Shadow Warrior
"Shadow Warrior"
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- "Who a person truly is cannot be seen with the eye."
- ―Moral[6]
"Shadow Warrior" is the fourth episode of theStar Wars: The Clone Wars television series'fourth season. It aired onSeptember 30,2011.
Official description[]
"When the leader of the Gungans, Boss Lyonie, is injured it's discovered there is an uncanny resemblance between the Boss and Jar Jar Binks. Binks must sway his people from rising against the Naboo and stopping a Separatist invasion led by General Grievous."[1]
Opening crawl[]
| Episode 4 SHADOW WARRIOR |
|---|
As war continues to fracture the galaxy,planets become pawns in a dangerouschess game. One planet in peril is Naboo,where suffering and civil unrest threatenonce-friendly relations between the peopleon the surface and the underwater-dwellingGungans. Rumors that the Gungans plan toaid the Separatists in an attack on Theedforce Senator Padmé Amidala home,accompanied by Jedi General AnakinSkywalker.... |
Plot summary[]
- "Rish Loo manipulated mesa head-thoughts with lies and misinformation. He's the real enemy."
- ―Boss Lyonie[6]
AfterAnakin andPadmé's arrival inTheed, they travel to theGungan territory nearLake Paonga and seek out their old friendJar Jar, who confirms the troubling rumors thatBossLyonie intends to march on Theed and takes them toOtoh Gunga, where Lyonie is indeed attempting to rally his troop leaders for the impending conflict, accompanied by his new ministerRish Loo. When Anakin and Padmé attempt to talk to Lyonie and he refuses to abandon his plans, the two notice that he appears to be not himself. The cause is a mind control necklace which Anakin telekinetically snatches from Lyonie's neck, making him recover, and Lyonie confirms that the necklace was given to him by Rish Loo.
Loo is in fact secretly in league withCountDooku, who has promised him the freedom of his people in exchange for aiding theSeparatists in invadingNaboo. Lyonie confronts Loo about his treachery, but Rish Loo uses his mystical powers to try and control him once more; when Anakin and Padmé come to Lyonie's aid, he unleashes a squad ofcommando droids on them, stabs Lyonie and escapes the underwater city. With Lyonie lying unconscious, it appears the attack on the Naboo cannot be called off anymore ... not until Jar Jar inadvertently dons Lyonie's crown of office, making Anakin and Padmé note a striking resemblance to the Boss. Anakin therefore hatches a plan to make the Gungan army stand off the attack by having Jar Jar pretend to be Lyonie.
On the surface, Rish Loo tries to salvage his plans by telling the assembled Gungan warriors that Lyonie is dead. The disguised Jar Jar appears just in time, and although nervous, he makes a good impersonation of Lyonie and denounces Loo as a traitor. Loo manages to escape, however, but as Anakin pursues him, a Separatisttroop carrier arrives and thebattle droid crew address Jar Jar, since they believe that everything is still according to Dooku's plan. Forced to maintain his role, Jar Jar and GeneralTarpals board the ship to help in coordinating the attack, only to find out that theleader of thedroid army is none other thanGeneralGrievous himself.
Flustered and terrified, Jar Jar desperately stalls for time and sends Tarpals out to inform Padmé about this development. Padmé advises him to try and capture Grievous by shutting down his droid escort before Grievous can note this desperate deception. Grievous eventually becomes highly irritated by the apparent Lyonie's sudden hesitation in conducting the assault and figures out that he is an imposter. Jar Jar escapes to the outside just in time to escape Grievous' rage, and for Grievous to notice that his army has been disabled. The Gungans surround Grievous, who fights back, fatally stabbing Tarpals in the process. With the last of his strength, however, Tarpals shocks Grievous into submission, enabling his capture, before dying. Upon learning of Grievous' capture,Darth Sidious commands Dooku, hidden in an ancient Naboo structure, to lure Anakin into a trap to take him hostage for a prisoner exchange.
In the meantime, Anakin chases after Loo, but is slowed by twoprobe droids who shoot hisKaadu mount. Upon Dooku's command, however, Loo lures Anakin to the structure, where he meets Dooku. After killing Loo as the naive fool he was and after revealing theSith's hand in the firstinvasion of Naboo more than ten years ago, Dooku and hisdroid bodyguards confront Anakin in a fiercelightsaber duel, at which end Anakin is disarmed and shocked into unconsciousness.
Dooku contacts Padmé, tortures Anakin in front of her and gives her one hour to make her decision. Torn between her feelings for Anakin and her commitment to the welfare of theRepublic, Padmé finally agrees to make the switch. Despite the somberness of the deal, Jar Jar is lauded by Boss Lyonie and QueenNeeyutnee for his successful efforts in re-establishing peace between the Gungans and the Naboo.
Development[]
- "I think I've said before how I went back and forth on that one with George several times saying, "Wow, if we do this to Grievous, I think that's going to be a big, big loss for him. His credibility's going to go down." You know, we argued about it back and forth several times trying to figure out was that going to be the best move. George was always pretty resolute that it was going to be fine, and he talked with me through how we could achieve it. And I thought, "Well, if we're going to take him out, then we have to lose something pretty big on the good guys' side to make the sacrifice seem pretty meaningful." So we had to take out Tarpals, which is pretty sad actually. He's a likable Gungan for sure. But I think it also, in a way, lends to Jar Jar's character that he sees this all go down and that he witnesses it, that he kind of grows from the experience of watching this dramatic battle."
- ―Dave Filoni[7]
The decision for Grievous to battle and lose to theGungan Grand Army was pushed by[7] Executive Producer[8]George Lucas and resisted by supervising directorDave Filoni, who felt it was too big of a loss for Grievous and his credibility. After several rounds of debate, Filoni conceded to Lucas, who maintained the general's image would be fine and explained how the battle could be written to defend the character's standing. As a compromise, Filoni decided that Tarpals would be killed in the battle so as to give the Republic a major loss as well.[7]
At one point, "Shadow Warrior" was originally considered to be the Season Four premiere episode, but it was later shifted in favor of the "Battle of Mon Cala" story arc to have a more action-packed premiere.[9]
Continuity[]
Queen Neeyutnee accidentally refers to Jar-Jar as Senator Binks.[10]
In order to stay consistent with theBattle of Coruscant being Anakin's first time meeting with Grievous,[11] despite the two being in the same area in the prisoner exchange, Anakin is still unconscious while Grievous has his vision obscured by a prisoner helmet.
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Sources[]
"Shadow Warrior" -The Clone Wars Episode Guide onStarWars.com(original link is obsolete)- "Shadow Warrior" Episode Guide | The Clone Wars onStarWars.com(backup link)
- The Clone Wars Rewatch: Boxed in By the "Shadow Warrior" onStarWars.com(backup link)
- Five Films that InspiredStar Wars Storytellers onStarWars.com(backup link)
Notes and references[]
- ↑1.01.11.21.31.4
"Shadow Warrior" -The Clone Wars Episode Guide onStarWars.com(original link is obsolete) - ↑2.02.12.22.3
"Launchpad" —Star Wars Insider 128 - ↑Star Wars: Timelines dates the events of "Shadow Warrior" to20 BBY.
- ↑The Official Star Wars Fact File Part 7520 BBY 23-24: The Capture of Grievous dates the events of "Shadow Warrior" to20 BBY.
- ↑
Cartoon Network Schedule onCartoonNetwork.com(content obsolete and backup link not available) - ↑6.06.1Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Shadow Warrior"
- ↑7.07.17.2 Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Looking Back at Season 4 (Online interview) by Goldman, Eric onIGN (March 21,2012) (backup link archived onMarch 24,2016)
- ↑ The Clone Wars Episode Guide: Ambush onStarWars.com(original site is defunct)
- ↑ "100 and Counting" —Star Wars Insider 139
- ↑The Naboo Queen calls Jar-Jar "Senator Binks" near the end of the episode.
- ↑Star Wars: Episode IIIRevenge of the Sith
