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The Jedi face a devastating new Separatist weapon that’s in the hands of General Grievous in the second of two episodes that mark the season premiere of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an all-new animated series debuting Friday, Oct. 3 on Cartoon Network.
In “Rising Malevolence” an attack by an unimaginably destructive weapon aboard a mysterious warship leaves Jedi Master Plo Koon and his clone troopers struggling to survive until Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano can find them. They discover that the ship is piloted by Grievous himself.
Plo Koon’s presence was established in Star Wars: Episodes I, II and III, but his character was seen fleetingly in those films. Nevertheless, just as the seldom-seen Boba Fett became a fan favorite after The Empire Strikes Back, director Dave Filoni grew fascinated by Plo Koon. He chose the relatively unknown Jedi Master as his first project of character development.
“I liked the design of the Plo Koon character, and I also liked that he was a Jedi Master,” Filoni says of his initial attraction. “Like so many Star Wars fans, I had always wondered what other Jedi were like – and The Clone Wars presented an opportunity to explore those characters”
The episode offers numerous scenes of Plo Koon and a small group of clones stranded in a disabled escape pod, which episode scribe Steve Melching says offered opportunities to expand on the thoughts, sensibilities and unique attributes of each clone trooper.
“The clones are really an army of one – they’re all the same guy. But their experiences in the war are all different, and that affects their relationships with other clones and their Jedi leaders,” says Melching. “They may all seem be the same guy, but they’re developing different personalities, and we work hard to show how they think, where they come from. That helps to define each episode. After all, the clones are ultimately the key to this war.”
Photo:
General Grievous and Count Dooku plot against the Jedi aboard the Malevolence, Grievous’s deadly ship, in “Rising Malevolence,” the second episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS. The episode airs at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, on Cartoon Network.
