This Week in The Clone Wars: Where Vader Got the Carbonite Idea

An iconic moment in The Empire Strikes Back is Darth Vader's decision to freeze Luke Skywalker in carbonite. No one's sure if it'll work, so Vader decides to test it on Han Solo, thus stressing Boba Fett out about his money, and giving Solo one of the best lines in 1980s cinematic romance. It's the uncertainty about whether the encasing will preserve or kill Han that gives the scene its punch: you're not sure whether Vader knows something others don't, is just a psychopath, or what.

This week's episode of The Clone Wars fills in some background: Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi lead a strike force into a Separatist prison to free a Jedi general. In order to slip in undetected, they are frozen in carbonite.* This kicks off a new, more action-orientated story arc, one that also introduces Captain Wilhuff Tarkin, who will eventually become Grand Moff Tarkin by Star Wars (meaning Episode IV, of course).

Dave Filoni describes the new episode arc as:

basically classic Star Wars; we focused on the things that I really remember loving about the Saga from when I was a kid... In the Mortis trilogy, George wanted us to explore some ground that’s never really been covered in Star Wars before. And now with the Citadel arc, we’re going back to some of those essential, classic conventions that have always made Star Wars so fun.

There are a lot of references packed into these episodes . . . Even the basic break-in idea parallels the Death Star rescue from Episode IV. It was really fun to do our version of that, but it’s definitely not the only thing that will feel familiar – though we’ve put our own spin on everything. This whole arc allowed us some fun opportunities to pay homage to the Star Wars that we all fell in love with when we, the older fans, were kids. Pretty much everyone on the crew is a fan, so it’s been fun to revisit some of those classic elements in The Clone Wars.

The youthful interaction between Anakin Skywalker and Captain Tarkin presented some challenges: “Tarkin was tricky. . . We had to capture his essence, while also aging him down appropriately. Peter Cushing is such a distinguished actor, and Tarkin is such an iconic role. He fills the room with his presence and, aside from the Emperor, he’s the only character who ever orders Vader around. So getting him right was very important to us, because his introduction to Anakin is an important one. And they’ve got a fun relationship that’s been very interesting to explore.”

The episode premieres at 8.30pm ET/PT, Friday, Feb. 18, on The Cartoon Network. Here's a preview clip:

*If this plot sounds familiar, it's because it was previously used in a Clone Wars comic novel, Shipyards of Doom. Here's the relevant page.

BONUS: We're only about a month away from the release of LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars. Here's the trailer.