Star Wars: The Clone Wars

About the series

Contains story spoilers.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars follows the galaxy-wide conflict between the Republic and the Separatist Alliance during the period between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. George Lucas is credited as creator, with Dave Filoni supervising the series’ direction. The Jedi lead genetically engineered clone soldiers against the Separatist droid army, but the show repeatedly brings its enormous war down to the level of a squad, a disputed order or one planet’s people. This creates room for familiar figures such as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi while giving Ahsoka Tano and the clones their own long arcs.

Captain Rex’s encounter with Cut Lawquane puts a soldier’s freedom into an unexpectedly domestic setting. During a search for General Grievous on Saleucami, Rex is injured and discovers that a local farmer is a clone deserter. Cut fled after the Battle of Geonosis, having watched fellow soldiers die in a conflict he no longer believed gave his life meaning. He has built a home and family instead. Rex remains loyal to the Republic, but the man before him is genetically as close as a brother and has made a choice the clones were never meant to have. Reporting Cut would fulfil Rex’s duty while dismantling that home. After recovering, Rex returns to the front and leaves the family’s secret intact, choosing not to enforce an order simply because it exists.

On Umbara, the danger comes from inside the command structure. Pong Krell takes charge of Anakin’s troops and sends them into battles that treat their lives as expendable. When two clones face execution for disobedience, Rex must decide whether the general’s authority still deserves obedience. Krell’s betrayal becomes unmistakable when he tells separate clone units they are fighting Umbarans wearing stolen armour, causing the soldiers to fire on their own brothers. His aim is to deliver a Separatist victory and gain favour with Dooku. Dogma initially supports protocol so completely that he turns against fellow clones, but discovering how Krell has used them breaks that certainty. Rex cannot bring himself to execute the captured general; Dogma fires the fatal shot. The surviving soldiers are left confronting what loyalty has allowed to happen.

Ahsoka faces a related failure within the Jedi Order itself. Accused of murder after the Temple bombing investigation, she is expelled by a conflicted Council and sent before a military tribunal. Padmé serves as her defence while Anakin continues searching rather than accepting the accusations. His questioning of Ventress and pursuit of the evidence lead to Barriss Offee, the real culprit, whose exposure comes in time to clear Ahsoka. That vindication cannot restore the trust lost when the Council abandoned her. The Order offered her a home from childhood and taught principles she still values, yet those principles did not protect her when political pressure rose. She declines the opportunity to return and leaves Anakin as well as the institution, making a decision that changes the direction of her life beyond the battlefield.

The struggle on Onderon gives the war a local political purpose. Anakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and Rex train rebels resisting a Separatist-aligned king, helping people who must fight for the future of their own world. Steela Gerrera becomes a leader of that rebellion, alongside her brother Saw and Lux Bonteri. Victory carries a cost that cannot be measured just by which side controls the capital. In the final battle, Steela saves the displaced king Dendup as a cliff gives way beneath them. Lux tries to reach her and nearly falls too. Ahsoka uses the Force to hold them, but a blaster hit breaks her concentration. Steela falls to her death. Saw’s destruction of the last enemy gunship has helped create the circumstances of the loss; Onderon’s freedom arrives without bringing its leader home.

Ahsoka later returns to military action without rejoining the Order, helping win the Siege of Mandalore and take Maul into custody. The trip toward Coruscant should follow a victory, but Palpatine issues Order 66 and the clones turn their weapons on her. Rex struggles long enough to mention Fives before firing. Ahsoka refuses to give up on him: she frees Maul to create a diversion and investigates what Rex’s warning meant. Files on Fives lead her to a recording about the clones’ inhibitor chips and their possible hidden purpose. Capturing Rex, she has a droid remove his implant as troopers prepare to storm the operating room. When her defence is overwhelmed, the newly freed Rex shoots his brothers to save her. Their friendship survives through a procedure that the other soldiers have not received.

The escape is still far from secure. Maul destroys the cruiser’s hyperdrive, pulling the ship toward a nearby moon, while Jesse and the remaining troops stand between Ahsoka, Rex and a shuttle. Ahsoka tries to avoid killing the men who served with her. When Maul takes the shuttle, she attempts to hold it with the Force but releases it to help Rex, sacrificing that route out rather than abandoning him. The collapsing ship leaves her falling through debris until she reaches the craft Rex is piloting. Afterward, they bury the dead clones and mark the graves with their helmets. Ahsoka leaves a lightsaber among them. The series ends this war with survivors mourning soldiers they could not save, followed by an epilogue in which Darth Vader stands in the aftermath.