Full Series Discuss/Regrade the Episode: S03E09: Hunt for Ziro

Episode 3.9!! Hunt for Ziro​

Everyone's After the Big Purple Hutt​

"Love comes in all shapes and sizes."​

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Cad Bane has broken Ziro the Hutt out of prison. The Hutt Council demands that Ziro tell them where he's hidden vital -- and incriminating -- information: a journal detailing the criminal activities of the Hutt families. Ziro makes another daring escape with the help of his estranged (and strange) lover, Sy Snootles. Bane is back on the Hutt's trail -- but he's not the only one. The JediObi-Wan Kenobi and Quinlan Vos need to find him too. A chase through the swamps of Nal Hutta leads the pursuers to Ziro's enormous mother, Mama the Hutt, who points them to Teth. It is here, in the secret grave of Ziro's father, that the fugitive Hutt has hidden the diary. When he retrieves it, Snooty reveals her true spots. She's a deadly woman scorned and a bounty hunter for hire!​

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http://starwars.com/explore/the-clone-wars/ep309#!/about​

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Now that you've rewatch the episode lets regrade it. Feel free to discuss as much as you like.​

 

I really like this episode. At one point I thought it was because of the previous run but I watched it again and I still loved it.

+Quinlan was a blast, and his tracking abilities were a nice addition. Nice to see someone else with a bromance-ish relationship with Obi-Wan. Shame he hasn't appeared again.
+Nal Hutta was well-depicted
+The Hutt Council was a great cast to inroduce
+Cad Bane was back in ful form with TODO 360
+Sy Snootles was used well, oddly enough
+Nice twist against Ziro
+Bane's speeder
+Cad Bane vs. Quinlan & Obi-Wan

Bizarre episode that really worked and Ziro made his exit in a well-written manner.

9/10

 

Indeed a strange episode, with a lot of interesting decisions made regarding characters as well as an eccentric storyline. Rather mixed response to some of the decisions, but in the end I admit I was pleasantly surprised.

To begin, I noticed that Tom Kane calls Quinlan Vos a "Jedi Knight" when he should be a Master (a minor gripe, and perhaps an honest mistake). It was definitely nice to see the environs of Nal Hutta, a truly swampy and unpleasant planet for humans, but home sweet home for the Hutts. Never liked Ziro, and the bluster and smugness he showed in blackmailing the Hutt Council seemed brazen and unwise. Could he really threaten to have the Council's secrets sent to the Republic if they chose to kill him? Given that the holodiary was kept hidden and only could be accessed by Ziro, I imagine the Council only kept him alive because they wanted the records themselves for safekeeping. Sy Snootles' appearance in this episode certainly threw me off the first time, and I was perturbed by the idea of a romance between her and Ziro (eh?). Though the final twist in the end where she turns on and kills Ziro for money made me like her a lot more, grating voice aside. Good riddance to that annoying old purple Hutt. And LOL at Mama the Hutt having a man's voice...

Now about Vos. His character was portrayed in a way quite different than what I had imagined from my limited exposure to him in the Republic and Jedi comics. Rather than the dark, brooding Jedi Master seemingly always engaged in some inner struggle, Vos appears light-hearted, quirky, and playful (surfer dude?) alongside Obi-Wan, who seems none too pleased to have to work with the Kiffar Jedi. To reconcile with continuity, I'm assuming this episode occurred after Vos had rejoined the Republic following his infiltration of Dooku's Dark Acolytes. In which case, his personality might be a reflection of a truly changed man, one who has unloaded himself of the burden of battling his own inner demons and skirting the Dark Side itself during his time under Dooku...so it could make sense. Nice nod to continuity with his telekinetic abilities emphasized to track Ziro. I was disappointed in his combat showing against Cad Bane, however, as he was all too easily disarmed by the bounty hunter and his droid, TODO. Not exactly how I'd envisioned one of the Republic's great Jedi heroes faring against a mere, non-Force sensitive bounty hunter, even one as deviously competent as Cad Bane.

To be fair, Obi-Wan also suffered a similar injustice to his fighting abilities when he somehow allowed Bane to grab his arm and electrocute him after disarming the bounty hunter of Vos' lightsaber. Really, neither Jedi looked good at all in their confrontation with Bane. They should have made better use of the Force to neutralize Bane's gadgets. Despite this, I enjoyed the showdown on Teth (Bane wielding a lightsaber FTW), and it reaffirmed the badass nature of Cad Bane and how he earned the rightful title of the galaxy's best bounty hunter following Jango Fett's demise.

So all in all, despite questionable decisions regarding Vos' character, and the heavy doses of Ziro the Hutt and Sy Snootles (in a romance no less), I found myself enjoying the episode more than I thought I would. Vos is a good character, and I wished he would show up more often in TCW, as opposed to a one-shot. Cad Bane is great as always, particularly his cold-blooded efficiency and fearlessness in battling the two Jedi Masters (no small feat), and escaping with both his dignity and his hat intact. So, while a mixed bag, I'd give the episode a 7.5/10.

 

This is one of my favourite episodes in the entire series. The best part for me was the Obi-Wan and Quinlan Vos vs. Cad Bane fight scene, which was epic! I just like how skilled Cad Bane was, being able to take on two Jedi and escape, and he even managed to fight Obi-Wan with a lightsaber for a brief moment, which was cool. Quinlan Vos was great in this episode, and it would've been cool to see him some more throughout the series. I wasn't a big fan of the Ziro and Sy Snootles romance, because that was just strange. Nal Hutta was cool and it was great to see Teth again. Overall it was an awesome episode, 9/10.

 

+Dead Ziro.
+Quinlan Vos.
-Bane's cliche laugh during the duel.
9/10

 

8/10
I actually like Vos characterization here better than the dark, brooding, constantly edging the dark side version from the comics.

 

While this episode has its flaws, it's finally the first truly decent episode of Season 3 since ARC Troopers. No more so-bad-it's-funny New Mando crap, no more Ahsoka the Sue, and no more fruit shopping. We have an actual, logical plot. Sure took long enough...

Speaking of the plot, it's a simple but effective one that allows for three threads to operate simultaneously―Ziro, the Jedi, and Cad Bane―and do so in a cohesive manner. Ziro leads as the proactive, while Bane and the Jedi compete as the reactive. Worked well. As this was the first appearance of Nal Hutta in the series, I'll say that the creative team did a good job in its surface depiction, though the view from space is a bit of an oddity with the inclusion of a orbiting ring instead of the planet's long-established moon, Nar Shaddaa. Not too big a deal for me, crediting it to artistic styling rather than a serious canon blow. Getting to see a full session of the Hutt Grand Council was also a bonus. Gardulla miraculously turning up alive after being eaten by the krayt dragon in Bounty Hunter was jarring and annoying, truth be told, but it's not without precedent. Hutts seem to just survive these things... I'll admit that I enjoyed the dance routine at Gardulla's palace; I like cultural depth, even if it does come in the form of strange Hutt-slave cabaret. On the other hand, that was a significant chunk of time in a series that should be fighting tooth and nail for every minute it has to tell a stronger story. Not sure a musical number was the best way to go, even if it did serve to reintroduce Sy Snootles.

I'm not really opposed to the Ziro/Sy relationship, at least in theory. Nothing against interspecies couplings, or even specifically a Hutt and a Pa'lowick, but the overly campy nature of the way they both Sy and Ziro were portrayed together and the hyper cliche-ridden dialogue was off-putting in the extreme. -1 for that. Liked the tomb of Ziro's father, though, as well as the glimpse of Hutt internment rites. I wonder, true mummification, or ritual burial wrappings? ...I did say I liked cultural stuff, didn't I? I was glad to see Ziro go, and content with Sy being the one to make it happen via double tap to the chest. The fight between Bane and the Jedi at the end was pretty enjoyable, especially Bane's rapid deployment of weapons and gadgets to combat both Obi-Wan and Quinlan at the same time.

Much of issue with this episode revolves around Quinlan himself. I appreciate the team trying to work in established characters, but when dealing with a beloved EU-born character, it would be nice if a bit more care was taken to be truer to the heart of who that character is. Having his signature psychometry was absolutely great, no doubt. Also, his character model is quite a good adaptation of his armored Jedi look from the comics. But despite their attention to detail when dealing with his clan tattoos on his face and arm, the decision to change his shoulder plate's sigil of Clan Vos from a simple five-point golden star into a random, meaningless starburst for no apparent reason is highly frustrating. That's not a minor detail, that's his family crest and it's kind of important to his character. Then we have his personality. Quinlan Vos is not a surfer bro, he's not The Dude, he's not a stoner, and going down that path for no other reason than he has long hair and braids is not only insulting to the character but it's pretty insulting in a real-world context. I don't mind that they wanted to go in a lighter and softer direction for this episode, that's just fine. Quin and Obi-Wan are old buddies from those Padawan days and showed a strong, joking relationship in the comics, so going that route has all the backing in the world. But making him the hair-flipping surfer and the Dude-esque "That's just, like, your opinion, man" guy...no thank you. His voice actor also lacked any sort of gravitas befitting Vos, and never sounded legitimately invested in the character he was playing. In total, minus 2.

Pretty good episode, and certainly quite the step up from the ones that proceeded it. If they'd only kept a little truer to who Quinlan is when they decided to use him for the series, it may have gone down as damn near perfect in my book. As it is, a solid 7 out of 10 for Hunt for Ziro.

 

I really find myself enjoying this episode in which the Ziro arc comes to a close in an well-executed manner. The visuals were really good, Quinlan Vos was a lot of fun and I really liked his portrayal and team-up with Obi-Wan, the Nal Hutta/Hutt Council scenes were all good and enjoyable (that musical scene was also a nice homage to the opening sequence of 'Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom'), Cad Bane being back again (with Todo-360 as his sidekick once more) and being his usual cool and badass self, Mama the Hutt was a pretty funny character (her referring to Cad Bane as "Chad-something" was great) and Obi-Wan & Quinlan taking on Cad Bane on Teth was a really great sequence. I also liked seeing Sy Snootles on TCW and her romance with Ziro is definitely one of the wierdest and most bizarre romances in SW history. Overall, it's a fun, albeit odd, episode and it worked surprisingly well.

8/10

 

Not a bad episode

 

This one is like a 7 for me. Its a decent episode and I liked Vos. Not surprisingly the highlight for me though was Cody's interactions with Obi-wan at the beginning which is pretty far removed from the plot. Alot of the stuff with the Huts just didn't hold my interest. Ziro was annoying as even. However his death, Cad Bane with sidekick Todo 360 and the fight at the end make up for it.

 

Hunt for Ziro is out of this world, funny in ways it didn't even intend.....
And I have no problem with Vos appearing differently to the comics, he did change a lot, and there's no definitive timeline as yet, so perhaps he was truly a Jedi again.
But seriously, I am going to watch this episode whilst drinking with my friends sometime.
6/10