(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. At one point, clips from The Mandalorian are shown as well)
Doug (vo): For years, and I do mean years, even before I was doing the Nostalgia Critic or anything online, people have been telling me to watch Clone Wars. "Yes, it takes place during the time of the prequels, but it's so much better than the prequels. Hell, it actually fixes the prequels! You gotta see it! It's so good, it's so good!" But every time I looked at that animation that just wasn't my style and how many goddamn episodes there were, I just said, "Eh, another time. Plus, how can you fix the prequels? It's impossible. Go away, go away." It wasn't until I started talking about The Mandalorian and I expressed my concerns about having characters from other shows pop up that I pretty much got schooled in the comments saying, "No. This has to happen, 'cause Mandalorian is tied to Clone Wars." And I said, "Okay. I'll watch the damn show." And...shit. Yeah, like everybody said, it's terrific. Like, really, really, really...really goddamn good. Even the things I thought I wouldn't like, like it takes place in the prequel universe and that animation style that just looked a little angular and cheap to me, the more I watched it, the more I really learned to appreciate it, even kind of love it.
Premise and review[]
Doug (vo): The basic story is both very simple and very complicated to talk about. It's pretty much following the good guys, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and his new Padawan, Ahsoka, fighting an intergalactic battle against Count Dooku, without being aware they have a traitor in Senator Palpatine. And that, I guess, is as bare bones as it gets, but trust me when I say a lot happens in this show. One of the interesting things about it is it is one of the few Star Wars properties that actually feels like, well, a war. There's a lot of strageties, there's a lot of battle philosophy, there's a lot of getting to know your enemy, getting to know your friends. How much do you give up, and how much do you hold on to to win? What do you sacrifice, what do you give, what do you take? All stuff that really is a big part of war.
(Footage focusing on Anakin Skywalker is shown, along with images of Anakin from Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones)
Doug (vo): So many characters that were so dull in the prequels are suddenly made incredibly interesting here. Mannequin Skywalker, everybody used to call this character. because he really was so wooden and didn't have much of an arc and just switched in a millisecond. Everything they talk about in those little side conversations like, "Oh, remember when we battled the giant worm shit fuck in Planet Ass or whatever?" And he's like, "Oh, yeah. Ha-ha! We're such good friends." And it feels really phony and not real. Here, you see them actually fight, you see them interact off each other. Anakin is legit really charming here, and over the seasons, you do slowly see him start to turn to the dark side, and in a way that does make sense. It taps into what Last Jedi was kind of tapping into, where maybe the Jedi aren't always perfect, maybe there are a lot of problems with the way this is set up. And obviously, Anakin's turn after becoming Darth Vader doesn't make situations any better, but you can see how he got to that point.
(Footage and images focusing on the show's first season are shown)
Doug (vo): Even if...his acting in the first season is a little off. I dare even say Ahsoka's acting is kind of off, too. Yeah, actually, the first season really gets shit on by a lot of fans. They always say, "Yeah, just skip the first two seasons. Don't ever watch them. Ignore them." Well, maybe the bar was set so low because of the prequels, but I honestly didn't think they were that bad. The first episode had Yoda, a character that most people can get behind, everybody likes Yoda, telling the clones that they're not all the same. Yes, they are literally clones, but through different environments and different interactions, they do form kind of these unique identities that, yes, are similar, but are still different enough to stand out. I found this...really intriguing. That was one of the things in Attack of the Clones I thought was so weird, I just had all these questions, like, "Wait, do they all think the exact same thing or are they kind of different? Do they like what they do, hate what they do, are they like robots, can they think for themselves?" And this show answers it.
(Footage focusing on the clone troopers is shown)
Doug (vo): I'm really not kidding when I say some of the most interesting characters are the clones. They're all given numbers as names, but they give each other nicknames for short, like one is called Fives, 'cause he has a bunch of fives in his number. Another is called Rex, and there's a bunch of different names that you do start to get to know, enough that when one of them dies, you do legit feel bad. This idea alone was enough to show me that this show did have a brain and was trying to work with the universe that was given to them, enough that I found myself saying, even though everybody hates the first two seasons, I actually got through them okay. They are probably the weakest, but you can tell they're trying to get their footing and figure out their performances and the look of the show and, I don't know. I think it gets crapped on a little too much.
(Footage and images focusing on Ahsoka, Anakin, and other supporting characters are shown)
Doug (vo): But when the show really gets interesting, I can't believe there was a time when I said, "Eh, I could take or leave this show." It gets so engaging. Characters that start off okay like Ahsoka really develop and grow overtime to a point where I didn't always know what she was gonna do. In the first few seasons, it's kind of obvious, but as it keeps going, it kind of switches things up a bit. She makes choices that do kind of surprise you. Anakin as well, they add so many complexities to the choices he makes and why he looks at certain alien races and worlds and even the Jedi so different than everybody else, and you sympathize with him and know where he's coming from. There's a pirate named Hondo that kind of plays both sides to his advantage. There's a whole bunch of bounty hunters that are just so menacing and so cool.
(Footage focusing on Asajj Ventress and her later story arcs is shown)
Doug (vo): There's a character named Ventress that, yeah, looked okay, but we didn't know too much about her, but then later, you go into her backstory and see her planet and find out she's actually the same race as Darth Maul, and, oh, my God! Just the way this planet works feels so...God, I never thought I would say this in something Star Wars recently, but...alien! It felt like a fascinating alien world I wanted to know more about. It looked great, it was structured in a fascinating way, it even brings Darth Maul back.
(Footage focusing on Darth Maul is shown, along with clips of his first appearance in Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace)
Doug (vo): And, yeah, they bring Darth Maul back. Who gives a shit? He just kind of growled and swung a lightsaber around, and, yeah, looked cool, but what do I know about this guy? I don't give a shit. He is one of the best characters in this. Suddenly, he's like this Shakesperean villain. He goes from almost no lines to having some of the most eloquent dialogue I've heard in years.
(Footage focusing on the animation is shown)
Doug (vo): I know I kind of bashed the animation early on, but it really did grow on me. And actually, that kind of cheap look I was talking about got more and more clever, because I started to notice the layout of the shots. Obviously, the show didn't have a ton of money, so rather than using it on, say, making the skin look realistic or seeing every little hair, stuff like that, they make the shots and the lighting really dramatic. Everything is really stylized, and whenever it gets a close-up or a wide shot or some sort of really intense angle, it draws you in. It works within your limitations and surprisingly makes it a little stronger.
(Footage focusing on the character of Jar Jar Binks and the show's seventh and final season is shown)
Doug (vo): With that said, is it perfect? I think it's hard to find any show that works 100%, but, yeah, there's a couple of lame things. There are still Jar Jar episodes in this, and...God, I didn't think it was possible to hate him more, but they found a way. Leave the poor actor who voices this guy alone. He's gone through enough. There also is a long period of time between season 6 and the final season, and you can tell as the animation has really been upped, but the way they do the storytelling is a little different, too. Part of the fun of the show is that it did have to work so much in its limitations and get so much story across in such a tight amount of time, like no line of dialogue ever felt wasted. I think because this was the final season, they did let things go on a little longer and stretched them out, and it makes sense that their big send-off would feel more like a movie than a show. But watching them all together like I did, you can definitely tell a difference, and sometimes, it's a little distracting.
(Footage and images focusing on the characters of the Bad Batch are shown)
Doug (vo): This whole bit with these Bad Batch clones, I'm being told was being storyboarded out when they were doing season 6, and then when they got renewed, they just whipped it out again. But I don't know, they were either planning for a spin-off when they wrote them, which would be a good idea as the show was gonna be cancelled, or Disney forced them to be extra gimmicky so that they can do a spin-off show, everybody being like, "Whoa, I like these characters. I want to see a series dedicated to them." "Oh, well, here you go. We certainly didn't plan that." They're not bad characters, they just have a little bit of that 80s feel. You know what I mean? Like, "I'm the stoic leader. I'm the brainy one. I'm the tough, dumb one." You know the drill.
(Footage focusing on the show's final four episodes is shown, along with images focusing on an episode involving Ahsoka trying to find her lightsaber, before various clips resume showing)
Doug (vo): But all that aside, it does end on a really strong note. The final arc in this series is grand, epic, and really feels earned. And so much of that is because the series itself is so grand, epic, and earns all the praise that it gets. There's times in the show where they literally repeat the same action sequences. Remember in Attack of the Clones, when they're flying around the city and jumping on cars? They do that again, except they actually make you care! Ahsoka's trying to get her stolen lightsaber, and they make you understand what that means and why that's important, and she teams up with kind of this old-timer that, yeah, seems a little lame at first, but then he reveals he knows more than he is letting on. You just love them! You love everybody in this series... (Jar Jar is briefly shown again) ...okay, most of them...but still, that's damn impressive! This might be the first bit of media I've seen that actually made me say, "I know what George Lucas was going for with the prequels." I see how this world can be interesting, I see why everything is so polished and clean. It's in contrast with how dirty and rundown everything's gonna be after the Empire takes over. I love how aggressive it gets, too. The body count in this show is insane! Some of the deaths are very gruesome. They just kind of show half of it, and the rest is offscreen, and, okay, I guess if they don't show blood, it doesn't count. They get away with a lot, in the best way.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): There's so much more I could say about this series, and, yeah, I guess if you want more detail, you can go and watch the seasons' V-logs that I did. But all I can say is, I get it now. I understand why people wanted me to see this. I'm glad I got pushed into it, it was worth being bugged about all these years. With that said, if you haven't seen it yet, what are you waiting for, man? Check it out! What are you, stupid? You can watch it right now! Come on! Oh, shit. I really am a fan now. And you should be, too, man. Go check it out. It's worth all the hype.
(The final lightsaber duel featured in the show, Ahsoka's face-off with Darth Maul, is shown)