When it comes to the Star Wars universe this animated series is not only a ton of fun to watch, but it also provides many insights and added understanding of the galaxy far, far away. If you have not yet indulged, or if you are an avid fan and just want to get a little more Clone Wars in your life, I hope you enjoy what I have to say about this awesome series.
First off, like almost anything Star Wars, it’s made out of order. As I blog my way through this series, I will be using the chronological order of the series, as provided by the official Star Wars website. Naturally, the first chronological episode of the Clone Wars saga is No. 16 of season two.
As is the case with any first episode, there are plenty of introductions. We are immediately introduced to Admiral Wullf Yularen as he is alongside Anakin Skywalker, a place he will be for much of the series. He is the first of many contrasts between military and Jedi as he tries to advise Anakin of the tactics of their enemy, who also happens to be this episodes villain introduction.
The Clone Wars series is loaded with characters that the Star Wars movies either briefly mention but don’t do much with, or never talk about at all, which is one of my favorite parts of it. Separatist Admiral Trench is high up on the “obscure Clone Wars characters” list. Dude is a tarantula that stands upright on two legs. He’s what is called a Harch, an alien species seldom used in the Star Wars universe. That doesn’t really make me sad, though, because he’s pretty creepy looking. The fact that Anakin blows up his ship with him on it and he reappears later in the series makes him quite a bit creepier, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
So far as storylines go, this episode is just the beginning of the situation with Christophsis, so the episodes conclusion has nothing to do with the end of the battle. In fact, there’s one more episode and the entire Clone Wars movie that deal with what’s going on at Christophsis, so I’ll leave the finer points of the story for the blog after the movie.
One other thing that is introduced in this first episode is the series’ call back to famous lines from the Star Wars movies. There is a hologram message from Senator Bail Organa on the surface of Christophsis to Obi-Wan on his ship where he says “Help me Obi-Wan, you are our only hope.” There’s also a line from Anakin whenever they are discussing the advantages of the new ship Obi-Wan brought to the battle that can cloak where he says “No ship this small is supposed to have a cloaking device.” There are plenty of callbacks in this series to lines in the movie, which was a brilliant idea by showrunner Dave Filoni, who I will forever label a genius for his work on Clone Wars and Rebels.
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