Hey there, Rebelscum fans! This week on the site we’re looking at the Battle of Christophsis, the pivotal battle from the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie that was also featured several times in the series. Make sure to read our “Expand Your Mind” article first to learn about the initial meeting of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, and stay tuned throughout the week for more articles, insights, videos, and updates on the best merchandising content that collectors should be looking for.


The Clone Wars was not aired in chronological order, and within the first two and a half seasons in particular, many later episodes helped to shed insight on future developments within the series. An official timeline on StarWars.com can give new viewers (or those who’ve binged through the entire series) an insight on how to watch in chronological order, rather than release. The earliest episode in the timeline is season two’s “Cat and Mouse,” which takes place before season one’s “The Hidden Enemy” and the 2008 theatrical film.


“Cat and Mouse” shows the initial stages of the Battle of Christophsis and introduces a new Seperatist leader: Admiral Trench. While Count Dooku’s allies include the Seperatist bureaucrats, Sith acolytes, and droid commanders, many fearsome strategists of varying alien races were also courted to the Seperatist cause. Trench had a reputation as a ruthless tactician long before the Clone Wars conflict began, and many assumed that he was dead.


Admiral Yularen, a key Republic leader who you can also spot at Darth Vader’s roundtable in A New Hope, explains Trench’s history to Anakin when it's clear he poses a serious threat. Trench had a notoriety for bringing down flagships with cloaking devices by using tracking torpedoes to find their location. In a pre-Clone Wars conflict, Trench led a corporate blockade on Malastare that nearly destroyed Yularen’s fleet and ravaged many key Republic ships, taking the lives of his crews. Eventually a Jedi task force managed to bring down Trench, but the elusive leader managed to escape.


In order to take down Trench and secure a safe landing for the clone forces onto Christophsis, Anakin and Yularen know a traditional squadron assault will not be effective. They instead rely on the use of an experimental stealth ship equipped with a tracking device. While The Empire Strikes Back revealed that “no ship that small has a tracking device,” The Clone Wars showed one that actually did. The missile tracking battle saw The Clone Wars drawing from submarine movie classics like The Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide.


Trench’s ship is destroyed, but once again the Harch leader lived to fight another day. He showed up again in The Clone Wars’s sixth season in the episode “The Unknown,” where he leads a ground assault force against Shaak Ti and Anakin as they investigate the Order 66 conspiracy. Trench returned once more for the seventh season, where he’s taken down by Anakin, Rex, and their new allies the Bad Batch in their first appearance prior to the spinoff series.

What do you think, Rebelscum fans? How did Trench change your perception of a Sepratist leader? Who are some of your favorite side villains from The Clone Wars? Let us know in the forums, and as always, may the Force be with you!

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