Legendary Adventures: The Clone Wars: No Prisoners

Captain Rex babysits Ahsoka while Gilad Pallaeon deals with his lover being caught under fire…when the Clone Wars breaks out, there are No Prisoners!

“And the maximum number extracted. You know what your bosses say about attachment, littl’un. Don’t get too attached to me.” – Captain Rex

On the planet JanFathal, a fascist government has oppressed its own people for far too long. A popular uprising has broken out, strongly in favor of the Separatists. In their eyes, the Confederacy of Independent Systems seems far more democratic than their current government or even the representative Republic. The populace loudly calls for CIS intervention, hoping for a takeover and coup. The Republic inserts special agent Hallena Devis as a factory agent to monitor what happens on the planet. Sadly, the Repubilc would rather support the fascist government than let them have a chance to side with the Separatists in an attempt to find some sort of freedom. She is put in danger quickly as the planet becomes embroiled in a battle after its power grid fails, allowing for a CIS invasion. Hallena is taken captive by her fellow workers who are sympathetic to the CIS.

Hallena’s dangerous situation is personal for Republic Captain Gilard Pallaeon. (Yes, the one who would eventually team up with Grand Admiral Thrawn!) The two are romantically involved, but both are doing their best to put duty before personal pleasure. As Devis acts as a secret agent on JanFathal, Pallaeon oversees the construction of new battle cruisers. He is accompanied by Captain Rex and Torrent Company, which is led by Ahsoka Tano. Pallaeon’s ship and Torrent Company are commissioned to intervene in the Battle of JanFathal, bringing the new cruisers into their first fight. They also team up with Jedi Master Djinn Atliss and his Jedi protegees, Callista Masana and Geith Eris, who make planetfall with Torrent Company in an effort to rescue Devis.

Torrent Company and Atliss’s Jedi end up rescuing Devis and trying to escape JanFathal. As they escape into the atmosphere, they realize they don’t have enough oxygen to last them until they could be extracted. They decide to turn back to JanFathal, risking the battle and living undercover. Rex summons Anakin and his clones as reinforcements, bringing down a Republic invasion force to free the planet and save Ahsoka. Pallaeon is able to extract Anakin’s clones, Atliss’s Jedi, the survivors of Torrent Company, and Hellena Devis.

This mission presents a myriad of challenges to Ahsoka. First, she is assigned to Pallaeon and Rex because Anakin, essentially, needs a break. A common feature between Karen Traviss’s Clone Wars novels is that Anakin is really, really annoyed that he has to be Ahsoka’s Master. And it’s not a private matter: he picks at her (more so than he does in the cartoon), he complains about her, and in this novel, actively tries to rid himself of her. So, as Ahsoka learns to trust her new Master, she must overcome his growing distance and his annoyance with her as she learns how to be a better Jedi. This problem is compounded by Master Atliss, who himself personally trains two Jedi apprentices. Anakin can’t seem to be bothered to take one, but Atliss can take two! This forces her to consider her relationship with her Master, what effect it is having on her, and forces her to think about relationships and if they always have to look exactly the way the Jedi say they do.

Even more troubling is watching how romance affects people’s reactions to situations, even in life or death contexts. Pallaeon’s relationship with Devis makes this mission personal, and she sees where he loses focus in his effort to save her. Atliss’s apprentices, Callista and Geith, are not only romantically entangled, but they are engaged to be married! Not only is this accepted, Master Atliss celebrates this engagement. We’re not entirely sure when Ahsoka finds out about Anakin’s secret marriage, but it may be easy to imagine that she has some suspicions brewing already. Anakin himself is summoned to JanFathal later, and he realizes that had he trained under Atliss, he could be openly wed to Padmé.

In general, Atliss’s group challenges Ahsoka’s belief about the Jedi, and the light, to the core. For her entire life, she’s believed that a Master could only take a single apprentice per mission. She might also know that she was assigned to Anakin in an effort to curb his tendency toward obsessive attachments toward anybody he was close to, so to see an engaged pair of Jedi seems like a huge affront to what she knows about attachment and about love. (I wonder how her interactions with Callista and Geith would have affected her future relationship with Lux?) In her mind, Atliss’s group of “Jedi” were simply daring the dark side to try and seduce them away from the light.

Ahsoka’s mindset is very similar to ours, I imagine. Knowing, with the gift of hindsight that the Jedi were doomed to failure, we still know they are the good guys, and that they were probably generally correct. This makes it easy for us, I think, to sympathize with Ahsoka’s struggles. Traviss wants to show her as narrow minded and unable to listen, which does not mesh well with the well-loved Ahsoka we have grown accustomed to. Traviss’s distaste toward the Jedi (outlined a bit in my Republic Commando Adventure) simply cannot overcome the likability of Ahsoka. In the end, I imagine most people will be on her side and reject the Atlisian Jedi’s approach.

The opposite is true for Anakin: Atliss’s Jedi promise him everything that he feels is lacking in the current Jedi Order. In Atliss’s sect, he could be openly married to Padmé and not worry about the allure of the Dark Side. It wouldn’t be a secret, so if anything were happening, someone would be able to freely correct him and nudge him back toward the light. He would also be free of the constraints of normal Master duties if he could take more than one, or fall back under someone else’s guidance. In the end, his attachment to the Grand Army of the Republic (and not Ahsoka or Obi-Wan) is what pulls him back to the traditional Jedi Order, no matter how much he disagrees with it.

This is where Traviss’s favored approach to the Jedi comes in. Of course they wouldn’t be concerned about themselves: they have a war to manipulate! I have a hard time remaining objective about Traviss, but I found it very hard to believe that Anakin rejected Atliss’s offer on the basis of his rank rather than his attachments to Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. The Atlisian Jedi were a tempting offer for Anakin; I wonder if we were supposed to be wooed by their philosophy as well. In the end, they came across as too far from traditional doctrine, with no solid arguments for their case, to be entirely persuasive.

That being said: even if I wasn’t persuaded, Hallena Devis was. She leaves Pallaeon, and the Republic, to travel with Atliss and his apprentices. Instead of acting as generals, they would do philanthropic work for beings who need help. Devis was scarred by the loss of two clone troopers who died in an effort to protect her life. She first wondered if she was worth that sacrifice, then she wondered if the Republic was. This humanization of the troopers is a staple in Traviss’s work. It is an appreciated one, but it always comes at the cost of villainizing the Jedi.

Of course, Traviss has to present an alternative to all of the approaches she doesn’t like. In response to the Jedi Order, we meet Atliss’s Jedi. In response to the Jedi’s dismissal of clone life, we have Hallena sympathizing with them. I was disappointed to see how she wrote the Republic’s support for fascism. I think that topic deserved enough time on its own to explore. I believe that the Republic would at this point in the war, but it begs further exploration, and the book simply does not have time to present that, sadly.

All in all, this book presents a lot of interesting ideas. Whether or not you’re convinced, I recommend reading through this one if you want a Clone Wars adventure or more time with Ahsoka.

Legendary Travel Tips:
-This novel is preceded by Shatterpoint and followed by Republic Commando: Triple Zero.
-Gilad Pallaeon will return for his massive post-Endor role, but reading about his exploits in the Clone War will probably serve as an interesting entry point to the further adventures.
-Geith and Callista will return in Children of the Jedi, where Callista’s post-Endor career takes many concerning and interesting twists and turns.

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

Movie Reviews:
The Last Jedi