Join the Serial Wordsmith every Monday as he recaps and reviews the new season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars
And welcome back dear readers. This week we rejoin our young Jedi-in-training as they return from their successful trip to Ilum. With crystals for their lightsabers, Ahsoka's escorting them back to Coruscant. Yoda decided to finish his vacation, I guess, because he's not here. Instead the younglings are introduced to Prof. Huyang, the droid onboard who'll teach them to build their lightsabers. Wait, this droid's voice is familiar. Holy Shit! It's David Tennant!
And not only is David Tennant here, but that Harry Potter comparison I made last week was rather apt since he's basically playing a robot version of Mr. Ollivander. Seriously, they even do that "looking through lots f drawers for the right piece" bit from Sorcerer's Stone. But Tennant's a good actor and I'm glad he's here. So Prof. Tennant gets the younglings working on their lightsabers when we cut to outside their ship. Where a curiously familiar flying saucer approaches...
More after the break,
Yes dear readers, Hondo Ohnoka has returned. Yeah! As I've said, Hondo is one of my favorite Clone Wars characters and one reason is his versatility. He has so many different story functions. He can be an ally, a bystander or even a straight-up villain like here. See lightsaber crystals are extremely rare and are worth a lot of cash on the Black Market, so Hondo's attacking the ship with his pirates figuring they can take a few Jedi younglings and steal the crystals.
As the pirates board the Jedi ship, the younglings realize some shit is going down. Ahsoka comes down and tells them pirates are attacking and they escape into the ventilation shafts. Ahsoka lays out the plan. She'll go to the engine room and boost the power so they can break away from the pirates' ship. Zatt and Ganodi, the Nautolan and Rodian, will join R2 in the cockpit so they can put the gas down when Ahsoka gives the signal. And the rest will follow Tennant down the hold and hide from the pirates. Of course, things don't go as planned and after a run with the pirates the four remaining Younglings decide to get Home Alone on their asses. They pull off some neat tricks, like duping a pirate into using a faulty lightsaber, luring some more into a room full of training remotes (like the ones from A New Hope) and Tennant proving that even without a head or arms he's a total badass. Eventually, Ahsoka ends up meeting them and they all end up in front of Hondo.
Ahsoka tells the Younglings to run while she holds off Hondo. They banter for a while, Hondo holding her off with one of those electric staffs Grievous' guards use, until Ahsoka gives the signal and Zatt hits the gas. The Jedi ship pulls away from the pirates' saucer creating a vacuum that sucks the pirates back into their ship. Hondo and Ahsoka re-enact the end of Aliens for a little bit until a flying pirate knocks Hondo back into his ship. Ahsoka tells Zatt to go to lightspeed but at the last second she get hits by a pirate and flies into Hondo's ship. The Younglings celebrate their victory only to discover Ahsoka is missing. On Hondo's ship, he has Ahsoka in chains and tells her that because she caused him to lose profit, she will become profit. End Episode.
Overall, this is a really good episode. This arc is already better than the Onderon arc was. The Younglings continue to be good characters and not annoying. David Tennant's Huyang is a good character too. Funny, wise and badass. Tennant does a great job of giving what could just be a boring robot great personality. And Jim Cummings as Hondo is great as always. I'm a little worried about the writers overexposing the character though. He's put in an appearance in both the premiere and the Onderon arc plus is stepping up to antagonist here. I think he's better when he makes sporadic appearances, like a nice treat on top of an episode. But he's a good baddie so I won't worry too much yet.
All in all, not really much thematic depth here. It's just a fun ride. Like a big bag of candy, there's not much too it but it's delicious all the same. Can't wait to see how that ominous cliffhanger plays out.
See you next week.
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