak to Tamson and Ri. Tamson declared there would be a public execution for Lee-Char. All our heroes watched in despair, summed up by an Anakin and Ahsoka quote towards each other (I'll put the quote at the end of this review), showing how helpless their situation was. Three Karkarodon soldiers from Tamson's homeworld prepared to execute Lee-Char. But this was when the Quarren played their trump card. Unseen by the Separatists, the Quarren handed the clones, gungans and Captain Ackbar their weapons back. Ri infiltrated the execution area and saved Lee-Char. The Karkarodon's were then shot down themselves. That's the one thing I didn't like about these Karkarodon soldiers: They didn't do anything really, just were put in the execution spot, so they could be deceived and killed off. Quite pointless from my point of view. Due to numbers, Tamson and his troopers were defeated.

This was one scene I liked. When Gungan's and Mon Calamari smash their way into a Trident Drill ship. Once the glass explodes, the ship crashes into the buildings, destroyed, with the Battle Droids inside wailing in despair. If my calculations are right, this is the first time any Battle Droids have been their silly selves since "Supply Lines" in early season 3. A pretty long time ago. This time last year in fact. So, It's good to see them being themselves again...

There's always one main character who has to die in an arc. This time around, the villain Riff Tamson was the person to fall: Having seen his side crumbling before him, he draws out explosive daggers, before stabbing several enemies with them. He swims past as those enemies explode. Lee-Char confronts him, and brings my favourite quote of the episode:
Tamson: "I killed you're father! Without pity or mercy!"

Lee-Char: "Then I'll return the favour!"

Lee-Char, having taken one of the explosive daggers during a brief scuffle with Tamson. Tosses it into Tamson's chest: Tamson tries to pull it out, but it can't come out. Tamson then launches himself at Lee-Char, intent on taking Lee-Char with him. Lee-Char just about shoots the explosive in time, blowing Tamson up: Bringing the first true gorey moment to the series, where you see Tamson's destroyed skull floating right in front of you. We've had shocking moments before, such as Cad Bane's torture of Bolla Ropal, but this was the first true gorey scene.

After that, the civil war between the Mon Calamari and the Quarren is over. Lee-Char is then officialy made king of the planet...

My rating: This was an excellent episode. However, it was not perfect. There was far too much talking going on it, nowhere near as much action as the previous two. The ending was really good though, and was definitly an interesting end to the arc. Lee-Char's killing of Tamson was a shocking end, and there could soon be complaints from kids about it: due to it being a kid's show. But I sense there could be worse ahead. After a lacklustre season 3, it finally seems like we are getting back to the true "Clone Wars". Rating: 8.5/10.

Next time: Anakin vs Dooku, Grievous vs Gungans, and Jar-Jar Binks as a Gungan Boss of Naboo? Next-time in the episode, "Shadow Warrior"!

Oh, and here's that quote I mentioned: Between Anakin and Ahsoka:
"Good job, protecting the prince"
"It's all part of the plan, Master"
"I was hoping you were gonna say that. Anything I can do?"
"Unfortunately, this time it's out of our hands"
"I'm not sure I like this plan after all!"

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 4 "Water War" & "Gungan Attack" Reviews

Another season, another chance for reviewers to discuss their own thoughts and opinions on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Now into it's fourth season, we were promised "battle lines" and lots of explosions this season. One thing we did know for a while though, is that the planet of Mon Calamari, would be introduced in the series. Two of the episodes on the planet of Mon Calamari were to be the first three of season 4. Two of these are in this review...

Where to begin? I suppose I should begin by mentioning the Mon Calamari species. After all, so much of this arc is to be based around them. I really do like the animation and detail put into these Mon Calamari, they really do look fine. My only problem with the above ones here though, is that they wear these glass type things. I know it adds a bit of difference to them, but come on! Surely they don't need 3-D glasses to see the enemy about to come on top of them?

The other species that appeared are the Mon Calamari's enemies, the Quarren. The annoying part about this episode, is that the Quarren and Mon Calamari are fierce enemies, but, and this is a spoiler. So skip this if you must. the Quarren are pictured at the end of the arc to actually accept, no, that's not the way to put it, CHEER a Mon Calamari put as head of the planet. That is not how the Quarren and Mon Calamari should be portrayed towards each other, they are massive enemies, and want the planet for themselves. They shouldn't be happy with someone of the other race put in charge.

One thing that immensely impressed me over the course of these two episodes, was how often, especially above the water, that it felt like we were actually watching a live-action movie. That just shows how far the animation has come in the series. The picture above is just one of these times, there's another further on in the review...

We had a lot of characters, including new ones in these episodes. Some good, some bad. But to be honest, in my opinion almost all the characters in these two had faults. Only one did not have any faults for me over these episodes. But I'll get to that later. For now, let's take a look at the two main villains of these episodes.

First off, we have the new species villain, who has been getting a lot of hype recently. His name is Riff Tamson. I honestly am in two minds over this character. While I love the way the character is portayed, going around biting the heads of Mon Calamari, even once getting stuck in to a Scuba Trooper, I find it a bit unrealistic? How is it that someone without any weapons can last against plenty of characters with weapons. I also hate the voice given to him, it doesn't all all suit a character with his type of personality. The other villain, unlike Tamson hasn't had hype, but anger thrown his way. Especially by Daniel Georgiev, I'm sure we all know why. The name of this loser, is Nossor Ri. I'm going to take Dan's line, because it really does sum the character up, "No! Sorry!" which is what this guy's name sounds like. He really is an awful character, which is good that he hasn't appeared on screen much. A waste of space, Nossor Ri is.

The "Water War" episode had some truly epic scenes. While most would prefer the action scenes, the scene that I really got into was the scene with Kit Fisto, Ahsoka Tano and Scuba Clones diving into the water. Some might be surprised at this, as I'm an all-action person. But this was a cool scene. The music fitted in for it was epic, the noises when our heroes hit the water was stunning as well. The one problem is though, how was that Water Speeder just convienietly waiting for them in the water? Quite strange.

It's a busy time for our heroes in this arc. First of all, Padme Amidala and Anakin Skywalker had to try to help the Mon Calamari make peace with the Quarren, which Tamson spoiled. Next up, they had to hold off a Separatist assault while waiting for reinforcements. From then on, it was all about protecting Prince Lee-Char, the naive young man who has to take his father's place, after his mysterious death. By the end of the episode however, Skywalker, Amidala, Fisto and Jar-Jar Binks were captured, and are under the torture of Tamson.

One thing that caught my attention. Is that the Clone Wars crew created three different Scuba Clones for these episodes. There are the green ones, although the green isn't easy to see. There are the orange ones, and finally their Commander, who has orange markings, in addition to the markings on his helmet. That could mean three possible Scuba Clone action figures in the future, but that's another topic.

On the topic of those Scuba Clones, we were introduced to their Commander, who goes by the name of Monnk. I'm not sure if it is determined that he survived "Gungan Attack" but I don't think he died on-screen anyway.

One of the most unrealistic moments in the episode though, is when Anakin loses his scuba helmet for a period of time during a fight with a Quarren. I know Ahsoka got it to him fast, but Anakin should still have died anyway, due to the length of time he didn't have the helmet on.

Speaking of the scuba helmets, I really love the animation put into the helmets, the yellow lights on them being my favourite part.

One of the more epic scenes of the episode, was when Riff Tamson chased Ahsoka and Lee-Char into a tube, smashing his way through it, before being shot at by Mon Calamari soldiers, and Tamson then took care of them.

My only complaint about "Water War" was these stupid things they called "Hydroid-Medusas" are something. Terrible name, these things can't kill by simply looking at you. Heck, they can't even look at you! The animation on them was pretty cool, with those yellow lights, but the inclusion and the way these things were portrayed is terrible.

One of my least favourite things about the crap that was season 3, is that we had so much crap, we didn't have any good time to see different Jedi together! Thankfully though, it was a moment of relief to see several of them together here, and a few of them even got lines!

One of my favourite things over the two episodes was Kit Fisto. He didn't get much screen-time, but he did have some really cool action scenes. This being one of them, dispatching several Quarren's with one of his trademark moments.

This picture alone shows how much the animation of the show has improved! I recall when this picture was first posted on the Star Wars Underworld, my first thought was "Is this from that stupid Red Tails movie?" and it was only after reading the post, did I realise what it was from! This really proved what Dave Filoni said, about "lots of explosions". This has to be the most epic explosion on the show so far!

I really like the idea of using the Gungan Army to help our desperate heroes on Mon Calamari. Superb idea by whoever came up with it, and a great excuse to slip them into the show. Sadly, it was also a good excuse to slip Jar-Jar Binks in...

Some of the action scenes over these episodes were terrific, I especially like how sometimes they got the Quarren and Mon Calamari "to grips" with each other. These were really good parts to the episodes.

My favourite moments over the two episodes has to be the duel between Kit Fisto and Riff Tamson. Forget lightsaber duels! This duel without much use of any was truly epic! And definitly better than some awful lightsaber duels from past seasons.

Now, earlier on I mentioned one character who I believed faultless over these two episodes. Someone who was actually portrayed to perfection. Read on to find out who it is:

Ahsoka Tano. In my opinion, over the two episodes she was faultless. I don't give a s*** what anyone else may say about this, she WAS played to perfection. She had some good action scenes, she did her role well, and was a great protector of Lee-Char. The way she consoled Lee-Char about everything that was going on, and about how he blamed himself for everything. Who knows? Maybe by the end of this arc, Ahsoka Tano will finally have broken into my top 100 Star Wars characters?

My rating "Water War": This was a good episode, it was interesting to see the Quarren and Mon Calamari species at heads with each other. Riff Tamson was a great addition to the show, and it has lots of action figure potentials. However, those stupid "Hydroid-medusas" really ruined this episode a bit, plus it could have benefited from some more action-packed scenes, as some of the action was rather sluggish. Rating: 8.5/10.

My rating "Gungan Attack": This was more an interesting episode, if not good. It was great to see several Jedi again, and the Gungan army. The duel between Fisto and Tamson was one of my favourite moments from the series, and was a really epic fight. However, the way in which our heroes was captured was pretty poor, and should have been better. Jar-Jar shouldn't be on the "battle lines". There were good action scenes though, and the way the Gungans entered was an epic scene. Rating: 8/10.