Clone Wars -- "Front Runners" (Ep. 5.2)

-- To seek something is to believe in its possibility.

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What I'm finding myself wondering as I'm watching this story arc is whether Saw Gerrera, as we saw him in Rogue One, ever knew that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker, one of the Jedi who trained him as a rebel. My understanding is that Saw goes on to be in Rebels, but I'm not that far into Rebels, yet, so I don't know.

The small force on Onderon has quickly become competent enough that the Jedi head back to Coruscant, leaving only Ahsoka to supervise the band of rebels fighting against the puppet government installed by Dooku and the Separatists. I'm sure the intention here is to mimic the way the CIA has helped to equip and train rebel groups over the last few decades. Ahsoka is there as an adviser, not as a participant. She can watch and defend, but she's not supposed to actively engage in the conflict.

This, of course, causes conflict for her because of her latent feelings for Lux.

All of that said, here's some outside info that you guys might find interesting (or some inside info, depending on how you look at it):
Saw and Steela were created by George Lucas, and this story line was his. It's considered one of the most important story arcs in the entire Clone Wars series, because it lays the foundation for the Rebellion and shows where and how it forms. This is where it all started. After digging up that bit of esoterica, I wonder even more about the question I started this post with. The whole thing becomes, well, rather ironic.

Clone Wars -- "A War on Two Fronts" (Ep. 5.1)

-- Fear is a malleable weapon.

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Season five starts with a... newly found special significance, the introduction of Saw Gerrera. Saw started his opposition against the Empire while it was still the Separatist movement, and we get to see those origins in this episode.

This is also a very relevant political episode, a social commentary on terrorism and how governments can, perhaps even, inadvertently create terrorist organizations. I think nearly all modern terrorists groups in the Middle East can be traced back to the 80s and the politics of Reagan. Sure, it was to "stop the spread of communism," but we gave them weapons; we trained them, look where that took us.

The idea to equip groups and offer training to them is, of course, Anakin's. He calls this supporting rebel cells. Some other Jedi, notably Obi-Wan and Yoda, worry about the creation of terrorist groups. I think we can see the seeds of the Rebellion being planted here, certainly where it pertains to Saw Gerrara. This should be an interesting arc...

The episode is not without personal conflict as well. Ahsoka has to deal with feelings of jealousy as she watches a burgeoning relationship between Steela Gerrera (Saw's sister) and Lux Bonteri, who also shows up in this episode. Oh, that Lux, always popping up in the strangest places!

All things considered, this is a much stronger opening episode and story arc than season four had.



"A means to an end, fear cannot be. Stop those who spread terror, the Jedi must."

Clone Wars -- "A Friend in Need" (Ep. 4.14)

-- Friendship shows us who we really are.

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The return of Death Watch... and a plan to assassinate Dooku?

Having the Death Watch around is always interesting, and, hey, it's always cool to see the Darksaber, but I actually don't want to talk about what the episode is about. No, again, I want to focus on something that's off to the side of the story.

When Ahsoka, R2-D2, and Lux Bonteri arrive at the Death Watch camp, the members of the Death Watch are busy torturing... droids. For fun. Their pattern seems to be to torture the droids into inoperability then have someone fix the droids up so that they can torture them some more. And I know some of you, right now, are thinking, "So...? They're droids."

It's important to remember that in Star Wars, droids are sentient. They have self-awareness and value themselves as individuals. This isn't a subject that's ever explored in Star Wars, but it's certainly there in the background. It's actually a parallel line of thought to that of the clones.

Now, most people would probably say it would be wrong to torture clones; they're alive, right? But not everyone believed that. They were, after all, built, so doesn't that make them something like organic machines? "But they can feel pain!" Sure, but so can the droids. "It's not the same!" Why not?

Why not?

Of course, after the Clone War, the making of clones was made illegal. So was the making of droids for combat purposes, though that's barely touched on.

Did you know that science (yeah, I know, for a lot of you, I may as well have just said "magic") is showing us, right now, that dolphins and other marine mammals are self aware? They have names for each other. So, you know, when a dolphin gets caught in a fishing net and pulled out  of the water, some other dolphin out in the ocean is going off to tell the pod, "Samson got caught in a net..." Imagine how you would feel if you found out your neighbor caught and ate your dog.

And some of you are saying, "So what. It's only a dog." Or it's only a dolphin. Or... it's only a black person. Or a Mexican. Or a Muslim. Or a faggot. It's not like they're people, right?



"You don't want to make them angry; they are far from rational."