Week 9 - Holocron Arc, Bounty Hunters

Which brings me to Cargo of Doom. If you didn't know, this episode was produced during Season 1. In fact, it was done before "The New Padawan," meaning the entire Battle of Christophsis was done after this. It kinda shows as in this in many ways looks like a Season 1 epiosde, and it is one of the final episodes to take place entirely on ships. This also kinda explains why some things don't mesh all that well with what's come before. For instance, Yularen is strangely off here. He's pretty disrespectful and that's jarring after watching "Storm over Ryloth," which was produced after. And all of Devaron was shoved in the intro. I get the feeling that if this was done during Season 2's production, we would have seen some of this battle. However, the actual writing is what elevates this episode beyond something like "Duel of the Droids." Despite the setting, this episodes is badass and full of great moments. I get the feeling the writers knew for a while that this episode was gonna challenge the more Saturday morning-ish feeling of what came before. Ropal's death is pretty gruesome and isn't like anything we'd seen before. The Zero-G battle was also really cool. Bane is just a great villain and is far more intimidating than any we had seen before. He never feels as cartoonishly evil as Grievous or as arbitrarily unhinged as Ventress. His takedown and bargaining of Ahsoka was really cold and truly cemented him as a threat. I really wanted this season to be full of episodes like this. 8/10

Bounty Hunters is a fun episode and it was nice to see Hondo here and as an outright villain. Also, it was interesting that the bounty hunters were actually fighting alongside Jedi. I wish they didn't reveal Hondo being here before the episode aired so it would seem as though the Jedi would be defending the pirates from bounty hunters. Embo is, of course, the stand out of the hunters and it's no wonder they decided to keep him around and use him as a villain. I have a few issues though. One is the pacing. Like "Liberty on Ryloth," things just seem to happen too fast. Anakin starts training the farmers and we never actually watch the improve. In the next scene, they all just know how to fight. Pacing is a common problem for the show (I also found "Rookies" to not have good pacing when I saw it again) likely due to time constraints. Also, after we just saw the Republic lose Felucia in the last arc, it's strange they would have a medical bay there. The Separatists seem to control the planet until "Padawan Lost" so it would have made more sense to me if this episode took place before "Holocron Heist." But anyway, the episode is still really enjoyable and unique for a Clone Wars episode. Even though I wish it had a few more minutes to breathe, it's a perfectly serviceable standalone. 6/10

I heard that Anakin rebuilt Todo to try and learn more about Bane (and probably who he was working for) but Todo escaped and returned to Bane.

But it's weird how Bane had him in "Evil Plans" and "Hunt for Ziro" but randomly doesn't in Hostage Crisis.

Yeah I really like bounty hunters. It does feel like it goes too fast but I also wouldn't want it to feel stretched out if it was multiple episodes. Also Felucia looks really good. But not sure how well this lines up chronologically... I mean they were just on Felucia.. This episode could've been before the holocron arc tbh. Interesting how much time is spent there though because they come back in the Chewbacca arc and then Aayla eventually is there as well... Hmm.

Watched the Bane arc. First off, Cad really stands out as a terrific villain. He's cunning and despicable like Grievous, or Ventress but not over the top and more tactical. Thanks to being just a bounty hunter the writers have to add a tricky intelligence, which I enjoy. He's also the harbinger of the more brutal themes TCW would avidly explore later down the line. That said, Holocron Heist didn't fuly grasp me. I like the battle scenes, the mood set in Bane's place and Todo, but there's some wrong pieces here. Ahsoka, as Spider pointed out, gets a repeat in character development (seemingly forgetting what she learned previously...) and doesn't get any resolution. There's also the fact that I think they could've spared a lot more Jedi in checking the vents than just good ol' Ani and Obi. Still, fairly fun.

Cargo of Doom really takes it up a notch in terms of action scenes, but again falters with Ahsoka being blindly impulsive and not even trying some patience again. I've also always wondered how that switcheroo with Denal worked. Did he knock him out first and switch their clothes, or was he using the body as a puppet? Regardless, I had some fun, especially with how obvious the stolen Seperatist shuttle trope is turning into a running gag

Children of the Force though is the favourite for me. I know a more proper showdown with Bane would've been cool, but I still liked what we got. Jumping from tonnes of locations (this episode must hold a record for it), the awesomely creepy mind trick scene, Palpatine's messed up plan that may, or may not subtly hint towards Mara Jade starting out as one of these unique agents and the general chase theme going on. Sure, it kinda drags a bit by the end, but it's one of the best season 2 episode, now that I've seen it again.

C'mon Pinda, we're already on S5.

You could always skip around and watch the episodes you want to most.