Legendary Adventures: The Clone Wars

Fresh off his recent Knighting, Anakin Skywalker is about to embark on the most challenging mission in his life. What’s harder than taking down Battle Droids on Teth or interacting with Jabba the Hutt? How about taking a Padawan??

The Clone Wars novel, written by Karen Traviss, deviates from the traditional novel adaptations of the films. It closely mirrors the plot of the movie, but the dialogue is changed significantly in certain areas. The novel also gives a greater focus on the Clone Troopers led by Captain Rex; more than just a scene here or there, they become an entire subplot. The movie treated the clones as more of an afterthought than part of the story. Having read other Traviss novels, I don’t think these changes were from earlier scripts: rather, these changes reflect Traviss’s personal writing style and attitudes toward the Jedi and Clones.

Anakin Skywalker’s mission to Praesitlyn, where he almost sacrificed his life while losing a mother-figure in Momen, as covered in Jedi Trial, is one of the most traumatic experiences any Jedi will face in this war. Following this mission, he and Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent to Christophsis to extract Senator Bail Organa. Senator Organa was on a relief mission to the Christophsians who was attacked by the Separatists. Anakin and Obi-Wan bypass a Separatist blockade set up by Admiral Trench, but they don’t destroy the blockade, so they still cannot call in reinforcements. Things go from bad to worse when a traitorous clone trooper, nicknamed Slick, destroys a significant portion of the Republic’s ground vehicles. Nevertheless, the duo, alongside the 501st and 212th clone divisions take the fight to the droids themselves. Talk about adding stress to a recently traumatized Jedi who already struggles with handling his emotions!

The Republic’s relief, they think, has finally arrived as a Republic shuttle touches down in the middle of the battlefield. Rather than a new battalion of clones, a single Jedi, a young teen named Ahsoka Tano, comes off the ship telling the Jedi that she has a message and an assignment. She is to be assigned her new Master in the midst of battle, but it isn’t Obi-Wan. Rather, it is recently Knighted Anakin! The pair develop a plan to shut down an energy shield protecting the Separatist forces as Obi-Wan comes into direct confrontation with General Whorm Loathsome. On the field, young Ahsoka proves her ingenuity and cleverness, even after making a silly mistake. Anakin is cold to Ahsoka: he makes snide comments, dismisses her, and is outright rude to her, both on the basis of her initial mistake and, perhaps, due to his recent traumatic experiences.

This demonstrates an interesting contradiction inside of Anakin. On one hand, he is overly committed to people that he knows well. He would die for Obi-Wan and Padme, fighting to his last breath to do whatever he could for them. He can’t help but feel an intense, emotional connection with people whom he has decided to trust. But when it comes to people he doesn’t decide to trust, he is antagonistic, distant, and rude. I wish the Legends canon had explored, just a bit more, even, the psyche of Anakin. Looking at the way he was shaped by trauma would have significantly helped us understand his fall.

Coming off another tough battle, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan are tapped with a new mission: find and save Jabba’s son, Rotta the Huttlet. In exchange for saving his son, Jabba has offered the Republic use of the Hutt space lanes. This puts the Jedi on the path to Teth, where the Sith have planned a trap for the coming Jedi. Really, behind it all, we start to see Palpatine’s first major push toward imperialization. This is one of the more subtle ways Sheev has pushed for control: by controlling space lanes, he controls who can travel where, and how much it can cost them. Not only will it put more trading under Republic power, but it will also pull the Hutts into his world, hopefully making them easier to deal with later when his plan comes to fruition.

Anakin is mortified that he would have to deal with the Hutts. Ahsoka continually prods him to talk about his feelings, but Anakin resists her at every step. Having recently lost Momen, or, in a sense, another connection to his mother, it is easy to imagine why it is so hard for Anakin to deal with slavers. The Jedi arrive on Teth, where Ventress is holding young Rotta the Hutt in a B’omarr monastery. Anakin, Ahsoka, and part of the Torrent Squadron infiltrate the monastery and find Rotta. Rotta is ill, poisoned by the Seps to ensure that the Jedi will not return with a living Huttlet. Anakin makes a few snide remarks about Rotta, and Hutts in general, which are captured on film. Dooku shows this film to Jabba, who is enraged. This is another good, subtle way to show Anakin’s descent toward the dark. He’s not choking everyone whom he sees, he’s not chopping Tuskens in half, but he is allowing his prejudices to come out unhindered, in front of a Padawan, even.

Months into the war, Obi-Wan hasn’t changed much. It doesn’t seem like his stint on Ord Cestus (in the Cestus Deception) has had much of an effect on him. His witty banter cuts through the haze of battle (and belies the killing and violence is taking part in). Rather than treat Ventress as a threat, he flirts with her to disarm her. In the middle of a large scale invasion, this flirting feels out of place – especially with his history with Dutchess Satine! Obi-Wan has not grown much as a Jedi here, nor has he been very affected by the war. In fact, he seems to relish the position as general that Mace initially fought so vehemently against! Now, he is an implacable and flawless mentor to both Anakin and Ahsoka.

Speaking of Ahsoka, she really shines in the novel in a way she doesn’t on screen. She prods Anakin about his past, about his life on Tatooine, and even challenges the way he thinks and speaks about Hutts. If Anakin had open ears to hear Ahsoka from the beginning, he may have been less susceptible to Sheev’s machinations later in the war. On Teth, Ahsoka fights bravely alongside clone troopers and against Ventress herself. Of course, the timely intervention of Anakin and a can-cell herd end the fight early, but it still speaks to Ahsoka’s bravery. It is also pretty tragic, as she is only a child, and she is already jumping into fights too big for her.

Ahsoka is easily one of the best characters developed since 2008. The sad part is, though, most of her story is a tragedy. Early in her life, she is turned into a commander of clone troopers, ordering men to their death and issuing kill orders. She is used as a tool by the Jedi Council, who hopes that by giving Anakin a Padawan, he can learn a lesson about attachment. (Even at the end of the War, their opinion of her hasn’t changed: they spend no time getting to know her, making it totally believable in their eyes that she would betray the Order.) Under Anakin, she is pushed aside, held back, and undervalued. As their relationship grows, he trusts her more (too much at times!), but never truly lets her into his world. It is no wonder that she would be willing to walk away from it all at the end of the War.

Finally, the novel gives an extended spotlight to Captain Rex. Karen Traviss, author of the Republic Commando novels, is known for her clone trooper/military action. The Battle of Teth focuses on Captain Rex and trooper Coric, a newcomer. The Battle of Teth is catastrophic: six survivors of Torrent Company are left to fight hordes of battle droids. Rex and Coric struggle to keep up as ammo and grenades are depleted keeping the droids at bay. This focus on the clone troopers is not new: we’ve seen Jangotat learn about his own humanity on Ord Cestus already, suggesting that the troopers were never mindless robots. The Battle of Teth will be just as traumatic for Rex as Praesitlyn was for Anakin, and future novels will explore Rex’s PTSD from this battle.

Finally, Padmé Amidala is given an adventure on her own. As negotiations with Jabba fall through after the battle of Teth, Padmé hopes to inquire of Jabba’s uncle, Ziro the Hutt. She finds out that Ziro was working with Dooku to kidnap Rotta. Just as the Separatists and Republic were vying for control of the Hutt space lanes, Ziro was hoping to use the conflict to grow his own power on the Hutt Council. It is almost funny to see Jabba the Hutt become a pawn – we’re used to his introduction in Return of the Jedi as a big, powerful gangster. But when Darth Sidious controls the galaxy, lording himself over the two major factions, even Jabba is cut down. Ziro is captured, brought into custody. By using Ziro as a patsy, Dooku and Sidious escape this conflict scot free.

Now, for a personal touch, I think this is the most review-oriented I have been in these adventures so far. As much as I tried to explain Anakin’s rudeness toward Ahsoka, I couldn’t help but feel like this was Traviss projecting her dislike of the Jedi through Anakin’s lips. It is obvious that Traviss favors the clones. This is both a good and bad thing: the way she favors the clones leads her to ask good questions about their role in the war, and it helps investigate the growing darkness in the Jedi Order for using them as cattle. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes less balanced and turns into vitriol. Jedi attack each other, and the clones, the ones created to obey them, take potshots at the Jedi as well. It seems out of place, and I can’t look past it as she writes more during the Clone Wars.

Ultimately, I think opinions on the movie are still divided. Fans of the movie will find a lot to enjoy here, as will fans of Traviss. If you are not a fan of the film, no worries on skipping this one. It is not available from Del Rey as a paperback, and the hardcover can be hard to come across. I bought mine on Amazon used and it was a UK printing, so it is not the same size as the rest of my Legends paperbacks. If you are bothered by one of your books not fitting in with the rest of the collection, I wouldn’t suggest that you need to track this book down. In fact, even die-hard fans of the movie may not need to track down a copy. The headache simply isn’t worth it.

Legendary Travel Tips:
– This novel is preceded by Jedi Trial and followed by Out Foxed, a first-person story told from Captain Fox’s perspective, published on Target.com.
– Conflicting reports dated the events of this novel to either the first or second year of the war. At the time of the Legends reboot, the novel takes place in the first year of the war.

You can follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisWerms, and of course, you can follow the Manor on Twitter @MynockManor!

Movie Reviews:
The Last Jedi