SPOILER-FREE REVIEW
Despite some weak filler material, Clone Wars’ seventh and final season is a beautifully animated and thoroughly spectacular finale worthy of a much-loved series.
If you need proof that producer Dave Filoni should have more of a say about how Star Wars gets made, then you need look no further than the final season of The Clone Wars. A few months after the Rise of Skywalker failed in its quest to provide the film saga with a worthy conclusion, the seventh season of Clone Wars seems to have done it at the snap of a finger. Bar a few particular episodes, this is exactly the kind of energy and confidence Episode IX lacked. It ties up plot arcs with a remarkable deftness, recontextualises the events of Revenge of the Sith and just for good measure, completes the stories of some of this franchise’s most beloved characters in truly spectacular fashion. While it ultimately does fall a little short of perfection, there’s no disputing that this is simply some of the best Star Wars ever put into production.
The seventh season is divided into three different story arcs: the Bad Batch, Ahsoka and the Martez Sisters, and the Siege of Mandalore; four episodes each for a total of twelve. The Bad Batch episodes revolve around Clone Force 99, a squad of irregular clone troopers with genetic defects sent to the battlefields of the crucial shipyard world of Anaxes to turn the tide of war in the Republic’s favour. Meanwhile, after leaving the Jedi Order, Anakin Skywalker’s former Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano finds herself in the company of the Martez sisters who own a tiny workshop in the bowels of Coruscant’s underworld. But as the Clone Wars draw to a close, our characters find themselves drawn one more time to the world of Mandalore where an old enemy lies in wait for one final confrontation.
The Bad Batch episodes get the season off to a good start. While it’d be a bit of a stretch to describe the arc itself as being particularly sophisticated storytelling, it works more as a return to traditional Clone Wars fare, with explosive action sequences and a focus on the Republic’s loyal clone troopers, their brotherhood and their code of not leaving any man behind. Our heroes find themselves up against overwhelming odds, escape by the skins of their teeth and ultimately win by fighting smart rather than using overwhelming force. But its formulaic nature and its willingness to introduce new characters so late in the game are forgivable. This is probably the last time we’ll see the clone troopers in a long while, so at least they get a perfectly fitting send-off. Plus, there’s a small but wonderful moment that deepens Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi. There’s a lot of trademark humour and heart on offer.
The second arc with Ahsoka and the Martez sisters is unfortunately the weakest of the lot, and represents a substantial and sudden decline in quality right in the middle of the season. It tells one of the missing parts of Ahsoka’s story: what happened immediately after she left the Jedi Order? The answer is nothing much of consequence. These episodes are vacuous filler, and while there are a few decent callbacks to Solo: A Star Wars Story, the episodes conclude in a fashion that makes them almost entirely irrelevant to the season and to the show as a whole. Its sole contribution is to bring Ahsoka to the realisation of what life outside the cushy halls of the Jedi Temple “topside” is really like, but her companions the Martez sisters, who live on Coruscant’s Level 1313 (sneakily canonised with a throwaway bit of dialogue), aren’t particularly compelling. Stilted dialogue kills any chance that their backstory, which does seem interesting on paper, will draw you to them. Those hardcore fans amongst you who remember Lucasarts’ Knights of the Old Republic games will find it to be little more than an echo of Atton Rand’s hatred of the Jedi. It’s a mostly pointless diversion, and puzzlingly roundabout with two episodes of this arc starting with our characters in exactly the same position as they were before: why even bother to have two episodes in the first place? There were a lot of ways for Ahsoka to be drawn to Mandalore, and put simply, this is not the best story they could have chosen to do that.
But the Siege of Mandalore, which forms the third and final story arc, more than makes up for it. It is, without a doubt, some of the best Star Wars I’ve ever seen and it’s enough to make you question why Filoni and his fellows didn’t just transform it into a feature-length movie. The enthusiasm for the Mandalorians and Mandalorian culture in the Star Wars writing rooms is becoming increasingly clear through shows like The Mandalorian but also through episodes of other shows like Rebels. It’s fitting then that the conclusion to a mostly spectacular series involves them in some way. These four episodes are a heart-rending companion piece to Revenge of the Sith and though we already know where many of the characters absent from that movie ultimately end up, it still retains a haunting sense of tension, suspense and growing despair. To see Order 66 and the fall of the Jedi creep closer with every given moment was genuinely moving, especially since it’s made clear just how close our characters came to avoiding tragedy. Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka, is fantastic but Sam Witwer, who voices Maul, is absolutely phenomenal in his performance of a bad guy betrayed, a future agent of chaos muttering to himself about the coming destruction that the Jedi can’t see coming, and in a beautiful reference to all the throne room scenes from prequels to sequels, offering her his hand. The finale, which shows us how Ahsoka and clone Captain Rex survived Order 66, is absolutely massive in scale and simply shouldn’t be spoiled.
Regardless of narrative, this entire season is a showcase of some incredible animation and cinematography. There are absolutely stunning shots with great use of lighting and colour for framing, while the fully mo-capped duel between Ahsoka and Maul as seen in the trailer easily takes its place as one of the franchise’s finest lightsaber battles. I’m a big fan of the sequels, but one of my main misgivings about them is their lack of elegant swordplay. This brings that back and more, with the two clashing blades amidst embers and smoke as Mandalore burns with the fires of battle. The soundtrack, especially in the final episodes, is spine-chilling and haunting: a terrifying reminder of the insidious genius of the Emperor and his master plan finally unfolding to destroy the old and usher in the rise of his Empire.
J.J. Abrams best take note: this is how you do a proper finale. To quote Obi-Wan: that business with the Martez sisters doesn’t…doesn’t count. But the rest of it? Incredible stuff. The Clone Wars film, which came out in 2008, seems like a lifetime ago now, and with this final season, it’s ended with a conclusion worthy of a much-beloved series and its much-loved characters. Watching it reminded me how I felt after watching the end of Episode III for the first time: a sense that evil had won but that a small spark of hope remained. If that’s not the essence of Star Wars, then I don’t know what is.
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