This week on General Swap: can the 501st adapt to General Krell’s “choke the rivers with our dead” tactics, or will they earn the respect of a tough but fair boss? Legendary editor Water Murch takes a seat in the director’s chair for this story arc, which sees what the Clone Wars are like to the boots. Jony Ive guests as a model designer for the Umbaran vehicles. One of those things is true.
Darkness on Umbara:
Tthe Republic has launched a lightning strike on Umbara, who have thrown in with the Separatists [possibly due to their Senator getting murdered in the episode of the same name]. Anakin and the 501st make a landing under fire, and the battle rages! They are opposed by Umbarans in pressure suits, as well as tanks and carnivorous plants.
Jedi Master Pong Krell arrives to inform Skywalker that the Jedi Council has ordered him back to Coruscant at the request of Palpatine, and that Krell is assuming command of the 501st. After Anakin leaves, Krell lets it be known that he's a real hard-ass who does things by the book and doesn't particularly care about the clones; also, in our biggest example of lightsaber escalation to date, he has two double-bladed lightsabers, because he's just that cool.
Master Krell changes the battle plan - instead of surgical strikes on the capital's defenses, the 501st will now be making a frontal assault. Rex explains he has a duty to his men as well as the plan, and Krell admits some amount of grudging respect.
The General:
The clones are being torn apart by Umbaran air power who actually seem to be counting coup by bludgeoning the clones instead of shooting them from the sky.
Obi Wan Space Times (™) General Custer and tells him that they need him to take an airfield and that everything rests on his battalion. A clone rolls a nat 20 and asks if Krell is trying to get the clones killed. Fives makes a good point about Anakin and that at least he leads from the front, no matter how dumb his ideas. Rex is the only thing standing between Krell and a complete mutiny.
Rex tries to put lipstick on a pig, but the pig turns out to be a giant ray-shielded centipede mech with about a million guns. Sorry, make that a bunch of giant ray-shielded centipede mechs. But rocket launchers, thermal detonators and a disdain for self-preservation overcome a lot of obstacles.
The clones look like they’d be fine in Zombieland because Fives makes sure to double tap a wounded Umbaran who survived a rocket launcher to the dome. And just like that I’m back on my moral equivalence bullshit y’all! Krell demands that Rex throw his clones into the meat grinder because he was a padawan for Jedi Master Sir Douglas Haig. The episode ends with a close up of flames reflected in Krell’s yellow eyes. I’m sure that’s not ominous.
The Clone Wars: Season 4, Episodes 7 and 8: https://www.disneyplus.com/video/f9bfac62-4bb9-443b-905c-db5d978df3f2
https://twitter.com/ClosingCrawl
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/closing-crawl/id1530133296
On YouTube: https://ww
https://twitter.com/ClosingCrawl
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/closing-crawl/id1530133296
https://www.closingcrawl.com/
Merch at: https://bit.ly/spacetimetm