Saturday, January 28, 2023

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S3E1 - "Clone Cadets"

Recently, I found a note I made about a detail in The Clone Wars episode "Clone Cadets" (S3E1).  At the time, I decided not to write about it because it seemed too small of a point, but since significant details (especially in Star Wars) are the sort of thing I've been focusing on lately, I thought I'd write about it now.

The episode follows a particular squad of clone troopers (Domino Squad) who are having trouble working together.  While watching the squad perform poorly in a training session, Shaak Ti remarks, "The one they call Echo never adapts to the situation," and the bounty hunter El-Les, who is helping the Jedi train the clones, comments, "CT-782 seems to follow his own path.  He can't do it all alone."  Two other clones argue with each other too much and are shot down by training droids, and the last clone surrenders when he's surrounded.  Shaak Ti then summarizes the squad's problem:  "If these cadets can't get past their short-sighted selfishness, they will never come together.  Unity wins war, gentlemen."

Later in the episode, Commander Colt comes to watch a few squads perform their final tests.  The squads meet him in a hangar, and after Bravo Squad is chosen as the first squad to run the simulation, the clones file out of the hangar.  As each squad turns in formation, the clones stomp their feet, but while the clones in the other squads all stomp their feet simultaneously, the clones of Domino Squad stomp their feet at different times.  In the shot, they're shown from the waist up, so it's easier to hear the various footfalls than see them.


This detail shows that the clones are still a bit too independent and aren't yet working together.