Kristin Baver is a journalist who loved science fiction before she could even write her own name. (Seriously, she was a card-carrying member of the Star Wars Fan Club when she had no other real reason to own a wallet.) Now she gets paid to pen stories and book reviews, interview fellow fans, writers, and other interesting people, and aspires to one day craft a Boushh disguise and join the ranks of the 501st Legion.







To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and the all-new episodes coming thanks to #CloneWarsSaved, we’re undertaking a full chronological rewatch of the five original seasons, The Lost Missions, and the theatrical release. We’d be honored if you would join us and share your thoughts on the award-winning series.

52: “Hunt for Ziro” (Season Three, Episode 9)

“Love comes in all shapes and sizes.”

Synopsis:

Cad Bane has broken Ziro the Hutt out of prison, but the Hutt Council has tossed him into a new cell while seeking vital information: a hidden journal detailing the criminal activities of the Hutt crime families. With the help of Sy Snootles, his estranged lover, Ziro makes another daring escape and is on the run again in no time.

Analysis:

This is one of those delightfully weird forays that not only completely works for the series but is at once new and unmistakably Star Wars.

The two odd couples at the heart of this installment cast the Hutts and the Jedi in a fresh light.

First there’s Quinlan Vos, who in teaming up with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Nal Hutta proves to be a rather unconventional Jedi foil to the rule-abiding and patient master of Anakin Skywalker. Vos is a maverick, renowned for his skills as an expert tracker with a keen sense for reading objects for clues to their past interactions. He’s brash and bold, and clearly doesn’t spend his days at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. He flouts the basics of peacekeeping by busting down the door of Ziro’s mother’s hut without so much as an apology.

Quinlan’s very existence is a challenge to the rigid and buttoned-up ways of the Jedi Council, and his freewheeling tendencies suggest that it’s possible to be a powerful Jedi without falling into line with the rest of the masters.

In that same vein, Ziro is clearly not playing by the agreed upon rules of the Hutt crime family, opting to slither to the beat of his own drum. He keeps a secret diary of family dirt as protection, vowing to spill the secrets to the Republic if he should be harmed. He sponges off his dear ol’ mother. And after breaking her heart once before, he’s reunited with Sy Snootles when she offers him a way out of the latest cage to hold him.

The lithe, long-lipped Pa’lowick first appeared as a singer in Jabba the Hutt’s palace in Return of the Jedi, but animators pulled out all the stops to bring her showstopping nightclub number to life with a chorus of dancers wearing Hutt headdresses. And somehow it just gets weirder from there.

There’s a strange sweetness to the romance between “Snooty” and Ziro, who claims to love him from the bottom of her fluid sac. And perhaps she really does. But there’s no fury quite like a woman scorned and no better way to track a target than to have Ziro lead her right to her quarry.

In perhaps her greatest performance yet, Snooty shows the patience of a Jedi to covertly serve as a bounty hunter, and a ruthless one at that.

Intel:

The dance number was inspired by the opening sequence in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a story credited to Star Wars creator George Lucas.

What did you think of the episode? Tell us in the comments below and share on social with #CloneWarsRewatch!

Next up: Come back in two weeks on July 11 when Ahsoka gains new perspective on the war in “Heroes on Both Sides.”

Associate Editor Kristin Baver is a writer and all-around sci-fi nerd who always has just one more question in an inexhaustible list of curiosities. Sometimes she blurts out “It’s a trap!” even when it’s not. Want to talk more about The Clone Wars? Hop on Twitter and tell @KristinBaver what you thought about today’s episode.

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