Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 3 episode 10 review: Heroes On Both Sides

3.10 Heroes On Both Sides

“The Republic is near bankruptcy.”

“Won’t this bill essentially deregulate the banks?”

“Say nothing of fiscal responsibility.”

These quotes, dear reader, are not from a bulletin on BBC Money News 24 but, in fact, hail from the latest installment of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. No, really. For some reason the producers of the usually tops animated series (you know, for kids) have felt the need to inject a little bit of politics and banking into the show.

I say a “little bit”,but Heroes On Both Sides (a title that suggests a great deal more action than we actually get onscreen) is almost entirely concentrated on these two mundane facets. The opening scenes are infuriatingly Senate-based, with the discussions using the above quotations with all the style of an interviewee on Working Lunch.

The excitement mounts as Ashoka and Padme visit an old friend of the latter’s on a new planet, but instead of foreign vistas and exotic creatures, the viewer is treated to just another senate, compete with dull aliens, monetary interests and the overuse of the word democracy (I don’t even know what that means anymore).

The discussions turn to the more vague notion of just who the “bad guy” is in the war between the Separatists and the Republic, with both Ashoka and Padme finding friends on the “other side”. It’s an intriguing notion that the Jedis aren’t revered by some, but it’s played out so flatly that any interest is dulled by the boredom of the actual story.

Thankfully, there’s another plot going on involving the always-entertaining General Grievous. The robotic one has a nasty surprise in store for Corsucant, and it’s an explosive finale to an otherwise dull tale for The Clone Wars.

Sadly, though, not enough to make the episode worthy of recommendation, and one sincerely hopes that we can all move on from weighty dialogue and needless monetary banter in future outings.

Read our review of episode 9, Hunt For Ziro, right here.

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