If you missed them, be sure to the check out both my introduction to this series and Part I: The Prequel Trilogy.
“You fought in The Clone Wars?”
“Oh, yes. I was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father.”
Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness)
Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
In hindsight, it is pretty amusing just how casually this line is presented in the original Star Wars.
Of course, in the moment, it isn’t required to do much, besides be a snazzy piece of world-building. The implication of a conflict which played a formative role in shaping a galaxy that audiences (in 1977 specifically) had yet to see.
But in the bigger-picture sense?
It was the first inkling of just how expansive the franchise would become, as chronologically, it primarily worked backwards.
For the most part though, the Clone Wars are, at best, window dressing in the prequels, even as Episode II deals with the immediate lead-up to the conflict.
Instead, as a by-product of the three-year time jump between films, Episode III begins during the waning days - as Darth Sidious enacts his end game and Anakin Skywalker finds himself hurtling towards the dark side.
It leaves the trilogy then, as I discussed previously, feeling disjointed at times, lacking a certain connective tissue: especially from a narrative and character-building perspective.
On a base level, sure, it is sold well but you can’t escape the feeling that, with so much development taking place off-screen, you’ve been left to fill just one-too-many blanks.
And with The Clone Wars? You get the impression that George Lucas and creative collaborator Dave Filoni felt the same (Lucas’ creation of the show, being the final Star Wars endeavour he was directly involved in).
While it wasn’t the first project to explore the period between Episodes I and II, The Clone Wars, beginning with the 2008 movie of the same name (which served as the backdoor pilot into the series as a whole), was the first to more actively reach a broader audience - buoyed, primarily, by an intuitive understanding for the material.
This success?
It is thanks to the gradually developed character dynamics which informed the best work of the show’s seven seasons - which even now, sixteen years since its debut, remains a high water mark for the franchise overall. A reminder of the storytelling heights Star Wars can achieve when it keeps that focus at the forefront.
And in the case of The Clone Wars, it is retroactively enriching the prequel trilogy, with a sense of depth and character focus that was only (and could only be) explored at a distance, given the timeframe and medium those films were working with.
Perhaps it is the further development of Padmé (Catherine Taber) or bringing Maul (Sam Witter) back from the (apparent) dead as he became one of the most memorable villains in all of Star Wars, well beyond his glorified cameo in Episode I. Maybe it is Bo-Katan Kryze, voiced and later played in live-action by Katee Sackhoff, being established as someone who will play an important role in the galaxy for years to come - or maybe it is watching Rex (Dee Bradley Baker) learning to find his place as both a mentor and solider both, personal ideals, continually clashing with his sense of duty.
But it is something most prominently shown in the show’s two protagonists, Anakin Skywalker (Matt Latner) and his one-time apprentice, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein).
You can see the effectiveness of the idea, even on paper.
Anakin, now a Jedi Knight may no longer be strictly defined by angst and arrogance like he was in Episode II - but he is still burdened by an impossible sense of outside expectation, as he continually brushes up against that inherent (and inevitably consuming) darkness.
But in taking on a Padawan of his own? It plays an important role in establishing a maturity that had eluded him previously, as he grows into his identities as a Jedi and a leader. A student who became a teacher all his own. A husband with a marriage shrouded in secrecy.
His relationships with Obi-Wan (James Arnold Taylor) and Padmé, to this point, are given the room to truly develop in a way that the time-jump between prequels could only really suggest, bridging the gap to the person we meet in Revenge of the Sith.
Calm under pressure, a savvy strategist and someone completely devoted, in defiance of the Jedi Code, to those he cares for: all of it, counterbalanced by impulsiveness, brashness and a simmering rage.
And Ahsoka?
If at first plucky and somewhat overeager, she becomes an accomplished warrior under both Anakin’s tutelage and Rex’s guidance but works to retain both her humanity and individualism: not without difficulty, as she comes of age by way of conflict.
Matt Latner, as Anakin and Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka, bringing so much life to these characters through their voice work - Eckstein, capturing that challenging transitional balance with ease, Ahsoka, a teenager learning to find her way in a war zone, with growing confidence, enthusiasm, confusion and genuine turmoil.
Latner, adding a fantastic sense of humanity to the character while still honing in on what Hayden Christensen so effectively highlighted in the prequels.
And while great work was done outside of that immediate orbit, it is the Anakin/Ahsoka dynamic which is truly at the heart of The Clone Wars, the tissue that binds so much of the show together as their relationship gradually develops.
From bickering sorta-siblings to the closet of friends, willingly putting themselves in harm’s way to protect the other.
Anakin, learning to trust his student and Ahsoka having faith in her own ability.
With the final and defining arc of the show’s fifth season, speaking to this, incredibly well: Ahsoka, having been framed for a bombing at the Jedi Temple is only cleared of all charges after Padmé argues on her behalf and Anakin forces the actual culprit to confess before the Council.
But disheartened with the experience and the Council’s inability to believe her innocence in the first place, she chooses to leave the Jedi behind, to strike out on her own.
Anakin, while urging her to reconsider, sympathizes with her disillusionment. He too, has struggled with his commitment to the cause, the blunt determinism of the Jedi that they are always on the right side of history. But it also causes him a great angst to realize that, in a way, he failed to protect his student, despite her insistence that she must begin writing her next chapter alone.
And with the context of the films that preceded it, you realize that this moment proves pivotal in establishing the Anakin we meet in Episode III.
Not just disregarded by the Council and manipulated by Sidious but a well-regarded war hero, who has seen his faith in the Jedi be questioned more than once, is still struggling with the loss of his protégée and then, is repeatedly haunted by troubling visions of his wife’s death - his only remaining loved one.
His turn to the Dark Side then, not feeling overtly forced, with the goal of getting from Point A to B as it can seem in the films but rather, something that has been building for years.
Groundwork laid for a tragic end.
Much credit then goes to both the countless animators, who brought a distinctive and ever-evolving style to life as the series developed but as well, to the show’s voice actors and larger creative team.
But it wasn’t without its missteps either.
With 133 episodes over its seven seasons, to watch The Clone Wars is to commit yourself to some well-made if occasionally slow-paced, long-form storytelling: it comes with some outstanding highs (particularly in the final season) but for my money, the show doesn’t really hit its stride until the fourth season - once it has firmly established its storytelling and visual language.
This is a tough ask, especially if you’re a first time viewer. It delves into some more obscure corners of Star Wars lore and takes time to highlight things you wouldn’t expect but it is still a substantial investment regardless - and although it is something out of the show’s control, it also comes with knowing the story was interrupted at its peak.
After George Lucas sold Lucasfilm and Star Wars to Disney wholesale in 2012, it seemed The Clone Wars had reached something of a bittersweet end, after the sixth season was completed but no further episodes were produced. Anakin, left to march towards his destiny and Ahsoka not appearing at all following her leaving the Jedi behind, her story, ending on something of an unresolved note: the character, of course, not appearing or being acknowledged in the prequels whatsoever (as she didn’t yet exist).
With Star Wars: Rebels though, which debuted in 2014 and ran for four season, there was a clear indication that Dave Filoni (following in Lucas’ footsteps as creative lead) and his team, were striving for a greater sense of closure.
Set fourteen years after Clone Wars, Maul and Obi-Wan saw their decades-long feud reach a poetic conclusion, while a new group of rebels find themselves driven to take the fight to the now iron-fisted Empire - even if Ahsoka and Anakin, now the fearsome Darth Vader, as supporting characters, were never too far away. Their confrontation in the finale of Rebels’ second season, is one of the most emotionally-charged sequences the franchise has ever had, given their respective histories (and something 2023’s live-action sequel-series, Ahsoka, could only hope to match).
But it was followed by one final curtain call.
The Clone Wars returned for its seven and final season in 2020, shouldering inevitability sure but sheer brilliance too, from the animation and writing, to the voice work: we all know, going in, what’s going to happen, save for some fine-point details but we’re powerless to stop it.
The Jedi will fall, their champion will be lost and the galaxy will be forever changed - the show’s final four episodes, running simultaneously with the events of Episode III, adding another layer of unavoidable tragedy to what plays out on screen.
Star Wars, at its very best.