"Children of the Force" is the third episode in Season Two of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series. It is the twenty-fifth episode of the series overall and concludes a three-part storyline. It chronologically precedes the seventeenth episode of Season Two, "Bounty Hunters".
Darth Sidious has a new dark assignment for bounty hunter Cad Bane: kidnap Force-sensitive children from across the galaxy and bring them to Mustafar.
Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, returning from their failed mission to recapture the holocron captured by Cad Bane, whom they believe to be dead, land on the Resolute orbiting the Devaron System. Tano follows the clone trooper Denal, who supposedly killed Cad Bane and is injured, constantly asking questions with no answer from the clone. Skywalker, in the meantime, investigates a drop of green Duros blood on the floor of the shuttle they returned on and is alerted to the danger. He warns Tano, but it is too late. She is kneed hard in the chest by Cad Bane, disguised as the clone trooper, and he runs to the fighters to get away. Skywalker attempts to stop him by jumping onto the fighter, but Bane swerves the ship into the vacuum of space and he is forced to jump off. Skywalker then helplessly contacts Admiral Yularen and tells him to deactivate the hyperspace transport rings, but Yularen, too, is not in time, and Cad Bane escapes.
Back on Coruscant, Skywalker and Tano report to the Jedi High Council of the unfortunate turn of events. With Bane having access to the list of all Force-sensitive children in the holocron, that information is now in Separatist hands, which could be disastrous for the Order. Their only hope is to search through the Force to watch for any kidnappings.
Elsewhere, Bane is instructed by Darth Sidious to capture four Force-sensitive children and bring them to Mustafar; Bane considers it rash to kidnap innocents, but doesn't care, as long as he gets paid.
Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, and Skywalker meditate, trying to detect any children through the Force, as many are being overshadowed by the dark side. Skywalker then heads to Naboo to secure a Gungan child, and Kenobi to Rodia.
On Rodia, Bane poses as a Jedi, claiming that he is to take the child Wee Dunn to Coruscant; his mother protests that Master Bolla Ropal insisted that he is too young to do so; Bane insists, bluffing that there are "impostor" Jedi roaming around but Wee's mother refuses to let him go. Bane then uses a spinning device to "relax" her.
Kenobi then arrives on Rodia, hurrying to the Dunn home. However, Wee's mother threatens Kenobi with a blaster, but he pulls it out of her hands, demanding to know where Bane is. Bane then appears in the door, before flying off to his fighter and escaping.
On Naboo, Skywalker and Tano arrive to secure the Gungan child Roo-Roo Page. The latter goes to Jan-gwa city to watch over her. Later that night, Bane arrives, sneaking onto the Gungan city. He then sneaks into Roo-Roo's room, only to find Tano waiting for him. They engage in a small fight before he is captured; Tano takes back her Padawan braid.
On a Venator-class cruiser, Bane refuses to talk about where the other children he captured are, and his ship's navigation logs had been wiped. So Skywalker, Windu, and Kenobi try simultaneously to use the Mind Trick to force Bane to divulge their location, with the risk of destroying his mind. The experience is hard on Bane and he cooperates.
With Bane as their guide, Kenobi and Windu prepare to go find the children. Windu points out that they must report to the Chancellor about this, but Kenobi insists that this is a Jedi affair; Skywalker advocates contacting Palpatine.
On Coruscant, Skywalker reports to Palpatine of the plot. He expresses his belief that not even Count Dooku is behind it. The Chancellor asks Skywalker who he thinks is behind it, and he answers that he doesn't know; Palpatine tells him to have patience.
On Mustafar, Palpatine, as Sidious, appearing via hologram, tells the surgical droids to prepare the surgery for the children. He tells the droids that it is his intention to create an army of Sith spies to overwhelm the Jedi. If the children don't survive the procedure, he will have lost nothing.
The Jedi shuttle arrives at the station Bane specified, but the masters don't sense the children. Bane says that the children are safe; he only brought them to the holocron. He offers to get it, Windu refuses to be tricked, but accidentally trips the bridge's sensors, activating a number of turrets. The Jedi defend themselves as Bane leaves the station in an escape pod. Luckily, they grab the holocron and escape the station before it self-destructs.
Back on the Resolute, Skywalker and Tano check Bane's fighter for any clues. Tano finds volcanic ash on its hull, while Skywalker looks through its fueling log, determining that Bane had dropped his hostages on Mustafar. They then head out in the Twilight. However, their approach is detected and Sidious orders the children to be moved elsewhere and the facility destroyed. The Master-Padawan duo then enter the facility, drawn by Wee's cries. However, the droids use the children as shields while fighting the Jedi, as the facility falls apart. However, the Jedi managed to snatch the children away from the droids and escape before the entire facility collapses into the dangerous lava lake.
When they return to Coruscant, Skywalker admits to the Council that they were unable to find out who was behind the kidnappings. Yoda advises caution in the path ahead.
There were plans to implement the Gampassa, a gargantuan turtle-like creature based on the Hah-nu-nah from Native American oral mythology, but it was cut.
The first scene replays the last one from "Cargo of Doom," this time focusing on the clones instead of the Jedi. However, in the earlier version, Cad Bane (disguised as Denal) passed Anakin and Ahsoka as he walked out of the ship. In this episode, they are in a different place and talking to another clone trooper instead of Admiral Yularen.
While attempting to lock down the hyperdrive rings, Admiral Yularen says, "No, lock them all down! Hurry!" a line very similar to one said by C-3PO when telling R2-D2 to shut down the Death Star's trash compactors in A New Hope.
On Black Stall Station, Mace Windu rolls under a closing door, but then reaches back under it and uses the Force to grab his lightsaber. This is a reference to a recurring gag in George Lucas' Indiana Jones film series, where Indiana Jones reaches under a closing door to grab an important item such as his hat or whip.