The Battle of Jabiim: Four years on.

Today marks the the fourth anniversary of the publication of Republic #55, which kicked off Dark Horse comics five part Jabiim story arc. Personally, I feel that this is the best of the Clone Wars series. The writing is excellent, the non movie characters are actually fleshed out, and while the artwork could have used some fine tuning, it manages to get the job done.

 

I just ordered it off TFAW for only $7.48, I can't wait to get it.

 

I have to agree. One of the most powerful DH SW stories I've read, definitely. Blackman really pulled out all the stops on this one. I've always found it peculiar that none of his other SW writing comes even close to being as good as this (though Open Seasons has its moments). Because "Battle of Jabiim" really is quite a bleak little masterpiece.

 

For me, I felt the Empire sequel to the story was the perfect coda to it.

I feel it was diminished by knowing that there is anything left of Jaabim culture.

Darth Vader destroyed it all in my opinion.

 

I think the "Padawan Pack" made it an excellent story. It was a chance to show Jedi acting at some point very "Not Jedi Like" without undermining the entire Jedi Order. I think their constant repeating of lines from the Jedi Code did an excellent job of demonstrating how much mental training is required to stay true to the ideals they should embody.

Moments such as Zule's "All my Master's have warned me about the dangers of hate and Anger....but my hate and anger will kill you all!" were quite chilling. The comments by two of the others "Zule is slipping into Darkness" "Who cares, at least she's on our side" strongly mirrored the example that Yoda often cited about the "Cost" of winning the war. Perhaps the most tragic was the Death of Aubrie. She appeared to be one of the youngest, and if she were in fact destined for the Jedi council she must have been pretty level headed for her age. In the end, she was killed due to her focus being entirely on killing another.

 

I think that this particular arc did well not only in it's characterizations of the Padawan pack, but also in it's humanization of even the Villains. Alto Stratus seemed relateable, and his reasonings even drew a little sympathy. There was no doubt that he was a bad guy, but sometimes, just sometimes, I wonder how wrong he was. And that's the masterfulness of that arc.

 

Agreed. The Clone Wars would have been much better if more of the Separatist leaders were similar to Alto Stratus, allowing for shades of grey in the war. Instead, we got pure evil mustache twirling villains.

 

I think the key to Stratus is that he's clearly got legitimate issues with the Republic. He's suffered, his people have suffered, and they're sick of it, and he's passing on the suffering like an abused child who grows up to beat his own kids.

I think the arc just started on a perfect note with the Sep soldiers huddling in the trench, whispering nervously about the rumors they've heard about the Jedi, when the AT-ATs come stomping in. It's such a perfect reversal of ESB, and it clearly shows you how completely deluded the Jedi are to be fighting this war. The Jedi have been duped into being the bad guys.

 

Man i can't believe that it's been four years since that came out. It was a good story and served as a spring-board for a good follow up story about obi-wan and anakin reuniting.

 

Yep, prety much showed that the annihiliation of the Jedi, morally, spiritually and physically was well underway - Order 66 was simply the capstone.