I wonder if the Separatists expected to be greeted as liberators on Onderon. If so, a robust insurgency probably wasn’t in their plan.
The second installment of the Onderon arc throws us into the middle of an armed rebellion on the planet Onderon with the Separatists and local authorities trying to find ways to repel them and crush their political ideology. Though I felt this episode was incredibly straight-forward with the action, I think it raises a lot of moral gray areas, and that’s where it does the best.
I expect a lot of people will dismiss this episode and not give it a second thought. Onderon is a planet we’ve barely heard of, the fate of its people doesn’t matter a whole lot in the grandest of schemes, and, in this episode, we’re left watching Ahsoka oversee the rebellion. But this is an episode that’s going to be working on the brains of many who follow the news and many who are interested in talking about these political quandaries with their children.
I know Filoni and crew told us we wouldn’t be seeing more politics episodes, at least not in the senate, but I would argue that this is the most political arc we’ve seen. Perhaps not in the politics of Star Wars, but real world politics.
The point of any military action against a people is to demonize the enemy in the eyes of the folks back at home. But no one sees themselves as the bad guy, and we only know enough about any given conflict to settle into an “us vs. them” ideology. In conflicts around the world today and over the last ten years, we in America have been conditioned to see “insurgencies” and “rebels” as the bad guys. They’re shooting at our men and they must be dealt with. But drilling down into the motives of those doing the harm you see a group of patriots working to liberate their country from an occupying force. We’re being given a taste of something on a much smaller scale with these episodes, and I think it’s important to develop that empathy for “freedom fighters” and try to understand where our “enemies” are coming from. By wrapping these episodes up in the language we’d been given for those fighting for freedom in the Middle East, we’re forced to draw those parallels with the real world.
This episode reinforced that broader point.
The other thing we were given is a lot of Star Wars dialogue references that brought a smile to my face. “No. No problem, why?” “Let’s blow this thing!” “He’s my brother…” and a few others that I didn’t catch quickly enough to write down. Talking to Filoni over the years, he’s said that the show will be getting back to Star Wars basics and these bits of dialogue are really that showing on the surface. This entire episode permeates that idea, that we’d be seeing beleaguered rebels, outmatched and outgunned, fighting the good fight against forces of evil.
The other moment I found very telling is the subtle jealousy issues we keep seeing Ahsoka forced to deal with. Lux Bonteri, Steela, and Saw are very much a Han/Luke/Leia love triangle turned on its ear a bit, with Ahsoka looking in from the outside. We see Anakin pick up on this immediately and open up to her about it, even in full view of Obi-wan… It’s a step in their relationship that I think could very easily lead to Anakin opening up to Ahsoka completely. Wouldn’t it be tragic if Anakin finally lets Ahsoka in on the secret, and it’s Ahsoka somehow saving Padme because of that knowledge that causes her death? It would enhance and reinforce Anakin’s actions concerning his relationship in Revenge of the Sith and make his turn that much more heartbreaking.
This was a solid episode and I enjoyed it much more than the last, though I could do with more drama and less action. The action means more when the story has built up the stakes and I think Onderon could use a lot more building up in the grand scheme of things.
If this is just a taste of the broader conflict, I can’t wait for the main course.