Hello I'm Going To Watch All of Star Wars

[CaptainWacky]

These were great episodes of tv.

AHSOKA IS A MUCH BETTER CHARACTER THAN REY (of course she had five seasons of character development compared to one movie but it's still true.)

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 601 - The Unknown

The truth about yourself is always the hardest to accept.

Battle for Ringo Vinda! Republic forces are locked in heated combat with the droid armada on a massive space station that encircles an entire planet. Anakin Skywalker valiantly leads his men against the onslaught, which has lasted several rotations with neither side gaining any ground.

Aided by the twin sister Jedi Masters Tiplee and Tiplar, the Republic now mounts a desperate offensive to break the deadlock....​

After the high emotion of the end of last season, this episode opens with some good old Clone Wars action, featuring both the familiar faces of Fives and Tup (he was in the Umbara episodes!) and the long-awaited return of Admiral Trench. He was, if you remember, the giant spider guy from "Cat and Mouse", the very first episode of the show I watched! But now he's back with robot arms, what with him being blown up in the previous episode.

We also see two new Jedi, Tiplee and Tiplar, who are cool sisters with cool floating hair/tentacles and Irish accents for some reason. The battle seems to be going fine until Tup goes crazy and kills Tiplar. Although we've literally just met the character, her death is still pretty shocking - both because we have her actual twin sister there to show grief over it, and because of the fact that seeing a Clone kill a Jedi like that is actually pretty strange to see after five seasons of this show.

Of course, this is one of those things that works a lot differently when this show is viewed in the context as having already seen Revenge of the Sith, rather than watching it in chronological order as I am. If you hadn't seen Revenge of the Sith, this goes from "Why is Order 66 activating early??" to "What's wrong with Tup?". We do at least find out that Dooku and Sideous are probably behind it, and that there's some 'conditioning' to the Clones that they are behind, adding to the greater mystery (which, again, isn't even a mystery when viewed in context of Revenge of the Sith).

The rest of the episode basically involves the Jedi trying to get Tup back to Kamino for analysis, but having him get captured by the Separatists and needing to be rescued. The capture of Tup is a pretty good sequence, with the shuttle being covered in Buzz droids and the crew dying some pretty nasty (and on-screen!) deaths - we see the Buzz droids drill into the cockpit and expose it to space, causing the clones to get blown out into the vacuum. It's a pretty good argument for why you'd use Buzz Droids instead of just hitting them with a normal torpedo (which was a common complaint about the buzz droids after they appeared in Revenge of the Sith). There's also a cool zero-G fight between the clones and the droids.

I'm not sure why the Seperatists actually want to capture Tup, though, as surely if he went to Kamino he'd still be under the control of the Kaminoans, who in turn still take orders from both Dooku and Sideous... Maybe that gets explained in the next episodes, I can't remember.

The rescue of Tup is also a nice sequence, which sees Anakin, Rex and Fixes walk along the outside of the Separatist ship and grapple on to the shuttle as it leaves the hanger bay. There's a lot of good people-in-zero-gravity stuff in this episode!

This episode is a pretty standard Part 1: It sets up the story nicely, has some great action scenes in it, and then doesn't really end on the cliffhanger but leaves the story open enough to be continued next week (in this case, it's Fives accompanying Tup back to Kamino).

ONE IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE: There's a new Clone Commander in this episode called "Commander Doom" and he looks like this:

YOU FOOL.


Episode 602 - Conspiracy

The wise benefit from a second opinion.

A flaw in the plan! While in the middle of a heated battle, clone trooper Tup lost his senses and killed a Jedi General. Seeming to have no awareness of his actions, Tup's health began to deteriorate rapidly.

Fearing the illness was linked to a Separatist plot, Anakin Skywalker has dispatched Captain Rex and ARC Trooper 5555 to escort Tup back to the cloning facilities on Kamino for an intensive evaluation....​

Hey we're on Kamino again, which means we get to see Shaak Ti!

I like Shaak Ti.

One of the interesting thing about the Kaminoans is that they've always been a somewhat morally grey element in the Clone Wars. They obviously work alongside the Jedi to provide more Clones, but at the same time there's always been the question of who actually ordered the Clones in the first place, and how much the Kaminoans know about Order 66.

This episode actually goes into quite a lot of detail about that - we don't learn anything about Sifo Dyas, but we do learn that as far as the Kaminoans are concerned, the Order 66 chip was something Sifo Dyas wanted in case the Clones had to put down any "rogue Jedi". So while they're not totally evil, they're still not honest to the Jedi about what's going on.

This is basically what this episode is about, the Kaminoans need to hide the existence of the Order 66 chip, while Fives is trying to find the truth. In order to do this, he teams up with a medical droid named AZ-3, who adds some lightness to the episode. I totally understand why they did this, this is after all a pretty dark episode about the fact that Tup might die, and the idea that the Clones that we have all grown to know over the series may have something seriously wrong with them, so it makes sense to add a slightly lighter character like this. The fact that he never goes full comic relief means he never gets annoying, he just provides a nice change of tone every once in a while.

Fives removes what he believes to be a tumour from Tup, who then promptly dies - and Palpatine orders that it gets sent to the medical facility on Coruscant, rather than the Jedi Temple.

I like this episode, it's a slow burner, but we get some more insight into some of the central mysteries that were established way back in Attack of the Clones.


Episode 603 - Fugitive

When in doubt, go to the source.

Cause of death: unknown. Kaminoan doctor Nala Se was unable to find the cause of an illness in clone trooper Tup. In a desperate attempt to save his friend's life, Fives located and removed a tumor from Tup's brain, with the help of medical droid AZ-3.

Immediately following the procedure, Tup died, and Fives was placed under arrest. Now the tumor is the only hope for finding answers to Tup's mysterious illness....​

Fives and AZ-3 go on the run in order to find out more about the tumours, and to find out how many clones have them. It's a bit strange having two arcs where a major or recurring character goes on the run from the Republic in order to prove something, but they do enough to make them different that it doesn't feel like we're going over old ground. Ahsoka's story was much more serious, whereas here we have AZ-3 still adding some levity to the situation. Also, Ahsoka was 100% innocent in what she was running from, whereas Fives is being hunted because he is actually doing something wrong. Five's escape feels more like an exciting adventure, whereas Ahsoka was fighting for basically her entire life as she knew it.

We get a lot more exposition on what the tumors are and why they're there - namely that they're "inhibitor chips" and that they're there to stop some of the more aggressive tendencies of Jango Fett from manifesting. This is probably partially true, as it is mentioned in Attack of the Clones that the Clones were altered to be a bit more docile when compared to Jango, but there's obviously a lot more going on with the chip.

One thing I do like is how reasonable Shaak Ti is. We saw the Jedi treat Ahsoka terribly in the previous arc, but it's nice to see that here Shaak Ti is totally willing to listen to Fives and hear what he has to say. She obviously doesn't trust the Kaminoans, and obvious sees the Clones as people, so it's nice to see a Jedi be actually reasonable about something for a change. It also adds an air of hope to the story - obviously we know that the Jedi won't find out the entire truth about Order 66, but it does mean that Fives might be able to prove something about the chips to the Jedi. After all, Fives has been in this show from almost the very start!

Like the previous episode, it primarily serves as a way to add more detail onto concepts introduced in Attack of the Clones, while providing a fun adventure along the way. These episodes are written by Katie Lucas (she wrote good Asajj Ventress and now she writes good Shaak Ti!), so it's kind of nice that George Lucas' daughter is the one expanding on ideas that her father created.


Episode 604 - Orders

The popular belief isn't always the correct one.

Clone crisis! After the mysterious death of his friend Tup, ARC trooper Fives embarked on an investigation, which led to the discovery of a hidden chip which is placed inside clone troopers when they are still embryos.

The Kaminoan scientist Nala Se claims the chip is harmless, and is meant to restrain the clones from violent, unpredictable action. Fives claims otherwise, and has convinced Jedi Master Shaak Ti to allow him to plead his case directly to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine on Coruscant....​

While the last three episodes have been dealing with some very important parts of the overall Clone Wars storyline, they've also been rather light in tone. Part of this is probably because you don't really want a dark season opener right after a very dark season finale, and the episodes themselves managed to pull off the lighter tone without getting too stupid with it.

This episode, though, drops that entirely - and is now very much about Fives trying to convince Rex and Anakin about what he knows. There's an amazing scene where Palpatine (off camera) tells Fives basically everything about Order 66 and the chips, which sends Fives off the deep end and on the run. What makes the entire episode work is that Palpatine's master plan does sound crazy when explained the way Fives does, so we totally believe that Anakin and Rex don't take him at his word, all the while we know that Fives is 100% right - both from what the episodes themselves have told us, and from the context of presumably having seen Revenge of the Sith.

Fives, a character whose career we have followed from Cadet to ARC Trooper and the last surviving member of Domino squad, gets killed for trying to assassinate Palpatine, even though we as the audience know he is 100% right about everything. It's probably one of the darkest things this show has ever done, and another great example of how even though the show is essentially about the Clones fighting Droids, Palpatine still the one in control of everything.

We also get to see a side of the Clones that we never really have before when we visit a Clone bar on Coruscant, full of drunk and rowdy Clones.

The idea that the Clones, who have been essentially grown for war, also like to kick back and dance with hot Twi'Leks humanises them a lot, even though we know they are still essentially programmed killers.

The question of whether or not the Clones have actual free will is one of the major themes of this arc. Fives has multiple discussions with AZ-3 about how droids are stuck to their programming, but Clones are free to do what they want - all the while researching a chip which proves the exact opposite. There's multiple reminders that the Clones are in fact property - Nala Se reminds Fives that he is not actually free, but Kaminoan property, and the only reply Shaak Ti can give is to say that, technically, the Clones are all property of the Jedi because they paid for them.

These questions are important, as this show has gone a long, long way in making the Clones seem like individuals, but constantly reminding us that despite that they are still totally controllable.

Although the show would probably have a couple of seasons left in it after this one, this would turn out to be the last season of Clone Wars, and you can tell there's a definite push to move towards the setting of Revenge of the Sith. Not just with the introduction of the ships and designs seen in that film, but also in the fact that we're seeing more and more of Palpatine's plan, and tying up the loose ends left by Attack of the Clones.

These are good episodes, the only thing that really lets them down is that they are slightly similar to the previous Ahsoka arc (especially in the last episode where Fives is running away by hiding in the lower depths of Coruscant), and that arc was so amazing this can only look worse in comparison. But it does a great job at fleshing out some of the major ideas of the prequels, and making a nice bridge between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I liked the medical droid because I like cute droids. It's really good how much Clone Wars added to the story of the clones. Before this when you watched the Order 66 sequence you cared about it because of the Jedi dying and because it was a well edited sequence with great music. Now you care about it eve more because you understand the clones are victims too and you're watching them having to murder their friends (and of course you like the Jedi as actual characters now too.)

Whch reminds me we have to tell SAUSAGEMAN you're nearly at Episode 3!

 

[The Tomtrek]

It's going to be weird to see actual live action people be in Star Wars again.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I can't wait to post "IT WAS BETTER THAN THE FORCE AWAKENS" then nothing else.

 

[SAUSAGEMAN]

i'm here

 

[SAUSAGEMAN]

i don't remember ep 3 being better than TFA

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 605 - An Old Friend

To love, is to trust. To trust is to believe.

As the war between the Republic and the Separatists intensifies, many are driven from their home planets, and it is up to Senator Amidala to secure aid for them. All eyes turn to the Banking Clan and the planet Scipio. In an effort to remain independent from the Republic and the Separatists, all operations are divided, and money transactions are performed in a neutral zone surrounding the main vault. For operations to continue, there must be no war on Scipio.

However, worry about the stability of the Banking Clan is brewing within the Republic as the wellspring of money may be in jeopardy....​

Throughout everything that has happened in this show - Asajj's betrayal and life as a bounty hunter, Ahsoka's expulsion from the Jedi Order, Fives' rise through the ranks and eventual tragic end - one question has lingered in the background: What is Rush Clovis up to?

You remember Rush Clovis, right? He was Padmé's ex-flame from that really bad season 2 episode! Yeah, him! Anyway, Padmé is visiting Scipio (pronounced 'Skippy-o') to negotiate a bank loan from the Banking Clan and OH MY GOD this episode is dull.

Seriously, it's an episode about bank loans. Space bank loans, sure, but still. They say "Scipio" ALL THE TIME and it sounds dumber every time. And it has Rush Clovis who is a terrible character, and seriously creepy around Padmé. He has IMPORTANT INFORMATION about how the banks have no money and Padmé is worried because of how this will affect the loan and blah blah blah blah blah blah this is almost as bad as the Mandolorian tea. I like Padmé! I like Padmé episodes! But come on!

Okay, well, Embo is there, which is something, and he's trying to stop Padmé from exposing the Banking Clan's secrets. Embo's always been shown as one of the "good" Bounty Hunters, so it's interesting to see him as the antagonist and it helps to had a little bit of moral ambiguity to his character. He even kills one of Padmé's handmaidens!

Things actually start to pick up when Padmé gets arrested for espionage and Anakin arrives to rescue her, because at this point even Anakin being a jealous asshole is at least interesting to watch. And it is! For all his Jedi training Anakin still turns into a petty jealous teenager when he's with Padmé and Clovis which is fine becuase that 100% fits Anakin's character.

The best part about the episode - something that actually sort of redeems it - is the chase between Anakin, Padmé and Clovis with Embo. Snowboarding. On his hat.

It's actually a pretty great sequence that's actually quite well directed and looks fun and why wasn't the rest of the episode this interesting.

This episode is one good chase sequence and a whole lot of nothing else. At least this is just a one-off episod- OH FUCK IT'S A THREE PARTER.


Episode 606 - The Rise of Clovis

Jealousy is the path to chaos.

War profiteers! In times of war, credits are the fuel that fund all operations. Senator Amidala is sent to Scipio to resolve matters between the Republic and the InterGalactic Banking Clan. Here she is reunited with Rush Clovis – a once-close friend, but now a known traitor to the Republic. When Clovis reveals corruption at the core of the Banking Clan, Senator Amidala helps him steal vital files that may uncover the full extent of the plot.

Anakin Skywalker is sent to rescue the Senator, and escort the information back to Coruscant, leaving the Banking Clan in chaos....​

Look, I'll just say it now: I don't care about the Banking Clan plot of this episode. Sidious and Dooku are conspiring to make Rush Clovis the head of the Banking Clan for some reason and that's why they let him escape with the leaked data in the last episode. Fine, okay, whatever.

Aside from all that, this episode gives us probably the biggest look into Anakin's feelings about Padmé and how close they can bring him to the dark side. As he's back on Coruscant, Yoda and Obi-Wan start to notice Anakin's feelings of jealously towards Clovis. Obi-Wan confronts him about this, recognising that Anakin does have feelings for Padmé, and being able to empathise with him due to the feelings he had for Satine. It's probably the most open conversation we ever see between the two, especially about Anakin's feelings for Padmé, and shows that although Obi-Wan is the by-the-book Jedi he still has it in him to empathise with Anakin.

But more than that, we see Anakin be a real asshole towards both Padmé and Clovis, to the point where he starts to force choke and then beat Clovis when he thinks he's about to kiss Padmé. At first I thought that maybe they had taken Anakin's actions too far. Not only is he pretty damn sexist towards Padmé, but his uncontrollable anger while beating Clovis starts to push him a bit too far into the 'abusive husband' role. Yes, of course he has a dark side (he will turn into Darth Vader after all!) but he is still also supposed to be the hero of the show, so seeing him go this far is a bit much.

The show actually handles it pretty well, though. Unlike in the Season 2 episode where Padmé apologies to Anakin for making him jealous by doing nothing (fuck that episode), here she calls out Anakin on his terrible behaviour, and directly tells him that maybe their marriage isn't going to work. After all, as Padmé says in the episode, they have to lie to everyone about their whole marriage which isn't exactly healthy. I think showing Anakin and Padmé having serious relationship problems adds a lot to both characters, as they are both very flawed people in a very flawed relationship, so it would be stupid to show it being good and happy all of the time.

What else... oh, Padmé gets a new dress that she wears when working with Clovis!

Like the dress she wore by the fireside with Anakin in Attack of the Clones, this must be part of her "sexy dresses to wear when I tell men I don't want to be in a relationship with them" range.

We get to hear Rush Clovis' sob story of a background (family dead, etc.) but he's still a jerk.

So yeah, the actual plot of this episode is pretty bad. But there's a whole load of interesting Anakin character stuff going on and that makes it very worth it.


Episode 607 - Crisis at the Heart

Deceit is the weapon of greed.
Corruption discovered at the core of the Banking Clan! Reunited, Rush Clovis and Senator Amidala discover the full extent of the deception. Anakin Skywalker is sent to the rescue – he refuses to trust Clovis, and asks Padmé not to work with him. Determined to save the banks, she refuses her husband's request, throwing their relationship into turmoil.

Voted for by both the Separatists and the Republic, Clovis is elected new leader of the Galactic Banking Clan. Now all attention is focused on Scipio, as the important transfer of power begins....​

Well finally the whole Banking Clan plot starts to pay off, as we find out that Dooku helped Clovis become it's leader so that he could force him to favour the Separatists... giving the Republic a reason to invade Scipio and give full control of the banks to Palpatine.

It's not a bad plot, it's actually a pretty good one, and yet another time that Palpatine manipulated both sides of the war to get more power for himself, but it didn't need two boring episodes of setup! One boring episode, maybe!

But at least it means there's some action going on, and at this point in the show that's always going to be good to watch at the very least.

But the biggest disappointment about this episode is how it fails on the character side of things. I think we're supposed to feel sorry for Clovis, as he was manipulated by Count Dooku and make to take the blame, but as soon as Anakin approaches him he takes Padmé as a hostage. Fuck that guy.

Eventually we end up with Padmé and Clovis hanging of the side of a building, with Anakin trying to pull them both up. He can't hold on to them both, so in order to save Padmé's life Clovis lets go and falls to his death.

Which, sure, fine - evil character redeems self by sacrificing himself to save someone else... but Anakin has magic powers that can make people float. We've seen him do it. Did... did he forget that he could do that? Did he not use the force on purpose to kill Clovis? Did Padmé also forget Anakin has force powers? Weird.

PLUS after all the really interesting Anakin/Padmé stuff last episode, it's all resolved with a "Oh thank you for saving me Anakin" "Everything's going to be okay, Padmé" and literally none of the conflict from the previous episode is mentioned at all. Weak.

That's what these episodes are, really - weak. The main plot is deathly uninteresting, it has some really really interesting character development that it then forgets about, and there's a couple of good action sequences.

These episodes were originally made and meant to be shown as part of Season 5, but they were delayed and never shown until after the series was cancelled. Were they delayed because they just weren't very good?

 

[CaptainWacky]

I like that Embo has both a hat AND a dog. I'm sick of bounty hunters who have only one identifying gimmick!

Isn't Anakin supposed to have a Ben Quadinaros poster on his wall (but you probably can't make it out.)

 

[The Tomtrek]

He sure did!

 

[FBI parte due]

Of course, this is one of those things that works a lot differently when this show is viewed in the context as having already seen Revenge of the Sith, rather than watching it in chronological order as I am.

Pierre Menard, Watcher of Star Wars

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 608 - The Disappeared, Part I

Without darkness there cannot be light.

Mystery on Bardotta! An oasis of peace during the Clone Wars, the galaxy-wide conflict now threatens the ancient ways of the Bardottan people. With their spiritual leaders mysteriously vanishing, the foundations of order in its system are near collapse.

In desperation, the Queen of Bardotta has called upon the Republic Senate with a puzzling request – to help save her people from certain doom....​

If there's a rule about Jar Jar Binks in Clone Wars, it's that when Ahmed Best is playing him, he's pretty okay. I'm not actually sure what it is about Best's performance that makes it work, I think it's because he treats Jar Jar as having something more to him than just being a bumbling idiot, in that he actually means well with every action that he does.

So this is the episode where Jar Jar and Mace Windu team up to find the missing Bardottan masters. What's interesting about the Bardottans is that Yoda describes them as being strong in the force, but neither Jedi or Sith (maybe more like The Bendu?) - but they distrust Jedi ever since they took some of their children away to join the order. The Jedi taking children from their homes and forcing them to join what is essentially a religious order has always been one of the (deliberatley) morally questionable things that they do, and it's good to see that point being raised by a group who are otherwise shown to be the good guys. It's just another subtle layer added to the idea that the Jedi are inherently flawed as they currently are.

Speaking of the Jedi, it's nice that we're so far into the show now that they have the models to do the entire Jedi council (apart from Adi Gallia, who's dead). Even Oppo Rancisis is there, making his Clone Wars debut!

(I think those are supposed to be Depa Billaba's feet on the left...)

So pairing Jar Jar and Mace together give an obvious buddy cop vibe, with Jar Jar being the clown and Mace being the straight man. But what this episode does to make it interesting is have Jar Jar be the one who's in the position to get more information, and Mace being the one getting in the way.

See, the Queen of Bardotta likes Jar Jar. A LOT -

- to the point where it's even implied that they had sex during the episode (they literally say he "spent the night with her"). As such he's in the best position to talk to her about the missing Masters and who could be behind it. Mace, however, keeps barging in everywhere with a Jedi-given sense of entitlement, and just pisses everyone off by the simple fact of him being there. It's a really nice bit of role reversal on Jar Jar's part, and keeps him from being a one-note character.

Half way through the episode the Queen gets kipnapped, and Jar Jar and Mace start to investigate the ancient temple that lies under the Badottan city. There they find an ancient religion that was thought to be dead is actually alive and well and practicing sacrifices!

Yep, it's full on Temple of Doom! But where the Thuggee cult was mining for magic stones and sacrificing people for.. uh... reasons, these guys are instead sacrificing the masters by extracting their force energy. It's a pretty neat idea that adds a nice Star Wars twist to the ancient cult trope.

There's fighting, Mace saves the day, etc, etc, and the queen gets taken away to another planet. Mace and Jar Jar vow to rescue her, as they're becoming... FRIENDS?!

This is a fun episode. The Mace/Jar Jar interactions work well, and Jar Jar is actually really kind of tolerable here.


Episode 609 - The Disappeared, Part II

Wisdom is born in fools as well as wise men.

Lost! Queen Julia of the planet Bardotta has been abducted. If Representative Jar Jar Binks and Jedi Master Mace Windu cannot find the missing queen in three rotations, a sinister prophecy will be fulfilled.

The bloodthirsty Frangawl Cult will take over the Bardottan government, and its planetary system will be overwhelmed with chaos, death and destruction....​

The prophecy mentioned in the opening narration was briefly brought up in the last episode, and never really mentioned in this one, and it never really matters... so I'm not sure why it's even there!

This episode is a lot more straightforward than the last one. Almost too straightforward. Mace and Jar Jar chase the cultists and the Queen to another planet, and fight through a series of them and a couple of gundarks to get to her. The action is fun, if a bit shallow.

Meanwhile, the cultists are awaiting the arrival of the "Great Mother", who their order is collecting the living Force energy for. The "Great Mother" turns out to be... Mother Talzin! Talzin's plan is to take the living force collected by the cultists and use it to become more powerful than any Sith or Jedi. The Nightsisters' powers have never really been explained, but before this episode it was always thought that their magic was just another manifestation of the force. This episode changes that completely, with Talzin saying that she actually has no connection to the force (which is why she needed it to be collected for her) and instead uses "Dark Magic". This then shows that "Dark Magic", whatever is it, is something totally different to the force. I'm honestly not so sure about this revelation as I always quite liked that the Nightsisters where using the Force in just a different way than the Jedi or Sith are able to, but it's okay I guess. It's not the first time the concept of straight-up 'magic' has been introduced into the Star Wars universe, but I'll get on to that much later.

Talzin in this episode is actually quite different than in her previous appearances. Before, she was mostly seen as somewhat of a chaotic neutral, obviously opposing both the Jedi and the Sith. She was even quite sympathetic sometimes, with her being an obvious mother-figure to Asajj Ventress, and we were obviously supposed to feel sad when the right of the Nightsisters were wiped out. But here she's basically just a Saturday morning cartoon villain. Her plan of "get all the power so she can by THE MOST POWERFUL EVER!!" has about the same level of complexity as something thought up by Mumm-ra.

And that applies to this whole episode, really. Whereas in the last episode there was some actual interesting stuff going in, both with Jar Jar and getting some insight into how some of the galaxy see the Jedi, here it's a basic "Heroes fight the bad guy, heroes win, bad guy gets away" story. Not that that's bad, but it's a bit unsatisfying. It's a shame because the whole Temple of Doom vibe was really working in the previous episode, and they could have extended it into this one but instead they decided to do something a bit more boring.

On the whole I do like these episodes. They're fun, with good character moments and action, but ultimately a bit too simple for it's own good, especially part II (I have no idea why these are parts I and II instead of having individual names).

Had these episodes been a part of a complete season as it was planned, they would have been a nice light hearted change of tone. But now this is actually the penultimate story arc it maybe does come across as a little too light considering how many episodes of this show we have left. That's not the fault of the episodes, though! I just wish there was more Clone Wars to go!

 

[CaptainWacky]

Jar Jar Binks and Mace Windu teaming up for an Indiana Jones style adventure. Only Clone Wars would be so bold.

I'm glad Jar Jar got laid.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 610 - The Lost One

What is lost is often found.

A long-awaited truth! A distress signal has been received at the Jedi Temple, and Master Plo Koon has been dispatched to investigate its origin.

The signal is from a ship thought to be lost and was last known to be in the possession of a Jedi Master who was killed long ago...​

Oh man, Sifo-Dyas. Who Sifo-Dyas was and why he ordered the Clones was one of the biggest unanswered questions from Attack of the Clones, and it was something that was left unanwered in Revenge of the Sith - but now we get a whole episode dedicated to the subject!

Plo Koon finds the remains of Sifo-Dyas' crashed ship on the moon of Oba Diah, where the Pkyes (the cool looking crime lords from the Darth Maul/Mandalore arc last season) live. While he doesn't find Sifo-Dyas' body, he does find his lightsaber...

This leads Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin into trying to find out the truth about his death. As far as the Jedi knew, Sifo-Dyas was an ex-member of the council, who was removed because he had radical ideas about an upcoming conflict and the need to raise an army to prepare for it. He was then killed a short time before the events of The Phantom Menace.

The Jedi's investigation takes from in true procedural style through many different leads, including talking to Ex-Chancellor Valorum (sadly not played by Terrance Stamp again) and talking to the Pykes directly about what happened when Sifo-Dyas visited them. Meanwhile, Sidious dispatches Dooku to clean up any Sifo-Dyas related loose ends, to stop the Jedi in their tracks.

While this episode is pretty much just pure exposition, the way it's presented as a mystery makes it fun to watch, and the fact that it's dealing with some really important plot details makes the whole thing worthwhile. Quite a few seriously major plot revelations happen in this episode:

The Jedi learn from the Pykes and from one of Valorum's old aides (who had been imprisoned on the Pyke's planet for over 10 years and gone crazy!) that Sido-Dyas was killed by the Pykes on the orders of someone named Tyrannus, who Obi-Wan remembers was also the name of the person who hired Jango Fett, something he learnt way back in Attack of the Clones.

More importantly, the Jedi then find out that Tyrannus is actually Dooku, who is there on Oba Diah to stop the Jedi from finding out too much. We also get a pretty neat fight scene between Anakin, Obi-Wan and Dooku to check the "must have an action scene" box for this episode.

But the main meat of this episode is the final scene, in which the Jedi discuss the fact that they now know for sure that the Clone Army was actually ordered by Count Dooku for some unknown reason. They can't actually tell anyone this, as it would mean that they would lose all faith from the Senate and it would destroy any chance they have of winning the war, but at the same time they are totally stuck as this whole army they've been using and fighting with for years was actually ordered by the person they are using it to fight against. It's a great moment of realisation for the Jedi that they are so totally fucked, and literally the only option they have now to is try and end the war as soon as possible before Dooku's plan, whatever it is, comes into affect.

As I said before, this episode is pure exposition, filling in a huge gap in the story between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. If it weren't for the fact that this information is so important, and that it really does leave the Jedi in such a hopeless place, this episode would just be a bog standard late Clone Wars episode (which is to say, "pretty good"). But with all of that, it's actually one of the most important episodes of the series, somehow? It's so good they were able to finish it because it would be such a same for this bit of story to have been unseen.


Episode 611 - Voices

Madness can sometimes be the path to truth.

Jedi mystery! A lightsaber was found on the moon of Oba Diah, belonging to Sifo-Dyas, the Jedi responsible for the creation of the clone army. The Jedi have learned that before the start of the war Count Dooku murdered Sifo-Dyas and skillfully manipulated the Republic into the galactic conflict intending for the Jedi to fight with the clones at their side.

Now, as the Jedi Council meets to discuss the purpose of this deception, Master Yoda meditates deep into the Force in search of answers.​

Yoda is sat meditating on just how fucked the Jedi are and, oh wait, that's the voice of Liam Fucking Neeson. Yes Qui-Gon is back (and Kevin Kiner brought his theme with him!) claiming that he is part of the Living Force.

Yoda is troubled by this, not sure whether to believe it or not, so he asks the rest of the council to help meditate with him to find some answers. We get some really great fake-time-lapse shots of the Coruscant and the Jedi temple, but ultimately none of the Jedi know what he's even talking about.

Although we're now in the 6th Season of the show, apart from the very first episode of the first season we've not really had any Yoda-focused episodes. Now that changes, and these episodes are totally about Yoda and his connection to the Force. A lot of the complaints about Yoda in the prequels were to do with how he was different to the character we saw in Empire. Because he was different, people just assumed it was "bad writing" rather than the fact that Yoda actually changes as a person during the course of those films. These episodes show how his view of the force changes between the prequels and the original trilogy.

Going into an isolation tank to help communicate with the force, Yoda has a vision of Qui-Gon telling him to go to Dagobah. Doagobah! Like from that film I haven't watched yet! The Jedi don't trust that Yoda isn't under the influence of the dark side, so Yoda asks Anakin's help to escape. You don't really see a lot of direct interaction between Yoda and Anakin, so it's nice to see that he's the one Yoda turns to when he needs to go behind the council's back.

He even takes R2-D2 with him in his own little Jedi Startfighter! It's adorable!

On Dagobah, we learn more from Qui-Gon about what the Force actually is - that it's composed of two parts (The Living Force and The Cosmic Force) and that the midichlorians are just what allow Jedi to communicate with them both. It should be noted that the idea that midichlorians were just what let people feel the Force and not the actual Force itself is something that's pretty clearly stated in The Phantom Menace but people still got mad about them anyway so here we have an explanation on how the Force can still be a mystical energy field and how midichlorians can still be a thing.

But most importantly, while on Dagobah Yoda has visions that are straight up just scenes from Revenge of the Sith. The Jedi fighting Clones! Sidious killing Kit Fisto and electrocuing Mace! Even the deleted scene of Shaak-Ti dying!

Of course, he doesn't actually see enough to know who Sidious is, or who is killing Shaak Ti, but those are some pretty major spoilers Dagobah is giving him!

Once again, Clone Wars takes a concept that was only shown subtlety in the films and spends the time to not only make it explicit, but to expand upon it as well. Here we see that Yoda is starting to find out that there is so much more to the Force than he thought, and as such he starts to see it in a different light. While this episode is only the very first step of this process, it's what helps us go from the Yoda that totally trusted a midichlorian count in The Phantom Menace to the one who would say "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." in The Empire Strikes Back.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 612 - Destiny

Death is just the beginning.

Blinded by the dark side! The Jedi Council has begun to unravel the mystery of how the clone army was created. And now fear the Sith Lord, Count Dooku was behind it. Master Yoda searches for answers. And during deep meditation, he is able to contact the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn, who reveals to Yoda that he must manifest his consciousness after death if he is to preserve the Jedi Order.

Now, we find Master Yoda deep in space searching for a path to ones who will teach him all he does not know of the Force.
​

This is the first shot of the whole episode and it's beautiful, just like this entire episode is beautiful, really.

Landing on a mysterious planet, Yoda encounters a group of Preistesses, who claim to be able to show Yoda how to keep his consciousness in the force after death. They too go into concepts such as how the Living Force works with the Cosmic Force, and get even get another mention of midichlorians (these episodes go to great lengths to not only bring midichlorians back as a concept but work them into the idea of the force as Yoda knows it in The Empire Strikes Back).

I've been trying to work out where these priestesses fit into the grand scene of the Force next to things like Mortis and The Bendu and... I'm still not sure? They claim to be the spirits of people who are long dead, so it's possible they are actually some of the very early force wielders, but it's never made clear.

Anyway, in order to learn how to keep is consciousness in the Living Force (as opposed to letting it join the Cosmic force, which all things do when they die), Yoda has to undergo a series of trials to prove himself. Yoda insists that, hey, he's a Jedi Master and already basically perfect, and that he's beyond things like hate and fear. This is a rare look into Yoda's more arrogant side, which is exactly the thing he faces in his first trial.

We get a look at Yoda's dark side, represented by a cool evil Yoda demon smoke monster thing, and we learn that not only does Yoda actually have a dark side, but that it's been growing as he continues to wage a war. The idea that Yoda, the most powerful Jedi, has the hubris to believe that he has no evil in him, and has to confront that fact is a look into the Jedi as a whole. In their arrogance they do believe they are totally in the right throughout the Clone War, despite the fact that they continue to do worse and worse things, eventually leading to Anakin's fall.

Yoda eventually has to recognise his dark side and accept it's a part of him, but a part that he has control over. If only the rest of the Jedi could learn that!

Yoda's next trial is that of facing his fears and temptations. We see his fears directly - the Jedi temple full of dead Jedi, killed by the rise of the Sith. But more than that showing Yoda's fear of the Sith rising and the Jedi falling, it's the fact that he sees Ahsoka in the temple, dying, showing that somewhere deep down Yoda feels guilty over what happened with Ahsoka. And he's right to, because the Jedi seriously fucker her over, and this is Yoda's first step into realising that.

But then we see Yoda's temptation... and it's the Jedi temple at peace, with no Clone War at all. And Ahsoka's there! And Qui-Gon's there! And even Dooku's there! It's a vision of what the Jedi would be like if Dooku hadn't had fallen, and the Jedi were still the light side guardians they think themselves to be. It's a really nice way to contrast what Yoda thinks the Jedi should be like with what they are actually like.

Having faced his fears and his temptations, Yoda now has to continue on to Korriban Moraband, the homeworld of the Sith.

For one of the most popular and important Star Wars characters, it's actually very rare that we ever see how Yoda thinks and feels about the Force and the Jedi in such a clear way like this. Both the prequels and the Clone Wars have shown the various ways that the Jedi order are not perfect, and have let themselves slide into a corrupt dogmatic version of their former selves. Now we see Yoda actually start to realise that, to realise that even though he's a Jedi Master himself there is still a lot more for him to lean, and as such we get a very natural evolution between prequel-Yoda and original-trilogy-Yoda.


Episode 613 - Sacrifice

Facing all that you fear will free you from yourself.

Darkness on Dagobah! All attention is focused on Yoda, who claims to hear the voice of a long dead Jedi. Convinced that he is guarded by Qui-Gon Jinn, he finds five priestesses, who will teach him how to manifest conciousness after death.

After many trials, Yoda travels to Moraband, ancient home planet of the Sith. For now, he must face the true evil that maybe his undoing; and one that seeks to control the galaxy...
​

Yoda visits Moraband, homeworld of the sith, which a planet that has long existed in the EU albeit just under another name (Korriban). The planet in this show is pretty accurate to how we've seen the planet before, most notably in the Knights of the Old Republic games. Of course, they didn't know it at the time but the inclusion of Moraband here now keeps it in canon, just as it does with the person Yoda meets there - Darth Bane.

Here we learn (and set into canon!) that Darth Bane was the Sith lord who established the rule of two to stop the Sith from killing each other all the time, and he offers Yoda the chance to learn the ways of the Dark Side as a way of achieving life after death. Yoda, of course, recognises this as just another vision and refuses his offer.

While this is going on, Dooku joins Palpatine on Coruscant, and use the opportunity of Yoda being on Moraband as a way of trying to break his will. They do this by showing Yoda another fake vision (he's had a lot of these so far!), this time of Sifo-Dyas himself, offering to tell him the true identity of the Sith Lord!

Just as Yoda is about to tell him that, yeah, he knows he's not real and that he won't listen to him, the episode suddenly cuts to Yoda in a gunship on Coruscant with Anakin, Rex and the Clones. Apparently they tracked Dooku's arrival and are going to confront both of the Sith, and kill them if necessary.

Anakin faces against Dooku, and manages to best him and take his lightsaber. Against Yoda's orders, he beheads Dooku using both his and Dooku's lightsabers together. Wait a second...

Yoda faces off against Sidious, and... wait... this is another vision, isn't it? (of course it is) But the lesson Yoda learns in this specific vision is an important one. Sidious blasts Anakin with lightning and pushes him off the catwalk they're fighting on. Yoda has a direct choice - continue to fight Sidious and let Anakin die, or lose to Sidious now and keep Anakin alive.

This is the actual revelation Yoda has in this episode, and is the thing that keeps all the "it's just a vision!" stuff from being annoying. Yoda realises here that it may be better to lose the current battle in order to save the Jedi. He realises that the Jedi as they are now basically has no chance of winning against the Sith, even if they win the Clone War, but that it is possible to look beyond that and work towards a plan that will give a final end to the Sith. This is basically Yoda's entire motivation during the end of Revenge of the Sith and the Original Trilogy - accept the fact that he cannot win against the Sith and instead protect the future so that some day there will be those who can defeat them.

This is pretty much cemented in the fact that after realising this the priestesses give him one final vision - not of the fall of the Jedi, like he had before, but something beyond that. Of a future where someone - a new hope? - will rise against the Sith and defeat them, along with the words "There is another Skywalker".

It's kind of crazy how much this episode gets away with, not only do we get to see a Yoda/Sidious fight (something we should never really get to see before Revenge of the Sith!) but it shows that Yoda has already basically accepted the fate of the Jedi, and that the real victory can only be won by playing the long game and waiting for someone else to defeat them in the future. It will be really interesting to watch Revenge of the Sith with this in mind, as it basically changes Yoda's entire perspective throughout that film.

These four episodes are pretty damn important, both in explaining some of the missing plot details of the prequels, but showing how Yoda grows and changes as a result of the Clone War. We also get the Jedi Ghosts explanation, with it being mentioned that Qui-Gon will continue to teach Yoda.

These would end up being the very last episodes of The Clone Wars to be completely finished (although we're not done with the series yet!), and they actually make a really good stopping point. Not only are they all beautiful, fully showing off what a technical achievement this show has become, but they also tie up some of the very last loose ends that will then lead us neatly into Revenge of the Sith.

 

[CaptainWacky]

It was good that Clone Wars ended (as a tv series anyway) with episodes that could function as a series finale! Were these episodes oirginally supposed to end season 6 or were they always going to happen halfway through? It would have been kind of weird to go on with the season after all that heavy Yoda stuff.

I always found Yoda's dying words being "there is another Skywalker" a bit weird because it seems like it's setting up a big mystery (and originally it was going to set up another three movies where they search for the missing Skywalker) but in the VERY NEXT SCENE Obi-Wan's ghost just goes "yeah, it's Leia, obviously." But thanks to these episodes that line now has a new context and I can imagine Yoda was remembering the prophecy about Luke!

 

[The Tomtrek]

They did very much feel like finale episodes, yeah, especially because the last episode fades to black and doesn't have the usual end credits music, in the exact same way the last episode of the Ahsoka arc did. I guess they were just further along than the Utapau or Bad Batch episodes that they were able to be finished, or maybe even they chose to finish those episodes over the others just because of how important they are to the overall Star Wars story.

As these are the last fully-animated episodes made, I want to highlight just how much the look of the show has changed over five and a half seasons.

We've gone from stuff like this:

To stuff like this:

Part of it is due to the natural advances in technology as the show progressed, but a lot of it is also due to the fact that around season 3 or season 4 George Lucas started to put a lot of his own money into the show so that it could look the good as it possibly could - and that definitely shows! It's the main reason Rebels looks so much worse than later Clone Wars, they don't have that Lucas money!

 

[CaptainWacky]

I kind of wish Lucas had let them finish off season six in full before he said "okay, now I'll sell to Disney!" But I guess he really wanted out fast.

 

[The Tomtrek]

Episode 614* - A Death on Utapau

One crime has to be concealed by another.

Mystery on Utapau! Boasting a history of neutrality, the various species of Utapau co-exist on a multitude of levels above and below the surface. Pau'ans, Utai, and even more recent settlers like the less-sophisticated Amani populate the strange world.

But peaceful coexistence may soon be jeopardized when Anakin Skywalker and his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, arrive on a discreet mission to retrieve an important causality of war....​

So while we're done with the finished episodes of Clone Wars, there were still episodes that were part-way through production when the series was cancelled. Eight of these exist as "story reels" - unfinished animation, but with the full voice acting and soundtrack, that were used to show the episodes to Lucas and Filoni during production.

What this means is that we go from the stunning animation of season 6 to.... this:

The animation is basic, but there's enough there to easily understand what's going on, and in every other way they're basically full episodes. Plus they're on the chronological order list so I have to watch them.

Anyway, the episode. Obi-Wan and Anakin visit Utapau - who are neutral in the war - to investigate the death of a Jedi, Tu-Anh. It's a nice little murder mystery, even if the the actual killer is a bit obvious (it was the Separatists!). The story unfolds at a nice slow pace that allows us to find out more about Utapau - there's actually several species living there apart from the guys with lines all over their face, including the primitive Amani (that's these guys from Return of the Jedi:

)

Through their investigations we learn that one of the Amani was working with a weapons dealer and the Separatists somehow, and the Jedi believe it must be something big.

The plot itself is simple, but fine. What's more important here is that we get a lot of the Obi-Wan/Anakin relationship in a way we really haven't been able to see much of before. In Attack of the Clones they were very much master and pupil, but while Anakin becomes a Jedi Knight in Clone Wars we don't really get to see a lot of his direct interactions with Obi-Wan on his own, because he's also been a master to Ahsoka during the whole time. Now is really the first chance we get to see just the two of them together both as equals, in a dynamic that's very similar to what we'll see in Revenge of the Sith (although it's in many ways better because we have Matt Lanter instead of Hayden Christensen!).

For a murder mystery, the whole episode has quite a light tone with some nice comedy moments that work even in this rough form. There's a great bit where Obi-Wan and Anakin are fighting two MagnaGuards and have to keep on destroying them so they can get information from them... only Anakin gets bored half way through and kills his. It shows that while they do treat each other as equals now, Anakin is still Anakin.

The murder mystery and the lighter tone actually somehow work well together, and the episode in general is a nice start to the arc; with the murder mystery plot solved and the story allowed to move on to something different.


Episode 615* - In Search of the Crystal

The journey is often more important than the destination.

Unsolved mystery! Having traveled to the sinkhole planet of Utapau to investigate the murder of a Jedi, Anakin Skywalker and his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, find evidence pointing to a troubling conspiracy between the local Amani and the Separatists.

The surprising involvement of Sugi warriors leads the Jedi to a secret arms deal. Undaunted by intense pressure to leave the planet at once, the Jedi plan their next move....
​

After attacking and scaring away a small camp of Amani, and getting their mounts killed in the process, Anakin and Obi-Wan track down the Amani leader in search of the arms dealers they were working with.

It's this journey that allows us to get what is only really the second heart-to-heart Anakin and Obi-Wan have had so far - but this time it's about Ahsoka. Sitting around a campfire, Anakin tells Obi-Wan that he misses her, and blames the Jedi for not supporting her and leaving her no option but to leave the order. Obi-Wan, however, feels that Ahsoka let her emotions cloud her judgement, and that she should not have left. It's am important scene as it's the only time we ever actually get to see Anakin's feeling about Ahsoka's decision at the end of the last season, and it further solidifies the fact that this is just another part of his frustration and anger towards the Jedi council. It's good that we're able to see the conversion here, even in this rough form, as it's essentially all we now have to complete Anakin's relationship with Ahsoka. Plus it gives us this exchange:

Obi-Wan: "You can't take responsibility for Ahsoka's decision, Anakin."
Anakin: "How would you feel if I turned into a major disappointment?"
O-W: "It's not the same."
A: "It's precisely the same. You took me under your wing and practically raised me. I'm your Padawan just like Ahsoka was mine! How well would you sleep knowing I failed you?"
O-W: "Not very well, I imagine. Luckily, that isn't true - and never will be."

It's ironic, see.

The Jedi get captured by the arms dealers - a cool cyborg race called the Sugi - because Anakin fell asleep on watch. We then get a great scene where Anakin and Obi-Wan bluff the Sugi into thinking that they are here to buy the same weapon that Dooku wants, and that they're willing to pay more!

They get taken to the Sugi's leader - played by guest actor James Hong playing that same crazy character James Hong always plays (but he does it well!). We learn that the weapon Dooku is trying to buy is actually a large crystal...

Like the previous episode this episode still has a lighter tone, shown mainly through Anakin and Obi-Wan's quick-witted banter with each other. Anakin especially is much more sarcastic and snarky than we've ever seen him, but I think this is there both as a way of hiding his emotions over everything that's going on, and to show that he now doesn't actually have to act like a responsible mentor, as he no longer has a student, and so he's able to let loose a bit more. We see that directly in how he fights - he kills one of the Sugi by using the force to ignite his lightsaber while the Sugi was looking at it, and the same trick later by igniting his and Obi-Wan's lightsabers while they were on the belt of another Sugi, essentially cutting him in half.

The episode ends with Anakin and Obi-Wan escaping from the Sugi prison and finding the crystal - which is actually a very large Kyber crystal! WHAT WOULD DOOKU WANT WITH ONE OF THEM??? The Jedi steal the ship with the crystal on and begin to leave the planet...

For all the darker and plot-heavy stuff we've had recently, this feels like a nice and exciting adventure story, with about the same level of darkness as, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's a nice change of pace, but it also takes the time to let us have some really interesting character development with Anakin.


Episode 616* - Crystal Crisis

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Stranded on Utapau! Scouring the sinkhole planet, attempting to stop a dangerous arms deal between Sugi raiders and General Grievous, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi learn that the weapon for sale is a massive kyber crystal, a powerful source of energy which, if in the wrong hands, could be harnessed into a weapon of unspeakable horror.

In an attempt to stop the Separatists from purchasing the crystal, the two Jedi outsmart and overwhelm their opponents. With the much-sought after jewel now in their possession, our heroes attempt to escape Utapau....​

Well, it turns out the ship doesn't work, so now we have a whole episode about Anakin and Obi-Wan trying to get the crystal to a port to get it off planet.

As with the previous episodes, this is done in a pretty jokey way. Firstly, Anakin has to use the force to convince an animal to help them pull the crystal across the Utapau plains... but he can only get a stupid slow one, because the larger animals don't like him. We also get a comedy bit about Anakin and Obi-Wan arguing about the best way to lower the crystal onto the repulsorlift. It's nice to have the jokey banter between them, arguing in a way that shows they are close friends, but it is starting to get a little bit too much right now. There's also a couple of strange bits of writing, like when Obi-Wan says they should "force grab" the crystal - Jedi never refer to their powers in such a videogamey way ('force grip', 'force push', etc.) so I wonder if this is one of those things that would have been changed once Lucas and Filoni saw it.

Anyway, the majority of the rest of the episode is them fending off attacks while they move the crystal. They manage to steal one of the Sugi's speeder, and they ditch the slow moving animal. Now that they're moving at speed, the whole episode gets kind of a Mad Max Fury Road feel (yes I know Fury Road came out after this but still) - it's a constant high-speed chase through plains and caverns, as the Jedi fend off attacks from Sugi and droids. Had the animation been finished it probably would have been a really good sequence, especially when you consider how will they did things like the train attack way back in the season 4 episode "Bounty". As it is now, it's still kind of fun, but nothing super interesting to watch! There's a great bit where one of the Sugi warriors hits the crystal and causes it to shoot energy everywhere.

While this is happening, Grievous arrives and kills the head Sugi, and sends his droids after the Jedi. Once the Jedi reach the port they are betrayed by the Pau'ans - who were working with Dooku the whole time! Luckily they manage to escape before Grievous gets there because thanks to one line in Revenge of the Sith Anakin can never meet Grievous in this show. The droids escape with the crystal but the Jedi chase after them.

This episode is fun, but a bit empty. Unlike the last episodes where alongside the funnier Anakin & Obi-Wan stuff we got some actual character development, here that is substituted for action. But it's action we can't properly see because the episode never got finished!


Episode 617 - The Big Bang

If at first you don't succeed, destroy it.
Crystal crisis! A mission to Utapau to investigate the murder of a Jedi reveals a deadly arms deal between Sugi warriors and General Grievous. Grievous hopes to gain possession of a massive kyber crystal, a weapon of unspeakable power.

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker stole the crystal from the Sugi, only to lose it to Grievous and his Droid Army after a perilous chase. Now, Obi-Wan seeks the advice of the Jedi Council as they chase after this deadly prize....​

The episode starts with what probably would have been a really good action scene! The Jedi in their shuttle chase the shuttle with the crystal on it, while Grievous chases them in his ship, all while flying through a Separatist fleet that has surrounded the planet.

Like the last episode, this episode is pretty much pure adventure fun and action. Obi-Wan gets captured, Anakin rescues him, they find the crystal and escort it through the ship, using the power of the crystal to blow new paths towards the hanger. It's pretty great! They eventually blow up the crystal and the ship by overloading it with too much power.

We see in this episode that the crystal both reflects and amplifies the power put into it, and even with this rough animation you can see that they obvious mean for the beams it's shooting out to be the same as the Death Star laser. Of course the main question here is - why do the Separatists want the kyber crystal? Well, we saw Poggle the Lesser hand the plans for the Death Star over to Dooku at the end of Attack of the Clones, so this is obviously related to that. The recent book "Catalyst" (released a week ago in fact!), which is a prelude to Rogue One, actually goes into a bit more detail about . Basically, the Republic manages to capture a copy of these plans during the second battle of Geonosis ("Landing at Point Rain") and start to work on the basic structure of the Death Star, but at the same time they know that the Separatists must also have the same plans and so must be building their own Death Star. Presumably this crystal would have been for the Separatist Death Star (which the book never actually confirms as existing), or it was part of a larger plan by Palpatine to safeguard the crystal during the Clone Wars for some reason.

Either way, having it here in this episode is a nice bit of set up that establishes that people were looking to make Death Star style superweapons even during the Clone Wars, and we get a nice bit of history when Yoda says that large kyber crystals were used in the ancient battles between Jedi and Sith.

I'm unsure as to what to make of the more light-hearted tone of these episodes. It's mostly confined to Anakin and Obi-Wan making jokes and sarcastic remarks to each other in a way they never really have (at least not to this extent) during the series. Again, not having Ahsoka probably has something to do with it, but overall it's a way of moving them towards the war-buddy friendship we briefly saw at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith. Had I not known that this was what it was building towards, this change of tone might seem a bit out of the blue, but it works a bit better when you know the end goal.

These episodes are fun, and only really suffer from the fact that the last two episodes have some great action sequences that probably would have looked amazing. But buried within a simple adventure story there's a lot of really nice character moments, especially in the first two episodes.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I liked when Obi-Wan said "You have a whole room just for torture?" when they were captured one time.