Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The Clone Wars: Orders

Andrew Leon and I are watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Every Tuesday, we will be featuring an episode from the series which began in 2008.

Episode: "Orders"
Series: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The Lost Missions (Season Six), Episode 4
Original Air Date: February 15, 2014
via Wookieepedia
"Orders" is the final installment of a four-part arc.  Fives is brought back to Coruscant along with the body of Tup, a clone trooper who murdered a Jedi.  Last week, Fives and his droid buddy AZI-3 discovered the inhibitor chip implanted in all clones in their embryonic stage.  Fives believes (correctly) that the chips are there for nefarious purpose and is eager to share what he's found with the powers above.  Unfortunately, Palpatine knows Fives is right and is just as eager to deflect suspicion back to the trooper himself.  Fives is on the run once again.

I'll talk more about the clone troopers when we wrap up the series but they merit some discussion now.  As I have said before, the clones themselves are the best story thread going in The Clone Wars and that thread concludes with this arc.  Without knowing the rest of the story, if I told you one side fought a war with a genetically engineered slave army, you would assume said force belonged to the bad guys.  But no, the clones side with the Republic.  While we are taught to see the relationship between Jedi and clones as benevolent and near-parental, it doesn't change the fact that we're talking about a Brave New World approach to warfare.  Look a little deeper and the more interesting stories in this thread reveal a more complicated relationship, and for reasons that have nothing to do with Order 66.  The inhibitor chips and their link to the eventual attack on the Jedi are a deeper, darker manipulation, of course, but the basic ethical dilemma of the clones is inherent from the beginning.

This is one of the best arcs of the series, right on the heels of the strong one that finished Season Five.  Like the Ahsoka on the Run arc, this Inhibitor Chip arc is strong on its own but is helped considerably by the stories that come before it.  Fives is the star and his background in particular enhances the tale.
via Wookieepedia
Mas Amedda is a Chagrian politician from the planet Champala.  At the time of this story, he is Vice Chair of the Galactic Senate under Palpatine.  He was first introduced in The Phantom Menace when he was played by Jerome Blake.  He was played David Bowers in Attack of the Clones and by both actors in Revenge of the Sith.  In The Clone Wars, he is voiced by Stephen Stanton.

Next week: "An Old Friend."

4 comments:

  1. The piece I'm trying to decide how to talk about is that the clone army is not something the Jedi would have done on their own. It was their Trojan Horse.
    The question, then, is why did they accept it?
    For me, someone who has no liking for or interest in guns, it would be like someone showing up on my doorstep offering me the gift of a very expensive gun. We tend to take things that are offered to us for free.

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    1. I was not quite accurate in this post when I wrote that this is the end of the clones thread. The final arc (I am a little ahead) addresses the very question you pose here. The answer is not particularly satisfying but that may be intentional.

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    2. TAS: I'm only a couple of episodes ahead at this point, and I don't remember what your talking about from my last viewing right off the top of my head.
      I guess I'll find out.

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    3. We should have more to talk about then.

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