Full Series The Clone Wars Review Thread

In this thread I will be going through ever single episode of the Clone Wars, and writing up a review of each. This will mostly consist of my thoughts, opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. I hope you enjoy it. Any feedback is appreciated.

Season 0 Episode 1: The New Padawan




The New Padawan is the first part of the Clone Wars theatrical Movie. This is, of course, a terrible way to consider this episode, as it was never intended to be connected to the other 3 parts, so jars somewhat. It would take minimal editing to simply make this a standalone episode.

On its own however, The New Padawan is a solid start to the series. The introductions to characters such as Rex and Yularen are done with clean efficiency. The Battle Scenes are impressive, and the shield lends an air of dread to the battle, making it seem that the sky has turned red. Christophsis is a new and unique planet, a gorgeous crystalline cityscape. Obi-Wan gets some funny nice scenes opposite General Loathsom, demonstrating his negotiation skills, as remarked upon by Grievous. Anakin feels a lot more positive, and there are few signs of his descent to the dark side in this instalment.

Ahsoka herself, the titular Padawan, is a delightful new character, functioning as an audience identification figure for the show, and also holding her own against the other characters.

All in all, it’s a promising start to the Clone Wars, slightly hampered by being lumped together with the Castle trilogy.

Minor Observations

+ General Loathsom is a rather unusual character, having a strange Scottish-like accent, and, you know, having the name Loathsom. However, I’ll always love his line “Bring us something Liquid.”

+ Something about seeing the spoon and tea cups used by Obi-Wan is just weird. Most times in Star Wars we don’t see cutlery very well, and cups and plates are usually more spacey. These just look to realistic.

+ The music of the show has already got off to a good start, with Kevin KIner really showing his talent. The Battle of Christophsis theme is a stand out, along with A Galaxy Divided’s new take on the Star Wars theme. But the episode also introduces quieter pieces, such as The Jedi Council and Ahsoka’s theme, which is one the show will use again and again.

+I love that Obi-Wan accidentally commits a War Crime, by pretending to surrender.

+Rex's pained laugh at the 'Skyguy' joke is so... bad. It just isn't that funny.

+Tom Kane’s epic opening narration is amazing. It never fails to get me excited for the upcoming episode.

+Considering that this was originally intended to be shown later in the series as a flashback episode, like The Hidden Enemy, how would that have affected the series? Would the Castle trilogy be a decent start for the series? Would it have affected initial opinions of Ahsoka?

Season 0 Episode 2: Castle of Deception





Here we come to the first multi part arc of the Clone Wars. This would later become the house style for the series, so it’s interesting to see its first use here. The Castle trilogy suffers, I think, from being seen as one single block, instead of three separate episodes (Side Note: For the purposes of this review,I consider Castle of Deception to end roughly when Anakin and Ashoka pack Rotta into the backpack, and Castle of Doom ends when Anakin and Ahsoka reach Tatooine).

Castle of Deception features a lot of action scenes, from the tense landing in the jungle, to scaling the cliff. Once the battles are finished, the story moves into the monastery, where danger of a different sort lies. The way Ventress silently watches the Jedi is kind of creepy, and the corridors of the monastery lend to the atmosphere of dread.

This is a good episode, but it rarely pushes out into a great episode. Other than the cliff scaling, there’s not that much that’s really memorable in the episode.

Minor Observations

+The beheaded bounty hunters are surprising this early into the series. Start as you mean to go on, I suppose.

+Teth is a really beautiful planet, that really should have been used a bit more in the show.

+The part when Anakin finishes scaling the cliff, and destroys all the droids is a weird moment. He seems oddly angry for a simple bunch of droids.

+The Caretaker Droid calls the Droids, Battle Bots. That is all I really have to say.

+I find Rotta quite cute, but it’s in this episode that Ahsoka’s nicknames for everything start getting a bit annoying. Skyguy, Snips, Stinky, Artooie, Stick Tinnies. I’m not that fond of them.