Identifier: Season 3, Episode 4
Air Date: Fri., Oct. 1, 2010 (9:00 PM)
Network: Cartoon Network
If Pantora isn’t a nod to ‘Avatar’ then I don’t know what is. Its people may be more technologically advanced, but they’re blue and have tribal markings and their planet is one letter off from the one in James Cameron’s blockbuster. Is Lucas jealous? Or just wanting to tip a hat to another successful filmmaker’s sci-fi universe. Oh, and Greedo! This time he shoots first, last and almost constantly.
The episode deals with a blockade by the Trade Federation of the planet Pantora, and the kidnapping of the planetary leader’s daughters to coerce the planet into aligning with the Separatists. That’s where Greedo came in, as the goon hired to do the nabbing.
Ahsoka, unofficially, goes in alone to make the difference, and works with the Pantoran senator to find one of the daughters. Through political maneuvering they’re able to blackmail the Federation into lifting the blockade without declaring allegiance, or they would reveal the Federation’s duplicity.
The other sister has been taken too Tattooine, meaning a fun return visit to Jabba the Hutt’s palace, complete with Twi’lek dancers and even a shootout in the Cantina (though I’m not sure it’s the same one). All of this hearkens back to the simpler days of ‘Star Wars’ when there were only three movies and a lot of speculation and imagination to fill in the details.
Now, we’ve got every property imaginable adding to the “Expanded Universe,” but I have to give credit to ‘The Clone Wars’ for being consistently in line with the tone and attitude of ‘Star Wars’ in expanding the world visually. This episode kind of makes me want to see a series in this style set at other times in the Star Wars timeline.
Hell, ‘The Clone Wars’ jumps around in time from one episode to another, so why not just give us ‘Star Wars: The Expanded Universe’ and make it a true anthology series that jumps around the entire length of what’s been covered, and maybe even go further than that.
