TV Discussion Anyone else wish Pong Krell had survived Umbara?

I really wish he'd stuck around longer, perhaps as a character foil to Anakin.

And then Anakin becomes Darth Vader and suddenly, he's not a foil anymore...

Actually, if I had it my way, Krell would've survived all the way to the post-RotJ EU.

 

Do I wish he'd survived beyond Umbara? No, I can't personally say that I do. I think Umbara was a solid ending for Krell's character. On the other hand, do however wish we'd been exposed to Krell earlier in the series, perhaps once or twice throughout the previous three seasons, so that we can get a better idea of who he was. There was a lot of potential to see Krell when he wasn't playing the villain role, and how different he may have been from the person we see in the Umbara arc. How did a respected Jedi Master fall so far? Was it bit by bit, worn down by the war, finally succumbing to the dark when he saw the glimpse of the dark future? Or was there something there beneath the surface all along, and did his vision alone convince him to turn in a desperate bid to save himself from the coming Jedi purge? Those hints of his progression would have made his ultimate betrayal all the more impactful, in my opinion, though the arc as-is does well enough on its own.

 

No lie, I just watched the episodes with him in them again today. He was a dude physically strong enough to break a man's back over his knee, and wielded two double bladed lightsabers, one green and one blue. He was pretty much born awesome.

 

He was kinda surreal. Like Mortal Kombat meets Star Wars. It almost seems like they were brainstorming for cool ideas for the next arc, and someone was like "imagine if we had Prince Goro... And he was a Jedi" and they went with that.

I guess he was interesting, in that he wasn't only a Jedi, but was also from a bruiser species with an obvious size and strength advantage over "standard" humanoids, including humans. It was the first time we saw the unique challenges of taking down such an individual in an onscreen SW medium.

It might have been interesting to see him in combat against another Jedi who was of a standard human-level species in terms of natural physical ability, to see just what way Krell's natural physical advantages would work in that fight.

 

Funny thing is, I had once rolled up an RPG character that was a Besalisk with two double-bladed sabers, so I was jazzed when I saw the trailer for that season. I'd even made a custom miniature (which I then repainted to be Krell)...

But Mia pretty much hit it on the head on this one. Creating a character like that for the sole purpose of going dark with him is a bit of a cop-out (though understandable, since the show isn't structured to plan too far ahead). Would've been nice to see him before that.

 

Nope.

The Krell incident was a foreshadowing of a lot that we saw later on - Order 66, Barriss's betrayal, Anakin's fall, Ahsoka's departure, and the loss of trust in the Jedi Order on the part of both the Republic military and the general public. It was yet another warning sign to the Jedi Order that they were too blind to see the importance of; one that, living alone in exile on Degobah for decades with only his regrets to keep him company, Yoda will wonder how he could have been fool enough to ignore.

It ended the way it had to. Any other ending would not have contained the same layers of dramatic meaning and foreshadowing that the arc had.

 

Perhaps they should have put Pong in Bariss's role. How many Jedi need to fall?

 

Nope.

 

Darth Valkyrus

I think you need to make another video with the Unreal Tournament announcer sounds for Krell's epic 51-clone kill streak.


"HOLY ****!" General Krell is beyond GODLIKE! Someone KILL HIM!

Totally hax, man.

 

One way or another, all but two.

 

Definitely no.

I hated him with passion and was glad the clones stood up for themselves against him.

 

No, he was absolutely loathsome.

The only way I'd want him to survive would be if another Jedi would execute him.

 

I've never really cared for his double double or his physical attributes, I just love the guy's personality, priorities and moral character. It's what's inside Pong Krell that I like.

Pong Krell was a hero of mine and I wish that he not only survived Umbara, but that he had his own series that takes place both before and after Umbara.

Finally someone I can root for besides Ventress.

 

Maybe Anakin should execute him?

 

It's a shame he didn't survive longer, I don't like how a character that cool was used as just monster of the day. It would have been nice to have seen him in light sabre fights and being very bossy to CIS characters, that would have been entertaining. The way it seems to me is that TCW became too much about fan service after the first half of S3, I like some fan service, but it's not good when it comes at the cost of the story. Take the Death Watch change in S4 for instance, people were hyped up for a Death Watch/CIS invasion of Mandalore that never happened and now A Friend in Need seems more pointless now since we never got to see Death Watch take on the CIS.

 

He sort of reminds me of Joruus C'Boath now that I think of him.

 

What? Pong Krell would never blow up the Jedi Temple, too many people inside it.

Clone trooper barracks, however...

 

I recall there being a Character Guide that painted Krell as someone beloved by his clone subordinates, who saw him as strict but brilliant - until he started throwing clone lives away.

EDIT: I've checked- it was the Dorling Kindersley The Clone Wars: What is a Sith Warrior? book.

 

I still wonder how the Jedi Order apparently accepted the vicious Krell like they did; he did have the biggest track record of clones killed in his service yet the rest of the Jedi seem to be a lot more careful with their troops so I wonder if he ever got reprimands for his recklessness (or did the fact that he was a successful military strategist make the rest of the Jedi think it was okay for him to treat his soldiers like expendable trash of sorts if that's what it took for him to succeed?)

 

He was one of the only original CIS villains to have a good back story, it would have been nice if we could have seen him before Umbara as a Jedi still on the Republics side, but still a harsh commander and aggressive on the battlefield. It's a shame that the episodes and arcs of TCW didn't connect with each other more, it would have been nice to have had some foreshadowing with Barris.

 

I wonder what would've happened had he gone on the Outbound Flight mission and met Thrawn instead.