A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 21: The Kamino Arc (Clone Wars 45 - 46)

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

We return from hiatus to find a pair of episodes built to answer some of our most potent and long running questions about the clones and their war: How are they trained? ? What's their relationship to Kamino? How soon can they start getting sick haircuts? Where's the Jango Juice kept? What? Don't say you didn't miss us.  NEXT TIME: Episodes 47 - 48 ("Supply Lines" and "Sphere of Influence") Show Notes Fallen Clones: Havoc, Colt, and 99   Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Austin Walker Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)  

Hey, everybody. It's Austin. The last time I did one of these things up top that said, hey, we had an issue with a file, and it meant that we had to, like, piece together the podcast from a backup and some other stuff. A lot of people told me, don't worry about it. It sounded great. But I'm not a fool. And so I'm going to give the same warning this time. I think it probably sounds fine. I think especially if you're just like listening on earbuds or on a car or something, it's probably totally fine. But just in case, uh it sounds bad this is me telling you up top i know it sounds bad i did my best uh here's the episode i'll shut up now and i hope you enjoy it it's a fun one all right bye Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Clone Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zakney, joined by Ali Akipora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. As we all know, the hardest question a child can ask is, how are clone troopers made?

And it's important to be prepared for it, because sometimes they aren't ready for the detailed explanations. Sometimes you just have to say, when a race of super-intelligent eugenicists loves a bounty hunter very much, they make millions more of him to sell to the Jedi. But at some point, you have to get into the details a bit more so that your answer can provide empowering knowledge without creating dangerous mystery around the process. And it's here at the start of Clone Wars Season 3 that we get the information we need to better understand where clones come from. The answer here, in the pair of episodes, Clone Cadets and Arc Troopers is a bit more involved

that you might expect and provide some concerning insight about what awaits clones for whom the cloning or training process doesn't go to plan. We'll start with Clone Cadets, which is about a training cadre of clones, Domino Squad, that is underperforming so badly that they're in danger of becoming rejects and being consigned to work alongside Clone 99, the Clone Janitor of Camino, who appears to be prematurely aged and have musculoskeletal deformities that have kept him out of a line unit. Over the course of the episode,

the unit will nearly fall apart. One of them will flirt with deserting his comrades. Two of them will apply for a transfer. But a pep talk from 99 will help the squad, or at least a member of it, find their chemistry and identity as a team, allowing them to pass training and proceed to the front where,

turns out we already know what awaits them, but we'll get to that a bit later. So, gang, what do we think of the way the clones are being trained here at the start of the episode. They don't have, they just get thrown in there, huh? There's not like, they don't have a leader at this point. And it seems like it's discouraged slash maybe encouraged, but like nobody wants it.

So like we open on, they're at the American Gladiator's obstacle course. They're like doing the thing where they're running towards the big guy who has the Nerf gun, except the big guys, a bunch of battle droids and they have to like assault a citadel and climb it and put a flag like take the flag off the top of it and they're bad at it

because they all just do whatever they want and they don't seem it seems like this is the first time they've done anything at all and it makes me have questions didn't sort this shit out when those little dudes

from the Boba Fed episode would have done better is what I'm saying they seem to have a little bit more they jelled a little bit more as a group. But similar issues where you have the one little nerd who's a nerd, and then you have the two who like to fight with each other a bunch.

Yeah. And then I don't remember if the little kids had like a kid who would like to wander off. I guess that's Boba Fat. Boba Fett did that. Okay, so sure. You good? You good, Natalie? I'm in a fucking hotel right now, y'all.

I don't know. I don't know. Someone's calling me on the hotel. I don't know why somebody they're like excuse me you're not allowed to podcast in the hotel it's against regulations all right you cannot operate a business out of this hotel are you are you with the I'm like wait wait I know that balcony yeah I want to check it out hell yeah you got did they give you a city view or a not city cannot see them I got I got Empire State, baby. Wow. Check this shit out.

It's blown. Oh, there it is. Look at that. That's fancy. This is, my one regret about vice changing offices to, uh, is I will now have fewer plausible excuses to demand. Like, I'll only say it. I'm sorry.

That's my precondition. Now it's like not even convenient. It's in my rider. You should have read it. God, all right, I can come back in on that. I can come back in on that seamlessly. Yeah, that's Boba. That's definitely Boba who wanders away.

You're right. But like, shouldn't they have cleaned that up between then and now? That's really the thing that I kept thinking about in this episode because we see Shaqti and the two bounty hunters brick and Ellis as like mentors. And they're like, it's weird because we see. with them like being able to identify what the problem with the group is and presumably this is their like final like they've been in training for a little bit so at what point did those mentors be like hey stop acting like this because I could see the problems with what you're

doing did that happen before this episode was it all individual training up until now where they're like I know what my gun is I know how to wear armor or and then they didn't do any teamwork like they didn't do like team dodgeball together they didn't do any of that they didn't do paintball they didn't do laser tag but the whole shit is is y'all are brothers so i feel like the whole the whole thing is you're you've got your unit they got bravo unit they got domino unit was the dominos squad that's the only ones that are called out we don't get enough to start building the like the nato alphabet of star wars you know what i mean we know beta no it's it's bravo not beta Bravo and Domino

And those are But shouldn't it be Delta Not Domino? But that's the thing Is it's not It's not that alphabet Right Alphabet's changed like

A million times Over the last century Sure That makes sense But yeah Like Domino's fun And you know It's fitting right

Because once one falls They all fall Right They all fall As Bravo Squad says It is Bravo Squad They're just getting Owned constantly

In this entire episode I hate Brom squad Me too Brom squad sucks I hate them. I hope they die. Good news. They probably will. Okay, good. I think something else that's funny here too is,

so to a degree, there's a degree of, this doesn't make any sense from like the, what we know about the sheer number of clones that are being deployed. Like, it doesn't make sense that you have Jedi Master Shockty and two bounty hunters, like personally supervising one squad here. Well, I think that they're supervising, I think that those guys supervise that whole set of four. they're all theirs because they're the ones who are at the graduate or the arc trooper thing

these are just their worst crew yeah and I think that you're right about the numbers of shock tea I think shock tea is like the dean coming into a spot check this week on this set of clones but I also think that you're right that there is attention both in this episode in the next one about like how many clones are there on Camino at any given time because it should be a hundred thousand or some absurd number and it feels like 30 so right it should be rolling off like just entire legions of clones like those numbers we're talking about and so even at the even at this scale it doesn't track like even if those two bounty hunters and shakti are up there in their observation tower watching like a dozen fields

where guys are cycling through in 10 minute drills the math still doesn't work out but what's trying to do is get at this idea of like the clones are being run through this like final uh like fit and finish, like final install of, you know, of their tactics and seeing if they are battle ready. Right. This was their last, this was their last practice test. So, like, the subsequent tests that we see would be, like, the actual examination. So this is, like, the last chance they have to run, run the course before, you know, they fail or pass.

Or like counts or whatever, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think at the very end, exactly, I think at the very end of the episode, that's where you get to see the scale when you see like all of the troopers like walking onto the Jedi cruiser, you see like probably a couple hundred and they're all in like formation like super, you know, in sync with each other. Like that's where I guess the scale is, but it's bizarre that as there's not more happening in the back. with other clones, like, with other training, like that you just don't have that sort of passive scale throughout the episode. Maybe it's like a technological constraint.

I don't know. I think it's mostly just it becomes hard to, because they're also trying to personalize it, right? They're trying to get a sense of, within any clone unit, there are these dynamics. So I think it actually falls to like background art in some ways to make the sense of scale come through when like the camera swings down through

the huge dome where their training field is and you realize there's probably space for a hundred, couple hundred of these training fields like to be running at once but in the meantime it's going to be a very personal like small scale like within a squad story

the bounty hunters is something I also thought was interesting which is so first of all you have a mom and a dad Basically, you have Brick, who is Evil Frasier Crane. Just huge

brain, doesn't think much of Dombo's squad. Do you know what that guy's species is named? No. Huge brainium. They're called huge, yeah, they're called huge brainiums. No, they are Sintines, which you arrive at by apparently

reverse, it's also it's an anagram of Einstein. Oh my God Fuck off Yeah, I was a Both of them were background Um Uh, uh,

uh, Aliens in episode four In A New Hope, they're in the canteena. Both of those, not these characters, but these species And they're like, let's just make those. Those are sick. And so, yeah, they look cool. I fuck with it.

I like Ellis a lot. Alice is sweet. And Ellis is the one who's like, no, I think we can, we can turn these, these guys into actual soldiers. And I think there's something else here, which is, I think this is where it does start to get interesting. In some ways, what we're talking about is this industrialized troop manufacture process.

And then where does the human come in? Where does the individual come in? Where you have Brick, who's looking at it very cold-bloodedly. Like any sort of, there's a defect rate on our process. Here we are. These are the defects. There's no point in, like, rehabilitating them. Because that's a number's game.

loss, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Sometimes you get someone who does, you know, especially now that Jango Fett's DNA is being spread too thin. Question mark, question mark. Hello? Yeah. What? It raises a lot of questions. I'm not prepared to answer.

I'm prepared to ask the question. Go for it. Thank you. Because like, is the expectancy here that like, Django Fet was like on a long-term contract and he was going to stay on Camino, And trade all of the troops, and then also just get, like, some plasma drawn once a month, and, like, it would be good. Don't think it was plasma.

Sure. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. How does DNA work? Well, it really suddenly made me, it, like, genuinely made me realize this is not, is that they literally were taking sperm samples from Django. It had to be, right? Because, like, in my mind, it's like, oh, they just sequence the DNA, and then they put it in a computer and they hit print.

But this makes it realize, you know, there's a biological component. It's like, yes, maybe it's plasma. But, like, we do this all right. Like, you can do this. The human body, the mortal body in the world of Star Wars, they procreate. There's already mechanisms for it. That's probably what it is. And it's not like, I'm not being, like, lascivious about this.

Do you know what I mean? Like, but it's very funny to think about Django Fet, being like, I have got to do my. I got to do my duty. Gotta go jacket. I mean, it's also worth saying, I'm very much assuming that Django assist, like maybe it's eggs taken over many cycles, and that's why they're running out. You can also make an analogy to stem cells in some ways, too, which is, like, again, remember, in the not too distant past of the show, there'd been that controversy, which is completely

manufactured, by the way, like the pro-life, like, movement, trying to find another front to, like, create moral outrage around. But, like, this idea of human stem cell growth and testing. Right. Was this idea of the issue that scientists had, which is like why you need to allow us to continue using human stem cells and like using new stems and like getting an influx of like fresh genetic material is that there are like at some point you are using a biological physical thing that you need to use to create other effects or synthesize and grow like new biological products from it. And so I think that's the other thing that's going on here is, yeah, after a certain point, like, every time you run this process, you are using a thing. It's not like, it's not like you can genetically sequence someone, but that's just, that's just data on a screen. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I actually really like this. This is very, it's very Star Wars that the clones have to come from a thing, that, like, there's a material thing that's breaking down or that we're running out of that in the same way that we run out of, you know, fuel when the plot calls for it or when a ship starts breaking down. you have to, like, kick some computer to make it start working again. Like, it's very Star Warsy that here, even on this pristine planet of clone labs, shit is starting to break. And you get the very, um, uh, uh, sumptuous line about how they hope that they can find someone new to replace Django with as like a new line of clones. Ooh, that's the, that's the shit right there.

Yeah, that was, uh, this is, uh, the, I think it's worth. reading the dialogue from this. It was it was Shakti Jedi Master Shakti speaking to Lama Su who's like I guess overseeing

DNA product or clone production on Camino and she's basically like hey what's with these shitty clones that suck at being war heroes or like soldiers or whatever the fuck.

Yeah. And she is not very, um, she, she's, she's like right in the middle of Brick and Ellis in terms of like, yes, let's give them another shot, but also they do fucking suck. Don't say they don't. Yeah. And I mean,

but it's, the whole thing is so like, it's such a, such a futile. Like the whole, the whole, the whole deliberation is such horseshit to me because

you're about to send these people to fucking get yeated off a spaceship in like 20 minutes. They're all going to die so soon. So soon. So soon. I mean this is the interesting thing. Like to an extent it almost doesn't matter because like

It doesn't matter. But the thing is though it kind of does because like Does it? Sometimes you're going to be sent straight into just like a kill zone and like it like think about all the dudes who like Stap like Ryan ramp comes down

bunch of guys are killed immediately without ever setting foot on Normandy but the guys who make it ashore need to be able to scale cliff and like storm a bunker and shit and so that's the thing is like to an extent they are in this like brutal like just meat grinder of a war

where most clone troopers are going to be like all right boots on the ground dead but the ones who don't need to be able to do a bunch of shit. We of course also know literally we literally know what the stakes were here, which is these are the people who ended up going

to listening post in rookies and stopping grievous from doing a surprise attack on Camino. Let's not talk about the next episode yet. But that's these people. It's them. This is 5's echo heavy cut up

and the one I forgot in the name of. Droid bait. Droid bait. Bad name. Rip. Terrible name. And so we see them, we see that because they come together as a unit, that here they grow up to be the people who go to do rookies and save the day and prevent grievous from sneaking past the listening post. So like there in this one particular case, it turns out that like, and maybe this is the other half of the Rob thing, Robbie, you're saying that like when you send a thousand people at a wall, maybe only a hundred of them get to get past it. but you need those hundred to be able to do the job. The other thing is like, maybe you get assigned to buckfuck nowhere, and because of

the, you know, contingencies of war, it happens to be that you're the weak point in the armor, and if you can't come through, then that could swing the whole battle as the line falls apart or whatever. So it's like, I like that in this particular case, we have those exact stakes, so. Yeah, yeah. I definitely appreciate that. I just think that it's like this is me at my most cynical. like it's we're in the numbers game they they've been explicit about being in the numbers game

of just like we need more bodies than they have clones i mean that they have droids which that's not never going to happen but like the more for every clone you know that's worth whatever amount of droids or you know so that's me just at my absolute most cynical of just like why are we even deliberating that. And I think that's Rick's point of view, which is that the time we're spending trying to rehabilitate Domino Squad, we could just make the call and move on to the next, like, crop and

like work on those guys. And I think this is the thing. I think that discomfort is really typified in this conversation between Shakti and Lama Su, where Lama Su, one, Django Fat, like, nonetheless, all of this is prototype shit, right? Lama Su is really ready for

like, Gen 2 clone army. He's He's like, let's get a new donor. Let's like, because there's a weird science element of this where, like, Cam and Owens would really love to, like, take that a little crack at the Clone Army problem. And that means that necessarily we're going to wind down the Fet clones and we'll spin up something else. And Shaqti, yeah, it does sort of call out that she's uneasy with it, that we just can't cast off these troopers. She says they are living beings, not honest.

objects. And Lamassu kind of snorts and says, you Jedi, show too much compassion. And I think that's the, like, this is the Jedi, like, definitely trying to have it both ways. Yeah. And what's weird is later, we will discover that certain things about the way they train the clones are, like, reflective of their own discomfort about the nature of what they've created. They want to, they want to see in the clones something analogous to themselves, but also, they're in the numbers game. They just don't want to admit it. yeah i mean that that conversation opens with uh with with shakti expressing like you know uh you know the the this batch of clones isn't that great and and uh lamassu is like i understand

your concern ever since you're fortunate death of jingo fed we've had to stretch his DNA to make more clones question mark question mark um and shakti's responses a jedi does not feel concern Lamassou. However, I have noticed this unit of clones have been, and La Masu interrupts and says, deficient. My only thought is for you to search the galaxy and find

a suitable donor for your future clones. And Shaqti like takes this in for a second and says, and what of the clones produced so far? And she's like, as you know, there's no one way to make a clone. Sometimes our efforts are less than

successful. and and uh shakti says are you suggesting we just cast off the domino squad their living beings not objects and as rob said lamassi responds you jedi showed too much compassion nevertheless is general in charge of training the decision on what to do with them would be yours master deadi and it's just it's it's a hilarious conversation because shakti is posturing as like yeah the the the emotionless like not invested not emotionally invested you know Jedi math overseeing this, but clearly gives a shit about these people. But also at the same time, why are we so fucking married to Django Fet? Why not go get some other great guy? Anakin Skywalker. Get him in the room.

He's a great guy. Let's make thousands of him. Let's make just thousands of Antigone. I do love the conflict. between Shakti General and Shakti Jedi who's memorized the Jedi code that says that life is precious and be like, hmm, which one of these are the two things I actually believe?

Because these are in direct conflict. I also love, and Rob, maybe I think I saw an expression on your face that maybe also picked up on this as Natalie was going through the dialogue. But when Lama Su says the like, there's not one way to make a clone. One, you're like, well, what were the other ways you tried? And two, what you're really saying is you got to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Like, we've had other methods that did even worse.

and what is almost being said is not like when she says are you suggesting we cast off the domino squad what Lama Su's response indicates to me is like oh, Shaqti

we're casting off domino squad like all the fucking time like all the fucking time we're casting off domino squads all through here there's domino squad one in four ends up a domino squad

and they get cast off you happen to be on this one for whatever reason today and so yeah this one is going to probably get a little extra wiggle room, but between the past processes we've used that were not as good as this one, I guess, and just the numbers, we're going to end up with lots of maintenance clones, which, by the way, deficient, like, is, there's a lot happening here

in terms of, kind of, we'll be 99 in the second and really get in the 99. Let's pause on that, yeah, you're right, we'll get into it in a second. Natalie, sorry, something else. I mean, it's the idea of, quote, unquote, casting off and her response being their living beings, not objects. Like, is it, they're just going to a different job, like, what? Like, it's not. Or are they? Or what's that, what does it cast off mean? Yeah, that's what I'm saying, because Brick is like, yeah, fucking make them janitors, fuck this.

And, but in this conversation between Shakty and Lama Sioux, doesn't feel like janitor duty vibes here. It feels like something else. It feels like a line that got cut here was like, well, we could recover some of Jango Fett's genetic material by tossing them in the like degenerator or something, you know? I have a question.

Yeah. Presumably Boba Fett is in some sort of jail right now. He was arrested after trying to... Hold on. You're so out of sync. Remember, this is before rookies. This is before the next episode. Okay. Ventrists are going to meet for the first time.

Yes. So here's my theory. Which is also true, though. That's also true on screen. It is the first time that they've ever been in the same place on screen together this whole series, which is wild. But yes, Boba, you think Boba is just here somewhere in the background. In the next episode, there is a group of clunked at the walking past, and one of them has the boba here. Oh, okay.

It's the only one to give side eye to the returning. Domino Squad member Good, fantastic So what, I mean, depending on how they're No That's the thing, like, is it Is it Boba Fettic cure a pure source of Jago Fet D-D-A at this point?

No, because he's also a clone. They're all clones. He's just a clone that doesn't have the fast, the fast, uh, growth stuff. He hasn't been, yeah. But he's still a clone. Yeah. So I guess you can't.

Clown a clone? Yeah, it seems like they're not able to. Maybe there's a, maybe there's, I mean, that's like a classic thing. You wouldn't clone a clon a clon. Right. But I have. But I have. I have.

Yeah. There's like a classic sci-fi thing, right? Of like, if you clone a clone it degrade. I mean, that's even just a sci-fi thing. That's like if you'd make a copy of a copy. Yeah, exactly. That's what it actually is. I bet if you clone a clone, it's probably better than photocopying a photocopy.

You know, I bet you actually lose less. Anyway. Yeah. I have a question. They don't do it. Yes. Where are all the eggs coming from? I suspect one reason they're having issues

is because they maybe didn't consider the mom side of this very closely that like Django would have come from somewhere and it wasn't just like he's not so he generous. Yeah. Where are Jingo's parents? I don't know. I'm just like, because we're, so there's there's when you

when baby when baby form yeah uh huh you got to answer where clone babby come down when baby

made um egg plus sperm right both have input yeah yeah not just sperm

not just sperm yeah so who's the egg and maybe they got an artificial egg situation but they don't have an artificial sperm or maybe they could have done an artificial

maybe they need one of those things to be the real deal you know what I mean maybe they got some artificial sperm but they needed and they have real right right I don't know they're doing eugenics like genetic editing

like in like artificial utero so like for sure I could see them see having no problem with like we care about these traits and then we go in there we see if the egg is like producing anything we're going to just cut that right out and make it so it's another it's another jam right right that would be my guess but I do suspect this is one reason why they're running into problems is just like

you're you're using less than half the material you actually need to create a human right really like they want the finished product and And, you know, Django's just one person. Yeah. But anyway. Anyway. Okay. So, the, we also get a little taste of, what is it the clones aspire to?

And it turns out what they're meant to aspire to is being arc troopers. Right. And so, for some reason, here, just before their final exams, they get a pep talk from Commander Colt from Raker Battalion. Wait, sorry. Before we go there, I have to acknowledge the fact that, We have to call out the fact that this man, Brick, was referred to as Master Chief. That's a rank.

That's a real thing. Halo took that from real military. Yeah. Sorry. No, it was from Halo. I mean, it is. It is now. Master Chief is in Halo.

Right. Spartans also were from Halo. Why do they say, uh-huh, in Halo? Again, because it's all, like, winking at, like, real military shit. Yeah. No, it was bungee. Bungi came up with. Bungi make master chief and hurrah. Yeah.

So we get the pep talk. Hey, you all want to be archtroopers, right? And everyone's like, fuck, yeah, I do. And the archtroopers are like, now let's see the best. squad in the army in this training class. Bravo Squad let's see you guys like you know show this test that was meant to be

done and Bravo Squad just rips through like just aces the test. They're the best of laser tag which definitely has strong resemblance to the wars we've known it in the Clone Wars to Natalie's point it's definitely extremely relevant test

and we're always doing this yeah if this was more accurate Shock-Tee would be assigned with them and they would be forced to run in front of her to take bullets until she could take the flag. There would be a thousand clones. Yeah.

Or droids, yeah. Walling off the power. Yeah. Anyway, so the Domino Squad has to run the test and they really quickly begin falling apart. They're frustrated with each other. Heavy finally is just like, fuck it. I'm going to solo this.

It does pretty well. Like, to an extent I understand Heavy's frustration, Of course he do KDA is through the roof And like the rest of that team This is the most Rob Zackney take Why aren't you elite like me Somebody's got to carry the squad

Uh huh Yeah I've been in this Valoran group Yeah I was going to say I'm not I'm not I'm not getting MVP No no I'm very much more

A fives than a heavy I know I know my place But yeah I know my role It's not carrying the team If you leave your brother behind This is true This is true You gotta come back and do the res

You're right Absolutely That was Absurd to me So you would explain the What would yeah One of y'all want to hit what actually So they

So Commander Colt prefaces the Arc Trooper final test With this speech Where he says you know shoulder to shoulder on those front lines brothers sometimes they got Hulk Hogan they got wow wild miscast I think but you know

sometimes we may quarrel but no matter what we are united rule one we fight together rule one no other rules by the way I was ready for I wrote down No more rules. No more fucking rules. We'll fight together. Bravo goes in. Nails it. They do the whole test. They have to like, yeah, they scale like a wall to get a flag and shoot down a bunch of droids.

It's fine. Then Domino goes up. You've got, um, uh, heavy's got like the big machine gun. and then everyone else has their like regular guns or whatever and immediately things fall apart

immediately and also everyone is just terrible to each other like the whole time like just zero cooperation just constantly cutting into each other cut up

is like crack and jokes like as he's being shot at um and then heavy heavy like moves moves moves forward in the in the simulation and i think it's um i don't remember who's it's droid well it's got to be droid bait that goes down i mean yeah it is it is droid bait yeah droid bait gets gets shot um and uh while cut up and fives are like arguing with each other and um Um, what, uh, heavy decides is five strikes, five tries to call out like, yo, man down, like, we should do something about this.

And Heavy's like, I'm breaking for the citadel and just starts like, fire, like, mowing down droids in front of him. And it's just like, do you have a fundamental misunderstanding of like what you're being tested on? Like you can't. The dude said rule one, like... Rule one, you stay together. And Heavy's like, fuck him. Let's go get the flag.

I'll scale the building by myself and get it. And it's like, that's... It's rule one. You don't leave someone behind. You just don't... That's not how this whole thing works. It's not even just that he does it. It's that he's like, leave him behind.

We're going to go past this test. As like an order. Yes, exactly. And on top of that, or sorry not on top of that he might be hurt like he's down like it's not like he's like up they got me guys got the paintball on me he's like i'm on the fucking ground then they're like all right peace yeah fives like breaks breaks you know not uh character but like breaks out of out of test mode and it's like guys like i think something's actually wrong like almost like raising a hand

and being like hey can we stop this because like our homie just got shot and I think like he's not okay and and then immediately the uh the droid stop shooting as as heavy is like advancing on the on the on the front um the droids just like power down and they're like hey guys you failed immediately automatic fail because you left a man behind you broke the one rule we had for this entire test um and also I wonder if you really do need to capture the flag to pass the test

like if you were to display like a real show of teamwork but like you still like faced adversity in the field and like maybe you didn't win like there's other ways to measure success I don't know

maybe maybe not I got a real LS here in my opinion but that's like I keep going because like how much of school really is this. Did they not get the like participation

is 20% of your grade, teamwork is 40, and then actual shooting guys is the other 40%. Like why don't they know this? So here's the thing. Like it certainly seems like grabbing the fucking flag is

key here. Like if they're getting ragged on early on because they're not advancing quickly enough through the test. Like they're kind of stalling out. and like kind of losing their way. But I think so what I actually find really fascinating here is this leave no man behind ethos for the clone troopers

because for the nature of war they're fighting and the type of army they are, this is an absurd like ethos to build this army around. Like, because to be clear, like it is drawing probably from, again, this is to make them more analogous to like the United States and other Western armies of this time which, you know, in the last. 20, 30 years have become really focused on this notion of, like, always recover anyone

from the battlefield living or dead. But, like, they're a mass army fighting a mass war where, like, the nature of this is they need to be sacrificed at great value, but they do need to be sacrificed. And it's so funny to me that in the training, it's like, obviously, though, leave no man behind, even though, like, when they're out there in combat, a lot of this is going to come down to know when to cut your losses, no one a situation is beyond salvaging, and it's time to, like, send people to die. But here in training, it's like, we would never do that. You're all special. We'll all have your back. And notice the idea of, like, within the clone

unit, they all trust each other to have each other's back. But at the same time, like, it is so at odds with the type of war we've seen them fighting, that again, this is, like, it's kind of a dead slogan that in the reality of combat is not going to be like the way they fight doesn't really reflect this in a lot of places. In a weird way, they happen to have gotten the training. What happens in rookies happens to look more like this than anything else we ever see the clones have to do in terms of numbers. And they're up against like 15 commando droids or something. And it's like, yeah, those are about the numbers we see here. They have to get the right training for the job, but every other clone who's going through this is going

to go into a battlefield that looks a lot more like the Second Battle of Geonosis or the Christophis fights with the huge highways filled with droids. It's just like a different experience. Where they might not even know the name of the clone standing next to them. Like they, it's interesting to me that these kinds of tests are happening on such a small scale um like five or six people because right you're going to be in a crowd of thousands um most likely and you are you know getting orders through like a com link in your helmet or whatever and you're just like marching full like it's not as um like segmented like the the reality

of this war isn't isn't you know so much that you you're only going to be in this, in this group. Like, it's more likely that you'll be amongst, like, a huge battalion. This makes me think that there is that subdivision in those groups, just that we don't, they don't do a good job of showing us that. We're, like, under Kiadi Mundi on the Second Battle of Geonosis, we saw, like, a hundred dudes or something. But maybe that was actually 50, you know, or 25-man squads who all report up to Kiadi Mundi's personal clone. or, you know, who then reports up to Kiadi Mundi or something like that.

You know what I mean? Like, maybe they are subdivided in that way, and they do have that tightness with their, like, super close group. It's like when I play Hell Let Loose as a medic. I know the people who are on my crew, but I'm also going to go try to heal other people because they're on my side, but I don't know them like that. And maybe even you start to know them like that because you fall in the front a little bit. And you're like, oh, yeah, I can trust this sniper who's with us to do some shit, but I don't like know, know him, know him. You know what I mean? And so I can imagine it, if this is the true.

train. If they're telling us this is the training, I could see them, I could see that working in that larger thing, which only makes it, which makes it more interesting in a way, because then you have this division of like, yeah, we're brothers, we're all brothers, but like, not like my squad is. Like, there's also my squad who I really care about. Right. And over time, that squad dies. People in that squad shift in and out, which again, we'll get some of next episode a little bit. And like, you lose people and you remember those people. And nobody else does because they were your people. They weren't everybody's people. You know what I mean? Like when when heavy inevitably dies and rookies, the people who are left who happened to live remember heavy and they

put him on their armor. And that's for them because they remember who that is and they remember that particular loss. But the rest of the clones didn't know heavy. The rest of the clones they meet, no one else will ever know heavy. They might have all had a heavy or someone like that who they lost. But like, it's interesting. I think that that part, I think that this, that stuff mostly works for me because it's about the ways on which those personal relationships form and, like, I think that this is a weird, a weird crucible for a friendship to form. And I don't know that I even really, I don't really get how we get from the beginning of this episode to their relationship at the end of the episode, but going forward from here,

either, but going forward from here, I get that they've, like, become a tight group of friends and, like, it retroactively makes me, like, rookies a lot more. which honestly was like a pretty good early episode in the show, frankly. And now I think it does get elevated by the fact that, like, they all now have a context they exist in. Yeah. Well, and it occurred to me, like, the thing about, like, heavy being on their armor, I think to a degree, it's also, like,

it also reflects the way that the sort of, like, the breeding programming that the Kam and Owens are engaging in, in some ways is happening organizationally among the clones themselves, where, like, units are forming with their own. identities and history that is becoming important. You know what I mean? Like, to a degree heavy dies in that episode, but also

achieves a degree of, like, clone immortality because, like, that memory is carried forward, but also the units begin to develop their own character based on their own histories, right? We see this reflected both in the art they carry, but also the different styles they

begin adopting, which is an interesting thought, that, like, from this generic army, you're starting to get units with histories and, like, personalities that are sort of independent of the individual. This is what part of the Faloni Zone was this episode. I was so curious about what the Faloni Zone was like. It was mostly about the ways and the difficulties of making them individual without visual differentiation in terms of their core design.

He says, we had a particularly special challenge with the clones in Camino and that we couldn't make these guys that different from one another visually on the home planet. They don't have drastically different haircuts. They don't have tattoos. It's in the battlefield that they develop more of their personality and become more individualistic. You know, they're not out there doing that just yet. The animators have to give them physical things, you know, ways of walking that while they're similar are different clone to clone. It's a very difficult thing to communicate, especially to kids, as you cut from one shot to the next of these clones, which I think mostly works.

I also think it's why you end up with like a slight Scottish accent, like a fake cartoon Scottish accent, not a real Scottish accent. Scottish accent, as he, by the way, talks about picking up a girl somewhere in that one scene. So I says to her, baby, you and me could really, and I'm like, you've never met a girl. Like, what are you? We all live here. Wait, but that dude continues the Scottish accent through, wow. That's what I'm saying. That's who he hit.

Like, that's one of the ways in which they differentiate him. And also, is it one of the ways in which they're running out of Django, Django. juice, which is like, oh, there start to be little differences, like this one has a Scottish accent. I don't tell me that that's not how accents work. I understand that accents are a thing you learn and develop their experience, but then why do they all have these accents when they're surrounded by Caminoons who talk way differently and bounty hunters?

So, like, accents just might be different in Star Wars. Also, like, all the Jedi have different accents, and they were all taught by Yoda. You know what I mean? So, I don't know. Let's not, we can't go down this path. So anyway, they get chewed out for not sticking together And they're on the verge of washing out And they have their sort of Getsemini moment

As it were Where They all do different things They try to basically escape the lead to anchor that is the group of them So two of them go to Shaqti To request transfers to Bravo Squad Which is hilarious Can you just

Make us a valedictorian. Teacher, teacher, can you give me A? Uh-huh. Yeah. Can you put me in the AP group, but I don't want to take the tests. They already passed the test even.

Like, like, Bravo's already done. You can't just get that. Can I, can I just graduate with the seniors? I know I'm a freshman, but can I just, I feel like I did it and I did enough.

So, like, could I just graduate with them? this year now? I find the Shocktee's answer, though, so interesting, where she says, I am a Jedi, where the individual and the group are one and the same, like you clones. And the clones are like, yeah, me and him are one of the same.

And so that's why we need to go to Bravo Squad where we belong. She's like, no. You guys are looking out for each other's individuals, but you're like forgetting about your team. And so there's no way out there, but I think that's so interesting, this notion that she really, is trying to sell them

in this idea that the world of the clones where they're all the same and it's all for one one for all is reflective of the Jedi and what's so interesting is like obviously this is not how the Jedi

role like this is not like the Jedi is this something the Jedi believe that is just patently false like do they genuinely think is this orthodoxy when she says the individual in the group are one and the same but then in reality we can they'll have completely different styles and values

and, like, frequently don't really hold each other in particularly high esteem sometimes. Like, that's what I'm trying to figure out is whether Shaqqti is just trying to, like, try on a new motivational speech, or whether this is Shaqti being like, yeah, this is, you're just like how the Jedi operate. Right.

Do you, like, I know that's false, but does she? I don't think she does. I think that she is always being, what a hundred percent honest with I think she's not honest but genuine do you know what I mean I think she's earnest with every word she says and I say that because later

in this episode she she tells Brick good job cheating and like making their lives worse and she just says it you know what I mean she's not like she's not coy about you know approving that method she just tweets it out like and so I don't think she's ever

I don't think she ever has like a veil of like trying to hide some deeper inner thing or, like, putting on a different front. She's just who she is in that way. Even if she's contradictory and wrong, I do think that she's just, like, out there. The fact that that compliment to Brick follow, I mean, that happens after, you know, they, like, you know, come together, pass the test, whatever. But first, right after this scene, Brick confronts cut up.

and attacks him yeah it's wild it's a wild sequence it's it's fucking wild he approaches him and is like you hate me don't you and cut up is like

yeah maybe I do maybe I don't like whatever the fuck he says and then he's like well if you hate me so much why don't you just kiss me wait no

and cut up's like how could I hate you for doing your job you're just pushing me sir and he's like no this is me pushing you and pushes him like attacking him and pushing him and eventually he punches him in the stomach and like fucks him up and cut up on his knees is like thank you sir and he's like for what and he's like my name

I'm cut up now which like I did not understand like what the I don't understand what the vibes are here and then and then Brick is like one way or another you'll be out of this army

and is basically trying to intimidate him into quitting you can't quit the fucking army especially not this army yeah especially not this fucking army and then and then for all of that they do

this fucking test Brick sabotages the test even though they're like there's other shit heavy has like a whole moment too he's like going to quit all this kind of shit but to get to the earlier point Shockty specifically says to Brick Brick your

actions have brought out the best in these cadets and I was like, are you out of your mom? Like, what are you talking about? This man just, like, assaulted a fucking soldier, a cadet

for why? I don't understand why. Like, why did he hate? He was like, you're the reason this troop is falling apart. And it's like, no, he's fucking not. Droid bait is dead all the time in the test. And heavy, it's running off.

He's running off. And Echo is, I guess, repeating things, and that's his, like, or he follows orders too strictly and isn't flexible or whatever. So that was just like a fundamental, like, do you have any oversight into how this, this training is actually being? I don't think so. I don't know. That's what really fucks me up about this episode is because, like, we see all of the clones,

like, reach maturity or whatever separately. Like, there's no scene. of the six of them, like, hitting the books, like, doing a practice test the night before, like studying really hard or whatever. They all have these. They don't steal the mascot from the rival school. They don't do any of the, like. Right.

There's literally no team building. And then, like, one of them getting beaten up by their trainer is played completely straightly. Yeah. There's no downside to that. In fact, it's like, oh, that helped him out. He needed to get punched by his instructor. Uh-huh. What is happening here?

So I think some of this is pastiche going wrong. I was going to ask you, is the cut-up thing literally a quote from a war movie that I don't have on hand? Well, it's a private Joker thing from Full Metal Jacket. Okay, right, sure, of course. So, like, this entire scene is Full Metal Jacket in some ways, right down to the physical assault that unfolds. Right. There's also shades of Officer and John. Also, cut up literally is Joker, right?

Like, this actually makes perfect sense. Yeah. And there's shades of, yeah, Officer and, you know, Officer and, John. a gentleman which is like where the training officer is constantly like riding someone to be like you just quit like you just stop right now like all the suffering it can just be over if you just quit um and the idea is you can push through all that that you'll be tougher none of this really like none of this really tracks um like it just does this is not how they seem to be trained but i do also highlights this other thing which is they're trying to industrialize and standardized

their troop production pipeline, but everything's down to the vagaries of whichever two fucking bounty hunters get assigned to your unit. This is the part that I find low-key hilarious. Is the Jedi are like, obviously, we don't have the numbers or time to train these guys.

But what are just like Jedi? Bounty hunters. They are. They're like shit. They're just like Jedi, but they're the Jedi of the underworld. And it's like, yes, but they're still individuals

who, like, their entire job is, like, in teams of one and two, like taking care of shit they don't do squad tactics and they don't do platoon or company tactics what are you doing and so we get this random thing of Brick I do think what I like here

is that Brick does care more than he lets on I think it's ineffective but he's actually furious that like one of the clones is not taking this seriously in the entire unit is going to go under because of it I don't think he accomplishes anything here but it does indicate that like

despite what he's telling Ellis it bugs him that this squad is going to flub their chance and he thinks it comes down to one or two guys I think the more effective the most effective mentorship we've seen and maybe the most interesting thing that happens during this long night

is heavy is contemplating basically just running just running out on the test and 99 catches him as he's clearing out his locker and we get a conversation between 99 who is like the ultimate reject and heavy who is has all the makings of a fine soldier but is because of his own pride and frustration about

to abandon all of that that brings us to 99 who is a janitor uh like a maintenance clone a janitor and there's shades of God there's a John Ford movie called The Long Grey Line which is literally about like a low level instructor at West Point who just becomes like a mentor and father figure

to generations of like soldiers passing through the military academy but 99 sort of ends up playing this like chaplain role too heavy during this night but also we got to talk about like 99 And he represents what a lot of the clones are threatened with,

which is reject status, maintenance duty. But crucially here, the way we know 99 is a defective clone is because he has been turned to a Quasimodo-like figure. He is physically smaller. He has a hunchback. He seems to be prematurely aged. or perhaps like has some sort of like skin condition

but either way like he is he doesn't look like the other clones he is he is obviously someone with like the congenital physical issues he's also got a heart of fucking gold but I think the interesting thing is he's also become like kind of in this world

someone wield it as a threat I think the number 99 is interesting. Is he, like, from the original series of, like, the first generation of clones, like, that initial run? Maybe, yeah, that's possible for sure. Like, all the others have long serial numbers, and there's just 99, which I find kind of interesting. But his argument is he never even got a chance to fail a test. Like, they took one look at him and the issues that had cropped up in his process. And he was immediately like disallowed from participating in the rest of clone training.

He never got to be one of the brothers in that sense and was immediately sent to this island of misfit clones where his job is to mop up the training field and, you know, carry guns and armor around to wherever it's needed. and so he has this exchange with Heavy where he's making the case is he's making the case that like Heavy is squandering an opportunity and in squandering that he will become a failure because Heavy is dreads becoming failure like 99

and 99's point and has vocalized it directly to 99 in the most dehumanizing and like upsetting way he could throughout the episode everyone is constantly like talking to 99 in a way that objectifies him as the as the object of derision and like and despair like ah but I don't want to become 99 people will say to 99 in a way that's just like all the way out there yeah well I love I love 99's response here too where he's like how can I be a failure whenever I never even got my chance because like I'm not going to like to be clear this is really tricky territory because obviously one-to-one in this world of these clones

the physical disabilities or challenges that 99 have has are clearly being used as like signs that as proof like he is unfit for purpose like what can you do with someone like 99 it's incredibly like ableist and ugly

on the other hand it makes perfect sense for the business clone society is in which is these eugenicists to feel this way to, yeah, 100%, to not even imagine a world in which they took any effort or made any changes to adjust, you know, the way that, like, their buildings are built or, like, what their training regimen looks like, or to think about what the many roles he could serve in a galactic military would be. Like, it's not like more disabled clone commanders or whatever, you know what I mean? But, like, there are lots of clones who just serve on spaceships and who do tactical work and who do reconnaissance and who do all. all of this other stuff that, that it's easy to imagine 99, really enjoying doing.

And the idea that, like, that was never, there was no accommodation made at the testing level, no accommodation made at the kind of the mental level of thinking about, hey, here's a person, we have a war to fight. Where do we best use this person? And instead, they thought, what is the easiest way to put this person to work for us immediately and not have to accommodate or adjust our very rigid? training are a very rigid way of doing things you know we do see like 99 is a man of like gifts right like hearing the scene he knows the clones better than anyone involved in their training like he's actually identified yeah the key issues with this this team that's not working and then in the in the subsequent episode we'll discover that like he also has a lot of tactical insight and like understanding of like responsibilities under pressure like there's like 99 are you suggesting

that maybe he could have been a better teacher than these bounty hunters they brought in for for pay yeah huh right but he said in the next episode he's still going to be carrying a stack of rifles around by 99 a cart Jesus Christ like you're just it's like you're going out of the way to humiliate them right where it's like they are they are all right 99 how many rifles can we stack on your arms before you fall over oh gee it's brutal again it's not it's nuts. It's terrible. And just think, they treat droids like this all the time. Like, genuinely, it is, it is, there are no droids in this episode, except the droids they

fight in the, in the battlefield. Camino does not have little mouse droids rolling around. There are no astromic droids in this episode. And it's because that class position is held by 99, who is dehumanized. And like, that doesn't, it's, it's very interesting to think about droids then in relationship to disability and like disability discourse and the ways in which people are treated like there's something there i'm not going to get through i'm not going to unpack it all in this podcast but there is something happening there and someone should go write that paper so i can read it yeah absolutely um and i think it's uh i think it's i think it's i think it's telling that 99's um his like his his his lamented his his lament

is that he never got this chance. That's how he sort of starts this. But he also says, maybe you should embrace the fact that you have a team. I never had that. But you need them and they need you. Why carry such a heavy burden on your own when you have your brother at your

side heavy? And heavy response were just numbers and he says not to me. To me, you always had a name. And heavy was the one who I think in the first test somebody like tries to I think calls him heavy and he says like don't call me that

call me by my number or something like that so clearly there's like some resistance which is like a whole like it's it's interesting the degree to which some clones will like really claim ownership over their names and how some of them come about by like circumstance or like an event that happens with for example with cut up or um you know with echo is always repeated yeah and echo hates the fact that that's become his nickname is like a yeah is something that's uh used uh against him but um the fact that like 99 is saying you should embrace the fact that you have a team i never had that like are are there is has 99 just been like completely isolated from

any type of team or like colleagues or anything. Yeah, I think so. I think he's like a one-man crew essentially. And yeah, he's like he's been put on this this like terrible pedestal of being like the worst example of clone production. And like this could be be you if you if you fuck up hard enough like this this this like isolated experience and

life is like that's that's the opposite end of the spectrum to arc trooper or whatever the fuck um and i just i like i appreciate the fact that uh that 99 has such like a positive outlook on everything and is like willing to see the best in everyone despite everyone dehumanizing him constantly and treating him like fucking shit um but it i don't know it it just it's it sucks that like he he has to be like the the voice of like good good value and good moral and he has to be like the hype up guy for everyone else when who like the hype he gets at the end of this episode is um heavy like having a conversation with him and saying um you know I think uh 99 says something like your team is like lucky to have you or something like that

and he's not as not as lucky as I am to have a brother like you and then he gives him his medal and is like, you deserve it. You're one of us. And just the most, like, patronizing fucking, like, I understand, like, to me, it, like, the writer's room, it feels like, yeah, guys, we nailed it. Like, we fucking did it. Like, hell, yeah. That was, like, a great emotional moment.

For a disabled person, right? Where it's like, ah, this, this stock character who, like, is marginalized gets to come in and, like, save the day for these normal people. I think that was like how I felt while watching it 100%. I think that there is also part of the thing that makes it interesting is the context in which we are literally dealing with the eugenicist clone army who themselves are being abused by this system, which I don't think forgives the use of this character type. And I'm so bummed by 99's conclusion in the next episode because it really makes the character feel transaction. and, like, the interest that the writers had fleeting, that, like, his sole purpose was to bring this group of heroes together,

of able-bodied heroes together, in this very particular way. And, like, that's, it's, it's a bummer because it would be interesting to have him as a recurring character who could be developed beyond his relationship indifference to them. But I also think that there is, not but on top of that, there is also the fact that, there is also the fact that, that we can think about the, of course this person exists, of course, disabled people are marginalized in this society. And it's, it is interesting for the camera to give us that, to pan over to show us that happening for the first time in Clone Wars so far.

Yeah. I believe. I, maybe I'm, I'm probably incorrect because this is not my lane. And so it's likewise, in the same way that I suspect many people didn't pick up. up on the skin color thing a few episodes ago, I'm certain that throughout the history of Clone War so far, I've missed attempts at representation or maybe, you know, poor representation of disability throughout the series so far. But here it's so clear that on one hand, I'm happy that they're panning the camera to be like, there are disabled people in this world. They are treated

poorly and they are marginalized because of their disability and because of their relationship to an imperial war machine, which mistreats men. people, but, but them especially. But at the same time, I wish then the second step had been taken to not just show that this is truth and the true in the world, but then to develop the character beyond his relationship and his value. Yeah, exactly. A constant. Like, yes, exactly. Like, his existence and the existence and presence of disabled people in the Star Wars universe is a constant.

But the fact that he was this temporary, like, made to be. an example character in these two episodes that's like yeah that's the part that I mean there's a lot of parts like grind my ears but that's really the part that to me is like then

it's not like it's just it's such a missed opportunity to like to continue to have that discussion when you're specifically in contrast with the eugenesis project

of the perfect male soldier like why are you giving that up like that that is like such a like 99 could be such a compelling character and could continue

to challenge and point out the just how like just how fucked up the production of clones really are and it's like squandered for this like terrible sac

like this terrible sacrifice sequence, self-sacrifice sequence in the next episode. That is just, it's so just, it's just terrible. Which is the conclusion of character arcs like this, the stock character, like, the thing that finally ennobles them is that they die in the service of the power structure that has discarded them. And it is because they're willing to do that, that we now realize like, hmm, the power structure didn't value that person highly enough. that's the mistake, not that the power structure is what it is. The other thing is, the thing I do like,

and again, because they're basically, they dispense with both these characters, the thing I do like about the gesture of heavy giving him the metal and saying, like, I'll come back here to, like, find you, and, like, we'll talk again,

is that that's not supposed to happen with clones. Like, you leave Camino, you're done, right? Like, that's, like, you go off and you don't have connections beyond like the guys next to you in your in your rifle company or whatever. And the notion at the end of this that Heavy is acknowledging like, no, like 99 is part now of this family that I acknowledge. And I now have bonds that extend beyond the ones that the Jedi are like telling me I'm supposed to have, right? Like that is interesting.

It's not going to be explored because by the end of the next episode, both these characters will be gone. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but at the same time, it's like, it's like, it's a nice sentiment, and I agree, like, he should, he should be recognized as, like, a valuable member of the clone army, because he is a valuable member of the clone army. Like, he, like, fucking Camino doesn't run without 99. Like, that, that shit, like, is not, like, is not operable without someone in 99's role. Doing what they do, but at the same time, like, then we have this weird tension of like, yeah, when you leave Camino, do you ever go back? Question mark? So is it like, like by 99, never see you again? Here's like this token of my gratitude. Like where is the like fostering of that like that bond like may have like that meaningful moment but like may not get the opportunity. to be fostered in the future because clones don't come back to Camino question mark but at the same but then in the next episode it's like Camino's home we're going home boys

like this is for us this is our war now and it's like what the like what are we talking about I just it's like it's baffles me I think well so I think what's where this gets more interesting to me is like there's a lot of things that the Jedi want the clones to do and then there's things that are just intrinsic to the clones. Like, if you think about their obsession with family, and you reflect that with the fact that Jango Fet's one condition was, give me a child that will be me, right?

Like, give, like, the fact that something about Django Fet, like, has created this generation of clones who desperately want to feel these bonds of, like, family and brotherhood. And the Jedi have tried to, like, leverage that for turning them into a better war machine, but also, like, the thing

that they, like, when 99 doesn't fit the template, they're like, well, off to ash heap with you we don't care and it becomes interesting to me that by the end the clones begin assigning each other like value independently of what the tests and what the Jedi tell you interesting thing like because it dovetails with like

the deserter that we meet right like the various ways the clones begin like acting out and saying like actually families who I like who I define it to be because the Jedi are like family is your rifle rifle squad right like that's it that's that's your family and we get these clones

and Cutler Quaid is like no my family is my wife in my twilight wife that's my family yeah we stan anyway uh i think that stuff is interesting it doesn't like maybe it'll be explored later in the series uh but in the meantime it's time for the test uh right oh right little detail i love by the way um the camera work is really good in this episode uh they're doing a lot of like virtual cameraman shit out there where you've got like a sense of a camera uh being carried like you know at hip level uh Sort of tracking through, like, an entire action scene. I also love, I love the shitty scuffed up training gear they all have.

It's, like, such a convincing detail of, like, this is not the military issue shit. This is the stuff that's going to be cycled through thousands of clones. Yeah, they're going to hand these off. The two details I like. That should probably smell so bad. It's probably so bad. One is you get to see their faces. At this point in their lives, their face.

are all the same, because they have not marked them up yet, but they're visible, which is fascinating, because their helmets have kind of the glass, the plastic steel, like, opening where you could just see them. The second detail I looked this up is that they're all, the kind of key reference for these were old leather football uniforms from like, you know, the first half of the 20th century, where football uniforms were the early 20th century, I guess, when football uniforms are just like leather shoulder pads and like a leather cap instead of a nice good helmet um and so again like the face is just shown your face is just out there so i think that that's that's really interesting yeah and i mean it's it uh yeah it that like makes the graduation ceremony like all the more uh symbolic i guess of of of the moment of okay everyone put your helmets on yeah which is then is there is there any is it any is it any wonder that that they get out in the world and they're like, all right, time to get pink hair, time to get a tattoo, time to, you know, cut five into my, into my fade, you know, you know what I

mean? Look, I forgot five to do that. It's so hard. It's so hard. Yeah, exactly. Time to actually leave because I can't be myself here. Yep. God.

I think, so we get the triumphant, like they're just rocking this task. The wrinkle is that Brick sabotage them by taking away their, um, Like, they're climbing ropes. Yeah. They're Batman grappling hooks, yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. What's the, what's the thing in American Ninja Warrior?

Is it like? The wall? Mount, oh, God, what is the actual? It's got a fake mountain name. Yeah. It's got a fake mountain name. Uh-huh. Surabachi or something.

It's something bad. Is that a fake mountain name? I guess it is, right? Mount Midoriyama. Mount Midoriama is one of this in Japan. I don't know if it's the same one in the American. It must be. Yeah, Mount Midoriama, it looks like it is.

Yes. Either way, it's like, basically they need this to climb their little American Ninja Warrior tower. But then, is it heavy? Who asked the idea? We just climb up the turrets. Yes, because he's like, I know guns. If we shoot them, they'll turn off. Thanks, heavy.

He was right. No one ever tried that shit. That's the first thing I would have done is shoot the guns down. Yeah. Like, the fact that no one's ever thought to disable the fucking automated turrets in front of you. Like, everyone's like, oh, we just got to scale the wall while the turrets are firing out of it. And bricks up there like, God damn, what clever clones? And I'm like, shit.

Yeah, we were doomed. This is a doomed fucking war. I feel like you could have shot down the guns like a couple meters back. Yeah. When you had cover. and everything? One of you had like a dope sniper rifle, you know? You could shoot from far away.

Does one of them have like a... It's a longer barrel at least. I don't know if it has a scope. I'm sort of looking at it's like it feels like what they need is a, is a marksman. They have a marksman. You know, probably some sort of like a designated rifle. You know what I mean? Whatever that's called.

Not a dedicated sniper, but someone with a longer, more accurate weapon. Yeah, somebody else has these, the little guns. and then whoever it is here has like a much longer one Heavy has the machine turret gun Yes and then I don't know I don't remember who this is Because I guess it's whoever number

Four is I can't tell It's just it's very That's fives, five's houses Shout us to fives It's just very clear to me That like no one in this world Has ever done a destiny raid Yes true true

no one here's ever had to say dog bottom three times in a row like what the fuck are we doing you know what i mean cups cups cups cups cups cups all right i'm gonna go through this portal and then i'm gonna dunk it and then but when i'm doing that you gotta i don't know they should be doing destiny raids they should be doing destiny raids where is coddo to run these fools through a destiny raid they're only they're only playing unfortunately like destiny two with like bad scout rifle and so

like obviously they don't really understand the value. I don't have a single exotic. They don't have one exotic between them. Bro, it's fucked up. If they made a Star Wars destiny, I'd be fucking done for it for real. It's fucked up. It's

fucked up. Damn. That would be good instead we're getting fucking David Cage's Star Wars. You really think we will though? I hope not. We'll leave that. We'll get there one day. So I ask myself, what if clones were people? I am so mad. I'm so mad.

So I also love, Rick gets caught red-handed, having sabotaged. Yeah. And Shok-T's like, damn, that's the kind of initiative I'm looking for in my training officers, just outright sadism and cheating. And he's like, cool. once that direct deposit hitting my Yeah Like

You know the Jedi are late You know the Jedi are late All the time For sure Those invoices be piling up Yeah Shockty doesn't have time Like Shahti is the one who also has to process

The invoices And it's just not engaging for her So she's like shit I can't I can't watch the clones do train a day Because I really need to get through Back of 2.5 million invas

Really excited when she gets a Padawan Yeah, uh-huh. Chaghti's R6 unit should be doing that. Yeah, probably. Can't bring it to Camino. No, yeah, no droids. They're well. Okay, amazing these clones just hate droids on site.

But, and teach them that droids can be good. Before someone writes in, I scrolled for the episode. There is one little mouse droid out on the docking bay or like the raiding docking platform in an early scene, and that's the only droid. That's right. The last one, trying to get out.

Trying to get out before they kill. I was like, can I get, can I hit it? your ride on the ship, Bipa, boop. They're killing me out here. They're killing me. I got no brothers. I got no brothers. I got no brothers.

I got no. Talking about team. No team. Bebe, boop. And that mouse droid is my man for the agreement. Oh, this is how we, okay.

So this is how Ventriss gets on board. Okay. Yeah, I see. Django's comments in this in this room. So. How are they not protecting? We'll get there.

Yeah, yeah. They beat the test. No one's on cum duty, like, ever. Jango was. I think the idea is that if you put much people guarding the bucket, if bunch of people guarding the cup, then people know something's valuable is in that cup right they're trying what's don't worry about what's in my cup it's my cup what is that idea like security

through obscurity right yeah where it's like the minute you guard something you know that it's right true so like if you just leave the Janko juice just sitting out somewhere right people be like that's not my problem that's not my problem that's not a big deal valueless yeah and then Lama Sue is just like he My precious Please someone mail in their Django juice cocktail recipe You are the one on the email

So you know what? Yeah, I'm fine with it I don't have to see that shit I'm you know I am excited for the ones that make the final cut That you think aren't so gross that like Yes, agreed Oh, we should make some jingo juice Damn So anyway

They beat the test Brick, thank you your physical assault and cheating and constant negging was pivotal to helping these guys find out who they really are. You're getting a promotion. Ellis, your nevish hand-wringing has, I'm sure, accomplished something.

99 mop in a bucket, aisle six. Here's your medal. And we're out to the transports. Really quick, it's worth saying that, like, I think we have the perspective and toolset to have a lot of fun with an episode like this to be like, damn, it's wild that Brick is just an abusive, like,

a sergeant who, who beats the shit out of an active, you know, member of this crew that he has power over. And, like, for us to be able to put that in context, context, in relationship with Shaqtie as a Jedi and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But, like, if I were eight in watching this episode, I have no idea

what I would leave this with. Yeah. Right? I have no idea. I feel like, that's why it's so upsetting. that it's played completely straight because like at that age you should be teaching kids like if an adult

assaults you go tell somebody so the clones are marching off to war but as we've alluded to here the clone wars is kind of using its out of order storytelling to achieve a real gut punch because as we got through the last episode I think we were supposed to be noticing that some of these clone

names were familiar and the discovery if you haven't made the connection at the end of at the end of clone cadets, it'll be made quickly for you at the top of, at the top of this next episode, that this is the squad that died in that listening post in the Rookies episode. And so, like, we do know that the inspiring story of Domino Squad ends on their first assignment as they are marched straight into the charnel house of the war with the separatists. Arch Troopers picks up the action as General Grievous continues with that plan

to launch an assault on Camino and the Clone War suddenly turns into Matrix Revolutions really with the help of some incredible design, animation, and lighting. This is another one of those episodes that announces like, hey, we've got more time and resources than we had at the start of the series. So now you're going to see some real showpiece stuff over the course of this episode. In the Brought outlines, the Jedi have to rush their experienced legions to defend Camino. The surviving members of Domino Squad have a homecoming and then Grievous and Ventriss working together for the first time,

completely bamboozle and banjanks the Jedi into missing the arrival of a massive separatist landing force. In no time at all, the separatists are ripping through Camino, slaughtering children and cadets. While Ventris seeks out the genetic material, they've been used. using to make more clones. 99 rallies a defense of the barracks and gives his life, saving a bunch of young clones. Grievous and ventrists are driven off, and Echo and Fives are promoted to the Arc Trooper program. So all's well that ends well, I guess.

Hmm. Who could say? I think I have much less to say about this episode, I will say, because it is a battle. episode. It's a close. This is, I think I said this once in an earlier episode, or I was like, I always assumed this is what the Clone Wars was. And this is also one of those where like, this is a well-made battle episode. The battle does rage. But like, there it. Like, what do we got? We got grievous. We got Ventress. We got Obi-Wan. We got Anakin. We got Camino. We got Rex. We got Cody. Like, it's like, it's hitting all the points here. And obviously, there's a little bit more than that. We do have. fives and five's an echo who lived is that who it is and 99 to to die ungloriously but um it's just it's an episode of the show you know i think it's a well-made one i think like you said rob you can see the budget increase you can feel there's a lot of great character designs there's lots of cool the underwater droids are sick we get the return finally of the cool squid ship that we first saw

in the opening to the Clone Wars movie when it stole the baby hut Yes That's where we first saw that ship design And finally to see it again It's a great one It's fucking cool We get a kiss

We do get a kiss What's better than that What's better than this? A kiss That was the point of this episode When she did that And I was sitting on my couch And I went damn

Because it was a little much Yeah, my note says Asage Force Choke, yo! My note is I love to be kissed by my killer. True. But yeah, it's one of those, it's just, it is a, like you said, Rob, it's a battle episode.

Well, and to be clear, like, in the arc of the series, it's good there's episodes like this. Sometimes you want to see the Star Wars shit, do the Star Wars shit, and this is well done. I think something does leap out at me as well, as um yeah no i was just to say it's really nice to see grievous and venturous again because it feels

like it's been a while since we've seen them and it's nice to see grievous i mean you know the heroes win the camino does not fall today but grievous doesn't look like a chump uh he isn't like booked bad in the fights really um uh he i could say his assault plan runs the table uh totally yeah totally so that was nice yeah it's a very strong uh uh like a very strong attack from from the separatist side like this is a really uh i had a note somewhere it was just it was really well executed like it was well thought like every every point there wasn't like an obvious weak point to to what they were doing really were you the the viewer going what the fuck are you doing which happens sometimes right we're like this is obviously a mistake

there's times when it's like um that it It can be easy to fall into this notion of like the separatists just use raw numbers and there's nothing subtle and clever about them. It's always the Jedi pulling the rabbits out of the hat. And here's the case where the Jedi set up very textbook defense and it's completely inappropriate for the situation because Grievous knows how that attack is going to go and the separatists have built those assumptions in. And I kind of love this. It's an attack plan that also does provide into the showcase for look at what we can do now in this series, which is, as the space battle unfolds and we get

sorry we do see the clones come back to school basically we have a quick encounter with we have a quick encounter with 99 this is the scene where I swear to God Boba's in there among the clone kids I'm looking at these kids in that group that's walking down the hallway past Echo and fives

this is also the scene where 99 has to hold a thousand rifles at once instead of getting a cart I'm asshole Caminoons God damn it Also you know what Actually Fuck it's a good touch

Because it's the most Steve Jobs shit And the Caminoons are very apple In that regard Which is Can't have hand carts In our beautiful minimalist Eugenics facility It would just throw things off

No maintenance closets No hand carts No laundry carts Instead, we will allow 99 to just schlep this stuff through the facility because that's graceful. Anyway, I'm convinced boba's in there. Do y'all pull up the picture of the... I did. I think it's Jacks.

I think it's the other one with the swoopy hair. I'll pull up the screenshot. I don't want to say anything to break your heart. But I don't see him one second. Shit. I'm sorry. I know. I was just going to let a slide.

It goes that way sometimes. You know what? That's true. I mean, by design, they are very hard to tell apart. This is how Bob was able to pull this off. He is, this guy is given the side eye. You're not wrong about that. There is a side eye happening here.

The only one. But I think it's, I thought that that was Jacks, the clone leader boy. No, maybe not though. Jacks has short hair. Jacks is, yeah, he has a different suit. Yeah, that could be Boba. That could be Boba. I think that is Boba.

The length is wrong. Like, there's two, you know what I mean? But, but maybe it hasn't grown in. I never schedule my haircuts on time. So, yeah. Does give the side eye. Oh, yeah. I hit play.

And there's like, uh, this is. There's a furtive quality of that clone. This is an evil Luigi look. You know what I mean? Evil Luigi. Yeah, I got you. In the car. Look at, in the car.

Look at this. Boom. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, he's just sitting. Okay. Yeah. It's on.

How do we get a blonde Little kid one? Yeah, you're not supposed to Defective Oh, right DNA breaking down Maybe this is why the clown program Is they're progressively trying to make these kids white

Can't figure out what's going wrong here I don't know I actually that kid just really loves the thong song I was like I could be Cisco I could I could do it I subscribe to this theory now Yeah It's a good song

It's a good song. Cisco was cool. So anyway, so... I'm sure Cisco still... I actually don't know. You know what? I'm not going to put my name on Cisco. I could not know if Cisco was cool.

But when I was young, Cisco was cool. So they break the news that Heavy, you know, sacrificed himself for the cause. And they return, they see that he got the 99 received the medal from Heavy. and that sort of loss and that sacrifice hangs over this episode and sets the stage for 99's own arc. And then we're sort of into the battle. And the thing I dig about it is, again, the thing the separatists have done

also plays in the fact that we're going to see a real, like, high-quality battle here. And so as the assault begins against the Republic, like, defensive cordon around Camino, initially the defense is going really well. They're just blasting the shit out of separatist ships. It's really spectacular. stuff. And you see the site of like huge pieces of like shattered ship, uh, you know, crashing

toward the planet. And it turns out, of course, this is not just debris. This is, in fact, the actual plan unfolding, which is that they are disguising their entire landing force as pieces of debris, uh, that's been like blown off, uh, shattered warships. And so those things go crashing into the ocean. And it slowly dawns on the Jedi that the entire defense is going to textbook. It's, it's too easy. uh obi wan does his thing which is he goes and checks it out does a little underwater research and discovers that by god they brought deep sea mining equipment and squid droids and a fuck a load of transports uh to this planet and immediately they sniff him out he gets in

trouble and as happened before he is reunited with his Caminoan sea dragon friend in the nick of time and it flies him back to the city so he can sound the alarm convenient stuff

just classic Obi-1 big animal time big animal time with Obi-Wan yeah 100% yeah Obi-O-B-Wan's big animal time do they have like a force connection is that it? I think so.

It makes me wonder, like, we had that question that came in during our last Q&A that was about, like, what force power would you want? And I don't think any of us said, like, forced animal talking. I said, uh, plants. You did say, that's true. Yes. But, yeah, animal, it's called Animal Bond also referred to as Animal Friendship or Beast Control or Beast Trick. Okay, Animal Friendship and Beast Control are different vibes. Light side, dark side.

Yeah. It has to be. right? Is Obi-Wan the, like, St. Francis of the Jedi? Like, is that just...

Not sure he's nice enough. I think St. Francis would be, like, I understand why you had that secret family, my friend. You can confide me. Let's go to my garden and discuss it. Whereas, Obi-Wan's definitely like,

how could you? How dare you? Yes, I slept with Sateen, but that's a different issue. And I made my commitments sort of sort of kind of but yeah I bet he does I bet he can I bet he's like or maybe it's not even like a power in that sense so much as it's like an affinity like it just kind of like oh yeah animals and me get along really well for whatever reason and the answer is

the force but he might not even have it like he's not like it's called emerald kinship with animals you know what I mean so then they have to begin the defense of the city we get some great shots here of like the squid creatures crawling up the side of the domes and being to burrow through and this is where it's like peak matrix revolutions where like it's very much how the attack on Zion ends up unfolding throughout all that and really 99 is playing the part of that little kid not little kid but like that teenager ends up doing the gun runs in revolutions right yeah we're like yeah there's that guy that they wouldn't let go out with the troops. He ends up being allowed to be an ammo career for people. Anyway, I also love the

shot of the clone troopers lined up and waiting to defend like the hangar area as the blast shields come down and you see the squid arms come up over the side as the barriers come down. It's pretty menacing. It's it's terrific stuff. It's where the shows sort of showing itself off to its best advantage. We see the initial defense collapse as they're overrun. And then with the attack going well, grievous inventors finally meet up and let us know that they've never met before. So once again, we've been yanked back through time. This is genuinely the first time they've been in the same place on screen in Clone Wars in the history of the show. Yeah, it is very weird. It does not feel like that.

They've spoken before, but it confuses the timeline even further for me. I have not gone and looked at the Clone Wars chronology, but I did see someone say explicitly, I want to, was this even in the Faloni zone or was this a, this might have just been in the like the trivia section on Star Wars.com, but that there's actually not, it does not happen immediately after rookies because they wanted there to be time for fives and echo to have gotten more grizzled and experienced so they don't roll right for rookies into this in fact i'm now looking at this what's the name the name of this episode is arc troopers yeah this actually takes place between uh stuff we have not seen yet oh yeah yeah it's it's like it's after lethal

trackdown so the boboffat stuff has already happened in fact uh at the time that we are here Like, we're almost caught up. So, yeah, I guess it can't be. Ah, fuck, it can't be Boca. Jedi, he's in Jedi Jube. Is there just some kid then who heard about Boveth's story and was like, fuck this whole shit now? Fuck this whole shit. I'm going to grow my hair out like that.

Yeah, if you're on, if you're on like the Boba Fett squad, like y'all just got the same like bowl cut. Yep. Anyway. That's how you know. It is, yes. I would feel like maybe the first thing they should do is not have an identifying mark if they're going to be undercover anti-clone. They are children. You're right.

Yeah, you're right. You want to hang with your homeless. So, yeah, I feel like, I feel like, unfortunately, the timeline thing here is very weird because we've definitely seen grievous and ventrists, like, be assigned to a task at the same time by Duku, right? or, like, be part of a bigger plan. But, Rob, you're not wrong in that it's played as if they've never met each other before. Yeah. It is. Yeah, very much.

Or they've never talked before, let alone been in the same room, you know. Well, and I think the answer of that might be, grievous might have been a little shy. Oh, true. Like, he's immediately like, oh, ha, ha, oh, you're incredibly hot. And she's like, thanks, but I don't fuck robot men. And she's like, oh. Yeah. And that's basically it.

Like, she's kind of, like, he's, he's really into, like, her whole deal. Uh-huh. And she's like, that's great, but I have no interest in you. Uh, you seem like a puttz. And you, even, like, when she shoots him down with my dear general, you have nothing that I want. Oh. Just, you know, you know, it's fair, though. Sometimes.

It's hard out here. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard. It's hard for me, because my heart. maybe it's how I'm built is that I have room in my heart for both grievous and ventrists

but you know what you can't make anybody else desire what you want you know it is what it is that's true that's true and what she wants is Obi-Wan

quick which I was yeah I mean it was so funny to me I was like this is a great episode for an Obi-1 Ventress moment but because of the whole

Anakin can't fucking see can't meet grievous until Revenge of the Sith we had to get Anakin versus Ventress which was fine It was fine They don't kiss She saves her one kiss for A clone she kills

And force chokes towards her Yeah that was hot She only kisses people she's about to kill Or already has Great way to go through life This is exactly what eight year olds to be taken away from this show. It's like, ooh, I don't know why, but I like this.

I fear it. She smashes his helmet off using the force and then pulls him into the lightsaber and then kisses him. And then he falls to his knees and dies. Like, what's better than this? What's better than this? And then that is literally the thing. Grievous sees that happening and he's like, foo.

It's getting hot to you or? Yeah. I got to turn the coolant up in my body. And she's like, I'm good. And the divide here is what? He is going to do, he's going to take over Camino. She is going to steal the DNA. And she's like, why don't we just destroy it?

And he's like, because it could be useful to us. Which like. I don't know. Who knows? Maybe the community is trying to act like he knows what they did. Yeah. The answer is there's like three more Nouveau-Vindy somewhere waiting to get the plane DNA so they can make a clone gas or whatever. And then she tells him to go along and play with his little droids, which, whew, fire. Oof.

And so we see the course of their two missions unfold. Like, Grievous is just basically ripping through that place and wrecking it, killing as many clones as he possibly can. but as sort of the Jedi realized he doesn't even have enough guys to take and wipe out the city so like he's kind of just doing just a major act of war crime vandalism in some ways

meanwhile Ventress is after that genetic material she's going to the vault and that's where she encounters Anakin I think both the fights here are pretty good we get a hallway fight and we get a Biggle, like outdoor, like, you know, on the artificial cliffs of the city type fight. All of it looks pretty good.

I don't have a lot of notes. They're fights, but they're fights. I like these droids. These droids are neat. They're like a different- Oh, they're like crab droids? Yeah, that's a good way of describing them. Yeah, they're like, they have lots of little plates that kind of open up in the ribs

and their heads kind of have a little pop-up part. It's like a new design that we haven't seen before. Very battle tech in some ways. Yeah, totally. they definitely have they they definitely have that um and uh i don't think there's any other battle notes here i don't know yep i don't really it was some good nine running around helping people out uh teaching them to like use that remember to use their grenades always key right like don't hey well i guess you hit that five key so those grenades yeah the thing worth saying is also happening during

this is fives and echo being like we need more troops i know these children these children can be our troops. We're all clones. And the kids are like, our training's not finished. And Fives is like, we're the same. Same heart, same blood. We're all close.

Same heart, same blood. Was that Fives or was that? Rex or Cody? It's five. Yeah, he has a little five in his head. So that's how you know it's five. Rex and Cody are there, but they don't give that. I mean, they might also be part of the larger thing,

but the same blood, same heart, whatever thing is five. thing is fives yelling at them and pointing at them and trying to height them up. Gotcha. But first, they're going to need some guns. Like, the thing is, they don't, despite what these kids are destined for, they don't necessarily just start giving them guns until they, like, finish their training. Oh, they used to, and then the thing happened where Boba Fett asked for one and immediately killed someone, and so they stopped doing it now.

They stopped giving the... No, wait, they did give the kids guns eventually. in this episode Yeah, yeah Right, and that's what 99 is out there doing He's like running around being like You know what I'm good at Going into storage closets

And carrying improbable amounts of weaponry out of them And so He's running around getting guns for the children To use on the droids And it culminates in They set a very clever ambush in the clone dormitories Where like the The droids come in

massacre a bunch of kids and boom all those little drawers full of children pop open and they just start unloading it on the droids it's sick it's a plan is it an accident that the clone dormitories also look

a lot like a morgue I don't think so yeah true I think as the beginning as at the end just a warehouse for bodies of one sort or another here's the other thing though it doesn't feel like the give 99

a great death? No, it's terrible. What's you're trying to do when he gets shot down? He's getting more grenades. But they won. It was done. It was done. He was like trying to run a play.

He was off-com. They got a lead and he's trying to run a play. His headphones got unplugged. He got AirPods in. He can't hear us. It's frustrating. It couldn't have a match timer coming down. Just belly up, man.

It's frustrating because they even do like the music hit, like something is happening there. And there's no way to it. It was like the most triumphant. Like, oh. This is his moment. Going to the other side of his room for these guns. Like, he doesn't

even, this is the thing is it like, it's not it's not even the, in rookies, remember there's the moment where I think it's heavy, has to stay in the room and hit the button to blow up all the droids to save the day. It's not even that. Like, he doesn't even get to do the thing and it sacrifices his life.

to do it. He just runs down a hall and gets shot in the back four times. It sucks so hard. And everyone's just like turned around, like watching it happen. Like everyone stops. Nobody's fighting anymore. Everyone just is like, yo, it's good. Like we're good. It's fine. It's fine. He's like, no, I got this. I'm, I'm the specific line he says before he dies is I'm a soldier like you. This is what I was bred for. Critical damage. Frenzy. Instant chaos.

Instant chaos. Just so fucked. And, yeah, and everyone just, like, watches him. Like, nobody's, like, pulling, like, like, yo, seriously. Yeah. Where's, no one's doing anything. They're just watching this. They get shot in the back.

It fucking sucks. It fucking sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Just some bebop, like, medial for joy. We don't have to shit talk to. droids here, okay? Deroids are cool, too.

Droid's a crab droid. It wasn't a crab droid. It was one of the dog shit droid. I don't think it was a crab droids. I don't think it was one of those crab droids. I thought it was the battle. It was like classic battle droids. Whatever.

Anyway. The points they're going to win that fight without those grenades he was walking for. Yeah, they were, they were good. They were going to be fine. They do win the fight because he dies. He doesn't get the grenades. Right, that's what I'm saying. They don't go.

Nobody else goes. to get some more... Right. Nobody's like, all right, I'll pick up the fucking baton and I'll go get the grenades now. It's like, no, it's like... Play to the whistle, play to the whistle. O'Contrere, sometimes you make a career decision.

That's right. And you don't play to the whistle. Protect your franchise players. Yeah, 99's a franchise player. You've got to protect him. Nobody's, nobody's protecting. That's the fucked up thing is that, like, the way that they prop up 99 is a symbol

instead of being interested in, like, his internal thoughts about people disrespecting him or insulting him. Like, this isn't a moment where it's like, oh, it's so sad that he's so anxious to prove himself in this moment that he's sacrificed himself for nothing. It's like, good job, 99. You tried to walk over there and you couldn't, but it was brave that you did it. You really were one of us. Died for nothing. Yeah, they literally say we lost. After he dies, they say, we lost a true soldier.

He really was one of us. Like, bro, bro, fuck off. Like, that's just, like, do you understand people and, like, human, like, do you, like, human being, like, uh... Like, respect, like, dignity, any of those kinds of things? But they don't, but that's the thing, is, like, the clones are like, yeah, he should have wanted to do that. the thing that they empathize with is that he felt worthless unless he did clone trooper shit

i.e. dying in vain, pointlessly in a team lane. Yeah, that's true clone trooper shit. Right there. And nobody, like, it doesn't occur to anyone that, like, hey, is what's happened? Is 99's position in this little, like, weird society we built? Is it

profoundly fucked up? Doesn't, it's not going to cross the clone trooper's minds. They're going to be like, man, it would suck to be 99. 99 is also going to sit there being like, I just want to carry a rifle. Like, that's the other thing. He's a bit like Rudy in some ways where like the highest, like, dream he can have is kind of a really small one and a shitty one, but it's the product of what he's raised to aspire

to. But yeah, it does just, it's, it's pretty weak. It sucks. And kind of unceremonious dismissal of that character. Is it grievous ends up giving Ventrists a ride? Is that, or? She picks her up, is that it? Yeah.

They end up basically sharing a cab. Yeah, they do basically share a cab. She opens, gets her way with the jar of Django juice, and Anakin, like, grabs it away from her. It is loose. She-Force pulls it back to her, but before she can get it, a clone hand comes out and grabs it. Like, this is my cum. Uh-huh. And she is like, hey,

She is like, oh, you know, I'm going to, I'm, you're not going to fucking kill me, basically. Or you're not going to arrest me. I'm not going to let myself get arrested, basically. Anakin's, like, arrest you. Like, I'm going to tell these clones to execute you right now because I'm acting Skywalker. Yeah. And she's like, nope, psych. And then back flips away.

I don't, she like makes something explode for, like, does she have a distraction? No, she, she force pushes, like, the first file. guys standing there, but there's like 40 other dudes who could have taken the shot. I think the shot. I think the clone sexual awakening that follows this incident, I think it stems from like Venters'

presence here. It's very much like, I hope someone else takes the shot. I'm not shooting her. There's 40 other dudes here. Someone else is going to put, shit, no one, fuck, I guess I got to shoot near her. I missed. I missed. And she does a backflip or

He runs away, blocks a couple of laser shots, and hops into this little orb ship that Grievous, like, escape pod that's going to take them away. He goes into bug mode and he goes into tiny, probably tiny little, like, VW bug spaceship. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Like, Grievous, the cutest, the cutest, uh, the cutest of the separatist generals at times. Yep. It's true. And then. Don't you hate it when you go to the event and then you have to get a ride home with the person you, like, least wanted to. with and like you're not going to hook up with them but like now you're going to share the car ride home

because and he's like he's like my place is on the way to you are and you're like yeah okay I'm like bye actually no no my if you if we take if we take this freeway mine comes up first we can drop me out first it's all good I just got a new french press if you want to come upstairs you know grievous his coffee game is right You know it is. He's on the pourover. Nothing wrong with getting a new French cross. That's what I'm saying.

Or getting it really finicky about which metal finish you get on it. He's the freaking bad, like special tubes situation. He's set. Yeah. He's set. Anyway. Where he just means a hardcore drug dealer. He just like quits the clobores.

Yeah. He goes to the cartels. I mean to destroy the Jedi by getting them hooked. this shit rips I love this I love this God Anyway 5's an echo

Get a promotion The end To be arc troopers Which seems like You're more dangerous clone trooper shit But maybe you're valuable enough That like it's not just a suicide mission I think we're going to have to play the Clone Wars video game

To answer This Like what is the lot of an arch trooper Well it's fucked up This is an episode called Arc Trooper, and that it's not really about being an arctrooper, and also it gives away the premise that they're going to get to be arc troopers at the end. You know what I mean?

Like, arc troopers are recon troopers, I think. They're like the ones who are like... It's like Rangers. Yeah, they're like Rangers, exactly. Like, they go behind enemy lines. They do dirt. They do like a little bit more risky shit, which is cool. Good job.

Yeah. To five. I hope we, I genuinely, I'm really happy we're getting fives on Echo here, and I hope that they continue to be primary characters because Rex and Cody feel I don't we know Cody takes a shot at

Obi-Wan at the end of or during Opera Order 66 I don't remember if we know what Rex does but giving us clone troopers to like care about who are not super racist snow offense waxer and boil some offense waxer and boil

full offense waxer and boil full offense waxer and boil I know we have a waxer stand among us or a boil stand. I don't remember which one. They're fine. I think when they come back later, they're fine. Okay.

There was character developers. Right. Yeah. I like Fives at Echo, and I'm happy to see more of them, even as they, you know, get kids to shoot at droids for them. No one's perfect. You know, a funny detail that I just discovered while reading this, Wikipedia synopsis

is that the clone that Asage Ventris kills is Commander Colt from the previous episode. Damn! That's a great detail. That's a great detail.

See, he ain't shit. But he died happy. But he died happy. Rest in peace. We can all be so lucky. Damn, my commander. She dropped come down he was the only one guarding he was the only one guarding

he was the only one love here lies general cults he scored the one time yeah he's got his notes app got one name on it and yeah so that's

that's the defense of Camino you know ultimately mostly things remain quo like the clone program for all this it clearly has its problems i mean the marker they put down here is that like we heard the term bad batch thrown around multiple times over the course of these two episodes yep it's it's put down this marker that like this program is succeeding in like

sort of mass printing uh troopers but behind the scenes like the reliability of that output is in question uh from a number of the people who are involved uh the rising number of people who don't fit their template is a point of concern and it's clear they don't know what to do like the story of domino squad is they get they luck out and they're able to graduate these guys um you know we don't know what's happening at a large scale like what are we doing with people who aren't fitting the standard clone trooper template that's the other thing because like the the 90 the way the 99 story wraps up is that there's no there's going to be another 99 and he's going to be treated the exact the same way. There's no change about that.

Like, Domino Squad had this connection with him, but Bravo Scott doesn't give a shit. Cody and Rex are like, oh, we're going to give him like a post-mortem metal or whatever. Like, none of this has changed. There is not like a, yeah, it's wild that there is not a final

reckoning at that larger scale. I mean, I guess Cody and Rex are there and they're one of those we lost a true soldier or whatever, but that doesn't like, nothing happens because you're right. so but i think these are these are interesting things to like carry with us in the series i'm curious like to your point austin making members of that original dominoa squad kind of important now they are clones that we will remember uh and seeing maybe how that develops seeing how the clone

program begins to unfold we've had a we have this illusion in the notion of the cam and owens at least would very much like to get another template in place and like run a different program so there's a lot of discontent but in the meantime things are as they've ever been in the series and we move forward and on the next episode we will once again sort of be stuck back in the past this point before the pilot episode even yeah the supply lines episode and sphere of influence both of these center on the initial diplomatic missions that bring King Katunko into play where Yoda has to do that

diplomatic mission in the very first episode. So we are going back to pretty much almost the start of the Clone Wars to sort of capture the political machinations of the galaxy that suddenly finds itself in the middle of a civil war that nobody is really set up to fight. So the next two episodes we're going to be touching on

our supply lines and sphere of influence, both of which also really center on the ambiguous position of the trade federation in the galaxy right now. Very exciting. Which is that the Republic can't expel its traitor members because that would mean acknowledging they're traitor members. And so, like, to a degree, it's always, like, the next episode is like, what if the Confederate States

just kept their congressional representation at the start of the Civil War? God, incredible. This is kind of that. Where it's like, well, they're the duly elected representatives of these traitor militants, Oh, well. So that's what we're going to get into the next episode. And I have some great news for everyone here.

Oh. Jar Jar Binks Laptic comedy. Let's go. Prepare yourself. Let's go. I'm ready for it. It's been too long. Yeah.

I want it, actually. Let's go. So, as always, stick around for the next episode. We're being in those two episodes. You can also support us on Patreon on patreon. On patreon.com slash civilized. I'll give you access to our backer Q&A's where you can ask us questions and we'll answer them about some of the episodes we've discussed so far. Most recently, we discussed the end of season two and the arc of season two as a whole.

Can we just, I know that I ask for the Jager Juice thing, but like as just a baseline, stop being horny in our inbox. I'm not including those questions. I don't like reading them. Just stop it. I don't know you. Agreed. Yeah, we ain't friends like that. Like, I get it.

That's extremely valid, yeah. Don't do it. There have been a lot of questions that have come in where people are like, what about this extremely horny premise, huh? What do you think about that? And those are just often, one, not really equipped to answer that

because it's like clearly a very personal question. That sounds like a thing you would answer for in your head already, that you would like to explore. And to that I say go to A-O-3 and submit your findings. It's all there. To other people. Like, go, go.

Truly, I hope everyone in life can find people that they can share horny Star Wars thoughts with. Unfortunately, professionally, that is not us. No, not interested. We're not doing it after dark Patreon episode. Like, it's not happening. Don't ask us which the Jedi. We're not saving them. And that means, if you're submitting a Django Juice recipe, it can't just be

horny drink recipe like know what you're doing bring your egg it should be a good drink recipe yeah yeah yeah so that's that's that's that's that's the challenge like mix like mixologists get to work but don't just try to create some like weird horny cocktail uh that will be fucked up that we got to read about don't want that but i'm always in the game for a new a new cool theme cocktail yes anyway rate and review us on your podcast platform of a choice You know, I think this week, the thought I have to end it on is, you know, I think last time we had a mainline episode, we won Justice for Django. I want Justice for 99 now, too.

Yeah, Justice for 99. The list of people who deserve better continues to expand. True. I'm going to be able to be.