My Review of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Seasons 1-6) · 7:29pm Nov 8th, 2022
My TV Show Rating Score:
5/5: It is an awesome show!
4.5/5: it is a great show albeit not perfect
4/5: It’s a good show with minor flaws
3/5: It’s overall okay/guilty pleasure
2/5: It’s bad but not awful
1/5: Look, up in the sky! It’s super bad!
0/5: MY EYEEEESSS!!!
*Plays the Star Wars theme*
*Displays the title with purple color*
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Narrator: The Clown Prince of Crime is now starting his long-awaited review of one of the most beloved and iconic animated series in television history: "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"! He holds nothing back as he begins to share his unbiased opinion in detail as to what he frankly thinks of the show; meanwhile, his dedicated followers and friends read his blog post with the utmost eagerness, anticipating what his final verdict will be! Does he love it just as much as everyone else does or does he despise it with deep hatred?
Allow me to make myself clear as I begin this review. This was the very series that introduced me to Star Wars--in fact, this was one of the things that introduced me to the franchise besides the prequel trilogy. I remember watching the first episodes of the show from season 1 and watching the sneak peeks of the season constantly. But ever since I watched most of season one back in 2008-2009, I stopped watching it for some forgotten reason. Nonetheless, it stuck with me for a long time which made me want to check it out again sometime in the near future. Well, that future is long gone now, and I was able to binge-watch the show all the way to the final season. For this review, I'm only going to talk about the first six seasons while the seventh season will be reviewed this Saturday.
This show takes place between AOTC and ROTS; the war between the Republic and the Separatists increases day by day and grows more violent by the second. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker are leading the army in many different ways to obtain victory against their enemies while the evil Count Dooku stops at nothing to exploit the weaknesses of the Jedi and of the Republic. Who will emerge victorious in the end? Or the bigger question should be: Who is pulling the strings?
Now, to put this bluntly, I did indeed enjoy this series. As a matter of fact, I love how expansive this series is with all the character arcs, the character development, and the story they went with throughout the seasons. It does a brilliant job of digging deeper into Star Wars lore and providing adequate explanations for certain elements that were left unexplored within the prequels. It even does a splendid job of giving every character a personality unlike how the prequels (especially episodes 1 and 2) handled most of them. For instance, all the clone troopers have a distinct personality, a nickname, and a few episodes to make them more fleshed-out. They aren't just soldiers; they're people....souls that have feelings and can bond with their Jedi generals. Captain Rex, Fives, Echo, and Hevy are my favorite clones out of them all. They stood out to me in very unique ways I can't fully articulate. The way they fought during the Clone Wars and stood side-by-side with their fellow clone comrades was just...amazing. Seeing this just makes Order 66 a lot harder to watch.
Most importantly, it provided so much depth within Anakin's character arc throughout the series. There were so many signs and a lot of foreshadowing of his turn to the dark side. Plus, the interactions between him and the Jedi Council made his inevitable turn all the more understandable. It makes you hate the Jedi for their arrogance and blindness to the truth but at the same time makes Anakin's downfall in ROTS more heartbreaking. Aside from that, his relationship with Obi-Wan was profound and well-written. They kept the spirit of their dynamic brotherhood and made them much more believable as the main characters.
The 3D computer animation was great to look at, and the voice acting was absolutely flawless. James Arnold Taylor, Matthew Wood, Ashley Eckstein, Tom Kane, Dee Bradley Baker, the late Ian Abercrombie, Corey Burton, and Sam Witwer were the stand-outs out of the entire voice cast. Clancy Brown and Nika Futterman were fantastic in their respective roles of Savage Opress and Ventress too.
Despite my admiration for this incredible show, it has glaring issues...some of which I refuse to ignore. First off, I hated the way they treated General Grievous; remember how ruthless and unstoppable he was in the 2D Clone Wars miniseries? Yeah, thanks to his canon portrayal in "Revenge of the Sith", he is a cowardly, incompetent idiot with barely any Jedi kills or single-handed victories. Every time he fights with Obi-Wan or any other skilled Jedi Master, he runs away or gets defeated easily. Is he not the infamous Jedi Slayer who is supposed to foreshadow Darth Vader in some way? And before any of you nerds come at me, yes, I already know the advice Dooku gave him in the miniseries.
If you are to succeed in combat against the best of the Jedi, you must have surprise, fear, and intimidation on your side. For if any one element is lacking, it would be best for you to retreat.
Guess what? He barely manifests any of those elements and behaves like a twirly-mustache Saturday morning cartoon villain. I know George Lucas envisioned him as such, but I don't honestly agree with him. He's just not that menacing, interesting, or compelling anymore. I love the iconic voice provided by Matthew Wood, but his character wasn't done any justice at all.
As for Count Dooku, he was more interesting than Grievous, but the way he was portrayed in the show seemed like a slight deviation from his characterization in "Attack of the Clones". In the prequels, he is shown to have a complex personality with twisted political ideals of justice and of morality. He even displays sympathetic traits despite being a villain. But in the show, he is more cold-hearted and less sympathetic. One could argue that the years of the Clone Wars made him more entrenched in the Dark Side which could explain his slight personality change. Regardless, it takes away what made him complex as a character and makes him no better than a generic evil wizard seeking power.
The other issues I have with the show are the following: the dull, choppy animation in the earlier episodes and the puzzling moments that questions continuity. For example, there were a few moments in the show where Grievous and Anakin passed by each other, which I gladly thank Dave Filoni for maintaining continuity because they don't officially meet until "Revenge of the Sith". However, in the season 4 episode, "Shadow Warrior" Anakin was captured by Dooku, and he was given back to Senator Padme Amidala in exchange for the release of Grievous (who was embarrassingly captured by the Gungans). If they don't meet until ROTS, how come Grievous remarks about Anakin's age if he already knew what he looked like? You see what I mean? The writers had a little too much freedom with this show and ended up creating scenarios that forces the viewers to make theories and speculations to answer the plot holes.
One last thing before I close: hearing Matt Lanter's voice as Anakin in the show is very nostalgic for me. I think he did a solid performance in giving Anakin a lot of emotion to convey how vulnerable he was at both his weakest and strongest points. However, he doesn't really sound like Anakin in the slightest. Since this is supposed to take place in the same universe, he is supposed to sound exactly like Hayden Christensen. If they had gotten someone like Mat Lucas (who voiced Anakin in the 2D miniseries), that would have been a lot better because the latter's voice sounds almost like Hayden's. I'm not saying this to discredit Matt Lanter, but I would have liked his character more if his voice sounded close to Hayden like how Anakin is supposed to sound. The same can be said for Tim Curry who voiced Palpatine after the passing of Ian Abercrombie; Curry's voice for Darth Sidious was really scary though.
In conclusion, this show is great but not perfect. Therefore, I will rate it a solid 4.5/5: a fine addition to my collection! Stay tuned for my review of season 7 this Saturday!
Peace!
*plays outro*
Yeah, I was also introduced to Star Wars thanks to this series and it will always have a special place in my heart because of that, among many other reasons that you have explained in your review.
Like you said, it gave a much needed depth to Anakin's character and made his eventual turn to the Dark Side a lot more understandable.
Plus, it actually made me emotionally attached to clone troopers and while General Grievous was once again done dirty, Darth Maul was elevated from a mere obstacle with a cool appearance to one of the most well-written Star Wars villains of all time.
As a child, I never took the time to see this series because of my attention being more focused on other programs. But, I’m old enough now to be more interested in checking it out thanks to becoming more aware of its popularity.
Out of curiosity…
Did you know that voice actor Greg Baldwin played a variety of characters for this show?
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Yes, AMU, I know. 😒
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Just curious.