Saturday, December 8, 2012

Clone Wars Review: "A Sunny Day in the Void"

1 comments
By Chris Seekell

I don't think there is any question about it. This episode was the most different episode in the history of this show. The thing that is in question however, is was it different in a good way? I have a feeling that it was.

Initially, the beginning of "A Sunny Day in the Void" was classic Star Wars. The asteroid scene was brilliantly written. I loved the great balance of action, music, dialog, and art. The comets themselves looked really cool. It was great to see R2 take charge of things and save the day again, reminiscent to his role in the Naboo escape scene from The Phantom Menace. I liked how everyone's favorite Astromech got hit by a small comet, and then afterward moved to avoid more throughout the scene. The cinematography and camera angles of this sequence were fantastic.

Yet the ship still ended up crashing, and that is where things got quite interesting. This is where I am going to go all Yoda on everyone. What exactly was in The Void? Only what the characters took with them it seems. This is the well that I think the show needs to go to more, pure character driven stories. Enter one resourceful Astromech and his posse, one over-eager, batty WAC droid, and a prideful, yet secretly insecure Colonel.

Right out of the gate, R2 was his level-headed self. He scanned the area and took off in the direction he calculated best, without the permission of anyone else. This reminded me a lot of the crash landing on Tatooine. In the end, R2 was the first to escape The Void. This makes sense because he is a pure character. The blue Astromech never has to overcome character flaws. He always does the right thing, and ends up being the greatest asset to our heroes.

Meanwhile WAC-47 and Meebur Gascon were complete headcases. It was their dysfunction that drove this episode. WAC was clearly over-ambitious. His motivation was to lead the mission and prove himself, even if it required pushing the Colonel out of the way. I actually found his extremely dismissive comments about Gascon's life a bit jarring. There was an interesting contrast between WAC's compassion toward his fellow droid, BZ, in the previous episode, and his apathy toward the Colonel in this one. This was illustrated by his multiple nonchalant references to Gascon jumping off a high place and killing himself.

But the Colonel did not have a functional attitude either. His derogatory terminology when talking to the droids returned quickly when things did not go as planned, and the rest of the episode he constantly tried to assert his superiority. It seems that the past episode did not completely resolve his pride.

Then things got really interesting. Nothing but characters in an empty white room, almost literally in obvious reference to the early Lucas film THX-1138, there was nothing else to do but play with their respective emotions. This led to a very engaging philosophical conversation among them about the differences between droids and sentient beings. Perhaps this may have been too far outside the realm of this series for most fans, but I found it to be very compelling, and here is why.

What do we love about Star Wars? Sure, we love the action, the sci-fi elements, the music, the heroes and villains, but at the core, what makes Star Wars more than just a film? I believe it is more than just moving images because it makes us think. It makes us contemplate our real lives. "Luminous being are we..." "Do or do not!" "Fear leads to anger..." -all quotes, by Yoda, naturally, that jump out of the screen and touch our very souls. This episode returned to that mysticism and philosophy. What is life? It's the question that we have been asking since Socrates and even before we could write.

The droids questioned Gascon about why he truly thought he was above them. From their perspective, his "training" was nothing more than their programming. The Colonel kept repeating that he was taught to think outside the box, to solve complex problems. Yet still there was something lacking in his own view. Eventually he echoed shades of nihilism, the belief that there is nothing but death. Then he went on to basically lose his sanity and rational thought. The scenes with him screaming from the top of a ghost ship, running after a mirage, and jumping around like a crazed lunatic may have seemed a little out there, but they were necessary to the story. The question was asked of us, if all we do is rely on the things we have been trained to do, and do not adapt our perspective on life when we hit a wall, are we really any greater than programmed droids? Stripped of our sanity, are we even above animals? I could even hear beast like sounds coming from Gascon at one point.

The pure characters, led by R2, eventually left the insane Colonel and conniving WAC to themselves. And finally Gascon started seeing things in a different light. The second that he swallowed his own pride, and told his companion that he was more than just a pilot, an opportunity presented itself for the duo to save themselves, and that opportunity was seized.

A full and extremely deep character arc has been completed, and now the actual plot can continue. I'm very anxious to see how it does. We know that Gregor, the rogue Republic Commando, will enter soon. That should be very interesting. But in conclusion, this episode was amazing, from a certain point of view. Not only did it have great action at the beginning, but the meat of the story was incredibly rich. It hit the heart of sci-fi, which I consider to be the utilization of futuristic, other-worldly events to play with human emotions. For me, this was so different that it cannot even be compared to other episodes, but I definitely enjoyed it. So far, this arc has been refreshing and exciting, and it has won the ultimate victory, leaving me satisfied, yet wanting more.



1 comments:

Ben Hart said...

Post a Comment

 
This site is not endorsed by Lucasfilm Ltd. or Disney and is intended for entertainment and information purposes only. The official Star Wars site can be found at www.starwars.com. Star Wars, the Star Wars logo, all names and pictures of Star Wars characters, vehicles and any other Star Wars related items are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of Lucasfilm Ltd., or their respective trademark and copyright holders. All original content of this site, both graphical and textual, is the intellectual property of The Star Wars Underworld - unless otherwise indicated.
Site template © 2011 DheTemplate.com. Supported by PsPrint Emeryville and homeinbayarea.com