Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Clone Cadets   Rewatch 
November 15, 2016 7:59 AM - Season 3, Episode 1 - Subscribe

A unit of clones struggle to pass the final test on Kamino under the harsh supervision of their bounty hunter trainers. Can they rise above their differences or will they be doomed to non-combat duty for the rest of their clone lives?

Episode Information

"Clone Cadets" is the third episode in the chronological viewing order, following The Clone Wars movie. For more information on "Clone Cadets," check out its episode guide here!

Official Synopsis
"Brothers in arms are brothers for life." Five headstrong clones struggle to complete their training on Kamino. These cadets -- Hevy, Cutup, Droidbait, Fives and Echo -- seem to be a "bad batch" and are unable to work as a team. As Shaak Ti and drill instructors Bric and El-Les debate the cadets' fate, the clones learn to work together and accept their destiny as soldiers.
Trivia!
  • When it originally aired, "Clone Cadets" was seen as a prequel to the first season episode, "Rookies," which had been a popular episode depicting Domino Squad stationed at Rishi base. It offered an origin for the clones' nicknames.
  • The design of the clone training armor was inspired by old battered leather football gear. For those keeping track, the Domino Squad team numbering is as follows: 1) Hevy (CT-782), 2) Droidbait (CT-00-2010, 3. Echo (CT-21-0408), 4. Cutup (CT-4040), and 5. Fives (CT-27-5555).
  • The citadel challenge ordered by Commander Colt, version THX variable 1138, was one more entry in the long history of THX 1138 references in Star Wars.
  • The designs for the clone barracks originated from original concepts for Attack of the Clones which were never finished.
  • The original script described the bounty hunter Bric as human, but his design was instead inspired by the "Brainee" alien spotted in the Mos Eisley Cantina in A New Hope. Likewise, El-Les is based on the "T-Head" alien from the same scene. The EU describes these species as Siniteen (an anagram of Einstein) and Arcona, respectively.
Next time on the Clone Wars!

The next episode in the chronological viewing order is "Supply Lines," episode 3 of Season 3!
posted by Atreides (2 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I really liked this episode but do feel like in universe there is always the weird narrative problem of why is man to man fighting so important in this story/world?

why are clones trained to shoot battle droids?

Getting too into the details of the space wizard adventure stories always presents more questions than in answers. Like don't show me how Gondor gets food/water, just show me that minas tirath is awesome.
posted by French Fry at 10:31 AM on November 16, 2016 [1 favorite]


It makes sense for the Jedi to engage in physical fighting with droids, as they have a weapon which requires it (for the most part). As for the clones, I guess it makes sense in that I think even in our modern militaries, there is some hand to hand combat taught.

Propaganda cast some nuance into the whole thing, incidentally, by laying out that the Separatists actively pointed to their use of "life saving" droids, who fought so no living beings had to.

This episode taught me that I hate the design of Bric and his alien race (Siniteen), yuck! It's kind of a classic Sci-Fi idea of the enlarged brain and what not, but I'm still not a fan. It also points out that there's a certain high level of competency expected of clone troopers.

Most of all, and I plan to actually write about this later today elsewhere, it really dives into the mission of The Clone Wars to individualize its clone troopers. The entire show, in part, is set to take the idea of 'clone,' duplicates that are indistinguishable and show that the actual clones are different from personality to appearance. This, in turn, makes the idea of Order 66 so tragic, that clones who have sought to distinguish themselves as individuals are forced due to a chip in their brain to accept and execute a uniform position and belief. One of the last story arcs in this show deals with that to a bit, and the conclusion of the first arc of Kanan: The Last Padawan, also touches on it with a nice twist.
posted by Atreides at 9:30 AM on November 17, 2016


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