(RE)RELEASED - S02E03 - Corruption on Mandalore (V2.0)

RELEASE VERSION, now brought up to my more polished 2.0 standard.
Our third episode of season two.
Comprising the original episodes Corruption and The Academy.
Running 26 minutes.
DOWNLOAD LINK is in the tracker spreadsheet, PM me for access.
Note: It’s recommended that you download this before watching, rather than streaming it directly from Google Drive.

This episode is a continuation of the Mandalore plotline, continuing Ahsoka’s interest in teaching future generations, and giving us our first steps into Ahsoka developing her skills solo.

I wanted to place this episode fairly early because making it now the third Mandalore episode in a relatively short period of time helps establish Mandalore as a key recurring pillar of our show, which’ll pay off once Maul gets involved and carry us through to the finale.

For this episode I wanted to combine all of the best parts of Corruption and The Academy whilst dropping and minimising the weaker elements of both: The plotline about poisoned schoolkids, the academy kids, and the whole idea that the best way to fix corruption is to make a Jedi a schoolteacher. I also wanted to change a LOT of character motivations to make then all a lot more rational. The solution here was a radical restructure of the narrative, placing both Padmé and Ahsoka on Mandalore at the same time, and allowing the academy kids’ interpretation of Ahsoka’s teaching to kick off Satine and Padmé’s investigation, which ends up putting pressure on Almec to expose himself.

The new narrative plays out as follows:

This episode is titled ‘Corruption on Mandalore’, again highlighting Mandalore as a recurring setting, but also highlighting its corruption to emphasise its internal instability (which we know has a risk of becoming a threat to the wider galaxy). It also serves to inform the viewer that we’re getting a bit of a political episode.
The opening crawl explains that Padmé’s a hero to Mandalore for protecting its independence, but the war is still putting pressure on supply lines, causing corruption and a black market. For support and advice, Satine requests Padmé’s help. Knowing that Ahsoka’s taken an interest in training, and to help Satine’s work on the future of Mandalore’s peace, she recommends Ahsoka share her experiences at the political academy. (Ahsoka’s there in secret, since there’s still wider Mandalorian mistrust of the Jedi amongst the common population.)
Using a scene from the episode originally called Assassin, as Padmé and Ahsoka fly to Mandalore, Ahsoka shares her doubts and Padmé reassures her.
Ahsoka unintentionally inspires the kids to investigate the black market, which they do offscreen, reporting their findings first to Satine (Korkie’s trusted aunt, so a sensible move). THIS is the trigger for the plot - that the black market may be linked to government corruption, not that either exists in isolation.
Satine tells the kids that she’ll take action but the kids shouldn’t (because they’re kids, so a sensible move), but frustrated, they decide to call Almec, who Korkie also knows.
Before they can do that, Satine and Padmé go to talk to Almec (who she has no reason to mistrust yet, so a sensible move). He shows little interest, saying it’s probably Death Watch, which Satine finds a bit nonsensical. (This makes the scene in this context a little funny and Almec more flippant, which I think is fun.) Suspicious, and not knowing who else to trust (sensible, because it could be anybody else) Satine and Padmé decide to investigate themselves. I’ve slightly improved this scene since version one of this edit.
The kids call Almec, who’s already suspicious that Satine may be closing in on him because of their previous conversation, and they tell him they have evidence - which he knows will implicate him. This justifies his fairly radical actions now - he’s more panicked now than in the original episodes. Knowing he has to act fast, he tells the kids to meet him that night.
The kids attend the academy during the daytime, where they tell Ahsoka about what’s going on. This brings her into the story, and now that she’s grown a little wiser than she was when she was first introduced, she’s wary, and decides to keep an eye on them.
Late in the evening, Satine and Padmé (who’s always up for capers like this) go and check out the docks, where they see an easily bribed guy. I’ve changed the dialogue “A customs official” to “A government official” to make it explicit that they’ve just had their suspicions confirmed - the black market is tied to the corruption in the government.
Again, they go to Almec (still sensible because they don’t completely suspect him, and with their new evidence they believe he might be more inclined to help). He rebuffs them once more, and they retreat frustrated for the night.
Almec now knows for certain he’s made, so while he moves to arrest the kids that night (as he always intended to since the moment they told him they had evidence), off camera he arranges the arrest of Satine. Padmé is unaware of this and doesn’t follow the rest of the plot (she enjoys a good night’s rest in the ambassador’s suite, presumably).
Ahsoka, now savvy and patient, saves the kids from arrest by Almec’s corrupt guards. They realise that Almec was corrupt and rush to Satine (still sensible as they now realise they’re way out of their depth), only to find her taken.
Ahsoka puts a plan into motion immediately, giving Almec what he wants (the arrested kids) and impicates Satine (who she knows Almec opposes) in order to gain his trust. This doesn’t work, but only because he’s particularly guarded, but it was a perfectly sensible idea. It also gets her close to the prison.
She moves to plan B, and tries to free Satine herself. She falls into a trap, where Almec freely reveals his own corruption, but she turns the tables and imprisons him, freeing Satine, and implicitly rooting out Almec’s corrupt network.
As a note: Plan B also includes using the kids as part of the plan. I thought about trimming this, but I think it ties more into the Ahsoka-as-teacher plotline, and contrasts well against her cautioning patience earlier. She trusts these kids to act even in the face of danger, but she just knows that there was an unsuitable time for it (breaking into a government warehouse) and a suitable time for it (to free someone from illegal imprisonment and root out a usurper). It shows she’s a bit more discerning, even when she’s being bold. This also kind of shows that she expected to be drawn into a trap (and use that to get Almec to confess), if you want to interpret it that way.
Ahsoka - now no longer required because she’s both taught the kids about corruption AND triggered a series of events which has likely made the population of Mandalore more guarded against corruption - is picked up by Anakin.
But Padmé, in my version, remains, for a while. She has dinner with Satine, where they discuss their happiness at the outcome while still bemoaning the cost of corruption across the galaxy and within the Republic. But true to her earlier word, Satine now invites her to come and see a new hospital (the one where in the original they saw the poisoned kids, but here free of context it’s just A Good Thing) and enjoy peaceful mandalore to raise their spirits. They toast, and we end the episode. Mandalore’s now left in a better place than in the original version, and having Padmé stay there for a while is a nice way to keep it feeling relevant even if we don’t revisit them again soon.

The amount of polish I’m needing to give this batch of episodes is far smaller now, as I was a better editor when I first produced them, so I’m able to get them upgraded to version 2 a lot quicker lately. But I’m still taking the opportunity to review them fully as I go.

Onwards, to s02e04 Like Father, Like Clone, our Boba Fett episode!