Star Wars: Droids Review, Episode 11

A while back I was talking about how I was looking forward to the Mungo Baobab arc when the show got better. I'm really not sure what I was thinking. This episode picks up pretty much where the last one left off. Mungo and the droids are being pursued by Governor Koong's neat-looking Drone Fighters. Presumably this was where the idea for the Prequels came from. Anyway, Mungo gets shot down and attacked by mud people. A native chick, Auren Yomm, helps them by spraying the mud people with water. Oh yeah, R2-D2 is equipped with a water pump now. The group is attacked by a dinosaur, but it gets tired and gives up.

Auren Yomm is preparing her province for the Roon Games. From what I can piece together, the Roon Games somehow decide who controls the planetary government. This is the same way Muhammad Ali became king of Zaire. Governor Koong has his own plan for winning the Roon Games. Essentially his plan is to kill everyone on Auren's team, which would sort of achieve his goal of planetary domination without the sports component. But I digress. Koong's plan is to let his bug friend, Gaff, take care of it. Gaff passed along that duty to his droid who is named, I kid you not, Bun-Dingo. Bun-Dingo poisons some Kool-Aid which takes out two members of Auren's Drainsweeper team. Where are they going to find a guy and a droid to help out? That's right, they put their fate in the athletic performance of C-3PO.

The Drainsweeper, clearly the most popular event of the games, involved riding horse-lizards around a hole. It's like a cross between roller derby and those things where you put a coin in then watch it go around a few times. Koong's team plans to play dirty, and Gaff increases the gravity in the titular drain. In the first leg of the relay, C-3PO puts them in a big hole. That's OK though because Mungo is a competent rider and closes the gap. The third leg pits Auren against Bun-Dingo. Fortunately R2 took it upon himself to sabotage the droid. Auren sends Bun-Dingo down the drain where it is violently crushed by the manipulated gravity. Bun-Dingo, we hardly knew ye. The team wins the games and now controls Roon or something. Also, they get medals. C-3PO gives his medal to R2, marking the only time in history R2-D2 is appreciated for his role in continuously saving everyone.

Last week's episode was kind of silly. This week was maybe worse. None of this makes any sense. The Empire wants to take over Roon. Just send in troops. Why bother with Governor Koong and his idiotic plans? There's no logic. Once again, this is a placeholder. We need Stormtroopers and action, not sportsgames and plotting. It's not a strong episode. Screed is cool though. He should get his own spin-off movie. He could be played by Gary Oldman. It would be awesome.

Best Moment: I got nothing.

Most WTF Moment: It's a tie between (6:08) Gaff's weird-ass hose-gun and (17:46) the guy in the pink crop-top and cowboy hat.

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