Did You and Chewbacca Have a Fight Again
At terminal, we have the mighty Chewbacca.
In the epic two-part flavor finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars last night, anybody's favorite Wookiee finally made his debut. But "Padawan Lost" and "Wookiee Hunt" didn't just offer up a hirsuite guest-star. They featured some of the most complex blitheness The Clone Wars has given u.s.a. all the same—and a thought-provoking wait at whether the Jedi can maintain their ideals when cut off from civilization. Needless to say, it whet our geeky appetites for season 4, which supervising managing director Dave Filoni promises will "striking the basis running" in the manner of the recent action-driven multi-office arcs.
Only beginning, nosotros head to Felucia, neon-colored jungle world and, along with Mygeeto and Saleucami, role of what Chancellor Palpatine alleged to be the Separatists' "Triad of Evil." (Sound familiar?) It seems battle never ends on Felucia—previously nosotros saw the planet in all its 24-hour interval-Glo celebrity when Ahsoka and Anakin had to retreat in "Holocron Heist" and when they helped defend a village confronting Hondo Onaka and his pirates in the Seven Samurai homage "Bounty Hunters." This time the alliterative duo teamed up with Plo Koon to storm a Separatist base earlier General Grievous could ship reinforcements.
Anakin brought a little Han Solo swagger to his orders to his men. He followed up "Okay, scouts, detect me a way down there, placidity like," with an addendum for Ahsoka, "Don't get cocky," both paraphrased quotes from the scruffy Corellian smuggler. When I recently spoke to Matt Lanter, the voice of Anakin (and star of the CW's 90210), he told me that Harrison Ford was more than of a reference point for him in creating the character than fifty-fifty Hayden Christensen. "The challenge of what Hayden did in taking Anakin from an adolescent to Darth Vader shouldn't be underestimated, just I felt I had to make the character my own," Lanter notes about his desire to take Anakin in a unlike direction from Christensen. "I wanted to give Anakin some of Han Solo's cocky swagger, since he was function of the Star Wars I grew up with."
Only dorsum to Felucia. In battle, you lot must expect the unexpected—like a man-sized lizard trying to capture you in a stun-net. That's just what happened to Ahsoka, who institute herself the prisoner of Trandoshan hunters. For the uninitiated—although, really, why would the uninitiated be reading this recap?—Trandoshans are reptilian bipeds, like the bounty hunter Bossk (as in "You just got Bossked!"), who Darth Vader commissions to hunt down the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Dorsum. They're likewise known as enemies of the Wookiees, who they helped the Empire enslave post-obit the end of the Clone Wars. Obviously, Trandoshans besides similar to chase even when they're not receiving a fat Sith Lord-endorsed paycheck. They enjoy satisfying their reptilian instincts past capturing sentient casualty and tracking them downwardly Most Dangerous Game-manner on one of their planet's moons, Wasskah. I loved Ahsoka's under-reaction to the news of being hunted for sport: "Chase u.s. down? Ugh." Other than a New York taxi commuter, no one'southward more than jaded than a Jedi. They've seen it all.
Side by side: Your recapper imagines a classic Disney showtune in honour of the Trandoshans. Information technology's been a long night.When the prisoner ship approached Wasskah, the moon hung directly beneath its parent planet Trandosha a la 2001: A Infinite Odyssey. Merely cosmic Kubrickian geometry apace gave way to Merian C. Cooper-way take a chance, equally Ahsoka and her beau prisoners (including a Dathomiri witch!), were dropped off on a lush island for the hunt. Before you could say, "Now, they're bantha fodder!" Ahsoka had met upwardly with other Jedi younglings who had been previously stranded on the island: the Cerean O-Mer, the Twi-Lek Jinx, and the human Kalifa. They'd lost track of "how many rotations" they'd been on Wasskah and looked every bit worse for vesture.
Meanwhile, the Trandoshan hunt leader got his swain lizards psyched for another day of bloodsport aboard his floating base. Didn't you honey how his chair was adorned with a Wampa pelt, as in the beastly snow creature that attacks Luke at the beginning of Empire? By the Forcefulness, please let a trip to Hoth be in the Clone Wars' hereafter! Honestly, I felt similar Alan Menken should have conjured up a saloon song similar "Gaston" for the Trandoshans. Imagine the hunt-leader rasping, "I use Wampas in all of my decorating!" Speaking of decorating, note the sundry species mounted on the wall: a Rodian, a Gran, and, yes, a Gungan. For the season 2 premiere, "Holocron Heist," Dave Filoni had wanted Cad Bane'southward grungy Coruscant flat to include a chalk outline of a Gungan simply felt it maybe would be going as well far. Well, he finally scratched that macabre itch!
Ahsoka speedily learned the other younglings' survival strategy: Go along moving and ignore the plight of others. When she was upset that they hadn't done anything to help the Dathomiri witch who was gunned downwards, ringleader Kalifa countered, "We're non saviors here. Here, nosotros're survivors." Ahsoka wanted them to take action, but, you lot know, the correct kind of action. When Kalifa started using the Dark Side to Forcefulness Choke the life out of a Trandoshan (prepare to perfectly advisable Maori-esque background chanting), Ahsoka rushed over and gently lowered her outstretched mitt: "Kalifa, don't kill him out of hatred. Information technology'south non the Jedi mode." I love me some Togrutan cocky-righteousness! Really, though, it was a terrific moment. Kalifa, peering out from behind her Louise Brooks bob, looked ashamed. Ahsoka, though, seemed more than empathetic than judgmental. It's an effect that's been lingering on the periphery of the screen for some time now: can the Jedi cling to their Code when cutting off from the comforting support of civilization?
NEXT: Mysterious as the Dark Side of the Forcefulness! (Okay, that was my final Disney showtune reference, I promise!)In Matthew Stover'south Eye of Darkness-inspired Star Wars novel Shatterpoint, Mace Windu very clearly articulates that the Jedi correspond civilization fighting back the jungle. And so when all you have is jungle, tin can the Jedi fifty-fifty exist? What he's really proverb, though, is that the Jedi's distinguishing feature—and, by extension, humanity'southward—is their ability to rise higher up the primal, Darwinian impulses of our evolutionary heritage and embrace a concept totally lacking in nature's survival-of-the-fittest struggle: pity.
To be honest, I wish so far that we could have seen more Jedi struggling with the Dark Side on The Clone Wars. In a sense, all Jedi are being hunted at this time, whether outright by the likes of Grievous and the Separatists, or ideologically past the Republic's demand that they lead decanted clones into battle. Show united states a Jedi who actually is using the Dark Side, but supposedly on behalf of the good guys. It'd be a way of considering whether the Dark Side e'er really could be used to accelerate a larger good. Dave Filoni, that's my pitch!
Of course, the Jedi practise have a latent darkness that they go to nifty pains to deny. Ahsoka objected to Kalifa choking the life out of her enemy, just the problem was really not and then much that she was killing, only how she was killing. Out of hatred. Ahsoka gets the aforementioned upshot, but considering she redirected the Trandoshan's attack against him and let him fall to his death, she can feel skillful that at to the lowest degree she didn't kill him outright. She wants to accept her blueish milk and potable it too.
Simply before they had a moment to take hold of their collective breaths, Kalifa took a blaster bolt in the back. Before dying, she told Ahsoka to take her place and lead the others. I'm not certain if we've really had another youngling die on The Clone Wars earlier Kalifa, and then her death really demonstrates the extent to which Filoni & Co. are trying to show the toll of war. Information technology's not all candy-colored equalizer shootouts and lightsaber duels. Not by a long shot.
NEXT: Name: Chewbacca. Species: Wookiee. Tiptop: seven'3". Hair color: yak brownish. Marital Status: Married. Occupation: Co-airplane pilot. Hobby: Dejarik.Kalifa'due south expiry was unexpected…and unexpectedly moving. It almost reminded me of 17-year-old Anakin Solo's heroic demise in Troy Denning's teen-Jedi-on-a-mission battle epic, Star past Star, the kind of blood-and-guts, Star Wars-meets-Predator-meets-Aliens extravaganza that's like the visceral adolescent antitoxin to all that Harry Potter schmaltz. Seriously, I just read Star past Star a few months ago, and Anakin'south death after he's cutting downwards by an unending hoard of Yuuzhan Vong stayed with me for weeks. I near felt the same with Kalifa.
Kalifa'south decease left Ahsoka to expect out for O-Mer and Jinx on her ain. Allow'due south simply take a moment to admit, though, how meticulous the animation is in these episodes. When fleeing Kalifa'south final resting identify, Ahsoka hid behind foliage and scrambled upward branches covered by moss and insects. Filoni told me that to create the complexity required for Wasskah, they congenital the jungle environment in its entirety first, then staged the action scenes within that pre-existing landscape, as if they had shot a live-activity pic. He acknowledges the difficulty of animating a jungle setting—that's why at that place've been so many barren, rocky planets along the way!—but damn, you wouldn't know that from these episodes. And yet, dissimilar Avatar, the jungles of Wasskah don't ever look like a screensaver because, counter-intuitively, the animators embraced stylization over whatever absurd attempt at photorealism. Look also at the particular in the grit the Trade Federation dropship kicks up when landing at the beginning, the wisps of clouds roofing Felucia'due south twin moons, the mist and streaks of sunlight cast through the dense jungle canopy on Wasskah. This is tremendous visual art.
But information technology was all just edifice up to the most kinetic crash-scene the serial has given us yet. Ahsoka, O-Mer, and Jinx decided to attack the transport on the embankment head-on when it unloaded its next set of prisoners. Needless to say, their attack—Ahsoka dodging blaster bolts from the airplane pilot in the cockpit, while the others wreaked havoc on the fuselage–resulted in the quick destruction of the transport. This was no ordinary explosion, no clichéd fireball. The transport seemed torn apart by the stress of its ain angular momentum equally it spun in place through the air, disintegrating bulkhead-past-bulkhead until all that remained were shrapnel, sparks, and fume. Also, George Lucas has ever known when to silence his orchestra and rely on sound effects alone, and Matthew Wood really seemed to sympathise that less-is-more arroyo in his design of the crash-scene's soundscape.
It turns out, though, that there was only one prisoner aboard the ship: a Wookiee named Chewbacca. Roarrrr! Peter Mayhew who first brought the walking rug to life 34 years ago, was brought in to consult on his movements and gait. I tin can't help but think that inquisitive tilt of Chewie'southward head—an e'er ingenious way of showing that he has an internal life–when he first met the younglings, came from Mayhew's suggestion. As well, doesn't the word "Wookiee" make whatsoever sentence it's a role of inherently funny? Like the chase leader's corking line: "So now the younglings are organized, assuming, and… they've got a Wookiee."
NEXT: Allow the Wookiees win!Ever tech-savvy, Chewie immediately ready to work repairing a transmitter he and Ahsoka recovered from the wreck that he could use to contact Kashyyyk—his homeworld, located in the aforementioned system equally Trandosha and Wasskah. Just in escaping from the rubble, they took burn down from a sniper, who they rapidly captured to use every bit bait for their pursuers. Tired of "the Wookiee way"—sitting by while Chewbacca repairs the transceiver—Jinx decided to utilise a Jedi mind fox to forcefulness their prisoner to call down a speeder. They'd attack the airplane pilot, then fly the speeder back up to the floating base themselves, defeat their hunters, and hopefully find a way off that rock.
The plan looked a little shaky to start, just it definitely got a much-needed boost when a war party of Wookiees—who'd gotten Chewbacca'south bulletin—showed upwardly to assistance their countryman and his new friends. Tarfful was there and possibly Itchy, Chewie'southward father. (Leland Chee, we need some Wookiee IDs!) And they were flown in by Sugi, the bounty hunter who'd helped Anakin and Ahsoka defend that peasant hamlet on Felucia from Hondo. This fourth dimension, though, she was working for a price: "Make it quick, full general. Nosotros're charging by the minute, and if my ship gets damaged it will price you lot actress."
They did arrive quick, because the next thing we knew, Ahsoka had made it back to Coruscant to exist reunited with her worried-ill main. Anakin babbled on about how he'd allow her downwardly, but she replied that it was his training that immune her to survive and help others survive too. It was a moment of mutual respect and affection made all the more than poignant in light of what nosotros know is to come.
Not a bad end to season 3, huh? Did you become your fill up of Wookiees or exercise y'all still want to see more than? Honestly, is in that location whatever reason why Chewbacca shouldn't make regular appearances going forward? And who else would you lot like to encounter pop up when flavor four premieres in September? Until then, this is Darth Blauvelt signing off.
May the Force…well, you know.
For more on what'due south adjacent on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, check out our total Q&A with supervising manager Dave Filoni, in which he talks season four, Katee Sackhoff's guest appearance, and the return of Savage Opress and Chewbacca.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Earlier the Dark Times, before the Empire, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker fight to restore peace and justice to a milky way far, far away…
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Source: https://ew.com/recap/star-wars-clone-wars-season-3-episode-21-chewbacca/