Status Updates From Star Wars: Las Guerras Clon...

And the final plottwist reveal of this volume is that Obi-Wan survived and was captured by the Separatists to be tortured by Asajj Ventress.

"'You must first accept that what you did was wrong, and you haven't done that yet. Tuskens are animals to you, aren't they? In your heart, you believe they deserved to die. Perhaps they did. But did you have the right to kill them? Would you do it again?'-A'Sharad
"'...Yes.'- Anakin"
The look of Anakin's face, where you just see his eye furrowed in anger. This question and interaction was not addressed in TCW.

"I don't see how anyone can live their life behind a mask." -Anakin.
And that is what we call both foreshadowing and irony.

And we finally get the reveal that A'Sharad is physically human, but culturally Tusken. Tusken Raiders themselves are not human but a distinct species, and they will raise humans that they've captured in raids. This is an aspect that was brought up in the Kenobi novel (not to EVER be associated with that travesty of a show on Disney+).

A boot to the face will definitely take Anakin out of his delusion, but not before he reveals the truth of his crime: killing the entire Tusken tribe that murdered his mother down to the last child.

The lack of guidance and focus, the constant comparisons between Anakin and A'Sharad to the former's chagrin, the building of negative emotions, there's really no other outlet for Anakin than a hallucinatory fury where he compares the enemy forces for Tuskens and even tries to kille A'Sharad.

"I do not believe we can absorb another loss like Jabiim. More systems will secede and join the Confederacy. No, here we stand and hold." It was because the Jedi stood and held on Jabiim that they lost so many casualties. Ki-Adi Mundi is misreading this battle and the last one.
Also, Bultar Swan has been a prominent character in EU material since AOTC. Nice to see her here.

Anakin only sees the Tusken. He does not see the Jedi of A'Sharad Hett. This is what it means to be prejudiced and a bigot. Again, if only we had this in TCW!

Once again, Anakin is feeling powerless to save another Jedi, increasing his feelings of inadequacy and feeding his desperation and drive to increase his own power. If only this happened in TCW!

Final issue in this volume, "The Storm After the Storm." Cryptic, but we see Anakin with hatred in his face attacking A'Sharad Hett while he's reaching for his gaffi stick as the promo.

I love this memorial to all of the Jedi killed since the start of the Republic. Although, we know that Obi-Wan still lives. I wonder what happened to it after the Empire rose? Was it destroyed to erase the legacy of the Jedi? A thousand-generation-old memorial destroyed by one regime's tyranny.

What's shocking to me is that Anakin admitted to choking a man to a fellow Jedi. You wouldn’t see that in TCW. What's not shocking is that his mentality of exerting his will over the Force to revive a dying Jedi. It's a path to the dark side to use the Force in such a manner. As a result, he is causing unnecessary suffering just like A'Sharad Hett said. Goes back to Anakin's words "I'll even stop people from dying!"

O-k, couple things: 1) we get to see Master Asharad Hett, who is a Jedi Tusken Raider. He was in earlier Republic comics as far back as around Ep. 1. 2) I believe that this is the first time we see Barriss Offee as a Jedi healer, which will be continued in the Med-Star Duology (not TCW). 3) Ithorian terrorists sounds almost contradictory to me. They are rarely violent. But a Jedi Padawan betraying a Master? Strange.

And the Jabiimi Loyalists' words hold true. They would not forget the Republic's betrayal 25-ish years later when Luke Skywalker, hero of the Rebellion, came to Jabiim to bring it to their cause.

And here we get the first instance of Anakin using Force Choke (that I know of). He's not using it for torture like he did on Poggle the Lesser in TCW, but as an intimidation tactic to force the Jabiimi to stand down from commandeering the Republic's ships.

This. This is why this story of this battle is referred to as "The Clone Wars' Vietnam." The Republic has decided that they can't keep sending troops and Jedi into this meat grinder of a planet. So, they are evacuating, leaving those Jabiimi loyal to the Republic to fight their way on their own.

I love how for five pages we get no dialogue. Just Anakin speeding across Jabiim, cold, hard, and tense, as he bypasses battlefield after battlefield. Very reminiscent of AOTC when he travels across Tatooine to search for his mother.

Thus ends Stratus and the last of the Padawans, killing each other. The final words being "casualties of war," which has multiple meanings in this grander, galactic conflict.

Even though this page says, "Battle of Jabiim, Day Forty-Three," it feels like it's a continuation of the previous page, which was marked Day Forty-Two. Did they forget to change, or did the events of these two days happen in the middle of the night?

The other two Jedi couple died from a hail of hailfire droid missiles. You don't see that in TCW.

Zule is using a gun instead of a lightsaber. And I also like this exchange.
Zule: "You're going to die, madman!"
Commando: "So are you, monster..."
Each side is othering their enemy rather than seeing them as people. This is what happens when you lack guidance from masters and are consumed by propaganda.

Dude sacrificed himself by getting run over by a hailfire droid and blowing it up!

A premonition of what is to come in ROTS, although this was before the release of that movie. When the bonds between two Jedi are so interlinked and strong through the Force, that the death of one results in death of the other. And the Sullustan is a she.

I like to think that Palpatine was thinking "Oh $#!+ Anakin is going to get killed on Jabiim! I better make sure he gets out of there in time!" Not out of a sense of empathy, but because Anakin was been a eleven-year investment at this point, he's not going to lose him now. And Anakin believes his kind words and listens to him and leaves. He still fills awful about abandoning everyone else who's taking a stand.

I like these pages where you have panels of the Padawans discussing about taking a last stand against the reinforced, Separatist-backed Jabiimi revolutionaries and then it is interspersed with one panel after another of more and more of the armies marching to attack. Very cinematic.

Those are some new droid designs. Assassin ones?

Without Masters to guide them, these Padawans have no one to support but each other. Anakin is seeing this and is no doubt having conflictions with the "no attachments" part of the Jedi Code as he sees what he thinks are good things from this support structure.

37 days of nonstop rain on Jabiim, and you get distracted by sunlight to your death? That's just sad for a Jedi.

It's a pity that these last couple of pages were loose. Just goes to show that age and use can take its toll on a book.

And since these are Padawans without a master, they have no guidance on how to master their feelings for each other. War is quite a dichotomous thing: on one hand, they can tear lives apart, and on the other, they can bring them together in a bond that is strong.