I love this line of thinking because the prequels and Clone Wars were basically about how the Republic was basically already an empire, but they rarely if ever seemed to acknowledge that. This thing that feels like the central theme of those works also somehow feels like subtext. Like, the very first episode of Clone Wars has Yoda convince people to join the Republic and the episode ends with a Republic Cruiser, which obviously looks very similar to a Star Destroyer, entering their system. There's a little tongue-in-cheek irony to it, but it's mostly played as a victory rather than very ominous symbolism. And I've had multiple arguments with people who thought that the slavery of the clones was fine because the Jedi treated them well, which A) no they didn't, they threw them into a meat grinder and B) even if they did, they're still basically child soliders.
My point is, I'm glad we have a work directly engaging with this thought and I hope they go further with it. And now I also want something set before or during the prequels that explores this even more, and explicitly.
The Umbara arc is the biggest missed opportunity in the "clones are slaves" and to this day it irritates me.
General Krell basically mistreated the clones, kept throwing them in harm's way because his strategy was just brute forcing everything, and it got to the point he was going to execute soldiers who take out a giant enemy ship because their mission was unauthorised.
The clones only turned against him when it was revealed he was working against the Republic, which lets the audience paint his disregard for clone lives as "oh he was just evil, the jedi don't do that"
Someone once said the arc should have ended in the clones turning against him after the execution order and covering it up, basically rising up and defending themselves.
I would like that. Honestly, the thing I'd like the most is if Krell was never a Seperatist, if he was just really callous and cruel to his clones and the Jedi knew and enabled it because he "got results". That was basically the Jedi strategy at a structural level anyway.
I stole this part from A More Civilized Age, but what if that was the case, and then there was one more episode at the end of the arc for his trial and the Jedi just closed rank to protect him from what they viewed as (maybe correctly?) a power play by Palpatine?
That could be cool, but I do really like the idea that the clones just off him, blame it on the Umbarans and then swear amongst themselves to never let that happen to them again.
Yeah, I'd like that too. And that would also work way better if Order 66 was something that they were all aware was a thing like Episode 3 kinda implied, rather than it being a mind control thing.
I love this line of thinking because the prequels and Clone Wars were basically about how the Republic was basically already an empire, but they rarely if ever seemed to acknowledge that. This thing that feels like the central theme of those works also somehow feels like subtext. Like, the very first episode of Clone Wars has Yoda convince people to join the Republic and the episode ends with a Republic Cruiser, which obviously looks very similar to a Star Destroyer, entering their system. There's a little tongue-in-cheek irony to it, but it's mostly played as a victory rather than very ominous symbolism. And I've had multiple arguments with people who thought that the slavery of the clones was fine because the Jedi treated them well, which A) no they didn't, they threw them into a meat grinder and B) even if they did, they're still basically child soliders.
My point is, I'm glad we have a work directly engaging with this thought and I hope they go further with it. And now I also want something set before or during the prequels that explores this even more, and explicitly.
The Umbara arc is the biggest missed opportunity in the "clones are slaves" and to this day it irritates me.
General Krell basically mistreated the clones, kept throwing them in harm's way because his strategy was just brute forcing everything, and it got to the point he was going to execute soldiers who take out a giant enemy ship because their mission was unauthorised.
The clones only turned against him when it was revealed he was working against the Republic, which lets the audience paint his disregard for clone lives as "oh he was just evil, the jedi don't do that"
Someone once said the arc should have ended in the clones turning against him after the execution order and covering it up, basically rising up and defending themselves.
I would like that. Honestly, the thing I'd like the most is if Krell was never a Seperatist, if he was just really callous and cruel to his clones and the Jedi knew and enabled it because he "got results". That was basically the Jedi strategy at a structural level anyway.
I stole this part from A More Civilized Age, but what if that was the case, and then there was one more episode at the end of the arc for his trial and the Jedi just closed rank to protect him from what they viewed as (maybe correctly?) a power play by Palpatine?
That could be cool, but I do really like the idea that the clones just off him, blame it on the Umbarans and then swear amongst themselves to never let that happen to them again.
Yeah, I'd like that too. And that would also work way better if Order 66 was something that they were all aware was a thing like Episode 3 kinda implied, rather than it being a mind control thing.