Full Series The Diminishing Relevance of The Clone Wars

As the series progresses, I feel it has become less and less about the actual Clone Wars, and more "stuff that happens between Episodes 2 and 3."

Season 1: 21/22 episodes devoted to the Clone War in one way or another, tying in elements such as criminals (Hondo) and local affairs (Tresspass and Blue Shadow Virus). Three episodes are significant to Clone Troopers as characters (Rookies, The Hidden Enemy, Innocents of Ryloth), with multiple episodes featuring Clones in extensive supporting roles.

Season 2: 12/22 episodes devoted to the Clone War. An extended focus on the criminal elements and mercenary groups in the galaxy, but still managing to tie into the greater scheme of things, with alliances to the CIS and Republic keeping them relevant to the plot. Two episodes significant to Clone Troopers (Landing at Point Rain, The Deserter), with a still impressive number of episodes featuring characters like Rex, Cody or Ponds as supporting characters.

Season 3: 10/22 Episodes devoted to the Clone War. More emphasis put on serialized arcs, often dealing with matters outside of the war entirely, such as Arc Troopers, or Trandoshan hunting parties. Two Episodes dealing significantly with Clone Troopers (Cadets and Arc Troopers). Less supporting clones, more Ahsoka being the problem solver and friends with every female lead.

Season 4: 11/22 episodes devoted to the Clone War. Shadow Warrior and A Friend in Need the only non Arc related episodes of the season. Four episodes significantly dealing with Clones (Umbara series),
Minimal supporting roles for Clones. More episodes dealing with the off topic subjects brought up in Season 2 and Season 3, with little effort to try and cast them in light of the war as a whole.

Season 5: 8/20 episodes focusing on the Clone War, and often only tangentially at best. Onderon is the closest to the war we get, but it is fought entirely with guerrilla units, and apart from a cameo by Rex, no Clones. D-Squad might as well not even be considered part of the war given how little actually happened. ONE episode dealing significantly with a Clone Trooper (Missing in Action), who promptly died before it ended. Half the season is dedicated to trying to justify Maul's return, and cramming a spinoff bait arc dealing with Muppet/Jedi Babies into it while throwing out a political arc dealing with Clovis.

As we go on, the Clones are becoming less and less significant. Rex did almost nothing in Season 5, and the cameos by Wolfe and Fox might as well have been filled by any Clone. Nothing is done with their characters, and the clones see no direct combat at all.

What happened to the Clones receiving more character development? What happened to Rex and Cody's chemistry as foils for each other? What happened to showing us an actual galactic conflict? Why is it that these military commanders and massive numbers of frontline troopers are suddenly back on Coruscant and not out fighting the CIS?

Why does this show continue to lose its focus as it tries (and fails) to emulate other films and franchises both in story and visual design?

 

I think you are missing the point of the Clone Wars. The Clone Wars isn't just about big battles and the clones themselves. It would get pretty boring very quickly if it was just that all the time. The military commanders and the troopers are needed to defend Coruscant as well so they need an adequate amount there to control the situation if the planet is ever attacked.

A lot of the Clone Wars series is showing what the effects of the war has on the characters around them. Even though it may not look like it you at all, each story is linked to the Clone Wars, whether its directly or not - its all about the consequences of this war. Its much more interesting when you have a variety of things rather then the same thing over and over.

 

What you're saying is true... from a certain point of view. But Season 1 and 2 showed us that you can have that will still maintaining the pretext that there is a massive conflict going on. If you were to watch Season 5 alone, you could be forgiven for thinking the whole thing just happened before Attack of the Clones. So little of what happened this season had anything to do with the actual Clone War that it might as well not have been there. Onderon would just be rehashing the battle for Naboo, and Maul was more interested in Obi-Wan anyways.

I don't see how I'm missing the point of the Clone Wars when it isn't bothering to actually show the Clone Wars. It's just pissing around half the time.

 

I'm not sure how you can count Season One's Hondo arc, Trespass and Blue Shadow Virus as relevant to the "Clone Wars" themselves, but discount the Young Jedi and D-Squad arcs using the same logic. Like it or not (and don't get me wrong, I'm more or less in the 'not' category) the D-Squad had more relevance to the actual 'war' than Dr Frankenstein on Naboo or Dances With Wolves In Space (an episode I loved all the same).

 

Believe me, 'interesting' isn't the word I'd use to describe Season 5. And if they can't think of enough stories to tell without resurrecting dead Sith Lords, then they should stop making the show. The micro-series was short and sweet, and is the better show for it, imo.

 

Lessee, two episodes dealing with a Separatist Scientist planning on using a weapon of mass destruction against the Republic, compared to a four part arc where half of the events are set in a wasteland with next to nothing to do with the plot. Yeah, I'll stick with Blue Shadow Virus.

As for Hondo, capturing the head of the CIS and holding him for ransom leading into a hostage negotiation with the Jedi sounds like something I could see actually happening in the War. Plus it had lasting ramifications. Florrum got hit by the CIS in retaliation for the pirates working against their best interests. It actually paid off in the long run, whereas I doubt anything of significance will ever be seen from the Droid arc.

Also, I'm not entirely discounting these arcs. I said that eight episodes in Season 5 dealt with the Clone War. They don't all have to come from the same arcs. Grievous's attack on Florrum I count, while a Sunny Day in the Void has nothing to do with anything.

 

I'm not saying D-Squad is better than Blue Shadow Virus. I would NEVER say that, heh. But I would say they are equal when judging them in terms of relevance to the actual war, if not more so in D-Squad's favour. It's a military operation by the Republic against the Separatists, culminating in an attack on the Republic military. Seems pretty related to the war to me.

In terms of balance between episodes that relate strongly to the war and those that are more peripheral, I think the show has remained more or less consistent season-on-season. Every season gives us some war-focused clone-heavy action episodes, some Jedi-focused episodes, some bounty hunter/criminal element episodes, some political episodes etc.

 

We have had no Clone heavy episodes this season. They've been circumstantial at best, and they've done nothing but be goons that Ventress beats up. Unless you count the Cato Nemoidia skirmish, which was dropped the minute the season ending plot tumor killed it.

 

I agree with Zandalor. While I still think TCW a good show but I think it should be more like Band of Brothers (cursing and grapicness aside) and be about the clone fighting the war itself. The Jedi (and other force users) are way to over used. I want a whole season of TCW about clones and jedi only in cameo roles. There is 25,000 system in the GFFA and the war it suppose to impact most of them, so their are alot more stories to be told about the war as a whole and we are only at season 5.

 

They were promoting Commander Thorn reasonably heavily (for a show-only OC we've never seen before) before the season started, so I don't think it would be too speculative to say his episode(s) in the Clovis arc were going to fit the bill. Season Five's higgledy-piggledy scheduling changes are well-known by now.

If that's the case, then Thorn's episodes and the promised Fives arc look like Season 6 will make up for what had to be taken from Season 5.

 

How is shadow warrior not dedicated to the Clone wars?

 

They were also heavily promoting Gregor, and look at what they did with him. He got to do something cool for all of three minutes before blowing up. I still hold that the entire Droid Arc would have worked out better if D-Squad had been replaced with Delta Squad. In fact, I'm convinced that at one point it was supposed to be Delta Squad in that arc. It is suited perfectly for them. A high risk infiltration and sabotage mission, encountering another commando. It sounded like it could have come right out of Republic Commando.

 

It is one of the eleven episodes that deals directly with the War. I just said that it was one of two episodes that weren't part of an arc or serialized portion of the show. It might be an awful episode, but at least it actually did something with the conflict.

 

Haha, can't argue with that.

 

I agree. The show has focused less on the actual war as it becomes more concerned with it's own plotlines. I do hope that the show refocuses, which I think it will in Season 6

Spoiler

Now that Ashoka is gone, I think Anakin will withdraw into the war more, which will cause the show to focus on the war

 

Well.....this is your problem and not the show's problem.... They explained why Anakin & Rex were drawn back to coruscant away from the war. No frontline troopers were drawn from combat, they were all shock troopers (minus Rex). I shouldnt have to explain what shocktroopers are wookiepedia is readily available to describe their roles and jobs........ I don't see how the show has "lost focus".....Their focus in the time period between episodes 2 and 3. That doesn't mean that every episode needs to be about clones vs droids. If thats the case there would have been no way the show would have made it to 5 seasons.

 

This ^^^

I'm not going to lie, in the past I was ONLY interested in the stories of the clones. However I think TCW team did a wise thing by starting to blur the lines of the war so it wasn't just good against bad. By the time of the Season 5 finale, it's evident that the war has completely put the entire galaxy in disarray. Even the Jedi are not what they once were, which is why Ahsoka left.

Also if there there wasn't any other stories outside of the clones, there really wouldn't be any stories available to tell outside or beyond TCW/ROTS. I think TCW setup a bigger universe that will go beyond TCW themselves. I really think (or at least hope) that was the point of Ahsoka leaving, to explore these stories outside of TCW and ROTS.

I really think if there is a Season 6, you'll get more stories about the clones, as it needs to setup the events of ROTS.

 

I agree. We need more clones.

We should get a Delta squad (republic commando) standalone or arc. They already made the models.

 

I'll tell you one thing I'm getting sick of, it's the use of the same VA's over and over again. Enough already. Hire new voice actors, damn it.

 

Nice post, Zandalor. Never did the math but it helps give one explanation for why I'm tired of this show.

I remember speculating back in probably S2 or so that I felt Lucas knew he didn't tell a satisfactory story with the PT and that he was at least partially using TCW as a means of focusing on stuff he forgot to or didn't have time for.

 

I can agree with some of this, the annoying Droid episodes that just veer off from anything relavent are pretty annoying and could be done away with, I still love the hell out of this show though.

 

Clones vs droids can get old pretty quick, so I'm glad to see the storylines branching out to peripheral or tertiary conflicts, but it would be great to see the overall web. Which really requires more Sidious.

 

My mantra has always been that the title "The Clone Wars," isn't about the wars. It is about an era. It is about the things that occurred during that time.

"Grandpa, when did you meet Grandma?"

"World War II."

So when Ahsoka and Lux's kids ask when they met, they'll say "The Clone Wars." Okay, I'm kidding. But not about the title being relative to an era instead of just a conflict.

 

Don't you dare!