As I spoke about in my last post, during the airing of season five of “The Clone Wars” airing on Cartoon Network, George Lucas sold his Star Wars property to Disney. The sale was pretty much effective immediately, and since Cartoon Network was not owned by Disney, “The Clone Wars” became the most immediate casualty of the acquisition. The show was allowed to finish out its season, but was immediately cancelled afterwards.
But because of the crazy production cycle of animation, mainly the fact that the process takes so long, you’re planning and writing literally years in advance. So when the show was cancelled, they had a several episodes pretty much fully completed for season six. Not only was the rest of that season written though, but it was all in various stages of production. They even had all of season seven mapped out, from what each arc would be, to what the series finale would look like. They even went as far as having written most, if not all of the initial scripts for that planned last season.
In the interim of Disney spinning up their own take on the universe though, including another animated show by Dave Filoni and company, they took on the immediate project of figuring out what to do with the remainder of season six in a project known as “The Clone Wars Legacy.” Since Disney didn’t really have an outlet for it yet, they let Netflix have the nascent streaming rights to “The Clone Wars,” and even threw in an exclusive season six, comprising of the last completed arcs.
If you didn’t watch this show initially on Cartoon Network as it was airing, this is probably where most people watched the show, like me. Netflix was newly into having and creating original content for their platform, so having six seasons of an already produced show was a boon for them. The episodes of season six we did get weren’t unsubstantial either. There’s a couple episodes focused more on antics, but on the whole it functions surprisingly well as an endpoint of the series, even though these were just the last episodes out the door.
The season starts out with a paranoid conspiracy thriller, as a clone investigates the internal control chip that will be responsible for making sure Order 66 is carried out. There’s also an episode later in the season that touches on the mystery of who ordered the clones in the first place. Some of the answers can be vague, but honestly I prefer when Star Wars gives you a general idea of what happened, as sometimes their need to fill in details misses the point of fun anyways.
The weakest arc of the truncated sixth season is surprisingly not Jar Jar Binks and Mace Windu buddy comedy one, but rather the final arc where Yoda starts the process to learning how to become a force ghost. Answering that question is a good example of what I was just talking about of Star Wats answering questions it doesn’t need to. The arc is generally aiming to be as galaxy brained as the Mortis arc, but instead it falls in this weird in-between space of being too galaxy brained to connect, while also not being galaxy brained enough to be that interesting.
The arc, the season, and the series until that point does end on an interesting note though of Yoda having come to terms with the fact the Jedi have already lost no matter what they do, and he basically has to start preparing for what comes after. If nothing else, it underlines how futile Yoda’s efforts are in fighting Palpatine are at “Revenge of the Sith.” He still will try, but he pretty much knows that trying doesn’t count for much by that point. It’s either do, or do not.
It’s on this point that everybody involved thought the Clone Wars show would forever be ended on. In the moment, it was certainly disappointing, as not much is wrapped up, but rather you’re just left on an inevitable doom. Ahsoka for instance is not mentioned at all in these completed episodes. You get some lore, but otherwise the show felt cut off in perhaps the prime of its life.
In their project examining the series, the “A More Civilized Age” podcast is examining Star Wars more chronologically, so they did the six season, some of the legacy materials, but are watching all of “Star Wars: Rebels,” before watching the final season of Clone Wars that was finally made and released in 2020. This decision has been controversial for their listeners, but knowing their podcast, and what the hosts aim to do, I completely get it. That being said, that’s what I did originally as a fan, so this time I wanted to watch season seven right after season six.
We’ll get into the history of “Star Wars Rebels” when we talk about that show when I get to it, but it ended up wrapping up in about half the time that Clone Wars did. Part of this was because Dave Filoni was ready to move beyond animation, which he would later do in being a key creative figure in “The Mandalorian” and beyond. But another reason was just that the show was never able to grow its audience, because it aired on DisneyXD, and the DisneyXD app was absolute shit.
When Disney finally started spinning up Disney+, they knew they wanted new Star Wars content for the service, and the easiest way to please old fans and promote the Clone Wars to new fans was to finally make the fabeled last season of the show. Of the last thirteen arcs planned for the show, one was finished as a comic book, two were finished in book form, a review of which I’ll have separately. There’s also an arc that’s only in animatic, while the last season only completes/reworks three arcs. The material that was written, but never animated is supposedly still canon, but especially recently, that distinction seems pretty fungible. Again, see my future review of the “Dark Disciple” book that was created from two of the planned arcs.
Despite all the creative turmoil that threw the end of the show into years-long, uncertain chaos, it turns out the wait for season seven was not only worth it, but perhaps even improved by Dave Filoni and company stepping away from it. The final season has one big misstep in the middle arc, but the four-episode long season finale is genuinely some of the consistently best material of the entire Disney-made run of Star Wars. It’s right up there with “Andor” in my book. It’s practically the best Star Wars movie since “Return of the Jedi” in 1983.
But first, the final season kicked with the arc “The Bad Batch,” which mostly acts as not only a classic reintroduction of the show, being a fun military action adventure, but also a pilot for a spin-off show, which ended up lasting three seasons on Disney+. I haven’t watched any of that show, also called “The Bad Batch,” so I’m excited to dive into that very soon.
Besides being about the titular clones, the arc also has some really juicy Anakin moments, which are really telling about his mental state going into “Revenge of the Sith.” Apparently the arc is largely similar to how it was originally scripted, but in revisiting it, they added a crucial scene showcasing how Anakin and Padme carry on their marriage long distance. Apparently Anakin just sneaks off alone to do a little FaceTime with her, while Captain Rex guards whatever room Anakin is having the conversation in.
It’s a really cute for Anakin and Padme, because at this point their relationship feels very lived in, and they’re very cute together in how Anakin is his usual Himbo self, not noticing Padme’s baby bump, while she acts as both gentle mother and long distance lover. This is the one relationship where Anakin is receiving actual positive encouragement and compassionate advice, but because of the war, these moments are too few and far-between.
This also contributes to the jealousy Anakin shows in the relationship, because not only is he afraid of losing that connection, and everything Padme represents to him, but also because their moments together are so few he wants to make them count. That’s not to excuse Anakin quickly resorting to violence when Padme’s ex resurfaces in a season six arc for example, but I think their relationship is fundamentally doomed by not only by them living a lie of not publicly revealing their relationship, but also the fact they in general spend so little time together working out problems, or just being with each other.
The other big revelation of this scene is when Obi-Wan comes up looking for Anakin, and Anakin comes out and tries to brush past the fact he’s hiding something as quickly as possible. But as Anakin walks away, Obi-Wan replies, “I hope you at least told Padme I said hello.” Anakin and Rex then look at least a little shocked by this apparent revelation that Obi-Wan knows…
BRUV, Obi-Wan knew? What do you mean he fucking knew?!? He may not have known this whole time, or the extent of the relationship, but he obviously knows that one is there! And instead of preemptively talking to Anakin about it, offering help or advice, he just decides to never bring it up instead?!? It’s a hilarious moment, but it’s also absolutely insane in the implications it implies, because Obi-Wan FUCKING KNEW!
The other big Anakin moment from this arc is when trying to quickly learn the code to disarm a bomb, and immediately resorts to threatening to kill Admiral Trench, one of the smartest Separatist Generals we’ve seen in the show. When Trench calls his bluff and says this is a very un-Jedi thing to do, Anakin immediately bristles at the thought and cuts Trench’s arms off, saying “I don’t have such weaknesses!” Once Anakin learns the code, he rewards Trench by killing him.
It’s a truly chilling moment that shows just how far Anakin has already fallen as a Jedi. He may still be fighting for them, but the three year toll of the war, along with the Jedi’s inability to guide Anakin, has led him to forge his own path in getting the job done, which now includes threats, torture, and execution. In “Revenge of the Sith” he has some minor clashes of conscious, but it truly doesn’t take much to push him over the edge at this point.
It’s also ambiguous how much Mace Windu and the rest of the Jedi even realize how far Anakin’s fallen at this point. Does Mace sense what Anakin has done to learn the code to disarm the bomb? Or is he just happy the job was done? Mace openly doesn’t trust Anakin in “Revenge of the Sith,” but is that because he feels something is off about him, or is it because Mace is in general just kind of a cold dick?
The middle arc in the final season is a reworking of a planned one that was originally called “Ahsoka’s Walkabout,” which picks up immediately after Ahsoka leaves the Jedi. The arc is supposed to act as a reintroducing of Ahsoka, since she was left out entirely of season six, so she can deal with her new feelings of the major life change she has just made. This includes realizing that some people don’t have a rosy view of the Jedi, because apparently the Jedi don’t have a support system for people effected by collateral damage from Jedi actions.
However, in practice the arc is feels mostly like filler and antics, with what Ahsoka learns not really contributing to her character development. That would be more fine if it was part of a larger season, but in retrospect I don’t think even Filoni and company would have chosen this arc as one of the few to finish. It just isn’t needed, and kind of wastes time the show doesn’t have. It would feel weird not to have Ahsoka before the series finale arc, but it just turns out it’s not needed.
What I probably would have finished instead is “Crystal Crisis on Utapau,” which is available in full to watch now on YouTube in animatic form. Watching unfinished animation is certainly hard for me to get into, so I’m not even as high on it as some are. The arc starts as a murder mystery Anakin and Obi-Wan are investigating, which leads into a larger conspiracy where we find out the Separatists are finding and collecting large Kyber crystals. For what purpose? Who can say…
But what makes this arc important is a crucial conversation that happens between Anakin and Obi-Wan, where they process Ahsoka’s absence. Throughout the arc, it’s really clear that Anakin and Obi-Wan have fallen back on their buddy cop banter dynamics that we are familiar with from the movies, but not so much from the show we’ve been watching? Why is that?
Because by having a Padawan in the form of Ahsoka, Anakin was more grounded as a person, because he actually cared for Ahsoka. He cares for Obi-Wan of course, but in the absence of honesty or communication, Anakin reverts back to his cocky, hotheaded self that takes very little seriously. He openly doesn’t listen to Obi-Wan, because he doesn’t have that responsibility. He listened to Ahsoka, because he was responsible for her.
We see this in the conversation that Anakin and Obi-Wan have in this episode, where they start communicating, but by now it’s kind of too late. Obi-Wan hasn’t asked Anakin about his feelings before really, so Anakin doesn’t know how to talk about it. Obi-Wan also doesn’t seem to fully digest his and the Jedi’s role in making all of this work, or the fact that Anakin’s feelings are mirrored by Ashoka’s situation.
Anakin can’t process Ahsoka leaving the Jedi, because he himself can’t process leaving the Jedi. Anakin also openly imagines how Obi-Wan would feel if he felt like he let down Anakin, which tragically, is weeks from becoming feeling that will haunt Obi-Wan for the rest of his life.
Anakin: “How would you sleep, knowing I failed you?”
Obi-Wan: “Not very well, I imagine. Luckily, that isn’t true, and never will be.”
It’s truly a moment the show has been building towards since the very beginning, and it’s honestly fucking insane it will just forever remain unfinished, apart from some fan efforts.
This all leads us to the finale, which eschews all of the traditional markings of a Clone Wars episode, opening with “A Lucasfilm Limited Production,” the traditional franchise movie music, rather than the show’s theme, having different title treatments, no dumb Jedi “fortune cookie” quote, and narration only at the beginning the arc, taking the place of a movie’s scroll. This is truly a movie split into four parts. The final arc was originally called “The Siege of Mandalore,” but it’s unclear to me how much this Disney+ reworking is original, and how much the arc would have led to “Revenge of the Sith.”
In this final form though, the arc is actually Dave Filoni’s only sole writing credit for the entire show. He is credited for additional dialogue added during the first season, where he was less in charge seemingly, and a lone season two episode is also co-written by him, but otherwise this arc is his story. In retrospect, it’s also his farewell to animation, as he’s moved completely on to the live-action side of the universe ever since, as a creative. He’s credited as having created most of Star Wars animation since 2020, but that’s more in his increasing role in overseeing the franchise.
This is therefore really the only look we’ve had into what Filoni’s authorial voice is, which is just a fascinating thing. He showran the show for most of its run, but his strength seemingly is just in collaborating with others. Unlike George, it’s very rare that we get to see his unfiltered creative side of writing a story, and dialogue.
Filoni is even an enigma of a person to some extent, and throughout their deep dive in the Clone Wars show, the “A More Civilized Age” podcast has never really known what to make of him. Is his whole persona, that seems incredibly laid back to the point of almost seeming like a stoner, an act? Or like his cowboy hat, is it just something he affects to stand out, and be tolerable in being a creative face to the Star Wars fandom? Is he aware of some of his show’s political themes and implications, or is he just head empty, bringing more the reverence and passion to the franchise, acting as a sort-of surrogate or interpreter of George Lucas? I honestly don’t have a solid feeling either way, which is probably what he intends.
These episodes don’t exactly answer that question, but they do answer the fact that, especially with years to consider what the finale should be and do, Dave Filoni is really fucking good at his job. This is absolutely the show firing on all cylinders from presentation, writing, how genuinely cinematic it feels, how epic the action scenes are, etc. Motion capture was apparently even used for at least certain fight scenes. Because of all of this, the focus put towards this arc, and them probably having the largest budget they’ve worked with, Star Wars animation has truly never looked better than this arc.
The first part, “Old Friends Not Forgotten” starts as an echo of how the Clone Wars’ pilot episode, aka the theatrical movie, in depicting a battle on a bridge with Anakin swooping in and showboating to save the day, doing his usual pre-Ahsoka buddy cop comedy with Obi-Wan. But when Anakin and company receive a message from Ahsoka, who has information on a potential mission, Anakin immediately becomes his old self again. He’s not exactly in the mentor mode anymore, but his former Padawan is somebody he deeply cares about, as she’s a huge emotional anchor in his life.
The arc is about to shift its POV character, but for the moment it’s firmly with Anakin, who is honestly heartbreaking in his misplaced optimism of the moment. He just wants things to go back to the way they were so bad. He even gives Ahsoka her own squadron to command, alongside Captain Rex, who have even painted themselves to look like her in tribute.
The whole time, still conflicted, Ahsoka feels deeply uncomfortable, because she knows how much everything has changed. Is this mission a potential step to rejoining the Jedi, or is that bridge truly burned, whether she wants it to be or not?
Even before what happens next, Obi-Wan’s immediate reaction to a mission to capture Darth Maul on Mandalore, is to hem and haw about the prospect of another battlefront being opened during the war. Of course, he says he must consult the Jedi council first. Again, maybe it’s good Ahsoka got the fuck out of there, so she didn’t have to consider the political implications of wanting to help somebody. She even voices this, saying this is a perfect example of how people have “lost faith” in the Jedi, with their motives being overtly political by this point.
For his part, on his way to meet Ahsoka in person for the first time, Anakin rationalizes the moment to Obi-Wan like this:
“It all makes sense now?”
“What?”
“If Ahsoka hadn’t left the order, then she wouldn’t have been where she needed to be.”
“That’s one way to look at it, I suppose.”
“It’s the only way to look at it.”
As somebody that grew up in religious circles, Anakin is just giving off hardcore rationalizing everything going wrong in a relationship as just “God’s plan.” ‘God is just testing us, and that’s why my husband slept with the our church’s youth pastor!’
No, this all might be the will of the force, but that’s to make what comes next all the more tragic. Because before Obi-Wan can reject the proposal, they’re immediately called to an urgent mission where Palpatine has been kidnapped by General Grievous. Not wanting to pass on the moment where the fun does indeed begin, Anakin and Obi-Wan rush to save Palpatine, while Ahsoka goes to capture Maul, with Captain Rex and a split battalion of troops. We know that even though our main characters are splitting up, that they’re both walking into traps.
The arc then shifts perspectives from Anakin to Ahsoka, with this arc’s story being “sidequel” to “Revenge of the Sith.” In that we’re entirely following what Ahsoka is doing, and her hearing and dealing with events happening concurrently in “Revenge of the Sith.” She checks in with Yoda, Mace Windu, and Obi-Wan, and reacts to what’s been happening, but she tragically can’t talk to Anakin himself, as the timing is against them. Ahsoka is just one more source of reason and trust that Anakin has been cut off from, as he’s isolated towards falling to the dark side with Palpatine.
Ahsoka is meanwhile distracted with Maul, who senses that Palpatine’s ultimate endgame is upon them, and is trying to survive the fallout, while getting some revenge on the way. Since this season aired after ‘Solo,’ there’s even an Easter egg where Maul tells Paul Bettany’s character from that movie to go into hiding.
Eventually though, Maul abandons Mandalore, where Bo-Katan from future Mandalorian stories takes control, while Ahsoka captures Maul, to be brought back to the Jedi council. It’s all a bit convoluted, as the resurrection of Maul has always been, but it’s still so executed that the show’s bringing together of its two main creations, in Maul and Ahsoka, is pretty seamless, and absolutely gorgeous to look at.
If the first two episodes of this arc were pretty incredible and gripping for what they were, the second to last episode, “Shattered,” is truly transcendent. Concurrent to when we know of Mace going to arrest Palpatine, where Anakin truly becomes Darth Vader, is just a montage of Ahsoka and Maul on the way to Coruscant, while an incredible synth score and an unbearably palpable sense of doom hangs over the characters, as they reflect on the inevitable end of the war. Then the moment comes, the ultimate tremor in the force, the issuing of Order 66.
It’s truly the moment the entire show has been building towards, where the titular clones, who along with Ahsoka we feel a kinship towards, turn to kill who ended up being the true main character of this show. Unlike “Revenge of the Sith” where the clones are more abstract characters, you only feel the death of the Jedi in those moments, here feel the anguish of the clones being forced to turn against those we care about.
As Ahsoka sets about escaping, quickly finds out the conspiracy forcing the clones to turn, and saving Rex by removing the chip from his brain, and then escaping the ship they’re on, her priority is not killing her former friends, many of whom still are outfitted in her painted tribute armor. Showcasing her ultimate views of humanity for the clones, she explains to Rex, who is tearing up at the thought of being forced to kill his brothers:
Ahsoka Tano: You're a good soldier, Rex. So is every one of those men down there. They may be willing to die, but I am not the one who is going to kill them.
As Ahsoka and Rex land on a nearby planet, in a wordless montage, they prepare to lead new lives after symbolically burying the dead, and all they once held dear, including one of the lightsabers Anakin gave her in the last moment before they split up. Sometime later, Vader visits the site, picking up the lightsaber, as we can see the faint outline of his eyes and burned face through his iconic mask, contemplating. The series ends on Vader walking away, and the image of an old Clone helmet, covered in snow, fading into history.
Like the rest of the arc, it’s a poignant moment of inevitability, steeped in tragedy. We know that these are not the end of any of these characters’ stories, but it is the end of the people we knew them as. They will one day all reckon with what they once were, and what they’ve become, but until that moment they will mourn for what once was. Unlike the movies, we don’t end on a glimmer of hope. It ends as it should, on sadness and loss.
Shoutout to Dave Filoni for sticking the fucking landing of this show so perfectly.
And that’s all for Clone Wars, but not the end of this grand Star Wars journey I’ve been on this year. Soon I’ll have some book reviews for you, we’ll take a look at some of the Disney+ content, then dive into The Bad Batch, before finally getting to ‘Rebels,’ and beyond.
Highlights
“The Unknown”
“Orders”
“The Lost Ones”
Lowlights:
“The Disappeared: Part 2”
“Voices”
“Destiny”
Average Rating: 7.2
Season 7:
Highlights:
“Old Friends Not Forgotten”
“The Phantom Apprentice”
“Shattered”
“Victory and Death”
Lowlights:
“Gone With A Trace”
“Deal No Deal”
“Dangerous Debt”
“Together Again”
Average Rating: 7.8
