Slaves of the Republic

"Those who enslave others inevitably become slaves themselves."

- Moral

"Slaves of the Republic" is the twelfth episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' fourth season. It aired on December 2, 2011.

Official description
"To locate the missing colonists, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka go undercover to infiltrate the slavers on Zygerria. Anakin struggles with his emotions as a wily Zygerrian queen forces him to take questionable actions in order to carry out his mission."

Synopsis
Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex travel aboard the ship they have obtained from Darts D'Nar to Zygerria to find the orbit of the planet literally crawling with spaceships, a sign that something very important must be going on.. As they disembark, they disguise themselves and form two teams: Obi-Wan and Rex are to find out the location of the kidnapped Togrutan colonists, while Anakin and Ahsoka, disguised as master and slave respectively, go to meet the Zygerrian queen.

In the slave markets near the palace, Ahsoka draws too much unwelcome attention when she prevents a Zygerrian slaver from whipping one of his slaves. Anakin slyly drops the hint that he has news for the Queen regarding one Bruno Denturri, whereupon he and Ahsoka are invited to the palace by order of the queen herself. Posing as a slaver by the name of Lars Quell, Anakin is quick to win the queen’s favor by claiming that he killed Denturri and seized Ahsoka from his abode, as well as by a lot of flattery. Both take a walk to discuss their viewing points, but when Anakin prevents a slave girl from murdering the queen, and facing reprocessing, the girl throws herself off the balcony to her death. Queen Miraj decides to take Ahsoka in the poor girl’s stead, whereupon Anakin quickly grants Ahsoka as a gift, winning Miraj’s trust even more, to the point that she invites him to attend that night’s slave auction by her side.

In the meantime, Obi-Wan and Rex proceed to the slave pits where they find the Togrutan governor of Kiros, Roshti, weak and broken from his ordeal. Unable to learn from him where the other colonists have gone, Obi-Wan decides to spring him first, but the alerted guards manage to stop and capture him and Roshti. Obi-Wan is then chained to a wall while a sadistic guard whips his back to make him talk, then the Zygerrian supervisor who watches his torture turns out to be the very conversation partner D’Nar was talking to at the governor’s palace on Kiros when Obi-Wan arrived for negotiations; he recognizes the Jedi and prepares to have him offered on that night’s auction block.

At the auction, Roshti is the first slave to be put on offer, followed by Obi-Wan. In order to break him, Miraj asks Anakin to torture him with a shock whip before the eyes of the assembled bidders. With the aid of Ahsoka, R2-D2 and Rex, who has managed to sneak his way into the auction, Anakin improvises an escape and rescue action. However, is cut short very quickly as they are all stunned by the guards’ shock whips. Miraj has Anakin brought to her chambers and announces to him that he will serve her as her personal slave and bodyguard, in exchange for the lives (if not freedom) of his friends: While Ahsoka remains in the palace, locked in a cage, Obi-Wan, Rex and Roshti are brought to the Zygerrians reprocessing center on Kadavo, where the other Togrutans are also being held. Obi-Wan is forced into submission by the center’s warden, who emphasizes his point by slaying several Togrutan prisoners and threatening to do worse to the others, should Obi-Wan ever think of rebellion. In the meantime, Miraj tries to draw Anakin to her side by pointing out that as a Jedi and servant of the Galactic Republic, he is a virtual slave already. She even offers to free his friends if he would join her willingly; an offer which leaves Anakin thinking.

Cast

 * Rajia Baroudi as Queen Miraj Scintel
 * Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
 * James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Zygerrian auctioneer, and slave
 * Ricardo Mamood Vega as Atai Molec
 * Corey Burton as Zygerrian guard, Nix Card and Governor Roshti.
 * Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano
 * Catherine Taber as servant girl and observation droid
 * Victor Brandt as Keeper Agruss
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone Captain Rex
 * Tom Kane as narrator

Behind the scenes
This was the second-least watched episode of the series with only 1.36 million views.

The scene in which Anakin salutes to R2 to signal him to eject his lighstaber is an homage to Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, in which Luke Skywalker makes the same gesture.

During the scene where Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex attempt to rescue Obi-Wan and Roshti, Ahsoka uses her lightsaber to threaten the queen in to submission, however when she is knocked unconcsous it is her shoto that drops to the ground.