Although Star Wars has fallen as a franchise since its acquisition by Disney, there are still quite a few bright spots to Disney Star Wars. One of them is the work of Dave Filoni, who has risen from a Lucas apprentice to one of the leading writers working on Star Wars right now. In addition to Star Wars: Rebels, he“s also been one of the creators responsible for Disney“s recent success on The Mandalorian for Disney+. However, before that, Filoni made his name on the greatest Star Wars companion show, the show that started it all”¦ Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
I admit that I came late to the Clone Wars party, having discovered it after the Disney/Lucasfilm acquisition, and after watching Rebels. In fact, it was Rebels that introduced me to the characters of Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex, and that show hinted at the developments of the Clone Wars television show. However, Rebels made me interested in who these people had been before the rise of the Empire, and I eagerly devoured the entire Clone Wars series in hindsight. At that point, I finally understood the appeal of Clone Wars and why it had been so successful. I learned to love Ahsoka Tano and enjoyed her journey from overbearing, impulsive Jedi apprentice to a mature, disillusioned young woman trying to find her place in the world. It was disappointing that the acquisition had pulled the plug on this show, and all the more exciting that Filoni and his team would finally return to complete the story, even without George Lucas“s direct involvement like in the Lucasfilm-era seasons.
The challenge for a successful show to return after so long off the air is the high expectations, all fueled by nostalgia. If the show took a turn for the worse, nostalgia can actually create fan resentment towards the new content, especially with the current ill will towards Disney Star Wars after the sequel trilogy. However, that proves not to be the case, as Filoni and his team more than rise to the challenge, creating a series finale that ranks among the very best of Star Wars epics.
Admittedly, this season is not perfect, and it does take some time to get to the main event. The first arc, featuring a group of misfit super-clones called the Bad Batch, is largely the Dee Bradley Baker show. That“s actually meant as a compliment, because Baker does an amazing job of making every clone he“s voicing sound different and distinctive as a person. We also get to see Anakin Skywalker in action in these stories for one last time, and the show never lets you forget that none of what we see is going to last for very long. However, the Jedi are largely very much in the background, and anyone hoping to see the other Jedi for long in this season may be disappointed by that. Still, the Bad Batch are excellent characters, Rex“s character arc here is well written and acted, the action is superbly executed, and I hope we see more of these clones in future Star Wars series.
The middle arc is unfortunately the weakest part of the season, and I wouldn“t blame anyone from skipping through some of it past Ahsoka“s return. This is not because the story is necessarily bad, because it“s serviceable for what it needs to do. It“s mostly a storyline centered on Ahsoka returning to the fold, eventually meeting up with Mandalorian leader Bo-Katan (played by Katee Sackhoff). However, the process of getting there can feel tedious at times, and the new characters are just not that interesting compared to the many other fascinating players on this show. The Montez sisters do help to show Ahsoka a side of the galaxy she hadn“t been exposed to before, and this is an important part of Ahsoka“s arc. However, it“s hard to care about Trace or Rafa that much in the time it takes to get to the good stuff””the setup to the Siege of Mandalore, Maul“s return, and the climactic final arc of the series.
On the bright side, the final arc of Clone Wars is easily one of the best series finales in television history, and it may rank quite highly in Star Wars history after all is said and done. The last four episodes take the material seriously, and the show makes this clear with the change to the show“s intro format. Gone are the World War 2 newsreel style recaps that have been a friendly highlight of Clone Wars since Season 1. In its place, the intro does a callback to the “Lucasfilm Limited”“ that preceded the original Star Wars films, a reverential nod to George Lucas. The music is much more ominous and somber, and the title sequences are likewise a throwback to the episode format from the classic Lucas-era Star Wars films. It“s a change that reminds the viewer that the show is finally catching up to Revenge of the Sith, that the show is entering the dark times.
The final four episodes feel like they could be a companion piece to Revenge of the Sith, and if you“re a fan of that film, you will love the callbacks. Some of them are quite obvious, such as Palpatine“s call to implement Order 66, while others feel like natural additions to the story that Lucas wrote. Ahsoka“s final holo-call to the Jedi Council connects seamlessly with one particular scene in Revenge of the Sith, and it“s clear Filoni and the writing team took careful notes from George Lucas. At the same time, this show doesn“t rely on that fanservice, and everything in the final arc flows from who the characters are and what Clone Wars has always been about. Ahsoka battles Maul to end the Siege of Mandalore, and while some might take issue with the execution, it still feels earned after her journey over five seasons to get to this point. Later, when she“s forced to fight the clones who she“d called friends for six seasons, we see her struggle with her decisions, even if it might endanger her and Captain Rex. The characters all inevitably end up where they need to be, but we care about the journey, the thorny ethical decisions they struggle with at the dawn of the Empire.
Finally, it would be remiss to discuss this last season without talking about what an outstanding villain Darth Maul is in these final episodes. Maul is a character that impressed me as a blade fighter in The Phantom Menace, but he was a villain that seemed hollow as a character in that film. The Clone Wars was responsible for rebuilding him into an interesting, tragic character, using Palpatine“s abandonment and hatred of Obi-Wan Kenobi to fuel his growth. Season 7 puts Maul in a unique place by making him the one character outside of Palpatine who can connect the dots in the grand plans of Darth Sidious. Maul“s agenda is about how best to take advantage of his master“s plan, whether to exploit it or to try to oppose it, and it“s fascinating to watch Maul go through his paces. Maul is typically a character who is blinded, usually by hatred or ambition, but putting him in a position where he“s the most aware is a fascinating change for him. Sam Witwer delivers an outstanding performance as Maul opposite of Ashley Eckstein“s always fantastic Ahsoka, and this confrontation is satisfying to watch. Moreover, it“s good to see Ray Park back as Maul as well, and his motion-capture action scenes make this look even more like the same Maul from Episode I. This Maul is the culmination of everything Clone Wars has built him into, while also setting him up for his future encounters with Ahsoka, Kanan, and Ezra Bridger on Star Wars: Rebels.
While I honestly can“t say Clone Wars ends on an absolutely perfect note, the ending is so excellent, so worth the wait, that it outweighs even a sagging middle. While a bad ending can bring down even a very good show, a fantastic ending can lift up a season to new heights regardless of what preceded it. There are some missed opportunities I wish the show would have filled, and I wish they“d given Filoni another ten episodes to conclude some other character arcs, like Asajj Ventress. I also wish we“d seen Wolffe and Gregor, who we know Rex eventually meets up with before the start of Rebels. However, none of that matters in the scheme of things. The four-part Clone Wars finale is honestly worth watching by itself, and if you bought the season just for that, it would be a good investment. However, as a whole, this is still a great final season, and if you“re a Clone Wars fan, you should more than walk away satisfied.
Score: 4.5/5
Network: Disney+
Executive Producer: Dave Filoni
Starring: Ashley Eckstein, Dee Bradley Baker, Matt Lanter, David Arnold Taylor, Sam Witwer
Author Profile
- Steve Sellers had been a fan of superheroes ever since Superman: The Movie. But it took the JSA, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Dragonlance, Lord of the Rings, Twilight Zone, and Chris Claremont's legendary run on the X-Men to make him a writer and a longtime fan of comics, fantasy, and science fiction. Steve is the co-creator of WHITE DRUID & MICHAEL NERO and GUARDIANS OF ELAYIM for Omen Comics, and he is also the creator of BLITZ and SHOCKWAVE for Revelation Comics (an imprint of Omen Comics).
