Ambush

"Great leaders inspire greatness in others."

- Moral

"Ambush" is the first episode of Season One of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Before its television premiere, the episode was shown on the Television Critics Association press tour on July 11, 2008 and later at Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia in September. "Ambush" aired on Cartoon Network on October 3, 2008.

Official description
''Jedi Master Yoda is on a secret mission to forge a treaty with the King of the strategic system of Toydaria when his ship is ambushed by Count Dooku. Yoda and three clone troopers must face off against Count Dooku's dreaded assassin Ventress and her massive droid army to prove the Jedi are strong enough to protect the king and his people from the forces of the war.''

Plot summary
Jedi Master Yoda is dispatched to Rugosa to convince King Katuunko to allow the Republic to build a base in Toydarian territory. In orbit of the moon, two Banking Clan frigates ambush his ship, forcing him to take an escape pod and allow his ship and Naval Officer Zak to retreat; three clones - Clone Lieutenant Thire, Jek and Rys - accompany him to the surface. However, when Yoda arrives, he finds that Asajj Ventress is already there, attempting to win Katuunko's support for the Separatists by saying that the Separatists can offer better protection than the Jedi can. She suggests a bet: if Yoda can escape her best troops, then Toydaria will aid the Republic. If he fails and the droids prevail, Toydaria will join the Separatists.

Yoda and his men then face a large number of droids and several tanks, which march into the forest. The tanks find it difficult to penetrate the dense coral, forcing the droid commander OOM-224 to send his troops out on foot, which allows Yoda and his men to finish them off more easily. When Thire is wounded, the group retreats into a cave to rest, where Yoda gives the clone troopers a small lesson about them being individuals despite their origin as clones, and that it is their mind which makes them strong, not their numbers or weapons.

Yoda and his men make a final stand, with Yoda initially taking on - and defeating - the rest of Ventress' forces all by himself. Angered, Ventress sends out droidekas to deal with the Jedi Master, thereby breaking the rules of the bet. Upon sighting the droids, Thire launches a shoulder-fired rocket at the canyon wall opposite Yoda, causing an avalanche that crushes the droids.

Katuunko is finally convinced to have Toydaria join the Republic. Furious about the outcome, Dooku orders Ventress to kill the king, saying that perhaps his successor would be more sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Ventress dispatches the king's Toydarian royal guard and prepares to deal a killing blow. Luckily for the king, Master Yoda arrives just in time, pulling Ventress' lightsabers away from Katuunko's throat. Outnumbered, Ventress quickly triggers an avalanche with pre-planted explosive charges, using it as a distraction to escape. Yoda manages to save the king and the clones, and he watches Ventress fly away in her ship. King Katuunko gladly accepts Yoda's offer to join the Republic, and Republic gunships come to retrieve the group, and everyone leaves the moon.

Cast

 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone troopers
 * Corey Burton as Count Dooku
 * Nika Futterman as Asajj Ventress
 * Brian George as King Katuunko
 * Tom Kane as Yoda, Narrator
 * Matthew Wood as Battle droids

Reception
"Ambush" marked the series' debut on October 3, 2008. It brought in 3.96 million viewers, and was Cartoon Network's most watched series premiere.

Behind the scenes
The episode's original name was "Ambush in the Outer Rim." Its title was first revealed by Henry Gilroy in an interview that featured in Star Wars Insider 103.

The original moral of this episode was supposed to be, "Great leadership comes in all sizes."

"Ambush" was originally not supposed to be aired as the first episode of Season One, but the episodes' order was changed very close to the series' premiere.