The Genius of Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Alec Tebben
- Apr 20, 2020
- 2 min read
If you have Disney Plus, you’ve probably seen images advertising the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Titled “Old Friends Not Forgotten,” the ninth episode of this season began streaming on Disney Plus on Friday, April 17 and now holds the number 22 spot for highest rated TV episodes on IMDb. I’ve always said this series was a masterpiece, but this episode demonstrates why. To understand what I mean, let’s look back at the episodes and seasons that preceded it.
The Clone Wars, considered an anthology by some, is comprised of many different plots and larger story lines that aren’t always directly related and are sometimes not even released in chronological order.
Probably the biggest story line in the series is that of the Jedi character Ahsoka Tano. When we are first introduced to her, Ahsoka is young, reckless, gullible, and unsure of herself. But over the course of the series, she grows up. She matures, she makes mistakes, and she learns more about herself, other people, and the wider galaxy. When she debuted, many fans scorned her as annoying and childish. Now she’s overwhelmingly a fan favorite.
Another big story line is that of the clone trooper characters for which the series is named. The clones were created and bred for the sole purpose of fighting this war for the Galactic Republic. Throughout the show, we watch the clones wrestle with ideas of loyalty, duty, loss, brotherhood, what it means to be a soldier, and what it means to be a man. Their story is deeply thoughtful, inspiring, and at many times, heartbreaking.
One story line that was a little controversial when it began, but has come to be well loved, is that of the infamous character Darth Maul. Wait, didn’t he die in The Phantom Menace? Well, his final breath was never shown on screen in that film, so George Lucas decided he survived and brought him back in The Clone Wars. The cunning former Sith Lord, who engages in a violent quest for vengeance while also reuniting with a long-lost brother and mother, is one of the most captivating and surprisingly human villains I’ve ever encountered.
But what do all these story lines have to do with the most recent episode of the series? The answer is that these threads, along with many others, all come together in this final arc. In the story known as the “Siege of Mandalore,” Ahsoka leads a legion of clone troopers against Maul in a battle of grand proportions. All of the major story lines that we have followed throughout the series come to a head in this one arc.
And that’s the genius of The Clone Wars: it tells numerous complex and meaningful stories, each of them focusing on something different, yet somehow manages to tie them all together. My friends, that is how you make a good TV show.
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