Siege of Mandalore Breakdown Ep 3 - Shattered

We are already at week 3 of discussing this amazing group of episodes! Full breakdowns analyzing these stories are always a fun time, especially six years later, as we relive what it was like to enjoy these episodes for the first time!

Order 66 was executed this week! Let's talk about what that means, how long it was in the making, and what it was like to watch beloved characters live it in real time!!

Send us an email! tvjpod@gmail.com

SaberMasters Link

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I have a message from the Village Jedi. Max Rebo, hit it. Welcome back to The Village Jedi. My name is Marina, and if you're new here, as I said, welcome. And if you're not, yet again, welcome back. Said it twice, because I mean it. Hello there, General Kenobi. We are finally at part three of the Siege of Mandalore, and I could not be more excited. I'm sure you guys can hear in the hype of my voice. This episode is jam-packed with amazement. And like I said before, kind of the vibe of these past three episodes has been let's pretend we're watching it for the first time, knowing what we know now. Right? So we're picking up on things that we've never really thought about before. We're getting little kernels, tidbits, Easter eggs, whatever you want to call it, but it's all intentional. It's all great. It's all fabulous, and it is all worth talking about here on the Village Jedi. You are right where you need to be. I hope your weekend is going absolutely fabulous. It just started, so yet again, happy Friday. I just love saying happy Friday. People don't say it enough. We finally worked all week to get here. We're staring the weekend in the face, and it is wonderful. Um, a little bit of behind the scenes, as always. If you want to get involved in the discussion, feel free to follow me on Instagram or TikTok at the Village Jedi, or you can send me an email to be read and reviewed online or on air, should I say, at tvjpod at gmail.com. Um, not a lot of updates today. I if I'm being honest. Uh, this is another batch episode because we're out of town most of this month, so I appreciate everybody supporting the show and enjoying these episodes. Maybe you're watching the Siege of Mandalore with me, and so you watched part three in preparation for this episode. Maybe you're just a huge fan and you love the show and you love Star Wars. Whatever the case may be, I'm just grateful to have you here. I'm grateful that we get to talk about Star Wars a little bit together. My only update really is that I on Instagram and TikTok posted a drawing of the daughter from the Mortis arc. And I think she's gonna become one of my new favorite characters to draw because she's one of those characters where she didn't last for very long, gone too soon, a baddie down, diva down. And so it's been fun to think about different pictures that I could draw with her because that's the thing, is when a character's kind of niche, like there's not a lot of information out there about them, you can kind of draw them however you want. Like you can draw them in different outfits, in different settings with different characters, interacting with different people, and it's really not that big a deal. It's fun, it's a sandbox character, and so I want to draw her more. I've been having a lot of fun with that. So that's kind of my only update um about me. Okay, before we get started with the real yap, why don't we go ahead as always and take a brief ad break? Hello there. If you're looking to build your collection, the Village Jedi is now collaborating with Sabermasters to offer you $20 off your first combat ready laser sword. You heard that correctly, Combat Ready. The team at Sabermasters makes it their personal mission to create lightsabers built to last using lightweight polycarbonate blades with customizable settings and simple navigation. Sabermasters has really crafted the ultimate experience. Sabermasters is always offering a great deal for force users everywhere, but with my code TVJ20, you can save an extra $20 at checkout. Simply type in the code at the checkout screen, TVJ20, and you're done. Link will be in the show notes. So do you remember where I said Siege Mandalore was something that I could talk about legitimately forever? There's so many pieces and parts of this story that are worth dissecting. And we're already at part three. Part three is called Shattered. It runs for 28 minutes, a little bit of pre-show info like we did for the last two weeks. Here in this episode, we see Order 66. What exactly was George thinking here? Again, we want to go backwards a little bit. So with a little bit of Googling, Order 66 kind of introduces the ideas that it was possibly referencing, again, this is from Google, that there was an order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19th, 1942. And it was Executive Order 9066. It authorized military commanders to designate exclusion zones. This directly led to the forced removal and mass incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans. While the text of Executive Order 9066 never explicitly mentioned Japanese Americans, it granted the Secretary of War and military commanders the authority to establish military areas and dictate who could enter, remain, or leave them. So, execute order 66, executive order 9066, not really a reach, in my opinion. So I thought that was interesting, something I'd never heard of. It also said it could possibly uh reference the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, which is an ancient um part of mythology where Lucas might have been inspired by the legendary destruction of this sacred temple, where an emperor and a traitor within the order had wiped out the um peacekeepers who had grown too powerful. So pretty interesting. There's a lot of lore there. Kind of what I was thinking is this is a serious pivotal point in his storytelling in the prequels. Because when you watch the OT, we've got these big bads running the galaxy. How did we get here? And that's what the story of the prequels is. Yes, it's the story of Anakin Skywalker, but it's mostly the story of the fall of the Jedi, the story of the how we got here. Why do we need Luke? Why do we need the Emperor killed? Why are we oppressed? This is prequels. Pre-story. This is how it happened. And this day specifically, Order 66, is how it happened, and we got to see that day animated in the Clone Wars. A little more research indicated that Order 66 was codenamed Operation Nightfall, and not specifically night as in Moon and Stars, Moonbeam Ice Cream, K N I G-H, Knight. Operation Nightfall. So the fall of the Jedi Knights, Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker himself, potentially. And sort of with the aftermath of this, the Empire ended up collecting the lightsabers of the fallen Jedi, burned them at the summit of the temple staircase as a display of the Order's demise, and afterward the Jedi Temple was then converted into Emperor Palpatine's private imperial palace. He completely erased the Jedi's history from the building and replaced it with statues of himself. This was, can you imagine? Let's just imagine for a second that this is real. Let's take a little step back. This would be the most traumatic night in history. There was absolute devastation, shattering of the previous way of life on Coruscant, on all the other worlds, on Ilum, which was an extremely force-sensitive sacred location. This marked the beginning, but it also marked the end of Clone Wars. Which is why, after watching this episode, I had no idea what the fourth week was going to be. You know, as with most of us. We knew that there were 12 episodes slated for this season. We knew there was one episode after this. What exactly is it gonna be? Because in Revenge of the Sith, this is the end, right? So it was interesting that we got to see what was happening with Ahsoka while Anakin and Kenobi were on Mustafar. But also you've got to think this was a long time coming. This wasn't just Palpatine waking up one day and thinking, you know what, I'm kinda tired of this. Yeah, I'm kind of sick of being the Chancellor. Hmm, wrap it up. No, this was a strategic, well-played moment. Every choice you've made has led to this, in the words of Maul. So I looked it up on Wikipedia. He ended up playing the long game. He he had this whole thing going called the Grand Plan. And on Wikipedia, it says that the Grand Plan is also known as the Great Sith Plan and the Sith conspiracy. It was a long plot hatched by the Sith. It originated with Sith Lord Darth Bain, who had emerged victorious from a devastating conflict among his own peers. Its aim was to erode the Galactic Republic's democracy from within, discredit and eradicate the Jedi Order, and ultimately rule the galaxy through a Sith Empire. A millennium after its creation, the plan was fulfilled by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Sidious, who started the tyrannical reign of the fascist and authors authority br authoritarian galactic empire. So this was a whole thing. And I haven't read enough of the Sith lore. You know, I know that I need to read more about Darth Bain, Plagueist. Like, I know all of this. I haven't done it yet. There's a lot of Star Wars content out there, and if you're not gravitated towards certain aspects of it, they just kind of fall through the cracks. So I haven't done that yet. I haven't been gravitated toward those stories. But I wanted to include this in this episode to show maybe if there's other listeners out there who didn't know this, this was a millennium-long plan. And it all kind of started to come together when the Sith showed themselves to be in existence. They'd just been kind of putting this plan together in the shadows. Episode one, the Phantom Menace. And who was in the Phantom Menace? Maul. And Sidious, but mostly Maul. So that's what makes him being part of this arc so incredible, is it's so full circle. It really is. When we're first introduced to the Sith, chronologically, it is with Maul during this era. And now at the end of this era, Order 66, we're gonna watch how Maul survives and how he has been able to survive this grand plan that no longer includes him. Because you see, Palpatine, he ended up manipulating events to fast track all these efforts. He was a character known for tactical genius, but also a lot of patience. And even though he's super smart, it's interesting, at least in my opinion, that he would not be on the Mount Rushmore of villains. Like if there was one character from Star Wars, no question it would be Vader up there. Palpatine slash Sidious slash the Emperor, like whatever you want to call him. He works in the shadows, and he has a story that's largely inaccessible to his viewers. Specifically his character. Like it feels he feels kind of like distant, cold, calculated. He's very unrelatable. Like we do not know enough about Shiv Palpatine to develop a strong opinion on him. Besides, he's smart, he's strong, and no one can take him out. So, and maybe that's just because I don't know enough about him, but it's it I feel like it might be a little crazy to say that he's low-key, like a weak character. Not like in the sense of he's easily killable and could fall to the wayside and forgettable, but but more so like he's not as well written as other fleshed-out characters that fans gravitate and attach themselves to. We kind of have like this lack of backstory, and his only appeal is this big secret that he's playing both sides. But once that's revealed, like it's just absolute OP, force lightning, and that's not enough for me as a fan to like form an attachment to this specific villain. I don't know. Let me let me know what you think. And I hope you guys don't think I mean like he's a bad character or whatever, he's trash, like the whole thing is completely genius, and I love the story, and that's why I started a show to talk about why I love it. But it's just interesting that for what key factors and elements within the story he is a part of, he's not as fleshed out in media, like on television or in the movies, as you would have assumed when you look on paper and see just how influential his character really is. Alright, so now that we got a little bit of pre-show info out of the way, I've been enjoying doing that. For the first couple weeks, we just did a little bit more background research to sort of get into the headspace of why this episode specifically is as important as it is. For me, obviously, it's Order 66, and I had some questions about that. Questions I hadn't really stopped to think about before, but I wanted these to be good quality, enjoyable episodes for you guys, maybe pulling out some points that you hadn't heard before, or maybe you had, but it had been a while, or maybe I said something or thought of something that you hadn't thought about before, and that's what's making these episodes so much fun. Is let's just break it down together and find something enjoyable about a story that is going to go down in history as enjoyable, timeless, incredible, very fun. Alright, episode breakdown. Part three, shattered. That's the episode title. What's shattered here? The Jedi Order won, as we talked about, huge deal, Order 66, Republic treaties with Mandalore since Republic troopers invaded the space and caused a little war there for Bo Katan to handle. So that was shattered. The trust between the Jedi and clones shattered. Trust between the people and the Jedi shattered. Because they've been told that the Jedi tried to kill the Chancellor and that they are now enemies of this new government. So they don't trust the Jedi anymore. Also shattered everything, every little thing that the Republic and the Separatists were fighting over, were fighting for. People died for this cause that they believed in. That's gone. Any hope of gaining independence as a colony, village, society, planet, whatever you want to want to have it, that is gone because the imperial occupation started almost immediately after this. So people's hope for what this war would end with, that's shattered. An entire era has been completely destroyed, shattered. Like scattered pieces can never be put back together. Even if the Emperor was killed at this point, day after Order 66, we can never go back to how things were before this moment, before this day of mass genocide and galactic tide shifts. So the episode title Shattered. Makes sense. The episode picks back up on Mandalore, clone troopers are arresting Maldaloreans, the city's on fire, and the Republic cruiser lands with Maul in custody, Ahsoka and her friends. Rex ends up calling Ahsoka over for a holo call with the Jedi Council, and it's Kiadi Mundi, Isla Sakura, Yoda, and Mace Windu. At this point, Mace Windu famously says, I sense a plot to destroy the Jedi. The dark side of the force surrounds the Chancellor. And this whole scene is a direct quotation from um Revenge of the Sith. In live action, the scene ends right before Ahsoka walks in, so it's only like a 30-second scene with all these characters. And so now we're seeing it in animation again, tethering us to the movie in real time. This is where we are. If you're gonna watch Revenge of the Sith right next to these episodes, here's where we are in time. Skip ahead. This is where we're at. Ahsoka ends up saying, okay, like I'm gonna escort Rex to Corusc with Maul. That's where they were on their way to. She also wants to speak with Anakin likely about her conversation with Kenobi, which we talked about last week. However, Mace lets her know, like, he's with the Chancellor to tell him that General Kenobi's engaged with General Grievous on Utapau, and we are nearly to the worst moment in history books, as Obi-Wan Kenobi calls it, the dark times. We're almost there. And as fans, it's it's like a pit in your stomach because you know, but all these other characters don't know. And so you're seeing a perspective that you have never seen before. Because in Revenge of the Sith, you watch this moment play out. You know exactly what happens in that conference room, exactly what lies are woven, exactly what bits of the truth have been intentionally left out. But when you're watching it with characters who have absolutely no clue what's going on whatsoever, it adds a new depth and dimension to the absolute tragedy of that moment in that movie. So, you know, it was it was here. The first time that I watched it, I really started to wonder like what exactly is the rest of this episode and the next episode going to go? Because we're only three and a half minutes in, and already Order 66 is like right around the corner. It's already minutes away. Like, what's gonna happen? So then Mace ends up disrespectfully dismissing Ahsoka and the meeting is finished. Then Yoda asks, because he kind of sticks around for a little bit, he asks, Do you have a message for Anakin? To which she says, You know what, I'll just tell him myself when I see him. And there's this nice, hopeful music where Yoda says, May the force be with you, Padawan. He doesn't call her a citizen, like Mace Windu does. And this is the final conversation that Ahsoka's character has with Yoda. We're seeing all these character mile markers in this animated arc. It's also her last contact with Mace and all the other Jedi that were on that call. And it makes me genuinely wish I never really put this together, but I do wish that Plo Koon was on that call. Her and Ahsoka deserve, him and Ahsoka deserve to have a final goodbye. So Rex says, you didn't tell them what Mal said about General Skywalker, and she just says, No, I didn't. So this moment we start to have some eerie music play at four minutes and 42 seconds. It ties in absolutely beautifully with the music playing during Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin is sort of looking across the cityscape to Padme. There's this music, and it's either inspired by or directly taken from Padme's Ruminations. That's the name of the track on the Revenge of the Sith soundtrack by John Williams. And an iteration of that begins to play, and it plays for the next few minutes of this episode. And and it it again, it's just tethering us to live action. Here is what is going on. Right at this moment, Anakin is in tears and he's looking across the skyline at Padme as Ahsoka and Rex are escorting Maul onto the ship. And there's this buildup, thick tension. No one is ready. You're sitting there and you're thinking, like, no, no, not yet. Like, not yet. Like, there's still a story to be told. No, mama. No, it's time. Anakin is about to give himself over to Darth Sidious. So Moll's eyes say that he can kind of tell something is coming, but he doesn't know for sure. He's locked up in this box, and all we can really see are his eyes. He's escorted onto the cruiser, and Ahsoka and Bo Katan part way. She just says goodbye, Ahsoka Tano. And we both know these ladies live because we see them again in Revels, but we have no idea what's gonna happen until they meet again. Like, is Maul gonna break loose? Like, what's what's gonna happen? Nope. They all get on the transport. If you pause, it is six minutes. We are at the six minute mark. Order 66 is just around the corner. Six minute mark. So keep that in mind. The transport leaves, we dock onto the Republic cruiser, Mall's looking around anxiously. Ahsoka senses his discomfort and uncertainty from more than just being. Being a prisoner, she's connected to the same force that he is. They they just tap into that energy differently. So, whatever the force is trying to warn him about, or making the hair on the back of his neck stand, it's the same thing that it's trying to warn her about, too. Unfortunately, the light side users have been clouded by Papatine's dark side shadow, so it makes it harder for them to detect the reality of their dire situation. Maul doesn't have that screen. So he's able to understand fully, like something really bad is about to happen, like really, really bad. And so he's kind of freaking out, and Ahsoka can sense that. Re-watching, we notice too just how many people are on this ship. They land on the Republic cruiser. As I said, there's hundreds of clones. There's different officers. The ship is just packed with soldiers, troopers. There's Coruscant Guard troopers overseeing the transfer of mall since he's a Republic prisoner. They end up leading him to this later laser cell and stand guard. And his eyes, they stay closed. Like he's trying to tune in with that warning in hopes that it will also reveal further clarity and a way for him to survive. So Ahsoka and Rex end up making their way to the bridge. Again, Padme's rumination, this eerie music is just playing the whole time. And the ship is sent into hyperspace, it's traveling back to the Jedi Temple. At eight minutes and 23 seconds, Rex speaks and he just says something on your mind because he sees like Ahsoka's facial expressions. Eight minutes and 23 seconds. It has been almost a full two and a half minutes of zero dialogue. Which may not seem a big deal in live action, but when you're watching it and all you have is facial expressions and animation, you're just like, something is happening here. It is a long two and a half minutes. So up until that point, there hasn't been any dialogue. There's just been this music, movement, micro expressions. We are loving the buildup. So very, very interesting. Ahsoka ends up responding, you know, as a Jedi, we're trained to be keepers of the peace, not soldiers. But all I've been since I was a Padawan is a soldier. And Rex admits that the clones feel the same way. They were made for this war. So, you know, what happens to us when it's over? We have major mixed feelings about this. He says, you know, many people wish the war wouldn't have happened, but without it, we clones, we wouldn't exist. And it's a beautiful point here again, reinforcing Ahsoka's connection to her soldier friends. Because why would Rex tell her that? There's nothing she can do. She's not a Kaminoan, she's not even a general anymore. Like, why would he tell her this? It's because of that close friendship. They aren't just clone troopers to her. They never were. That's what makes her and Anakin work so well, is they both have big hearts. They wear them on their sleeves, and they lead it forward with battle. So it's just so much more gut-wrenching to watch her experience with Order 66 as an audience. Because someone like Pong Krell, oh, he would have had zero issues with Order 66, just killing all the clones that are shooting at him. If he needed to kill him to survive, whatever, he kills him for fun. He's just an animal. He's got no compassion for anyone. But someone like Ahsoka, who never wants the clones to feel in danger, be hurt, let alone die on her watch, they are important to her. She does not want to be the reason that they die. And so her watching her friends go through what they're about to go through is even more gut-wrenching to a person who has a connection to them like her. So masterful with the dialogue, reinforcing us as an audience what kind of connection they have. So she just says, you know what, the Republic couldn't have asked for better soldiers, nor I a better friend. And it just made me pause and think like, I love how in the Bad Batch, Senator Chucci is working with clones to fight for their rights and freedom post-war as they're phased out. So sort of this idea that their rebellion against Imperial Protocol started with clones. So they salute each other as respected colleagues and dear friends before Rex is called for a briefing. Mama. No. We know as an audience, we know exactly what is about to happen. And Ahsoka, she's alone, and this vision begins. So we know that Yoda felt the heart, the intense betrayal because of his powerful connection to the force. Maul also felt it because of his powerful connection to Sidious and his part played in the grand plan, as we talked about previously. And now Ahsoka feels it because of her powerful connection to Anakin. So it just makes me think like this clarity most likely was not granted to all Jedi, just the ones closest to those involved. It feels like the forces way of balance, like not picking sides or keeping secrets. And we sort of hear this vision play out in Revenge of the Sith audio. It's a montage of the scene in the Chancellor's Chambers, and then we cut to Sidious telling Rex, execute order 66. And it just makes your heart drop, the hair on the back of your neck raise. As an audience, you're like, oh, so like the doors slide open, and Ahsoka's like, Rex, it's Anakin. I feel as though something terrible has happened because Anakin is his friend too. Little does she know, she has no idea what she just walked in on. Rex shakes, he drops his helmet, and she's like, What's happening? And he turns, he stops the other troopers, insisting that he'll be the one to do it instead. Ahsoka's confused, and the animators actually animated tears falling from Rex's eyes before the chip fully takes control and he tells Ahsoka, like, find him, find Fives. He fought that inhibitor chip control. It was painful. And he's in disbelief that Fives was right, he's out of control, he doesn't want to do this, he's just going through so many emotions, and so the care that the animators took with his character down to this last minute of freedom, incredible. Animating emotion is an intentional choice. So now we're able to see the payoff of all the training of their connections. He was the only clone trooper that was strong enough to warn his Jedi friend. And so this show was always about him and Ahsoka. It was always about them. This is another payoff that we know too from Tales of the Jedi. She fought the clones to prepare herself for battle. She knows how to fight them. She's prepared. She uses their blasters to deflect to the toward the ceiling and cut a hole, and she jumps through to escape. So then it's on. The hunt is on. The hunt for the Jedi. Rex assembles the clones, sends them after her. He tells the other clone troopers, go execute Maul. He says, She's been marked for termination by Order 66. Under this directive, any and all Jedi leadership must be executed for treason against the Republic. Any soldier that does not comply with the order will also be executed for treason. So breaking down this line of dialogue, it tells us exactly how the chip was designed. Step one, terminate the Jedi because they're enemies of the Republic, and you work for the Republic, not the Jedi. So take out the enemies. Step two, in case of emergency and one of the chips malfunctions, execute the soldiers who don't comply. It keeps everybody silent, which is why it was so important that the bad batch had to cosplay that their chips didn't malfunction because they still had the awareness to be able to dissect the situation and realize who the true enemy was. So smart. Step one, take out the Jedi. Step two, take out the soldiers who might be able to like realize that something's wrong. You can't make this up in a day. It takes, as we discussed, millennia to slowly plant all the seeds for it to bloom together, for it to all fall together. Not once did it fail. And only little parts slipped through the cracks, as we said, like fives, things like that. Like that's how we're able to see this story play out. But for the most part, it was an incredibly successful plan. And that's why the Empire was able to rule as long as it was, and why the rebellion took as long as it did in the shadows to put together their grand plan of retaliation. So Ahsoka frees Maul, and you can see the visible shock on his face. She doesn't kill the clones that were guarding them, guarding him, just kind of knocks them out, and she's like, Is this your doing? And he's like, No, I don't know what has occurred, but surely you have felt it. And Maul is sort of amused, like he puts the pieces together, and Ahsoka is shocked. Like it makes sense what he's saying, that that they had these inhibitor chips, and the clones like are sent to kill all the Jedi. Like this is wild. So Maul's like, okay, well, it's good you freed me. Like now we have a fighting chance if you follow my lead. And she's like, um, no, I'm not gonna work with you. Like, you're you're gonna go create a diversion while I figure this out. And she's like, you know, go cause some chaos, it's what you're good at. And Maul just looks at her, he's like, um, care to give me a fighting chance because she has two sabers and he has none. And she's like, I'm not rooting for you, right? You're still the bad guy. Get going. So he's like kind of rolls his eyes and goes the other way. She doesn't want to leave the ship until she understands exactly what Rex was trying to tell her because he's her friend, and this is just gonna be easier if the troopers are distracted. So she's she's smart here. She's like, I don't care if you live or die, I just need you to keep them busy so that they're off of me. And they're gonna be more scared of you than they are me. So whatever. So she ends up sort of like quietly waking up all these cute little mech droids. They're panicked, confused, they're trying to tell her like what's going on, they're willing to help. And oh my goodness, you guys, it was at this moment that I just needed to pause and think how much I love droids and I wish they existed in real life. I think they are so cute, and I like all the different designs and their little sounds, like they're just so, so cute. And so watching Ahsoka interact with all of them and come at come up with this little plan, like it's just so sweet. So R7 ends up looking up secure files on CT555, and um, Nolissay reports that the malfunction of this clone trooper's inhibitor chip, like it went wrong, and so the only thing left is a grievance report filed by Rex. And Ahsoka uses Anakin's passcode, 8108, to get access to that grievance report where Rex will hopefully give her some more information about what exactly is going on. 8108. Now, if you didn't know, you probably do, but if you don't, here we go. Google says that this is the specific date that marks the theatrical release of Star Wars The Clone Wars movie, which is August 10th, 2008. This movie first introduced Ahsoka Tano and established her bond with Anakin Skywalker. By having Anakin never change his passcode, the creators included a touching nod to the very beginning of the series. And fans have also noted that this deep emotional layer may include that Anakin used the date he met his paddo on as a personal security code for years. Very, very sweet. 818, August 10th, 2008. That's Anakin's passcode. I thought for the longest time that that number was a reference to Princess Leia's cell number in A New Hope, like when um Luke and Han are trying to break her out and figure out what cell she's in. No, but her cell is actually 2187, as in FN2187 Finn from the sequel trilogy. So 8108, I love it. Now, Rex in his grievance report ends up relating everything that Five saw and said to him about the inhibitor chips. Ahsoka is just absolutely floored. So she's getting all this information. It cuts back to the troopers defending against Maul in this hallway. He's only using the force and sort of broken ship paddling to paneling to make his way down the hallways. Hallway scenes are just elite. We saw a bunch of hallway scenes in his own show, Maul Shadow Lord, that were just so entertaining to watch. And he ends up like dramatically and traumatically getting a hold of a a trooper's like comb band to better navigate navigate the ship. Like he like closes the door. The the troopers are trying to close the door to get away from him, and he uses the force to keep one of the troopers' arms reached out through the door so that the door will like cut his arm off, and the arm falls to the ground, and then he walks over, and now he has access to how the troopers communicate with each other. Because when you think about it, I had to pause and think about this. This is a Republic cruiser, and other than being dragged up here as a hostage in this like detention Mandalorian torture box, when would he ever have been on a ship like this? Never. So it's little details like that that keep the storytelling, the character, like it's all realistic and immersive and believable. Like, of course, he would need a way to better understand where he's at in the ship, where to get, what what what part of the ship am I on, because he's never been on one before. So the droids end up separating Rex from the other clones momentarily for R7 to show a hollow projection from Ahsoka. She understands that the ship has bit the chip has been malfunctioned, that it's not his fault, and R7 stuns him, and Ahsoka and the droids are able to haul him to the medical bay. And this is like a very stressful situation. They're on a time crunch, they're not even sure it would it'll work because they're not only on the time crunch of like, oh, the other clones are hunting for us, but now Rex is stunned. How long before it wears off? Like he's very dangerous. He's a Mandalorian soldier, and yeah, we can like take his guns away, but we're not here to fight him, we're here to help him. So the droids and her end up loading him up on this med scanner, and after an intense effort, the chip is located. She like puts her hands on his temples, and they both say together, like, I'm one with the force, and the force is with me, which is a Rogue One Easter egg. Absolutely love that. Why was the chip so hard to locate? I think it was because maybe the med droid programming was altered after fives to where only specific diagnostic scans could pick it up. Like the Kaminoans would know what specific scans to run, not just a run-of-the-mill scan anymore, would be able to pick it up. Another way to try and preserve the secrecy. But the force, you know, it does what it does, and here we are. So Ahsoka's obviously a little nervous to have it removed, but she understands that they're completely out of time as the clone troopers have found them, and she's accepted her fate at this point. Either she dies alone or with him after trying to save her friend. So as the clones are trying to break inside, the droid sort of mans the door controls. They start getting in. She's it starts to get very overwhelming. There's blaster fire back and forth, and then we we hear Ahsoka sees the blast go from behind her into the troopers that she's fighting, and it's it's from Rex. Like he sits up, he's the one that that fired his blasters, and she's like, Rex, are you okay? Like she's like, her heart is stopped, you know, and he's like, Yeah, yeah, kid, I'm I'm okay. I'm I'm sorry for what happened earlier. And she's you know, she's she's like, okay, you know, it's okay. Like, how how widespread is this? And he's like, Ahsoka, it's all of us. The entire grand army of the republic has been ordered to hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. Again, Operation Knight Fall. And then that's where the the episode ends. This whole sequence, it just it points to Rex's, he has this extreme response, and it eventually like he meets up with the bad batch and forces them to get their chips removed. Like, it makes sense why he's so terrified when they're like, Nope, we haven't got our chips removed, like, don't worry. And he's like, No, no, no, no, no, you don't understand. Like, they completely take over. And he knows, he knows exactly what that feels like to be doing things against your will, out of control, hurting the people you love, and being somewhat fully conscious the entire time. So, yeah, that's where the episode ends, and it's it's amazing, it's so well done. So, now before we go, as always on Instagram, I opened a little link a while ago to have you guys sort of send in what you liked, maybe what you would change about the episode. So, we're gonna read a few of those. First off, what did you like? Someone wrote, I love seeing just how emotional Rex is breaking the mold of clones being robotic. Yes, yes, like I was saying, this whole show is just specifically designed to give more insight into Rex and Ahsoka's relationship, and they have a close friendship. It is a brother and sister bond, it's like an uncle and niece bond, like they love each other, they want to see each other survive, and so it's it's cool. By the end of this show, you see Rex's armor is all distressed, like he has seen a lot of conflict, a lot of battles, him and Ahsoka together, especially that scene where he like turns and he like tear falls from his eye. Absolutely love that. So, another thing, what did I like? One of my favorite parts about it is the clones reuniting with Ahsoka and showing her their new helmets to match her own markings. It really hits the nail on the head with the theme that loyalty means everything to the clones. I hope you enjoy my Anakin quote, I did. That everything with her false accusations and leaving the order, that their time together is the real bond, and they value that over any political opinionslash decision she made or was made about her. Yes. Yes, and again, that's what makes this this episode especially heartbreaking, is because not only is she fighting clones and members of the 501st, they have her face markings painted on their helmets. Can you imagine how traumatic that would be for someone? Like, it just again, like I was saying, when you re-watch that first episode, it's no longer like, oh, that's so sweet, like it was the first time. Now it's like, oh, oh no, because you know what's gonna happen, right? And so I agree, like it is a very touching moment. It does show how much they care about her, how much Anakin cares about her, but in the end, it's also what makes this whole arc that much more gut-wrenching, memorable, and hard-hitting. So, what would you change? Let's read one from there. I wouldn't have changed this as it doesn't make sense, as Anakin was saving Chancellor at the time, but it would have been cool to see Maul versus Anakin. I would have loved for Maul to talk to Ahsoka about how he was cast aside by Sidious in detail, perhaps. Yes, and so I think that's what the writers were thinking. They wish that we would have had more dialogue specifically between Maul and Ahsoka about his past with Sidious, which is why it's such a strong plot point in his new show, Maul Shadow Lord. We see those interactions that he would have had with Ahsoka, we see it with Devin, and it works really, really well for that character relationship as well as for the audience. Like, we love it, we eat it up. And as far as like him meeting Anakin, I loved when Ahsoka was like, You're lucky Anakin didn't come. The way you're fighting, you wouldn't have lasted long. Girl, she ate him up. Like, she knows Anakin would not have messed around. And seeing Anakin versus Maul, that would have been so, so dope. Later we see it, Vader versus Maul. Spoiler alert, Maul Shadow Lord episode 10. That is absolutely crazy. He doesn't even need to say anything. Granted, that's like peak Vader, you know, but still wild, still crazy, and an amazing duel and fight that will also go down in the history books. So, yeah, that is part three shattered of the Siege of Mandalore. I hope you guys enjoyed. Uh, next week we're gonna be going over the finale, which is crazy, the final episode of the Clone Wars. We'll have a fun episode there to sort of round out this month's worth of discussions. Um, and unfortunately, this is where the fun ends. My only hope is you enjoyed, but I will yap at you guys again next Friday. Bye! This has been The Village Jedi. Thank you so much for listening. To support this show, please leave a rating or review wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Go check out the YouTube channel or send me an email to be read and discussed on air. You can also tell a fellow nerd to build the community. I mean this in the nerdiest way possible. May the force be with you.