I like the kids... I get the circus thing being for kiddie entertainment but I agree, it was sort of poorly thought-out. That said, it's all far better than Onderon... It all, almost, makes sense.
That Wookiee kid is, as far as I'm concerned, the best candidate for a figure the CW has produced in the past 3 years IMO. I'd love some Younglings though, and would buy any of them if they were realistic.
I loved Hondo this episode... Just a drunken, whoring, goofball. They're trying, a little bit, to give him some Jack Sparrow I think, and I like it.
I thought the spacebattle was actually kind of important for a couple reasons... One, to me, they needed to get back to the war, in a big way, and this was a good way to do it. Kenobi's just buzzing around and boom, enemy fleet.
Second though, I liked that they put Kenobi off in what seems like a whole new story arc... He's now adrift it seemed, as I didn't see any surviving Republic ships. Where's that going then? They could just leave it to off-screen explanation that he just escapes and everything's hunky dory.
On the third thought though, the spacebattle set up the Younglings and their whole story... It seems like it might not be over too, but I guess next episode we'll see what way they're going, be it Kenobi or Ahsoka/Younglings.