Star Wars: Clone Wars -- Chapter 25

The Battle of Coruscant rages. Clone troopers with their backs to huge Greco-Roman statues pump rounds into the droids surrounding them.

[Note: What's with the statue of a Spartan?]

“Keep up the pressure on our right!” says a clone commander.

“What about the left?” says a sergeant.

“The Jedi have the left!”

The Jedi – Mace and Yoda – are doing what takes a company of clones to do.

“Go now. No longer safe for you here, it is,” says Yoda to his pony. He flips to the ground and stands back to back with Mace doing saber work.

Mace deflects the droids’ own lasers back at them, destroying them.

“Strange, the enemy’s strategy,” says Yoda.

“A massive invasion, yet no attempt to take the Temple or the Senate,” replies Mace.

“Unless a diversion it is to hide their true objective—”

“PALPATINE!” they both say.

Mace vaults up into a troop carrier passing overhead and says to the clone, “Turn this ship around!”



Shaak-Ti, Roron and Foul sprint through underground tunnels in their desperate bid to get the Chancellor to safety.

“Get inside! Get to the bunker!” says Shaak-Ti when they reach the Chancellor’s private train.

“My dear, what about you?” asks the ever calm Chancellor.

“I will stay and hold them off.”

“How can you be sure they’re still following us?”

“Make no mistake, they are following.”

Shaak-Ti touches the shoulders of the other two Jedi. “Protect the Chancellor,” she says.

Foul squeaks something in his own language.

[Note: Probably, “May the Force be with you.”]

“This selfless sacrifice will long be remembered in the archives of the Jedi Order,” Palpatine says unconvincingly.

The Chancellor’s train takes off and Shaak-Ti is left to face about a dozen Magna Guards emerging from the shadows.


Cut to planet Nelvaan. The mutated Nelvaan warriors are surrounding Anakin.

“You’re not yourselves! You’re being manipulated! You are Nelvaan warriors. You must control yourselves! Stop! I will defend myself!”

[Note: Oh, no shit, Anakin. This whole substory fell flat at this point. Not for one second did I believe Anakin gave a shit about these indigenous people.]

Behind Anakin, the most recently captured Nelvaan warrior struggles to break free from the shackles that bind him to a table in a tank filled with green liquid.

The mutants start shooting lasers at Anakin from the gun attachments that have taken the place of their left arms. He deflects the blasts with his lightsaber and Force-pushes them away with his droid hand.

Filled with alarm, the last mutant shatters the glass and escapes from his chamber. Instead of attacking Anakin, he jumps on one of the other mutants and rips a metal bandolier off of his chest. This causes the mutant pain, but he immediately stops fighting.

The recent mutant turns to Anakin, holds out the bandolier and points at his own head, jabbering something in his own language.

“What?” Anakin says, frowning.

The warrior rips bandoliers off several other mutants and Anakin finally gets it. He uses his lightsaber to slice the devices off of the remaining mutants.

The recent mutant then gives a passionate speech in his own language to the others. Through body language it is clear he is urging them regain their senses. He also starts pointing at Anakin and using the native word for “Ghost Hand.”

[Note: See, the problem here is, why would they trust Mr. Ghost Hand? Didn’t the legend on the cave wall warn them that Ghost Hand kills both friend and foe? It’s their legend, isn’t it? They ought to know.]

The warrior points at a crystal suspended over the machine in the core of the facility and he jabbers at Anakin.

“I understand,” he says.


Back on Coruscant, Roron and Foul sit tensely in the train with the Chancellor.

Cut to Shaak-Ti, now fighting the Magna Guards. At one point she loses her lightsaber and she grabs a Magna Guard and uses him as both a shield and a weapon. When he is destroyed, she takes his staff and wields it until she can regain her own weapon. Armed with two weapons, she starts to find it a little easier to destroy the droids.



Cut to Anakin, acrobatically making his way to the fixture holding the crystal. He stops to destroy a few droids on the way. He climbs down onto the core, hangs upside down and tries to use his lightsaber. No luck – it’s deflected.

Meanwhile, the Nelvaan warriors are attacking the battle droids and freeing the remaining warriors that are still in the glass tubes. The Techno Union guys are fleeing to the surface.

Anakin reaches for the crystal with his droid hand. He howls in pain, but he is able to grab the crystal and crush it – which blows up his droid hand in the process. The destruction of the crystal sets off a big chain reaction. The ice on the river melts and the sun is seen again through the clouds.

The Nelvaan warriors escape to the surface, pursuing the Techno Union guys. The latter try to make it to their ship, but Anakin comes after them. He points his stump and Force-pushes them away from their ship. One guy tries to shoot him in the back and Anakin Force-crushes his chest, killing him.

The Nelvaan warriors stare at Anakin, in particular what’s left of his droid hand. Then they suddenly start tearing off their own prosthetics, causing themselves great pain. They then raise their remaining hands in the air and chant, “Ghost Hand, Ghost Hand” in their language.

Anakin looks very grim. But his job is done.


Back at the caves, the women are putting out wooden buckets to catch the melting snow.

They spy Anakin in the distance leading the men back to the village. Hope enters their faces, but as the men get closer, hope is replaced by dismay and fear. Who are these monsters?

The women take a step back, but one little boy pushes forward. He goes up to the mutant who freed the others and says, “Apu?”

The mutated warrior scoops up the child and hugs him, grateful that his child still recognizes him. The other women and children come forward to greet their loved ones, but they are saddened by how their men have been violated.

Obi-Wan looks pleased with Anakin. But Anakin doesn’t look too pleased with himself.


Later, there is a celebration of sorts around the campfire. The women have covered the amputated hands of the men with shields and feathers.

“You’ve done a great thing for these people. Well done, Anakin,” says Obi-Wan. “But tell me more of your experience in the cave.”

“I listened to the Mother, just as the shaman said,” says Anakin, not answering the question. “Do you think they’ll be able to reclaim their old lives?”

“I sense they will. As long as they accept themselves.”



Cut back to Coruscant.

The Chancellor’s train reaches its destination. The two Jedi and Palpatine jump out and start running through a series of blast doors that close behind them. When they pass through the last set of doors, they enter a dark room, suddenly made light by Grievous’ lightsabers.

Foul pushes the Chancellor behind him and he and Roron once more take on Grievous. They are weary now, and it shows. The two Jedi are barely holding their own when Grievous displays two more arms, also equipped with lightsabers. For the first time there is fear in their eyes.


Back at the mouth of the tunnel, Shaaki-Ti is making headway against the Magna Guards when they inexplicably stop fighting and draw back.

“NO!” says Shaak-Ti, a look of realization in her eyes. She races down the tunnel almost as fast as the train did.


Brave Roron dies first, sliced through the chest. Foul dies seconds later.

Grievous advances on Palpatine.

“You’re mine, old man!”

“I’m not afraid of you,” says Palpatine. “You wouldn’t dare harm the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. Whatever would your masters say?”

“You’re lucky they want you alive,” says Grievous, grabbing him by the chest.

“Chancellor!” shouts Shaak-Ti, sprinting into the room.

“Shaak-Ti, my dear,” says Palpatine, dry as ever. “You’ve come to rescue me.”

She charges Grievous, but he reaches out and grabs her by the throat.

“You’re tired, Jedi. You won’t be needing this,” he says, prying her lightsaber from her hand. “I’ve got something else for you.”

Snaky electrified wires come out of his wrist.


Cut to the Magna Guards taking the Chancellor onto a ship outside the tunnel. Grievous is about to board when droid ships start shooting up in the air at Mace’s approaching transport. Mace vaults off the ship and lands at the base of the boarding ramp. Grievous turns around with four lightsabers ignited.

Mace doesn’t draw his lightsaber, instead he unleashes a Force-crush that collapses Grievous’ chest. Eyes bulging, Grievous staggers backwards into the ship and the Magna Guards take off.

[Note: That’s a Darkside power, Mace...]

Mace vaults into the air after them, using his lightsaber against the laser blasts directed at him, but they climb too high, too fast. He falls back to the pavement and the kidnappers get away.

With the Chancellor lost, Mace runs back into the tunnel and sees the bodies of Foul and Roron.

“Shaak-Ti!” he yells, fearing the worst. He finds her in an adjacent room, strung up from the ceiling by electrified wires. But she is alive.

“I failed,” she says, unable to look Mace in the eye.


Back to the Republic cruiser above Nelvaan. Artoo is using a welding attachment to help Anakin put the finishing touches on a new prosthetic. The original one was gold, and very droid-like. This one has a better design, but it’s mostly black with a few gold highlights.

Artoo whistles a question to Anakin.

“No, Artoo,” he says introspectively. “There are things that are far more painful.”

[Note: Anakin still has the blue tattoo from the Nelvaan leech on his face. Is that permanent, or has he just not washed his face yet?]

Ob-Wan enters the room. “You weren’t in the medlab. I thought I’d find you here.”

“We’re just finishing up. See? Good as new.” There is a forced lightness in Anakin's voice.

Ben makes another effort to mentor his former padawan.

“Anakin, the most difficult trial a Jedi must face is to look inside himself. Often we see things we don’t like. But these aspects are not set in stone. It is our decisions that shape our destinies.”

Artoo starts whistling, cutting off any inclination Anakin may have had to open up.

“An urgent message from Coruscant!” Anakin says. “Patch it through!”

Artoo projects a hologram of Mace.

“Kenobi, Skywalker – Coruscant is under siege. General Grievous has abducted the Supreme Chancellor. You must return immediately. You must rescue Palpatine.”

“Grievous!” Anakin says, eyes narrowing.

He starts barking orders to the clones as Obi-Wan strangely says nothing and lets him take the lead.

“Battle stations! All crews to your fighters! Prepare to jump to hyperspace. MOVE!”

The last scene is of the space over Coruscant where Republic ships and Separatist ships are pounding away at each other in pitched battle.

Somewhere in the midst of this is the ship holding the kidnapped Chancellor.