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You can blame it on Boba Fett. Or, more specifically, whoever it was who decided that Boba Fett should be released as a secret character action figure ahead of the release of The Empire Strikes Back. Between that and the actual bounty hunters in the movie, bounty hunters became a mythos of the Star Wars universe without doing much more than standing in place and being told, "No disintegrations."
With that in mind, it's somewhat surprising that they waited until the last episode of season one to introduce bounty hunters to The Clone Wars. However, they did it by introducing a whole team of bounty hunters, including Aurra Sing (of The Phantom Menace fame). But it's Cad Bane who runs the show, and a very interesting character he is.
This episode has a hint of Ocean's Eleven flavoring. It's not a heist, per se, but each of the bounty hunters definitely has a specific role in the plan that Bane is hatching.
Still, with all of the bounty hunter action that's happening, the true story revolves around Anakin and Padme and the stupid things that people can do for love. Specifically, you guessed it, Anakin. It's another step on the path of Anakin's downfall for him, though it might not appear that way, but it's an obvious thing that Anakin does not hold his Jedi code in the place that he should.
All in all, this is a pretty good episode. I think it would have been more enjoyable as a two-parter, especially if they had done an end-of-season cliff hanger but, maybe, that's not a thing in shows primarily targeted to younger people do. I don't know. It's a fun episode as it is, but it could have been a bit more. Of course, season one Clone Wars doesn't have any actual multi-part episodes, so that's probably part of why it's contained as a single episode.
You know, I think of myself as a huge fan of Star Wars, but everytime I read anything about it I realize how WAY off base that is. Compared to people who really LOVE Star Wars, I'm a bandwagon-jumper. People have a way more detailed knowledge of the films, series, books, Expanded Universe, and the like, than I do.
ReplyDeleteThe bounty hunters, like a lot of Star Wars, I think caught on because they hinted at the universe that Star Wars was set in. I rewatched the original Star Trek movie and The Wrath of Khan. They're pretty homogenized and almost generic-seeming compared to Star Wars. There were a lot of people like us, who watched Star Wars at a time when we were still able to play and use our imaginations, and the fact that there were all these other aliens and planets mentioned and bounty hunters sort of blurred the edges of the universe Lucas created and made it possible to go outside the boundaries. Star Trek had very rigidly-defined edges. Star Wars didn't.
That's my current theory, anyway.
Briane: I think there's probably some truth in what you're saying. That and Star Trek is just future us, but Star Wars is long ago and far away. It's, in so many ways, like playing knights. Star Trek doesn't come close to that. There are too many rules.
DeleteWith the original trilogy, I enjoy the bounty hunters for their connection to the broader Han Solo story, beginning with Greedo, of course.
ReplyDeleteTAS: Yes, it begins with Greedo, but Greedo failed to capture the viewers, probably because he displayed such ineptness in capturing Han. Greedo only gets attention now retroactively because, ultimately, of Boba Fett.
DeleteI did not mean to challenge your broader point. Boba Fett was definitely the game changer. I think the bounty hunters could provide a potentially interesting story tangent but, as you've pointed out, they've never been much more than ornamental in the movies.
DeleteTAS: Oh, I didn't take it as a challenge. I just didn't think about Greedo when I was writing about bounty hunters, because, as a kid, none of us considered Greedo as anything beyond someone for Han to shoot... until Boba Fett came along, then it was like, "Oh! Greedo was a bounty hunter!"
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