For fans of The Clone Wars animated television series, the name Pong Krell will be familiar to you after the Umbara arc in season four. This 4-episode arc was one of the most intriguing of the entire series as it showed viewers that not all Jedi saw the Clones as brothers in arms.
While anyone who has watched the arc will be able to tell you that Krell turned the Clones on one another, few people know why he hated the troopers so much!
Here’s what you need to know.
Why does Pong Krell hate Clone troopers?
Pong Krell hated the Clone troopers for more than one reason. His actions in Umbara were years in the making and stemmed from his instant dislike of the Republic’s army. Here are 3 reasons why he hated clone troopers so much:
- He saw them as disposable and not as individual beings
- He’d turned to the dark side and thus viewed them as his enemies
- He’d foreseen how the Clone Wars ended
#1 Krell saw the Clones as disposable
One of the biggest issues that Pong Krell had with the Clones was that he never understood why other Jedi treated the Clones as equals. For Krell, they were disposable items that could be used to guarantee victory in battle.
This is evidenced early on in the Clone Wars where Krell was seen to be disgruntled when Master Yoda and Master Plo Koon suggested in a meeting that all troopers should be treated as individuals while under the command of the Jedi.
While Krell didn’t argue the point, it was clear that he wasn’t impressed by this idea.
This instruction from Yoda and Plo Koon clearly didn’t have an impact on him as throughout the war, Pong Krell’s battalions had more clone casualties than any other. However, he also secured more victories in battle than the majority of Jedi generals.
His tactics didn’t take into consideration the humane side of the Clones, but they did secure victories on the battlefield for the Republic. Krell believed this to be far more important than the lives of Clones.
There are also hints throughout the Umbara arc that Krell didn’t even think that the Clones could think for themselves. Upon receiving praise from Captain Rex, Krell commented that he found it interesting that Rex was able to “recognise the value of honour”, treating him like a mindless droid.
In fact, we believe that Rex may not have been so ‘mindless’, as he may have found out that Anakin was Darth Vader!
By Umbara, he viewed them as enemies
By the time of the Umbara arc, Pong Krell had turned to the dark side of the Force and was essentially acting as a secret agent of the Sith. So, when he was tasked with temporarily taking over the 501st, it was his intention to lose the battle and to cause as many casualties as possible without being caught out.
Orders that Krell gave out during the battle on Umbara included:
- Going through the main road into the City, rather than advancing via the outskirts.
- Refusing to let troopers retreat when under heavy fire.
- Telling one battalion of Clones to turn on a different one.
Unfortunately for Krell, the 501st were usually led by Anakin Skywalker so they didn’t take too kindly to Krell’s approach and ultimately decided to follow their own lead. This resulted in numerous clone troopers being put up for execution by Krell.
Anakin later joined forces with the 501st legion for the attack on the Jedi Temple, where many atrocities occurred such as the death of the Younglings.
The fact that the Clones had been disobeying orders frustrated Krell immensely due to the fact he didn’t believe they could think for themselves. He saw them as agents of war who should follow orders without hesitation.
After a power struggle, the Clones ultimately managed to imprison Krell where he revealed his true intentions before being executed by Dogma. Krell stated that he was planning on becoming Count Dooku’s new Sith apprentice, proving that during the mission on Umbara he was seeking out clone deaths.
He had foreseen the end of the Clone Wars
During the Umbara arc, it was revealed that Pong Krell’s fall to the dark side was a result of premonitions that he had experienced about the end of the Clone Wars. While he had clearly always had dark side tendencies, proven by his attitude towards Clones from the get-go, it was these visions that fully turned him.
He had seen that by the end of the Clone Wars the Republic would fall and that a new order would reign supreme over the Galaxy.
Instead of trying to potentially stop this from occurring, Krell decided that he would attempt to become part of this new order by learning from Count Dooku. It is presumed that if Krell had escaped from Umbara then he would have sought out, and joined, Dooku.
These premonitions could go a long way to explaining why Pong Krell hates the clone troopers. While it was never revealed how detailed these premonitions were, it is not outside the realms of possibility that he saw Clones executing Order 66 and ultimately bringing the Clone Wars to a close.
If he did see this, then his attitude towards them would make more sense.
It is quite poetic in a way that one of the last things Krell did before he died was kill multiple clone troopers in rage, finally letting out all of his built-up anger from over the years. As is the fact he met his end at the hands of a clone trooper!
Conclusion
Pong Krell’s story is an interesting one that I wish we had seen more of. It was a ‘waste’ that we only saw the last few days of his life on-screen, and it would have been fascinating to have an in-depth look at how he came to hate the Clones so much even prior to his dark side turn.
Regardless, we hope we have been able to fill in the gaps as best we can by analysing the canon material available to us and you now have a good idea as to why Pong Krell had it in for the clone troopers.
You can find out more about why the Empire stopped using clones, as well as if they were really Mandalorians here.
Are you passionate about Star Wars and want to earn some flexible income?