Duel of the Droids

"You hold onto friends by keeping your heart a little softer than your head."

- Moral

"Duel of the Droids" is the seventh episode of Season One of the television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Official description
Anakin, Ahsoka and replacement droid R3 embark on a dual rescue/sabotage mission when they discover R2-D2 is being held at General Grievous' secret enemy listening post.

Plot summary
Artoo manages to transmit the location of Grievous' listening post on a Ruusan moon, which the Twilight picks up. Though advised by Obi-Wan to wait for reinforcements, Anakin heads a rescue mission to save Artoo before his secrets fall into Separatist hands, as well as plant a bomb. Gha Nacht accesses R2's memorybank and finds that the little droid contains every Republic strategy. He demands more money but Grievous decides to give it to him by stabbing him in his back. When the team arrives at the station, Anakin separates from Ahsoka and the clones, heading out alone to find Artoo. Unbeknownst to them, R3-S6 is actually a spy for the Separatists, and alerts General Grievous to their presence. General Grievous orders his bodyguards to take Artoo to his ship.

Meanwhile, Anakin has succeeded in finding R2-D2, and duels Grievous' MagnaGuards. Once they are defeated, he and Artoo order everyone to rendezvous in the south hangar. Unfortunately, Ahsoka does not hear them, as Grievous has engaged her and her clones. The general kills all clones but Rex and Denal. Ahsoka defends herself against Grievous's blows and retreats to a room filled with spare droid parts. She hides from the general, but R3 gives her away. Grievous destroys her comlink so she she manages to escape through a vent. As Anakin and the clones, who have succeeded in planting the bombs, meet the Twilight in the hangar, R3's treachery is revealed when he traps them and activates several droids to fight them. Anakin orders Artoo to open the doors. Ahsoka rejoins the team, who defeat the Vulture droids and escape in the Twilight, detonating the bombs. Grievous escapes the station in his ship, Souless One. Anakin leaves in his starfighter to pick up Artoo.

Meanwhile, R2 manages to open the hangar doors, but R3 moves to intercept him, and the two droids face each other in combat. R2 pushes his Separatist counterpart over the edge, but R3 grabs him with a suction cup. Artoo succeeds in cutting the cable, and R3-S6 is sent flying into the air, and he is destroyed by flying debris. R2-D2 is then rescued by Anakin.

As they leave the system, Anakin contacts Obi-Wan. While they succeeded, Obi-Wan disapproves of Anakin's choice to risk the mission and all their lives to save a droid. While Ahsoka is happy they got R2 back, she agrees with Obi-Wan. But Anakin says R2 is more than a droid: he is a friend.

Cast

 * Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker
 * Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano
 * James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone troopers
 * Matthew Wood as General Grievous, Battle droids
 * Ron Perlman as Gha Nachkt
 * Tom Kane as Narrator

Decoded
The Decoded version of the episode reveals that Gha Nackht was a level 5 droid programmer, that R3-S6 was captured by Grievous's agents and reprogrammed on the planet Milagro, and that clone trooper Denal served with Rex on Geonosis.

Continuity
An IG-100 MagnaGuard is decapitated and does not continue fighting.

Grievous's hand is fixed when he leaves in his starfighter after being cut off (probably because the same scene was also used in Destroy Malevolence, but reversed).

Anakin encounters a MagnaGuard, despite later having commented on how he had only read about them in the novelization of Revenge of the Sith.

When R2-D2 is on the table, his eye socket is seen unattached momentarily when it shouldn't have been.