Re: Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Episode Guide Book Pdf
Vinnie Breidenthal
For months, my lack of Clone Wars viewing was a regular topic among myself and some of my Star Wars-loving friends and colleagues. It's too many episodes, I'd say. The CGI looks poor in stills, I'd say. And somehow I'd keep thinking "Should I be watching Star Wars: Clone Wars?"
That question bubbled up again during the holiday season, when I had a spare bit of time off near the end of a vacation. Since The Bad Batch season 2 was on the horizon, and that series is a spin-off of Clone Wars, I thought it would be worth it to try out the animated Star Wars universe. I've been told that the Clone Wars and all of its connected spinoffs have some of the best storytelling in Star Wars proper. (I manage our guide how to watch Star Wars in order, so I've had an inkling of its importance.)
I'm always trying to expand my pop culture knowledge base by filling in various gaps. Heck, I even tried Yellowstone, though it's not my cup of coffee, and I've yet to give up on it... I'll watch episode 4 once I finish some screeners.
Nobody prepared me for the crisis of bad quality that is the 2008 animated Clone Wars movie. Multiple people did say start with that film, though. And I guess it's on me for not looking it up on Rotten Tomatoes first. Then I would have seen its 18% score, a critical consensus akin to hearing Jon Lovitz's Jay Sherman declare "It STINKS!"
The only warnings I got were that young Ahsoka Tano (who becomes Anakin Skywalker's Padawan, his Jedi in training) was kind of annoying. But I survived the early episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi with its pint-sized surprise of a too-clever child. I could have handled Ashoka on her own. What I wasn't ready for is how the animation was even worse than I thought.
I get it, The Clone Wars movie was made in 2008, a long time ago in a video editing bay far, far away. So I can forgive that. It's not as bad as the1990s animated series ReBoot, but the Clone Wars animation did such a poor job of expressing emotion.
The manner in which Obi Wan Kenobi introduces himself to young Ahsoka, and how she replies and brings Anakin into the conversation, is so unnatural that it recalls everything I don't like about Star Wars. As if I didn't get enough of a reminder when Jimmy Smits reprised the role of Bail Organa in the Obi-Wan series.
While watching the Clone Wars movie, and posting the above tweet, I got a fair amount of "don't judge the show for the movie" replies. And even though I didn't have much time left in the day, I did have enough time for one episode of the actual Clone Wars show. Annoyingly, it began with the same booming voice narration that felt incredibly out of place.
Clone Wars, as you can tell by watching it, is pitched at younger audiences. But this nostalgic voice-over is catering to the parents who are watching it with their kids. I get that the younglings won't want to read a screen full of text, but a better solution must have been around.
"Ambush," a Yoda-specific episode of Clone Wars, calmed my nerves about Clone Wars. It's not a historic piece of the Star Wars culture, but it's almost a layup in terms of giving Star Wars-loving audiences what they want. In it, Yoda enters what Admiral Ackbar would call a massive trap, in order to convince King Katuunko that the Galactic Republic should be allowed to build a base in Toydarian territory. The fact that we're dealing with the Toydarians at all is a red flag for those who aren't extremely positive about the prequel trilogy, as they're Watto's people.
But, once I stopped thinking about Watto, I got to enjoy Yoda's clever behavior in how he brought a group of clones through Asajj Ventress' traps. Clone Wars' Yoda is a terrific version, brought to chuckling life by veteran voice actor Tom Kane.
And as for Ventress? The character already feels more alive in this show than she did in the movie. And I've been told this Dathomirian is an even-more fantastic character the more the series goes on.
One of my worst flaws as a consumer of pop culture is my stubbornness when it comes to watching things in any other order than how they were released. That approach means watching The Clone Wars' 133 episodes in the slowest of drips. And that's before Rebels and The Bad Batch and all of the other spinoffs.
I'm aware that there is a playlist of important Clone Wars episodes. I've been pointed in the direction of custom fan-curated watch orders. Alas, I don't operate like that. So I see Clone Wars as something I'll turn on when I'm winding down. That said, I'll always hit "Skip Intro." While I will always try and see a show how the creators intended, that booming voice is a step too far.
Watching the Star Wars movies in order is a great way to prove you are one with the Force (the Force is with you). Whether your preference is to watch them in chronological order or release order, we've got you covered.
By watching the Star Wars movies in chronological order, you get to experience the Skywalker saga, as it happens, and you get the prequel trilogy (which scored poorly in our Star Wars movies ranked list) out of the way early on. However, if you choose to marathon your way through the greatest (in our opinion) franchise in cinematic history in release order, you get to relive the story as it was originally told.
If you don't have physical copies of all the movies, fear not, as Disney Plus is the home of all things Star Wars these days and you can stream all the movies and TV shows. They offer monthly and annual subscriptions, so if you're not looking for a long-term plan, you can get access for just enough time to make your way through all the top Star Wars content out there.
If all the Star Wars movies in order aren't enough for you to get your sci-fi fix, it could be worth checking out our guides for the best sci-fi movies and TV shows to stream on Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Nextlix and Amazon Prime. Our guide also includes Star Wars TV shows, for added context and in case you want to watch those too. So, read on below to get the round-up of Star Wars movies in order. Oh, and one last thing: watch or watch not, there is no try.
If you want to watch all the Star Wars movies in chronological order then sadly your marathon starts with the very first (and pretty awful) prequel movie. And it doesn't get much more prequel than Darth Vader as a 10-year-old kid. This film sees Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn and his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi discover a slave boy on Tatooine called Anakin Skywalker who's chock full of Midi-chlorians.
Unfortunately, the Jedi council isn't keen on training the child as a Jedi. But, while trying to protect Queen Padm Amidala, Qui-Gon Jinn is killed by Sith Darth Maul and in honor of his memory Obi-Wan Kenobi promises to train the kid. Biiiiig mistake.
Anakin and Ahsoka eventually rescue Rotta, but Jabba tries to have them killed anyway, believing they're responsible for kidnapping him until Padm reveals what she knows. Jabba is so grateful, he signs the treaty with the Republic.
After Anakin rescues him, Chancellor Palpatine appoints him to the Jedi Council, but the Jedi are suspicious and order Anakin to spy on Palpatine. Padm reveals she's pregnant and Anakin starts to have nightmares of her dying in childbirth. Palpatine lures Anakin to the dark side with the promise of saving Padm's life, and orders the clone army to kill the Jedi, declaring himself Emperor.
Padm and Obi-Wan try to convince the new Darth Vader to return to the light side, but they fight which leaves Vader mortally wounded. Meanwhile, Padm dies giving birth to twins, Luke and Leia, and Obi-Wan decides to go into hiding with the children. Palpatine rescues Vader, giving him a suit to keep him alive, and telling him that he killed Padm.
They travel to Scarif, eventually finding the plans and transmitting them to the Alliance, but at great cost to themselves. As they die on the planet below, the plans eventually make their way into the hands of Princess Leia.
Not long after, Darth Vader captures Princess Leia, but not before she hides the plans in an R2-D2 droid who escapes to the planet Tatooine in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He's found by Luke Skywalker and takes him to Obi-Wan who reveals he knew Luke's father, claiming he was killed by Darth Vader.
Luke convinces Obi-Wan to let him help rescue the princess and the pair team up with smuggler Han Solo and his co-pilot, Chewie. They rescue Princess Leia and escape, but Obi-Wan is killed by Darth Vader in the process. After delivering the plans to the Alliance, Luke becomes a rebel pilot and helps destroy the Death Star.
Three years later, Darth Vader locates Luke, Leia, and Han on a rebel base on Hoth and sends his forces to destroy it. They escape, with Luke traveling to Dagobah to train as a Jedi under Yoda as Obi-Wan wanted, and Leia, Han, and Chewie taking the Millennium Falcon to Cloud City to ask Lando Calrissian for help. Unfortunately, Darth Vader is waiting for them and captures Leia and Chewie, giving Han to a bounty hunter who plans to sell him to Jabba the Hutt who's been after him for a while.
Luke surrenders himself to Vader who takes him to the Emperor, but when the Emperor cannot turn Luke to the dark side he tries to kill him. Vader, unable to watch his son die, kills the Emperor before dying of his wounds. With the Death Star unprotected, Lando and the rebel fighters destroy it and then everyone has a big party.
30 years later on Jakku, scavenger Rey finds droid BB-8 who claims to have a map to the missing Luke Skywalker. Along with defected stormtrooper Finn, they escape aboard the abandoned Millennium Falcon and are eventually found by Han and Chewie. Traveling to Takodana to make contact with the Resistance, Rey is captured by the First Order's Kylo Ren (actually Han and Leia's son who's been seduced by the dark side) and taken aboard Starkiller base.
Rey finds Luke in isolation, but he's not in the mood to help the Resistance, despite reluctantly giving her some Jedi training. Kylo and Rey realize they have a Force connection and Rey goes to him, believing there's still some good inside him.
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