Episode: The Clone Wars 3.15 – “Overlords”
Original Air Date: January 28, 2011
Screencaps from The Clone Wars Screencap Gallery.
Is Anakin really the Chosen One?
The intro provides an explanation that the Jedi Council has received a distress call over 2,000 years old. They send Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka to investigate. While the Jedi were supposed to rendezvous with Captain Rex and a Republic Cruiser, neither is at the rendezvous point, despite being at the exact same coordinates.
The Jedi shuttle then promptly loses power and gets sucked into a blinding white light. The trio then wake up on a mysterious world that looks an awful lot like Pandora from Avatar. They’re greeted by a mysterious green-haired woman who asks if Anakin is “The One” and bids them to follow her to meet Father. A rockslide then separates them, with Anakin and the Daughter on one side, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan on the other. The Daughter claims that this must be the work of her brother and orders Anakin to remain, while the other two agree to head back to the shuttle.
Finding the shuttle mysteriously gone, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are confronted by the Son, who has the power to shut down their lightsabers. Obi-Wan asks if the Son is a Sith, to which the mysterious man cryptically responds. He advises them to seek shelter in a cave as the storm begins, and then transforms into a bat and flies away.
Meanwhile, Anakin disobeys the order to stay and follows the Daughter back to the tower where Father resides. Father bids Anakin to stay with him for the night and seek shelter from the storm. That night, in both the cave and the tower, each experiences strange visions. Qui-Gon appears first to Obi-Wan, asking him about Anakin’s training and telling him that the beings on this world are powerful Force users. Ahsoka, meanwhile, sees an older version of herself, who warns the young Padawan of the danger in remaining with Anakin (“The seeds of the Dark Side have been planted in you by your Master”). Lastly, Anakin’s own mother appears to him, but it becomes clear that this is no vision, but the Son playing tricks on Skywalker.
Anakin then goes to see Father, who also has the ability to turn off Anakin’s lightsaber, and then tells the Jedi that he intends to test Anakin. To do so, Father uses Son and Daughter to capture Obi-Wan and Ahsoka and bring them to an arena. There, Anakin must display his ability to wield the Force by releasing his guilt over his mother’s death and choosing who to save: his master or his apprentice. Instead, Anakin uses the Force to make Son and Daughter release their captives.
Father then reveals to Anakin that the test was to ensure that he was the Chosen One, because Father is dying and needs a replacement who can control his children. Anakin refuses, and Father warns Anakin that his selfishness will bring darkness to the galaxy. However, this doesn’t stop the three from leaving the mysterious planet, and as they fly away, the Imperial March theme begins to play.
One of the best things I liked about this episode was: LIAM NEESON! That’s right, the Irish actor brings his brogue back for Qui-Gon, which was an awesome experience and certainly brings heft to the animated version of Obi-Wan’s master. Another nice reference was Sam Witwer (The Secret Apprentice from The Force Unleashed) as the voice of the Son.
The plot did a good job of foreshadowing Anakin’s eventual fall to the Dark Side. When he forces the Son and Daughter to kneel, you can practically hear Vader’s voice. It seems that Ahsoka’s destiny is somehow linked to Anakin’s seduction, and the episode introduces the possibility that she could be corrupted by the Dark Side as well. It’ll be interesting to see where that goes, and suggests that she may not survive to see Episode III (in which, of course, she didn’t appear).
Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
About the Author
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about John Rabon:
John got started on the path to geekdom thanks to his brother's collection of comic books and Star Wars toys but was cemented into the geek class forever when LeVar Burton took Reading Rainbow viewers on a backstage tour of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A love of Monty Python soon followed, and it wasn't long before he was starting to collect his own comics. The rest, as they say, is history. But really, who are they to say something?
Since discovering the BBC some years ago, John has become an obsessive Anglophile. In fact, he even likes the food they serve over there! As such, some of his favourite programmes include: Doctor Who, Primeval, Coupling, QI, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, and Shaun the Sheep.
Upon choosing a university, John enrolled in the University of South Carolina, which was nice enough to give him a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Master's in Teaching. Feeling that he hadn't been put through enough academic torment with student teaching, John decided to enroll in law school at Campbell University.
Hobbies, when he can find time for them, include: writing, video games, reading, and wasting time in the pub.