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Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Series) Review

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Remember when I said in my introduction post that I’d hopefully complete this project in August? Clearly that is definitely NOT happening. I am a little further in though! And today let’s talk about the longest series in this franchise marathon: The Clone Wars.

This tv show ran for seven seasons for over 12 years. Seasons 1-5 were shown on Cartoon Network and season 6 was presented on Netflix from 2008 to 2013.

In 2012 Disney bought the rights to the Star Wars franchise, and then in 2020 they aired the final seventh season on Disney+.

The show had multiple episodes and branching storylines, sometimes featuring the jedi, the clones, senators, droids, and a few episodes featuring former villains from the films. In some episodes, the show challenged the meaning of hero and villain, and tried to redefine and show it’s not always black and white.

That’s war for ya!

In this review post I will not be talking about each storyline as a whole, but rather one or two episodes from each season and why I liked them.

So without further ado, let’s get into…

Season 1:

Episode 15 – Trespass

As a whole, Season One was a bit slower compared to other seasons, but that’s to be expected.

I really liked the episode Trespass because although there were clones in it, and a war, this episode actually had nothing to do with the Clone Wars at all. Anakin, Obi-Wan, and clone Captain Rex the moon of planet Pantora who’s local government asked for assistance.

The bases created by the clones and the opposing Separatist army have both been destroyed by an unknown third party, so they need to investigate what happened. It turns out that the ice moon in inhabited by some humanoid spider-people, and the chairman of the planet orders the jedi and clones to start a war with the natives to remove them from the moon they “own”

That doesn’t happen and the chairman tries to start a war, loses and gets killed from injuries, and the more sensible Senator Chuchi takes charge and brokers a peace between the people.

This is probably my favorite of the season because the enemies aren’t good vs evil, but rather it’s a grey area where both peoples want to live.

Season 2:

Episode 8 – Brain Invaders

This episode finishes up a storyline where the Republic destroys a droid factory on Geonosis. Remember that planet from Attack of the Clones? The planet where the Clone War began and Anakin lost a limb?

This episode does not take place on the planet. Instead, they are leaving the planet at the beginning and taking a captured Separatist general Poggle with them. Ahsoka and fellow padawan Barriss are tasked after the battle to escort a medical frigate to a station to provide supplies.

What no one knew at the time, was that there was an alien species on the planet Geonosis that hatches from an egg and worms its way into your brain for mind control, and a clone on that ship got infected and secretly brought aboard more eggs.

The invasion is stopped because they decided to turn off the heat in the ship and super-freeze the worms saving everyone who was infected.

What makes this episode notable is when Anakin hears of his padawan’s distress, he goes to the prison cell they kept Poggle to get information on how to save her. The last interrogation with everyone in the room didn’t work, but we see for the first time in the show a darker side of Anakin, because he uses the force to choke the war prisoner, torturing him to get information.

For an organization dedicated for peace, it seems pretty violent to get to that point.

Season 3:

Episode 4 – Sphere of Influence

Chuchi is back! Our girl is still doing things within the senate, and has asked Ahsoka to help with finding the new chairman’s kidnapped daughters.

Somehow this series so far have every good episode feature Chuchi, and you know what? She deserves it.

The storyline in this episode, similar to S1 Trespass, does not have a plot that is related to the Clone Wars at all, but it is such a good storyline. The new Chairman, Chairman Papanoida, is a badass. While Chuchi and Ahsoka explore a Trade Federation ship to see if one of his daughters is being held there, the Chairman walks right into Jabba’s Palace on Tattoine. Jabba is the gangster leader of maybe a quarter of the galaxy, and this guy just walks in, demands an audience with a bounty hunter he discovers is the one who kidnaps his daughters, then goes out to beat him up until he reveals where they are.

Both daughters get back home safe, and Chuchi can do no wrong. Papanoida is a badass dad too and from what I recall, he doesn’t show in any later episodes.

Season 4:

Episodes 7-10 – The Umbara Arc

Pong Krell is the worst. Fuck Pong Krell.

I can’t pick a specific favorite episode for this season unfortunately. The Umbara Arc is the best storyline in the season going through four episodes, and you kind of need to watch them all to enjoy it best.

In this storyline, Anakin has to return to Corusant while his clone squad led by Captain Rex are trying to capture a planet called Umbara. He leaves his soldiers under jedi general Pong Krell.

Krell is awful. From the start of his leadership, he only talks to the clones using their designation number, not their chosen name. He then changes the entire attack plan and creates one that makes all the clones vulnerable and exposed to an attack themselves. Any attempt to question his orders is met with an intimidating speech, and a threat of arrest for mutinous behavior.

In the final episode of this storyline, it’s revealed that Pong Krell was intentionally sabotaging the clone army, and killing them off with his plans. All so he could hope Sith master Dooku would notice and take him on as an apprentice.

The clones were finally able to capture him and one loyal clone who felt the most betrayed killed him in his cell.

This was a dark series of episodes and great clone-centered story.

Season 5:

Episode 12 – Missing in Action

This was the third episode in a four episode storyline that focused on the droids. In this episode, the lost droids and their tiny leader find a town on an isolated planet, and need to find a ship to go home after a secret mission to invade and capture Separatist data.

The group meets an amnesiac clone named Gregor, who is working as a busboy for a diner. With the help of the droid group, he regains his memories and helps send them home.

Episode 16 – The Lawless

Okay so there’s a few episode in this season tied for my favorite, so I wanted to list them all.

Earlier in the series, it is shown that Maul, the Sith that Obi-Wan sliced in half at the end of the film The Phantom Menace, is actually alive. His brother, Savage, finds him, and helps restore his sanity.

During this episode, Maul attacks and takes over the planet Mandalore, and the planet’s leader (Duchess) requests Obi-Wan to come help. Unfortunately, due to some rules of war, he is unable to officially act in this manner, but he secretly gets Mandalorian armor and goes to the planet to help liberate it.

Maul ends up killing the Duchess and Obi-Wan is heartbroken. He leaves with her, and then secretly Maul’s former Master Sidious arrives at the planet and takes him down because he is a liability to his plans.

Episode 20 – The Wrong Jedi

Ahsoka is accused and put on trial for a bombing that occurred in the Jedi Temple. She is innocent, but no jedi other than Anakin take action to try and find evidence to save her. Anakin finds out that it was Padawan Barriss (Remember Season 2?) who bombed the temple and was willing to let Ahsoka take the blame.

She was found innocent and the jedi offered her place back into the order, but she was left not trusting them anymore, and decided to reject the offer, leaving Anakin alone and beginning to question the Jedi.

Season 6:

Episodes 1-4 – Clone Conspiracy arc

This storyline follows the clone soldier Fives who was investigating why his friend suddenly turned on his jedi commander and killed her. He found out there are microscopic control chips put into every clone, and something happened to his friend where the chip drove him to kill jedi.

Fives became more and more paranoid though the storyline, not knowing who to trust and not knowing who knew about the control chips. Chancellor Palpatine agreed to see him, but wanted to do so privately. It’s unknown what was said, but it caused Fives to attack Palpatine, and made him a fugitive on the run.

The story ends with him being killed, somewhat relieved he doesn’t have to panic or have nightmares of the conspiracy anymore.

What did Palpatine tell him?

Season 7:

Episodes 9-12 – Siege of Mandalore arc

Season 7 released in 2020 on Disney+. It consisted of 3 story arcs: the introduction of the unorthodox clone squad The Bad Batch, the story of what Ahsoka was doing after she left the Jedi Order at the end of season 5, and the final arc of Mandalore, where Ahsoka goes to fight Maul, and Order 66 is activated.

All of the final episodes were fantastic. They take place in parallel to Revenge of the Sith, where Sidious takes control of everything and orders the clones to kill all the jedi. Ahsoka’s clone team receives the order just after they capture Maul, and Rex tries to fight it.

Ahsoka saves Rex by removing the control chip, and the two escape to the ship’s hanger while using Maul as a distraction.

The last 20 minutes of the final episode are so beautifully done because once the ship gets destroyed and starts crashing on whatever planet they’re orbiting, there is no dialogue at all. The show just uses the sound effects from ambient noise and the musical soundtrack for the last 20 minutes.

The final shot was a time jump where Darth Vader was looking over the wreckage, assuming there were no survivors. It fades to black and all you hear is the iconic breathing.

Those are all of my favorite episodes in the series, but it ran for seven seasons and there were a lot of other fun ones I didn’t mention, like the bank arc in season six.

Next up is the third film Revenge of the Sith, and if the final episode here is any indicator, there is going to be some deaths.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review

kneisguy2 Comments

I have completed the first movie in this timeline marathon.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. I won’t be talking much about the history of the movie, because when it was released in 1999 I was two years old. In this review I will briefly talk about the plot of the film, and then go into key parts that can affect the franchise as a whole.

I do want to address that for some of this timeline marathon I have the physical copy of the movie/tv show/game. If there’s something I enjoy I personally want to get the disc of it to keep and watch offline instead of streaming sometime. For Episode 1 I have a DVD of it, and included in it is an extras page that says there’s unique online special features. I can’t use is on an Apple Macintosh or on my regular blu ray player, but someday I might figure out what online special features there are.

The movie starts off talking about taxes. A group called the Trade Federation has created a blockade around a planet to protest (?) paying higher taxes on the galaxy’s government, The Republic.

Two Jedi: Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi were sent to negotiate ending the blockade. It does not end well, and the Trade Federation invades the planet with a droid army.

To be completely honest, I don’t get how a blockade around the equator works. Couldn’t the people on the planet go around where there isn’t a blockade, then move to their original landing spot once they’re in the atmosphere?

I’m going to quickly type out the plot points for the rest of the movie. There’s going to be some details I miss, but these are the key moments in the film:

Gungan!

The two Jedi sneak aboard an invading ship to get to the planet Naboo and meet a frog-like creature called Jar-Jar. He leads them to his underwater city, where the other frog-like people (Gungans) give them a ship to go to the above-water city and rescue the Queen.

Podracing!

The gang has to emergency land on a sand planet called and find parts to fix the ship. They don’t have the money! However: they meet a young slave boy named Anakin there who tells them about this upcoming race. They enter the race and he won with his homemade pod racer. The group of travelers win the parts to fix their ship, and wins Anakin’s freedom as well.

Citys!

The team goes to the Republic capitol, Coruscant, to tell the government about the invasion on Naboo, and to get Anakin tested for Jedi school. Unfortunately, neither of those tasks work out. The Senate is stuck on procedures, discussions, and voting instead of actually taking action to do anything. As for Anakin, the Jedi Council decided that despite his high test scores, he is too old to start training to be a Jedi. Jedi take young kids before they become attached to family to help limit their emotions, and Anakin grew up with his mother, so they thing that’s a problem.

War!

Queen Padmé goes back to her home planet to help stop the invasion. She meets with her neighbors the Gungans, and together they form an army that will fight the droids on land, in the palace, and in space.

Anakin sneaks aboard a ship and flies to the spaceship that controls the robots, and on land the Jedi meet for the first time a Dark Jedi: A Sith named Maul.

This is pretty significant to the timeline marathon because in the previous Young Jedi Adventures series, there were no Sith in existence. The most those Young Jedi had to face were pirates, not evil Jedi with the same abilities as them.

Qui-Gon and Obi Wan were fighting to survive this battle, and unfortunately Qui-Gon did not survive. He was stabbed by Maul, and Obi Wan immediately avenged him by cutting Maul in half and throwing him down a shaft.

Up in space Anakin was able to successfully destroy the control station, and all of the droids shut down. The battle has been won.

Although they defeated the droids and Maul, the Jedi are left to wonder where he came from. Obi Wan has also been tasked with training Anakin to be a Jedi, so we will see how that plays out in the next few things to watch.

Favorite Scene

Since this isn’t a television show, I can’t just talk about my favorite episode of the series. I can however say that my favorite scene is probably the podracing scene. Going fast takes skill and Anakin really shows how great of a pilot he is in this scene.

The announcers are probably the best background/side character in this movie. The two headed brothers(?) talk about the events in the race, one in regular language, and the other in an alien dialect.

I think this scene also helps create an expansion on the galaxy in Star Wars. What do people do for fun? What sports do they have on planets since stuff like football and baseball are Earth sports.

Racing is universal. Kachow.

When I finished watching the movie I remembered that earlier this year I downloaded a video game for my Nintendo Switch called “STAR WARS EPISODE I: Racer”. It is quite possibly one of the worst names of a video game I’ve seen, but it’s a pretty fun racer so far.

I turned it on for the first time recently just to try it out, and so far it seems pretty easy to win races. I’m not sure why Anakin and the others in the movie were struggling to beat Sebulba.

I didn’t want to play as Anakin Skywalker during the game. Mostly for the same reason that I never play as Mario in a Mario Party game, but we all know from the movie that he won the race. This game starts at Anakin’s winning race, and then travels to other planets for the racing circuit.

Also, just look at his model in the game. Ugh.

All the other characters are aliens, and are some of the goofiest looking creatures with the silliest names. I won 1200 Truguts for first place as well. What are Truguts? Money I think? Hopefully.

I may continue this game as I go just to see how far in racing I can get. I can upgrade my speeder to get faster and control it even better, and maybe since in my game Anakin never won the race, the future movies and shows will all diverge into a fractured branch and it will alter the course of the timeline marathon.

That is all I have for timeline media number two: Episode One. The names and titles in this series will get even more confusing as we go I’m sure.

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures Review

kneisguy2 Comments

I finished the first show on my Star Wars timeline marathon! Young Jedi Adventures is a show for toddlers and families that released May 4 2023. Before watching this I didn’t realize this show is only a year old. The last episode released this year in February. I think that means there’s a possibility for season 2?

The show features the main 3 Jedi in the first Episode: Kai Brightstar the human, Lys the purple haired alien, and Nubs the blue teddy bear alien. In the first episode they leave the temple on Coruscant to visit the outer parts of the galaxy. They leave with a young pilot named Nash to live and train on their new temple located on Nash’s home planet: Tenoo.

The Jedi land and immediately have to save a diner from some pirates harassing and stealing supplies. This is Taborr and his crew of a robot and young alien pig. More on them later.

The Young Jedi go on many Adventures during all 25 episodes. They face many different trials and villains: Taborr and pirates, wild animals, eco-terrorists, other pirates, and some self-made conflicts.

My favorite recurring villain has to be the chicken-man alien, Raxlo (Haley Joel Osment). He appears in only three episodes, but his villainy is a joy to watch.

Raxlo first appears in episode six: “Forest Defenders”. He is seen cutting down an entire forest with a machine, becoming the opposite of the Lorax. He wanted to cut down the wood and sell it for money. The Jedi stop his machine, and Raxlo escapes to figure out a new business plan.

He then appears in episode 13: “Tree Troubles” where he blocks off water that is supporting the ecosystem of a tree, to be able to mine the hardened sap that formed underneath the tree. He was again defeated by the three Jedi.

The third and final appearance Raxlo has in the show is in episode 19 “Raxlo Strikes Back”. In this episode, he is now visiting a snow planet the Jedi frequent, to melt the snow to mine the rare gems underneath. The problem with melting the snow is that there are some space walruses who lay their eggs in the snow, and if it gets too warm the eggs will never hatch.

I really enjoy Raxlo because in this final episode he gets redeemed. He’s trying to make a profit to sell the gems in this episode, and his machine is stopped and the snow comes back, but the nice thing is that the people on the planet help him find a new place to dig for the gems. A place without space walrus eggs. After this episode I don’t think he’ll come back as a villain again.

There are redeemable villains in the show, and some who probably will be bad forever.

My least favorite episode has to be episode 11: “The Ganguls”. Nash the pilot has her new speeder stolen by a kid working for a gang of pirates. The pirates operate in a nearby town, and it is revealed that they have taken over the town and scared the residents into submission.

My problem is that the gang consists of three pirates total. I have no idea why the town of 15 or 20 shown people are afraid of three loud pirates, and that they even threw the mayor out of town.

The Jedi kids show up to town and convince the townsfolk to stand up to the pirates. I know this is a show for toddlers and creates life lessons for them, but come on..

There were some really nice episodes that I enjoyed in the series. One of them involved a recurring pirate villain Taborr. Taborr is a kid pirate who often tries to steal things from people to make a name for himself and get respect from the other pirates.

In episode 12: “Off the Rails”, Taborr and his small group of pirates try to rob a train taking logs of wood to a nearby village to build homes for them. Kai and Taborr fight and the train car they’re on disconnects from the rest, and they need to work together to not be stranded on the tracks.

I enjoyed this episode because when Taborr learned that the logs were going to help peoples’ homes, he had a change of heart and decided not to steal from the Jedi. Taborr was the first villain the young Jedi fought in the show, but in this episode it seems like there was more to him than just being a bad guy, and the Jedi learned that not everything had to be solved with fighting.

I think my absolute favorite episode of the show has to be episode 23: “The Caves of Batuu”. Kai had doubts about himself and wanting to be a perfect Jedi after failing to complete a trick with his lightsaber, and the Jedi Master he was training under took him to some nearby caves to clear his head.

This episode was done really well because there were no villains in it, just self-doubt. The Force took Kai through multiple visions in the cave to learn who he is and who he wants to be. For an episode that only runs for 11 minutes, I think this was the best was to show the mystical side of Star Wars for kids.

The show ends with episode 25 “The Prince and the Pirate”. Taborr is focused more on in this episode than the Jedi, and this episode runs the entire 30 minutes. A new space station called Starlight Beacon is officially opening the day they visit, and Taborr wants to steal the dedication plaque to make a name for himself and get respect. The young Jedi confront him, and I won’t spoil how it happens, but in the end it seems like Taborr does have a change of heart and seems to change his ways.

Starlight Beacon does open and the dedication plaque gets placed where it belongs. The group of friends watch the ceremony and are excited for what is to come in the future.

According to the Wookiepedia info on Starlight Beacon, two years after the grand opening of the station, Starlight Beacon is attacked and blown up by some terrorists to the Republic, and the space station is destroyed. Many people die, including some Jedi who help evacuate the station. I don’t actually know if there is a season 2 or 3 planned for this show, but hopefully the kids never come back to this station.

Overall, I thought the show was a good introduction for kids to get into Star Wars and learn some good life lessons along the way. If you have a kid or enjoy watching shows for toddlers, I think this would be a good selection.

I will be continuing my Star Wars timeline marathon, so be sure to check back on the main page for any updated when I finish something and write about it!