Clone Wars Technically Did Revenge Of The Sith’s ‘Treason’ Line FIRST

One of the worst Jedi to betray the Republic during The Clone Wars was General Pong Krell, and in doing so, he technically uttered Palpatine’s infamous “It’s treason then” line first. In Clone Wars season 4, General Krell temporarily took over the 501st Legion from Anakin Skywalker, who had seemingly been ordered back to Coruscant by Palpatine, and led the Republic’s attack on the planet Umbara. The military campaign was a desperate attempt by the Republic to secure supply lines for the clone army.

While the Battle of Umbara ended up being a success, it didn’t come without cost. Clone troopers have always known they were bred for one purpose only – to defeat the Separatists – and so, dying for the Republic was something they were all prepared to do. However, more troopers were being killed under General Krell’s command than under any other Jedi, especially Skywalker. Sadly, it wasn’t until Krell pitted the 501st against another legion of clones that the troopers discerned the Jedi’s betrayal.

Captain Rex and his clone troopers surrounded General Krell in his command tower on Umbara and attempted to arrest him. Rex said to him, “General Krell, you’re being relieved of duty“, to which Krell replied, “It’s treason then.” A fight ensued but Krell managed to escape, running into the planet’s forest. Of course, Krell was ultimately apprehended later on, and it was revealed that his plan was to sabotage the clones and the Republic enough to get Count Dooku’s attention. It turns out that was a bad idea.

Thanks to quotes from the Star Wars prequel trilogy being turned memes over the past few years, Palpatine’s line, “It’s treason then“, has become ubiquitous on social media. But even before that, Lucasfilm was looking for ways to reference the prequels (which were believed to have been the end of the Star Wars saga, at the time) and Krell’s betrayal was the perfect opportunity to do so. Even beyond using the same line, both scenes – Krell and Palpatine’s attempted arrests – play out similarly; both are situated in towers and have had Republic officials come to arrest them, only for a fight to break out in a comparable fashion.

Given that Krell’s betray during the Battle of Umbara canonically takes place one year before Palpatine’s attempted arrest during Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, it technically happened first, despite being depicted on-screen six years after the last prequel movie released. But its usage isn’t as much of a retcon as it is one of many, many nods to George Lucas’ films – and those Star Wars Easter eggs and references continued through Clone Wars‘ final season in 2020.

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Mansoor Mithaiwala
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Mansoor Mithaiwala is Screen Rant’s TV Lead Editor. He originally joined the site as a freelance writer on the Lists team before moving over to News and Features, eventually becoming an editor in 2018. Over time he’s done quite a few different things, including helping launch gaming on the site, often handling news, features, and guides simultaneously. Now he sticks primarily to movies and TV, and spends way too much time looking at analytics. It sure seems like he’s put his Political Science degree to good use, huh?

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