Full Series The Clone Wars 7.06 - Deal No Deal- Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

ITS DEAL or NO DEAL

 

It's there going to be a big deal?

 

This was without a doubt my favorite episode of the season so far. I love how this episode and the last shows that Ahsoka uses Anakin as a basis whenever she has to come up with a quick lie. Rafa and Trace are really growing on me, I would even say that Ahsoka is in the wrong here. If the Republic isn't going to help it's only natural that people are going to do whatever they can to get by.

 

Lots of fun and I'm still loving the continuing little threads that tie things together and make it clear that whatever diversion we're on, we're nearing a flashpoint for all the characters and relationships. Nice to see Yularen; that whole scene had a lot of depth and cinematic value while also being a bit of a "gag". It also had the virtue of not being totally by-the-books, with a lot of little twists and turns. Very TCW with a little more underlying weight to it, in keeping with the tone of the whole season. Which is now, sadly, halfway over.

 

Loved this episode in comparison to the first one. Going to Kessel is always a treat, and the pristine court of King (Aruba?) reminded me very much of the Hutt cult that was featured in AC Crispin’s Solo trilogy. The banter between characters feels way more natural now than it ever has, and it was nice to just get a quiet episode of character development, while also getting to explore the shortcomings of the Galactic Republic, without binary load lifters destroying everything.

 

I'm really enjoying this arc so far. While both episodes have felt very setup-y, they feel nice and tight. More like the first two Bad Batch episodes than the latter two but where I like the new characters more. The dynamic between the two sisters and Ahsoka thrown in the middle of it is refreshing and doesn't really feel like a redux of something we've already seen like I think Nyx would have. Kessel was great to see, and I loved that the maelstrom looked just like it did in Solo. I'm curious, with the inclusion of both the Pykes and Kessel, if this arc will feature how the Pykes gain control of the spice mines as seen in Solo.

 

Yeah, we didn't really need a repeat of Ahsoka trying to convince Lux that working with Death Watch is a stupid idea, except dragged out over the course of an entire episode.

Very solid episode, probably 10/10-worthy. I thought the character banter was well done for the most part, the sequence with Anakin was a surprise to be sure but a welcome one, and it's great to see more of the Pykes and the underworld in general. The cinematography and environment design on Kessel was absolutely gorgeous and I wish we got to spend more than a few minutes there.

 

The interplay between Ahsoka, Trace and Rafa continues to deepen with fresh new angles. Foremost is just how much Trace's ship means to her and it's not just a material possession. For her, it represents the promise of freedom and the years of work of scrapping.and scraping to put her dream together. This is something foreign to Ahsoka, who never wanted for transport as a Jedi and indeed, grew up in a Order where personal possessions were all but forbidden. I'm not sure why Ahsoka was so contemptuous of the name Silver Angel, but this arc continues to push at the divide between the two. Ahsoka still espouses the moral principles that the Jedi are supposed to hold, but this continually clashes against the harsh reality of these working class girls' lives and their need to do what's needed to survive. Not to mention Ahsoka's own growing distrust of the Republic and the Jedi. The unexpected "encounter" with her old comrades Anakin and Yularen isn't one of joy and familiarity. They are now a hazard to be avoided. The unexpected scene manages to be both on topic and yet, a clever nod, both to the ROTJ scene above Endor and a poignant stepping stone to Siege of Lothal. It's much better than the latter scene, both because Anakin and Ahsoka's motivations are more conflicted and nuanced and there's no cartoon bug eyed scream to spoil the mood.

I do wish they'd gone back to the short hair for Anakin in that scene so that it wouldn't seem so much time had passed between TWJ and this. I was kind of hoping I could sequence the Yoda journey of self discovery after this in my head canon as its final coda has a genuine sense of finality for Yoda and the Jedi's involvement in the Clone Wars. It would have been cool to make that the penultimate arc before Siege of Mandalore. Oh well, I might do it anyway. I have a knack for turning a blind eye to cosmetic details like this.

Kessel visually shows the theme of divide by revealing that not all of Kessel's surface are dingy spice mines. There's an upper class there too, living in verdant woods and castles. This planet also digs the knife further into Ahsoka's soul as she's reminded that slavery is still present in the galaxy and the Republic is turning a blind eye. The Jedi freed the slaves of Kiros but there was Sith involvement there (and though she remained relatively non-partisan about it, the fact that it was her own people enslaved meant Ahsoka's involvement wasn't completely altruistic either.) Here on Kessel, there are no such stakes for the Jedi or Republic and the people are left to fend for their own. Though it wasn't referenced, I wonder if Ahsoka also flashed back to her very first mission with Anakin which took her to another den of slavery: Tatooine. Only they weren't going there to free the slaves. They were there to strike an alliance with the slavers. (Jabba.)

A small part of me started wondering if Rafa's motivations are more nuanced than they first appeared. She's ethically challenged but her motives appear to be sisterly love rather than mercenary. Although she talks about the people back on Coruscant she owes money to, I wonder if there's something more going on there than payoffs to thugs. Or this could be something far more toxic and a way to show Ahsoka the path not to follow. It could go either way. The advantage of a new character since we can longer have that tension about Ahsoka herself due to the order in which these stories were told. A reveal about Rafa's motivations would be a great "startling discovery" for the final episode.

Little touches in the episode also establish how remote the Jedi have become to the underworld. Trace shows no recognition of the name "Skywalker" despite that Skywalker was supposedly hailed as a Hero of the Republic. It also appears that neither Trace or Rafa recognized what they were seeing when Ahsoka pulls off the Jedi Mind Trick.

Also, this is also the longest episode yet at 27 minutes. Dare we hope that Siege of Mandalore will also have extra time alloted to it?

I was thinking 8 out of 10 initially but as I drill deeper into this, I'm leaning towards 9. This is exactly the kind of deep dive into the decay of the Jedi and Republic that I revere The Clone Wars for. Oh and yeah it stars my favorite character as the POV. So there.

 

The scene with Anakin and Ahsoka was the best. I like how Anakin is just there, watching lanes, as if he doesn't have anything better to do lol It felt a little fanservicy like it was just jammed in there, but I'm not complaining because I love everything Anakin and Ahsoka. I do wonder though if it's a forshadowing to Anakin/the republic helping out Ahsoka and the Martez sisters in some way.

 

It's easy to see why this arc was so important to Dave, aside from the Ahsoka angle. His original pitch for The Clone Wars was a band of misfit scoundrels (with "Ashla" as the young Jedi Padawan role) traveling a freighter and seeing the war through the fringes of the Republic. The famous movie characters and events would have been at most sporadic encounters. It would have been an entirely different point of view for the conflict. The view from the grassroots so to speak.

This arc feels like the truest expression of Dave's original vision here. And yes, it obviously inspired Rebels too.

 

Rafa is really getting on my last nerve. A little fish from a little pond trying to play in a big pond.

 

Wow! I really liked this episode. A lot of very humorous moments.
Nice callback to RotJ with Anakin on the Star Destroyer.
Nice to see Kessel again, spice smuggling, dumping shipments like Han alludes to in ANH.
The banter between Ahsoka, Trace, and Rafa is spot on.
Nice cliffhanger to set up the next episode!

 

I am curious is the "the King" that the Twi'lek served as majordomo is Maul.

 

Loved both of those

 

I really liked this episode, with seeing Anakin and Yularen again and him feeling his former padawan, seeing more of Kseel it's rich upper class. It reminded me of the slave arc with the Queen. You get the sense that the Republic hasen'y really done mutch about slavery unless it concerns the war or the sith. This episode reminded me mutch of Solo, And hey a Zergerrien. Makes sense with the slaves as they are the slavers. I like both sisters Rafa and Trace them with Ahsoka was great. Loved seeing the pikes again and Krim looked fancy, didn't think the leader of the pikes was weak minded, his enforcer might have picked on it. They have cool ships.

 

It must. It must take place right after season 5, because Anakin's been gone for months.

Also, we can't really blame the Republic for "Kessel." They're pretty busy. The girl in the episode is using that as an excuse for her own activities(smuggling) It's not the Republic's fault that criminals exist. The criminals bear responsibility for their own actions.

I feel like a lot of people are missing the point of the sisters' commentary on the Jedi or the Republic. It only means that Palpatine's propaganda campaign has been a success and a slow burn(which has been shown throughout the show).
"Level 1313" actually looks like a pretty decent place as far as extreme urbanization goes. People can walk around safely, with their children, and so on. They even have a nice sit-down at a nice restaurant on a lake, which in and of itself, I'm not sure what to make of. Maybe 1313 is the lowest level in that part of Coruscant. When Ashoka went on the run in season 5, the lower levels looked like the pollution zone in The Fifth Element. When Ashoka went into the bar in "Lightsaber Lost," and eavesdropped on the customers, it did much more to convey how the war might be affecting regular people than Trace's comments. It seems like she just has really no idea about the war or galactic events, but for what she hears on the holonet, and is kind of repeating the narrative that she's been given.
It would be pretty extraordinary for an average citizen to ever actually see a Jedi in person, even on Coruscant, even when no war is going on.

 

At first glance, this episode seems like more setup but its really offering some first-class world-building taking us out of the underworld, to Kessel which has two sides, and beyond on a failed drug run to see where the Republic's blind eye is turned. The war just consumes the Jedi's time and stretches them too thin. This all starts with Trace and Rafa who are as close to normal people I've ever seen in the GFFA. They would seem out of place in a high-stakes blaster fight which I'm sure we'll see later. I don't really think Rafa has any bad intentions, she is just a good person who has been forced to do less than ideal things so she and her sister can survive such as borrowing money to eat and perhaps looking for a way to live better without worry with her sisters. There clearly are few options in the Underworld. But Rafa is naive enough to think drug-running is the easy way forward to a better life. Rafa is really growing on me and I think she's got a lot more layers of complexity to her than it appears.

The sisters have been so busy taking care of themselves deep in the Underworld it has actually sheltered them from the world above them. They don't recognize it when looking at slavery and when they do all the sisters know is it should be illegal forcing Ahsoka to consider why the Republic turns a blind eye to this. I think that's why Trace doesn't recognize the "Skywalker" name (It's a good thing too because Ahsoka just isn't as good a liar as Anakin is) coupled with her just generally being oblivious, stuck in her own world of daydreams. I think this is why Rafa is so protective of her. Rafa not hiring Trace initially was also just her being realistic about her sister's dreams as a pilot. I wonder if its because Ahsoka is from the world above Trace, is really drawn to her though that may be turning into more. The way Trace has been down there building her own ship without realizing she needs a license to fly it reminds me of all the jokers who buy drones not realizing they need a drone pilot license and end up flying the drone somewhere its a bad idea which is why there are all these regulations that make it an impractical hobby now. But it's not a hobby, it means to escape and freedom. The name choice is an interesting one and seems like it has some hidden meaning. It's incredibly easy to relate to Trace. How many of us haven't looked up at the clouds or the stars and wanted to fly away from reality?

It's kind of funny. The "Silver Angel" gives the Bad Batch's ship a run for its money for the ugliest ship. I think it's a similar ship to "The Ghost" which actually manages to have a rugged beauty as does a B-24 Liberator bomber while this ship is just ugly. I take that as the excuse for why the cockpit really seems like they copied and pasted "The Ghost's" cockpit right down the pattern in the seats and just added the TCW brushed texture to it. That may be my only gripe. There is also a lot of dissidence "The Ghost" is flown by an ace pilot while this ship is being flown by somebody who has literally never piloted a ship before. It makes it look like anyone could fly one of these. I'm rooting for "Silver Angel" to survive the arc.

The scene where Trace flies into the military lane and even accidentally ends up flying in formation with the gunships is hilarious. I just knew Yularen was going to be the one to hail them and Anakin was going to be on the ship. I applaud how well the scene was done with Anakin not paying attention staring off into space until he senses who is on the ship. It also add some weight to the discussion of why the Republic doesn't do anything about the plight of the enslaved on Kessel when earlier we saw Anakin looking bored and doing nothing on his Venator. Yularen accounted for, Rex and the 501st probably on there somewhere loaded up and ready. But no one is coming to the rescue of the slaves. I think this does happen before Bad Batch. In fact, its fun to think Anakin is acting all standoffish in Cody's briefing with Rex and Mace because he's lost in thought about this moment.

Ahsoka isn't completely in the wrong to be tagging along and nagging Rafa's every decision. She knows Kessel and especially the Pikes could probably give her and Anakin trouble flying in there. Here she's tagging along with an entrepreneur who is completely over her head and seems to be actively putting her sister to danger. Nevermind the poor moral choices being made. Ahsoka just can't understand or relate to Rafa's moral miscalculations and motives. She has never had to worry about where meals were coming from or how to pay rent. She's got all the useful skills anyone would want to survive. Rafa does not. It makes for some great character interplay and some cool social dynamics. It's also interesting how Trace is slightly leaning to Ahsoka's side of the argument which will only raise tensions with her caught in the middle. Particularly now that Ahsoka is in a position she can say I told you so. I'm hoping she tosses out Rex's "Experience outranks everything line." at completely the wrong time and it boils tension over. Nice cliff hanger. Waiting for the big reveal. I think Rafa and Trace will find out soon enough they got a fallen angel onboard. They may not know what a Jedi mind trick is but I'm sure the Pikes figured that out.

I can't not talk about the animation, did you see all the forest cover down there in the nice part of Kessel? Absolutely stunning animation. I wonder if the king isn't going to be Maul. Now for the long wait for the next episode. I think this one will get a 10 from me. It's the best episode since "A Distant Echo" which only didn't get a ten from me for an animation issue.

 

Things that struck me in this episode :

• The years haven't been kind on Yularen.
• The "Skywalker Academy" drew a chuckle out of me.
  
• Wasn't expecting to see Anakin, nice nod to RotJ.
• The weak-minded Pike boss who's got mind-tricked clearly should switch responsibilities with his subordinate.
  
• I was surprised at Ahsoka's sarcastic "Sure they would" when Rafa talks about how the Republic would shut Kessel down if they knew about the slaves. I expected Ahsoka to question the Republic's institutions now because it was logical, but I wasn't expecting her to express it that clearly. This gives me hope that there will be a very interesting confrontation between her and Kenobi when they reunite, with Obi-wan trying to defend the Council's decisions and Ahsoka FINALLY speaking her mind about them, and not holding back.
• Ahsoka'll probably have to come clean about where she comes from in the next episode. Should be interesting to watch the sisters reactions.

 

I was wondering the same thing. Hopefully we get an explanation soon. My guesses are that it'll either be that this arc takes place before Bad Batch or that it'll be twisted into "Anakin was only there to pick up some troops and then head back to the Outer Rim but he isn't really back on Coruscant".