TV: Goodbye Clone Wars

I’ve got a bit of a strange relationship with Star Wars: The Clone Wars, while I saw the movie at the cinema and watched the first season as it aired since then I became a bit of a lapsed viewer, binge watching seasons two to four in about a week then forgetting about it, only to once again marathon the fifth season. So while to many it may seem strange that with the acquisition of Clone Wars by Netflix the whole season was just available all at once it seemed perfectly natural to me to sit down and watch all 13 episodes in a long weekend. The episodes can be broken up into five story lines which are of varying quality, some answering questions and filling in blanks while others are a reminder of how frustrating the show could be.

Order 66 arc

Fives: “We weren’t created to be dispatched of in this way”
Droid: “Perhaps, you were…”

The first arc explores the idea of Order 66, a command introduced in Episode III which orders clones to turn on their Jedi masters. It has long been questioned by fans how aware the clones were of this order, it having been weird to see clones build up friendships with Jedi throughout this series knowing that soon they would be following an order to wipe them out. When a clone, Tup, loses his mind and kills a Jedi it quickly becomes apparent that this programming is hidden from the clones just as much as the Jedi. 

Through the use of regular clone Fives and a droid the idea of orders is explored, particularly when to follow them and when to bend them. The partnership is quite odd but works remarkably well, the droid being compelled by his programming to find out the truth while ignoring other parts which state that his actions are wrong. You do feel for Fives throughout the storyline as well, at first trying to save Tup and then being seen as mad by his friends and commanders. 

The Kaminoans are explored in more detail than ever before throughout this arc, revealing that they were aware of Order 66 and showing them acting to keep its origin hidden. Even with the knowledge that they believe the order is designed to hunt down Jedi who have gone evil it still shows a much more sinister side to them. 

However it isn’t hard to know how this storyline will end, obviously the Jedi can’t discover the purpose of Order 66 or it will spoil the events of Episode III so while the audience learns of its origins that is as far as the story can go before Fives - the only one with this knowledge - needs to be dispatched. Its quite unsatisfying that the story builds to action being taken about the order and the chips which activate it only for it to have little effect on the overall story.

Banking arc

The next storyline is far less exciting, exploring the most derided part of the prequels - their obsession with boring politics. Padme through the help of her old flame Clovis discovers a conspiracy involving the banks and heads to Scorpio to investigate. When she is targeted by a bounty hunter and Count Dooku it’s obvious that the separatists are controlling the banks leading to Republic intervention and a battle over the banks.

There are some interesting moments in this arc, particularly the invasion of Scorpio which sees a dogfight with prototype X-wings, but as a whole its really not very fun to see Padme look at bank records and sort of flirt with Clovis. The Padme/Clovis romance does get a little more interesting when Anakin arrives to question what they’ve been up to. We also get to see a hint of the problems in their marriage, but once again thanks to Episode III we know how that aspect will go. One of the more interesting scenes features Obi Wan Kenobi - in unfortunately one of his very few appearances in this 13 episodes - essentially revealing that he knows Anakin and Padme are romantically involved and reminding Anakin of his past relationship with Satine, for which he apparently almost left the Jedi order. 

As a whole though this arc is dull and forgettable, in fact being very similar to episodes we’ve seen before right down to bringing back the Padme/Clovis relationship.

Jar Jar arc

Jar Jar Binks is without a doubt the most hated thing about the prequels and his very presence in the final season isn’t one many will rejoice to see. This is where we have to remember that originally this storyline would have been part of a full 22 episode season - which they had no idea would be the last - so while to many fans it feels like a waste of valuable space it would have just been a regular episode. 

The arc does try to raise the coolness factor by pairing Jar Jar with Mace Windu in a storyline that sees them investigating a plot to steal the force from individuals. While Mace Windu’s appearance does help to stop this episode from falling fully into farce he isn’t enough to balance out the ridiculousness of Jar Jar, who is generally off doing slapstick while Windu fights. A surprising twist on who the villain is does make the last episode slightly more exciting but unfortunately it seems to get rid of the same threat in a very unsatisfying manner to longtime fans of the show. Just like the previous arc this one is best forgotten.

Sifo Dyas 

That this is actually a separate episode feels a little odd into how much it is tied into the earlier Order 66 storyline with its exploration of who Sifo Dyas was and why he ordered the creation of a clone army, almost as if they couldn’t find room for it in the Order 66 arc so gave it a separate space here. The story sees new evidence of what happened to Sifo Dyas coming to light with Obi Wan and Anakin being sent to investigate. They uncover a conspiracy surrounding his disappearance which appears to involve the former Chancellor and Count Dooku.

This episode is able to make Dooku a credible threat, something the films and the series before have often failed to do, through the way he so effortlessly battles the Jedi in a great lightsaber fight which closes the episode. Similarly to the Order 66 arc the revelations of this episode leave the Jedi questioning just how much they can trust their clone comrades, however here a new wrinkle is thrown in - the Jedi chose to continue using the clones until the war was over deciding they posed no imminent threat. 

Yoda arc
“Enlightenment. Spirit. Balance. There is another Skywalker”

This storyline is one of the most out there that the show has produced, bearing some similarity to the season three storyline which featured Anakin and Obi Wan discovering a planet ruled over by physical manifestations of the force, with the light and dark as siblings in a constant battle. Yoda begins to hear the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn, leading the other Jedi to worry that he may be losing his mind or even worse being manipulated by the Sith. With the help of Anakin, Yoda flees the Jedi Temple to investigate the origin of the voice, leading him on a quest to discover how to live on after death. 

The spirits who guide Yoda are a bit strange, representing five emotions and speaking in riddles, being actually a little hard to understand at times. Yoda’s quest is interesting, seeing him experience many visions and having to face his dark side in a very physical confrontation which forces him to admit that their is always a darkness within himself. The vision of a perfect world is particularly interesting, one where the war didn’t occur, no one died and Ashoka was never compelled to leave the Jedi. 

The final vision Yoda sees becomes manipulated by Darth Sidious, with Yoda having to essentially battle with his spirit. This whole sequence sets up Episode III and the fall of the Jedi in spectacular fashion. It’s obvious that what Yoda learns of the future on his quest deeply unsettles him but he is left knowing that one day good will triumph. 

While its a shame that this is the last we will see of the show, in particular because several threads are left unresolved - such as what happens to Ashoka and why Darth Sidious left Darth Maul alive last season - the ending is probably the best we could have hoped for in that it ties into the last part of the prequels so well. As a whole the final season is a bit all over the place, featuring two great story arcs, a good one episode story and two dire outings. Some may feel that it didn’t do the show justice but it was nice to at least get to see the last few episodes produced for the series.