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-S6 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 Nachkt accesses Artoo's memory bank 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 with his lightsaber. 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. Tano and the clones infiltrated the reactor control room, but they had to confront and eliminate the security battle droids. After that, Grievous orders his IG-100 MagnaGuards to take Artoo to the 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, and 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, as Anakin's suspicion on the golden droid's true allegiance is true. Anakin orders Artoo to open the doors. Ahsoka rejoins the team, who defeats the Vulture droids and escapes in the Twilight, detonating the bombs. Grievous escapes the station in his ship, Soulless One. Anakin leaves in his starfighter to pick up Artoo.

Meanwhile, Artoo manages to open the hangar doors, but R3 moves to intercept him, and the two droids face each other in combat. Artoo 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. Artoo 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

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

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.

Behind the scenes
In the original broadcast version, there is a scene where after Ahsoka says to Anakin, "I hope you find Artoo in one piece.", in which Anakin replies "Get going, Snips.", after which Ahsoka says to Rex and the rest of the clone troopers, "Looks like it's up to us to complete the mission, as usual." and walk off as the scene fades out to the commercials. The scene however was cut from the DVD release of Season One and goes right to the scene where Gha Nachkt ripping R2-D2 apart to plunder Republic info for General Grievous after the commercials.

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 MagnaGuards, 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 attached momentarily when it shouldn't have been.

When Grievous grabs Ahsoka, her teeth are shown. However her canines do not appear to look like the enlarged canines Togruta were known for.