Unlikely Viruses and Keepers of Time
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: 1.17 “Blue Shadow Virus”
The blue shadow virus is a highly unlikely pathogen…one which infects all forms of life, plants, animals, from multiple biomes. Good job Star Wars isn’t hard SF!
It’s been eradicated, of course. (How? It would just destroy everything and then die). Sorry, the Science here.
But we get a villain with an extremely interesting motivation…to release the virus to destroy all life to end the war. The Separatists are funding him. (Any bets the organic separatists don’t actually know they’re funding him? This seems like a droid idea).
He also compares eradicating a disease to murder. Mad Scientist Alert!
Jar Jar is in this, but we don’t see that much of him. It’s mostly just making a point about viruses. Badly.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 1.18 “Mystery of the Thousand Moons”
Oh for…in addition to all the other improbabilities, this virus also has an incubation period measured in minutes.
This is not how viruses work.
It can, however, be how fungi work. This is a note to worldbuilders ;).
Turns out that one planet has the cure for the plague, but somebody put up a defensive shield that’s now malfunctioning badly.
It will let you land, but not leave! Anakin and Obi-Wan have to destroy the shield to free the people trapped on the planet and get the cure back to Naboo.
Pretty good except for that Science.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 1.19 “Storm Over Ryloth”
Let’s put the 16-year-old (if that) in charge of a squadron because she’s a Padawan. But it fits Star Wars, so I’ll let it pass.
Unfortunately, the consequences are about what you would expect…several dead clones and Ahsoka’s confidence dented thoroughly. I might have done this in a slightly lower stakes situation, Anakin, just saying.
But it is all about confidence, believing in yourself, and trusting your judgment, and those always help.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 1.20 “Innocents Of Ryloth”
This one is worth watching for the Twi’let. She’s adorable! (And brave, and resourceful). Turns out this was part two of three.
The ground assault to free Ryloth was going reasonably well until the droids starved some kind of local predator and set them on the clones. But the kid got some of them through the tunnels…and proved to be a very good local guide even if she hadn’t grown into her lekku yet! (Seriously. Apparently that part grows faster like a puppy’s ears).
The plot is pretty simple mil SF but, again, the Twi’let…I want one…
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 1.21 “Liberty on Ryloth”
There’s a wee bit of sexism here. Twi’lek women don’t fight at all ever? Doesn’t feel right to me.
The ornery riding beast was amusing. The “plasma bridge” was…poorly worded. I know what plasma is. That’s a forcefield, people.
Most of this is about convincing the locals to help yet again, although at least these locals want to fight…they just don’t want to be occupied again. Quite understandable.
I want to tell the story of the Twi’lek kid from last episode, just saying.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars 1.22 “Hostage Crisis”
A jail break. A bounty hunter (who looks like a skull and dresses like he escaped from Tombstone because of course he does) takes the East Wing of the Senate building hostage during a vote on a privacy bill (even in the middle of a war, routine business has to happen).
Anakin is trying to get Padme to run away with him and hands her his lightsaber, they get disturbed…he’s in the building unarmed, and Padme has his saber. This, of course, results in shenanigans.
Unfortunately, the bounty hunter wins and successfully breaks out the hutt, Zero, whom I’m sure will be back next season…
Loki 1.1 “Glorious Purpose”
And for something completely different. The last episode of season two (likely the last episode) got nominated for a Hugo, so that’s my excuse to finally watch it.
Loki escapes the Avengers…only to be caught by the peculiarly bureaucratic TVA (I’m reminded of Jupiter Ascending here). He’s sentenced to be reset, presumably put back in the Avengers’ jail with no memory of what happened, but Mobius decides to hire him instead…
…to catch his own alternate self. I mean, realistically, who could actually catch Loki but Loki. There are elements of humor, but mostly this is about Loki realizing he’s only a mirror the heroes are reflected in…something of a twisting of the Trickster myth here.
Also starring Tom Hiddleston’s hair.
Loki 1.2 “The Variant”
So, the other Loki…is possessing people. And hiding in apocalypses. See, if an area’s about to be completely destroyed, then you can’t create new timeline branches…and can do whatever you want.
Which Loki tests by freeing some goats in Pompeii. I hope the goats ran far enough. Because otherwise, the goats died.
(Goats, by the way, are associated with Thor in Norse lore).
I now understand some cosplays I’ve seen lately. That jacket is honestly kind of awesome.
Somebody said Loki was acting like Doctor Who in this, but no, although the TVA and the Time Lords DO have some unfortunate similarities.
Loki 1.3 “Lamentis”
Now we have two Lokis…original, and girl Loki. To distinguish her from past girl Lokis, she’s calling herself Sylvie.
(We establish that Loki, to nobody’s surprise, is canonically bisexual…more likely pansexual, with his personality. This is not news, but it was a nice touch).
Sylvie wants to destroy the TVA, Loki to control it, but they wind up trapped on a place called Lamentis. Their time machine is broken, and Lamentis is about to crash into another planet. Nobody, apparently, survives.
Not only do they fail to repair the time machine, but they fail to change the destiny of Lamentis by helping their ark (occupied only by the wealthy) escape the planet.
…and it cliffhangers on that. Ow. I think I like Sylvie. She may actually be the superior Loki, at least in skills, thanks to having been a lot less coddled…
Loki 1.4 “The Nexus Event”
The timekeepers, instead of letting Loki and Sylvie die on Lamentis I, which would have probably been the best way to get rid of them decide to bring them back for trial.
This gives our tricksters the opportunity to subvert multiple people, all of whom end up dead, and by the end it looks like Loki Prime is dead too…pruned. Of course, we know he isn’t really and that Sylvie is going to rescue him. Oh, and the Time Keepers turn out to be android fakes…or perhaps the real Time Keepers are using drone bodies to protect themselves? Either way, they’re robots.
Before seeing this, I heard that Loki falls for Sylvie, and at first that seemed creepy. But honestly, who else could Loki love but a version of himself (or herself). Who else can understand him? Who else can keep up?
(I’m not saying Loki doesn’t love Thor. That’s different).
I was also amused that they included the story of Loki cutting off Sif’s hair, albeit a very watered down version. Always good to see Sif, too.
Sophia Di Martino is well chosen to be a female counterpart to Hiddleston. There’s enough similarity in the bones of their face that I can buy it, and she can do the smirk, too.
…and she’s…oh wow. She’s from Attenborough (which IMDB incorrectly refers to as a suburb of Nottingham. I’m pretty sure everyone who lives there is insulted. She went to school where my grandfather lived. Attenborough is where the nature reserve I went hiking and birdwatching with my dad all the time.
It’s a small planet, right?
(They keep killng off characters I like, though).