Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 2 Episode 13: Voyage of Temptation
What is it ? : Following on from the last episode, the Coronet, Duchess Satine's ship, is heading to Coruscant to stop the Republic intervening in the problems the Mandalorians are having with the Death Watch. Duchess Satine, and four members of the Council of Neutral Systems are aboard, along with Obi-Wan, Anakin and some Clone Troopers to guard them during the voyage.
The Clone Troopers are checking the ships holds for any dangers to the passengers, when Probe droids emerge from some packing containers and kill off a couple of the Troopers. Meanwhile Obi-Wan and Satine are having a fairly hostile debate over the Clone Wars, where Satine believes that the Separatists can be negotiated with, and Obi-Wan believes that fighting them is the only way, when Anakin heads off to help the troops who now have missing comrades and R2-D2 has detected something odd.
They find the packing containers the probe droids were brought aboard in, and then are ambushed by one of the probe droids puppeting one of the missing Clone Troopers. They fight and destroy the droid, only for another to escape to the passenger decks.
Obi-Wan fights and defeats the probe droid, just before it attacks Satine, and then the destroyed probe droids release dozens of smaller droids from their bodies. The fight against these smaller droids is eventually won, and Anakin discovers that someone with Senate credentials smuggled the droids aboard, meaning it was one of the four council members. Obi-Wan discovers which one it is, but they take Satine captive, and plan to leave the ship in an escape pod.
Obi-Wan confronts them, but the traitor has a destruct button which will destroy the ship and kill everyone, so Satine forbids him from interfering. After a short heart to heart, when Satine declares that she loved Obi-Wan from his first rescue of her years ago with Qui-Gon Jinn, and Obi-Wan admits he would have left the Jedi order for her, she then grabs the traitors gun, but refuses to use it because of her pacifism, the traitor tells Obi-Wan if he kills him then Satine will hate him, and they are stalemated for a moment, before Anakin stabs the traitor from behind.
They then arrive at Coruscant, and Satine tells Obi-Wan that she isn't sure about the beard as it hides too much of his handsome face, a statement which confuses Anakin.
High Points : The story for this episode is solid, but a couple of elements are outstanding,
Firstly, the probe droids are seriously creepy, the idea of transforming probe droids with their large central body and multiple trailing limbs below into spider-like predators, creeping around in the dark, ambushing soldiers is brilliant. But after they're killed, and numerous smaller spider-like droids crawl out of the body. It's seriously like bugs bursting out of the bloated corpse of a dead adult bug, creepy and very well used in the episode.
The relationship between Satine and Obi-Wan, hinted at in the previous episode is on full display here, and humanises Obi-Wan so much. Revealing that he loved Satine, and would have left the Jedi order for her, but she was too busy rebuilding her world after civil wars had devastated it. Her commitment to rebuilding, to her people, and to peace makes so much sense now, and a lot of the Mandalorian history makes more sense now. The time of peace is only fleeting, something they've tried to grasp to after a destructive civil war, and is completely understandable. And the relationship between the two is well realised, as is Satines bickering with Obi-Wan about the war, she is disappointed in him, that he's now a general in the biggest war the galaxy has ever known, and she expected so much more of him, as she sacrificed love for peace.
Finally, I'm back to my love for Mandalorian design. The Coronet is gorgeous inside, with ornate patterning on the walls, and decorative panels on the ceilings, it's beautiful inside, and the large windows offering views of hyperspace are impressive.
Low Points : Obi-Wan is really quite anti-war here, although he's somewhat on the defensive, due to Satines disappointment in him, he really comes out arguing that war is the only option for dealing with the separatists. It's really out of character for him, and while the situation with Satine might be making him act somewhat out of character, it leaves me disappointed with him, never mind Satine.
The bickering between Satine and Obi-Wan, while understandable, is annoying, but throw in Anakins smugness and inability to understand Obi-Wan having emotions for Satine (really quite odd given his situation with Amidala) just make these scenes grate, as it's difficult to watch people argue when both sides are being unreasonable and you don't support anyone.
So what do you really think ? : A great episode, revealing some of Obi-Wan's background, and introducing a creepy new use for Probe Droids, excellent.
Final Words : The way Clone Wars treats characters outside the core of the show, I can't imagine seeing much more of Satine, but I really want to. I really want to see the peace collapse, and to see how the Mandalore of this series becomes the Mandalore of Rebels. Something I moaned about yesterday, has actually become a point I'm really interested in seeing more of, and if we do I think it will be heartbreaking to see the Mandalorian peoples dreams of peace collapse.
Score : 9/10
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