THE CLONE WARS EPISODES 119/120/121

WATCH REPORT FOR: May 7, 2022

WATCHED: The Clone Wars "Storm over Ryloth", "Innocents of Ryloth" and "Liberty on Ryloth"

SUMMARY: The first attempt to break the blockade of Ryloth, with a frontal assault led by Ahsoka, ends in failure and retreat, forcing Anakin to attempt a dangerous strategem that risks his life against the Separatist fleet.

Obi-Wan and the clones must then infiltrate as a small expedition force to take out surface-to-air weapons that prevent a larger-scale landing. The droid army uses hostages as Twi'lek shields to prevent a direct assault on the weapons, and deploy monstrous native animals as countermeasures as well, but Obi-Wan leads the clones to victory with help from a young Twi'lek girl.

Later, Mace Windu attempts to secure the assistance of Cham Syndulla, folk hero of Ryloth, to dislodge Wat Tambor from his occupation of the capital. Syndulla initially resists, fearing the end result will only trade overt Separatist violence for benevolent oppression under a Jedi peacekeeping force or the rule, endorsed by the Republic, of Twi'lek Senator Orn Free Taa. Windu brokers a truce between Syndulla and Taa, and guarantees the Jedi will not deny Ryloth freedom and self-determination. The combined forces of Twi'lek resistance and clone troopers liberate Ryloth and capture Wat Tambor.

OVERALL REVIEW: OK so one thing that bugged me in the "Storm" episode was that the clones refer to "General Kenobi" and "General Skywalker" but "Commander Ahsoka". Surely it should be "Commander Tano" since the formulation is rank and surname, right? Maybe it's rank and first name when it's an underage padawan, but nobody ever explains the convention. Instead it just seems sexist, since the male characters get the respect of their surnames and the female gets patronized with her first name. Bad look.

Meanwhile, it's war crimes versus war crimes! The Separatists' siege of Ryloth is really just "the bad guys being bad" as there's no particular strategic importance to the planet, it's just a world to be plundered while civilian villages are bombed to keep the populace terrified and submissive. Breaking the blockade is important to the Republic, but Anakin does technically cheat via a flase surrender, which allows him to get close enough to the command ship to kamikaze the Separatists and bail out in an escape pod at the last moment.

The second episode is fairly boilerplate wartime morality story, where a couple of clones separated from their unit encounter a small child who is understandably terrified of them until they stop acting like scary soldiers and show her some kindness and compassion. She, in turn, becomes the key to a morally uncomplicated victory for the Republic, since she knows secret passages underground which allows the Twi-lek hostages to be rescued safely and clears the way for an all-out assault that the clones and Obi-Wan can win by force. If not for the child, how would the battle have gone? Would the Republic forces had given up, or would the Twi'leks have become collateral damage? War is hell, except in cartoons aimed at kids.

Also, I guess this is the time to bring this up, but it does seem like the Republic should not be having a hard time winning this war because they have FREAKING JEDI on their side. Technologically and numbers-wise, the clone army and the droid army seem pretty evenly matched. The clones are capable of creative thinking but also sometimes make mistakes, but the droids follow programmed orders unfailingly, so that's kind of a wash. Then on one side you've got this ancient order of space wizards with laser swords, mind control, telekinesis, enhanced physical capabilities ... it really should be a cakewalk for bunch of clone troopers led by a Jedi general to take out droid divisions. Sure, the Separatists have Dooku and Ventress, but they can't be everywhere at once.

I honestly don't know the answer to this, but is it ever established canonically that the Jedi (and Sith) ability to move things with their mind only works on non-living matter? Like midichlorians, even in the non-Force sensitive, resist any use of the Force to yeet a creature they inhabit? I suppose the evidence for this exists: in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke lifts rocks and R2, Yoda lifts the X-Wing, but Luke never lifts Yoda or vice versa. And later in the same film, Vader throws crates and pipes at Luke to knock him out a window (just like Dooku at the end of Attack of the Clones) rather than just force shoving Luke through the glass. And by the same token, when Luke jumps down the shaft to escape, Vader doesn't reach out and force grab him to reel him in.

It must be so, because if Jedi could toss around people the war would already be over. Obi-Wan could have levitated the Twi'lek hostages to safety, and all Jedi could force lift clone troopers into any location they need to reach. It's a weird workaround to make the war narrative a reasonably level playing field while still having Jedi everywhere.

This comes up again in the Mace Windu chapter, where the whole final battle comes down to controlling a plasma bridge that allows the resistance and clones to cross a deep chasm and reach the capital city. Sure would be handy if Mace Windu could just float the liberators over using the Force! But at least the on-off switch for the plasma bridge and the inescapable laws of gravity provide us with another classic screaming battle droid plummeting to its doom, which is never not funny. Never.

Anyway, these three episodes together make an interesting attempt at longer-form storytelling, showing how many steps are involved in retaking territory in a warzone. But it's all fairly disconnected, basically an Anakin episode, an Obi-Wan episode, and a Mace Windu episode. I suspect they were all produced independently, at that. It would have been really cool to see this as more of a serialized story, with the three threads intertwined throughout, but maybe that's too ambitious for the first season of the first ever Star Wars tv series.

And that's a wrap on Season One! Actually there's one more S1 episode which, in chronological order, slots somehwere into Season Three. We'll get there eventually!