Other Pages within RPGGamer.org:
Captain Gial Ackbar (as of The Clone Wars)	R4-G9 (Republic Astromech)	Thermal cape	Ketch (Weequay Bar Patron)

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 4 Episode 4: Shadow Warrior

What is it ? : There are rumours the Gungans are about to join the Separatists and march on Theed to conquer the planet, Amidala, Anakin and Jar Jar are sent to investigate and discover the Boss is under the effects of some shamanistic magic and costume jewellery. They free him from the effects and he confronts the Shaman, who stabs him, so Jar Jar has to take his place in calming the situation down and stopping the war.
Jar Jar takes the bosses place and meets with the leader of the Separatist forces, General Grievous and lures him into a trap where he is captured by some Gungans.
Dooku isn't happy about this, so captures Anakin who has been continuing to trail the Shaman, and they trade Anakin for Grievous.

High Points : This is another episode where the plot is simplistic, but the dialogue and action is far more interesting than the plot.

So the great General Grievous gets captured by a bunch of Gungans, outwitted by Jar Jar Binks. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, that's about the funniest thing I've seen in The Clone Wars. But more than that, the way the Gungans take Grievous down is brutal, stabbing him with spears, and pinning him to the ground while the use energy spheres to ionise his cyborg body. The only thing I'm slightly disappointed in is that when they trade him back to Count Dooku they haven't stripped him for parts. Grievous is a dangerous opponent, a lot less so without arms, and pretty much harmless without legs, I'd liked to have seen them remove his limbs rather than force him to wear those weird restraints.

The hand-held hologram units that Amidala and Dooku use to arrange the prisoner exchange are either the source of a massive mistake, or amazingly well designed technology. Both Amidala and Dooku have one of the small hologram units that they hold in their hand in front of themself while talking, the unit generates a hologram of who they are talking to. However the hologram projected does not have the person holding a hologram projector in front of them. In fact as they stared to talk I wondered if there was going to be a series of holograms holding holograms holding holograms, getting smaller and smaller until too small to see.
However I believe this is part of the design, rather than have everyone talking to each others representation holding their hand out in front of them, I think the system edits them out of the projection, to make them look in a more natural pose. If this is the case, I wonder what else the system edits out to keep conversations more natural, perhaps many of the times the Emperor is sitting on the throne talking to his subordinates, he's actually in the toilet, and the system just edits the hologram feed to save his modesty.
But anyway, either the animators messed up, or this is an amazing bit of technology.

Low Points : So, the Gungans are on the edge of revolution? The same Gungans that helped the Republic in saving the Mon Calamari in the last three episodes? I know that the boss is under supernatural influence, but the Gungans themselves don't question turning on their allies almost instantly.

At one point Anakin and Amidala look at Jar Jar and say he looks exactly like Boss Lyonie, now this seems a little racist to me. They all look alike, as the racist Naboo say about the Gungans.

And I'm not sure if I'm being too nitpicky here, but who is General Grievous a prisoner of? I would have thought he was a prisoner of the Republic, and therefore a Senator couldn't order his release. It seems no matter the situation, Amidala isn't the person that Dooku should have been talking to when trying to organise a prisoner exchange, he should have been speaking to the leaders of the Naboo government, or the military leaders of the Republic forces on Naboo.

Dooku reveals to Anakin that he was involved with the invasion of Naboo, and that it was actually the beginning of the Clone Wars. However from the history given about the character of Dooku when Attack of the Clones was released, he was Qui-Gon Jinn's Jedi Master, and became disillusioned with the Jedi and began on his path to the Sith after the death of his student. It would appear that the background has once again been altered.

So what do you really think ? : I quite enjoyed this one, the dialogue was sharp, I especially enjoyed a number of Jar Jars lines, and that he wasn't totally incompetent or useless in this episode. I'm not a massive fan of the Magnaguards, which are used to take down Anakin in this episode, but the Droid Commandos get a guest appearance, which definitely counts as a good addition to me.

Final Words : I'm guessing that there is a second part to this story, fingers crossed it's as entertaining as this one.

Score : 8/10

Comments made about this Article!