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 the dried coral moon of Rugosa to convince King Katuunko to allow the Republic to build a base in Toydarian territory. As the Toydarian monarch King Katuunko and his retinue await the arrival of their Jedi envoy, Assaj Ventress arrives and presents Katuunko with a hologram of Count Dooku. Dooku asks Katuunko how the Jedi can protect his world when they can not protect themselves by illustrating on a holoprojector that the Republic offers little protection, in hopes of swaying Toydaria to his cause. In orbit of the moon, two Banking Clan frigates ambush Yoda's 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. The Republic frigate leaves the system, a move that Asajj Ventress spins to the king as a sign of weakness. Her attempts at persuasion are interrupted however by a holographic call from Yoda: the Jedi Master has survived.

When Yoda arrived, he found that Ventress was already there, attempting to win Katuunko's support for the Separatists by saying that the Separatists can offer better protection than the Jedi. Ventress then suggested a deal: if Yoda could escape her best troops, then Toydaria would be free to join the Republic. But if he should fail and the droids prevail, Toydaria would join the Separatists.

Agreeing to Ventress' proposal, Yoda and his troops marched through the coral forest as a Separatist landing ship carrying a full battalion of droids arrived. Yoda led the clones away from the enemies and the rendezvous point he had agreed to reach by nightfall. Yoda and his men then faced off a large number of droids and several tanks, which marched into the coral forest. The tanks found it difficult to penetrate the dense coral, forcing the droid commander 224 to send his troops out on foot, which allowed the clones outflank them. Sniping from the underbrush, Thire and his men blasted through several droids, splitting up the squads. Yoda hops around them, cutting the droids down one by one with his Lightsaber. A squad of super battle droids pushed the clones back. Thire is wounded in the cross-fire, and the clones are pinned. Using the Force, Yoda lifted one of the advancing droids into the air, and spun him about, causing it to open fire on its fellow droids. This gave Yoda and the clones the time they needed to retreat, an narrowly avoiding pursuing droidekas.

While the battle droids reported their successes to Asajj, Yoda too resumed communication with Katuunko, stating that he did not having any trouble at all. Yoda and the clones then made their way to a dried gulch lined with caves to rest and recover. Inside a cave, the clones took stock of their grim position: low on ammo, Thire wounded, with only two grenades and a rocket for the launcher against an entire battalion. To raise spirits Yoda spoke to each of the clones in turn. Giving them 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.

As the clones reflected on Yoda's wise words, the sounds of approaching droids could be heard in the distance. Yoda ventured into the canyon placing himself in the way of the armored column. He sat and meditated as the AAT's took aim at the Jedi Master. The droids reported the current situation to Ventress, who in turn, ordered them to open fire. Yoda ended his meditation and began dispatching the droids, cutting down the ones on foot and slicing through the tank armor. Angered, Ventress sends out droidekas to deal with the Jedi Master, thereby breaking the rules of the bet. Yoda was unaware of the approaching droids, but fortunately the are sighted by the clones. Thire launched their last rocket at a overhanging bluff, sending an avalanche of rock crashing down on the droideka reinforcements, saving Yoda from the attack.

Katuunko is impressed by the display and opts to have Toydaria join the Republic. Dooku urges Katuunko to reconsider the count's offer, but Katuunko states firmly that he will not deal with those who break their word. Furious about the outcome, Dooku ordered Ventress to kill the king, stating that perhaps his successor would be more sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Ventress dispatched the king's Toydarian royal guard and prepared to deal a killing blow. Luckily for the king, Master Yoda arrived just in time, stopping Ventress mid-swing using the Force to telekinetically freeze her as the clones subdued the droids. Yoda greeted Katuunko and dismissed Ventress with a simple display of the Force. Rather than surrender, Ventress quickly triggered an avalanche with pre-planted explosive charges, using it as a distraction so she could escape in a solar sailer. King Katuunko gladly accepted Yoda's offer to join the Republic, and Republic gunships came to retrieve the group, and everyone left 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
"So we do things far better in a late episode in Season One than we did in the movie, for the theatrical release of Clone Wars. So I think there were some kind of juxtapositional episodes based on that. You know, we all liked the Yoda episode, 'Ambush in the Outer Rim', and I thought that we all felt that, you know, fans had never really seen something that was that Yoda-specific before, but um, you know, we all felt it would be a really strong way to start the series with a really fun episode about Yoda."

- Director Dave Filoni, during an interview

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.

Almost 2 years after the original airing of "Ambush", an prequel episode titled "Supply Lines" aired on September 24, 2010 as part of season three. It revealed the Republic's original purpose to use Toydaria as a staging ground to help the Twi'leks and supply them with food and medical supplies, which intertwined with the Ryloth Trilogy of episodes which aired later on in Season One.