Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Duel of the Droids Rewatch

December 17, 2016 1:18 PM - Season 1, Episode 7

Anakin, Ahsoka, and a replacement astromech, R3-S6, launch a rescue mission for R2-D2, feared to be in the clutches of General Grievious. Nothing seems to go as planned as R3 appears to be the most incompetent droid of all time.

Episode Information!

"Duel of the Droids" is the eleventh episode in the chronological viewing order and the seventh episode of Season One. For more about "Duel of the Droids," check out its episode guide!

Official Synopsis

Anakin, Ahsoka and replacement droid R3-S6 embark on a dual rescue/sabotage mission when they discover R2-D2 is being held at General Grievous' secret enemy listening post, Skytop Station.

Trivia!

• Not stated in the episode, but mentioned in the script, Skytop Station is located within the atmosphere of a moon Ruusan. In the old EU, Ruusan was the site of an important battle between the Jedi and the Sith.
• The Vulture's Claw's seats were modeled after those in the Millennium Falcon.
• R3-S6's paint scheme was based off of Dave Filoni's favorite football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• The aurebesh in Artoo's data screen is simply gibberish, no hidden messages there!

Next time on The Clone Wars!

The next episode in the chronological viewing order is "Bombad Jedi," the eighth episode of Season One.

posted by Atreides (2 comments total)

The two episodes that made up this mini arc are probably my favourite of what I've seen so far. I love seeing more of Snips and I thought it captured some really good characterisation for both her and Anakin without coming at the expense of genuinely cool action scenes. Her fear, on realising Grievous has her measure and more, is so real.
posted by smoke at 3:55 PM on December 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ahsoka's interaction with Grievous goes well with a later episode when a freshly minted Jedi Knight is full of gutso and fails to recognize Grievous' ability. (I think it's not that far away down the road.)

Amazingly, this is the only time that the enemy who uses droids as weapons ever uses a droid to infiltrate and undermine the Republic and the Jedi. In the Star Wars Propaganda book that came out not too long ago, it makes a point that the Separatist reliance on droids encouraged a certain level of fear and distrust of them in places like Coruscant. While I thought it was clear pretty early on what R3 was up to, I felt kinda bad over how crappy Anakin was treating the droid. Not cool, even if the droid is an undercover agent.
posted by Atreides at 10:12 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]