To be completely honest, I tried write a response to this episode that was lightly comic about it’s central character, Gungi, the Wookie Jedi youngling we first met during The Clone Wars’ The Gathering story arc. (For those who don’t remember, that’s the one where the former and somehow current Doctor Who, David Tennant, voices a droid with a PhD.) You adorable Wookie scamp! You’re back! Stop getting into trouble little buddy!
But what can I say? I found it impossible. “Tribes” is a somber look at our favorite galaxy far, far away. The gentle Gungi is discovered captured, in the midst of being beaten. After he’s rescued? He curls into himself, distrustful, reluctant to accept help, traumatized. He’s even a stranger to his own home planet, a reminder that the Jedi Order takes children away from their families as infants. When we first met Gungi he was a Muppet Baby with a wooden lightsaber hilt. Now he’s a refugee. The fact that he’s alive at all is a surprise: every Jedi we meet in The Clone Wars was fated to meet a terrible end. Even and especially the younglings.
This was always the most engaging and troubling aspect of The Clone Wars series to me. The entire story, from top to bottom, was an ironic tragedy. Every single clone that we met was created for nefarious purposes, the war itself was a con to corrode the Republic, the Jedi’s status as generals meant they were participating in violence they were meant to oppose. Every character had a difficult life ahead of them, at least, and death on the horizon, at worst. That’s the delightful children’s animated series that so many of our fellow fans grew up loving - the story of a war that should never have been.