Great hope can come from small sacrifices.
While Anakin tries to convince Zygerrian Queen Miraj Scintel that she is just another slave to Dooku, Obi-Wan and Rex work with the slaves in a labor camp on the planet Kadavo.
Tropes:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Despite having just given a grand speech about how she will break Obi-Wan and soon enslave all the Jedi, Queen Miraj's death is treated in a surprisingly somber manner. Even Anakin, who just told Dooku he doesn't give a damn about her life, looks distraught when she dies in his arms.
- Asshole Victim:
- During the fight in the third act, Rex impales the sadistic Keeper Agruss by throwing a lance into his chest, and says after doing so, "I'm no Jedi."
- Anakin also slaughters a large number of Zygerrian guards without mercy.
- Big Damn Heroes: Plo Koon's Wolfpack coming in to save the day to help Anakin and Ahsoka free the slaves.Obi-Wan: Anakin, you must realize this is a fight you cannot win alone.
Anakin: Who said I was alone? - Big "NO!": Obi-Wan, when Agruss activates the controls that electrify the slave room's walls and retract the floor.
- Bloodless Carnage: There's no blood to be seen when Agruss is fatally impaled and electrocuted.
- Bond One-Liner: With all of his guards gone, Obi-Wan has his lightsaber ready as he faces Keeper Agruss. The Keeper boasts that he knows a Jedi wouldn't kill an unarmed man. Rex uses one of the stolen electrostaffs to skewer Agruss instead.Rex: I'm no Jedi.
- Break the Badass: The purpose of the slave facility on Kadavo for Obi-Wan and Rex. Queen Miraj intends to prove that even Jedi can be broken and made into slaves.
- Bullying a Dragon: Miraj threatens Count Dooku for bossing her around in her own palace. She meets the business end of a Force Choke for her trouble, as unlike Anakin, Dooku has no reason not to kill her on the spot.
- Call-Forward:
- Queen Miraj's death is intentionally reminiscent of Darth Vader's in Return of the Jedi, complete with her last words including the phrase "You were right." She even dies in Anakin's arms.
- Queen Miraj also died from a Force Choking, just like Padme will.
- Darkest Hour:
- Carried over from "Slaves of the Republic", aired a month earlier. Obi-Wan and Rex are enslaved and are toiling in Kadavo after being forced into submission by Keeper Agruss, Ahsoka is imprisoned in a cage above the Zygerrian queen's palace, and Anakin is Queen Miraj Scintel's personal slave and bodyguard, and is being pressured into joining her willingly in exchange for his friends' freedom. Thankfully, things start looking up from Anakin, Ahsoka and Artoo's escape from Zygerria.
- Later in the episode, as Anakin and Ahsoka are attempting to save the colonists, Agruss has activated the floor traps to the slaves' cell and broke the controls to prevent Obi-Wan and Rex from turning it off, and Plo Koon can't send his ship for a rescue operation until the turrets are destroyed.
- Despair Event Horizon: Obi-Wan crosses this when enslaved by the Zygerrians on Kadavo. Only when Anakin, Ahsoka and Plo Koon and his unit, the Wolfpack, arrive at Kadavo to save the day does he end up snapping out of it.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Queen Miraj Scintel admits to Anakin that he was right about her relationship to Dooku, just before succumbing to Dooku's Force-choke.
- Downer Beginning: The episode begins bleakly with Obi-Wan toiling in Kadavo, feeling helpless as the slavers cruelly punish him and the Togruta slaves (mostly the slaves) when he tries to help them.
- Fat Bastard: Continuing from the previous episode, Keeper Agruss remains a vile scumbag to the end.
- Heroic BSoD: Obi-Wan and Rex suffer this when enslaved on Kadavo. They snap out of it when Anakin and Plo Koon arrive to save the day.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Keeper Agruss, thanks to Rex. What makes it more impressive is that the electrostaffs the guards were using weren't even designed for that.
- Several Zygerrian guards also die this way, courtesy of Anakin's lightsaber.
- Karmic Death: Once the slaves are all freed, the Wolf Pack obliterates the Kadavo facility, with a great many of its Zygerrian staff still inside as it plummets into the volcano.
- Loophole Abuse: Agruss doesn't take Obi-Wan as a threat since Jedi don't kill unarmed enemies. Obi-Wan gets around to this with a non-verbal signal to Rex to kill Agruss. Rex is not a Jedi, and therefore not bound by any such code.
- Macross Missile Massacre: To destroy the Kadavo facility, Republic gunships concentrate their fire on its support struts, sending the place toppling into the abyss.
- Male Gaze: While Ahsoka is lying in a cage, still dressed in her slave outfit, the camera gives an extremely close view of her bare legs.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Miraj's prime minister, Atai Moloc, is more than willing to undermine her to Dooku, having informed the Count of his queen's clear attachment to Anakin, implies he's willing to help Dooku depose her and aids Dooku in framing Anakin for the Queen's murder to the guards.
- No-Sell: Dooku tries to force Anakin to surrender by threatening to kill the Queen. Anakin bluntly retorts that he couldn't care less if Dooku does.Dooku: Take one more step and I will end her life.
Anakin: What makes you think I care about this slaver scum?! - Not the Fall That Kills You…: Ahsoka catches a falling Togruta woman without either being injured. Justified, since Ahsoka's a Jedi.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Queen Miraj, when Dooku Force Chokes her.
- Agruss is clearly panicking when Obi-Wan and Rex start wiping the floor with the guards in the control room.
- Psychic Strangle: Miraj Scintel, thanks to complications from being Force Choked by Dooku.
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: In the prior episode it is claimed that the Zygerrians have captured 50,000 Togruta slaves from Kiros. The number of slaves seen rescued from the facility is, generously, around two dozen. It's never clarified if there are more in other locations and if those were rescued.
- Suicidal Overconfidence:
- Miraj Scintel experiences this regarding Dooku, and ends up Force Choked to death as a result.
- Keeper Agruss, who sneers to Obi-Wan that a Jedi won't kill an unarmed man. Unfortunately, he forgot about Rex, and the clone promptly spears him through the chest.
- That Wasn't a Request: Invoked; when Queen Miraj remarks that she has no desire to execute Anakin, Dooku snaps she's not being given a choice in the matter.Miraj: I have no desire to end Skywalker's life. He has become... a valuable asset to me and my throne.
Dooku: Your compliance is not optional! I command you to kill Skywalker! - There's No Kill like Overkill: If getting impaled through the chest by an electro-spear courtesy of Rex didn't kill Agruss, then his hover chair smashing into a computer monitor and electrocuting him (one of his arms can be seen twitching from the electricity) more than likely did the trick.
- This Cannot Be!: Agruss's reaction to getting a spear through his chest.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Queen Miraj. Threatening a powerful Sith Lord who you technically answer to is NOT a good idea.
- Agruss assumes he'll survive Obi-Wan and Rex's breakout because Jedi don't kill unarmed enemies. He forgets that clone troopers aren't bound by such a code, and learns that lesson the hard way.
