Clone Cadets

"Brothers in arms are brothers for life."

- Jedi Fortune Cookie

"Clone Cadets" is the first episode of the third season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It is the forty-fifth episode of the series overall. It was released in tandem with "ARC Troopers" on September 17, 2010 on Cartoon Network.

Synopsis
Echo, Fives, Hevy, and Cutup, known as Domino Squad because they tend to fall one by one, are in a training session. With Shaak Ti, Bric, and El-Les observing them, the goal of their session is to take over a fortress, heavily guarded by training battle droids, and claim it by capturing the flag on the roof of the citadel. However, their team fails due to many arguments among the members and failure to follow orders. Not pleased on the overlook, the cadets' trainer, Bric, becomes enraged by the groups failure and vehemently threatens to send them to maintenance.

When the cadets return to their living quarters, Echo begins an argument with Hevy, causing a disruptive fight in the hallways. The fight soon comes to an end as Bric breaks the two up. After this event, Bric, gives all of the cadets in the area yet another demeaning lecture, stating that they are all a waste of his time. As Bric walks away, Hevy attempts to go after him, but is stopped by Fives.

Lama Su is shown later talking to Shaak Ti about the failing Domino Squad. Shaak Ti, who does not seem in favor of this, explains to him how the clones should not be 'cast off'. Lama Su tells her that the final decision of the fate of Domino Squad is up to her.

The next day, some ARC troopers, including Commander Colt, arrive to the facility to observe the cadets' final test. After a brief lecture, Bravo Squad, holding the record time for the training session, hits the training arena first. After swiftly and successfully capturing the flag at the top of the fortress, it is soon time for Domino squad to take the final test. The squad seems to be in high hopes and preforms well for the first few moments, however all goes wrong when Cutup is shot down and his teammates do not go back to help him. Failing once again for disobeying orders, Domino Squad is rebuked by Commander Colt and sent back to their living quarters.

Bric is as angry, stating that he should not have wasted his time training Domino Squad. Feeling more affectionate towards Domino Squad, El-Les replies that he had received word from Shaak Ti that she had allowed Domino Squad to retake the test. He asks Bric why he does not care about them, and he contemptuously replies that he only cares about being paid and had also requested that Domino Squad be moved to maintenance.

During another time, Echo and Fives confront Shaak Ti and request a transfer to Bravo Squad. Teaching them a lesson, she states that they are where they need to be. Although rejecting their request, she tells them that she has decided to let them along with the rest of Domino Squad to retake the test. Around the same time, Bric asks Cutup to meet him in the hangar. Cutup does as he requests, only to find out that Bric wanted to accuse him of his whole team's failure in person.Overturned by his anger, he beats on him and refers to him as a 'real cut-up'. Cutup thanks him for giving him this nickname, however Bric is not amused as he leaves to his living quarters.

During the night, Hevy sneaks out of his bed with plans to abandon his squad in mind. Hevy begins to pack his luggage, as 99 spots him. Telling Hevy that his brothers need him to stay, 99 is able to persuade Hevy to stay.

The next morning, Domino Squad heads out to the training arena to retake their test. Showing great teamwork through the test, El-Les and Shaak Ti seemed pleased. When Domino Squad finally reaches the citadel after destroying all the Training Battle Droids, they panic, finding that they do not have their ascension cables. El-Les inquires to Shaak Ti and Bric on where their ascension cables were. Bric implies that he took them, and EL-Les attempts to persuade Shaak Ti to stop the test. Shaak Ti declines EL-Les' request and continues to observe what Domino Squad would do without their ascension cables. Back on the field, Domino Squad comes up with a plan to deactivate the wall turrets and use them to scale the wall. This plan succeeds and Hevy triumphantly captures the flag, knowing that Domino Squad had passed the test.

Soon after, the cadets receive their badges and are promoted to clone troopers. As the small graduation ceremony ends, Hevy bids farewell to 99, giving him his badge. As Hevy and the rest of his group head out to board the attack cruiser, he promises that they would meet again.

Cast
Starring
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Clone Troopers
 * Larry Brandenburg as Bric / Medical Droid
 * Nolan North as El-Les / Computer
 * Tasia Valenza as Shaak Ti
 * Bob Bergen as Lama Su
 * Tom Kane as Narrator

Crew
Created and Executive Produced by
 * George Lucas

Supervising Director
 * Dave Filoni

Produced by
 * Cary Silver

Directed by
 * Dave Filoni

Written by
 * Cameron Litvack

Score by
 * Kevin Kiner

Original Star Wars Themes and Score by
 * John Williams

Characters

 * 99
 * Bric
 * Blitz
 * Colt
 * Cutup
 * Droidbait
 * Echo
 * El-Les
 * Jango Fett
 * Fives
 * Havoc
 * Hevy
 * Anakin Skywalker
 * Rex
 * Shaak Ti
 * Lama Su

Creatures

 * Siniteen
 * Kaminoan

Droid models

 * Astromech Droid
 * Maintenance Droid
 * Scrubber Droid
 * PLNK-series power droid
 * Training battle Droid
 * Battle Droid
 * B-series battle droid
 * B1 Battle Droid
 * B2 Super Battle Droid
 * BX-Series Droid Commando

Locations

 * Christophsis
 * North Tower
 * South Tower
 * Wild Space
 * Kamino System
 * Kamino
 * Tipoca City
 * Tipoca City Military Complex

Events

 * Clone Wars
 * Battle of Christophsis
 * First Battle of Geonosis Indirect mention only

Behind the scenes

 * The blasters given to both the droids and cadets in this episode were the first appearance of training blasters.
 * "Clone Cadets" premiered along with "ARC Troopers" as part of the Season 3 debut. This episode place directly before the popular Season one episode "Rookies" as the end of the episode makes references to the Rishi outpost.
 * Commander Colt orders a challenge called "version THX, variable 11-38"- a reference to George Lucas's first feature film, THX 1138.