Why the Clone Wars Finale is Star Wars at its Best
When fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars learned their favorite show was to be resurrected on Disney+ nearly six years after its cancellation, there was an aura of excitement surrounding one particular story arc.
The famed “Siege of Mandalore,” Director Dave Filoni’s planned finale to the series, was seen by many fans as the best Clone Wars story left to tell. Some, like Darth Maul voice actor Sam Witwer, even hyped the four-episode arc as if it were its own Star Wars movie.
A bold claim, to be sure. The Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie in 2008 was widely seen as a failure, and Clone Wars fans today generally view it as a below-average story arc.
But the award-winning tv series to follow has grown a lot along with the fanbase over these last 12 years. So much so, that if “The Siege of Mandalore” were actually released as a movie, it would probably be the best since the original trilogy.
For fans who grew up with the prequels and TCW, it might even be the best Star Wars story ever told.
It sounds crazy, I know.
How could a cartoon contain the best content to come out of a 40-year-old blockbusting franchise?
Because Clone Wars was never treated like a cartoon.
George Lucas, who originally created the series with Filoni, was adamant the Star Wars team approach their stories as if they were the Hollywood productions that Lucas had made. The Siege of Mandalore is a shining example of that goal.
Visuals:
It’s clear the Clone Wars team took a lot of care in crafting a cinematic ending for a show that meant so much to so many people.
In the 6 years since the TCW’s cancellation, Lucasfilm Animation worked on a couple of other series, including Star Wars: Rebels and Star Wars: Resistance. While the animation of those two shows is regarded as lower in quality than TCW, the team seemed to learn a lot working on them and have said as much in interviews.
The final season of TCW, particularly in the final four episodes, contains more dramatic lighting and creative camerawork than it did in 2014.
No shot is wasted telling the final story. Several scenes with little or no dialogue convey a lot of emotion or story simply through the way characters are framed.
Even more noticeable were the improvements in the animation’s fluidity — movement of objects and characters had never felt so real in a cartoon before. Details like bringing in Ray Park, the actor who played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, for motion capture enhanced action sequences in a considerable way.
Crafting epic battles between flying Mandalorians, an army of Clone troopers and a pair of hyper-physical force-wielders was no easy challenge, but TCW team crushed it.
Characters:
The Siege of Mandalore intersects with Revenge of the Sith, so we generally knew the major plot points the arc needed to hit beforehand. We also knew what happens to each of the main characters — Ahsoka, Rex and Maul all appear in Rebels.
Given the fans all had this knowledge, the story was driven by the characters more than the plot.
Luckily, we got the best out of the three iconic characters Clone Wars was built on.
Ahsoka Tano, the main character and breakaway star of the series, shows off just how much she’s developed over the years.
From a snippy teenager unsure of her place in the galaxy, to a disgruntled former Jedi, to the confident warrior of the Siege of Mandalore, Ahsoka has finally come to terms with her purpose outside the Jedi Order — to help others no matter what.
It’s this renewed confidence in her mission to help those in need that gives her the balance she needs to fully realize her character. Not only does she finally display her mastery of the force in a blaze of blue glory, she solidifies her position as the moral compass the audience grew up with.
By the finale, we see an Ahsoka close to the version we see in Rebels, who wields Obi-Wan’s wisdom, Anakin’s resolve and a compassion unique to her to deliver the emotional ending to the Clone Wars we only could have hoped for.
But she couldn’t deliver such an ending without Captain Rex.
Rex spent the Clone Wars philosophizing what the whole thing meant in the first place. He and his brothers were genetically engineered for the war and wouldn’t exist without it.
His overarching story is not a struggle for individuality, he loves his fellow clones and would die for them, but for purpose beyond his programming. Over the course of the series, the Clone Captain finds he’s different than the droids he fights on a daily basis. He’s a person, not an unthinking vessel for commands.
In the Clone Wars finale, Rex’s struggle for a purpose beyond his whole life as a soldier is finally realized, with the help of a friend. When given a real choice, he chooses what’s right.
Rex earned a reputation over the course of the series as a capable and loyal soldier. But in the end, he proved to be an even better friend.
There’s a saying that says a story is only as good as its villain. If that’s the case, the finale of Clone Wars is an incredible story.
Darth Maul, a throwaway villain with two inconsequential lines of dialogue in the first Star Wars prequel, became perhaps the most nuanced villain in the franchise’s history over the course of the Clone Wars.
Sam Witwer’s performance truly sells Maul as a tragic character without making him morally ambiguous. Maul is a paragon of chaotic evil if there ever was one — he kills indiscriminately and lusts after power — but it’s hard not to root for him at the end of TCW.
Maul spends the arc just a step behind Sidious, and several steps ahead of the Jedi, as he tries to stop the coming cataclysm. As fans, we know Maul is spot on that the galaxy is about to change for the worse. However, it’s his compelling interactions with Ahsoka, the show’s moral compass, that is testament to his effectiveness as a convincing villain.
If Maul’s plan had succeeded, we’re looking at a substantially different Star Wars universe.
How it makes you feel:
When it comes to making fans feel, the Clone Wars finale was a spinning starship of emotion. We pumped our fists, we laughed, and we cried throughout the two-hour epic conclusion.
Compared to other Star Wars media, Clone Wars managed to hit more emotional notes. Its nature as an episodic series made for an easier time developing complex characters and connecting those characters with the audience.
Even so, everything about the finale was virtually perfect. Watching the series before enhances the experience, but the final Clone Wars arc truly can stand on its own as it checked all the boxes you want to see in a Star Wars feature.
The visuals were beautiful. The music built anticipation in the absence of dialogue and enhanced the battles. The narrative felt consequential yet contained. And, the characters we loved all received satisfying conclusions to their Clone Wars story.
I felt Maul’s desperation. I giggled at the quips between friends and the taunts between enemies. I gnawed at my fingernails in anticipation of sheer chaos. I admired Ahsoka’s resolve and Rex’s loyalty. My heart broke for my favorite characters as they try to find hope in hopeless situations.
As the episode cut to the credits, I could only stare at the screen. It truly was an authentic Star Wars experience.
I’ve invested 12 years in these stories, and I could not ask for a better ending to the era of George Lucas-created Star Wars. If you haven’t given Clone Wars a chance, you should.
Because when people as passionate as Dave Filoni and the rest of the Clone Wars crew make Star Wars, the galaxy far, far away is at its brightest.
