The Battle of Geonosis
Posted: 2003-02-28 08:00am
All right, I just rented Star Wars: Clone Wars for Gamecube, and was playing it, and I was trying to rationalize all the events into the bigger picture of the battle, and I figured this would be an appropriate environment in which to conduct that rationalization.
Here's the idea: using all canon and as much official evidence as we can, we should create a coherent and detailed order of events for the Battle of Geonosis. Sources should include the movie (obviously), the Galactic Battlegrounds Clone Campaigns video game, the Clone Wars video game, any Clone Wars comics that relate to Geonosis, and any other source that relates to Geonosis. While game mechanics obviously don't count, the general scenarios deserve to be rationalised, and here we can uniformly decide what to discard, what to creatively interpret, and what to fully accept. I don't think this has been done yet, at least not here. And if it has, well then buy me a cadillac and call me Elvis.
Since it's 4AM here, I'm not going to break out any of the sources and review them scene by scene, but I'll get us started off the top of my head:
Star Wars: Episode II ATTACK OF THE CLONES (film)
-Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker, and Senator Padme Amidala are led into the Geonosian Execution Arena. Poggle the Lesser starts the execution ceremony, and captive beasts are herded towards the prisoners. The Jedi and the Senator defend themselves, to the amusement of the crowd.
-A large group of Jedi (100-150, I forget the official number) under the command of Jedi Master Mace Windu reveal their presence to the Seperatists after infiltrating the Arena.
-Confederate army forces (consisting of battle droids of the type seen in the Battle of Naboo, plus "super" battle droids acting as support, and a few presumably unshielded Droideka) enter the Arena and engage the Jedi. The Geonosian workers/civilians evacuate the Arena, but some warriors remain, manning at least one large anti-personnel cannon. [note: do the Super Battle Droids function as leaders? We know the battle droid heirarchy utilizes officer droids, and indeed at least one officer is seen in the Arena battle, dispatched by Master Windu. But the Super Battle Droids are seen to knock the mundane battle droids out of the way, which isn't a very leader-like thing to do. There's an indication when they're marching in that the Super Droids are issued roughly one per squad, but I'm not sure whether or not it is in a leadership capacity. See Bob Brown's site for some interesting speculation as to Battle Droid networking and heirarchy at Naboo.]
-The Confederate forces surround the Jedi in the center of the Arena. Jedi Master and Councilman Coleman Trebor is killed. All but 14-15 Jedi are killed. At this point, Darth Tyranus orders a cease fire and offers the Jedi the opportunity to surrender. The Jedi refuse.
-A group of Republic LAATs commanded by Jedi Master Yoda descend upon the Arena and evacuate the surrounded Jedi. These LAATs head SW away from the Arena.
At this point, Curtis Saxton's cursory examination of the events becomes more efficient for me to point to. It is 4AM, after all.
Galactic Battlegrounds Clone Campaigns (PC video game)
I don't remember much of the details from the game, I'll have to bring it out later.
This is what I can remember:
One of Dooku's Dark apprentices (it seems Dooku began breaking the Sith traditions pretty early. Palpatine had to know about this, I wonder if he approved. Certainly by the OT period, Palpatine himself had many apprentices.) is a Chiss female. She battles a Jedi Master and his Padawan, and kills the Padawan. She escapes, and goes on to be one of Dooku's top generals. Some other stuff happened.
I'll be more specific when I play the game again.
Star Wars: Clone Wars (console video game)
I think this game in particular will need some heavy interpreting, as some of the events are a little strange.
The game starts out with the Republic fleet arriving at Geonosis. A large amount (~100 or more, perhaps) of Jedi Starfighters, led by Mace Windu, descend to the surface.
Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli use small, presumably (but not necessarily) one-man tanks to eliminate Anti-Orbital cannons. They then clear a landing zone for the Republic forces.
Still in their tanks, Windu and Unduli escort a convoy of slow moving troop transports filled with Jedi to the arena. Why the Jedi are all in these transports is unclear.
After explosively clearing the Arena's outer defenses, the Jedi prepare to infiltrate the Arena, confident that the occupants are unaware of their presence. How this can be so considering the intense fighting that preceded this is unclear.
After Mace lands on the battlefield and is presented with his "special team of commando units" as per the movie, he leads them about 100-150 yards into battle, just to get on another LAAT. This is pretty stupid.
Windu's new LAAT leads the gunship attack that destroys many of the evacuating Techno Union starships. TradeFed droid starfighters are seen, which is cool. Also, there are AATs on the ground, also cool.
Mace then gets in a tank and protects the SPHA-Ts from enemy tanks while they destroy the Core Ships. Three Core Ships are destroyed, and it is mentioned that each Core Ship contains an army large enough to take a planet. Whether or not this refers to strictly the Core or the Core plus its Battleship in orbit is unclear.
I think that's the end of it. Pretty crazy, but there are some interesting points to salvage. Most of the problem simply comes from Mace Windu personally doing all these things.
Other Sources
I'm not familiar with any other sources on the battle, perhaps some of you have read/seen/played them. Also, the Inside the Worlds book will probably have some good information, but that won't be for a while yet.
Anyways, I'm going to bed now, but I thought this might be an interesting project for us to undertake. It's always good to have a clear understanding of what happened, and this way we'll all have the same understanding.
Here's the idea: using all canon and as much official evidence as we can, we should create a coherent and detailed order of events for the Battle of Geonosis. Sources should include the movie (obviously), the Galactic Battlegrounds Clone Campaigns video game, the Clone Wars video game, any Clone Wars comics that relate to Geonosis, and any other source that relates to Geonosis. While game mechanics obviously don't count, the general scenarios deserve to be rationalised, and here we can uniformly decide what to discard, what to creatively interpret, and what to fully accept. I don't think this has been done yet, at least not here. And if it has, well then buy me a cadillac and call me Elvis.
Since it's 4AM here, I'm not going to break out any of the sources and review them scene by scene, but I'll get us started off the top of my head:
Star Wars: Episode II ATTACK OF THE CLONES (film)
-Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker, and Senator Padme Amidala are led into the Geonosian Execution Arena. Poggle the Lesser starts the execution ceremony, and captive beasts are herded towards the prisoners. The Jedi and the Senator defend themselves, to the amusement of the crowd.
-A large group of Jedi (100-150, I forget the official number) under the command of Jedi Master Mace Windu reveal their presence to the Seperatists after infiltrating the Arena.
-Confederate army forces (consisting of battle droids of the type seen in the Battle of Naboo, plus "super" battle droids acting as support, and a few presumably unshielded Droideka) enter the Arena and engage the Jedi. The Geonosian workers/civilians evacuate the Arena, but some warriors remain, manning at least one large anti-personnel cannon. [note: do the Super Battle Droids function as leaders? We know the battle droid heirarchy utilizes officer droids, and indeed at least one officer is seen in the Arena battle, dispatched by Master Windu. But the Super Battle Droids are seen to knock the mundane battle droids out of the way, which isn't a very leader-like thing to do. There's an indication when they're marching in that the Super Droids are issued roughly one per squad, but I'm not sure whether or not it is in a leadership capacity. See Bob Brown's site for some interesting speculation as to Battle Droid networking and heirarchy at Naboo.]
-The Confederate forces surround the Jedi in the center of the Arena. Jedi Master and Councilman Coleman Trebor is killed. All but 14-15 Jedi are killed. At this point, Darth Tyranus orders a cease fire and offers the Jedi the opportunity to surrender. The Jedi refuse.
-A group of Republic LAATs commanded by Jedi Master Yoda descend upon the Arena and evacuate the surrounded Jedi. These LAATs head SW away from the Arena.
At this point, Curtis Saxton's cursory examination of the events becomes more efficient for me to point to. It is 4AM, after all.
Galactic Battlegrounds Clone Campaigns (PC video game)
I don't remember much of the details from the game, I'll have to bring it out later.
This is what I can remember:
One of Dooku's Dark apprentices (it seems Dooku began breaking the Sith traditions pretty early. Palpatine had to know about this, I wonder if he approved. Certainly by the OT period, Palpatine himself had many apprentices.) is a Chiss female. She battles a Jedi Master and his Padawan, and kills the Padawan. She escapes, and goes on to be one of Dooku's top generals. Some other stuff happened.
I'll be more specific when I play the game again.
Star Wars: Clone Wars (console video game)
I think this game in particular will need some heavy interpreting, as some of the events are a little strange.
The game starts out with the Republic fleet arriving at Geonosis. A large amount (~100 or more, perhaps) of Jedi Starfighters, led by Mace Windu, descend to the surface.
Mace Windu and Luminara Unduli use small, presumably (but not necessarily) one-man tanks to eliminate Anti-Orbital cannons. They then clear a landing zone for the Republic forces.
Still in their tanks, Windu and Unduli escort a convoy of slow moving troop transports filled with Jedi to the arena. Why the Jedi are all in these transports is unclear.
After explosively clearing the Arena's outer defenses, the Jedi prepare to infiltrate the Arena, confident that the occupants are unaware of their presence. How this can be so considering the intense fighting that preceded this is unclear.
After Mace lands on the battlefield and is presented with his "special team of commando units" as per the movie, he leads them about 100-150 yards into battle, just to get on another LAAT. This is pretty stupid.
Windu's new LAAT leads the gunship attack that destroys many of the evacuating Techno Union starships. TradeFed droid starfighters are seen, which is cool. Also, there are AATs on the ground, also cool.
Mace then gets in a tank and protects the SPHA-Ts from enemy tanks while they destroy the Core Ships. Three Core Ships are destroyed, and it is mentioned that each Core Ship contains an army large enough to take a planet. Whether or not this refers to strictly the Core or the Core plus its Battleship in orbit is unclear.
I think that's the end of it. Pretty crazy, but there are some interesting points to salvage. Most of the problem simply comes from Mace Windu personally doing all these things.
Other Sources
I'm not familiar with any other sources on the battle, perhaps some of you have read/seen/played them. Also, the Inside the Worlds book will probably have some good information, but that won't be for a while yet.
Anyways, I'm going to bed now, but I thought this might be an interesting project for us to undertake. It's always good to have a clear understanding of what happened, and this way we'll all have the same understanding.