Hello and welcome back to another review of Star Wars: The Clone Wars! This week, the Umbara arc comes to an end with The Carnage of Krell! Pushed to the brink of Rex’s loyalty to Krell’s leadership after he deliberately sends his own troops against one another, the 501st decides to arrest the sinister General for treason against the Republic. Below are my thoughts on the episode.
Last week, we left off with Fives and Jesse being imprisoned by Krell for disobeying orders, and expecting to be court-marshaled. Going into this episode, I had thought the climax/end would be Rex stopping the execution, which in fact happens in the first five minutes of the episode. This creates a brand new sense of suspense that is surrounded in mystery of when, exactly, Rex will snap. The events leading up to Rex’s betrayal were truly not expected at all, and I was in quite shocked when I found that Krell was having the clones kill one another. This episode raises the bar in almost every way: story, character, action, and especially how dark, and sometimes disturbing, it was. But honestly, I think the events in the Carnage of Krell did a fantastic job to set the stage, specifically for the 501st, for Order 66, and possibly gives a different perspective on how the clones could turn on the Jedi in the future. Even if Krell admitted to not being a follower of the Jedi code, the Clones still would see him as a symbol of the Jedi, which would definitely diminish their loyalty, even in the clones like Dogma, who believed in blindly following orders. So how else might the 501st be changed? Well, for one, their trust in the Jedi will have lessened, and two, I think their loyalty toward Anakin will have increased, seeing that he is not a conventional Jedi, and will always put his men before his orders. This would make their ultimate betrayal toward the Jedi easy for most of them, especially if Anakin is leading the charge.
I think Rex has proved to be an extremely unique character, even when compared to his fellow clones. And I do believe that has a lot to do with the time he spent with the runaway clone Cut Lawquane. It just hasn’t really shown until now. His line at the end of the episode is a question that Rex seems to be the only one asking, what happens to the clones once the war ends? It took a “Krell” for Rex to realize that maybe Cut was right. Or at least have some valid points. Unlucky for us, we know that the republic gets overthrown, and an empire takes its place, but I don’t believe Rex would be a part of that, which I think his character is ultimately building toward. It was never Rex’s initial intention to kill Krell, only to arrest him. It was only when he learned of a chance that he might escape that Rex attempted to kill him. Which is also another point: Rex’s failure to kill Krell creates a difference between himself and the clones that will be a deciding factor when the time comes for Order 66. It makes me wonder if we will see Order 66 in the Clone Wars. It would be unfortunate if we didn’t since that would be the perfect time to conclude Rex’s story. I can’t see the Clone Wars team killing him off for a random reason like Echo (which was pointless) when they have a solid and intriguing character story evolving like Rex. It just does not seem plausible to me.
There were a lot of small details I’d like to point out. First of all, I thought the General’s lightsaber had a very cool sound to it, very unique and different from other Jedi. The scene where Rex and the 501st are approaching Krell to arrest him for treason was obviously supposed to mirror the temple assault in Revenge of the Sith, but this time (as mentioned above), we now have the perspective of the Clones and their point of view of betraying a Jedi. Also, I liked how they’ve been setting up the tentacle monster to be the one who defeats Krell. It was awesome for the clones to use the environment as the way to get to the General.
The Carnage of Krell is the best of the Clone Wars yet. The arc has been building toward this episode, and it did not disappoint. Nothing went quite the way we had all quite theorized, and we sure learned a lot more about Rex, Krell, and even the fate of Waxer, which created a lot of emotion in the episode. That pretty much wraps up my review of this episode! What did you think of it? Leave a comment below! Thanks for reading, and may the force be with you…always
–Ryan
Author: admin
The Star Wars Report: A Star Wars Podcasting Network and Website.
I thought this whole 4 part episodes from 7-10 wasn’t accurate becuase if this was truely the 501st they wouldn’t listen to thr Jedi becuase there basicly arch troopers there supposed to be special ops the 501st are the best of the best they would have kill Krell with ease and taken the captail their way with hesitation from some idiotic Jedi if Captain Rex which is probably not even suppose to lead the 501st wouldn’t be there becuase he is assigned to Anakians battlaion which for sure isn’t the 501st because the 501st doesn’t operate with Jedi support they act as their own battalion lead by special elite commanders around the same skill if not better than Rex. And ps Krell if he really made the 501st kill there own brothers by his orders when they found out Krell was purposefully killing them off the 501st would have kill any I mean any Jedi even for heck sake the 501st pissed on the Jedi during Order 66 on Courasant and that place was flooded with Jedi master and Jedi alike one Jedi would have been no problem for the