Hello everyone and welcome to another double edition of Clone Wars catchup with episodes 16 and 17 of season 2. Starting with episode 16, I only discovered after watching that this was a prequal to an episode in season one, which in itself was a prequal to the Clone Wars movie. Not knowing this beforehand didn’t really detract from my enjoyment, but knowing afterwards did clear up my slight wondering as to why Ashoka wasn’t even mentioned.

The villain of the episode was the Separatist general Trench, and the design really was unique. I don’t know if he was an original character created especially for this but I really liked the creativity and uniqueness of his design. Reminiscent of Mr. Waternoose from Monsters Inc, who would have thought you could have a Star Wars humanoid who was basically half tarantula. Dee Bradley Baker did a great job with the voice too to make the character more distinct. His relationship with the droids was different to Grevious and you really got the feeling that he was a veteran before they even confirmed it.

This episode really worked to show off Anakin’s piloting ability. It’s been done before so this time they included the novelty of a space ship that can turn invisible! What I liked was that the invisible plane wasn’t able to just fly in and win the battle. The villain actually got to show off his intelligence and earn a small win for himself by rendering the invisibility pretty pointless. It wasthen actually his homing missiles that solved the first problem that led to his downfall and apparent death. That’s got to annoy him if he’s still alive.

The next episode saw Obi Wan, Ashoka and Anakin crash land onto a farming planet of Felucia which was full of shell-less turtle aliens. It was a nice bright world which let the art team get creative. It also let us see things that we are not likely to see in the films such as those huge circular monsters seen near the start of the episode. Obi Wan’s and Anakin’s bickering continues to amuse me and I just wish that their relationship was more like this in the films.

We got the return of the charismatic pirate captain Hondu and it was great to see him back. For a show that relies so heavily on pre-established characters that we already know the fates of, it is always nice to see them introduce some recurring original characters like this one. Plus it makes a nice change from just having a “villain of the week” or a film villain we know is safe. I also like how he has a peculiar respect for Obi Wan. He would kill him but I do think a part of him does genuinely like him.

The episode included a few bounty hunters, and for once they weren’t fighting the Jedi, but instead fought alongside them. The designs were interesting and I preferred that they kept a sense of honour for the entirety of the episode. It was put to the test when the pirate offered them more money and I half expected them to turn. It was the right choice as it made bounty hunters as a whole a bit more layered and not always outlaws who just work for the highest bidder: they had a code and stuck to it. Will we see them again? Who knows, I’ll just have to keep watching to find out.

DD Rating: (16) 6.75/10 (17) 7.25/10