Bounty Hunters (episode)

"Courage makes heroes, but trust builds friendship."

- Moral

"Bounty Hunters" is the seventeenth episode of Season Two of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It aired on March 27, 2010 in the UK and April 2, 2010 in the US.

Official description
Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano form an uneasy partnership with four deadly Bounty hunters to help protect a local farmer from Hondo Ohnaka and his band of pirates.

Plot summary
A Jedi shuttle carrying Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano emerges from hyperspace to investigate the disappearance of a medical station orbiting over the fungi-world of Felucia. They immediately encounter an orbital Vulture droid base. The vulture droids attack the shuttle and force it crash-land on Felucia. The Jedi eject from the ship once it enters the atmosphere and once the survival pods land, they look for civilization. They then find a nysillin spice farm village. It appears deserted after they started searching in houses. They then find a ship in the barn of the farm. Anakin and Ahsoka finds Felucian farmers and their families in one of their houses hiding in the cellars. Anakin and Ahsoka are then surrounded by four heavily armed bounty hunters named Sugi, Embo, Rumi Paramita, and Seripas. Obi-Wan then joins in, but then the village elder, Casiss, persuades the bounty hunters and the Jedi to stand down and listen to his village's plea for help. Casiss tells them that they paid the bounty hunters for protection against pirates who raid their village, demanding it as tribute but he also said that with the Jedi now there, the bounty hunters can fight the pirates off. Obi-wan then said that he would like nothing better then to help the farmers, but their first priority was to find a ship and report the destruction of the medical base. Obi Wan then explained that they would attract Grievous's fleet which would be much worse then pirates. Later the pirates arrived demanding their portion of the nysillin. Anakin and Obi-Wan are then surprised to see Hondo Ohnaka.

Hondo then acts friendly with the Jedi. When Hondo tries to buy off the bounty hunters, they refuse, stating they don't break deals. Obi Wan says that he would pay the pirates to take them to the Republic outpost, but he refuses, stating that he does not want Republic Credits. Hondo tells the farmers to hurry up before the crop dies. Obi Wan then put a plan together, but Dilani said they did not have enough men. Anakin then stated that the villagers would have to fight too. Then everyone started getting ready; putting up defenses, harvesting, and training. Meanwhile Dilani was still complaining on how the farmers weren't soldiers and don't even have weapons. Anakin then showed them that their farming tools can be used as weapons. Ahsoka then teaches the farmers to use slingshots against the pirates. Seripas, while cutting down a giant fungus, was nearly crushed to death by it. Ahsoka came just in time to save him. Seripas then revealed that he is actually small and that he wore a suit to make him more intimidating. Ahsoka reassured him. Soon a pirate scout spies on the farmers while they were training. Sugi spots him and orders Embo to take care of it. He shoots the pirate's speeder, causing it to explode. Then he kills him. At this point Hondo decides to attack. The bounty hunters and Jedi manage to hold back the onslaught. Hondo then comes with a tank that kills Rumi and injures Embo. Anakin then attacks Hondo and manages to knock Hondo off a cliff. He begs for mercy as Anakin pulls up. Then he shouts that the effort is no longer profitable, and retreats. With the battle over, Sugi offers the Jedi a ride to a Republic outpost.

Cast

 * James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Pirate Trooper
 * Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, Kowakian monkey-lizard
 * Anna Graves as Sugi, Rumi Paramita
 * Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Village Child
 * Jim Cummings as Hondo Ohnaka
 * Gregory Baldwin as Casiss, Seripas, Gwarm
 * Stephen Stanton as Dilanni, Pirate Scout
 * Dave Filoni as Embo
 * Tom Kane as Narrator

Behind the scenes
The episode is dedicated to Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, the director, producer, and co-writer of such films as The Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai, to the latter of which this episode is an homage. Like Seven Samurai, this episode features a group of seven heroes who are defending an otherwise defenseless town against a much larger group of invaders. Both the Samurai and the Jedi, knowing they are outnumbered, teach the villagers how to fight and defend their homes.

Like "Senate Murders" and "Cat and Mouse," "Bounty Hunters" was shown in Canada and the UK one week before it aired in the United States.

Ohnaka's line, "Speak softly, and drive a big tank," is a reference to Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy: "Speak softly, and carry a big stick."