This storyline concludes with an episode that was at least as good as the others. What it lacked in action it made up for with a very solid story. What struck me most was the well thought out politics behind this episode. To justify a Republic occupation, the Separatists conspire with Deathwatch to terrorize Duchess Satine, convincing the Republic politicians that Mandalore is unable to handle the terrorists on their own. A message from one of her most trusted men seems to have been doctored to convince the Republic that the situation on Mandalore is growing out of control.

The political intrigue we see in this episode is what stands out, particularly in the Star Wars universe, which seems to have failed in this area up until now. I was not at all convinced by the transformation of the Republic into an empire until now. We see how small, intelligent moves by Palpatine could have lead to people surrendering control to one man out of fear. I suppose in a weekly television show they can afford to show subtle plays like this whereby in a movie we seem to be missing the details of how the politics in the Star Wars universe evolved.

Obi-Wan and Duchess Satine In Da Hood

As the series evolves I find the Star Wars universe seems to be getting bigger, more detailed and more coherent. I’d really like to see more of the good writing and plot development we’ve seen in these Mandalore episodes. Sometimes I feel a little cheated by seeing twenty-minute chunks of story. When it’s all over it feels like a timer has went off and they need to tie-up the loose ends, but I guess that’s life! The feeling I get when watching the show is that they’re trying to find which stories work best, which characters they should develop more, and what styles they could afford to explore. Perhaps the Clone Wars was just a canary all along, seeing what kind of a market there is for syndicated Star Wars. We’ve been hearing rumors of a live action Star Wars series for a long time now.

I can’t say it enough, but I would definitely prefer seeing more of Obi-Wan and less of Anakin. Even though the Anakin in this series is far more palatable than the jerk in the movies, I find stories that revolve around Obi-Wan lend themselves to more subtlety and more thoughtful questions. For the most part Obi-Wan seems like a noble guy who always does the right thing, but once again in this episode we see Satine chewing him out as if she’s the only person in the galaxy who sees him as somewhat hypocritical. There really isn’t anywhere to go with Anakin. He’s just evil in almost everything he says and does. With Obi-Wan there are shades of gray. Also, the love story between him and the Duchess was interesting without drawing too much attention to itself, unlike the obnoxious and bizarre romance between Anakin and Padme.

All in all it was a great story. To whoever’s responsible, I want to see more of this kind of Clone Wars!

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