PREVIEW: Clips from The Clone Wars 5.6 – “The Gathering”

It’s time again to get ready for an all new arc from The Clone Wars, this time we’re seeing Yoda and his shepherding of the younglings. For many, their favorite part of Attack of the Clones was Yoda and his interaction with the younglings and now we’re getting a few episodes full of that.

It seems as though, at this point, everything is business as usual on The Clone Wars front in the wake of the Disney buyout. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Here’s the breakdown for this episode:

Ahsoka escorts a group of younglings to Ilum, where they will learn from Yoda and undergo a crucial rite-of-passage: the construction of their lightsabers. They grapple with both physical and inner challenges as they face the dangerous task ahead of them in “The Gathering,” airing this Saturday, November 3rd at 9:30am ET/PT on Cartoon Network.

Episode Trivia:

  • The opening prologue trailer to the episode features a rare flashback to before the Clone Wars, when Plo Koon discovered the baby Ahsoka Tano on an undisclosed planet, and brought her into the Jedi Order.
  • The notion of lightsabers being powered by mystical crystals find their roots in the “Kyber crystal” concept in the early draft scripts of Star Wars, a mystical gem said to amplify the power of the Force.
  • The symbols denoting the balance of the light side and dark side first seen in the realm of Mortis are visible in the temple entrance on Ilum. The markings that lined the halls of the Father’s Monastery on Mortis are also found within the Ilum temple.
  • This episode introduces a Jedi youngling symbol worn as a patch on the students’ cold weather gear.
  • The crystals are colorless until the young Jedi holds it, upon which it becomes attuned to the Force-user. This appears to be what governs the colors of Jedi lightsabers.

And in this next clip, does anyone else get a Raiders of the Lost Ark/Well of the Souls vibe? I did…