Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 220: Death Trap Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

-The Jedi Fortune Cookie "Who my father was matters less than my memory of him." is great, but Boba's father is never really addressed in this episode. I wish he would have used his father's helmet as the explosive device the first time around. It seems like an afterthought to use it in Episode 21 now, because the mini explosive in the first episode didn't work. If the Clone youth bridage had carried backpacks similar to TPM's Anakin, he could have snuck the helmet in.
It would have made for a more exciting episode if the following had happened:
Boba plants the helmet on the ground near the door inside of Mace's quarter. That way, when Mace steps into his quarter, as the lights go on, he would accidentally kick the helmet over, it would activate the bomb and the last thing he'd see the millisecond before his death would be Jango's helmet. Also, instead of having Anakin send a Clone for Mace, have it be Anakin. Anakin could be the one to force pull Mace out at the last second. The whole scene from the moment Mace kicks over the helmet in front of his feet would be played out in slow-motion. Even the quarter's lights would just start to activate themselves, flickering in slow-motion, causing the screen go dark a couple of times as the whole thing plays out. The bomb goes off, both are wounded and unconscious and put on the medical bay under heavy guard. Boba finds out about it, knowing he can't infiltrate the medical bay, he ask Aurra for instructions on how to procede. She orders him to the generator complex to sabotage the door mechanisms on the medical bay, preventing anyone from getting out and then proceed to blow up the navigation like in the episode, causing the ship to steer off course towards the planet. He escapes with the other Clone cadets in an escape pod and gets picked up by Slave 1. They then fly to the crash site to finish the job.

-It felt like too much of this episode's time was wasted with unnecessary dialogue and pointless moments. I believe this episode would have been more exciting had it cut much of the Boba sneaking about moments short and ended the episode with Anakin and Mace landing at the crash site.

-That one Clone cadet turning to the cadet behind him pointing out "There's the Jedi Cruiser." which must have been in everyone's visual sight for ten minutes was incredibly stupid and pointless.

-The Clone youth brigade going all "Oh! Look!" when encountering the adult infantry Clone Troopers was weird. Especially the undecided smile of that one clone youth was creepy. And then that moment when they all get excited about serving alongside two Jedi Knights felt off. It was the voice acting.

-Admiral Killian was a cool strict character. "Oh no, you're done. You only get one chance."
and "I know that look" were great lines.

-Really liked Boba's theme, or rather music cue.

-Aurra:"Boba, is that you?"
Boba: "It is."

-Boba accidentally running into Mace Windu was a GREAT idea.

-Dee Bradley Baker Clone youth's "THIS (pause) doesn't look like a drill." Weird.

-Crasher's "No time for chatter." sounded like "No time for cheddar."

-It was unnecessary for Boba to verbally respond "Survived?" upon hearing the Clone informing Crasher.

-Not killing the clone cadets by leaving the hatch open took a bit away from the drama. Sure, there was still a chance they wouldn't be found in time, but it still took away the impact from this scene. That "child theme" that followed was really powerful and would have been even more so if the scene was more drastic. They wouldn't even have had to show anything. Just air blowing out of the slightly open hatch would have gotten it across.
But I see why this couldn't have been done. It would have made for the darkest scene in the series thus far.

 

Not just the darkest, but one of the most powerful. It would have been a character-defining moment for Boba. The moment he gave up his principle of not killing innocents (or allowing them to be killed by inaction). As it is he still gives up his principles, but the scene has no power because we don't see any consequence to it. It's like an Order 66 montage in which all the Jedi survive.

But it's understandable. They needed to keep the children alive for the story to work. Because they need to be there to report to Mace about Boba and move the plot forward, right?

Right?

 

I agree with Gry. This arc is intended to set up Fett's character. If he had made sure the clones were dead, not only would it be a defining moment for Boba, but it would also allow the young bounty hunter to show how he is maturing in the next couple episodes. His first act of killing the cadets would let him then move onto being the badass bounty hunter we all know and love, getting crueler and more efficient in every one of his scenes.

 

I think it's like Dave Filoni said, everybody has a backstory...even Boba Fett. While he would not have hesitated to kill the clone children when he was an adult, I think how Jango raised Boba still has a great pull on his decision making and that's why he didn't kill them. It shows us that he still has a long way to go charecter development wise before he gets to the ruthless, no emotion killer we come to know him as.

I felt, while a little boring...it was a good set up episode for the season finale. I'm very excited for the finale, because when Filoni directed episodes of "Avatar: The Last Airbender" on Nickelodeon...they were usually my favorite episodes. So I've no doubt Filoni will deliver a spectacular season finale.

 

Avatar fan huh? Yes those season finales were always epic

 

But the scene actually tries to portray Boba as turning into a ruthless killer. Aurra says she is going to kill the cadets, and Boba doesn't say a word against it. He's agreeing with the slaughter. Only the show is afraid to go there, so Aurra does nothing and just leaves, making the whole drama completely empty. Boba actually asks Aurra if she can't just let the kids go, to which she shakes her head and says that they are living witnesses. She even says she's going to jettison them into the unknown. But in the end, what does she do? Exactly what Boba said in the first place: she lets them go. Tell me how that's not a screwed up scene.

 

Agree with you on the "rewatchable" factor. I gave up watching the episodes a second time after Voyage of Temptation, whereas in Season One I watched all the episodes twice (even the Jar Jar ones), which compared to the lack of excitement the writers seem to have for the material in the back half of season two, seems to shine now.

I'll probably watch Death Trap again online, if only for the third act, but I basically, like most of the last several episodes, didn't find all that much going on to justify a second viewing.

Sad to hear about your view of season three, but totally udnerstand. I probably won't give up, but I may not try as hard to watch them live on TV and maybe catch them on line or when they come out on DVD or something. If it wasn't for coming to this forum and discussing with all of you guys I probably would have done so already.

Oh, and the whole Boba keeps disapearing was kind of lame, but watching it it didn't bother me too much since the ship was under attack and he, I guess, could have just gotten lost and sepearated during the chaos??

EDIT: Gry, Boba not killing the cloens was fine. I actually liked it, since he did grow up with them on Kamino and we don't really know how Jango felt about them. Besides without them, there is no Boba since the whole cloning Jango is the reason he exists. "You arent my brother" was a good line to address this. Besides, this is his first time out as a bounty hutner/assassin, so there is still room to grow and maybe next week he could take that dark turn you are talking about. Don't forget, this is just the first of his episodes.

It's kind of like the Mace thing, where I'm willing to give the writers the benefit of the doubt that while Anakin and Mace are working together now at some point Ananki will do something to lose Mace's trust as seen in ROTS. In fact, because Mace and Anakin are working together now it may make it stronger when Anankin does lose his trust, so maybe Boba's darker killing nature emerging will be strogner when that comes out now that we have seen him struggling a bit with the clones.

 

Yeah this was terrible.

Why not just have Boba sneak into an escape pod a few seconds before the other cadets and that way they don't even have to have the awkward scene?

Thinking about it, it's like they were going for the same feel as Cloak of Darkness with this episode, but didn't really hit it.

 

I was under the impression that Aurra was trying to appease Boba while still teaching Boba an "important lesson."


Hence, why she doesn't want to let them go, but then decides it would be more poetic to "let them go" adrift into space. She probably didn't expect them to get found. As one particular Jedi might tell her: "Your over-confidence is your weakness," at least that is my best guess.

The ending really is the ONLY thing that kinda bugs me but the rest of the episode is really great, IMHO! And greatly makes up for it. Aurra's decision was likely a last minute rewrite that the development felt they needed to do though they wanted otherwise. It works well enough for me considering everything else the episode offers.

 

But the problem is, Boba did decide to kill the cadets. Aurra says they can't be kept alive and that she's going to jettison them into the unknown and Boba agrees to that, by stepping out of the pod and saying nothing. Aurra tells him to do it and he does it. The only problem is that the cadets don't end up jettisoned into the unknown, the Slave I just peacefully dettaches and leaves them to be rescued by the search parties nearby. Again, it's sorta like Vader agreeing to kill all the Jedi in the temple, but then somehow forgetting to actually kill them.

 

Garth, I'm probably not even part of this discussion but since your post immediatly followed mine and points directly at things I portrayed as positive about the episode, I have to ask why?

Why would you be seeming to take issue with me enjoying the episode just because you didn't?

Was this my favorite epsiode? No, but I still did enjoy it. I'm in no way saying that you have to like it, but it seems like your pointing at some of the reason I gave for liking it and saying that they just are not good enough.

Being that enjoyment of the show is completely objective that seems like an odd approach to me.

 

I was also disappointed by the Aurra/Boba/cadets scene. It would have been so much more effective if, after Boba pushed the button and it had that mournful music playing, it showed the three young soldiers' motionless corpses drifting off into space.

Also, I wasn't too keen on the interior design of either the blockade runner lookalike or the "Endurance." They were too much like the Tantive IV from ANH and the Death Star, respectively. It would have been better if they echoed those designs, but not copy them outright.

All that said, I do think that it was a good introduction of Boba Fett, as he isn't totally hardened yet, or calling the shots with the other bounty hunters.

 

Well, as I posted in my original review I had big problems with that scene too and it was the only low point for me of the episode (I was even okay with Boba sneaking away because i was engrossed by the "what's going to happen next" factor.

But, yeah, the scene was sloppy - but the idea of Boba not killing the cadets was okay by me is what I'm trying to say.

 

Wait, the blockade runner design... was that on the Star Destroyer or on the clone cadet transport shuttle. If the cadet transport... fine. If the star destroyer... noooo way!

It was a good intro for Boba and tied into where we last saw him and didn't need any "how did he get to this point" backstory.

I wonder if they changed the ending so the clone kids lived. Something didn't seem right with it... kind of like with the Captain saying he needs to go down with his ship for no clear reason.

 

I'm thinking they got carried away with the writing and forgot they were doing a show on a mainly children's network, so they had to find some way to have the cadets stay alive.

Maybe Boba meant by "let them go," that he wanted to take them with him and drop them off somewhere??? That's one of the things that went through my head.

 

Yeah, it was a general comment, no offence meant. I've been super-busy with work the last few weeks and my posts haven't always been coherent.

What I meant was, many of the positive comments were about seeing Aurra or Mace or Boba Fett, and what I was trying to get at is, yes that is cool, but we could have seen the same cool characters in a more interesting episode and then it would have been even cooler.

You could have some awesome characters and if the plot/writing/music/whatever isn't there, it's going to fall flat. Case in point: Dooku Captured.

 

I didn't mind Aurra not killing the clones. Rather she just wants to make it look like they killed the clones so Boba wouldn't be so attached and compassionate later on, I mean, she is his mentor and all so even if she didn't kill 'em, she'd want him to think they were leaving them to their fate. Which, you know, they did kinda do - their fate just happened to be to get spotted and rescued.

I could picture Boba doing something similar in later years. Letting someone go who doesn't need to die. Then someone asks what happened and, without taking off his helmet, he says in a flat tone "I killed them all. It was not funny."

But, you know, think about it. If Boba Fett killed EVERY witness, he might be the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, but he wouldn't really have that #1 rep he develops. People see Fett coming, they drop their blasters, gun belts, knives, frags, vibro-pikes, thermal detonators, slugthrowers, ammo, bombs and blaster power packs, say "kark this" and slowly shuffle towards the nearest emergency exit.

 

I thought it was too bad they didn't use the interior design of the Republic Cruiser from the Ep 1 Incredible Cross Sections.
I know this was a frigate and therefore might have a completely different interior but I still would have liked to see something different from the Tantive IV hallways.

 

Maybe he could just leave a calling card on top of the piles of dead bodies he leaves behind. "You just got pwn'd. XOXO, Boba Fett."

 

Pretty good episode. I enjoyed this reintroduction to Boba, getting to see his plan for revenge on Mace and a look at some of the younger clones. It does feel like part of a larger story, but for once that didn't really bother me as much. It actually felt like its own plot to me and I liked getting into Boba's head a little bit.

I was ready to sing Daniel's praises for making one of the young clones sound so much like a younger grown clone. Then I realized about halfway through that Jax was voiced by Dee. Otherwise, I thought Daniel did an all right job, but there were a few iffy moments.

Good to have Ponds back. I liked Kilian, too. I hope he survives the Endurance's crash, though from the previews looks like he does.

I liked that gunnery sergeant's design, but he's kind of harsh with the kids, throwing in discouragement for every miss. Kind of funny, actually.

Good callback to "Rookies" with the soldier calling Boba a "shiny".

I did grin a bit when Mace was checking to see if the cannon fodder clone was still alive after that explosion. Apparently, he doesn't watch the show. Good to see a Jedi caring about life, though.

The moment where Boba has the clone at gunpoint is one of the more interesting of the episode. It must be odd to have a man with your father's face say he's your brother. Makes you wonder what was running through Boba's head, there.

I thought that that controversial final scene had some great elements. For one thing, Slave I! Great to see that. I loved that silhouette shot of Aurra and Bossk after the door opens. And the music as Slave I detaches is just haunting. Yeah, it would have been more effective if they'd blown up the pod, but I thought it worked all the same.

To be fair, he only does it twice and the second time the sergeant apparently noticed since he yelled at him to stay with the group.

Another clone who got a hold of his comm?

2 times

Or... you could wait until starwars.com puts it up. Then you'll get it closer to the commentary and episode guide.

If you make the polling field wide enough, every episode would get a vote. Even "Senate Spy".

Yeah, I was a little bothered by that latter example. It would've made more sense if the trooper had intercepted Mace down the hall rather than right at the door. That way, Mace could still hear the explosion and run ba

 

But they are jettisoned into the unknown. They're in a pod with no power, little life support, apparently no provisions, and seeing as this is space, likely little chance of being discovered, at least from Aurra's POV. As far as they know, they've condemned those kids to death.

 

From Aurra's POV there's a decent chance they'll be rescued. They can't be too far from the crashing Venator, it's just a pod with puny engines and no hiperdrive. Of course, with so many escape pods launched, there wwould inevitably soon be a bunch of rescue ships flying about to gather them all up. Ships with sensors and other stuff specifically designed to find pods. Plus she knows Mace is still alive and around, someone who can use the Force to locate the cadets. So with all that, even though the cadets could die out there, Aurra would know that there's a fair chance that they would be rescued. And since she didn't want to leave any witnesses, she could easily have done something about it. Or maybe she has the same mentality of that Death Star officer who wants to save every laser bolt he possibly can. Times of crisis, you know.

 

I think that there is an in universe reason why the clone in the reactor was so quick to give Boba his gun.

Remember, these clone cadets have been in live fire exercises from the biological age of four, according to Republic Commando. So, they know how to operate a weapon with some degree of skill. The trooper was probably aware of this, and thought nothing of it.

 

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!

We have a winner!

Seriously, I didn't even think of that! But yeah, now that you mention it. It's one thing that these kids are being trained from birth to be stormtroopers, but I'd forgotten just HOW intense said training was. Yeah, they had live-fire exercises, they had some of their own get terminated for "aberrations," they had "the sickener."

One thing I always wondered was how, okay, the ARC troopers were trained by Fett, the commandos were trained by 100 of Fett's handpicked mercs, and the regular troopers were trained by...who? I mean, we see the clone youth brigade training under Sergeant Crasher. But well, who trained Crasher's generation? They were the first after all.

 

It's not just how intense their training is, but you must also factor in the growth acceleration. These cadets look about 12, which make them really about 6 years old. They'll probably be joining the fighting ranks when they look about 17-18, which would be in only 2 to 3 years. These clone cadets could very well be some of the fighting grown-up clones we see in Episode 3! There's no reason why that trooper wouldn't trust Boba with a blaster.

This gave me an idea: Wouldn't it be cool if towards the 4th or 5th season of the show we had an episode where Jax or one of the other cadets ran into Boba Fett again? Boba would still be very much the same child-early teenager, but Jax would be a fully-developed man with a score to settle. Young Fett vs. Clone Trooper with a grudge. Could be very interesting. If they did this I could almost forgive them for not having Aurra kill the cadets in the pod.