Star Wars: The Clone Wars- Season 7 Episode 6 "Deal No Deal" Review (spoiler-free)

Image Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney

Hey guys, if you came here for the review only, feel skip the next three paragraphs where I talk about my life and stuff before clicking out and calling this clickbait. Ok? Thanks!

This is Arca, and welcome back to the very last ever March Edublog I will ever make on a Friday. Also the very last "schoolwork" one that I will make that will be reviewing a new Clone Wars episode. Today I still had to do work while simultaneously propping my foot up on a chair because if you didn't read about it in yesterday's post as to how it happened (http://www.arcabaran.com/2020/03/i-thought-i-broke-my-toe-my-reaction-to.html), I recently accidentally broke or fractured my toe. Last night I found out for certain that this was the case when we videocalled a teledoctor (the only way to see a real doctor in the midst of this quarantine stuff) and they looked at my toe's purpleness and confirmed it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to see an orthopedist for a long, long time, or at least I could soon but it'd be risky... or not, since no one is willing to go to the doctor now. I hope. (I'm probably wrong, though.)

Anyways, I had to do virtual gym class today without exercise by choosing the normally "lazy" option of a written response. The task I chose was watching two inspirational videos about a guy named Austin Hatch who survived two plane crashes that wiped out his family (twice), yet still played college basketball (which is amazingly resilient). As I watched him training with a coach in a TV interview even months after an accident when he struggled to put one foot in front of the other and then looked down at my taped and foot-braced toe, I realized that if this guy could recover and manage to get a basketball scholarship, and yet I struggle to walk to the bathroom for now, then anything is possible. Also, he suffered brain damage, so that already made it much times more miraculous and impressive. Now I know just 0.00000001% of how he felt like having to sit around without doing the things he wanted to do in order to heal, and also partially what many elderly people have to go through every day while crossing the street.

Once I finished all of my work for today, my parents suggested that since the weather was nice (but wouldn't stay that way over this weekend according the the forecast, so I thankfully won't be missing out on much), I should get some Vitamin D in my backyard by laying back on a chair and putting my foot on a rest and reading a book... which I did for around twenty minutes, before needing to go back inside at a snail's pace to use the bathroom. At some point while I was still indoors, I watched the brand new weekly episode of the final season of The Clone Wars. Today, episode 6 out of a total of 12 for this final season released, and it was called "Deal No Deal", and a continuation of the last episode (which I also reviewed right here: http://www.arcabaran.com/2020/03/star-wars-clone-wars-season-7-episode-5.html), in which not an awful lot happens. Thankfully, a bit more happens in this one, so now that "spoiler-free" title in the post actually could mean an ounce of something whatsoever. Not that it was mega-consequential to the plot, but still. Anyways, time for my brief review with my thoughts (without giving away all of the episode's plot)!

This episode continues where the previous episode left off with Ahsoka and her two new friends (one of which trusts her a lot less than the other) about to go on a new job so that the two sisters which Ahsoka stumbled upon in the urban planet Coruscant's underworld could get some much-needed cash. Let me just say, that not too long into this episode, I already knew that I found it better than the previous one. This one actually explored the world of Star Wars that isn't featured in the movies in a much better, more Clone Wars-like way instead of only having one thing to say, being "Oh yeah, not every ordinary person in the galaxy thinks positively of the Jedi." They finally get off the planet and head to a familiar planet from one of the spin-off anthology films that's name has been mentioned before in various other forms of Star Wars media.

The main conflict of the episode, in essence, is Ahsoka's will to do the right thing imbued deep within her from her years of being a Jedi (even after she quit their Order) being in stark contrast with the Martez sisters' need for money to survive, no matter what it takes. The episodes' "opening credits" moral of the story line, which is in every Clone Wars episode, was something along the lines of "you often never learn from your mistakes until it's too late", and I immediately actually noticed that theme and predicted that their job would go awry at some point and in some way. Not that that's a spoiler, since it literally says so in the episode's description on Disney+ and the Martez sisters, since their introduction, were very not-so-subtly not the most careful or successful duo.

This conflict, of Ahsoka always looking at the ethical side of the equation rather than the need to survive and make money like the two people that she is trying to help out, actually made the episode seem more interesting and less shallow to me. Also, there were some legitimately suspenseful moments that kept the "gimmick" I mentioned in my previous review running (although in a much better way) of Ahsoka trying to disguise how many tricks she has up her sleeve and her vast knowledge of the galaxy in an effort to not reveal to the sisters that she was once a Jedi, which is how she knows all of this and is that skilled beyond regular explanation.

The appearance of a previously-known planet, Republic ships, a crime organization, and even another Jedi for a brief cameo (surprise-surprise) don't harm the episode from making it seem smaller (even though it certainly needed such a thing compared to how dull and unconnected the previous episode was), but when the smaller, more-minute details of how the planet's economy actually ran were revealed this was an interesting bit of lore. Not to spoil the exact moment when I noticed a bit of The Clone Wars' famous real-world politics often hidden into the script throughout the series, but it has to do with Ahsoka questioning the morality of a certain something going on at a large scale on a planet that's definitely not right, and wondering why the Galactic Republic didn't shut down such a thing like that when it was very well under their control. This reminded me of all of the news about tech monoliths running so-called "sweat shops" that were morally and ethically questionable but them not being put under greater questioning due to money reasons. So yeah, there definitely could have been some commentary going on there at that very moment.

The episode even ended on a teensie bit of a cliff-hanger (although a little later than I initially anticipated) to actually make me excited to see what happens next, unlike next time. I hope that the next episode is the end of Ahsoka's small-world adventures and finally a way for it to segway into when she meets up with Anakin in-person again. We're slowly running out of episodes for that to happen, even though it was highlighted since the very first surprise Comic Con trailer two years ago, so I guess one could only hope.

So, what did I think of this episode overall? Well, it was closer to the regular expected quality of the "good" type of Clone Wars episode than the last one was, for sure. The acting and other technical stuff stayed on-par, of course, and the pacing improved quite a bit while not feeling rushed whatsoever. It was easy to follow along, so I could actually afford to take my eyes slightly off my TV screen for about a minute to slowly shuffle over and get a glass of water slowly with my broken toe and not miss anything by just listening to it and squinting. It finally got somewhat exciting at parts, the world exploration and lore-building was pretty good, and the audience finally has some sort of reason to be more interested in the two new sister characters due to what they entail for Ahsoka. I'm looking forward to the next episode and for the overall season a lot, and if I were to give this episode a score (which I don't typically look forward to doing), I'd say it is maybe around a 84 out of 100, enough for me to possibly even re-rank the previous episode a bit lower. You should watch it, and not feel discouraged if you got bored by the previous one, since this one gets quite a bit better and it actually might lead to something that means something for the overall plot of the show now. So go ahead, watch it, it's a good use of twenty minutes of your infinite quarantine time. I have spoken.

What did you guys think of the episode, if you watched it? Was it better than the previous one? Did it get back to the level of the "Bad Batch" arc that started out the season in terms of quality, or not? Are you excited to see the next one? Or if you are a Star Wars fan but haven't watched any of this show yet, I have one question for you: Why?? The entire series was once on Netflix for nearly a decade, and also on Cartoon Network during what was likely your young childhood if you're the age range I'd expect you are if you are reading this post right now, so yes, you've missed out. How about you don't pirate it, since as Ahsoka would say and I'd agree with you, that's not only illegal but ethically wrong and the people who put effort into the show are getting hurt due to your actions. I mean, Disney+ has a free 7-day trial. You could just do that, look at a list of some of the very best 20 episodes or something, then binge them for a week for absolutely free, but the right way. Also The Mandalorian, while you're at it, since that is obviously very, very good, even if you know nothing about Star Wars, since it isn't connected as much to anything else and is instead just its own one-of-a-kind sci-fi western thing. Leave your thoughts on that show, as well as this show, or literally anything else (in a civil manner, of course--- *cough cough* The Fandom Menace *cough cough*) about Star Wars you'd like to converse with me about in the comments below.

Anyways, stay healthy everyone, and wash your hands and don't hoard toilet paper. Trump says it's illegal now, anyways (thank you). This is Arca, signing off. Have a good one, and may the Force be with you in these challenging times™.