That's a shame because The Clone Wars, while erratic in quality from episode to episode, has frequently done some of the ambitious Star Wars storytelling ever. Even its weakest episodes usually offer something interesting for discussion. Thus, I've decided to do some breakdowns on the merits and detriments of the first eight episodes of this final season of The Clone Wars. Something to note before going forward: The Clone Wars has always told singular stories over multiple episodes. Originally, the amount of episodes were usually three but frequently fluctuated. Starting with its fifth season, The Clone Wars broke its multi-episode arcs into exclusively four episodes.
The seventh season has delivered two four-episode arcs and then a ninth episode kicking off a new arc. I'll be looking at the fully completed arcs in their own section (rather than breaking this down episode-by-episode) before using the third section of this piece to examine the show's most recent episode. I'm also writing this write-up's presuming readers know basic aspects of the show up to this point (like that Captain Rex is a Clone, Ahsoka left the Jedi Order at the end of Season five, etc.) just to keep this concise. If that's all cleared up, let's look at what The Clone Wars has delivered so far in its final season
THE BAD BATCH
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| The Clone Trooper squad known as The Bad Batch |
In the five-episode season two storyline concerning the Second Battle of Geonosis, viewers were taken all over the place. One episode dealt with Padme navigating palace intrigue, another took viewers to the frontlines of the battle with Obi-Wan and the Clones before things got wrapped up in a final episode detailing Ahsoka and Barriss Offee dealing with worm aliens turning clones into zombies. For the episodes comprising the Bad Batch storyline, there's far less variety in terms of both tone and leading characters. All four episodes are centered exclusively on Rex and these five Bad Batch clones engaging in battle scenes. While the Bad Batch clones have their amusing moments, there's also little to them as characters. They're stagnant beings who would work great as guest stars in one or two episodes but don't quite work as leading men for 100 minutes worth of storytelling.
Even the reintroduction of recurring character Fives (who is revealed to be alive and being used as a Sepeartist weapon against his will) doesn't provoke new layers of the Bad Batch characters. A brief storyline suggesting Fives could still be working for the villains doesn't really go anywhere or challenge the lead characters. Though The Bad Batch struggles with its titular characters, many parts of the four episodes still register as moderately entertaining. Most notably, these episodes reveal that The Clone Wars has upgraded its computer-animation significantly from when it last aired new episodes six years ago. We've come a long way from the stiff animation seen in the 2008 Clone Wars movies, now these characters have such fluid facial expressions while the environments they inhabit have a gloriously tactile quality in their design.
Like any episode centered on the Clone Troopers, the various Bad Batch episodes allow voice actor Dee Bradley Baker a chance to shine. Throughout this series, Baker has been tasked with voicing every single Clone Trooper. It's an endeavor that has resulted in truly impressive voicework as Baker consistently makes sure to imbue a distinct personality into each new Clone Trooper. This time around, he gets to run loose with a variety of outsized personalities while voicing the various members of the Bad Batch. When you've got a voice actor pro like Baker delivering this sort of superb voicework, the storytelling flaws of the Bad Batch arc are easier to stomach.
AHSOKA AND THE MARTEZ SISTERS
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| (From left to right): Ahsoka Tano, Trace Martez, Rafa Martez |
Anywho, Rafa works as a gangster to help herself and Trace get by. Trace and Ahsoka accompany Rafa on her newest mission which entails delivering a shipment of spice to the Pyke empire. Ahsoka's emphasis on morality and Rafa's emphasis on looking out just for herself and her sister inevitably clash. Rafa's outlook, informed by surviving another day rather than helping others, provides an intriguing thematic link between the majority of the protagonists and villains in this storyline. Even the primary antagonist, Marg Krim (Stephan Stanton), isn't your usual mustache-twirling baddie with a personal vendetta to carry out. He's a weary soul well aware of his status as a cog in a gangster empire led by Darth Maul (Sam Witwer). He's fighting for his own survival day-in and day-out almost as much as Rafa.
That interesting aspect of the writing in this collection of episodes is accompanied by more underwhelming features of the script. Most notably, the third episode of this storyline, Dangerous Debt, features a scene where Rafa finally informs Ahsoka the circumstances that led to herself and Trace becoming orphans. It's a critical moment for these two characters but it doesn't have the impact it should because of how we only hear about these events rather than actually seeing them. Getting the chance to witness this story through a flashback would have lent it a far more vivid impact than the flat way it's delivered here. I know Star Wars movies (save for The Last Jedi) have eschewed flashbacks. However, an exception should have been made for this particular occasion.
Even aside from that underwhelming way of revealing Trace and Rafa's past, the Dangerous Debt episode proves to be the weakest of this storyline thanks to it being superfluous save for introducing Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) into the show. Like a number of Clone Wars storylines from the last few seasons, this is yet another story arc that would have benefited from a shorter episode count. Even just having the ballad of Ahsoka and the Martez sisters last for three episodes instead of four would have benefited the pacing greatly. At least the storyline ends on a high note with the episode Dangerous Debt. Rafa fights a Trandoshan, a gaggle of Toong cheer on for their boss to kill someone and Ahsoka Tano gets to dish out some delightfully violent Jedi mayhem. Ah Ahsoka, how you've been missed!
Old Friends Not Forgotten
Old Friends Not Forgotten begins the final four-episode-arc ever for The Clone Wars. Nearly twelve years after this show first started in October 2008, we're finally bringing this thing to a close. Because of the importance of these episodes, Dave Filoni and company really went all out in making sure these concluding episodes felt like an event. This gets established right away in Old Friends Not Forgotten, which begins with the classic Lucasfilm Limited Productions logo before making use of John Williams' unmistakable Star Wars theme. The modern-day mantra of "This TV show is actually a movie!" is pretty tiresome. In this context, though, it works since The Clone Wars treating its final episodes as a movie comes off as its creative team closing this show out with a bang rather than a derogatory look at the medium of television.
Tom Kane's opening narration immediately establishes that this storyline takes place only moments before Episode III thanks to visuals showing the viewer that various Jedi like Aayla Secura are in the planets where they'll be eventually executed during the Order 66 montage in Revenge of the Sith. We then get to the story proper, which sees Obi-Wan (James Arnold Taylor) and his clone pinned down by a droid army. This is totally speculation on my end, but it appears The Clone Wars got a significant increase in its animation budget for this last story arc. The already noteworthy visuals of prior season seven episodes is taken to another level here, particularly in terms of camerawork. There are truly sweeping shots throughout Old Friends Not Forgotten that see the camera swooping around the battlefield of various conflicts that truly allows the viewer to appreciate the scope of these fights. Heck, they even have enough money now to allow Obi-Wan to run around in his Jedi robe! I remember back in season one when they didn't have enough money to even let Anakin wear his robe! How times change!
This impressive animation is used for a storyline concerning Ahsoka returning to Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter) to inform him that she, Bo-Katan and Katan's Mandalorian warriors need the assistance of the Jedi to take back the planet of Mandalore from Darth Maul. Obi-Wan and Anakin cannot partake in the mission because they need to rescue the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine but they do send Captain Rex and a Clone army to accompany Ahsoka and Bo-Katan on their mission. From there, The Clone Wars delivers perhaps its best-ever action sequence as an army of jetpack-wearing Mandalorians working for Maul attack Ahsoka & Rex's force while they're still in the air. An extensive battle scene set all the way up in the sky follows that delivers a large number of wonderful action beats. Best of those beats has got to be Ahsoka leaping from one ship to the next and using her pair of lightsabers to chop down an assortment of adversaries all in the span of a single shot.
The days of "Skyguy" are long behind Ahsoka Tano and the fluid body movements used in her animation render her fight scenes as especially impressive. When she and other characters like Bo-Katan engage in hand-to-hand combat, they actually look like real people fighting rather than rigid computer-animated puppets. That part of Old Friend Not Forgotten's animation is one of the best attributes of the entire episode, which ends on a cliffhanger teasing a confrontation between Ahsoka Tano and Darth Maul in the next episode. That episode, entitled The Phantom Apprentice (hey, I know that that's referencing!), drops tomorrow and I can't wait to see where this storyline goes next. If these next three episodes deliver the kind of sweeping & endlessly exciting action running rampant throughout Old Friends Not Forgotten, then Star Wars: The Clone Wars is gonna go out on a high note.
