It’s fascinating to see how the far pendulum swung from last week. In The Darkness on Umbara, the title might not be referring to the light and weather conditions on Umbara. Anakin, Captain Rex, and their men are stationed on Umbara, a dark and lonely planet that has fallen to the Separatists. Tasked with taking the capital back, they’re clearly outmatched, but Anakin comes up with a plan that is sound and most likely going to work.
But Anakin is called back to Coruscant by special request of the Supreme Chancellor and Captain Rex is left with a commander in the interim, a Besalisk named Krell. Krell is the same species as Dexter Jettster from the film Attack of the Clones and is pretty much the exact opposite of Dex. Dex is overweight, cuddly, and lovable, Krell is athletic, mean, and unapproachable.
For clones in Anakin’s command trained to embrace their individualism, they bristle under Krell’s no nonsense, short-sighted approach. He clearly has no regard for the clones or their individuality, even refusing to call Rex by his name, instead referring to him only by his number. I also found it very telling that when Anakin departed, neither he nor Krell wished the Force be with the other.
I’ll be honest, the first third of this episode was very, very pretty, but I found it unsatisfying. It was strictly by the numbers, story-wise. The scenery was beautiful though, there were shots of the clouds of Umbara at night as the Republic gunships swoop into battle that were so exquisite and painterly that I couldn’t contain myself. But, like George Lucas says, “A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing.” I really feel like we got launched into A Bridge Too Far without a segment of setup to tell us how important taking the capital of Umbara is to the war effort. It seems to go off about as well as Operation: Market Garden, but I don’t have any of the context.
But none of that matters because we’re given Krell. The specifics of the battle don’t matter so much because we’re treated to incompetence by higher ups on the highest order seen this side of Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory. Krell is willing to sacrifice all of his troops in order to do things exactly as he commands.
One wonders how close to the edge of the dark side of the force Krell performs his balancing act. He seems to truly hate the clones, which is not a quality that should be prevalent in any Jedi. Even the one that falls the furthest to the Dark Side, Anakin, still treats his clones with the utmost respect. Krell literally reprimands them with a raised voice after they retreated from an active minefield and a three hundred and sixty degree Umbaran assault.
I’m impressed with the animation and the lighting in these episodes. The environment isn’t something that we’ve ever seen in the Star Wars universe, the cartoon, movies or otherwise, but it feels so comfortably at home in the universe.
I can see where this arc could be heading that would lead Dee Bradley Baker to be uneasy with his performance. I have a sneaking suspicion that the clones might ultimately be responsible for Krell’s fate, but will it be for the benefit of the war?
Overall, this episode turns into a great war film, echoing movies like A Bridge Too Far and Paths of Glory. And if you haven’t seen either of those movies, you really, really need to. Next week’s episode, The General (directed by Walter Murch) seems to play up the war movie elements even further, with Krell and his men being tasked with taking out an air base.
I just want to point you guys to the trailer of “>A Bridge Too Far, also. It’s fantastic and you should all watch it.