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Continuity & Analysis

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Chapter 22 (2005) [S3]
(The first 2:30 of Chapter 22 do not occur at this time)
Throughout extended campaigns in the Outer Rim Sieges, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi
have managed to turn the tide and defy the odds. But the Separatist forces are spreading
everywhere, and hunting down General Grievous becomes the gravest concern. To this end,
Skywalker and Kenobi venture to Nelvaan, a strange planet where Grievous was supposedly spotted.
Star Wars: Clone Wars - Chapter 23 (2005) [S3]
On Nelvaan, Anakin Skywalker starts to undergo an ancient ritual as challenging as any Jedi trial...
Star Wars: Clone Wars - Chapter 24 (2005) [S3]
Deep below the surface of Nelvaan, Anakin experiences a disturbing glimpse into his future,
as well as discovers an evil Separatist plot.
Star Wars: Clone Wars - Chapter 25 (2005) [S3]
Anakin Skywalker has discovered the terrible secret beneath Nelvaan -- a Confederacy laboratory
that is transforming the noble Nelvaanian warriors into hideous monsters.




CONTINUITY
The part of these chapters involving Anakin and Obi-Wan form a single storyline about the Outer Rim Sieges. These chapters take place several
months after Anakin was last seen on Coruscant in The Clone Wars episode 'Voices' (S6E11). An unidentified planet in the Outer Rim
and the planet Nelvaan are seen for the first time, and are the only worlds seen in the relevant portions of these chapters:

Season 3 of Clone Wars was also released as 'Volume 2'. The beginning of Season 3 takes place three years before these chapters.
Chapters 22 through 25 take place at this time, except for the first 2 minutes and 30 seconds of 'Chapter 22', and all segments that don't involve
Obi-Wan and Anakin. The first 2:30 occur much earlier, and can be found 3 years earlier in this chronology. The segments that don't involve
Kenobi and Skywalker do not take place at exactly the same time due to a disney SW retcon, and can be found a week later in this chronology.

- In Episode III, Anakin reunites with Padme, stating "if the Chancellor hadn't been kidnapped, I don't think they would have ever brought us back from
the Outer Rim sieges." The Clone Wars Season 7 disrupted the canon of not only Episode III, but also this Clone Wars series, however it is
almost possible to fit both stories into canon. As this is Lucas-era canon material, it should take precedence over a disney-era addition, however in
the interest of harmony it is possible to fit everything in if a single line of dialogue in these chapters is ignored to suit this retcon. Anakin was last
seen on Coruscant in The Clone Wars 'Voices' (S6E11). This must have been months earlier, probably just under half of a year, considering that he
cannot have been with Padme at any point midway through her pregnancy, which would have been visibly and physically obvious, and Anakin would
almost certianly have sensed the force sensitive children within her. He is seen here at the end of a month long campaign on an Outer Rim world.
This storyline was originally intended to be taking place at the same time as the rest of these chapters, which now must take place at least several
days later, probably just over a week, a continuity issue introduced by Season 7 of The Clone Wars. Despite Dave Filoni's original assertion that
The Clone Wars "won't supersede the events and continuity" of Clone Wars, disney-era Lucasfilm has attempted to downgrade the canon
status of this original series. Fortunately, both stories can fit into canon, although it does make watching the two storylines combined in these
chapters confusing, as the events now take place a week apart, and one must ignore part of the dialogue at the end of Chapter 25. Mace's message
to Anakin and Obi-Wan that Coruscant is under attack and that Palpatine has been abducted by Greivous was originally intended to unite the two
storylines in these chapters and set the two Jedi towards Coruscant to begin Episode III. This is no longer possible in canon, unless the final
storyline of The Clone Wars Season 7 is treated as a non-canon addition. Mace's message is too specific, and thus part of it must be ignored
for all stories to work. His insistance to Kenobi and Skywalker that they "must return immediately" must have been regarding the large Separatist
fleet bringing reinforcements to the nearby city-world of Anaxes in the Core. Anakin will be seen in the sky above Coruscant taking on supplies
before heading to the Battle of Anaxes in 'Deal No Deal' (S7E6) in the next storyline. During the Anaxes campaign Anakin has a brief adventure on
Skako Minor, also in the Core, before returning to the Outer Rim with Obi-Wan for the Battle of Yerbana. Soon after, they rendezvous with Ahsoka
in 'Old Friends Not Forgotten' (S7E9), which is where Anakin learns that Coruscant is under attack, leading to his return to Coruscant for
the beginning of Episode III. Not counting his detour in the Core, Anakin has been in the Outer Rim for many months at this point,
and was only recalled due to these invasions of the Core, so his statement to Padme in Episode III still makes sense despite these changes.

- The Clone Wars are late in their fourth year, having begun during the beginning of 7955 (22 BBY), and having lasted over three and a half years at this point.
The last several months have not yet been shown in any shows. The war will end in less than two weeks.

- Obi-Wan, Anakin, and elements of the Third Systems Army have been campaigning on an unidentified Separatist planet for around a month, and have isolated
the remaining Separatist forces in a single city which is protected by a powerful shield. Cody, and the 212th Attack Battalion are present as they are a primary
unit of the 7th Sky Corps, a division of one of the two Sector Armies that make up the Third Army. Cody estimates that the battle could last two more months.
The 501st may also be there, as they are also part of the Third Army and escort Anakin just as the 212th Battalion escorts Obi-Wan.


- The shield employed to defend the Separatist city is strong enough to absorb the maximum energy yield of the weapons employed by the Republic, meaning
that it can only be overcome by taxing its power source until it fails. It will take about two months to bring it down with continual bombardment, a figure
which is almost certainly based on the limits in fuel and sustained output of the reactor which powers the shield.
Main Article: Shields, Deflectors, and Ray Shields

- The Republic have rarely had reliable intelligence regarding Grievous' movements. Military intelligence traditionally reports to the Jedi, and from the outset
of the war clone intelligence has as well, but Palpatine has been increasingly compartmentalizing military affairs under the direct authority of the civilian
government and the Chancellor's office. Clone intelligence is now sending reports to Palpatine, which he passes to the Jedi. Mace says that their intelligence
on Grievous' location is "questionable", but Palpatine's assures him his information is quite accurate. Palpatine also has civilian intelligence sources, and
the benefit of a more privileged position in the loop, so it is possible that Grievous has actually been seen going to and from the planet Nelvaan. Based on
the important secret project taking place there under his authority, this may have been convenient disinformation. Palpatine was intentionally sending
Anakin and Obi-Wan on a fool's errand to a region of the Rim that is about as far from Coruscant, Anaxes, and the Core worlds as possible.

- Nelvaan is a habitable planet in the Savareen Sector, in the Trailing Sectors of the Outer Rim. It has an extensive ecosystem, and is the homeworld of a species
referred to by others as Nelvaanians. It is a rocky world with a breathable atmosphere that is cool and wet. It is typically described in supplementary material
as a cold world, but that is based on circumstantial evidence. In this our only look at the world thus far, we appear to visit a sub-tropical region, likely not
polar but probably not near the equator. While it is likely that snow and ice are a regular occurrence on this planet, the conditions in the area these chapters
visit are artificially induced by the siphon generator project. When the machine is destroyed, the ice is shown to be rapidly melting. It is likely that the planet
is often cold, particularly if it has a season like winter, or if one does not live near the equator, however its reputation for this is certainly exaggerated.


- Obi-Wan tells Anakin not to kill the huge beast that is attacking them, which has already killed their clone escort. It seems that Obi-Wan is demonstrating
the concern for other lifeforms the Jedi should prioritize based on their beliefs about the Force. His own record regarding aggressive animals is similar to
that of most of the Jedi, sometimes they make a point about not harming the animals, and other times they enthusiastically carve them up with their
lightsabers. In this instance, Obi-Wan may have had an insight through the Force that it wasn't the right move, based on his statement that Anakin
shouldn't have done that, just as the Nelvaanians appear to complain that they have interrupted a ritual by killing the beast. It may be that Obi-Wan
would have had no problem with Anakin killing an animal on its home planet for following its instincts, even though the Jedi have abilities they could
use to subdue it without killing it, or to escape it, and was only concerned about how he effected these people. Anakin certainly has no qualms about
killing animals that attack him, and doesn't seem to be violating any Jedi principles by doing so based on what has been seen.

- The Nelvaanians are a blue, furry, wolf-like, humanoid people aboriginal to Nelvaan, who are not technologically advanced and are non-spacefaring.
They are often regarded as primitive by sophisticated interstellar races, however they are an intelligent and spiritually advanced culture. They
practice a ritualistic religion based on nature, which is therefore connected to the Force on some level, and thus not surprising that their prophetic
vision regarding the coming of 'Ghost Hand' is extremely accurate. The planet and nature are referred to as 'the Mother', which they revere.
Their warriors are regarded as formidable, however they aren't known to be unreasonably aggressive. Just as the galactic language called Basic is
in reality English, the Nelvaanian language is in reality Hungarian.


- Obi-Wan understands Nelvaanian language, which he attributes to Qui-Gon. Either they once visited Nelvaan, and had enough extended interactions
with the locals that Obi-Wan can still understand what they are saying, or their language derives from a root language which Qui-Gon taught him.

- Anakin was made a Jedi Knight never having gone through the official Jedi trials ordinarily necessary for that promotion. In 'Chapter 21', the Council
accepted his combat with Dooku in Episode II as a "trial of the flesh," and the tests of the war and his first victory over Ventress as worthy of a Jedi
trial, but Oppo Rancisis was concerned that Anakin had not faced the trial of "facing the mirror." He was chiefly promoted due the pressing need
for more skilled knights, Palpatine's pressure, and the support of those on the Council excited about the potential of the 'Chosen One'. Obi-Wan
tells Anakin that the Force has guided him here for his final trial, to discover if he is ready to walk the Jedi path.

- Anakin has a vision through the Force, related to the ritual he has undergone. He listened to 'the Mother', which is nature, and thus is the Force.
In it, he sees his story told through the Nelvaanian rock art, in which his role as Ghost Hand, a reference to his artificial appendage, is explored
beyond the context of this particular adventure. He was enveloped and attacked by a malevolent and unnatural machine, which costs him
his hand. He then uses his hand to strike back, and to win great victories against the machine in its different forms, defend the people and
all that is good. Unfortunately, his unnatural hand envelops and strangles those he had cared about and fought to defend, and he becomes
the machine. The shape of Darth Vader's helmet is seen, a warning about how this trial is related to both of his possible destinies.

- Anakin discovers a Techno Union facility powered by a siphon generator, which drains energy out of the matter of the planet itself, generating
massive amounts of electricity. They are extremely harmful to environments, and their use on a living planet is highly unethical and probably
illegal if this world were still under Republic law. This one generator has already killed much of the forest in the region, and severely decreased
the temperature beyond its usual low temperatures. When the generator is destroyed, the damage is seen to be already receding, and
Nelvaanians are seen gathering up water from the rapidly melting ice in their settlement.


- The Nelvaan installation of the Techno Union is being run by a group of Skakoan scientists, clearly affiliated with the Separatist branch of their organization.
As is typical of Skakoans affiliated with the Union we have seen, they have no problem with amoral experimentation on 'primitive' people. Skakoans require
pressure suits to breathe the air and survive the pressure of worlds safe for Humans and many others, and thus they consider the merger of technology and
biology to be progressive. They are also seen to be skilled cyberneticists, who seem to have a predilection for reprogramming people against their will.

- Anakin's cybernetic hand is destroyed during his rescue of the Nelvaan warriors, but he is able to repair it once he is back on board a destroyer.
His repair work has a slightly more complicated appearance than his original prosthesis.

- After returning from Nelvaan with no sign of Grievous, Anakin and Obi-Wan receive Mace's message saying that they must return immediately because "Coruscant
is under siege, and General Grievous has abducted the Supreme Chancellor. You must rescue Palpatine." If the The Clone Wars Season 7 is ignored this is
not a problem, otherwise these two sentences of his message must be ignored due to the retcon discussed at the beginning of this article. In that case,
this message must have been calling them back due to be a large Separatist fleet headed to the important planet Anaxes, a major population center
and industrial planet in the Core located very near to Coruscant. The Separatists had landed troops on the planet weeks earlier which threatened
the cities, but were fairly contained. This large fleet carries waves of reinforcements all aiming to take the planet's important shipyards. Hyperspace
tracking stations must have detected a large Separatist fleet headed towards Coruscant along the Hydian Way approaching Coruscant and sounded
the alarm. As revealed in The Clone Wars 'The Citadel' (S3E18), the Separatists will use the secret and unmonitored Nexus Route provided to
them by Palpatine to assault Coruscant not long from now, and their surprise will be the key to their successful abduction of the Chancellor. This could
not have been a second attack on Coruscant with Palpatine being abducted, as that would be ridiculous. Anakin does return to Coruscant as seen in
the next The Clone Wars storyline chronologically, but as the battle is on Anaxes, he will only take on supplies and personnel before heading there.


ANALYSIS
The Outer Rim Sieges are the culmination of the Republic's years of effort building forward momentum in the Rim. Having consolidated territory, secured
hyperlanes, and established a secure system of supply lines and regional strongholds, the Republic moves to deliver crippling blows to the centers of
Separatist power in the Rim. In an effort to forestall this, Grievous has continually moved the main thrust of his offensive actions inward towards the Core,
threatening worlds the Republic will have to devote significant resources to defend. While this has proven successful, it is only delaying the inevitable
Republic victory in the Rim. The Separatists have focused on concentrating their forces around vital worlds and installations, making the Republic victories
costly and time-consuming, which is why these offensives usually devolve into prolonged sieges. This has been going on for half of a year, growing steadily
more intense as the war begins to near its end. The Separatists are not on a purely defensive footing in the Rim, and the Outer Rim Sieges also involve
rapid and unexpected Separatist invasions of worlds left undefended by the Republic concentration of forces around strategically vital targets. These moves
are designed to keep the Jedi as busy as possible, as they are already taxed for manpower, and will be unwilling to let civilian populations suffer for strategic
goals. As a result, the vast majority of Jedi Knights are now spread around the Rim, or dispersed throughout the Core, fighting in heated conflicts.

Palpatine acknowledges that the tide of victory is trending heavily towards the Republic, increasing the Jedi resolve to find bring the war to a close quickly
through a military victory. The Jedi are willing to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the war, but not before Dooku and Grievous are captured or killed.
The option of fighting the war out to its conclusion was one chosen by the Jedi because they could see no alternative, precisely as was intended by
Sidious when he designed this war. Now that the possibility of winning the war in months rather than years has presented itself, the Jedi see no other
choice than to press hard for victory, to minimize suffering and loss of life. With the Separatist offensives in the Core, and now another campaign of
invasions in the Outer Rim, Mace says that "for every system that is liberated, it seems another is taken." The priority of capturing Grievous is once again
the focus of the Jedi, as it was three years earlier during the beginning stages of the war. Initially, it was though that bring the droid army's leader to
justice would deal a major blow to the Separatists and their plans, and while that never really changed, other priorities quickly emerged as the galaxy
descended into increasingly widespread conflict. Now that a certain level of strategic containment has been possible, the Jedi are able to focus on
Dooku and Grievous once again, as they are the sinister minds responsible for directing the Separatist strategy. Palpatine need only to continue to
encourage the Jedi to follow their own desire to end the war, and to spread themselves thin to achieve their goal.

When the Republic arrives at Nelvaan searching for Grievous, the planet is found unprotected. Strange geothermal activity is detected in which ever part
of the planet their scanning orientation has referenced as "sector 8", which leads the Jedi to the Techno Union facility. The Republic was apparently unaware
the Union maintained facilities on the planet, and it is possible that this facility was constructed during the Clone Wars. The strange readings and visible
environmental damage are caused by the facility's large siphon generator, which taps planetary energy on a large scale for massive power generation.
The environmental fallout is of little concern to the Skakoans, who are from a culture which celebrates technology, and whose homeworld is a fully
transformed city-world. It is not known if most Skakoans have a disregard for the value of sentient life, or life in general. Basically all Skakoans that have
been seen on screen have been members of the Techno Union, and have been shown to care little about Human morality in these areas, suggesting that
this may be in part a cultural bias. This facility is conducting a secret project for General Grievous, building cyborg warriors with their own external inhibitor
chips to make them obedient and mindless. They have also been genetically modified and artificially enlarged, in addition to their integrated cyborg weapons
systems. These cyborg warriors are an evil combination of a battle droid and a clone. Grievous is growing impatient with the speed of the project, as he is
in desperate need of some ground forces capable of matching the quality of the Republic clones, as the large numbers of droids is a limited advantage.

Anakin has grown to new heights in his two great possible destinies, those being Master Jedi or Sith Lord. In passing this Jedi test, Anakin displays his advanced
abilities, but also how he has grown in wisdom, empathy, and selflessness. He wants to help the mutilated Nelvaan warriors, and even when the Techno Union
unleashes them against him, he truly doesn't want to hurt them. After risking his life and destroying his artificial hand to destroy their generator and end this
abomination, he becomes enraged at the fleeing scientists responsible for these atrocities. He takes out those who are armed without regard for their survival,
but still within the Jedi Code, but becomes so enraged at the lead scientist that he crushes his pressure suit with the Force, killing him. He liberates the oppressed
Nelvaanians from their enslavers and is hailed as their champion. This is what Anakin desires most, to be a Jedi of unrivaled power who brings justice and peace,
and makes things the way he wants them to be, and who is celebrated for his great works and abilities. His desire is to do this to help people like these Nelvaanians
who are victims of the powerful, a life he knows well from his childhood, and is a noble motivation worthy of a Jedi Knight. His ambition to achieve this, and
his more selfish motivations regarding his power to shape the galaxy, contribute to his imminent fall to the dark side, despite having reached his most advanced
position on the path of his destiny as a Jedi Knight. Obi-Wan points out that when looking within, "often we see things we don't like, but these aspects are not set
in stone. It is our decisions which shape our destinies." Anakin is troubled by how far he went, just as he has been in past steps he took towards the dark side,
and will be again as his fall accelerates when he executes Dooku. Despite this, his focus on his personal priorities and desires, rather than the Jedi Code, will
lead him to continue making these emotion-driven missteps until the momentum of his choices leads to his embracing his destiny as a Sith Lord.


FURTHER ANALYSIS
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