Full Series The Clone Wars: Episode 417: The Box Discussion Thread

Nah. They probably did that because he's more "known" to the audience, and even Dooku's "Bane doesn't need an introduction" statement.

IG: heh, I was thinking about Portal as well.

 

Pretty entertaining action, especially with Obi-Wan reminding us that the Jedi are not helpless without lightsabers or overt force powers.

But I have to admit, the point of the box, in universe, confuses me so thoroughly I am not even sure how to articulate it. I mean, I used to villains being unnecessarily harsh (I mean, why not just hire all of them?), but this takes it to an extra level: I couldn't even see what they were testing for in most cases...I just can't see this coming up in a kidnapping at a public festival. Not to mention that Dooka and Eval were so upset at people passing...what were they going to do if everyone died? Use droids...actually, why not just use commando and/or manga droids. This sounds like the kind of job that requires military professionalism rather than sticking a bunch of random strangers together just because they are individually skilled.

I also cannot help but feel that ray shields are becoming star wars for "a wizard did it".

 

There really wasn't any tension at all in this episode. The action was so incredibly unrealistic, especially during that one challenge with the moving lightsaber platforms. A person in real life would get killed in five seconds trying to time their jumps right. Real life doesn't play like Super Mario 64.

Yup, I was really on the edge of my seat expecting him to miss those sniper shots and fall to his death in a burning chamber of death. By God, I did NOT expect that one douchebag who said "Let me show you real sniping skills" to fall to his death.

 

Bite your tongue! We Obi-Wan fans have been waiting half a season for some decent Obi-Wan episodes, and when we first got them, he was getting his @** kicked (though I do realize some of that was "buying time").

Though I would like to see more Kit and Luminara, too, perhaps working with Obi-Wan but not overshadowed by him. Kind of double-Jedi teamwork, like Quinn and Obi-Wan in an earlier episode.

~~

(Addressed to no one in particular Funny how we heard so many complaints about Obi-Wan's incompetence before this and now that he's been competent, there's already complaints. We're finally seeing Obi-Wan's strengths: tactics and brains, though he sure pummeled the heck out of Eval - he seemed to be letting out his inner Sith.

I do admit I'm glad Dooku didn't put him in charge, that would have been too much "fan service" as the episode actually played out.

I, too, wonder if Dooku suspects anything is up with "Rako Hardeen." Between his competency AND teamwork he seems to be wary of him.

There was a certain something lacking in all those tests. That might be a limitation of the 22 minutes, maybe not, I'm not really sure. This one is probably not going to be rewatched as often as some (but then there's some that never get a rewatch, so there).

Yoda and Anakin - well, that was rather anti-climactic. Anakin may have been steamed, but he held it back AND he (seemed) to listen to Yoda rather than rushing off to "save" Obi-Wan. Next episode - well, who knows - maybe dear old Palps will request him as a bodyguard.

You know, I rather like the possibilities of that.

 

Connecting to my original post, I liked seeing what Obi-Wan did in this episode, but the idea of him outsmarting/outdoing everyone, and making the bounty hunters look like lost confused idiots, was just overwhelming. It felt out of place, and I wish Obi-Wan would act like this with other Jedi, than having to show off what he could do with Non Force trained (possibly non sensitive, too) bounty hunters. The whole Box idea would have worked well if they actually would've challenged them more, especially going into the whole kidnapping Palpatine mission. Not "evade random box with laser beams attached to their sides and find the portal to go onto the next mission." or "Find the box pattern and get to level 2!!!1" (I saw these "box missions" as a video game mostly)

Stealth, perhaps, shooting courses, or something that would actually help them with their mission. Not an acrobatic and let's-see-who-can-randomly-jump-high contest. The Box idea had potential, but the whole premise of Obi-Wan acting highly advanced over the others just felt repetitive to the point that you know he might just figure out of the rest of the Box missions and he did just that.

 

Using Obi-Wan was the right move, a new character or a minor character would have made the arc completely pointless.

 

I agree, but the overall execution with him in this episode just fell flat.

 

The ending's a bit of a mess. What was Eval trying to accomplish by killing "Hardeen" when he already has a team of 5 people narrowed down? Is Dooku impressed by this stupidity?

 

Weakest of the arc so far but still a pretty darn good episode. It was a filler episode but a good and enjoyable filler episode. During the challenges I found myself more involved because I wanted to see who the other two besides Embo, Obi-Wan and Bane were going to be. I knew Toad was gonna be one of them because of the design but I was stumped on the other one. Kiera's death IMO was the best because of how random it was. Sixtat falling into the fire after failing the third shot was nice too. I did like the nod of respect between Embo and Bane at the beginning of the episode though, nice little touch only we would notice.

Bane and Rako's...well Obi-Wan's relationship is very intriguing because it seems like Bane is really starting to respect him even going to the extent of saving his life, which I saw coming but was expected nonetheless pretty cool. I thought Bane was just going to toss him another sniper though.

Oh and of course Bane killing the guy over a hat. Just awesome. Besides arguably Rex, Bane is definitely TCW's best invented charater.

8/10

 

That was an entirely unneeded episode. I'm ok with the idea behind it, but the execution was, well, crap.

Hardeen didn't have to save them EVERY SINGLE TIME. Once or twice (out of 4) ok, but he literally did everything, and all the other survivors did was keep up. They should have had one of the other guys figure out to go underneath the gas, and floaty mushroom head convince everyone on himself. And there was no point whatsoever to Moral/Hardeen fight at the end - they should have at least had Hardeen kill him so they could have some regret later.

Basically, fail episode in what's been an epic 4 parter. Just not needed at all.

 

Decent episode that seemed to go by so quickly.

- Liked the short interaction between Anakin and Yoda.

- Dooku definitely suspects something.

- Rako and Bane are turning into good frenemies.

- Though I'm not a huge fan of Bane, he had some good lines in this one.

- I was hoping Kiera Swan would've made it through. I have a growing soft spot for Weequays.

- For someone who doesn't like flying or blasters, Obi-Wan is certainly good at doing or using both.

- Part of me wanted Rako to just finish Eval off. Even if it happened because he ended up getting wrapped up in everything and things got out of hand. It's not like Eval was innocent or anything. But maybe it was the fact that the Jedi wanted him alive or something. It's not like Eval is needed anymore either. All he was there for was to make the box, right?

Not a particularly exciting episode, but it was a good 22 minutes spent. I'm anxiously waiting for the end of the arc.

 

Anyone see how Sinrich died?

 

According to the trivia in the Episode Guide, Sinrich is killed not the The Box, but by none other than Embo - though it is barely visible in the background.

 

Doesn't it only say that it looks like Embo is going to "pound him senseless"(or something like that?) I don't think Embo killed him.

 

Considering how each of the 4 rooms was set up, being left in there senseless for even a few seconds pretty much equals death sentence IMO.

 

Maybe I'm taking out my frustration with having been sick since Monday on this episode but this was a middling episode to me. Much weaker than other 3rd part episodes like "Legacy of Terror" and "Plan of Dissent" in four part arcs. The later I was also sick when I watched and totally enjoyed. I didn't get any sense of suspense or tension out of it. I was confused by why the bounty hunters would want to try out for the mission with their lives. I was also confused by what the box itself was accomplishing and what it had to do with the mission at hand. I didn't feel anything for any of the new bounty hunters. I also got bored with Hardeen playing the defacto leader and getting everyone through each of the challenges. Maybe the challenges were meant to find the five that worked best in a team? The fight at the end between Hardeen and Eval also didn't impress me. I get Eval is a crazy 3rd person talking dumbass but it was a terrible move for him to try to engage in a man to man fight. He can barely walk. But it was still fun to watch the obstacle courses be negotiated and take bets on who was going to die. Embo and Bane were great in this episode. I was surprised Bane saved Hardeen, surprised Dooku didn't kill Eval, and liked that Dooku seems to suspect something is up with Hardeen. I kinda think he's figured it out. That smirk when he was watching the video screen was interesting. This episode does have a little replay value too since I didn't notice Embo killed Sinrich. I'll have to go back and look. Can't wait to see this little super sentai team of bounty hunters try to kidnap the Chancellor.

 

I think the obstacles might have worked better (for me) if it were the bounty hunters against each other, not against the box itself.

Imagine TPM's pod racing with everyone trying to knock everyone else out of the running (knowingly or not sending them to their deaths)...and you have no idea how weird that sounds to me considering how much I HATE the over-long pod racing sequence in TPM.

"Team" against "team" with backstabbing encouraged...maybe.

Now, if rather than the "follow the leader" aspect of this episode, if each bounty hunter had to/did have to eliminate another in order to survive, not just move on to the next level of the "game" - yeah, it would be a much better episode.

"Stalking and hunting" each other in some weird appearing locale...kill or be killed, that's the ticket to improving this "competition."

Execution: poor. Potential: wasted.

 

It's pretty dumb how every time Hardeen gets mentioned they don't talk about how he killed Obi-Wan Kenobi. Isn't he galaxy-wide famous at this point?

this is a video game.

What is the point of a test which would kill all of them except the one who might be lucky enough to try the serum and live?


What a waste. Terrible episode. I knew it was going to be a filler but it was boring even so.

Real letdown from the last two . So basically, they could have just arrived on Seranno and Dooku could have said that they're joining Embo and the other guy and we wouldn't have missed anything.

 

100% agreed.

To me, this episode had very little suspense- you knew all of the major bounty hunters (Obi-Wan, Bane, Embo) would survive, and most if not all of the rest would die. The fact that none of the bounty hunters tried to kill each other (that we could see clearly) was an unwelcome surprise and it made this episode a lot duller than I thought it would be. Still, better than some episodes from this season *cough cough*

At least there was no hologram Dooku this time

 

Well I liked it a lot more than most here. Thought the design of the cube was cool. I also think it makes sense that Obi-Wan would be the one to lead them out of most of them because as a jedi he's had more experience of getting out of deathtraps! Yeah you knew Obi-Wan, Bane and Embo would make it but I was curious to see who else would. Like I really wanted the acrobatic one to survive for the next episode.

 

Have to disagree. The concept of The Box was idiotic and had nothing to do with showing talent to kidnap the Chancellor, except arguably the lightsabers platform thing.

Hardeen punching out Eval was idiotic as well. Why does Dooku need him? Doesn't seem to in this episode, especially at the end when Dooku says they're working for Bane.

The more I think about it, the more this episode angers me.

 

I liked this episode, alot. Best arc so far. Can't wait for the finale.

 

One of the best arcs, indeed.

I just rewatched it again, and if more of the competition had been like that of "Hardeen" vs. Eval, it'd have been better. That was really the best part of The Box, although perhaps too much for most of 22 minutes unless they'd varied it some.

 

That was crap. Absolutely sod all happened.

- Hardeen saving the day every time, at the expense of everyone else, was dumb.
- Maybe Hardeen should lead the mission...oh wait Cad Bane saved him, Bane will now lead the mission. I'm assuming this is the reason because there wasn't any other logical reason to do so. That was the only significant thing he did.
- I'm surprised Dooku can't see from his actions that Hardeen has been trained in the Force. That would naturally arouse suspicion even if they didn't already suspect him of being Obi Wan.
- Obi Wan needed to finish off Eval to sell his act. If red lights weren't already going off, they will be now in Dooku's head.
- Challenges were weak. Just like Portal. What were they supposed to test that was of any relevance to the kidnapping plot? It really just felt like a video game. And that's why stuff like this needs to stay inside games. The only thing that really got tested was the groups ability to co-operate successfully to solve puzzles. And in the end, Hardeen designated himself team leader and did everything for them anyway.
- Instead of doing nothing except following Hardeen's lead, the other bounty hunters should have been trying to eliminate each other more. Why? Because they know that only five will be on the winning team, regardless of how many make it out alive. The more that survive, the higher the chance of each one getting killed off at the end. Eliminating the competition inside the Box will increase their chances of actually getting through to the next episode, so long as their personal survival skills are sufficient.
- The only time this could have backfired was the ray shield challenge, but I got the clear impression that was only instigated because of how easymode the previous challenges were and to knock Hardeen down for basically doing everything.
- Complete lack of tension because we already knew from the previews that Bane, Embo and Hardeen (obviously; we also know this from ROTS and the rest of the saga) would make it out. New characters weren't established enough for me to give a crap about them.
- The Yoda scene was the only thing that was actually central to the plot and it was just sandwiched in randomly. There was no reason it couldn't have been in one of the other episodes. Therefore, it was a waste of time.

Complete filler. What a disappointment. But then we can just skip it with no consequences so it could be worse.

 

My only complaint with this episode would be that none of the bounty hunters would have survived the tests if Obi-Wan hadn?t been there. The second test was just crazy difficult.

Besides that, this episode was great. Cad Bane saving Obi-Wan might be one of the best moments of the series.