Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 4 "Slaves of the Republic"

To get this latest review going, I'll start off by talking about Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka & Rex's new disguises. I really like the detail they put into the helmets for Anakin, Obi-Wan and Rex. Instead of giving them all the same helmet, they molded and detailed them differently, which was nice to see. My favourite gear by far is Ahsoka's. It just looked really cool, and blue is a nice colour for it. Though as a slave gear, it was too "fancy" to put it one way, to be a slave gear. Still, better than the comic-trash any day. My one complaint about the gears? It gives Hasbro an excuse to release ANOTHER Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan & Rex action figures. I liked the landing scene at the start of this episode, the detail put in was great, especially in space, and the ship landing with the smoke underneath it was a neat touch.

I wasn't really that big a fan of this scene. Perhaps because either Anakin had another of his anger moments about slavery (I believe his mention of his mother is the first time he has mentioned her on the show), or the fact that our new Zygerrian villain, Atai Molec, didn't get to show us his shock whip moves on that weak slave. As far as Ahsoka goes, she's no good at being a slave, is she? By the way, I believe Molec's use of the word "skug" is the first time Star Wars slang has been used on this show. I find it stupid that they make up this character Bruno Denturri, but he doesn't appear, and is only mentioned. It would have worked better if Anakin was to mention someone we knew about, and might feel something if we knew that someone had died, so what use exactly was making up Bruno Denturri? I also found that droid thing that tells Molec to cease hostilities really annoying, and with a horrible voice. I suppose the one thing I really did enjoy in this scene was seeing some characters apprear as background characters here. Examples are Nix Card, Mar Tuuk & Tee Va. Gorga the Hutt also made a cameo later in this episode.

This is what I've been dreading ever since I found out we were getting a comic adapted into an arc, the debut of Queen Miraj Scintel. I hated the ----- in the comic, if possible, I hate her even more now. Not just thanks to her character, but Anakin's role with her to. Anakin's flirting with Miraj was so embarrassing for the show, and just wasn't proper flirting. It was actually very laughable, and not in a good way, the way that you laugh AT it. I really hate how the Twi'Lek slave girl with that dagger failed to kill Miraj. I hated even more the fact that the slave girl was so desperate to get away from slavery, that she took her own life. So desperate and annoying, and something too similar to a Mandalorian scene in season 2. I couldn't agree with Miraj more by the end of the episode, in saying that Anakin is a complicated person. Anakin is so frustrating in this episode for a fan to watch. One moment he's a good guy on the bad side, next he's a bad guy on the good side. So annoying. The writer of this episode really messed that up, he has to be either a good guy on the good side  or a bad guy on the bad side, not poorly messing things up. When Ahsoka said "Unhand me, briggund!" to Anakin, I was making a "what the hell?" expression even before Anakin did. What was that all about? That scene where Miraj inspected Ahsoka was a horrible scene, and isn't how you treat a character that has become a "role model" to the young audience that watches this show.

Okay, can I please get to something I did like? Yes? YAHOO! Fine then, the parts of this episode I did enjoy were references to either Star Wars or other things I liked, not some wacky crap like Alice in Wonderland ("Mercy Mission"). First of all, the desert skiff that flew nearby the palace around the middle of the episode was interesting, because it flew in the same pattern the skiff's in ROTJ (Return of the Jedi) flew beside the sail barge. Another ROTJ reference (pictured above) is one of the few moments of that movie I truly enjoyed, and I'm glad it appears on the show too. A little hand signal, and R2-D2 tosses the lightsaber, or in this case lightsabers, stored inside him. Aside from those two enjoyable Star Wars references, there are also a couple of non-Star Wars ones I enjoyed, because I like what they are based on. First, when Miraj hands Anakin the shockship, there is music that sounds like it's from Call of Duty: World at War. Also, at the same moment, a yell from the Zygerrian's around the palace "URA!!!" sounds exactly like the Russian yell from the game. Another is the end of the episode, where Miraj & Anakin are flying on that creature, which makes me think a lot of How to Train your Dragon.

This was literally the only good action scene of this episode. It was a really good scene. My one complaint is Anakin's line to Obi-Wan "Looks like I have to rescue you again, old man" was so out of place, and the voice-over made it sound like Anakin hates Obi-Wan, which is so not the case. The action was execllent, and it was nice to see the shock whips in some real action, albeit brief. I also liked seeing the Zygerrian blasters, which have a nice design on them. It was cool to see a Clone "Rex" fighting in non-Clone armour, I liked that armour. It was good to see the bad guys win here, the Separatists have too few victories, and canon states that the Separatists win most of the battles in the Clone Wars, but the show doesn't show this. The way Ahsoka was defeated was pretty lame, something Ahsoka should have predicted. Rex & Obi-Wan went down too easily too, but even Anakin wasn't good enough to beat the Zygerrian's.

Now, this is why the writers keep failing with Anakin's portrayal. Anakin should be a darker person like in AOTC (Attack of the Clones) and ROTS (Revenge of the Sith), but he is not. At times he is too good, and then when turns dark, he goes over the top, and makes you wonder what the writer was thinking. I'm still awaiting the episode where Anakin is portrayed exactly right. This was a stupid scene, and so pointless. By the way, they need to get those annoying pink buggers (Kiros birds) off this show. It was bad enough to see them in the last episode, but we are not on Kiros anymore, we should not be seeing them. The part with the birds poking and licking Anakin was such an embarrasment in this pisode.

This scene was pretty funny, and I liked it being a Ahsoka-only scene, with no Anakin around. I loved it when Atai Molec slags Ahsoka off, and she calmly uses the force to send him forwards, leaving Molec to cling onto the edge for dear life. Ahsoka got her rewards for being a terrible slave, when Molec electrocuted her.

This is a scene I've been looking forward to from the season 4 trailer. So many different Togruta's in one place. The part where they drop the Togruta's through the hole right in front of Obi-Wan, Rex & Roshti was a dark moment. I hated that other new Zygerria, Arguss. So annoying, uneccessary and pointless. They leave this episode on a cliff-hangar, though not much of a cliff-hangar if you have read the comic. Now, we wait a month for another episode...

My verdict: While everyone, or most, people on the Underworld said this would be better than "Kidnapped", I suspected all along it wouldn't reach the standards that episode set for this arc, and I was proved correct. This one had it's enjoyable moments, but also it's not enjoyable moments, and those moments were truly horrible. Rating: 6.5/10.