As The Clone Wars gets closer to the end of its third season, we are seeing more and more characters pop up and start to fill in the world of Star Wars a little more completely.
1. Welcome to the Party, Wilhuff
Wilhuff Tarkin, a future Grand Moff, is introduced here as ‘Captain’ Tarkin, a few years, storywise, before we’ve seen him on screen. At the end of Revenge of the Sith, we see the first appearance of Tarkin, who obviously plays a large role in both Rogue One and A New Hope. Here, he is just as stuck up and condescending as he appears elsewhere, and there are some interesting connections made between Tarkin and Anakin, hinting at the future for both of them.
These episodes do a nice job at establishing the beginning of Anakin’s separation from the Jedi mindset. He proposes a more aggressive approach, with deadly force more commonly used. Obi-Wan instantly pushes back against this, but we see that Anakin is already distancing himself from his mentor. We also see Obi-Wan, not for the first time, acknowledge that Anakin, as an instructor, is quite hypocritical. This has been hinted at before, but the show is no longer just hinting at Anakin’s troubles, but stating them outright.
2. Like master, like padawan
Ahsoka is in an interesting position in these episodes, as she acts incredibly impulsively to become part of the mission, but also is incredibly important to the mission itself. Not only is she there at the end of Jedi Master Piell’s life to carry out his mission, but we see how she’s become quite skilled with a lightsaber, wielding two at a time with ease. On one hand, it can be easy to blame her master for her recklessness, but it seems unfair to not also credit him with some of her successes as well. Sure, she clearly isn’t a carbon copy of Anakin, but she has seen how one of the most skilled Jedi of all time has handled himself, and has somewhat emulated that.
But we also see her, perhaps, a bit too comfortable with lethal force herself. While she was certainly not killing indiscriminately, it could be argued that Osi Sobek could have been stopped without a lightsaber through his chest. Again, it wasn’t like she just fragged a dude for looking at her cross, but the concept of killing isn’t as abhorrent to her as it is some other Jedi. This could also be a product of her coming of age in a time of war, but Anakin certainly shares some of the blame here.
3. Foreshadowing
Sometimes, a little too much effort is put into foreshadowing future movie moments, instead of telling a story plainly. While the ‘let’s freeze ourselves in carbonite’ plan was an ingenious way to get them past the lifeform scans, when Vader suggests this in The Empire Strikes Back, people are taken aback by the suggestion. Boba Fett isn’t sure Solo will survive, even Threepio casts doubt at someone surviving the process. Anakin and co. dive right in here, without any concern which, though brave, seems a little impulsive, no? The combination of the incredulity in Empire and the total acceptance here seems a little odd.
4. RIP Echo
This series has done a nice job of establishing a few key clone troopers, and this week’s loss of Echo was felt pretty acutely. While there’s not a ton I can say about him, we’ve spent as much time with him as we have all but 4 or 5 other characters in the series thus far. His loss is both sad, and quickly moved on from. The disposability of the clones comes off as cruel and inhumane from our perspective, but is simply a part of life for these characters. It is acknowledged as problematic, which is good, but it still makes me feel a little icky.
5. Another genre arc
This season has done a nice job of mixing up the types of stories we’re getting. With some quasi-romance, high fantasy, and now, espionage stories, it helps the world of Star Wars feel bigger, which is sort of the point of the show in the first place. These episodes had a ton of tension, a few sad moments, and lots of intrigue. I like the idea that Star Wars has become more unpredictable with each episode. Where as it used to mean ‘space opera,’ now it can mean almost anything. That’s a good thing.
