Review of the Jedi: A War on Two Fronts

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Our episode this week begins with the newsreel-esque narrator telling us that Weird Jungle Planet #256 (or Onderon as they're calling it this week) has got a new king and he's sided with Separatists. But not everybody is onboard with this and a rebel group has popped up to oppose him. And they're not weird aliens this time, they're dark-skinned humans! ZOMG! I didn't know those existed in Star Wars.

I kid, I kid. Anyway, these rebels call up the Jedi for help overthrowing their new jerk king. Anakin suggests they can train the rebels in guerilla tactics and attack the Separatists on two fronts (title drop). The other Jedi are unsure about this, fearing their involvement will create terrorism against a legitimate government. I've got to say, they have a point. This situation reminds of the Iran-Contra affair from the 80s, where the Soviets were propping up an abusive government in Nicaragua so we started supporting the rebels there because Soviets be bad y'all. But then it turned out the rebels were bigger bastards than the other guys.

More after the break,

But of course the new king is just a puppet for the Separatists and isn't legitimate, so it's totally okay for our heroes to get involved. And after some more prodding from Anakin, the Jedi Council says okay but Obi-Wan has to come along to keep an eye on Anakin so he doesn't get too Vadery. 

Our heroes drop onto Onderon and meet up with the rebels. And hey, Ahsoka's buddy Lux Bonteri is with them. Lux is a Separatist who turned neutral after Count Dooku killed his mom (long story) and has been palling around with rebel groups since. Last time we saw him Ahsoka got him out of trouble with a bunch of Boba Fett wannabes led by Lady Starbuck and the guy who directed Iron Man. Now he's hanging with some less sketchy folks. The Jedi and Capt. Rex start training the rebels in how to fight the Separatist droids and we get some character development. Ahsoka and Lux aren't as tight as they used to be and Lux is taking an eye to rebel leader Steela, much to the chagrin of Saw who I think is her husband. It isn't clear. So the four of them form a pseudo love square thing while Anakin is getting Vadery in the background.

I really have to credit the animation here. Most of the emotions of our love square is expressed through their faces and body movements and the animation pulls this off subtly but effectively. Meanwhile the droids have been spying on our heroes and attack their base. Of course all that training pays off and the rebels overcome their attackers with little help from the Jedi. But they're not done yet. Lux has come up with a plan to infiltrate the capitol city and overthrow the new king. So our heroes and the rebels disguise themselves and enter the city. And our episode ends with them splitting up to put their plan into action.

Overall, War on Two Fronts was pretty average. This was supposed to be the season premiere but I see why they switched it with Revival. Picking up on the Darth Maul thread made for a more dynamic episode than this standard underdog battle story. Not helping is the generic setting, there's just nothing visually distinct about Onderon than any other brown jungle planet other than some good creature designs. But we did some good character moments and the setup for what looks like some exciting action. That's the problem with these multi-episode story arcs, the first episode is just an extended first act. Hopefully we'll get some better resolution next week.

All in all, just all right. Not bad but not particularly good either. But decent setup for what could be an exciting climax.

See you next week.