Hard too believe it’s been nearly 5 whole years since Star Wars: The Clone Wars debut as a full feature film back in 2008. Upon its release, critics and fans blasted the film but it did manage to make about 68 million dollars at the box office with a budge of around 6.5 million, so it was at the very least a financial success. While the debut and the first two seasons may have been sub par but in the past few years, it has evolved into a great show and has become a worthy addition to the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Season 5 had potential to be the best season yet and a worthy conclusion to the series, however some one at Lucas Arts thought bringing back the childish things from S1 and 2 was a good idea and the end result is a good but flawed season.
Just to let you know this will probably be more of an analysis rather than a review similar to what I did with Legend of Korra. You can expect a long article so grab a six-pack, put on some Imperial March and enjoy the coming blend of rage and happiness.
ONDERON
The Onderon story was an interesting experiment that failed because of faulty execution and too much Legend of Korra style romance bullshit. The planet of Onderon (it’s not the same planet from A New Hope!) is under Separatist occupation and a small resistance movement is trying to liberate the planet and are asking the Jedi for assistance. The catch is neither the Jedi nor the Republic can officially help the resistance because their government openly sided with the Separatists at the beginning of the Clone Wars, if either of them choose to aid the resistance they would basically be helping terrorists fight against a legitimate government.
While the Council is against the idea of aiding terrorists, Anakin manages to convince them its the right thing to do but he and his team most do so discretely and should they be discovered aiding the resistance the backlash from the Republic and its allies. It could severely cripple the war effort and convince more systems to join Dooku and the Separatists. Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka need to use tactical ingenuity and subterfuge to accomplish their mission and cannot simply swing their lightsabers around to fix this delicate situation.
So we have a Clone Wars related story where the Jedi can’t use their lightsabers to solve the problem, where they have to do some very illegal and questionable things to succeed and we have a political situation that’s interesting and deals with a real world issue such as terrorism. This should mean the story arc was amazing… right? Well yes and no.
At first it seems as if George Lucas may have finally written a story where the political side of the conflict is done right in execution and that we get a story where there is no good or evil, it’s all in a sort of grey area. This is what would have happened if two characters were taken out entirely and they are the true and false kings of Onderon. The false king is the stereotypical selfish bastard who sold out his whole planet to become its ruler only to later be replaced by another puppet once he outlived his usefulness. The true king is the stereotypical good ruler that got overthrown and must return to his position in order for the good guys too win.
If these two characters were completely cut out and replaced with the people, choosing the Separatists over the Republic it would have created a far more interesting and less generic conflict. In Season 3 we got to see what life was like in the Confederacy and the mentality of the people living there. These officials of the government weren’t blood thirsty savages who were evil for the sake of being evil. They were planets and systems that felt the Republic had become too corrupt and didn’t care for those out in the Outer Rim territories so they formed a government that would. This along with manipulation courtesy of Sidious is the reason why the Clone Wars began in the first place.
When you have the people choose the side of the shows bad guys of their on free will and not because of some generic Quisling situation that we’ve seen a million times, the central conflict of the story becomes much more interesting. When a TV show or comic book series has an okay or eh story line I can forgive it if it gets put out of its misery quickly. But when a story line like this has so much potential to add more dimension to the Clone Wars well that just pisses me off when its all wasted. This is an inherent flaw of the entire series. Every single time they get the opportunity to do something interesting they always make the Republic good and the Confederacy evil, why?! Why can’t we get a story that questions who the good and bad guys really are? Why can’t we see the Republic act like bastards and the Confederacy do something noble? Why does it always have to be the same juvenile good vs evil story in the Star Wars universe? However, I digress.
Besides the wasted potential, the overall story is severely lacking in many other ways. The action scenes are boring mostly because the resistance uses the same tactic over and over. Have the girl be the sniper, and the guys throw EMP grenades at droids, that’s it. Almost every single fight with a couple of exceptions is just them throwing EMP grenades at droids and its not entertaining at all too watch. Steela and her brother Annoying Whinny Bitch (because his name escapes me and that’s his only personality trait) are the generic OOORRRAAHHH style freedom fighters and they don’t bring anything new to the table.
As I mentioned previously there is a love triangle between Steela, Lux and Ahsoka and it’s just as cringe worthy as you might think. After having my senses assaulted courtesy of watching Makkorra for 3 goddamn months I was not mentally or physically ready for more of that bullshit here. Ahsoka and Lux have only met twice, we never saw them actually get to know each other as people and the whole thing feels contrived just to add more drama. Take all my Legend of Korra romance complaints, apply them here and you’ll understand what im talking about.
Overall, the Onderon story had huge wasted potential, a love triangle that made me cringe, a single action scene that was reused 30 times and it lasted 4 episodes so the creators didn’t even have enough common courtesy to end it quickly before it got really bad.
YOUNGLINGS
When I saw that the next few episodes would be Ahsoka babysitting a bunch of little kids while on some whacky adventures I wanted too puke my guts out. Despite the odds stacked against it the Younglings story was actually an interesting look into the Jedi Order and we actually saw Jedi caught in a situation where their Force powers and lightsabers are useless and they need to use cunning to defeat their enemies.
Describing the premise is a bit tricky since there isn’t any overall plot throughout the 4 episode duration, the first episode deals with Yoda and Ahsoka taking a group of Youngling Jedi to the planet of Illum where the Order gets its crystals. In the temple of Illum, the children must find the crystals for their own light sabers by facing their own fears or getting rid of negative character traits such as cowardice and selfishness.
The new 3 episodes follow the group as they get involved with some business involving the Jack Sparrow of the Star Wars universe Hondo Ohnaka and his merry gang of space pirates and the once badass character of General Grievous who Lucas continues to butcher.
We did see the Youngling in the Prequel Trilogy and in some EU material, but they’ve never been featured as the main characters and we could never actually see how the training process was like for them. Sure, you can check it out through official decryptions by reading books like the Jedi Path or going to Wookipeedia. However, we never got the chance too see these things unfold first hand and that was interesting too see.
The Youngling characters easily could have been annoying and could have made you hate them all and you do, at first. That’s the point of the Illum part of the arc. Every one of these kids has faults and fears they need to overcome in order to begin the road to Knighthood. Sure, it is a bit cliché but it was something that these characters needed to go through if they ever wanted to become Jedi Knights and they actually develop as people by the time their trials are over.
I really don’t have that much more to say about this particular arc. It was surprisingly enjoyable. It gave us insight into an aspect of the Jedi life style we really didn’t get a chance to see before. When you remember what Anakin does to the Youngling at the Temple during Revenge of the Sith it just makes Vader and even greater bad guy without ever mentioned Anakin during the entire story.
D-SQUAD
When you hear Star Wars: The Clone Wars what do you expect to see on the show? I mean it’s a show that follows a small cast of characters as they partake in a galaxy wide conflict full of death, destruction, espionage and all that other fun stuff that happens during a war. How about we have a small quiz to see what you guys want from this show?
A) Jedi
B) Sith
C) Clones
D) Bounty Hunters
E) Padme Amidala
F) Droids
Now if you chose A through D, congratulations you are a sane human being! Moreover, if you chose either E or F then you need to get your fucking head examined! Why do the creators of this show constantly feel the need to throw in some Padme/Droid episodes that are so boring they’ve been scientifically proven to cause comas. Sure, we thankfully don’t get a single Padme centric episode but what we do get is a 4 episode story arc following R2-D2 and his merry band of robot idiots.
Four episodes! Do you have any idea what torture it is to follow a story like this for 4 weeks straight! Id rather pour acid down my throat and have some one rip my eyes out with a spoon. I cant even give you guys the basic premise because it was so boring and un-engaging 90% of the time I was just messing around with my iPhone playing Temple Run 2 while this was still going on in the background.
The Separatists captured some ambassador idiot and R2-D2 needs to lead a team of droids to save him. I don’t know why they need him but frankly I don’t give a damn and neither should you! Its like some one took all the bad aspects of the first two seasons, put them in here and just for shits and giggles made us watch it for 4 episodes.
My primary issue with this arc is length. This really didn’t need to last 4 goddamn episodes. This should have been a single one shot episode or a two parter but no some idiot over at Lucas Arts decided making it last as long as humanly possible was a great idea. I did not give a damn about anyone or anything that was going on and that may be result of my bias towards Force users but I doubt it as there were points where the droids were fun.
During the prison escape in Season 3, R2-D2 was pared up with several hacked battle droids and it was hilarious. It was awesome seeing our favorite astromech lead a team and kick some ass for a change. I would watch a whole revolving around them. However, no we just get a team of R2-D2 rejects that just go around being idiots for the sake of some awful comedy.
The biggest slap in the face happens when the Republic Commandos show up. Yes, fellow fans of Star Wars, some one at upper management had the adamantium balls to put our favorite clone soldiers in one of the worst story arcs in Star Wars history. They canceled the fantastic books by Karen Travis just so they could have them star in glorified cameos… What. The. Hell!
All right people listen up. Since we like to do contests on this site im going, too start a new one right here. What you need to do is get me the phone number, address, name, or whatever of the motherfucker who thought it was a good idea too make a 4 episode story arc about a team of idiotic droids then make one about the Republic Commandos. Should you accomplish this task I will give you the honor of skinning the son of a bitch and 37 terabytes of porn. I will pay for all the traveling expenses.
In conclusion, D-Squad was easily one of the worst story arcs I’ve seen since Legend of Korra and you should avoid it like the plague if you don’t want to end up in an insane asylum.
DARTH MAUL & SAVAGE OPRESS
At this point I was just about ready to give up on this season entirely when the Star Wars gods heard my cries of despair and decided to correct the sins of us mere mortals. Therefore, they decided it was time to make the last two story arcs as awesome as possible and thankfully, they were.
Maul and Savage continue their rampage across the galaxy in an effort to weaken the Jedi Order and to lure Obi-Wan Kenobi out in the open. Their rampage has gotten the attention of the Council upon witnessing the deaths of two more Knights at the hands of the Sith brothers. They task Jedi Masters Adi Gallia and Obi-Wan Kenobi to track them down and find them.
Meanwhile, Maul decides that even the two of them cannot hope to battle both the Jedi and the established Sith faction on their own without an army. This leads them to deal with the scum of the universe ranging from pirates, criminal organizations, and the Mandalorian splinter group Death Watch. All while constantly scheming and adapting their plans so that they always come out on top when all is said and done.
This particular arc had everything you could possibly want in a Star Wars tale. It lets us experience the story from both the Jedi and Sith perspective and it shows just what kind of an evil master mind Maul is. The guy was trained by Darth Sidious in how to use a lightsaber, in the Force and in being a master bullshit artist and this story perfectly shows it. He has a vast knowledge of the criminal underworld and its dealings.
He understands how politics work and frequently uses it to give himself the upper hand. If this arc proved anything is that Maul is so much more than the generic Sith guy he was portrayed as in Phantom Menace.
Another character that shines is Obi-Wan Kenobi. In previous seasons Obi-Wan was always portrayed as a strategic master mind but his combat skills seemed sorely lacking because he never fought an opponent who could genuinely challenge him. Here we see just how much of a badass he is. Once you see him, fight Savage and Maul with two lightsabers and alone, you too shall come to recognize him as one of the finest Jedi in the Orders history.
However, that battle isn’t the only one that’s done exceptionally well. Almost every fight during this entire arc was dazzling and different. Obi-Wan vs. Maul & Savage was used to show that the Jedi can be powerful combatants as well and they aren’t push over’s. Maul vs. Pre Viszla gave us a different battle where a non-Force sensitive had to really on his wits, ingenuity and gadgets too battle a powerful Sith Lord.
Then we get to Maul & Savage vs. Sidious and it was glorious! Just the prospect of seeing Darth Sidious do battle on screen was enough for me, but having him battle two other Sith to the death instantly made up for all the D-Squad bullshit from before. Watch it on You Tube right now; trust me it’s worth it.
If there were any flaws to speak of then they were Savage Oppress and a possible continuity error. See, Adi Gallia had already died during the Dark Horse comic book series set during the Clone Wars, and yet Savage kills her here as well, a pretty noticeable continuity issue. Savage is cool when he’s fighting or killing people but again he gets next to no lines and is just there to be Mauls lackey. Which is a shame since his story sort of ends here and it could have been more impactful if he could have gotten more to say and do.
Overall this arc was the exact opposite of D-Squad, it had interesting characters, an engaging overall plot and plenty of beautifully done action scenes to satiate those like myself who want more lightsaber fights.
THE WRONG JEDI
You’d think that after the last arc being as good as it was there was no way they could possibly top it for the finale, well you’d be wrong buddy. The finale does something I thought beyond what I thought the creators were capable of doing and that’s make us question are the Jedi really the good guys in this war.
It started out simple enough with a terrorist attack on the JediTemple resulting in the death of many civilian workers and even a few Knights. Since the Temple is highly guarded facility, most people assume that a Jedi had to be behind such an attack. Protests and riots quickly break out as Anakin and Ahsoka are tasked with tracking down the real culprit. At first it goes as you might expect, they find the person responsible; he/she goes to jail and everything’s rainbows and sunshine… Right?
Well it gets a whole lot more complicated when Ahsoka goes to visit the prime suspect in prison only for some one to Force choke her to death and Ahsoka naturally is blamed for it. Things progressively get worse and worse for the young Jedi when even the Council begins losing faith in her and start to genuinely believe she was behind the attack, as the evidence against her grows larger.
What makes this arc so fantastic is how it antagonizes the Jedi in a way that doesn’t feel contrived or half assed. The public opinion is turning against the peacekeepers and once you take in consideration all that they’ve done recently it makes a lot of sense. The Jedi of the OldRepublic were bunch of hypocritical, blind, arrogant, selfish imbeciles that spent more time meditating and thinking about the Force rather than taking action to prevent conflicts from the Clone Wars from erupting.
Count Dooku even told them there was a Sith in the Senate during Episode 2 and yet they did nothing with the information and just kept on mediating on the Force. It’s this sort of behavior that has resulted in the publics disdain for the Jedi and it already makes us, the audience doubt them.
However it’s the ending that truly proves just how messed up the old Jedi Order really was. After ordering a manhunt for Ahsoka, kicking her out of the order, abandoning her to her fate, they don’t even acknowledge that they were wrong. They just say that the Force works in strange ways and just spew the same bullshit they’ve been using for about 25 000 years to brain wash people. They don’t have enough common sense to even see that the almighty Jedi did something wrong and instead of apologizing to her, they just make excuses and then they ask her to come back.
I can say with a clear conscience the next time I watch Revenge of the Sith, I wall have no remorse or pity left for these idiots because their track record has been iffy enough but after seeing their thought process I think Vader was right to wipe them out.
Nevertheless, this arc has more going for it than just proving the Jedi are bastards. Ahsokas experience had a profound effect on her. She always thought the Jedi were infallible and always trusted the Council and its wishes. Here everything she ever believed in is destroyed and her choice at the end reflects this. It’s genuinely heart wrenching and it signals the end of one of the greatest partnerships in Star Wars.
The Wrong Jedi could have been a disappointment and very predictable, however it surprises you with the themes that it tackles while providing pivotal character development, more fantastic lightsaber duels and some very human, emotional moments. If the last scene doesn’t make you teary eyed I don’t know what will.
FINAL VERDICT
This and Young Justice Invasion are probably some of the hardest things I’ve ever had to rate. Onderon had massive wasted potential, Younglings was surprisingly good and enjoyable, D-Squad was bullshit, Maul & Savage made me giddy as a schoolgirl and The Wrong Jedi gave us a new outlook on the Jedi Order and made the conflict much more grey than stereotypically black and white as it once was.
Overall, the 5th season did have its fair share of disappointments, bad storytelling and several continuity issues that are sure to drive fans of the Dark Horse Clone Wars comic book insane. But it made up for it with some fantastic animations, breathtaking lightsaber duels, character interaction, character moments and a satisfying ending that opens up many possibilities for more great story lines to come out of it.
FINAL SCORE: B-
So what did you guys think of the last Clone Wars season? Did it do the SW licence justice or did you feel it was a complete piece of trash? Sound off in the comments below to let your voices be heard! If you had issues with the review let me know because I love constructive criticism and do not worry my friends, you will not be harmed…. Besides my personal assassin in a black power suit with a minor, serious case of lung damage who will choke you to death with a magical, invisible power.
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