[7.0/10] Leave it to Paul Dini to drag Droids into competence in its final regular episode. “The Frozen Citadel” is no great shakes. It’s a pretty standard adventure where, yet again, our heroes have to escape the villains’ stronghold before it explodes/freezes/becomes uninhabitable. But there’s a bit more clarity of purpose, a little more at stake, a little more nuts and bolts competence at play than in your average installment from the series.
I like that in this one, it’s not necessarily the heroes who defeat the bad guys, but rather the bad guys’ own infighting that does it. Governor Koong wanting his cut of the deal with the empire, and Admiral Screed being tired of dealing with local nogoodniks, is more compelling than the increasingly bland Mungo simply besting the two of them somehow.
There’s also more at stake here. It’s an easy trope, but Aurem’s mom being sick, and her dad being the healer who can save her, except he’s impressed into service to save the bad guys, generates instant tension. Granted, Dini seems to love to introduce villains who use some kind of terrible gas, but I appreciate that ultimately, Koong is hoisted by his own petard, suffering from his own chemical agent. Hell, his closing disappearance is low-key haunting.
They even pay off the setups of the little tools from the last episode! They already used the seed gun. The little stretchy egg thing helping Mungo to find Aurem is a decent beat. And while the pyramid codex only needing a mirror to be readable is a little dumb, it’s something.
That's kind of where I am with this closing episode. This is an outing where Artoo gets shrunk down to the size of a handheld toy, and the big insectoid boogeyman is reduced to laughing fits from the magic cure du jour. And I couldn’t care less about the vanishingly thin romance between Aurem and Mungo. But there’s more excitement, character, and even a hint of intrigue to all of this than Droids can normally muster. When you’re used to eating crud, even a ground chuck tastes like filet mignon.
Overall, nothing to go tell your friends about here, but a surprisingly solid, even faintly epic conclusion to this arc, with good villain in-fighting (a Dini special) and some nice moments for Artoo and Threepio specifically in helping to save the day rather than just bumble around.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2022-05-20T22:27:36Z
[7.0/10] Leave it to Paul Dini to drag Droids into competence in its final regular episode. “The Frozen Citadel” is no great shakes. It’s a pretty standard adventure where, yet again, our heroes have to escape the villains’ stronghold before it explodes/freezes/becomes uninhabitable. But there’s a bit more clarity of purpose, a little more at stake, a little more nuts and bolts competence at play than in your average installment from the series.
I like that in this one, it’s not necessarily the heroes who defeat the bad guys, but rather the bad guys’ own infighting that does it. Governor Koong wanting his cut of the deal with the empire, and Admiral Screed being tired of dealing with local nogoodniks, is more compelling than the increasingly bland Mungo simply besting the two of them somehow.
There’s also more at stake here. It’s an easy trope, but Aurem’s mom being sick, and her dad being the healer who can save her, except he’s impressed into service to save the bad guys, generates instant tension. Granted, Dini seems to love to introduce villains who use some kind of terrible gas, but I appreciate that ultimately, Koong is hoisted by his own petard, suffering from his own chemical agent. Hell, his closing disappearance is low-key haunting.
They even pay off the setups of the little tools from the last episode! They already used the seed gun. The little stretchy egg thing helping Mungo to find Aurem is a decent beat. And while the pyramid codex only needing a mirror to be readable is a little dumb, it’s something.
That's kind of where I am with this closing episode. This is an outing where Artoo gets shrunk down to the size of a handheld toy, and the big insectoid boogeyman is reduced to laughing fits from the magic cure du jour. And I couldn’t care less about the vanishingly thin romance between Aurem and Mungo. But there’s more excitement, character, and even a hint of intrigue to all of this than Droids can normally muster. When you’re used to eating crud, even a ground chuck tastes like filet mignon.
Overall, nothing to go tell your friends about here, but a surprisingly solid, even faintly epic conclusion to this arc, with good villain in-fighting (a Dini special) and some nice moments for Artoo and Threepio specifically in helping to save the day rather than just bumble around.