Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 412: Slaves of the Republic Discussion Thread

My opinion aswell. A great episode. RotJ nod included.

 

Yep. He's back to being the background clone.. so much more that could be doing with him..

 

WOW! What a great rebound from the previous episode! Everything was handled to perfection!

?Love Ahsoka?s outfit. Far better than the comic version. I sense a new action figure in the Force?err Hasbro lineup.
[image=http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l485/clonewarspics/ahsokaslave2.jpg]
?Visuals, graphics, action sequences?all superb.
?Ahsoka and Anakin trying to do impromptu master/slave acting was hilarious.
?Anakin?s fury is far more convincing than the previous episode. His choking of the Queen caught me off guard.
?The homage to ROTJ was well done; and I really like the changeup with heroes failing to succeed. Nicely done!
?Slave shock collars! LOL!
?Favorite moment: Ahsoka nearly sending that slaver over the edge to his death! LOL!
?Finally, the Queen is a great character and well acted. She is without remorse and actually is quite convincing in her arguments. As appalling as her point of view is?it?s hard not to at least understand how she has that perspective.

(In watching this episode, I made sure to remove any preconceived notions from the comic and just watch the episode for what it is/was. It was very entertaining and makes me wonder if I may have been too harsh on the previous episode.)

One month until the finale. Too cruel!

 

This was a pretty good episode, better than last week's.
- Really unclear on what their plan was. Why did Anakin need to "distract" the queen? Is she personally keeping watch duty on the slaves? And what was Obi-Wan's part in the plan, just find the several thousand togruta and fly them off planet on his lizard? And how did rescuing that one togruta leader in broad daylight helped anything? That whole thing was the only real downside to this episode.
- Great looking episode. That city looked so vibrant and expansive. The costumes were rich, and Ahsoka looked particularly gorgeous in her slave outfit, I have to say.
- I LOVED that the heroes failed constantly. First Obi-Wan in his botched lizard escape, then the whole arena debacle. It was really surprising, and adds so much more interest to the story to see the heroes in actual peril and difficulty. So different from the previous episode. And man, does Obi-Wan take a beating in these episodes. Poor guy, I think now we know why he looks 30 years older than he should in Ep4.
- I wouldn't have minded the ROTJ reference if they'd just toned it down a notch. When they left their sabers with R2, the reference was obvious, but perfectly acceptable. And if it turned out to be just that R2 suddenly decided to throw them their sabers, it would be quite all right. The problem was the direct aping of the anticipation of that moment, the exchanged glanced (as if any of them had planned any of that), the musical cue, the small salute. They just went a bit too far. That said, it's not a reference that really bothered me all that much, or ruined the scene, it just could have been handled better.
- So we end with one of the biggest cliffhangers in the series yet, and we have to wait, what, 5 weeks? Sheesh....

 

I only caught half the episode and the only thing I feel like saying about is: didn't like Ahsoka being the calm Buddha and using the Force on the slaver, but I did like that she paid for her 'I'm cooler than you' attitude.

And the other Togrutas still look weird..

 

PS. Considering the way in which Ahsoka is imprisoned, for her this literally ends on a cliffhanger!

 

Zing!

 

Now that's what I call Secrets Revealed!

 

Unfortunately I think Rex is going to stay badass background character now with the brutal way the slavery issue is being handled. Short of Pong Krell clones have probably never been treated this way. So Rex isn't likely to see similarities now. Still he does look very angry in his punch out scene.

I watched this a second time and thought Obi-wan's plan is still unbelievably stupid but the episode is just very entertaining. I hope the rest of season 4 keeps up with this quality.

 

Judging by the comments, I seem to be one of the very few that disliked this episode...

Pros:
-Lizards were awesome
-Dialogue wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. They really dodged a bullet there.
-Their disguises looked kinda badass
-Anakin was on a pwn-rage with that whip!
-Queen was characterized extremely well
-Monkey-lizard fight was cool

Cons:
-Blonde girl was replaced with a lime Twi'lek? That is kinda lame....
-Ahsoka not noticing that the Queen could easily shock her with that collar on. One would think she would have noticed that....
-I was probably not paying attenttion....but....what happended to R2?
-Rex got his ass kicked pretty badly here....

To be honest, despite having less flaws than the last episode.....I just didn't dig this episode.
The rating this episode deserves, 8/10.
^but yeah, it wasn't my taste so I don't see rewatch value here. Probably cuz I distaste watching "human stars".

 

Was about to post what Gry said about the plot. It didn't make sense whatsoever. Is there some reason they wouldn't launch an invasion?

Even if they're trying to see how it works, why woul Obi-Wan blow the entire plan to save one guy?

 

I think the idea was that he only saw one Togruta so he saved him hoping he would be able to help find the others. That part mostly makes sense. The part that I didn't think made much sense was Anakin distracting the Queen. Distract her from what? The Queen isn't usually the one that personally does stuff, although this one's definitely smarter than your average TCW villain.

 

Wow... that was actually a pretty tense episode (as tense as it could be, w/o really fearing for any of the main characters).

The suicide scene, and the dropping of the slaves, really darkened this one. The last one, more so. But it was a masterful (and brutal) way of getting both Obi-Wan and Rex's attention. Both of the guys looked really beaten at the end (and it was almost sad how Rex glances towards Obi-Wan, like he's hoping for some trick up the Jedi's sleeve).

The queen's speech about the Jedi being slaves to the Republic was excellent - she's actually right about many of her points, even though she's clearly on the wrong side of almost every other issue. Loved her discussions with Anakin, as well. A very interesting character - a good call for a villain.

A fight the Jedi don't win... really didn't expect that. Good call, though; considering that we know they'll come out on top in the end, making them work for it is fine by me. I really thought Anakin was going to pull some stunt and crush the slavers in one blow, but he went down too.

The Jedi's plan... fuzzy, at best. I'm guessing Obi-Wan thought that the Togruta governor could tell them where the rest of the slaves were, so that they could call in a larger extraction force. Would have been nice to say so.

Rex - awesome fight scenes. Wasn't crazy about him leaving Obi-Wan, but he clearly didn't have a choice at that point. Loved his subtle expressions towards Anakin before they attacked. I'm still hoping we get something besides fists from him in the next episode, but he's at least getting a chance to shine alongside the big shots.

Ahsoka did pretty well here - her 'acting' wasn't the best, but she's never been great at that (her reaction to Anakin's flirting was priceless). She seemed mature, still a bit brash, and kept her cool most of the time. I didn't mind her outfit so much.... until the last scene with her sitting cross-legged in the cage... eh, that wasn't all that much better that Princess Leia's getup. At least they kept the camera "up" most of the time. Her reaction to being shocked was much more realistic than in, say, 'Cargo of Doom."

I honestly saw very little innuendo in this episode. In fact, there was so little it felt almost forced. Not that I wanted anything suggestive , but I find it really hard to believe that one slaver looked at Ahsoka as merely a "little scug" to serve him drinks.

Great visuals - facial expression, injuries, all very detailed and realistic. I just watched the TCW movie recently (well, parts of it), and man, they've come a long way.

I honestly didn't see the RoTJ nod as that. It just felt very Star Wars to me, and I honestly didn't think of RoTJ until I started reading this thread.

Probably a 7/10 from me. I'm interested in the conclusion, but not enough where the cliffhanger is going to bug me too much. Still don't see why they structured it this way - they could have bumped one of the one-offs from earlier in the season after the break, and fit the whole arc in here. Whatever.

 

These eps are better than usual TCW but too bad they are not new or fresh but story is a reused one .....

This obvious recycling of ideas weakens this otherwise nice story. Original story was also filled with stereotypes so now remade EU-story feels like story that is rehashed not only once, but almost twice.... well SW has always been filled with stereotypes....
8/10 It was entertaining

+Queen was pretty much as i thought...
+Ahsoka has better outfit now
+Atmosphere feels bit bigger in these episodes than in usual TCW- we need more big battles with as many b1s as in previous episode

-Re-used story and re-used animation models.... muuns, neimoidians, moogans, twi'leks, gamorreans and even weequays kinda make sense there but exactly same models (again) are painfully obvious
-Stop torturing Obi-Wan he has been through a lot of violence lately so much that he shouldn't be so fit anymore- feels unbelievable even for a jedi...
-Zygerria was too much like ancient Babylon and felt bit unoriginal really....
-That one scene with exhausted Twi'lek slave was disgustingly stereotypic and episode didn't need it- same with one more suicide from the balcony ..... for kid's show this one has a lot of suicides....and more than enough Twi'leks...

Original was human? That is so lame they ruined that ... humanslave would've been better....

Suicides, backstabbings and weequay pirates are the most common elements of this show.... when they do combine these and make weequay to backstab himself to death?

 

Nice episode. Not great, but nice.

Something interesting: In the comic, Ashoka is the one who volunteered to be a slave, with Anakin repeatedly warning her how awful it is to be a slave, even if it is just pretending. He actually gives a great speech on the subject, though I understand that it was probably too long for air time.
Also that Ashoka makes a crack about being used to calling him Anakin master, and him replying "That's not funny."


Also, I am kind of torn on the final battle scene. I actually really like seeing the electrowhips in action, especially Anakin using one with his lightsaber. On the other hand, in the comic the Zygarians had to use rocket launchers to subdue Rex, to say nothing of the jedi, which has a lot badass points.

Edit: I would like to point out that Obi-Wan's plan was even more stupid in the comic. At least his lizard could fly here.


Is there some reason they wouldn't launch an invasion?
In the comic at least there is a big CIS fleet around the planet. And given the number of turbolasers on the processing plant's platform I think they have their own defenses as well.
Presumably the planet is too tough a nut to crack with the republic spread out so much...especially as they don't even know if the slaves are being held on planet.

 

Here comes the rambling.

Sweet monkey knife fight.

lol, why is the Queen of Zygerrians a white lady?

I don't usually mention the "visual art", but I liked all the stuff in the background. The Hutt, the flying lizards, all that stuff. Really pulled me in.

Sweet suicide.

Is this arc an Obi-Wan torture fic? Jeez.

Was the nodding heads scene a tribute to ROTJ or Family Guy's It's a Trap! ? It went on for like 5 minutes.

I like that this show has established that Anakin can take a beating. It took quite a bit to take him down.

The Force choke was fun, and now we know Anakin won't hesitate to choke a *****.

The Queen's...."seduction" of Anakin was very well done. It's like a mix of dominatrix and the Emperor's trolling of Luke in ROTJ.

I enjoyed the casual killing of slaves.

The Queen's "offer" at the end was actually classic villainy. She gave him two options, both involving personal sacrifices by our hero. It's basically a win-win for her. Of course, the hero will choose neither option, instead he'll save everyone or die trying.

By the same token, the slavemaster's way of keeping Kenobi in line was classic Sith. Again, our hero has two options, save himself and go for the win or save innocent lives. Of course, again, he'll go for both.

 

Nice to see Boga again - ok - but I was reminded of her. And I kind of missed Obi-Wan's telling Anakin to "do it," (whip him when the Queen sent him down to the arena). That would have been a nice touch and only a line of dialogue before Anakin refused.

Boy, my man Obi looked beat - until he had his lightsaber, and then, wham, pow, boom for a short while like he hadn't been mistreated long before.

OVerall, I enjoyed it and didn't like the few head-scratch moments spoil it for me.

Anyway else think the Queen (the voice, mainly) reminded them of Satine?

 

Obi-wan must of thought the Governer was the key. I think he underestimated the resistance he faced and thought him and Rex could successfully rescue the governor. They almost got away with it two if it weren't got that Zygarrian's lucky shot. The rest of the plan just seems like it was rushed and half baked and like a gross underestimation. I guess that's the way it works in universe.

 

Yeah, lots of cool stuff going on in this episode. Very tragic how Anakin more or less had to let the girl fall to her death... he could have saved her, but then he had to blow his cover.

 

That's how I view both these episodes. It's not really a story, it's just "Here's a bunch of stuff. Enjoy".

 

I really loved how every time it seemed the Jedi were even slightly gaining control of the situation (Obi-Wan rescuing Roshti, R2 shooting out the lightsabers, Ahsoka force pushing the guy off the cliff) it always got yanked back in favor of the bad guys.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is my favorite season four episode so far.

 

Disappointed that Rex only got one line. Not even a facial reaction to anything Anakin said. Hopefully we will get to see more from him. And what is it about Obi-Wan and getting beaten up??? Either way, it was a good episode, still. Nice to see some Ahsoka action, haven't been seeing a lot of her recently.

 

It is nice to see the bad guys win for a change (however short). The whole Hondo duology never worked for me because of the scene where they switched drinks at the end. Also, Hondo was a much more gracious host. Here, the slavers are savage. It's a shame we never see Grievous doing something as brutal as sending a bunch of innocents rocketing towards their deaths. Sure, he's abandoned his own men and killed a few dozen clones. But, nothing quite as cold as what we saw last night. Since they are aligned with Dooku, I'd say this qualifies as a CIS victory episode. Too bad it is so short lived.

 

Round Two.

- Okay, not a bad start, neat intro to the Zygerrian homeworld with all the ship traffic.

- Ughh, Anakin's magnetic charm

- "Remind me why I'm the one playing the part of the slave?" Well gee Ahsoka, it would look pretty flippin' stupid if the Togruta princess you're supposed to be impersonating was played by a thirty year old human.

- Yeesh, from the amount of times Anakin goes on a rant about slavery, you'd think it would have had severe psychological effects on the guy. Oh wait.....

- And almost immediately, we see why bringing Ahsoka was a bad idea. Yeah, infiltrating the market as a slave does not mean attacking slavers.

- During the entire ensuing scene, would it have killed Anakin to use a mind trick? It would have saved us some rather bad dialogue.

- Those Zygerrian guns look like they would be difficult to hold straight or braced.

- It might just be me, but the queen looks like one of the Thalmor from Skyrim. Bloody High Elves.

- Oh lord, I don't think I can make a joke about the whole palace scene. And processing? This word seems like its gonna come up a lot.

- Okay, Monocle Hutt is badass.

- You know, these slavers are doing a pretty poor job of maintaining their stock. That governor was starving and looking half dead. If you want to sell a slave for manual labor, they need to be fit. Otherwise, it's a waste of resources keeping them alive.

- So the queen is a social darwinist. Interesting. Also, I saw a skiff.

- More processing. You know, you've shown death and torture on this show before people, you don't have to skip around it with fancy words.

- The hilarious voice acting for the Twilek sort of diminishes the suicide.

- And Obi-Wan owned twice now this arc. And that damn dangling hair is still distracting.

- Slaves of unmatched quality and quantity! Who wants the half starved political prisoners?

- Fifty thousand slaves? That city from the last episode didn't look like it could hold a thousand. And JAT is really hamming it up.

- Couldn't they at least put a shock collar on Obi Wan? Or has he suffered from forgotten force powers again?

- Dammit the yaoi slash fic writers are gonna have a field day with this episode.

- I think a line was missed somewhere. The queen first asks Anakin to whip Obi Wan, and then the next time she speaks, she's all but declaring Anakin is a Jedi too. How did she find out? Did Obi Wan talk? I feel like something is missing between her asking Anakin subtly to whip Obi Wan and then accusing him of being a phony slaver the next instant.

- Errgh, Return of the Jedi ripoff.

- "Looks like your slave empire is finished, again!" When did it go anywhere? You mean the one slave empire from twenty five thousand years ago? Again I'm amazed at how long they hold grudges on this show.

- Well, at least they were smart enough to put a shock collar on Ahsoka.

- Why don't you use the bloody force!?

- ANGRY ANAKIN SMASH!

- Yay, implications of rape on underage girls! Star Wars everybody!

- Okay, the slave camp dude is awesome. He's like Doctor Evil with all of the trapdoors. If only one of the togrutas had survived to do the Will Farrel sketch.

- "Have I been anything but honest?" well, there was the whole accusing me of being a Jedi sporadic nature thing going on. You're kinda schizophrenic queenie. One minute you're all "Oh you're such a big strong man Lars!" and the next its "ELECTROCUTE ALL THE THINGS!"


Okay, this episode was better than the last one, but I still found it a little lackluster.

 

There are many references to RoTJ in this episode. Im suprised jabba the hutt didn't make an appearence.