#sigma watches tcw

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listening to the audiobook of stories of light and dark* and the writing on "dooku captured" is soooooo bad, sorry not sorry lou anders, but corey burton is really putting everything into the performance

it sounds like dooku is, like, narrating a penthouse letter or is the protagonist of my immortal** or something, with the weird details of ship and droid models and the self-aggrandizement and comments on the prowess of his lineage?? i can't stop laughing

#my read on dooku is that he doesn't give a fuck about the tech around him but this makes him sound like a total gearhead which is hilarious #sigma reads #kind of #sigma watches tcw #also kind of #thinky thoughts #may the force be with you #stories of light and dark #star wars the clone wars stories of light and dark #*is this for sam witwer reasons?? MAYBE but i'll never tell !! #**​'i sent a burst of force lightning at him' = 'i put up my middle finger at them'

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i had no expectations whatsoever for "bug" and it was gripping and thrilling and might actually be my favorite of this collection? good fucking job, e. anne convery and good fucking job, catherine taber

highlights: "bug," obviously, as well as "kenobi's shadow," "dark vengeance," "dooku captured," "pursuit of peace" (which has pacing problems but makes up for it with padmé characterization)

"the lost nightsister" and "almost a jedi" are good but not as exceptional as i found the above. yoda's vision at the end of "sharing the same face" was very compelling and left me shaken, but the rest of the story was only serviceable -- it tries hard but is not super interesting or insightful in its portrayal of yoda, the clones, or the force. "bane's story" is well-done, i guess, but i don't like the hardeen arc (it feels... juvenile and contrived, as i think i've complained before) and i'm not interested in bane's pov thereof, plus the processing on bane's voice is too much for 40 entire minutes and i think bane also wasn't quite well-established enough character-wise for both angleberger and burton to convincingly maintain his "voice" for that long.

lowlights: "the shadow of umbara" and "hostage crisis," which don't really bring anything new to the table, they're just a pretty direct retelling of the events. now, i don't give a shit about the episode "hostage crisis," either, beyond how annoyed it makes me about the anakin/padmé relationship, but this is especially disappointing for the umbara arc, which is easily one of the best stories tcw told and which rips my heart out of my chest and stomps on it just to think about it -- and i didn't get any of that here. it's rushed, for sure, forced to condense four emotionally intense episodes into one short story, but rex's pov of umbara (or anyone's pov of umbara tbh; fives or dogma would be equally interesting to read) should be devastating and it just... doesn't get there.

overall this collection was a fun listen and one that was well worth joining an additional library for (i mean, beyond all the inherent benefits of library membership). i don't completely agree with all the characterizations presented, but that's also true of fanfiction and hasn't stopped me reading yet. i wonder if the jarringly-specific namedropping of vehicles and weapons were some kind of requirement for merchandising? it threw me out of the stories every single time it happened, although i think it enhanced the dooku story in the end, if not any of the others. would i listen to it again? maybe one or two of the better stories but certainly not most of them. maybe "dark vengeance" again before i return it there's just Something about witwer's maul voice

#thinky thoughts #sigma reads #sigma watches tcw #stories of light and dark #may the force be with you

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okay "kenobi's shadow" was fantastic and i take back everything i said about JAT in that other post, he brings the dialogue to life and the narration is well-paced and expressive. van eekhout really understood the assignment-- the tight perspective brings so much to the story that the episode couldn't, showing us the nuance of obi-wan's emotional struggles and how, for the consummate jedi, they are more momentous than the action around him. a+

#thinky thoughts #sigma reads #sigma watches tcw #stories of light and dark #may the force be with you #ok i gotta admit jat's maul and anakin were much more compelling than his satine or bo-katan sorry bout it #maul brings out the best in anyone who portrays him it seems it's gotta be so much fun #'almost a jedi' was charming and katooni's over-the-top hero worship of ahsoka was very funny #truly hondo ohnaka lights up any story he's in #just one story left in this audiobook but i think i know which my highlights and lowlights are

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ahhhhhh "dark vengeance" exactly as delicious as expected, rebecca roanhorse gives pretty decent maul pov and sam witwer is clearly having the time of his life

between dooku, cad bane, and maul, this book really delivers the villain camp

#sigma reads #sigma watches tcw #stories of light and dark #villain appreciation blog #the ventress story was also quite good #futterman great as always #i didn't like the bane story very much (not least bc i don't like the hardeen arc very much but also the writing wasn't great) #but burton did the most with it as usual #and the skywalker one was kind of a bland characterization #not much there for lanter to work with #but i think jat is the weak link in the voice cast for me so far which is. unexpected #idk-- they also stick him with not-his-own characters which i think is not helping; accordingly he has been narrating in his normal voice #and not kenobi-voice and while his yoda is quite good he doesn't quite hit the mark for the clones #it's really a pity not to have dbb read the rex-on-umbara story #even if that story doesn't really bring much to the table either #maybe jat will read the kenobi story in character and i'll change my tune #thinky thoughts #may the force be with you #..... #oh no cartoon maul is hot

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the "pursuit of peace" story by anne ursu is actually fantastic -- an insightful character study of padmé with a keen eye toward the difficulties faced by women in the workplace, especially by young, passionate women in politics. and catherine taber does a great job, both with the narration and with the impressions of other characters :)

#sigma reads #sigma watches tcw #kind of #stories of light and dark #may the force be with you

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just noticed that the senator from kamino is named after halliburton lmao

#sigma watches tcw #and the vampire stereotype is named after the medici family?

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every time anakin manipulatively pouts to padme that isn't ~*~their love~*~ more important than their work as servants of the republic (at the highest and most immediate levels) and specifically more important than padme's work (which she just said she needs to finish instead of taking an unplanned two-week vacation with him) i want to scream

#*jazz hands* red flags #sigma watches tcw #also he barely lets her finish a sentence in this scene and every time he interrupts i want to punch him in the face #'our love is more important to ME than my duties as a jedi and as a prominent general in the war why isn't it YOUR top priority to the #exclusion of anything else also?'

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shoutout to chi eekway and che amanwe papanoida, the only female characters in all of tcw to have body fat

(gonna politely handwave ahsoka's sudden "close friendship" with senator chuchi, a grown ass woman and political representative who has never been shown onscreen with her before, bc i like chuchi and i want ahsoka to have lots of female role models and mentors)

(gonna also resentfully overlook planetary leaders having access to criminal forensic databases from a totally different planet/jurisdiction* and flying themselves to hutt space with no security detail, and high-ranking elected officials playing girl detectives once again)

(hey stinky good to see you)

#*alternatively- literally anyone on coruscant (or anywhere in the republic?) can search for a dna evidence match to known criminals??? yikes #thinky thoughts #i was gonna say the papanoida girls were plus sized but they're really not #they're just tall sturdy and round-cheeked #anyway this at least explains the mind trick dis/continuity- here in 3.04 ahsoka is learning and presumably by 3.07 she is more skilled #except i'm not watching in airdate order this time #sigma watches tcw #may the force be with you

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tcw 3.06 "the academy" is? so bad???? i mean i'm sure i noticed this last time but this time through was actively painful. honestly terrible writing, sorry not sorry, as well as just weird artistic decisions wrt lighting, angles, facial expressions. padawan ahsoka tano, who is 15 max, who spends most of her life on the front lines of a war, who we never see studying or in classes, and who is apprenticed to anakin skywalker, famously reckless and not inclined to scholarly pursuits or ethical contemplation (lol), is meant to teach teenagers studying at mandalore's "academy of government" (or whatever it's called but the point is they're meant to be future public servants) about corruption? moreover, these teenagers, who are implied (given korkie's lofty status) to be the upper-crust children of high-ranking officials and who may or may not be older than ahsoka, actually, have apparently never heard of the concept of government corruption in their entire empty-headed lives? almec just casually decides to enact a coup and abduct and torture satine bc a group of four clueless, easily manipulated or silenced teenagers got too close? satine, an actualfax head of state, decides to entrust the rooting out of black market profiteering at the highest levels of the government of her whole planet to a teenager, without even telling her that's the mission, plus some meddling kids who were never supposed to be involved in the first place? also, korkie &co. openly talk about criminal behavior in class, to their teacher, where all their classmates can hear them -- classmates who, in one of the most bizarre choices of the episode, don't even react to this in any way despite clearly listening and also despite being a bunch of naive numbskulls who start out thinking any criticism or questioning of the government at all is tantamount to treason? when ahsoka goes to 'interrogate the prisoners,' the kids aren't beging held separately, and nobody is listening to or recording the "interrogation" and nobody questions that she's only in the cell for like one minute (okay, okay, it's a trap, the guards know it's a ruse, but still it's like nobody is even trying)? ahsoka uses (or attempts to use) mind tricks but isn't it a plot point in a later episode that she doesn't know how yet (or did that ep already happen? idek)???? it's just absolute garbage.

#presidential alert: the heads of state are fightingggggg #do we think the one girl (the Only Brunette Mandalorian) is naturally blonde but dyes her hair? #i hate that this time i noticed all the things that make people think korkie is a kenobi #mostly i hate it bc i hate korkie and i especially hate his stupid name #but the 'evidence' is there- ginger; strokes chin in thought; unnecessarily flashy entrances; trouble magnet #anyway uh #thinky thoughts #sigma watches tcw #may the force be with you

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tcw 2.14 "duchess of mandalore" is a frustrating but also fascinating window into how obi-wan and satine bring out the worst in each other, actually. despite meaning well, he's... saying all the wrong things, at his most patronizing and victim-blamey, and i absolutely don't blame her for getting pissed off because the minute the word "hysterical" passes his lips i want to tear his face off myself. but!! it's also true that she's pushing away allies (on a personal level, if not entirely a governmental one) and generally making mistakes and being bad at her job here, and getting worse because she's getting more stubborn in reaction to his condescension, digging in her heels and hardening her positions.

#idk this is kind of a weak episode anyway everyone makes such stupid decisions #sigma watches tcw #thinky thoughts #may the force be with you #in other news i've seen a couple different satine fancasts but i feel like people ignore the obvious answer which is tilda swinton

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anyway that scene where skywalker, windu, and kenobi all team up to try to mind control cad bane as an """"""""enhanced interrogation technique""""""""? pretty sure that's a war crime

#ahsoka doesn't help bc she hasn't learned the mind trick yet but she DOES suggest it #(this may contradict my previous allegation that Ahsoka Would Never oops) #(they say it's an internal jedi matter but they also know that bane is working for or with the separatists so) #(and even if it were unrelated to the war it's still pretty ethically dubious. and this is from two members of the council!!! ugh) #thinky thoughts #sigma watches tcw #may the force be with you

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doing some light reading on wookieepedia (you know, as you do) and thinking about ahsoka and ventress as mirrors and foils. Ahsoka Would Never, but also: forsaken apprentices! lost faith in the jedi! carnivorous! aggressive! proud, possibly overconfident! child soldiers apparently! ahsoka learned jar'kai so she could fight ventress better!!! (lesbians!!! no i do not know or care if canon says otherwise they are both wlw)

anyway it's just something to think about

#may the force be with you #thinky thoughts #sigma watches tcw #ahsoka tano #asajj ventress

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oh no, do i need to learn this bassoon solo from the space chess scene in tcw 3.07 "the assassin"? oh no does that mean i'll need to transcribe it my damn self? :(

#musician tv watching priorities #sigma watches tcw #bassoonery #music makes the people come together #may the force be with you #(i don't remember liking this ep much but i also don't hate it yet) #(and hey- bechdel pass)

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tcw 2.10 "the deserter" i know it's only a 20-minute episode but there's so much weird stuff with the lawquane family. is twi'lek skin color heritable or random? the mom is pink but the little girl is blotchy blue/tan and the little boy is tan, and their accents (space-american) don't match either of their ostensible parents (twi'lek are space-french and clones as we know are space-kiwi (except cutup for... reasons??)). and they're definitely not biologically cut's, geonosis is only a year or so prior, right? so they're much too old. so, suu has them from a prior relationship that ended one way or another, or they're not biologically related to either of them and they all kind of adopted each other after some other rural tragedy? suu and cut definitely seem secure with each other and the kids obviously love them both but i'm just uncomfortable with the dynamic we see where cut rambles his deep philosophical musings on personhood at rex over dinner and chess while the wife and kids sit quietly on the other side of the room. whatever. none of this is important, but the family scenes wig me a little.

#sigma watches tcw #thinky thoughts #may the force be with you

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anyway i'm still sad af about the zillo beast

#team zillo beast 2k21 #zillo beast deserved better #sigma watches tcw #may the force be with you #thinky thoughts #but anyway here's something that bugs me: multiple yoda scenes where aayla secura is also there and they're clearly working on something tog #together but yoda has a bunch of lines and aayla is a silent sexy lamp #(or like. entire episodes where ahsoka is the only named female character there and she has literally just one line in the entire 23 minutes #and probably only for reasons of contractual obligation and no other women speak)

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real talk: collapsing the cavern on the geonosian queen

did these jedi, Our Heroes, just commit genocide?

#she seems to be the only reproducing member of the population ???? #this show is fucked up #may the force be with you #thinky thoughts #sigma watches tcw