Clone Wars 5.07: A Test of Strength

I remember every lightsaber I ever sold, Mr. Potter.

Spoilers Ahead



Crystals in hand, the younglings begin to learn how to construct their lightsabers en route to Coruscant, but Hondo Ohnaka intercepts the ship, hoping to steal the priceless gems.

And here I thought our younglings were in a stand-alone episode. But no, we have an arc. However, in my opinion, this one is turning out to be far more interesting than the last storyline.

Of course the big new character everyone is talking about is Skippy the Jedi Droid - er - I mean droid professor Huyang, voiced by David Tennant. Most watchers will know him as one of the many Doctor Whos, of which I have not seen a single frame. I know him best as the guy who royally screwed up Barty Crouch Jr's characterization in the Goblet of Fire film (to be fair, I blame the screenwriter and director more for this, but it's the biggest problem I had in what is otherwise a decent if condensed adaptation). The Harry Potter connection is surprisingly apt because, as I hinted at in the opening teaser, Huyang is a metal expy for Ollivander, even going through drawers that look suspiciously like rows of wand boxes for lightsaber hilt parts. The only difference is that Huyang is far more useful ina  fight than Ollivander ever was. While it was distracting, I enjoyed the obvious reference.

Then there's Hondo. Oh Hondo. I love your appearances, but you should seriously know better by now. I especially liked that he showed up in a flying saucer he presumably lifted from the "Mars Attacks!" martians.

The climax was very exciting, with Ahsoka (again, loving her the more I see her) fighting off ALL the pirates before accidentally getting captured and presumably held for ransom in the next episode. Oh boy, I'd hate to be Hondo.

I have nothing new to say about the kids. Still love Ganodi. Still hate Petro. The rest fall in-between, usually leaning "like". I can't wait to see more of them.

I found myself talking to the episode more than normal. Aside from exclaiming the references I saw, I also had a chuckle with the whole ventilation shaft business. When the pirate says "I never thought of that", I half expected Hondo to blurt out "Apparently, you never saw Phantom Menace."

That's about all I got for this episode. Can't wait for the next one

P.S. For all story-arcs, there will be a "post-mortem" section like for the Onderon one where at the final episode I go over how the entire arc fit together.