I have already talked about the Star Wars prequel movies in one of my earlier posts... but I never gave myself the chance to talk about the TV series or the movie of the spin-off "The Clone Wars" and I guess is only fair considering I love this franchise ever since I was a kid; I would have given a cold shoulder to this series but considering it´s overall quality that would be very unjust, specially now that I have seen it completely I really want to share my thoughts on this massive project.
The movie came out on theaters on 2008 and I watch it at the time, to put it short, it´s ok; it´s no mystery that the film was made with the sole propose of introducing us to the then upcoming tv series. The story is more of a character build up for Ashoka Tano and her bonding with Anakin Skywalker, who is her master. I can say that the series plays it very safe with their limitations witch to me was the best move; I might be making this up, but to me this seemed like an idea of George Lucas to try and cash in more into the franchise with a theatrical release... again, this is what I think happened. The movie is very out there with it´s story and reason to be released but it was good enough to keep me entertained.
The series itself is much better; before it aired I didn't knew what to make of it, why have it taking place during the clone wars? why Anakin has a padawan himself when he never mentions this in any of the prequels? What will happen to Ashoka? Actually, she was the main reason why I decided to watch the show... most people probably assumed she would die at some point considering she is nowhere in "Revenge of the Sith" so we could only assume we would see her fate at some point.
There are plenty of things that happen in this series so instead I will give my personal thoughts on each season and explain what worked for me and what didn't:
In season 1 there are some good episodes has well has some pretty good action, some even worked much better than in the movie, it keeps a very lighthearted tone but still got some backlash for being a violent TV show for kids, there are some episodes where main characters die off and sometimes even in somewhat graphic manners... the thing I mostly remember was the season finale that I won´t spoil but let´s just say it was really interesting considering the demographic and the villains being very dark. To me it worked very well.
Season 2 was called "Rise of the Bounty Hunters" (I don´t know about you, but I am thinking Samus
Aran), Cad Bane, the main bad guy of season 1´s finale is again seen in the premiere and they remained true to his character, the majority of season 2 was very similar to the first, with some intense action scenes with light hearted tones for kids, despite the large adult viewer base. What I remember the most is the story between Obi-Wan and duchess Satine, that similar to Anakin, Obi-Wan dealt with the same feelings of confusion for his loved one... but unlike Anakin, he got passed them.
Season 3 was called "Secrets Reveled" and this is where the series got better, this is mostly because of the stories they told here. My favorite is one part where Anakin is put to a test to see if he really is the chosen one, the test is about him having to control a brother and a sister, the brother (played by Sam Witwer) is the dark side of the force and the sister is the light side, their father is what keeps them in balance but he is getting older so Anakin is supposed to take his place if he proves himself; this series of episodes is particularly good because there are plenty of symbolism and some very deep moment for a TV series on cartoon network, we also learn more about Assaj Ventress and her past witch I thought was pretty interesting. The character models and animation in general starts to improve at this point.
Season 4 was called "Battlelines" witch fits for at least the first episodes witch take place again in Mon Calamari, we saw this battle shortly on the original Clone Wars series before the release of Revenge of the Sith in theaters, it was cool to see it at a much larger scale and with some really good 3D animation, although many things happen in this season and gets much darker, it really doesn't even tell all the stories to their fullest making it feel to me like a wasted opportunity; I think this season was generally good although it has some weak moments.
Season 5 doesn't have a name like the other seasons and for the most part is a very mix bag, while there are some excellent episodes and even most of my favorite are here, there are some very bad ones too, for example there is one series of episodes about droids on some boring mission that I really didn't care for... I found myself yawing many times while another series focused on younglings having to build their lightsabers, interesting idea but just taken too far with pirates invading and stuff, by the end, it just really sticked out like a sour thumb... but the next episodes are great, we see Darth Maul and the mandalorians teaming up to take over Mandalore, all hell breaks loose and there are many big moments that happen here. The season finale is in my opinion the best of the whole series, it´s a four parter that focuses on Ashoka and without spoiling anything, let´s just say here is the big emotional moment the series has ever put up... it´s hard not to sympathize with Ashoka´s plight and it´s conclusion is a very powerful moment that really sticked out for me, she became a full likable character by the end has well... Thanks to this, Ashoka might just now be one of my favorite star wars characters ever.
Finally there is season 6 called "The Lost Missions", it´s only 13 episodes long but they are very well done, this was meant to be a never released season but in the end Netflix picked it up and was finally lunched for us to enjoy, it´s a shame that we don´t get the whole story but these are actually pretty good on their own, without revealing much there is one interesting series of episodes about the order 66 and why it exist, it felt very out there with it´s explanation but I buy it, considering the bond I saw through the series between the jedi and the clones, I felt this needed an explanation, because why would they just kill the jedi in "Revenge of the Sith" in cold blood when we see they are good friends? That hole is fixed. The final episodes focus on Yoda, has he learns how to communicate with the dead (A trick he teaches Obi-Wan at the end of Revenge of the Sith and we see Yoda applying it in Return of the Jedi) and I feel like we saw the pilot episode having Yoda has the protagonist and the final episode being Yoda has well was a great idea kinda like a cool contrast there; you really see how the jedi master is pushed to the very limit in the ending and it was very satisfying, it was a very satisfying ending where it pretty much closes every loss end, not all of them with the series sadly being cutoff before it was finished, but I can tell the attempt was there.
The Clone Wars was a good show, it had a solid run; it was easy to assume for a moment that this series was made solely to cash in on the franchise and make a quick buck with a bad sole season, but it wasn't really... Shame we´ll never get to see the whole story but by the end you feel like you came full circle. By the end, I can look at this series has a great filler for some of the plot holes the prequels made; almost like it was made with that propose and with that it made it so much more worth watching.
The force was strong with this one... and I hope to see more good series like this in the star wars universe...
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