Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 222: Lethal Trackdown Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

But then how would Wat Tambor escape in time in order to be killed in ROTS?

 

Boba isn't just a normal kid though. Sure if you take a normal kid with a normal upbringing and he is suddenly thrust into this world of bounty hunters and told to pull the trigger he would have serious hesitations. Boba however is not a normal kid. I always thought Jango was raising him to be his successor, to be a better bounty hunter than he was and that his training would start at an early age. Children are shaped by experiences and I assumed even for Boba in Ep.2 he had already been trained not to hesitate, and basically raised in a way where his loyalty was only to his father and he had no emotions or compassion for anyone else. The way they laugh about supposedly killing Obi-Wan led me to believe that Jango raised Boba to treat sentient beings as simply "big game" in a way and that if it came down to it he wouldn't have any hesitation taking a life even though he is only a kid.

I really just wanted more of an edge or more of a glimpse of his future. You have scenes of Anakin showing Darkness, scenes of Ahsoka being brash and aggressive, I was hoping for atleast one scene or series of events where Aurra finally broke through and got Boba to do something that would have a lasting impact and influence his development into the Boba we see in the movies.

 

Ah, just Boba and Bossk then.

 

So, to recap, Plo decides to run off into a situation that could be highly dangerous with a Padawan that isn't even his, and everyone's totally cool with that?

There's nowt wrong with that. If Anakin had been going he'd have taken her, but he's still recovering. So Plo's taking care of Ahsoka as substitute teacher, and he's going on a mission, so he's taking her as well.



This made me laugh completely: From the episode guide: "Notable: First series visit into the Coruscant underworld; season finale"
Really, now? It should be: "Notable: First series visit into some random Coruscant tunnel; season finale"
I guess those scenes in Lightsaber Lost and other episodes like Duchess of Mandalore weren't the underworld.

Previous 'underworld' scenes were just the underworld in the sense of being lower levels and the dodgy part of town. In this episode you see the underworld which is literally underneath everything else.


The ending also was stupid. Bossk and Boba both getting captured? How is that feasible or plausible at all considering we know they both escape somehow by the time of ESB.

If they wanted to have Aurra crash and have a bit of a cliffhanger as to whether she lives or dies then the others have to be left a bit high and dry because they don't have a ship to escape in, unless they take one from Hondo, but then they also have to escape from the Jedi.

And Boba may have been caught but considering his age he can't really be sent to prison so it may not be difficult for him to escape from wherever they do put him.

 

There's a big difference between hesitating to shoot a guy with a price on his head (or someone hoping to collect a price on your head or otherwise apprehend you) and hesitating to shoot a guy with barely any connection whatsoever to the guy you're after. Persumably Jango taught Boba this important distinction prior to AOTC; indeed, Hondo remembered Jango Fett to be a honorable person and not a psychopathic killer like Aurra Sing. If I remember my EU right, none of the Fetts were ever treated in the psychopathic light that Aurra was.

To be fair, the Boba we see in the movies is someone who has a vested interest in keeping a fugitive alive (if only to collect more money) and doesn't inflict collateral damage as a means to an end. The movies never imply that Boba would disintegrate "innocent" lives on a whim like Darth Vader and Aurra Sing would.

 

I think the upcoming "prison break" episode will be more along the lines of a mass prison break: Starts off with Boba and Bossk, ends up with a couple dozen villains, most of which we've already seen how they get caught/locked up/arrested.

If you think we don't see enough of Dooku and Ventress right now, wait till THAT episode rears it's ugly head.

 

If we know they will escape, then it makes it plausible or feasible.

 

Thoughts as I go:

- pretty good animation on the Aurra/Killian close-up

- good conversation between Anakin and Mace

- people were complaining about not sending the coordinates, but that's not how Star Wars has worked in the past. Anakin and Obi-Wan could each tell where the other was in AOTC based on where the transmission was coming from. The coordinates would be part of the transmission.

- why take Ahsoka at all? Oh, right.

- hah, nice shot of Ponds floating away.

- I'm thinking maybe they wouldn't visit the Underworld in a Jedi-marked ship.

- well, that 1 minute(?) shot of Plo & Ahsoka getting off their ship onto a skiff was pretty pointless, although it looked nice.

- "not mine, I take it?" ha ha ha ha

- did Castus say "I can't reach Jabba"? Hard to hear right.

- not even Castus would try to sell out Aurra 10 feet away from her.

- Quarren with the robo eye? Haven't we seen him in Lightsaber Lost?

- the part with Ahsoka force-listening was pretty badass. Good end result to the standoff too.

- Okay, Bossk sounds exactly like the clones. EXACTLY. LIKE. THE CLONES.

- lolz, at first I thought Ahsoka cut off Aurra's topknot.

- wait. WAIT. DID I JUST SEE A JEDI USE FORCE PULL TO STOP SOMEONE FROM RUNNING AWAY? Nah, didn't think so.

- not sure "you're going to have to" was the greatest line they could have ended that with. "I don't blame you" might have worked better.

Well, that was by far the best episode of the Boba trilogy. Didn't really feel like a season-ending episode to me though.

Couldn't help but think maybe they could have condensed it into a two-parter. Also really wasn't much action for 3 episodes in a row.

 

Now that he is away from Aurra, whether permanently or temporarily, you may see that edge you long for start to come out more. He will realize how she used him, i am sure, and not be happy about it.

But, the series isn't over yet. They may get to it if they don't get all caught up in Ahsokah and her visions. I, personally, would have been disappointed to see so much of a glimpse in to hwat we know will be Boba's future right off the bat.

I will say, though, that if they don't keep doing character development with him, then I will be very unhappy, indeed.

Your points remind me of really my only major complaint about the show, and that it is, in essence, a kids show, placed on the Cartoon Network. That automatically causes some frustrations for many of the adult fans, and it puts lots of limits on it right from the get-go. I think the Clone wars would have been awesome as a live action series, or even a much much darker animated series, not hampered by Cartoon Network. They could explore so much more territory then they are permitted with a different venue.

 

There is no way they could do the Clone Wars live-action.

I don't really get what the point of the Boba trilogy was. Boba wanted revenge against Mace Windu.

O rly? Thanks for that.

This might have even worked if they had switched around the Boba arc and the Geonosis arc, although Brain Invaders probably doesn't work as a finale either (although I like it).

Just compared to the Ryloth trilogy, this failed in every possible way.

 

I agree with this view. There is absolutely nothing anywhere to indicate that Boba, or even Jango, had so much deepdown evil in them such as Vader and Sing. I always thought Jango taught Boba a more complex honor code system than most would probably believe, and the way we saw him here worked perfectly for me.

 

The Ryloth trillogy was not the season finale last year, though it should have been. I think it had more of a season finale air to it then hostage Crisis.

 

I enjoyed this episode alot, this series is definitely become more and more "not for kids".

Aurra Sing rocked, though I'll be really upset if they killed her off like that. I highly doubt she died though, she's seen in the season 3 trailer.
Animation was top notch.

Pros:
-Auura Sing- she was just badass in general
-Coruscant Underworld scenes
-New alien bartender and the club itself was really cool
-New alien minor background character that was nautolan, not another pre-existing character model
Coruscant taxi
-The entire Plo/Aurra/Ashoka/Boba scene, very well done
-Aurra/Hondo's adult flirting, though how can a small human child be his? Aurra isnt even human herself. I guess he was just joking around with her.
-Castus' death
-Aurra slapping and beating on the Admiral
-Anakin's and Windu's new clothes
- Florrum's new dogs
-Florrum's "new" updated look

Cons:
-Bossk- he did the square root of nothing in all three episodes, and his voice choice was terrible. Why make him sound identical to the clones with a tiny little hiss?
-Aurra's "death"- i really sincerely hope this is not the case.
-Windu's last words- very un-jedi like. I really, really, really have started to hate mace over the course of the CW series. This series just makes me have no remorse for him in ep 3 when he Anakin kills him, the guy's a d word.
-Using pre-existing character models at every scene again.
- No mention of Aurra Sing being force sensitive/ex jedi, perhaps in season 3...

Overall, awesome episode! One of my favorites of the entire season!

Also, I'm a huge fan of Dini...but I hate when the commentaries for episodes are always very light in nature and almost always poking fun or joking around at the characters or episodes. IMO, it takes away from the seriousness of the show and gives off the impression the producers look at the series in a very comical way, rather than respecting the fact that it's a a serious story. (Watch commentaries Bioware does on TOR and compare it to the commentaries for the CW series, its like night and day). There's no depth in the CW commentaries whatsoever. Does anyone else agree? Comments like "R2 is like lassie, good dog, good boy" rather than discussing the bounty hunters, Vanquor's new look, the making of realistic-looking crash site, etc.

 

The online CW commentaries have no depth because there simply isn't room for that sort of thing on the OS. Persumably, the season DVD sets are packed with more behind-the-scenes details.

 

-Aurra/Hondo's adult flirting, though how can a small human child be his? Aurra isnt even human herself. I guess he was just joking around with her.


He was just joking - a way of asking who the kid was, like 'he's not mine, so who is he and why's he with you?'

 

Oh, I agree that Anakin probably would have taken her. However, he doesn't seem to care that his Padawan is being taken away from him on a highly dangerous mission. Isn't he supposed to be showing attachment issues? You would think that he might have some sort of protest, but there was nothing.

 

I agree with that, too. This episode did a lot of strange things that didn't work. It's interesting that people praise those "Underworld" scenes, when it's not the Underworld we've seen before. Not to mention the guide says it's the first time we've seen the Underworld, which apparently isn't. The underworld is not below some random tunnel in Coruscant, it's actually ground level, below buildings.

 

Just a small useless but funny tidbit I noticed, when Aurra sing kicks the weequay pirates off the speeder- the third weequay is a female (the one she grabs by the face and tosses)- as she throws her (you can fully see breasts), they used a male voice for the weequay. I laughed when I re watched that part.

 

Whenever I hear the words 'mysterious awesome badass' used as high praise for a character we should be developing, I do this:
"Okay, let's figure out what Boba's thinking as he has to possibly kill-"
"He shoots the guy."
It's not that mysterious awesome badasses aren't outright cool, but it just sends me the message that we're fine with such an integral character being nothing more than 'Captain Cardboard Personality With Lots of Cool Weapons.' Boba is SUPPOSED to get character development and revelations because he's functioning as the guy whose head we get into, not some intimidating mysterious villain like Cad Bane.

Also, RE: Hondo's honour...yeah, it certainly seems weird, but we're piecing together more stuff as we go along. Namely...
-Go for the least effort for the most profit
-Honour your associates and friends the best way you know how (Hondo is a little wary yet nostalgic around Aurra, yet treats Boba like his favourite nephew, and in a sense, he 'warns/advises' Anakin and Obi-Wan to stay out of his business)
-"Son, if one hostage is good, then two are better, and three? Well, that's just good business!"
-Never take Republic credits.
-No harm having a sense of style
-No harm having a sense of humour

 

So every square inch of the Coruscanti Underworld has to be exactly the same way?

Well maybe that tunnel went all the way down to ground level. Even if it technically doesn't, I don't find such an anal detail something worth complaining about.

 

Maybe he's glad to be taking a rest from teaching. He could be planning to pay Padme a visit while everyone thinks he's recuperating.

 

Well, the comment on the coordinates being "part of the package" is valid, but then why did Aurra kill Castas when he was going to give the information away?

Also, why did she tell Hondo not to go to the crash site and deny that it was her doing? She's covering things up that really don't need to be covered up.

 

The Aurra/Hondo conversation was idiotic (oh, yeah, this Cruiser crashed and we totally checked it out, but we had nothing to do with it" "o rly"

The transmission sent by Boba/Aurra to the Jedi would have coordinates attached; Bob Costas' message to the Rodian on Coruscant would only show he was calling from Hondo's hideout, which probably didn't mean much.

I know Hostage Crisis was obviously the season finale last season, but I was purposely comparing the Ryloth trilogy to the Boba trilogy.

Whilst the Ryloth trilogy really showed different aspects of a planetary invasion, had plenty of action and had our main characters, and really further the CLONE WARS, I feel the Boba trilogy did nothing important.

Aurra is a badass, we know. Boba wants revenge, we know. Mace is unsympathetic, we know. Plus, if you think about it, there's not really much in terms of cool action in the last 3 episodes.

With respect to Mace's last line, I figure it would have been perfect if he said "you'll have to, or it will consume you". Instead of just "you'll have to."

So what do we get? Rise of the Bounty Hunters? Not really, this was a revenge move by Boba. Sidious? Nope. Dooku? Nah. Grievous? Ventress? Bueller? Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Obi-Wan? No. Yoda? No. Anakin? I guess he did appear in the last 3 episodes. Mace? Yeah, he did do some talking. Padme? Nope.


If this is the way the show is heading, it's clear they'd rather focus on a single-episode anthology type series.

 

One of the things in this episode is that Boba is very much not in control-- as much as Aura tries to say different. He's serving someone's agenda, and knows it. For him it's emotional, raw emotion; for the others it all about the credits. i think that sort of burns him in a way that make him what he is later in life: A man out for himself, to the devil with the rest of the galaxy.