Guest Article: Saved the Series Is: Five Things I Want to See in the ‘Clone Wars’ Revival
Twelve new episodes of The Clone Wars are coming next year. Here's what guest blogger Reviews by Rae wants to see in them.
I vividly remember the exact moment I knew that the Clone Wars series had been revived.
I was at work – adulting sucks – and of course I had Twitter open on my desktop. When you aren’t able to go to San Diego Comic Con, you live vicariously through some of the luckiest nerds ever. Anyway, I was constantly refreshing Bryan Young’s profile to stay updated on the latest from the Clone Wars 10th Anniversary Panel and when Bryan tweeted, “MORE CLONE WARS,” my heart swelled and nearly exploded.
MORE CLONE WARS!
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Bryan Young (@swankmotron) July 19, 2018I was speechless. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. Luckily for my coworkers, who have no interest in Star Wars, I didn’t, but they did witness an awkward office chair dance instead.
Like so many others fans, I was completely floored by the announcement. After watching the reveal trailer several times and scrolling through Twitter to see what other Star Wars fans were feeling with #CloneWarsSaved, images of the Siege of Mandalore, Ahsoka battling Maul, and Anakin’s final goodbye flashed through my head.
I am so ready to see what Dave Filoni and his creative team have put together to give The Clone Wars the proper send-off it deserved before it was cancelled in 2013.
Here’s what I’d particularly like to see in its final 12-episode run:
1) Anakin and Ahsoka having one last heart-to-heart before he heads off to rescue the Chancellor.
While many moments Ahsoka experienced in the final days of the Clone Wars have been touched upon in E.K. Johnston’s novel, Ahsoka, there are still several scenes I think we need to see play out in these final episodes.
For me, a major one is the last interaction between Ahsoka and Anakin, when he hands her her lightsabers and then runs off with Obi-Wan to save the Chancellor from Count Dooku and General Grievous, who’ve kidnapped Palpatine during the Battle of Coruscant. It’s been some time since Ahsoka walked away from the Jedi Order and she and Anakin have clearly changed.
Anakin and Ahsoka reunited one last time before the end of the war (Image credit: Dave Filoni)
Ahsoka has hopefully grown more mature experiencing life outside of the Temple and the Order while Anakin is even more influenced by Palpatine at this point and is presumably more jilted and jaded by this never-ending war. If you’ve read Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn, this is something I noticed about Anakin’s characteristics toward the end of the Clone Wars chapters, where he made a move against the Separatists that greatly affected the people of Mokijv, despite sound arguments against his decision to the contrary from Padmé and Thrawn.
What transpires between Ahsoka and Anakin in this final farewell, both outwardly and inwardly? What does Anakin say as he hands her the lightsabers? What does Ahsoka reply? What does Ahsoka replay in her mind over and over again after she survives Order 66 and no longer can feel Anakin through the Force?
A lot of this content was mapped out and dialogue was written, but I hope the Clone Wars team doesn’t rely too heavily on it and refreshes the storyboard.
2) The Siege of Mandalore.
The battle on Mandalore is the story arc I can say with high certainty that were we’re going to get, especially since it’s been the focal point for the initial promotional material. It’s a story that I can see taking place over a three- or four-episode arc during the series’ final episodes.
Besides the larger-than-life battle I know we’re going to get, learning how Ahsoka works with her Clone Troopers, Commando Bo-Katan, and the Mandalorian Resistance would be superb given Mandalore’s history of violence and infighting. Maybe we’ll even see a younger Ursa Wren in action.
Maul on the Mandalorian throne (Image credit: Dave Filoni)
I’m also hoping Filoni and his team give us a good look at Maul as he returns to Mandalore, and not simply his confrontation with Ahsoka. Let’s see an unhinged, terrifying tyrant, please.
3) Order 66 from the perspective of a groups of clones who carried it out.
The clones are the lifeblood of the Clone Wars series, in my opinion. As much as I enjoyed episodes about Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan, and other main characters, the clones are a brotherhood in the throes of a terrible war that they didn’t choose to be a part of. Throw in their inability to defy Order 66 and save the Jedi they fought alongside for years, unless they removed their inhibitor chips beforehand, and you get one hell of an emotional story.
I think it would be an interesting take to see the events of Order 66 from the perspective of a group of clones who obeyed the order only to realise and regret what they’ve done moments later. Is it the “bad batch” of clones we’ve heard about or another squad? Do they remove their inhibitor chips then? Do they revolt against their superiors or other clone troopers that believed they did the right thing? Do they defect from the new Empire and go into hiding? Do they come across another Jedi or Padawan and help them escape?
We see the ramifications of this a little bit in Star Wars Rebels with Rex, Wolffe, and Gregor, and in the Kanan: The Last Padawan comic with Grey and Styles, but to have an expanded view of the clones’ reaction to Order 66 and the Empire would be a refreshing twist on this plot-line.
4) Ahsoka vs. Maul on Mandalore.
First, the banter between “Not a Jedi Lady” Tano and “Half a Sith” Maul would be golden. Second, seeing Ahsoka stay true to herself, her morals and make the decision to save Rex would be incredibly fulfilling. Third, seeing Ahsoka try to feel for Anakin through the Force only to discover she can’t and ultimately think he’s gone because of Order 66 would kill us all.
Despite all that, who wouldn’t want a climatic fight between two of the most talented lightsaber duellists amidst the chaos on Mandalore? Not me. I need it.
5) Focusing on Jedi who escaped with their lives, maybe highlighting those at the center of the upcoming Stars Wars Jedi: Fallen Order video game.
Knowing that many of the 10,000 Jedi Knights lost their lives in Order 66, I still hope we see an episode, or even half of an episode, that shows us that a number of them survived the chaos. It wouldn’t be many, but it would be an invigorating contrast to the heart-wrenching death montage in Revenge of the Sith.
Caleb Dume and Depa Billaba fighting clone troopers during Order 66 (Image credit: Wookieepedia)
We know for a fact that Quinlan Vos, a skilled Jedi, survived, and Caleb Dume a.k.a. Kanan Jarrus, a Padawan, made it out, too. Maybe other Padawans or Knights serving in the war or at the Temple escaped. It would probably be too good to be true, but I’m also hoping against all odds that we see that the group of Padawans Ahsoka helped train earlier in the series found a way to survive. I would love more Gungi stories, personally. Wookiee Jedi are rare in canon!
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Is there something I missed in this list that you would love to see happen in the final episodes of The Clone Wars? Let me know so we can talk about it! Tweet me at @reviewsbyrae on Twitter or read more of my Star Wars content on my blog.
The new episodes of The Clone Wars are set to premiere on Disney’s new streaming service sometime in 2019.
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About the Author:
Rachel, widely known as Rae on Twitter, has been a Star Wars fan ever since her older brother popped the Original Trilogy into a VHS player. She found her footing as a fan with the Prequels and spent every waking moment in the 2000s writing fan fiction or hanging out on Jedi Council Forums. After a few years away, she revived her love for all things Star Wars after bingeing both The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels series. Now, you’ll find her on Twitter (@reviewsbyrae), writing for her blog, Reviews by Rae, or exploring her creative side with short stories.
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