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Continuity & Analysis

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Chapter 23 (2005) [S3]
The battle for Coruscant has begun! An immense fleet of Separatist ships invades the Republic
capital, and the streets of Coruscant overflow with battle droid forces. Jedi Masters Mace Windu,
Yoda, and Saesee Tiin lead the charge to defend the city planet. Meanwhile, on Nelvaan,
Anakin Skywalker starts to undergo an ancient ritual as challenging as any Jedi trial...
Star Wars: Clone Wars - Chapter 24 (2005) [S3]
General Grievous and his relentless MagnaGuards have pierced the heart of the Republic to kidnap
the beloved Chancellor Palpatine. Shaak Ti leads the Jedi in defending the Chancellor from this
unstoppable threat. Meanwhile, 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.
On Coruscant, the Jedi try to secure Chancellor Palpatine in the deepest of protected
bunkers, but is anywhere safe from General Grievous?




CONTINUITY
These three chapters are the direct continuation of Chapter 22. Two worlds are seen in these chapters:

Season 3 of Clone Wars was also released as 'Volume 2'.

- The invasion of Coruscant is accomplished by the Nexus Route, a secret route secured by the Chancellor a year and a half earlier, just after the end
of The Clone Wars 'Citadel Rescue' (S3E20). Unknown to the Jedi, he passed this information along to Dooku and Grievous.

- 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.


Mace lands on a Vulture droid, cuts its head open with his lightsaber, and grabs a handful of wires. He then seems to
take control of the droid's processor using the Force, and then can steer it around by pulling on the wires. Ignoring
the animation choice of him pulling on the wires to steer, is this ability canon or is it a continuity error? It really should
not be canon, as it would become very disruptive to the continuity of many things in SW movies and shows. Are we
meant to believe he somehow used the Force to trigger computer protocols? This is too powerful of an ability which
also makes no sense considering what the Force is, and how the Jedi access and use it. We have seen several examples
in which Force wielders, and the Sith in particular, are able to use the Force in connection with technology. This may
be an unnatural ability of the Sith, as we have only seen Jedi access electronics with the Force to open doors, or to
turn the mechanical input which allows direct access to a computer. It is unlikely what Mace has done here is possible
even for the Sith, but it makes even less sense with a Jedi. The Force is of nature, and non-living things are surrounded
by the Force but aren't connected to it as living things are. There is therefore no way for the Force to link with lines of
machine code in a useful way, or give Mace intuitive insight into the machine's 'nature'.


- Master Tiin arrives aboard the command ship of the defense fleet, only to discover it is severely damaged. As this is a close quarters battle, Tiin
leads a battalion of clone naval infantry to board a Separatist ship without the use of boarding craft. After successfully infiltrating the vessel,
the Republic forces take control of the dreadnought and turn its guns on other Separatist vessels.



As is the case in some of the earlier Clone Wars material, the Jedi are at times a bit too powerful to fit into canon
without ruining all other films and shows. Mace flying the droid fighter around is a conceptual problem, but much
closer to canon than Yoda's ability to push landing ships into each other nearly effortlessly, or to quickly push a bunch
of droids and heavy assault vehicles back into a transport, shut its doors, and then push it over a precipice, all a matter
of seconds. Yoda is able to affect too much, far too easily. Yoda is indeed powerful, and within canon much of what he
is shown to do is fine, but there are several instances where he is way too powerful. If this were possible, the Jedi would
have been doing this on a smaller scale all the time during the Clone Wars. Jedi could have won many of the battles in
the war by simply using the Force to crash Separatist forces into each other.


- The main thrust of the Separatist assault towards the Senate District landed in Sector Four, a region some distance from the Senate but is clearly
visible from the massive towers nearby. The Coruscant Guard is being overrun by the droids, before Yoda and Mace arrive to help contain them.


- Captain Fordo, ARC-77, is leading a unit battling in Sector Four. He was last seen in 'Chapter 21' leading a mission on Hypori to rescue Jedi, over
three and a half years earlier, shortly after serving under Obi-Wan during the Battle of Muunilinst.


Why does Yoda keep a kybuck, a domesticated creature similar to a tauntaun, on Coruscant? It doesn't seem like
a nice place for livestock to live. Additionally, why does Yoda take his kybuck into battle instead of a speeder?
This is an urban environment and this helpful and loyal creature could be killed. It is hard to imagine what tactical
advantage it would give to Yoda, beyond its intelligent responses to Yoda's commands. Supplementary material
indicates that kybuks are from the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, and may be meant to indicate something
of Yoda's friendship with the Wookiees, mentioned in Episode III. It is also unclear how this creature didn't get
shot by the waves of battle droids Yoda was facing, when his saber can't shield the animal's entire body when
he is riding it. At least Yoda told him to flee to safety before facing the droid walkers.


- 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.

- Palpatine is sipping tea at his apartment, in the upper levels of the massive, luxurious, and exclusive 500 Republica building, in the Ambassadorial Sector
of the Senate District. His penthouse was first seen in Episode I, when he was a Senator.

- One of the Jedi sent to protect the Chancellor is Foul Moudama, who is a Talz. The Talz were first seen in the cantina in Episode IV, and there was
no issue with there being a Talz Jedi until The Clone Wars episode 'Trespass' (S1E15), created four years after these chapters. In that episode,
the Talz are given a back story that makes an adult Jedi Talz a near impossibility, and makes the original appearance of one on Tatooine in
Episode IV unlikely. According to canon established by that episode, the Talz were a technologically simple and fiercely territorial people
who had no contact with the galaxy until two and a half years prior to these events, and who were not known by anyone, including the Jedi
or the advanced Pantorans who come from a moon orbiting their homeworld. The Jedi don't train adults, and no Jedi becomes a Knight in
two years. This could be reconciled by giving him some insanely unlikely and convoluted backstory, something that wouldn't have been
necessary if this species wasn't needlessly given such a specifically limited history.

- Shaak Ti is dispatched to guard the Chancellor and escort him to safety, along with Jedi Knights Roron Corobb, an Ithorian, and Foul Moudama, a Talz, as
well as a detachment of clones. While the two Knights are skilled Jedi, the presence of only one Master suggests how short of Jedi they are on Coruscant.



Are Ithorian throats truly that powerful, or was Roron Corobb using the Force? No matter what the answer is, this is
probably another example this series making the Jedi a bit too powerful for canon. He is able to crumple metal and
produce violent sustained gusts of wind with his powerful breath, and the fact that Ithorians have four throats is
insufficient to account for this, even with the Force. It was an interesting idea, but difficult to fit into canon.


- 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.


- At the entrance to the train station, an advertisement can be seen with what looks like a member of Yoda's unknown species giving a thumbs up. This was
not a continuity issue at the time, although based on ongoing material it may become one. This species was always intended to be unnamed and
mysterious by George Lucas, and the implication was certainly that this species was unusual or at least rare to see out in the galaxy. At the same time,
Episode I showed Yaddle, and since people meeting Yoda for the first time weren't constantly asking him what species he was, it was reasonably
assumed that people did know that this race existed, even if they didn't run into them very often. It seems likely future material intends to retcon this.

- 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.

- Grievous isolates Shaak Ti, as she is the most powerful Jedi defending the Chancellor. He is then able to defeat the two less experienced Jedi Knights
and seize Palpatine. Both Foul Moudama and Roron Corobb are killed, and Shaak Ti arrives too late. She is captured by Grievous, and incapacitated
by strange electro-cables, which Grievous uses to bind her. She is left alive to inform the other Jedi that the Chancellor has been captured, as he
has been ordered to do by Sidious, who wishes the Jedi to come to the rescue. The electro-cables leave Shaak Ti in need of recovery. She is seen to
be silently meditating during Vader's attack on the Jedi Temple three days from now, where she is stabbed in the back and killed.


- Mace crushes Grievous' chest casing using the Force, while attempting to prevent his escape. This negatively effects the General's already poor
breathing condition, making his usual coughing and wheezing far worse, as seen in Episode III.

- Grievous escapes with the Chancellor in an advanced Tri-wing shuttle, which he has brought along for this mission to make his quick escape. This class
of shuttle is unknown, and is not seen elsewhere. This may be a specialized craft that Grievous developed or purchased for this mission.
It is shown to have an impressive rapid-fire blaster armament, and is capable of rapid acceleration.


- 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." These canon events have
since been retconned within disney canon by the The Clone Wars Season 7, as they completely ignore this Lucas produced series, largely
because they don't own it, and partly because those in charge of content no longer care to respect it. The events of The Clone Wars
'Old Friends Not Forgotten' (S7E9) are impossible to reconcile with these events, regarding what Anakin and Obi-Wan were doing right before
and during the beginning of the Battle of Coruscant. This discrepancy is too large to ignore, and obviously Lucas canon always takes precedence.
Those who prefer to accept disney canon would obviously be forced to disregard this material, since this line of dialogue cannot be dismissed
due to its very specific description. The interwoven storylines also make it practically impossible to separate the material to suit the retcon,
which is distasteful to begin with. Dave Filoni clearly forgot his reassurance decades ago that this series' canon would be protected.


ANALYSIS
The Separatists launch an invasion of Coruscant utilizing the Nexus Route, a secret and unmonitored hyperspace route which travels directly to the planet
from deep in the Western Reaches of the Outer Rim. The Jedi believed this knowledge was secure with the Republic, unaware that their Sith Lord Chancellor
passed this information to his apprentice. This will allow the first wave to arrive at Coruscant with only moments of warning, and to deploy forces into
the atmosphere before they can be contained. Approaching the planet from traditional routes would be detected, and would require facing a significant
fleet before any troops could be landed. Additional forces are already in route from other locations, but are timed so as not to approach hyperspace
tracking stations before the initial invasion has begun. Having been caught out of position, the Republic and the Jedi scramble to launch a counter attack.
The droid army lands in Galactic City, and begins an assault that seems like the first move in a strategy to surround the Senate District and the Jedi Temple.
Mace and Yoda lead the defense of the planet, and Master Tiin takes charge of the naval battle. Yoda is leading the ground forces, while Mace is leading
the air group and providing fighter air support. The reaction of the Coruscant Guard is effective with the aid of the Jedi, however the extreme difficulties
of urban warfare, particularly in a city of this scale, make the battle difficult to contain, causing great damage to some districts near the Senate District.

The naval Battle of Coruscant is probably the largest engagement of the war in terms of the number of ships involved. The space around Crosucant becomes
so littered with starships that some vessels spin out of hyperspace and immediately crash into another large vessel. Separatist ships continue to arrive,
amassing a larger and larger fleet. Master Tiin is dispatched by the Council to lead the defense of the planet in orbit. Republic naval resources are no doubt
headed here from around the region, but will not begin arriving to reinforce the defense fleet until later in the battle. The first wave of Separatist ships was
a massive concentration of Providence-class dreadnoughts, as are the waves of ships continually arriving from other locations around the galaxy via
traditional hyperspace routes. This gradually amassing fleet will be reinforced in the second stage of the battle by Separatist fleets abandoning their other
offensives in the Core in favor of this most critical action. The Separatists disengage from nearly every planet they were assaulting in the Core and head
to Coruscant, such that by the time of Obi-Wan and Anakin's arrival, a far more varied Separatist fleet has been amassed, featuring the usual range of
warships which give the Separatist Navy its tactical depth. The dreadnoughts are used in the initial thrust because they are huge warships with dense hulls
that can stand in a fight much longer while taking damage, and can carry large compliments of troops, equipment, and fighters. Much of this first wave
were constructed over the last six months by Separatist shipyards in the Rim, which are the proceeds of falling back and concentrating their forces around
production facilities. Instead of being used to restore parity in the Rim, they are committed to this seemingly desperate action to assault the capital.

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.

Grievous "special mission" is to capture the Chancellor personally, a task that Sidious considered him essential for, and one of the many reasons that it was
considered important to Sidious that Grievous lived on until the last phase of the war. It is clear the battle was located in Sector Four to place the Republic
forces as far from Palpatine's apartment as possible while still threatening to approach the Senate building. Grievous lands with a detachment away from
the main battle, and surrounds the 500 Republica tower where Palpatine's residence is located. Starships are used to concentrate a jamming signal over
the area to prevent communication. Mace and Yoda eventually determine the Separatist strategy has not really shown any urgency to take the Jedi Temple
or the Senate, and is drawing their forces away from the Senate District, leading them to conclude that the Chancellor must be the target. Since the Jedi
Council seems to value Palpatine as a known quantity, and seems to already regard the Chancellor as synonymous with the Senate, they rush to help.
Having arrived too late to stop Grievous' escape, the Jedi must now try and prevent the Separatist fleet from escaping with the Chancellor.


FURTHER ANALYSIS
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