Thursday, January 27, 2011

Clone Wars: Overlords Preview (Ep. 3.15) w/ Guest Star News


Jedi Fortune Cookie: "Balance is found in the one who faces his guilt."

Official Synopsis:  A mysterious force draws Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka to a distant planet, and its inhabitants -- a family of exceptionally powerful Force-wielders -- in an attempt to determine whether Anakin is truly the Chosen One.

Star Wars Insider Synopsis: Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano are drawn to the mysterious planet of Mortis.  As Anakin learns about his destiny from a family of powerful Force users--the Father, Son and Daughter--he faces his most difficult challenge yet.  Can he bring balance to the Force?

Excerpts from Official Site's Preview Story:

Convinced that Anakin will bring balance to the Force, the family's patriarch urges the young Jedi to stay and maintain the equilibrium between the light side and the dark side. 

Featuring momentous revelations that could affect the fate of the galaxy and the balance of the Force itself, "Overlords" marks the beginning of a massive Clone Wars arc. There will be revelations and betrayals, as well as all-new perspectives on the very fabric of the Star Wars mythology.

"This is a very important chapter in Anakin's development," says Dave Filoni, supervising director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. "The prophecy of the Chosen One was touched on in the films, but never like this. We're going to look at what it means for Anakin and the galaxy. We wanted to give it the proper connection to the larger saga. I am very grateful to have Liam Neeson and Pernilla August reprising their roles from the live-action films. They are each so important to Anakin's journey, and to have them on our series has been incredible."

What will we see in the Episode?  My Baseless Speculation..

Lets start with the big news, this week will we see the return to Star Wars of two deceased characters in the persons of Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August) and Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson).  Not only are the characters returning, but the film actors who played them are returning to do the voice acting for the characters.

We have already seen that Qui-Gon appears to Obi-Wan in a vision on the planet Mortis, we don't know at this point whether this is Qui-Gon appearing as a Force Ghost, a vision/halicination by Obi-Wan, a projection from the Force itself, or some trick by Father/Brother/Sister.  There are a lot of possibilities and given the surprise at the conclusion of Episode III when Yoda tells Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon found a way to retain his essence in the Force, it seems like this will either be actually or simply interpreted after the fact by Obi-Wan as a vision and not as a Force Ghost.

It does beg the question, whether or not Qui-Gon appears to Anakin in this or the next episode.

Its also interesting to see that Shmi is going to be in the show, as a non-Jedi, the Force Ghost thing seems to be out the window, so it seems like she will be a vision of some sort or a memory.  What role will she play?


I think the key to this story arc and episode in particular can be found in the Jedi fortune cookie, "Balance is found in the one who faces his guilt." Anakin has a very dark act to atone for and to face up to.  After Shmi's death at the hands of the Sand People, Anakin proceeded to slaughter an entire village.

I think that in order to find balance within the light and dark within himself, Anakin must come to grips with this dark act of his and how his failure to control his emotions started him down a dark path.  I can see Shmi appearing to Anakin, in a vision as a voice of wisdom or conscience, offering absolution or forgiveness.

Interestingly from the preview article it says that 'Father' asks Anakin to stay on Mortis to 'maintain the equilibrium' between the light side and dark side.  Did 'Father' have a vision of the future that revealed Anakin going to the dark side, or does 'Father' see the chosen one as so powerful as to tip the balance either in favor of the light side or dark side.  Its possible that this 'Father' wants/needs an equilibrium to exist between the light and dark sides of the Force, and his urge for Anakin to basically self-impose an exile comes from a desire to sideline the Chosen One and prevent this imbalance in the Force from occurring.

Given Anakin's attachment issues, I don't see how 'Father' can hope to succeed in getting Anakin to sit out the war and stay on Mortis, Anakin is too attached to Padme, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Palpatine, etc., to sit back and let the galactic events play out without his intervention.

From the official site synopsis, it appears that the Mortis Family will be attempting to put Anakin through some sort of tests to determine if he is truly the Chosen One.  The scenes we have scene in preview clips with Anakin between Brother and Sister in beast mode, Brother and Sister holding Ahsoka and Obi-Wan in their claws appears to certainly be part of this Chosen One test.

This three episode arc promises to be rather mind blowing and hopefully lives up to the advance billing as changing the way we view the Force.

Tune in to Cartoon Network Friday at 8:30 PM, iTunes on Saturday and StarWars.com on Monday to view Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode 3.15 "Overlords."

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