"The best way I can protect you is to teach you how to protect yourself."
Anakin has Ahsoka train against the clones.
Tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: In The Beginning of the episode, the regular Clone Troopers wear the Phase I armor, but the Clone Pilots wear the Phase II armor.
- Call-Forward:
- Ahsoka trains with clones firing stun blasts from all directions. Ironically, this will come in handy when it happens for real, and even later when the blasts aren't stun shots, as Rex lampshades in the final scene.
- This also calls to mind what Han Solo says in A New Hope while watching Luke's lightsaber practice: "Look, good against remotes is one thing. Good against living? That's something else." Ahsoka may dispatch training remotes with little difficulty, but it takes far more training for her to fight against flesh-and-blood soldiers.
- The Cameo:
- Caleb Dume and Depa Billaba are among the spectators for Ahsoka's test.
- The clone trooper who lands the first stun blast on Ahsoka in the first round of training is identified as Jesse, Rex’s right hand man and future ARC Trooper in a number of episodes of The Clone Wars. The beginning of the episode apparently takes place before he paints his distinctive Republic insignia on his faceplate, although this creates a minor continuity error: Earlier in the beginning, we see Jedi Master Tera Sinube as a Training Instructor for Ahsoka, implying that this scene takes place after the Clone Wars episode "Lightsaber Lost" where Ahsoka first met him, but according to official sources, "Lightsaber Lost" took place after "The Deserter", an episode that featured Jesse with his insignias.
- As Anakin and Ahsoka discuss the effectiveness of the exercise, talking to Saesee Tiin in the background is none other than master Ima-Gun-Di, who will end up proving Anakin right.
- Chekhov's Skill: Ahsoka’s training fending off the 501st ultimately prepares her for the day when they carry out Order 66 and use live fire on her, saving her life.
- Crazy-Prepared: Anakin's test for Ahsoka is intended to make her be prepared for anything, with the justification that droids are predictable, rather than living, thinking clones. This ends up helping her be more prepared for Order 66 than many other Jedi were.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Anakin acknowledges that his test is difficult by Jedi standards, but if Ahsoka can beat it, she's that much less likely to be shot in the real world.
- Hard-Work Montage: Ahsoka running drills against the clones over and over again.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Referenced by Ahsoka when she complains that Anakin's test isn't fair because the clone troopers are much better shots than the Separatist battle droids she'll be facing on the front lines. Anakin agrees, and says that's the whole point of the drills: if she can learn to dodge and deflect clone trooper fire, fighting battle droids will be easy.
- Irony:
- Clone trooper Jesse is the first clone to stun Ahsoka at the beginning and apologizes to her for it. He later leads the 332nd Company in attempting to carry out Order 66 against her at the end of the war.
- Ahsoka more or less learned how to survive Order 66 due to training from the man who carried out Order 66 himself.
- Meaningful Echo: "You're on time." "I thought I was late." "Exactly." First said by Obi-Wan to Anakin, then by Anakin to Ahsoka.
- So Proud of You: After the first Time Skip to later in the Clone War, Rex commends Ahsoka for lasting more than 5 minutes against him and the other 501st troopers. Though he doesn't speak, the look on Anakin's face as he watches her says he's just as proud, if not more so, of her progress.
- Time Skip: After the first round of training, there's a couple cuts as Ahsoka is shown doing the same training a few years later, then again to her and Rex pulling their Trojan Prisoner gambit during Order 66 from the final Clone Wars episode "Victory and Death".
- Training from Hell: Anakin arranges a new test because he feels the Jedi tests are inadequate. This involves fighting a dozen clones all attempting to stun her. Cue a Training Montage with Ahsoka getting stunned over and over.
- The Voiceless: Several Jedi cameo but do not speak, most prominently Yoda, Tera Sinube, Depa Billaba, and Caleb Dume.
- The Walls Are Closing In: Ahsoka's second test has her fighting training probes inside a slowly collapsing forcefield.
