Review of the Jedi: The Disappeared Part Two

Join the Serial Wordsmith every weekend as he recaps and reviews the last season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

It's gonna be a short one this week. Because while I enjoyed The Disappeared two-parter, there's really not much for me to say.

In a rarity for this series, our second chapter picks up right where we left off. The evil Frangawl Cult has abducted the Queen of Bardotta, Jar Jar's ex-girlfriend, and taken her and a ball of Force energy to an unknown planet. Hot on the trail is Jar Jar and Mace Windu, who've formed a weirdly effective team. Will they be able to rescue the Queen before the Frangawl can pull off their nefarious scheme? And who is this mysterious "Great Mother" who leads them?

This pair of episodes greatest strength continues to be the team-up of Mace and Jar Jar. As I said last time, it's an unlikely pair but it works surprisingly well. What makes it work is that despite both irritating the other (yes, Mace irritates Jar Jar) they put it aside for the sake of the mission and eventually bring out the best in each other. For example, Jar Jar's cowardice annoys Mace but unlike other Jedi who just tell him to shut up and stay out of the way Mace tries to help Jar Jar find his inner courage and bring out the skills within him. And Jar Jar is laser-focused on saving the Queen, so Mace and his meditative, methodical Jedi approach gets on his nerves because he sees it as slow and wasting time. But Jar Jar knows he has to rely on Mace and shows an idealism that Mace as a Jedi finds motivating. It's kind of like when the gruff, old detective is partnered with the naive, young rookie in a cop movie.

Review of the Jedi: The Disappeared Pt.1

Join the Serial Wordsmith every weekend as he recaps and reviews the last season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

That's actually this episode in a nutshell really.

One of the bigger successes of The Clone Wars was the rehabilitation of Jar Jar Binks, turning him from annoying sidekick to comic hero. All the basic parts were still there, but used differently. So the basic pitch of this episode, the first half of a two-parter, had potential from the beginning. Teaming up goofy, slapstick Jar Jar with gruff badass Jedi Mace Windu. You can probably imagine some funny scenes just from that basic description. And while that is present, The Disappeared Part One isn't just a wacky romp. It takes some unexpected turns to be one of the better episodes this season.

From the opening narration, we are introduced to a number of different elements that could be good stories. The neutral planet (yes, another one) Bardotta has been having trouble with several of its ruling class disappearing. Desperate for help, the Queen of Bardotta asks the Republic for help but will only talk to one person: Jar Jar Binks. The Jedi are, understandably, confused by this. See Bardotta's rulers are very connected to the Force, but can't control it. Think Buddhist monks. They also have a problem with the Jedi because of the whole Baby-snatching thing. Despite this, Mace feels this situation is too important for Jar Jar to handle alone and volunteers to tag along. And on top of all that, the Queen of Bardotta is an old girlfriend of Jar Jar's!

Dragon Arms

Like any nerd, I love dragons and probably think about them too much. How dragons fly, are they intelligent or not, do they only breath fire? I have very strong opinions about all these things, but one thing about dragons pisses me off more than anything rationally should. My biggest pet peeve is how no one can get dragon anatomy right anymore.

If you've seen a dragon in a movie or on TV in the last decade or so, then it's likely that its front limbs were also its wings. THIS. IS. WRONG. Dragons are not bats, their wings are not their forelimbs. Dragons have forelegs and wings on their backs. Like this:

But where did this horrid practice of improper dragonry begin? Like many things, we can blame Harry Potter...

Review of the Jedi: Crisis at the Heart

Join the Serial Wordsmith every weekend as he recaps and reviews the last season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars

I think I figured out what the problem with this arc of episodes is. It's that neither of the story's halves, the banking conspiracy stuff and the Padme/Clovis stuff, have enough material to stand alone so they were put together. And that narrative surgery doesn't really work. The guy who betrayed Padme is on this planet because the story needs him to. Dooku is manipulating the banks through him because the story says so. It doesn't feel natural for these things to be happening this way. The only thing that does feel natural is the wedge Clovis drives in Padme and Anakin's relationship and that's the thread that goes unresolved.

The Banking stuff is where this episode really suffers, for the basic fact that it isn't very interesting. Now I'm not saying that bringing wider political ideas like economics into Star Wars is necessarily unworkable, but remember at heart this is a kid's show. Kids can't get invested in the interest rates of war loans. Hell, I'm in my 20s and I can't really get invested in it. So moving the intrigue around who controls the galaxy's money to the forefront this episode hurt audience engagement, even if that intrigue really boiled down to "Dooku blackmailed Clovis to give Sidious all the money".