How The Umbara Arc Of 'The Clone Wars' Could Have Been Better
The hit animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars was full of a lot of arcs and characters that resonated with the fans very well. Viewers were particularly fond of episodes that depicted the brotherly relationships between the clone troopers, who were mostly blank slates in the films. Perhaps one of the most shocking twists in any of these clone trooper arcs was season 4's Umbara arc consisting of "Darkness on Umbara," "The General," "Plan of Dissent," and "Carnage of Krell." Particularly, what breaks the arc for me is when it is revealed that Jedi Master Pong Krell has, unbeknownst to the troopers, turned the clones against each other, brother against brother. The Umbara arc has been hailed by some as one of the best arc of the show. However, after the aforementioned revelation, the story kind of falls apart for me.
A well-written villain can really elevate a story, but Ponk Krell just was not that type of character. He felt very one-note to me. Throughout the arc, his characterization is sometimes inconsistent. Sometimes he calls the clones by their numbers, and sometimes he calls them by their names even though he emphasizes that they are just numbers. We get the sense that he hates the clones, but the pay-off for why he is being so mean to them just does not cut it. He ends up having a very boring motivation. Toward the end, we find out that he has had visions showing him a future in which a new order would replace the Republic. Knowing that this is coming, he decides that he wants to be on the winning side by embracing the dark side in hopes that he may gain the attention of Count Dooku and perhaps become his apprentice. How super lackluster of an explanation does that sound?
In my opinion, a more interesting story would have been for him to have had a vision of the clones turning against the Jedi. And he would have wanted to prevent this. The Jedi of the time being so flawed and unwilling to see what is right in front of them, perhaps Krell would have come to the conclusion that they would not believe him. So to remedy this, he could have turned clones against each other as he does in this arc, in an attempt to frame them as being unstable. If the general public were to find out about the clones wiping each other out, then there might have been the possibility of a call to keep the clones from being sent out with the Jedi since they cannot be controlled, seemingly.
Had this been the alternate context for Krell's actions in the Umbara arc, the moment where Rex figures out that clones are attacking clones still could have been left in, since it is still a somewhat powerful reveal (thanks in part to the music by Kevin Kiner). And Krell revealing to the clones that he firmly believes that they will turn against the Jedi would be some nice foreshadowing for the Order 66 conspiracy arc of season 6, which itself is already tragic foreshadowing of what would happen during Revenge of the Sith. This alternate context would have played into the tragedy very well. Instead of a villain trying to do what he thought was right in order to preserve lives within the Jedi Order, we got a boring angry villain who just wants to preserve himself for whenever the Empire takes over. I am probably in the minority thinking that this arc did not quite land very well in the end, but those are my thoughts. It is what it is.
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