A Review of Star Wars: Clone Wars - Season 2
Yes, the finale of this awesome series is out and the reviews (at least by me, and it’s my article,
so screw everyone else) are in! If you thought that the first 20 episodes of Clone Wars could not
be topped, then you are a foolish thing and I hate you. Seriously. Sorry. If you haven’t read the
review of the first part of the series, give it a read here.
One major difference between this season and the first is the lengths. First season was 20 3
minute episodes. Lots of fast-paced action, and little story stuffs that fill in the holes. Season
two is 5 12 minute episodes with lots of fast-paced action, and some story stuffs that make you
just weep thinking about what will come. Just weep. Trust me, it’s okay - no one will judge
you. These longer episodes give the story a lot of room to get fleshed out, and give some of our
unsung heroes/villains a real chance to shine. And shine they do! Enough with the preliminaries
though - let’s get to the highlights!
In chapter 21, we are given a flash back - perhaps the greatest flashback in the world of Star
Wars, simply based on it’s implications. If you can’t tell from that pic above, that’s Qui-Gon Jin
and a very young Anakin Skywalker. Further, they are on Dagobah. Further than that - that’s the
cave. Yes, the cave! The one where Luke saw the image of himself in Vader. It doesn’t
show what Anakin saw, but my god it must be awesome. I truly hope that scene is lead into the
new movie!
Crap-monkeys! It’s Chewie! Yes, there are illusions to the capture and enslavement of many
alien species by the droid army (and eventual Empire) here. I’m just assuming that’s Chewie
anyways... and I dunno... his son? Either way, he has a bowcaster. I’m a nerd.
Another enslaved race. It’s about friggin’ time Max Rebo got his backstory told. He was a
slave, possibly, before he became a star of vile pits the world over. I’m assuming Max is that
baby. Who knows?
This one needs a little explanation. Grievous (who is awesome as always) tries to kidnap
Chancellor Palpatine (at the request of Darth Sidious... oh the plot twists!). The Chancellor is
defended by a bunch of Jedi, including the Ithurian seen above. The Ithurian Jedi, with his four
throats, literally yells the roof down on top of Grievous. Awesomeness. Unknown Force powers
are always neat.
Ah, Mace Windu once again makes the highlight reel. Here he is in a major battle on Corrusant,
against the droid army. Having jumped out of his exploding fighter, he lands on a droid-fighter,
smashes through its top, and then pilots it by tapping into the thing’s wiring with his damn mind!
Oh Sam L. You totally laid your vengeance upon him.
This is from the same battle as mentioned above. It just looks like a bunch of mayhem and
destruction against the droid army, which may not seem all that special. Until you realize who is
causing all that destruction. The little green muppet himself, Yoda. Yeah, he’s really frigging
powerful, throwing basically half the army off the planet with a wave of his creepy little
hands.
Do you know what that is? Do you?! It’s awesomeness, that’s what it is! Picture “a New
Hope,” and think the line “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” Yes! That’s the throat crush
thing of Vader, as done by Anakin! He had practice, except this guy really dies... quite horribly I
might add. Also note, he is missing his robot hand, later to be replaced by a black one... a far
more famous one. Yes.
The return of one of my new favorite characters, General Grievous is overly awesome. Mostly
because, where I earlier reported that he could use up to 3 lightsabers at a time was incorrect.
Seems he could use up to 5, if he really wanted to! Dude has 4 arms! Why didn’t you tell us,
Grievous? He does a lot of awesome training/talking in this season that he didn’t get to in the
last one. All of which was awesome.
And finally, from the highlights, we come to the best one of all (hence why it was saved til the
end of them... I know what I’m doing!). Anakin finds himself in a tribal cave, where he starts
having visions of a powerful man, with a black, destructive hand, through the tribal paintings.
Eventually it destroys all things around him, and twists and fills the cave walls. Suddenly, he
hears the voice of Amidalla yell “Anakin!” right before that image above is seen. It is kinda
hard to see, but if you look close, you can clearly see the black visage of what will eventually be
the face of Vader. Gasp and such.
Aside from that, the series retained all the good points it kept from the first season. Excellent
animation, good voice acting for the most part, and really well done story-telling. One great
thing they added to this one, that I didn’t notice so much in the first season was the allusion to
future events. Not the ones we will see in Ep. III, but rather ones we already saw in Ep. IV, V,
and VI. For example, the Vader mask as seen above, but also lines that sneak their way into the
dialogue. A few examples of this would be:
- C-3PO is finally given the gold-covering he is known for having. Upon showing himself to
Anakin, Anakin responds with a positive “Impressive. Most impressive.”
- while Anakin leads Obi-Wan through a sewer into an enemy outpost, Obi-Wan comments on
the stench by saying “What an incredible smell you’ve discovered.”
If you don’t remember these lines from the OT, then I guess yer just not as cool as me.
Sadly, some story stuff never gets explained. For example, Anakin just shows up after some
major battles with the scar over his eye, that can be seen in the trailers/posters for the new
movie. I wanted to know how it got there, but now that got fairly glossed over. Actually, other
than that, everything is pretty solid... though I would like to know why everything with Windu is
purple. His lightsaber, his ship, even his r2 unit! All purple! What is up with that?!
Basically, this series finale of the Clone Wars answers any questions that were left after the
answerless Ep. II. I can honestly say these 25 cartoons have been the best bit of Star Wars that
have come out in many years. The very final scene of them gives me high hopes for Ep. III. I
would definitely recommend watching these before you go to see “Revenge of the Sith” just to
put everything into context.