Star Wars Revisited: The Clone Wars Season Three

A long time ago… I discovered Star Wars. It would define my life. It’s time to rediscover it.

1: The Phantom Menace | 2: Attack of the Clones | 3: Clone Wars season 1 and 2 | The Clone Wars 1

Part 3

This show is truly astounding. While I generally enjoyed the prequels, no hate here, I understand the issues they have. Serious mistakes were made in the conception stage by George Lucas that hobbled the films, particularly Episode I and II, with some major problems. This series fixes them almost immediately. I am doing something a bit crazy for this show. I am not watching them by season. No, I am going chronologically. The series actually jumps around quite a bit in the timeline of the clone war. Some episodes from seasons 2 and 3 take place before season 1! A few episodes actually happen before the Clone Wars movie that was in theaters. I am not going to go hog wild on these reviews, just give you guys a taste, every 20 or so episodes, of how the show plays out.

My aim at this point is to finish this entire series, as well as all films and other shows before the release of Star Wars: Rebels in the fall. Here are the stories that more or less encompass Season 3.

45: Corruption: Padme is on a diplomatic mission to Mandalore when they uncover a major corruption scandal at the docks that is causing schoolchildren to get sick. An episode against soda in school. lol.

46: The Academy: Ahsoka is sent to Mandalore to teach children about corruption. They uncover a plot by the chairman of Mandalore to create a black market.

47: Assassin: Bounty Hunter Aurra Sing resurfaces in an attempt to kill Padme on Alderaan. Ahsoka uses her force visions to track her down.

48: Arc Troopers: Greivous and Ventress lead an attack on Kamino and a battle ensues. We see the return of 99, who dies in battle. Fives and Echo are promoted to ARC Troopers.

49: Sphere of Influence: Baron Papanoida’s children are kidnapped in an attempt to get his planet to join the Federation. Essentially the Lucas family hunting down Greedo and getting into a shootout.

50: Evil Plans: R2D2 goes to a Droid day spa as Cad Bane kidnaps C-3PO, hoping to discover the Sentate floor plans within his memory banks. Unfortunately 3PO is essentially useless. lol.They instead try to find R2D2 who is the one that actually has good info. R2 is taken, Bane gets his information and wipes the droids of everything that happened.Bane delivers the info to Jabba on Tattooine where he is offered another job, by the leaders of the 5 Hutt families who want Ziro the Hutt broken out of prison.

51: Hostage Crisis: The Season One finale! Evil Plans set up the heist we see in this episode and Cad Bane leads a group of Bounty Hunters into the Senate to bust out Ziro by kidnapping Senators for ransom.

52: Hunt for Ziro: Obi Wan and Quinlan Vos travel to Nal Hutta to recover Ziro and Cad Bane. We are treated to a song by Sy Snootles, Ziro’s lover. She busts him out of prison, the Jedi chase them as Bane is hired by the Hutts to find him. Ziro goes to his mother’s house in the swamp to borrow her starship to make his escape. On a jungle planet, once Ziro gets evidence he has on the Hutts, Snootles turns on him and kills him for breaking her heart. Bane fights the Jedi in a particularly good fight scene and makes his escape. Snottles gives the evidence to Jabba, who now has tremendous power in the Hutt Council. I love this episode, and I hate it. I really liked Ziro.

53: Heroes on both Sides: Padme sneaks into Seperatist space with Ahsoka to broker a peace treaty. A droid attack or Coruscant destroys any chance for peace.

54: Pursuit of Peace: As Padme pushes for peace, the Republic uses the eased Banking Regulations to increase the size of the Army. Dooku has the Peaceful separatist leader murdered to stop the peace accord. Meanwhile, the banking clan plans to charge the Republic 25% interest on the loan. As Organa and Amidala work to stop the bill, thugs begin attacking Senators to sway the vote.

55: Senate Murders: The final episode of season 2 in the timeline. After the events of “Pursuit of peace”, Padme’s “Uncle” Ona is killed and Padme must discover who is responsible. As the body count rises, Padme tries to unravel the mystery.

56: Nightsisters: One of the best 3 part stories of the series begins! Ventress has been abandoned by Dooku and is almost killed. She return home to Dathomir where she finds her people, the Nightsisters who heal her and assist in her attempt to kill Dooku.

57: Monster: Assaj Ventress chooses a male of her species to train as a new apprentice for Dooku, to infiltrate him and be used to assasinate the Separatist leader. She chooses Savage Opress, whom she uses dark side magic to turn into an unstopable killing c

58: Witches of the Mist: Ventress and Opress make their move against Count Dooku, but Opress decides that he wishes to serve neither of them, and escapes back to Dathomir where he is told of his lost Brother- Darth Maul, who is still alive and will complete his training.

59: Overlords: Anakin, Obi Wan, and Ahsoka find themselves on a strange planet where the balance of the force is played out between Brother and Sister, two beings representing the Dark and Light sides of the Force. “Father” maintains balance between them. Qui Gon speaks to Obi Wan from the spirit realm.

60: Altar of Mortis: The battle between Brother and Sister continues as Anakin discovers more of his destiny as the chosen one.

61: Ghosts of Mortis: Sister is dead, and Anakin must stop Brother. Along the way, he is shown his future, Darth Vader.

62: The Citadel: The Citadel- Separatist prison! The Jedi must go there and break out Jedi Master Piell and Captain Wihuf Tarkin, who posses information needed by the Republic.

63: Counter Attack: The prison escapes continue. Seriously, that’s about it.

64: Citadel Rescue: They fight their way out and escape. This arc existed just to introduce Tarkin, and I am okay with his.

65: Padawan Lost: During a battle, Ahsoka is kidnapped by Trandoshan slavers and brought to a planet where she will be hunted. She meets other Padawans and organizes them into a resistance.

66: Wookiee Hunt: Ahsoka continues her fight against the Trandoshans along with new allies- a Wookiee who has been brought in to be hunted, and not just any Wookiee- Chewbacca. Surprise- they escape.

These episodes continued the dramatic opening up of this universe. We saw further development of the Mandalore/Bounty Hunter stories, while introducing the awesome Nightsisters of Dathomir, as well as the appearance of Tarkin and fan favorite Chewbacca. I was personally sad to see the story of Ziro come to an end. I am absolutely alone in loving that Truman Capote Hutt, but that’s okay. Star Wars has something for everyone.

Now that I have reached the end of season 3, we have reached the end of the out of sequence storytelling. It was interesting to see it all play out in order though, with this season completing the gaps in season one and two. From Season 4 onwards, the episodes get a little out of order, but they stay contained in one season- no more episodes taking place during events of seasons 1 or 2. Another 3 blogs to go and this segment of our adventure will be, sadly, completed. I am stepping up the pace over the next month as I would like this series to be over before the release of Rebels in the fall of 2014.

See you next time as we cover another 20 or so episodes which follow the story of Season 4.