->''Fear is a great motivator.''

The Galactic Senate debates the cost of the war. While Padmé Amidala and Bail Organa advocate for diplomacy and an easing of the war effort, other senators, some of whom work for the Separatists, push for an escalation of the conflict. As the session is ended to let cooler heads prevail, Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano watch. After the session, several Separatist-aligned senators attempting to push through a bank deregulation bill that would have netted them vast sums of credits hit on the idea of arranging for an attack close to home to push the Senate into voting for their bill.

Meanwhile, Padmé, asked by Anakin to teach Ahsoka about politics, decides to make a secret visit to an old friend, Senator Mina Bonteri, now of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, in an attempt to spark peaceful negotiations between the two sides.

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!!Tropes:

* AllGermansAreNazis: RecycledInSpace! Anakin and (initially) Ahsoka assume that everyone on the side of the Separatists are just violent thugs who want to tear down the Republic for their own gain, but the episode teaches the latter [[SubvertedTrope this isn't true]]; there are legitimately good people in the CIS who don't want a war, but don't want to answer to the corruption within the Republic.
* AnAesop: In war, not everything is as simple as it seems. You may think your side is completely in the right, but you may find that the enemy does have legitimate grievances, and not everyone on the opposing side acts like you've been told.
* ArtEvolution: This episode marks the point in the series when the characters begin to receive revamped appearances. Anakin and Obi-Wan wear less clone armor, and Obi-Wan's hair color has been altered to a color that is more consistent with his live-action appearances. Ahsoka and Senator Chuchi have new outfits and "aged-up" character models, giving them a more teenage appearance; in Ahsoka's case, this includes longer head-tails and more developed montrals.
* AsYouKnow: Anakin telling the simple version of how the Clone Wars went down to Ahsoka is also a refresher to anyone new to Star Wars or others that hadn't watched the movies in a while.
-->'''Anakin:''' War's complicated, Ahsoka. But let me simplify it. The Separatists believe the [[{{Hypocrite}} Republic is corrupt]], but they're wrong, and we have to restore order.
* TheBadGuyWins: The bombing of the power grid leads to the banking deregulation bill going through to help finance more clones, to Padmé's dismay.
* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Unlike Padmé and his fellow Jedi, Anakin views the conflict as being about trying to ''[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack "bring order to the galaxy"]]'', and isn't willing to see the nuance of the situation in that a few of the Separatists might have had legitimate reasons to seek independence. Granted, he isn't wrong that most of the Separatists ''do'' want a war to wipe the Republic out, but he's completely ignoring the rot within the very system he serves.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality:
** Ahsoka ''thought'' the war was like this, but meets people who support the Separatists and are nice and likeable.
--->"The politics of this war are not as black and white as I once thought they were."
** Anakin, however, believes this firmly no matter what, [[WhatTheHellHero even believing that Padmé made a mistake in trying to reach out to the Separatists and attempting to talk peace]].
* BothSidesHaveAPoint: It's made clear that a lot of Separatists aren't evil, and find that the Republic has become corrupt. At the same time, the Republic has a point that the Separatist forces act very much like violent thugs. Of course, all of this suits the true villain perfectly...
* CallBack: When it's suggested that Padmé be assassinated, Lott Dodd points out that is harder than it sounds, referencing the Separatist's attempts during ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' (and to a lesser extent, the attempts to take her down in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'').
* CallForward: General Grievous stages an attack on Coruscant. He'll do it again soon, only his attack will be on a much larger scale, in ''Revenge Of The Sith''.
* CorruptPolitician: We meet many of the other delegates from the corporations who claim to be "[[BlatantLies neutral]]" yet still loyally serve Count Dooku so they can profit off the war efforts. Delegates from the Banking Clan and the Techno Union scheme to throw the Republic in turmoil just so they can scare the Senate into voting to deregulate the banks and order more clones.
* DoomedByCanon: No matter what Padmé did this episode, the Clone Wars would still be raging on despite the attempted peace talks. If they did go through, then the war might have ended much sooner, she wouldn't be dead while her husband would turn into the most feared man in the galaxy, and the very democracy she served wouldn't have become the totalitarian Empire she fought against.
* DramaticIrony:
** Unaware of their SecretRelationship, Ahsoka points out that it's no wonder that Anakin and Padmé get along so well, since they have more in common than it would initially seem.
** One Separatist senator responds to a comment from Senator Voe Atell that the Corporate Alliance will never stand for peace negotiations by saying that unlike the Republic, corporations do not rule them. Yeah, about that...
* ForegoneConclusion: No, Padmé and her allies will not succeed in opening peace negotiations with the Separatists.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Lott Dodd's offhand line of Coruscant not being attacked in a thousand years comes back around about two years later, when [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith an epic planetwide battle]] occurs.
** Dodd mentioning that bankruptcy would not be necessary also comes back around during the Clovis arc, where the Republic nationalizes most of the Banking Clan after the Battle of Scipio, thus saving it from bankruptcy.
** Anakin's BlackAndWhiteInsanity is an anticipation of the "with me or against me" mentality he adopts as Darth Vader in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' and [[Franchise/StarWars beyond]].
* GoYeHeroesGoAndDie: Played for BlackComedy when General Grievous gives a speech like this to his suicide bomber droids.
* GreyAndGreyMorality: Ahsoka comes to the realization of this during the episode. Despite her initial thoughts, she comes to see that the Separatists aren't all violent thugs who only want to tear the Republic down, while the Senate's blatant corruption demonstrates that the Republic isn't entirely the hero it proclaims to be.
* HeyWait: Commander Fox stops the disguised Separatist demolition droids because they nearly turn the wrong way on their way to the power plant.
* HopeSpot: For a moment when the Separatist Parliament votes in favour of opening peace talks, it really looks like there's a chance for peace... and then the very next scene reminds us who's ''really'' in charge here.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Mina Bonteri seems fairly sensible, but she openly admires Count Dooku, dismissing claims that he's a Sith Lord. That same man will kill her in the next episode for nearly stopping the war his master so desperately needs to keep going.
* InnocuouslyImportantEpisode: While the episode itself shows a failed attempt at stopping the war, it helps set up multiple arcs that pave the way for future ''Star Wars'' developments: the rise of Lux Bonteri from a revenge-seeking young man into a freedom fighter (which in turn gives rise to the infamous partisan Saw Gerrera), the subsequent financial issues that lead to Palpatine's eventual takeover of the Banking Clan (and thus giving him the funds to build the Death Star), the vulnerability in Coruscant's defenses that foreshadow its eventual attack in ''Revenge Of The Sith'', and the growing moral complexities that Ahsoka will eventually grow to understand in her later years.
* InTheHood: Padmé and Ahsoka's disguises when they arrive on Raxus.
* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: Six suicide bomber droids are sent to attack Coruscant disguised as sweeper droids.
* MaleGaze: Lux to Ahsoka when he meets her.
-->'''Ahsoka:''' Well, it seems boys are the same whether they're Republic or Separatist.
* MidSeasonUpgrade: Starting with this episode, a significant amount of characters began to receive revamped designs and Ahsoka now carries ''two'' lightsabers. This episode also marks the transition of ''The Clone Wars'' into the aesthetic of ''Revenge of the Sith''.
* MirroringFactions: The point of this episode is that the majority of people on both sides of the Clone Wars are quite similar, down to the fact that delegates in the senates on both sides are having trouble deciding whether to escalate the war. And on the darker side of things, they're ''all'' being manipulated by the Sith, with both senates containing delegates who stand for blatant corporate interests and others who are idealists.
* RightHandVersusLeftHand: A deliberate example. Mina Bonteri persuades the Separatist parliament to vote for a peace bill, while Count Dooku undermines the effort by sending suicide bomber droids to Coruscant, which leads the majority of the Galactic Senate to believe the effort to be insincere.
* ShoutOut: The design of the Separatist Parliament is almost an exact replica of the UK House of Commons.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Dooku, in the Confederacy of Independent Systems, as demonstrated by Mina Bonteri. In fact, in the CIS, he has to act much like his master Palpatine and pretend to abide by the rule of law, while going against it.
* WarForFunAndProfit: Several of the senators aligned with the {{Mega Corp}}s that are part of the Separatists are attempting to do this.
* WeHaveBecomeComplacent: The Banking Clan senator Nix Card suggests that Coruscant has grown a false sense of security due to not having been attacked in over 1,000 years, so arranging for an attack should be the perfect motivation for indecisive senators.

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