Major spoilersahead for Disney+‘sStar Wars: The Clone Wars
The final season ofStar Wars: The Clone Warsis racing to its ultimate finale this coming Monday, May 4th, a.k.a. “Star WarsDay” … but before fans can celebrate, they’ll have to tough it out through one of the most difficult moments in the franchise. “Shattered”, the penultimate episode of the series, pays dividends on everything the previous seasons have been working towards. All that character development, all that time spent in the trenches together, all the many adventures of Jedi and Clone Troopers (and Droids) alike, they come to a head here. It’s heartbreaking. But while the prequel movieStar Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sithfirst brought the nefarious “Order 66” into the franchise, it falls toThe CloneWarsto bring a human element to the ultimate betrayal.
To get you caught up briefly, we’re currently in the final act of “The Siege of Mandalore”, a battle that sees Ahsoka Tano leading Commander Rex and her branded Clone Troopers to the beleaguered planet and its capital city to help Bo-Katan and her Mandalorian soldiers oust Darth Maul’s puppet leader. That conflict also brought Ahsoka into direct contact with Maul himself, ultimately defeating the Sith master in a lightsaber duel and capturing him with the help of the Mandalorians. (You can find more detailshere,here, andhere.) But in “Shattered”, Ahsoka faces an unexpected adversary.
Send in the Clones
Star Warsfans have seen this one coming from the very beginning. “The Siege of Mandalore” has done a fantastic job of checking in with the events ofRevenge of the Sith. (Pretty much the only thingThe Clone Warshasn’t done as well as or even better than the movies is showing Anakin’s slow descent towards the Dark Side of the Force, but perhaps that’s because the movies already had that covered.) “Shattered” places great emphasis on the pivotal moment where the Jedi Council determines that Chancellor Palpatine poses a grave danger if left uncheck, so they decide to forcibly remove him from his position. When they try to do so, however, Palpatine, a.k.a. Lord Siddious, uses this as an excuse to label the Jedi as traitors, bring Anakin fully under his wing, and initiate Order 66. This nefarious plot, long laying dormant within the inhibitor chips embedded in all the clones of the Grand Republic’s army, sees the soldiers turning on the Jedi with ruthless efficiency. (Be sure to turn your closed captions on for this one to catch the voice-over as it plays out.)
Revenge of the Sithdid a great job at giving these dramatic moments plenty of screentime and showing how the galaxy-wide betrayal took place. Ultimately, most of the Jedi Order was executed, the rest went into hiding, and the Clone Troopers became Stormtroopers under Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader. ButThe Clone Warsopted instead to focus on the very personal betrayal of Rex and Ahsoka’s clone troopers as it affected Ahsoka herself. It’s a very difficult moment that comes after a tense few minutes of build-up, all heightened by a foreboding musical theme that’s a great complement to the storytelling and a real nailbiter to boot. So when Commander Rex and the other clones get the order, you can’t help but feel just a little bit betrayed yourself, even if you saw it coming.
But here’s whatThe Clone Warsdoes differently: It humanizes the clones. Even in this most unforgivable of betrayals, it gives Rex–a character that we and our Jedi heroes have spent a ton of time with–a moment of resistance to his master’s orders, and even a redemptive arc that plays out in short fashion. That’s never happened in the movies. EveryStar Warsfilm ever made features faceless Stormtroopers who are as infamous for their poor laser blaster aim as they are for their expendable, disposable nature. The prequels tried to explain this grand clone army by introducing the “Mandalorian” bounty hunter Jango Fett (who likely stole his Mandalorian attire and weaponry) as the genetic source material, but doing little to flesh out this character beyond being a skilled mercenary and sub-par father. The recent film trilogy tried to flip the script by making non-clone StormtrooperFN-2187, a.k.a. Finn, a charismatic lead, but he was never really a stormtrooper as we know them to begin with.
So it falls toThe Clone Warsto take the most recognizable and ruthless soldiers in the franchise, showcase their greatest betrayal of our heroes, and somehow make you feel sorry for them rather than hate them all outright. It’s thanks to Rex (and, in part,Dee Bradley Baker’s performance as all of the clones, honestly) that there’s any humanity at all in these normally faceless foes. Had Rex not fought his programming long enough to say, “Find him. Find him. Find Fives,” before shooting his fellow clones, Ahsoka would either be dead by now or she’d be none the wiser to the greater plans of Lord Siddious and just how far they reached.
What follows the activation of Order 66 is a fantastic revisit toThe Clone Warslore and history. Ahsoka reunites with her scrappy astromechR7and other helpful Droids in order to follow up on Rex’s comment. She pulls up everything she can onCT-5555, a.k.a. Fives. That info includes an account of the events onRingo Vinda, during whichCT-5385, a.k.a. Tup, experienced a malfunction in his inhibitor chip that led to him executing Order 66 too early, and then literally executingJedi Master / General Tiplar(the yellow-skinned alien glimpsed in Fives’ files). It was Fives' investigation into Tup’s behavior that led to his discovery of the inhibitor chips' true function and the conspiracy on the part of the Kaminoan cloners. Unfortunately, Fives could not save Tup, and in the end, could neither save himself nor fully divulge everything he’d discovered. It fell to Rex to file a report on Five’s behalf, a report that “fell on deaf ears” until Ahsoka used Anakin’s passcode to access it. And it’s a good thing she did, because she not only saved herself but also managed to save Rex by using “Force-assisted surgery” to extract his inhibitor chip. It’s then she learns that the betrayal of the Jedi was an army-wide order. That revelation hangs there as the episode comes to a close…
But wait, there’s more! I have to spare a moment to talk about the difference between Ahsoka and Darth Maul’s reactions to the clones' betrayal. Ahsoka attempts to save everyone she can, both freeing Maul from the Mandalorian prison device and rendering attacking clones unconscious rather than, you know,killing them. Maul, on the other hand, takes full advantage of his freedom and opportunity to cause chaos, and he does so in brutal fashion, crushing, decapitating, and maiming every clone he comes across. It’s a great sequence for the animators to play with but also a reminder that, although Ahsoka may no longer wish to be part of the Jedi order, she is far from the broken monstrosity that is Darth Maul. (It also clues us in as to how Maul escaped captivity.) With just one episode left, perhaps we’ll see just how far Ahsoka has to fall…
