General Grievous’Clone WarsDebut Remains a Masterclass—But Not for the Reason You Think

Genndy Tartakovsky’sStar Wars Clone Wars micro - seriesis call back — deified even — for its action . It is all killer , no filler : the dialogue is ascetical , its melodic theme layer but mere . This is Star Wars and you are here for close , explosive , bombastic activeness unlike anything the enfranchisement had dared to dream of before , andrarely would after . The serial publication ’ arguable apex , its twentieth chapter , is no elision .

In the marvellous custom of iconic Star Wars hench - villains make their introduction in animation , just as Boba Fett had26 year beforehand , in April 2004—17 twelvemonth ago to this day , in fact — audience were bring in to the franchise ’s next supporting big badness in General Grievous . The Grievous we adjoin here , beyond aesthetic choices befit Clone Wars anime - mold style , is markedly unlike to the cyborg we would meet on the liberal filmdom a year later inStar war : Episode III Revenge of the Sith .

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General Grievous strikes.

General Grievous strikes.Screenshot: Lucasfilm

He did n’t have a coughing , not yet at least , to be explained away by the micro - series ’ third and final serial publication . Hisspindly , bone - distort armorreplaced with cool Edward D. White and steel note , thickened to await as menacing as possible . Not here is the cackling , intrigue ‘ 40s serial villain George Lucas would need from Revenge of the Sith ’s sinister patsy but instead , a taciturn , ruthless killing machine who wanted one affair and one thing only : the complete extinction of any Jedi that dared thwart his path . A take , one could sure delineate with a sense of glee , that was more “ badass . ” charge away are many of the more cartoonish , even clumsy shades that would be added to Grievous in Revenge and eventually the 3D CG Clone Wars series that would span Tartakovsky ’s show out of canon for good . Instead , he was something serious , something tearing , something that is , as we rejoiced , all killer and no filler .

Chapter 20 can certainly be remembered like so much of Clone Wars in this way : a nine - bit ( bumped up from anterior episode ’s typical three - to - four - hour runtime ) hyper - concentrated dose of military action , in which this horrify figure of cybernetic apprehension carves a bloody ( yet ashen ) path through a squad of Jedi . Lightsaberswhirl with frightful preciseness on both sides , bodies are carved , stomped upon , flung lifelessly into the debris of a devastating battle left unseen . Grievous ’ sole line of dialogue here is not a jactitation or joke , but a scourge that reflects his power and imposing , calculated behaviour : “ Jedi ! You are surrounded , your armies decimated . Make peace with the Force now , for this is your last hour — but know that I , General Grievous , am not completely without mercifulness . I will accord you a warrior ’s end . Prepare ! ”

In our minds eye , this is Tartakovsky ’s Clone Wars writ big : the Star Wars that Star Wars could be if removed from such manifest trammel as paper and pity . Freed to be nothing but the awe - inspiring action mechanism of fantastic warrior at the height of their power matched in brilliant , intense scrap . And it is indeed that . But what makes it more — what makes it Star Wars — is that it is not about the action of Grievious ’ arrival on the scene , or at least not only .

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Chapter 20 is about the Jedi who fall dupe to him , a turning full point in the show and in Star Wars ’ prequel epoch that punctures the very mythos of the mystic group , and asks us to really , truly consider their impending ruin . There ’s something fitting that the bulk of the Jedi we meet on Hypori — Ki - Adi - Mundi , Shaak Ti , Aayla Secura , and K’Kruhk , joined by two newly created padawans , Sha’a Gi and Tarr Seirr — are character that diehard fans would tell apart from the Star Wars expanded universe ’s stories of the Clone Warsat the clock time . These are more than just any Jedi then , they are beloved characters .

Even without that recognition , as Ki - Adi intones to steel his beleaguered friend at one point in the short , they are Jedi . We have pass the entirety of the show at this item in awe of the heightened , almost absurd power of the Order . warrior like Anakin , Obi - Wan , Kit Fisto , and Mace Windu have singlehandedly run rampant across field of honor , every setback turned into a small inconvenience , a opportunity for them to swing out back twice as hard , and often resolutely so . Up to this spot in the show for our champion there is no failure , only stunning spectacle : unarmed or otherwise , the Jedi of this dispute are almighty , perhaps even scary , in their martial skill . And yet , Hypori is not just couch as a defeat , but a rout .

We open with the death of Master Barrek , introduce only to be trim down down by an unseen assailant , before cutting to Jedi not leap across a field of honor as we had go out so often in the show , but skulking in dark . They ’re darting from ruination to ruin — comprised of their own war vessel , now empty husk on a barren field — and talking in hush , panicked whisper . When they arrive within one of those husks , they do n’t find resolute Jedi shielder , but multitude who are exhausted , shattered by frustration . For all the reassurances that Ki - Adi Mundi make to his comrades , they may be Jedi , but they are unlike anything of the Jedi we have been presented up to this point . Scared , impoverished , tentative , aroused , and so completely far from the stoical warrior monastic we had been trained to cerebrate of .

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Screenshot: Lucasfilm

Sha’a Gi , so completely destroy in being face with the exit , bursts from safety with a petrified screaming , only to be immediately crushed under blackguard as Grievous makes his arrival . As the General move in for his kill , his adversary are plow with the same want of reverence that we ’ve seen countless Jedi in the show treat the swathes of Battle Droids they eviscerate for 19 chapter . K’Kruhk is laid scurvy with a fell slicing , Aayla and Tarr Seir are n’t just disable by strike of Grevious ’ limbs , but their bodies fling away like ragdolls , not even given the sentence to linger on as they dash into far - off debris . They are Jedi , and yet they are also nothing to Grievous . Their own arrogance and office in this war book up to them like a mirror : a mirror that rigidify the Jedi leave standing to their core .

For intimately two minute of vivification before these moment , Clone Wars never really stopped to call into question the gravity of its action , what it means beyond the surface stratum of its bombast to see the Jedi Order unleash itself in this way . The moment the show strike back at the Order with that kind of power in tour , the Jedi are made vulnerable in ways we had never really see them depict on - screen door before . It ’s a powerful moment , not just because of its nefarious debut , but for what it says about our purpose hero in the aspect of such overwhelming force .

In 19 chapter , the Jedi were gods . In just one , they were made deeply , painfully human — and beyond the spectacle , we as an audience are postulate to considerso much morethan just the slickness of lightsabers crossing in the dark .

Screenshot: Lucasfilm