Star Wars Revisited: The Clone Wars Season Five

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

The Clone Wars 2 | The Clone Wars 3 | The Clone Wars 4 |

Part Five: Season 5

This is the final broadcast season of The Clone Wars. For four years, this show expanded the world of the prequels and exceeded the films. How does this season fare against the others? Lets find out. I will be reviewing this by story arc. Everything in the season was in 4 episodes batches. Five stories.

89-92 A War on two fronts, Front Runners, The Soft War, Tipping Points

This was a great first arc. Ahsoka reunites with Lux Bontieri, who is on the planet Onderon to save the world from the Separatists. Ahsoka aids the rebels as they try to save the deposed King and free the people from oppression. Eventually, they succeed, but only after the leader of the Rebels is killed. The story ends with loss.

93-96: The Gathering, A Test of Strength, Bound for Rescue, A necessary bond

Ahsoka takes a group of Padawans to Ilum to choose the crystals for their lightsabers. While there, they face their weaknesses. On the way back, Our favorite Pirate, Hondo, decides to attack the Padawan ship to steal their crystals- worth a fortune. The attack is repelled, but Ahsoka is kidnapped. The Padawans hatch a plan to save her.

97-100: Secret Weapons, A Sunny day in the void, Missing in action, point of no return

A special task force of Droids is amassed to infiltrate the Separatists. R2D2 joins several other droids, including QT-KT, named after Katie, the little girl who died of cancer a few years back. The 501st did tremendous work for her charity. The go on a series of adventures. They make it back home, but along the way they lose one of their droids, and a clone trooper sacrifices it’s life to save them. More loss. This did introduce “The Colonel”, a tiny little Republic Officer who may be my favorite character in this series after Ziro the Hutt.

101-104: Revivial, Eminence, Shades of Reason, The Lawless

Wow. This story wraps up several ongoing arcs. Darth Maul and Savage Opress begin to unite the various crime syndicates to create an army. They join with the villainous Deathwatch and take over the Black Sun, The Hutts, and even make a move against the Bounty Hunters and Hondo! The Death watch is successful and take over Mandalore. Maul kills Visla, leader of the Deathwatch and assumes command. Using Duchess Satine of Mandalore as bait, he lures in Obi Wan Kenobi and kills Satine before Obi Wan’s eyes. Obi Wan escapes, but Mandalore has exploded into war. The darkness of this season continues.

105-108: Sabotage, The Jedi who knew too much, To catch a Jedi, the wrong Jedi

My, oh my. A bombers attacks the Jedi Temple and there is some evidence that a Jedi is involved. An accomplice is captured and as Ahsoka is speaking to her, she is force choked. To recording equipment, it appears Ahsoka killed her. We begin to see the public turning against the Jedi in this arc. Ahsoka is being set up to draw suspicion off of the real assassin. An “escape” in arranged from the prison, and man…does this place resemble the Death Star or what? Not knowing who to trust, she evades capture and tries to find the real killer. She teams up with Asaaj Ventress and is captured. She is brought before the Jedi Council and is kicked out of the order to be turned over the to Republic for justice. This pushes Anakin over the edge, supporting his distrust of the Jedi Council. Padme represents her before the Republic Senate and is charged with treason. She discovers that it is in fact Bariss Offee, Padawan of Luminara Unduli who was responsible. Disillusioned with the Jedi and Republic for not trusting her, she leaves the Jedi order, walking away forever. This of course causes Anakin to be in an even more volatile state of mind going into the events of Episode III. Really clever, and heartbreaking at the same time.

This is, quite simply, the best season of the show. It leads into the darkness of Episode III amazingly well. Every major death was felt strongly. I cannot imagine what the final 13 episodes will bring. I will be binge watching them tomorrow.

Part 9: The Clone Wars Final 13 episodes