Clone Wars 5.06: The Gathering

Wicked. Cute.

Spoilers Ahead



Ahsoka and Yoda look after a group of Younglings on Ilum, where they must venture into a rapidly-freezing cave to collect focusing crystals for their first lightsabers.

I had heard of the crystal caves of Ilum, but I had never imagined something like this. At first I was confused, since I was under the impression that padawans are older when they construct their first lightsabers. But then I thought, even if I was right, the Clone Wars probably required some steps being skipped. In fact, they say as much in the opening narration.

About halfway through the show, once we've spent some time with the kids and their personalities, I suddenly began to realize that this whole place is the tree on Dagobah. They'll have to face their own weaknesses in order to find their crystal and escape. Which is exactly what they do.

The kids are all adorable as hell. My personal favorite is the absolutely fierce Rodian girl Ganodi, both as a character and in character design. But I would be heartless if I didn't mention the bear cub that is Goongi the Wookie, or the Nautolan Zatt with his nose stuck in his datapad half the episode (ahh, if we could all learn his lesson about putting the technology down, myself included), or even the scaredy-cat Ithorian, Byph. And...the other two who I wasn't personally as interested in, but that makes sense since they were supposed to be the "main" characters here and I tend to gravitate towards the supporting cast of Star Wars...at least at first.

Although, like anything Clone Wars, I do feel bad wondering what happened to them during Knightfall...best not to dwell on such things.

Not much more I can say about this episode. Yoda and Ahsoka are not given much to do but completely shine when they do it (Ahsoka is really coming into her own and I hope Luke finds her safe and sound in Episode VII). If I had to give one nitpick, it's that all the crystals were blue and while blue is my favorite color, I would have liked to see them switch it up a bit with some greens, yellows, and purples. Still, it's definitely one of my favorites this season.