Written by: Kevin Berge
That's right. The selling point of this final season is Darth Maul, the most important character of The Clone Wars that few knew was even alive during The Clone Wars. (Image Courtesy of: starwars.com)
Quick Take: Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Final Season carries the weight of later highly regarded seasons of the series. It is weighty, intense, and ultimately wraps up the stories of many of the series' most beloved characters.
Star Wars Reviews: Episode I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | Themes of the Trilogies | Rogue One | Solo | Clone Wars (2003) | The Clone Wars (2008) | Rebels (S1/S2/S3/S4) | The Mandalorian S1
***This review will contain spoilers for the entire run of Star Wars: The Clone Wars including some spoilers for Star Wars Rebels. If you have not seen both series in their entirety, only read ahead if you are comfortable being spoiled on any events.***
It has been a long time since I talked about The Clone Wars. This series progressively got better in time, though it did start at a low point including the worst Star Wars film ever released (which is a feat). The promise of more was welcome, and the result was far more season 5 than season 1.
This final season focuses on ending the stories of a few key characters to The Clone Wars. While fans know what happened to Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker, the stories of important clone troopers as well as Ahsoka Tano were not completely told.
The show starts by introducing The Bad Batch, a group of modified clones that help Captain Rex find his supposedly killed friend Echo. The group is delightfully memorable and worthy of its own Disney+ series, which was recently announced.
This section nails the way the series is driven by its development of the clones as individual characters. While Jedi get many chances in the spotlight, this series was so valuable in showing a soldier's view on a war out of his control.
Rex is perhaps the most important character in this final season as his story dominates all 12 episodes. The other vital character is Ahsoka. While she reappears in Star Wars Rebels in a memorable run, the tension of watching her final days connected to the war builds to Order 66.
First, she finds two sisters, Trace and Rafa, who give her a fresh perspective on Jedi in Coruscant. She protects them in the midst of the dangerous jobs they must take after a Jedi accidentally caused the death of their parents. This helps reinforce her idea that she is done working as a Jedi.
The show has not been afraid to question the ideal of the Jedi, a focus that was always important in the prequel era. The Jedi have never been and will never be the perfect harbingers of peace many hoped they could be.
***This review will contain spoilers for the entire run of Star Wars: The Clone Wars including some spoilers for Star Wars Rebels. If you have not seen both series in their entirety, only read ahead if you are comfortable being spoiled on any events.***
It has been a long time since I talked about The Clone Wars. This series progressively got better in time, though it did start at a low point including the worst Star Wars film ever released (which is a feat). The promise of more was welcome, and the result was far more season 5 than season 1.
This final season focuses on ending the stories of a few key characters to The Clone Wars. While fans know what happened to Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker, the stories of important clone troopers as well as Ahsoka Tano were not completely told.
The show starts by introducing The Bad Batch, a group of modified clones that help Captain Rex find his supposedly killed friend Echo. The group is delightfully memorable and worthy of its own Disney+ series, which was recently announced.
This section nails the way the series is driven by its development of the clones as individual characters. While Jedi get many chances in the spotlight, this series was so valuable in showing a soldier's view on a war out of his control.
Rex is perhaps the most important character in this final season as his story dominates all 12 episodes. The other vital character is Ahsoka. While she reappears in Star Wars Rebels in a memorable run, the tension of watching her final days connected to the war builds to Order 66.
First, she finds two sisters, Trace and Rafa, who give her a fresh perspective on Jedi in Coruscant. She protects them in the midst of the dangerous jobs they must take after a Jedi accidentally caused the death of their parents. This helps reinforce her idea that she is done working as a Jedi.
The show has not been afraid to question the ideal of the Jedi, a focus that was always important in the prequel era. The Jedi have never been and will never be the perfect harbingers of peace many hoped they could be.
What if Ahsoka was the Chosen One the whole time and everybody just assumed it was the straight while human male instead? (Image Courtesy of: ew.com)
Then we come to the often talked-about arc that most thought we would never see, the Siege of Mandalore. Ahsoka leads a group of clones with Lady Bo-Katan Kryze in regaining Mandalore from Darth Maul, who has turned the city into a center for crime and corruption.
This is an incredible finale for the series as Ahsoka confronts Maul, wins, but finds herself trapped on a Star Destroyer with an army of clones as Palpatine sends Order 66. While Ahsoka finds perhaps too much success in everything she does, the show makes it all engaging.
Viewers with a complete understanding of where Ahsoka and Maul will end up know that their story does not end here. This makes this more of a prequel at this point than it had been for these characters in the past. It works on that level to show how both fall far in their goals.
The series even explains how Rex escaped Order 66. Ahsoka is the key. This shows the power of the chips implanted in every clone. Only its removal can stop these soldiers for following an order to kill their comrades and friends.
This final season is brilliant because it does what it needs to do. It wraps up the loose threads of the series for those vitally important to the show. In the end, The Clone Wars was always about Ahsoka and Rex and the clones as a whole. Even if familiar Jedi came into play, they were the weakest elements of the show.
This was a show about responsibility, about duty, and about friendship. It showed that Star Wars is more than just the Force and fate. It is a fantasy of how we all choose to live our lives. It proves that Star Wars will often be better as a series than a film.
I am glad that Dave Filoni and his team got an opportunity to complete this tale. Even if the series is best watched in bits and pieces, this final season was more or less perfect, worth watching for any Star Wars fan.
This is an incredible finale for the series as Ahsoka confronts Maul, wins, but finds herself trapped on a Star Destroyer with an army of clones as Palpatine sends Order 66. While Ahsoka finds perhaps too much success in everything she does, the show makes it all engaging.
Viewers with a complete understanding of where Ahsoka and Maul will end up know that their story does not end here. This makes this more of a prequel at this point than it had been for these characters in the past. It works on that level to show how both fall far in their goals.
The series even explains how Rex escaped Order 66. Ahsoka is the key. This shows the power of the chips implanted in every clone. Only its removal can stop these soldiers for following an order to kill their comrades and friends.
This final season is brilliant because it does what it needs to do. It wraps up the loose threads of the series for those vitally important to the show. In the end, The Clone Wars was always about Ahsoka and Rex and the clones as a whole. Even if familiar Jedi came into play, they were the weakest elements of the show.
This was a show about responsibility, about duty, and about friendship. It showed that Star Wars is more than just the Force and fate. It is a fantasy of how we all choose to live our lives. It proves that Star Wars will often be better as a series than a film.
I am glad that Dave Filoni and his team got an opportunity to complete this tale. Even if the series is best watched in bits and pieces, this final season was more or less perfect, worth watching for any Star Wars fan.
