Hondo!  That’s the difference between the Hondo Caravan and the Waru Express folks.  With the Waru, I spent months dreading and working my way towards The Crystal Star.  With the Hondo, I get to meet him in the third batch of episodes and it’s great fun all around!

Oh.  And there was some other stuff that happened in these episodes too, I guess.

Dooku Captured
I was so excited about this episode from the get-go.  It’s all Obi-Wan and Anakin.  I can’t get enough of Obi-Wan’s exasperated snark or his all-knowing snark.  Honestly, all I need to be happy with the show is some wonderful banter between the two of them.  Anakin’s exasperation about having to be the one captured is hilarious as is Obi-Wan’s quip about how he’s already a Master… just not a Jedi Master.

However… Boys.  BOYS.  Those lightsabers are your lives, NOT GLOWSTICKS.

AND THEN HONDO APPEARED HUZZAH!

Ahsoka, on the other hand, believes none of their assurances about having everything totally under control.  Smart girl, that one.

I like that this episode didn’t go the way I thought it was going to at all.  When it was titled ‘Dooku Captured’, I expected it to be the Republic who’d captured him, not a bunch of pirates.  This is a very nice twist.  Actually, this is probably my favorite episode so far.  I adore all of the parallels and all of the banter.  My only problem is that line about dispatching Representative Binks.  Don’t give Jar Jar any responsibility.  We know this goes badly.

The Gungan General
Let me sigh a little bit more at this episode title.  Sorry but I have a very low level of tolerance for Jar Jar and his shtick.

Pirates, man.  You should never trust a pirate!  Didn’t they watch Pirates of he Caribbean?  Of course they double-crossed them.

I love that we get to see Dooku, Obi-Wan, and Anakin forced to work together.  There’s something hilariously awesome about watching them have to maneuver through all of this while tied together.  Their exchanges are amusing to say the least but my favorite is probably the one where Obi-Wan and Anakin call Dooku old and he is just very much ready to kill them both.

This was another fun episode though and not just because of this Hondo guy I’ve heard so much about.  Not quuuuuuite as much fun as the previous episode but that’s because of the Jar Jar factor.

Jedi Crash
A friend of mine is watching the show too and is a few episodes behind but I can already tell he’s going to love the hell out of his episode simply because it contains Aayla Secura.

Anakin Skywalker has a disease, folks.  It’s called the ‘Inability to stop jumping out of moving vehicles after smaller targets in a very unsafe manner’ Disease.  That said, I loved this exchange between the Republic Admiral and Aayla: “Are all Jedi this reckless?” “Just the good ones.”

I don’t have much to say about this episode actually.  I love getting to see Ahsoka interact with other female Jedi though so any episode with that is always a plus in my book.

Defenders of Peace
As many of them are, this episode is a continuation of the previous one’s arc.  It gives the story enough development and I like that.

I like the little alien colony leader guy.  He’s having none of anyone’s crap.  The Separatist general, on the other hand, reminds me of Governor Ratcliffe from the Pocahontas film and that’s not a compliment towards the character himself.  I don’t know why he’s giving this grand speech to droid army though except for exposition purposes.  Droids don’t need encouragement like th— oh wait.  They’re cheering and excited.  That’s strange.  That’s also an incredibly scary weapon they have since it can kill all organic matter.  It’s okay though.  The Jedi saved the day!  Plus, this is still a kid’s show so weapons like those are bound to have a very short shelf life.

Trespass
The premise of this episode is basically my idea of hell.  It’s a giant iceball of a planet and now Obi-Wan and Anakin have to go track down some missing clone troopers.  Why on earth anyone would want to have custody of this planet is beyond me especially since it’s uninhabited.

I like the animation that they did for the fur trim of the Jedi’s hoods.  I’m also a bit amused by how the clone troopers get some sort of kama to go with their snow gear.

Oh wait.  Surprise!  The planet actually does have natives.  And hey look at that!  Anakin’s an artist.  Unsurprisingly though, this Chairman fellow from the planet that lays claim to the iceball is insistent that the planet continues to be theirs and that these natives are just savages.  This disc is like a never ending Pocahontas reference.  I’ll just wait here for someone to break out into a rousing rendition of ‘Savages!’

Don’t worry.  The crazy guy got killed and now there’s peace.  EVERYONE STAND DOWN.  There will be time to sing ‘Colors of the Wind’ another day.

The Hidden Enemy
They probably mentioned the name of this planet in the opening but I’m just going to call it the TRON planet because of the bright blueish-green buildings that are everywhere and because of how the city looks in general.

Huzzah!  Asajj is back!  I mean… it’s clearly not good for our heroes but I’ve missed her lately.  This is why this disc is a good one.  All Dooku and Ventress and no Grievous.  I do have to ask though: are there Obi-Wan and Asajj shippers out there?  Their exchanges in this episode make me feel like there must be.

On the other hand, one of the clones being the traitor makes me feel really uncomfortable.  I’m not saying that I support blind loyalty to the Jedi but I also don’t think that one of the clones would willingly go and help out the Separatists especially if it means potentially killing a fellow clone brother.  That part doesn’t ring true to me regardless of his explanation at the end.

And that’s all for this week!  Next week, I’ll be finishing up Season 1.  As always, you can follow my progress in real time on Twitter @chaosbria or the hashtag #HondoCaravan.  Don’t forget, no spoilers please!