Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 214: Duchess of Mandalore Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

This was easily the most interesting political plot in TCW. Parallels abound considering the USA occupying places in the middle east for harboring dangerous fringe groups. The fact US intelligence worked with Al Quaida in the 80's makes the parallel that much creepier. It doesn't strike me as preachy, but realistic. War begets war. Nobody wants foreign police.

 

did anyone manage to grab a screenshot of Mon Mothma?

What did we say about NO SPOILER FOR FUTURE EPISODES HERE. - Gry

 

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/JoZ/MonMothma2.jpg]

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/JoZ/MonMothma1.jpg]

 

I really need to get HD...I thought Mon Mothma in the hallway was the senator with the turban again!

 

This was arguably my favorite episode and the Mandalore series is easily my favorite arc. I really hope that this quality of writing keeps up. A couple of points:

- Very political. As aforementioned, the dialogue certainly echoes real world politics. Some of the dialogue struck a historical chord, too, as far as Satine's distrust of Coruscant's authority and the Republic's desires to force its will over a sovereign member of itself; reminds me of the states vs. federal government argument of the American Civil War era. I'm surprised they did this to this extent because, with the target demographic being children, I would think it'd fly right over their heads. Maybe I'm being an ageist and children know more than I think they do these days, haha.

- Love the use of Coruscant. More please! So many beautiful shots and locales.

- Nice to see the shock troopers of the Homeworld Security. I wish they'd get rid of the idea of the Republic using droids as sentries on Coruscant.

- Mon Mothma!

- Finally some real, tangible use of Palpatine in his dual role of controlling both sides of the war. This was only hinted at earlier in the series (Padme got those coordinates from Palpatine and it led her right into Grievous' ship) and we finally get to see him in a more in depth role. I also like how Mas Amadda was used.

 

EDIT - No discussing elements from future episodes here. - Gry

 

EDIT - No discussing elements from future episodes here. - Gry

 

EDIT - No discussing elements from future episodes. - Gry

 

EDIT - No discussing elements from future episodes. - Gry

 

This. As much as I love Natalie Portman, Padme doesn't have a very active role in the PT IMO. In TCW she seems very capable and a hero in her own right. It was one of the first things I loved about TCW Movie.

 

I like how this one could be subtitled "Official smile of impending rebellion"

I'm not sure what people want the character to do if she's not supposed to talk in the senate...I'd have thought it much weirder if she didn't show up in the senate scenes.

 

Well, I don't have a problem with Padme in the Senate, and in fact I agree she needs to be shown as a Senator, not just bait or Anakin's wife. Her role was sadly reduced in RoTS to "hero's love" (granted, she was pregnant and not the main character, but she was sadly reduced).

However, I think what some posters mean is that there's little given context on why Padme suddenly has Satine's back. Certainly you may infer why (some have already in this thread). I can see her agreeing with Satine on the political repercussions, I can see her helping one of her friend's friends - but when she shoots her pod out to support Satine - there's little given reason as to why SHE would be the Senator to do so.

Eh, I can live with that. There's many things in TCW that we have to infer, due to time considerations or just lack of foresight, I don't know.

I do think sometimes there is a bit too much familiarity between characters in settings they should be more formal: Mas Amadda calling "Satine" by her given name in the Chancellor's office, Satine referencing Padme by her given name to Obi-Wan ("your friend" prefixing that would make it better at the cost of only two additional words) - there are formal settings and there are informal settings just as there are different degrees of friendship and/or acquaintanceship between characters.

 

I liked this episode, what with Satine on the run from the authorities and Obi-Wan trying to find out what's going on. That Mandalorian hunter is cool, quite a fight between him and Obi-Wan! And as someone pointed out, good to see Padme getting to use her skills in the Senate.

Some have mentioned about how long it seemed to take the Madalorian to shoot. I think one of the main reasons for this is that he was firing between buildings, and the winds on Coruscant with those huge buildings funneling the air down the streets must really be something, quite gusty at times. This could make a shot very tricky indeed, requiring very careful aim and time for estimating the compensation for the wind.

 

That's pretty much become standard operating procedure for the first three or for minutes of every episode!

 

That did play out as odd, didn't it? I guess it was just a matter of convenience to the storyline at that point,
but along with guards who can't guard and assassins who can't hit their mark, it starts to wear thin.

 

Hmm, after watching this again, I'm not quite convinced that Almec is not part of Death Watch.

The scout delivers the information directly to him, exact coordinates and all. The administration had already confirmed that Death Watch was stationed on Concordia. Obi-Wan's incident further solidifies the proof that they are there.

What does Almec do? Nothing. Later in the episode, it is revealed that a Pro Kalevalan official, Jerec, is giving a speech to the Kalevalans concerning the Death Watch. Then, he is killed in a bombing attack.

I think that Almec is working with Death Watch to cover up their location. There is undeniable proof that the Death Watch are in the system, which would have made them an entirely viable military target for Republic forces. But this information is never relayed to the Republic, conveniently leaving a pacifist government alone to deal with a massive terrorist network.

Death Watch might not have been able to incite rebellion, but if they had someone like Almec on the inside of Satine's government covering up their tracks, they can avoid being tracked by the Republic.

 

For the record, despite this discussion trend is now dead, part of an AAT was shown in the preview and it looked like the back of a Firespray. Sorry about that. :/

 

I don't know, I thought the scout thing really drove home the stakes in a clear way. Agree that the chase business was a bit sloppy.

 

Yeah, no agreement there. If you read my post you would know why.

 

Kamino was part of the Jedi Archives until it was erased right? Dex knew about it too. It wasn't exactly that secret before Dooku got to it.

 

I loved the episode.

Satine and Obi-Wan's relationship is much more functional than Anakin and Padme's, but Obi-Wan still gets pretty mad when she's threatened - you can see why Jedi avoid attachment!

Cosuscant looked better than ever and the use of old McQuarrie paintings is one of the best things in the series - really reinforcing that feel of a familiar universe without always returning to the same locations.

The thermal detonator sounded just like the ones in Dark Forces!

 

Still kind of squiffy, especially with Jocasta having never heard of it, though I suppose she wouldn't know every Jedi, even an ancient one who'd been around for so long.

It's not a continuity error, just a stretch. But this isn't the thread for that discussion.

Back to the topic at hand, wrt the scout at the beginning, I think the scene was actually necessary for us to know a) the Mandalorian government had become aware of the size of Death Watch - remember they thought it was just a band of hooligans, and even Satine and Obi only saw about a dozen at most and b) it shows that the Mandalorians weren't just sitting around waiting for Death Watch to strike.

Also, I think the reason the scout reported in person was because they really don't know who to trust. Anyone could be a Death Watch sympathizer. Open comm channels would give away that they had found the main Death Watch encampment. So the scout reported back in person to the Governor.

However, the Governor's neck looked even longer. What was up with that?