Full Series The Clone Wars - Episode 5.7 - A Test of Strength- discussion thread

Her parallels with the Secret Apprentice are uncanny.

 

Ahsoka and Honda were sucked into the boarding tube, not space.

 

More crap. Yawn.

 

Which was no longer attached to the Crucible, and thus open to space.

Other than that (and the weird new lightsaber and Yoda's unexplained absence) I enjoyed this episode, particularly the professor droid and the ship's aesthetics.

 

If Ellen Ripley, Jean Luc Picard, Palpatine, Anakin, Grievous, can all survive the vacuum of space, I'm not going to bat an eyelash when Star Wars has Ahsoka do it, especially when individuals have already done it in the same franchise.

 

Pretty nice episode. Hondo was quite a bad guy this time- as he said his mood certainly changes easily- from hero to villain and so on. I guess he has some mental disorder Jedi kids are pretty nice characters and wookiee and ithorian were so cute. Pirates attacking a ship was nice to see but this overdose of Hondo really starts to irritate a bit... I expect that he doesn't appear in any other arcs after this.... I like his character but his constant meetings with the same jedi are not too believable.

+Plot was simple enough- yet not boring- for a 22 minutes long episode
+EU-references were present and no "facts" awfully "wrong" as far as I'm concerned
+That Ishi Tib was nice addition to Hondo's pirates- that species is so underused in TCW so maybe they finally start to use them more.
+Harry Potter-reference was nice but not too obvious.

-That vacuumthing was way too easy- instead of being sucked in the space they ended up safely to Hondo's ship? Then why that weequay ended up in the space? Well he has no character shield
- Still no explanation what Ahsoka (and R2) are doing there and where Anakin is at the time?

Funny thing is that in episode idea that I never even posted there was Hondo kidnapping Ahsoka.... it feels bit odd when TCW-writers decide to use same ideas as I did... This time it was definitely coincidence though...

 

The Ishi Tib was a nice little touch and he feels too special to be just a background character.

What if he is connected to Grievous?!



But indeed... the episode was really fun and awesome.
The droid Huyang was a great character. I loved his animation, especially when he was searching the different drawers for parts - that was almost pixar. And David Tennant did a marvelous job. This really felt like a magical moment for Jedi in the tone of Harry Potter picking his wand. The speech he gave and explanation about the lightsabers was a great touch. New SW Lore without destroying old lore.
The pirates felt menacing as enemies for the first time. Hondo is always a delight when he is on.
There was a lot of action and I loved the vacuum scene. Just pure fun with Hondo and Ahsoka hitting each other in 0 Gravity.
And Ahsoka getting bonked and Hondo telling her "Good Night" was such a nice way to end an episode.

One minus - Kyber Crystals?!?! Does not compute!

 

Great episode and solid continuation of the arc. In some ways, I enjoyed this episode even more than the previous one; the youngling group continued to be a good bunch of characters (which I feel quite warmed up to by now; I think Gungi is my fav and I like that he chose a wooden hilt for his saber, which I think is a references to the EU thing about Jedi Master Tyvokka having a wooden hilt made from a wroshyr tree) and I really liked the lightsaber sequences (good thing they still have the aspect of them putting the sabers together with the force like in the previous Clone Wars show); it was also nice that they used the fact that Petro put his together the wrong way later in the episode when they were captured and he used it to their advantage (and when he was told that what would happen if he used his incorrect saber I thought of Tenel Ka's fateful accident in the YJK books) .

Ahsoka was much better here and got more to do than in the last episode and Doctor Huyang, the lightsaber expert droid, is a great new & rather likeable character with an equally personality; I love how they pulled him off and his voice is pretty much perfect (I also liked that he pointed out that Wookiee Jedi are quite rare which in a way lampshades/references the former "No wookiee jedi" rule) and Hondo appears again, he was great as he usually is, and it was also sort of surprising to see an Ishi Tib among his all-Weequay crew (which adds a bit more flavor to it, I think). The animation was great and so was the action, in which the younglings showed that they were quite capable (their training remote trap was good thinking); Hondo & Ahsoka's tangle was really nice as was seeing them flying around in the corridors as they were about to be sucked out.

Overall, it was a very good episode with a great new character in Doctor Huyang as well as a solid lead-in to the following episode with Ahsoka getting captured by Hondo and his pirate gang. I must say that this arc is shaping up to become better than I thought; bring on the next part.

 

"Padawan Tano, what will happen to the pirates sucked into space?"
"Their blood will boil and they will die a horrible, painful death. Oops, I forgot I can't say that on this show or it may frighten our younger viewers."

Decent episode for the most part. I'm very intrigued for the next installment.
+ Ahsoka and Hondo never fail to bring the highest quality to an episode.
- not sure I buy medieval weapon carrying space pirates. How do they hope to terrorize the galaxy with axes and maces?
- plot was shaky in why the younglings' corvette was just casually flying through space while they built their lightsabers. You'd expect them to hyperspace jump back to Coruscant. Plot convenience says I.
- Hondo must be able to cast some charm over Ahsoka for her to not kick the crap out of him. She really pulls her punches and that's her downfall.

 

One of them had a slingshot in Tipping Points. Seems pretty out of place in the SW galaxy.

 

They mentioned 'another disney connection' in the trivia for this ep. This makes it seem more like its placement in the season was intentional.

 

Jabba the Hutt's goons had melee weapons in ROTJ, and he was one of the richest beings in the galaxy.

 

You can survive a short period of time in a vacuum without ill-effects (but an unprepared person would lose consciousness after about ten seconds). Your blood won't boil as a common myth says (your blood is protected by the pressure in the blood vessels and the body temperature is well below the boiling point).

 

I think she got sucked in the extended passage of Hondo's ship, as did the Weequay pirates.

 

Overall, pretty good episode after my first viewing - final thoughts come after a second usually. I do echo the concern about Petro - because he's "attached" to his crystal, he palms it (deception), then is "rewarded" for it later on. Now, I wouldn't even mind much if it had been strongly hinted or said that he had a glimmer of thought about needing it - say, "Force-driven" thought. But it came across as guy who deceives for selfish purposes is the "savior" and selfish/deceptive behavior is laudable.

 

I'm sure you're correct, I haven't seen the episode but was only responding to the part of the vacuum.

 

Just like The Gathering, I don't have many negative things to say about this besides Hondo feeling a little off but money is all he really cares about.

I still think this arc would of been a great one off episode, probably would of let me appreciate it a little more. Now I'm just bored with these kids and I want to move on with the war. Yeah this thing called the Clone War is going on right now.

 

+Byph is as always awesome
+Hondo is so funny
+great action
+good dialogue
+DAVID

-Surviving the vaccum of space
-That rodian jedi what is her name anyway

 

Ganodi

 

They all got jetted into the extended arm of Hondo's ship. Well, except for one unlucky Weequay who got sucked through the gap between the extended passageway and the entrance to Ahsoka's ship.

 

The docking tube.....which was open to space.

 

I think Hondo is wary/fearful of Kenobi and Skywalker and so he has to watch himself a little more.

 

Unless the Weequays in the control room of the ship simply closed the exit of the docking tube?

 

I liked the episode. Fun, with a good sense of tension.

-Hondo always makes an episode more enjoyable, although I did find it weird to see him open his eyes up so far, as he's threatening our heroes. Usually his lids are pretty far closed.

-the pirates walking through the seemingly abandoned corridors of the Jedi ship reminded me of Star Trek III - The Search For Spock

-the bulky Weequay Pirate made for a nice addition to the group.

-For some reason the single moment that stuck with me the most from this episode was when the one pirate walks through the hallway filling up with gas, his arms raised above his shoulders like a boss. The music, the beautiful smoke animation and the fact the character stays completely silent until the last moment of that scene, acting only with his body language made it memorable to me.

-I really liked how Ahsoka fought off the pirates while they were being sucked down the corridor, especially the last one Ahsoka cleverly redirects with the Force to get Hondo "off her ship" (cool, well delivered one-liner!). Definitely one of my favourite Ahsoka moments out of the whole series so far.