March 26 2011

view: (720p)



"A great student is what the teacher hopes to be."

Episode Guide: Wookiee Hunt

Episode Air No: 66
Production No:

Director: Dave Filoni
Writer: Bonnie Mark

Synopsis: As Ahsoka and her allies struggle to evade Trandoshan Hunters - their efforts receive an unexpected boost when a new captive - Chewbacca the Wookiee arrives.

view: (SD HDTV)

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[align=left]Secrets Revealed

• Rather than a beach, the original script described new prey being dropped off within a canyon.

• The Trandoshan slave ship pilot carries a shotgun, a rare example of a projectile weapon in Star Wars seen in the Republic Commando video game.

• When Chewbacca says his home world is very close, he's not kidding. According to the Expanded Universe, Kashyyyk and Trandosha are in the same star system.

• The critter that attempts to pounce on the birds (convorees) outside of the youngling camp is a momong, a Trandoshan monkey.

• The side of the Halo has a painting of a rather demented looking Tooka doll holding a knife with aurebesh text that reads: "Nice Playing With Ya"

• Many of the background Trandoshan characters have interesting sources for their (usually) unspoken names: Gilas is named after the Godzilla Monster, Angilas. Ratter is named after a rattlesnake. Some are named after famous fictional reptiles: Goron is named after the Gorn from Star Trek, Lagon after The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Smug after Smaug, the dragon from The Hobbit. Ramy is named after Mary Franklin, known to Star Wars fans as the editor of Bantha Tracks and a huge fan of Trandoshans.

• Among the trophies in the Trandoshan hunting lodge are wampa and Wookiee pelts; stuffed and mounted heads of an Ithorian, a Gungan, a Gran, a Skrilling, a reek, a rancor, a dragonsnake; an ancient Mandalorian Neo-Crusader helmet; teeth that may or may not belong to a Zillo beast, a fully mounted gundark and narglatch; and a suspiciously familiar-looking crystal skull.
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Another great episode. Good action through some awesome animation. Dave said through his facebook questions that this will be the level of quality for season four, so I'm very excited to see what else they come up with. The only disappointment is that we didn't get to see any socket-popping.

Did anyone else see the fun little easter egg in the leaders den? He not only has a Mandalorian helmet as shown in Knights of the Old Republic, but also a crystal skull from IJ And the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I'm going to scour that room to see what other gems I can find. A screencap here:

This was an extremely good episode, but I didn't like the ending. I don't mind cheesy scenes, but that one was just too long. Although it was a nice touch to see Yoda watching the scene and smiling. Also: Wookiee headshots? That was just great.

9.5/10 - Gotta love Wookiees vs Trandoshans.



Great find.
PS: I need a Season 4 teaser.

This was pure Star Wars. Great Episode and overall great second half of the season.

Loved the way Chewie and the Wookiees were handled - smart, powerful, and technical

The Trandoshan guns were exactly as they're depicted in the games (Dark Forces series, etc). Pure joy to see the CW team put such attention to detail.

Now we know why Vader stops Boba from firing on Chewie?



Dave always adds little touches like these.I loved how the flying the creatures outside the hide-out mirrored the story. It was like the frog-dog from Jabba’s palace meets Miyazaki. Also, having Chewie phone home was a nice homage.



To me, this arch had more of straight-up sci-fi feel than traditional Star Wars. Overall, the series has shown how hella deep the Star Wars universe is. It easily encompasses all types of themes, conventions, and stories.

In a recent interview, Filoni spoke a little about next season:
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Can you spill anything about what’s to come?

I can definitely say that the second half of Season 3 very much speaks to the types of the episodes and stories you’re going to see in Season 4. When we started with the Nightsisters trilogy and Savage Opress, that was where we really took off on a whole new level of storytelling and animation. We have gotten better and better at everything we’ve been doing in the second half of Season 3 and just up that going into Season 4 to a scale that’s going to be pretty impressive.

You’re definitely going to see battles on the scale of likes you’ve never seen on The Clone Wars before. The bigger the battle doesn’t always mean the better, but in this case it’s pretty impressive what the guys have been able to render and get on screen for a television series. I’m really excited for people to see that. The end of Season 3 is a foreshadowing to the technology that is going to provide a lot of increased excitement in the future.


Will next season keep the same balance you struck of new and old characters introduced?

Just like the Force, balance is allegedly what’s best. Something that’s often hard for us to understand is the kids love a lot of the new characters we’ve created in Clone Wars, and as an older fan, though we get really excited about bringing in a Tarkin or a Chewbacca, these kids are completely into Cad Bane and Captain Rex. We’ll still do a mix, but we definitely are going to have stories that focus on some of the characters we’ve created for the show.

The audience has grown to really enjoy those stories as we’ve moved forward. They love the special moment of having a Chewbacca show up, but they also want to know more about what’s happening to Ahsoka now. A lot of people say they want to know more about her, and along with that goes Rex.

We have a plethora of bounty hunters we’ve created over the seasons, and it’s probably more than triple the number of bounty hunters we used to know about, which were basically the ones on the Star Destroyer [in The Empire Strikes Back].

We have a whole bunch of these guys now, not to mention other Jedi like Kit Fisto, who really hasn’t starred in an episode in a very long time. We’re trying to get all these different actors screen time, basically. [Laughs] A little old and a little new is always good, and sometimes the new ones can be the most exciting because the audience doesn’t know anything about them.


Well, if you’re taking requests for bounty hunters, I’m still waiting for Dengar.

[Laughs] Dengar, huh?! Well you never know. When you wish upon a star…

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In reading between the lines, I’m going to guess that the references to giant battles and Kit Fisto equals an epic underwater battle in the works.

A fantastic episode and a thrilling conclusion to Season III. My only criticism is that it seemed to end a little too abruptly; I could have handled another minute or so, but other than that, a marvellous job by Filoni & Co.

Chewbacca and the Wookiees were perfect, as were the Trandoshans. If this is a taste of things to come, then we're in for a treat next season.

That was a great episode. The Trandoshans were done well and the Wookiees even better.

Bring on Season IV.

These 2 episodes were the best arc of the entire season for me. Great stuff.

Hope they'll start Season IV with similar quality - the first half of Season III felt cheap and tired to say the least.

EDIT: I forgot - the Hereos on Both Sides arc was really strong too, if completely different.

There was also a Gungan head in there for all those J-J/Gungan haters out there. Also noticed a Reek head from AOTC and possibly one of those Boga creatures Obi-Wan rode in ROTS.



I think this may be my favorite two parter of the entire series. Top notch visuals and animation. I really liked that the Jedi had to rely on their physical skills and wits rather than a lightsaber for this one. The combination of hand to hand fisticuffs and Force moves made all the confrontations more fresh and interesting.

I quite agree. The key part of this episode was the talk at the end. This duology has been as much about Anakin's refusal to let go as it is about Ahsoka maturing into her own.

I'd like to thank darthpsychotic for another excellent service for all true star wars fans on this forum

I thought the last third of season three was some of the best clone wars to date. Dave and his crew have raised the bar again so high in terms of story, animation and compelling environments. Its come so far since the theatrical release.

Well, two words for this episode "Mighty Chewbacca". Was looking forward to seeing at least one of those trandoshians having their arms ripped out of their sockets! Quality season finale though. Really like the OT music nod throughout. Nice to have the oxygen of SW in there. Difficult to pick favourite parts from this episode as it was all good, but on the nod tip, It was good to see Ahsoka hanging underneath the log at the beginning. Another predator reference.

I hope they explore more of the good relations Yoda has with the Wookiees in Season 4. Anyway, can't wait now until October for Season 4.

May the force be with you.

PS: Where was Obi-Wan during this arc? Would have been nice to see him at the end with Yoda appreciating his teachings.

After watching episodes 21 / 22 again, I'm starting to wonder why they were chosen as the season finale.

Would it have made more sense to have ended the season on a cliff hanger, with say; the Nightsisters trilogy? I would have thought if they ended the season with Witches of the Mist and the reveal of Darth Maul it would have built up a lot more anticipation for Season IV.

Here in Australia, ABC3 are going to begin airing The Clone Wars, with Season I starting April 13. The plan is to air Seasons I, II & III and begin airing Season IV, same time it premieres in the US. ABC3 is not a HD channel.

I dunno how you guys see it, but all the season finale episodes so far have horrible endings, especially season 2's (that one takes the cake).

What is an horrible ending?

I thought season 1's finale with the introduction of Cad Bane was rather good. Became one of my favorite episodes in the series at the time. Season 2's finale was a good episode, with a painfully abbreviated ending.

This season's was another good episode that just has, as someone said before, a much slower tempo at the end than what was found in the rest of the episode. If I were to rank them I'd put it somewhere between Season 1 and 2 in how much I enjoyed it. The season 3 finale still stands well above both in terms of animation and quality, though.

Why I think I enjoyed Season 1's finale so much is because it had some semblance of a cliffhanger at the end. With the other two, not so much.

Since, I'm not seeing any of the Ahsoka = Annoying comments that pop-up from time-to-time, I'm going to assume that everyone liked her as character in these episodes.

In the final scene, Anakin isn’t following Obi-wan’s teachings. He’s in full-on “attachment” mode, which is something that Obi-wan has warned against. Since Yoda is responsible for the two being together, it’s more appropriate to have him as the witness.






The structure for the entire year has been wacky. It’s probably not a coincidence that a head writer position was created and filled while season three was being penned.

Last year, Filoni complained that exchange between Mace and Boba in Lethal Trackdown was cut short due to the time constraints of the show. (A fight sequence between Plo and Bossk also got nixed due to time.) He said that the ending was the one thing wished he could change about the episode.

To me, it seems like he overcompensated with Wookiee Hunt. I feel like the scene is stretched out a little too long. However, as other’s have stated, I apprentice the sentiment of the moment and think that it is an important exchange for Anakin and Ahsoka. So, the sum total is that it's no big detractor.

Since a teaser trailer for the next season follows the finale, I don’t think that a cliffhanger ending is necessary. Instead of employing a story gimmick, a trailer is used as the hook to bring the audience back next year.

Anybody else notice the Return of the Jedi music cue at the end?

Also, I thought that introducing Chewie by having him survive the shipwreck was very much a nod to Harrison Ford's character in The Fugitive surviving the train wreck.

Loved this episode and can't wait to see more...

Did anybody else notice the Mon Calamari present when they all came out to welcome Chewbacca a the Jedi Temple? I am thinking our underwater battle promised for Season Four with Kit Fisto JUST MIGHT be on the Calamari world. They now have a template for the characters now and we know they are important in ROJ!

UPDATE: The Season Four preview confirms this I guess ... woo hoo!

Yeah, right ...

That Mon Calamari Jedi had already appeared twice on previous episodes. It was nothing new, much less an indication of a battle.