Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 217: Bounty Hunters Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

I liked this episode except I feel like this story could have been told during a different time period. Like if they were able to do a time series like a guigon jinn and obi wan episode before episode one or one with anakin before episode two. The animation just keeps looking better and better. Obi wan doesn't look wooden anymore.

Also if you haven't seen the episode type it in to watch it in full

DO NOT post links to pirated material. This is a one-time warning. - Gry

your welcome America

Also the staff really just needs to name these "bounty hunters" mercenaries instead. Stop with this rise of the bounty hunters business seriously. It is only leading to characters being labeled the wrong way and disappoints fans who are actually looking for real bounty hunters. This season should never have been labeled that.

 

Finally watched the episode, so here go my comments before I read the previous posts on this thread.

GREAT episode. The sort of breath of fresh air that Jedi Crash was after the dismal Dooku duology. Unlike most episodes, this one started pretty weak, but slowly came into its own and turned into a real great time.

Starting with the bad: The opening was much more convoluted than I initially feared. An entire medical station disappears (something that never gets explained), and so they send a Jedi Master, the Chosen One and a Padawan to investigate, ABOARD A PUNY SHUTTLE, for all the good that will do. And so the piloting ace Anakin falls prey to a handful of Vulture droids (without vaping even a single one, it seems). And then these obviously amazingly skilled starfighters proceed to simply dive in headlong into the ground as their prey crashes. By then I was feeling pretty disheartened, almost giving up on the episode.

But then the episode actually started. Yes, it's the Seven Samurai, and I know how much I've complained in the past about all the "ripping off", but hey, this works! The Seven Samurai is part of the original fabric of Star Wars, so it's kind of a no-brainer to make a homage episode to it (with extra points for the dedicatory at the start). The village looked beautifully designed, and I was happy that they didn't refer to the crops as spice, but rather something else. I liked the new aliens, which worked as sort of a less silly version of the gungans.

And then there were bounty hunters. Bloody hell, I knew I was going to love Embo from the first time I saw that preview image, but I had no idea I would ABSOLUTELY ADORE him. Amazingly cool design, powerful stance, superb fighting skills, original equipment and speaking an alien language to boot!!! This guy simply ticks all boxes. This was the first time in this show where I actually felt a chill down my spine, sitted upright in my chair and internally screamed "NOOOOOO!!!" as I thought that blast might have actually killed my favourite phatrong.

Seripas was very good as well. A pity those leaked images had already spoiled his true nature, but I felt he was really well used. Amazing how they managed to build his little mini-arc with just a couple of brief scenes. Sugi was a very good leader, skirting the line between hero and anti-hero very well. And there was also the other one that died, not much to say about her.

Hondo was entertaining as usual, although I still hate his flying saucer, which detracted a little from the end of the episode. It felt really good to see the conversation between him and the Jedi, tying this episode to the previous ones and making the show feel like it actually has some internal continuity.

And then there's the issue of Hondo's duel with Anakin. Him managing to hold it off against this Jedi for as long as he did, can only be explained one way:
[image=http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7677/monkeylizardp.jpg]
And that's actually true. It's only through the kowakian silly antics that we can possibly believe Anakin took that long to overpower Hondo in a duel, when there really wasn't any reason for him to hold back.

Finally I was pleased with the level of brutality displayed in the battle. Lots of impalements, broken necks and blown off people. Good work!

 

Technically, it was Qui-Gon Jinn's idea before it was Anakin's; the entire tutorial campaign of Galactic Battlegrounds has Qui-Gon instructing Wookie colonists how to survive on their own and to stick it to the Trade Federation opposing the Wookie colony. Serving as military advisors is something that indeed can be sanctioned by the Jedi Council..... and why wouldn't it? The Jedi don't have the manpower to keep order in the entire galaxy by themselves, so if they can develop the growth and development of militias and defense forces that can handle basic security needs, that will allow more Jedi to be used where they're truely needed.

 

I'm so happy you have re-found your enthusiasm for this show, Gry! I too, was shocked when Embo almost got killed. He's cooler than Cad Bane, Bossk, or any other bounty hunter we've seen. The bounty hunters and Hondo are the reasons I've watched this episode 5 times now .

 

Embo will die in a fiery death and I will laugh.

 

Sorry Gry Sarth didn't realize I couldn't post the link to the episode here. It won't happen again.

 

That's all right, Executor. I just wanted to make that point clear.

 

Oh my gosh! I lov...hat...lik...um, I really don't know what to think of this episode. Some parts were sooooo amazingly awsome, and others made me fear that the show was reverting back to Season 1-ness. (Not that it was bad, but this season is so much better!)
I suppose the only way to get my thoughts across is this long list:

I liked:

-All the bounty hunters! Sugi was a great character because of her personality, Embo was pretty much the greatest bounty hunter Star Wars has ever seen, Serpias looked awsome, and the other woman whose name I don't know was eerily mysterious.

-Embo's hat. yes, I made a special place just for that. It's so versetile! It's officially my favorite hat in Star Wars, followed by K'Kruhk's, Cad Bane's, and Dave Filoni's.

-The vulture droid carrier. Pure awsomeness!

-Every scene where the farmers are learning to fight. That sequence reminded me so much of the Disney movie Mulan! There should have been a singing montage with it!

- The always hilarious monkey lizard. Need I say more?

-The escalated violence. (Not to say I'm a morbid person, but it adds more maturity.) We had spears thrown before, but there was never a close-up of the impact point, and the neck snapping, of course.

-The final scene where Hondo departs. That looked just amazing!

I didn't like:

-Felucia. They did a horrible job animating it in my opinion.

-The entire first act. That felt really off.

-They sent the Jedi shuttle on a military mission?! I could understand using it in a Jedi affair, like the stolen holocron, but wouldn't a gunship have been more effective in this instance?

-The beach ball escape method. that was the most cringe-worthy I have ever seen or heard in Star Wars. It even beats the Republic Commandos floating to the planet's surface Mary Poppins style in the Clone Wars Adventures digests! After seeing it, I felt as sick as Obi-Wan looked while he was bouncing around.

-The design of the farmers, as well as their voices.

-The voice of the sniper was waaaaaay too high.

-The scene where Ahsoka tells serpias in such a cutesy, early-morning preschooler show way, "You don't need to be big to be tough." I loved hwo he built the suit for that reason, but when Ahsoka said that I threw up a little in my mouth.

-The fact that Anakin couldn't outfight Hindo. It seems like this season they are giving anyine who has arms a melee weapon so they can have more lightsaber duels without the main villains like Ventress of Grievous. I would prefer fights with Anakin or Grievous!

Well, that's all I got. It was an alright episode. It's definately in the bottom three episodes in my book, in between Mystery of a Thousand Moons and Senate Spy.

 

we need to make a list of freakin' sweet hats now.
K'kruhk's got some competition with Embo now!

 

I didn't think the Embo hat was too much of a James Bond ripoff. Looked good to me.

Maybe Raiden more than anyone, now that I think of it.


And I actually really liked the beach ball escape method. The only thing about that which bothered me was that the vulture droid stopped firing on the shuttle until after the escape pods were well clear of the shuttle.

 

I still consider it.

Also, when Ahsoka said that "You don't have to be big to be tough," it made me laugh. Terrible advice, at least for athletics.

 

One thing I forgot to mention: I didn't like that Hondo is still a "bad guy". At the end of The Gungan General, it seemed that Kenobi's message of peace had gotten to him, and maybe in the future he would be a more "honorable" man. Unfortunately, in this episode, he is arguably less honoralbe, and there is no way to put this episode before The Gungan General because of the banter between Obi-Wan and Hondo.

If there is one thing that bothers me in this show, it is when characters never change based in events in earlier episodes. For example, Ahsoka clearly learns "when to follow orders" in Storm Over Ryloth, but in Holocron Heist, she still disobeys orders, and is surprised when she gets in trouble...again.

I just hope that in the future these characters start to have better continuity.

 

Well when is Holocron Heist in the continuity? Is it before or after Storm over Ryloth? Before it makes sense, because even though she does disobey orders in Heist, but she doesn't see any of the negative effects of disobeying an order. In fact I think the only ones that we have a definitve timeline for are Cat and Mouse, followed by Hidden Enemy, followed by the movie. Then of course there are the duologies and trilogies, but we don't know where the start of them fit in. I wouldn't be too worried about timelines until they either finish off the whole series.

 

Kualan basically sums up my thoughts, but I'll try and deliver some more specific points.

REALLY enjoyed the episode, basically.

What I took away from this episode was that it resembled Seven Samurai mixed with the Defenders of Peace episode, and it did a good (though not phenomenal) job of covering things like casualties, Jedi duties, and whatnot. It applied Season 2's 'be darker' objective, which helped give it a more realistic feel than the battle on Maridun.
Hondo was great in that he was STILL sort of a lovable rogue at first, but quickly got professional and actually started being the pirate boss. Him standing up against Anakin, even if Anakin wasn't fighting to kill, was pretty kickass, especially since his monkey lizard (with a different colour, I note) was so heavily involved in the fight.

I also LOVED the bounty hunter crew, as they were a remarkably diverse yet complex group of individuals who kick major butt. True, subtext isn't quite the same as fully exploring it, but I rather liked the little bits of character that you can infer from them. Embo is swiftly becoming THE fan favorite around here, and I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. He's got mad skillz, an awesome design and voice, and...he's voiced by Dave Filoni. XD
There's just one thing I couldn't get out of my mind, though: As soon as the pirate sees that Embo's hat could block blaster bolts, why didn't he try shooting at his lower portion? I think that there ARE a number of logical answers to that, though: He might be armoured there, he's probably skilled enough to just JUMP out of the way, the pirate was RIGHTLY terrified...yeah. Embo rocks.

And bit details that I liked: The Rancors coming out of nowhere (their hands aren't webbed, unlike the Movie's <possibly deleted scene> Rancor), the farm's look and design, and that giant mecha suit.

Only natural. Obi-Wan has chemistry with more than half the women he encounters.

EDIT:

Y'know that feeling, Gry? That's what I felt when Waxer and Boil got caught in that cannon blast. Nice to see that the crew can surprise us with these things every now and then.

 

For anybody who cares, outside the escape bubbles it reads: "CAUTION explosive extrusion".

Thinking about Anakin's duel with Hondo, it's pretty outrageous. I think the only reason I was able to swallow it is because everything else was being so entertaining.

And whoever mentioned Ahsoka's overacting outside the hut with Anakin and Obi-Wan was spot on. What was going on with her mouth?!

A few hours later. Embo... still awesome. I want my Embo icon!

And I don't think anybody mentioned this yet, but Sugi has Boba Fett's EE-3 carbine rifle, one of the coolest blasters around.

 

Ahsoka's annoyance never ends. Basically she shouldn't have been involved. Would have liked it better if it were just Obi-Wan and Anakin.

 

Aw I guess Rumi Paramita did die afterall. I really liked her design!

Four new original alien species in one episode (Embo, Rumi, the farmers and Serpias) and another 2 in the past two episodes (Trench and those new triceratops looking senators) and another 4 in episode 11 (Ione, Sinube, the younglings and Cassie) ! CW is on a role of introducing new aliens!

Also, I liked the look of those new beasts. Its nice to see a new species here and there without always seeing gizkas and eopies!

 

Is Yoda's statement about size terrible advice as well? You seem to be trying very hard to paint Ahsoka as completely stupid, but when she's essentially quoting Yoda's "Size Matters Not" I don't think you have an arguement.

 

The way Ahsoka said it, though, didn't sound right. It didn't click to me until I read it later.

 

It's a shame about Rumi's death; she was criminally (no pun intended) underused for such a coolly designed character.

 

I'll admit I'm biased because I don't like Ahsoka's character.

However, not only is it the way it's said, as GGrievous said above, but that's completely different, IMO.

Ahsoka is telling a small alien who tries to uses a mechanical suit (can't think of better term) that he doesn't have to look tough to be tough. It came across as very, very kid-ish, especially as it's a fourteen year old saying it. Yoda was telling Luke that size didn't matter to the Force.

 

Odd episode
I liked:-
The Kung Lao bounty hunter.
Hondo?s ?speak softly and drive a big tank? line.
The fact that when Hondo started laying waste to the village with the tank that it was Anakin who without a second thought went to sort it out.
I didn?t like:-
Anakin getting shot down by a vulture droid (come on).
Those crumby farmers.

Random thoughts:-
Was very surprised that Anakin didn?t let Hondo drop.
Where did the flying saucer come from?
I?m going to give the duel the benefit of the doubt, first they where fighting on a moving tank, second Hondo is a pirate captain and thus would have to be pretty handy in combat, the monkey lizard was really distracting Anakin & finally I reckon Anakin really didn?t want to hurt Hondo (hence the reason he doesn?t use a force push & the reason he rather surprisingly spares him at the end), I think Anakin has a grudging respect for Hondo?s just doing my job mentality.

 

A great episode. Embo was cool as heck; can't wait to see more of this bountyhunter crew.
Hopefully they have a couple of episodes that focus on this bountyhunter crew only in the future.

 

Yup.

 

Size matters not is a recurring lesson in every film. X-Wings vs a Death Star? Rebel Alliance vs the Galaxy Spanning Empire? The Falcon vs Star Destroyers? Snow Speeders vs AT-AT's?

Yoda was trying to teach a larger lesson there, one which encompasses the Force but isn't exclusive to it. Luke took it and used it correctly, even if some of the audience didn't, when he met the Ewok's.

It's really funny to hear about how it came across as kid-ish - as its a fourteen year old saying it. How should it have sounded? It fit Ahsoka perfectly really, she's not exactly a smooth talker.