This Week in The Clone Wars: Obi-Wan's Got a Past

Star Wars: The Clone Wars has long suggested that Anakin Skywalker is not the only Jedi to struggle with attachment. The relationship between a Padawan and master can produce attachments that must be overcome, as Ahsoka has been learning. The series has also occasionally hinted that Obi-Wan might not be wholly unsympathetic to Anakin's predicament. (Readers of the Jedi Apprentice series will hardly be shocked at the idea of Obi-Wan in a relationship.) Those hints are dragged out into the open in this week's episode, "Voyage of Temptation."

It turns out that Obi-Wan and the Mandalorian Duchess Satine Kryze have a history, and their trip to Coruscant, dodging Separatist assassin droids all the way, provides ample opportunity to pick at old wounds:

Series writer Henry Gilroy explains that the idea of showing Obi-Wan struggling with attachment was a powerful one–in part because one would have to imagine a woman powerful enough in her own right to elicit his interest:

"I always wondered what would happen if Obi-Wan had been put in the same position as Anakin – specifically meeting and falling in love with a woman. . . . Would he be able to maintain his vow to the Jedi at the cost of true love? We know how Anakin dealt with this, but how would Obi-Wan fare against the same temptation? I think a lot of people have had relationships that never really got a chance to flourish, and there's always that ‘what if…’ sort of feeling. Even people in healthy, happy relationships ponder their old flames and think about what might have been. I think it really broadens Obi-Wan as a character. He's revealed as a man – someone we relate to because he has romantic feelings like the rest of us, even though he's a Jedi.

Satine’s a formidable woman in all regards – extremely intelligent, incorruptible, passionate and beautiful, with a great devotion to peace. She might come off as stuffy, but that is because she knows she's in a den of wolves and must appear powerful and unshakable. . . . Throughout history, some of the most powerful figures – like Gandhi and Dr. King – were pacifists who literally changed the world by refusing to fight. There's so much fighting in The Clone Wars; when someone is brave enough to speak up to try and stop it, that voice becomes like a light in the darkness, strong and memorable. Satine's resolved to always use peaceful means to end conflicts. The Jedi are peacekeepers, but they carry swords; if they have to use violence to end conflict, they will. That's unacceptable to Satine; she believes that if you bring a weapon to negotiations, you don't want peace. So, she's upset that the Jedi have allowed themselves to be drawn into the war, because it is everything that they are supposed to be against.”

Despite all the talk of pacifism and of smoldering loves, there are also some excellent battle sequences. They're small, but assassin probes are a difficult opponent for Anakin and the clones:

"Voyage of Temptation" airs Friday at 9pm on the Cartoon Network.