Star Wars: The Clone Wars "The Box"

What a title for an episode. But did the episode live up to it's awesome title?

The opening scenes were well directed and written, but at the same time, I do have a complaint about it. Dave Filoni is constantly saying that they can't put this, that etc in due to limited screen-time. And yet in this scene, the show introduces us to 11 bounty hunter's, the majority of which we knew were going to die and did die. It was a well-worked scene, but Filoni being a hypocrite as usual is annoying. I loved the part when Cad Bane kills Bulduga so he can get his old hat back. I'm disappointed in one part of that scene though, there is no reaction whatsoever from Bulduga's brother, Onca who is right beside him. It's another one of those scenes that's like "Oh, my brother died. Whatever." One of the flaws in this episode is that none of the bounty hunters are developed at all, it's all Rako Hardeen this, Rako Hardeen that, which allowed almost zero development for the others.

The challenges themselves were pretty basic. Nothing really too special, and if it wasn't for the fact that the majority of these so-called best bounty hunters were quite stupid to say the least, then it would have been easy to complete the whole thing. As it was, Hardeen was the only reason most, if not all of them survived. At least until the second challenge, that is. Every bounty hunter's death in this episode was weak. You had Onca trapped against a wall, when the laser misses him, he sighs with relief instead of running away from danger, and another laser gets him. Kiera Swan, also killed by a laser. Jakoli, too slow and got electrocuted. Mantu, slipped and got electrocuted. And I'll save Sixtat's death until later.

Let's talk a little about the character Moralo Eval. After the first episode of this arc, I found him to be a interesting character, but by now I've lost almost all liking for this character. If just he wasn't voiced by the awesome Stephen Stanton! I'll outline some reasons I dislike this character. He's boring, he does nothing, he's not a man (to quote Bane: "If you're gonna kill him, do it like a man."), and to top it all of, his armour is a RIP-OFF of my all-time favourite bounty hunter, the awesomeness that is DENGAR! His talking in the third-person, like "Moralo Eval, will have you slaughted" is unique, but it doesn't make it cool. It's a pity that the character is really quite crap to be honest, because they gave him a good back-story, but the character isn't living up to it.

This scene here was pretty cool. I like sniper rifles, so seeing characters testing their sniper skills was interesting. But Sixtat annoyed me in this scene, and then the show made his death (falling into flames because he missed the target) so cheesy. I was glad to see this bounty hunter die, as he looks too much like a bald Obi-Wan for my liking...

This is the one scene in this episode where any character goes through any character development. Cad Bane. The way he saved Hardeen to defy Moralo Eval was a great moment in this episode, as was his awesome quote. The fight scene between Hardeen and Eval was awesome, especially with Hardeen smashing Eval's annoying face in. Again, Eval makes a threat he can't deliver: "You, my friend, have seen nothing yet!" For me, this whole scene (Cad Bane's save/Hardeen vs Eval) is among the best scenes the show has delivered, when taking everything into account.


My rating: This was a great episode, and by far the best of the arc. I did have a few issues with it though, such as no characters really being developed (except for one Cad Bane moment). But the action and pacing was good, but Moralo Eval will need to improve 100% for him to ever be liked by me. Rating: 9/10.


Rad Cad Bane quote:
"If you're gonna kill him, do it like a man."