You Have Some Homework To Do To Make The Most Of Star Wars Zero Company

Star Wars Zero Company takes place right at the end of The Clone Wars, my favorite period in Star Wars' huge timeline. That conflict begins with the Battle of Geonosis in Attack of the Clones and concludes with the deaths of the Separatist leaders in Revenge of the Sith, but a vast majority of the galaxy-spanning war is covered in the seven seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As such, Zero Company makes several references to the earlier seasons of the TV show that debuted in 2008. The biggest one, of what I've seen of the game so far anyway, comes right at the start of the story: Protagonist Hawks was made the scapegoat for a battle that went very wrong while working under General Pong Krell.

And, man, that name does a tremendous amount of narrative heavy lifting in characterizing Hawks. With one name, Bit Reactor basically gave me all the proof I needed that Hawks had not only seen some truly horrendous war crimes, but that whatever they were accused of was almost certainly not true. 

"The intended effect of the line worked, then," Bit Reactor narrative director Aaron Contreras told me. "Like, [Republic Intelligence] is talking about whether they can trust this guy, because he's a washout and a loser--he worked for Pong Krell. And so every [player] who knows this guy is like, 'It's not [Hawks'] fault then. That's the worst boss ever."

So even if you don't need to know Pong Krell to play Zero Company, I highly recommend you familiarize yourself with him beforehand. And the best way to do that is by watching The Clone Wars. Or, at the very least, one specific arc: Season 4's four-episode Umbara Arc.

The Clone Wars is always a tough show for me to recommend because it has some absolutely stellar episodes of television hidden in between mind-numbing episodes that are too silly or simply excruciatingly dull. I can only see Jar Jar Binks on my screen for so many minutes before I contemplate punching my TV.

But the show's gems are really, really good, largely for how they toe the line for what's typically acceptable for a children's show and include storylines that respect that kids can handle dark material in what is a show all about war, child soldiers, and the fall of a democracy. I'm still floored by some of the stuff that the showrunners were able to include, especially as the show departed from its sillier tone more often post-Season 2.

For example, Season 5, Episodes 17-20 is the Temple Bombing Arc, in which the Jedi Temple is bombed in a terrorist attack, and in a storyline that feels super 9/11-coded, both the government and the Jedi Council leap to assumptions, suspect and hastily imprison innocent people, and betray the trust of allies all in the name of catching the bomber.

And then there's Season 7, Episodes 9-12: the Siege of Mandalore Arc. That sees Ahsoka lead an army of Clones to free Mandalore from the control of Maul in a storyline that occurs simultaneously with Revenge of the Sith, with scenes from the movie slotting into events of the show for a tense war story where you're just waiting for the bombshell of Order 66 to drop.

There are a ton of other fantastic arcs besides these ones: the Second Invasion of Geonosis, Mortis, Asajj Ventress trying to assassinate Count Dooku, Maul taking over the criminal underworld, Fives trying to unravel the Clones Conspiracy, Obi-Wan Kenobi pulling a Face/Off to go undercover as a criminal bounty hunter, Anakin dealing with his PTSD regarding slavery while on an extremely pro-slavery planet. But none come close to the Umbara Arc, which I consider to be the best four episodes in the entire show.

The arc sees Anakin Skywalker needing to help Chancellor Palpatine on a special assignment and leaving his legion of Clone Troopers under the command of Pong Krell, a Jedi with a reputation for success at the cost of the troops under his command. We learn that no other Jedi has lost as many Clone Troopers as he has, and as soon as Anakin leaves, Krell immediately starts treating the clones as subhuman.

What follows is an arc in which the clones argue amongst themselves over how to deal with Pong Krell. Do they continue acting loyally to him like good soldiers do? His disregard for their lives and treatment of them as dispensable chess pieces makes it hard to follow him, but he does get positive results and achieves victories through his reckless tactics, like a crueler and less passionate Anakin Skywalker. Would it be better to act in the spirit of his orders and achieve his goals but not do so exactly as he says? That could work but also carries some risk because he threatened to kill a clone just for daring to express an opinion, so any clone would need to bend the rules secretly to follow that plan. Do they rebel against Krell entirely? That's an act of mutiny that might lead to all of them being court martialed upon Anakin's return.

The arc goes into how, under the laws of the republic that they serve, the clones aren't people. They're property. The only reason some of them have opinions at all is because most Jedi encouraged them to embrace their unique personalities and express themselves. Some of the clones argue that Krell isn't evil; he's just treating the clones as they're supposed to be treated. The other Jedi are the weird ones, they say. Others argue it doesn't matter--they know that they're people deserving of respect now thanks to the Jedi's influence, and you can't just turn that line of thinking off so easily.

Every clone has a different opinion on the matter, fracturing the legion in the middle of an invasion that sees them fighting on a planet blanketed in eternal darkness and endless forests, where the locals use guerrilla tactics to resist these republic invaders, chipping away at the clones' numbers and their sanity.

Then Krell does something really bad. It's one of those moments in the show that makes me go, "This cannot be a show for kids anymore." It's not overly violent. It's just disturbing to realize what's happening, and then the show lingers for a few extra seconds on the horror of the aftermath so you can really come to terms with Krell's cruelty.

So when Zero Company starts off by telling me that Hawks is a disgraced ex-Republic soldier who once served under Pong Krell, all I can think about is The Clones Wars' Umbara Arc and what Krell did during it. And it completely reframes my understanding of Hawks' past as a supposed failure. I don't think Hawks is using Zero Company to try to make up for a past mistake because I don't think there's a mistake for them to make up for--they were most likely framed.

Which is why, if you've got the time and a Disney+ subscription, you should check out The Clone Wars (specifically Season 4, Episodes 7-10) before picking up Star Wars Zero Company. That arc does a lot to inform what might have happened to Hawks prior to the events of the game and makes them a far more interesting protagonist than just another generic disgraced war hero. And you might as well watch the rest of the show too if you have the time, as well as its spin-offs (The Bad Batch, Tales of the Jedi, and Maul - Shadow Lord) because it sounds like Zero Company will be making plenty of references to the Star Wars universe at large.

"My writers are real [into] the Clone Wars era," Contreras said. "I'm an old guy, so I'm sort of like a Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia fan. I love the Clone Wars as well, but they're really into it in an unhealthy way, so if you like a deep dive, [the lore] is there. I think as far as the spread, I believe almost all of our locations existed already in lore. Some of them you may be seeing for the first time [fully] realized, but like we'll grab a name."

Zero Company's first mission occurs on Serolonis, for example, a planet first introduced into Star Wars in The Bad Batch. A later mission takes Hawks and their squad to Courtsilius, a planet in the Hosnian system. That's a place we've never seen before, save for at a great distance as it was being destroyed in The Force Awakens. And, as the gameplay reveal trailer for Zero Company already pointed out, Anakin Skywalker (who is likely mere months, if not weeks, away from turning into Darth Vader) will also be in the game.

Star Wars Zero Company is scheduled to launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on August 27.