The Clone Wars 10th Anniversary Special | Thomas’ Top 5 Arcs
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Thomas Storai 
To celebrate its 10th Anniversary Thomas reveals his all-time favourite story arcs from Star Wars: The Clone Wars
With more than 100 episodes, it’s not easy to rank the many story arcs in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There were so many beautiful, amazing episodes in The Clone Wars, I really loved them all. But, we obviously all have our favorites. I selected not the five best episodes but my five best arcs. I think it’s a lot easier to rank a complete story than a part of a story.
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The Mortis arc
It was a very special arc that dealt with the Force and some of its origins. I love the concept of this family called the Ones being the a sort of equation of the Force – the Son tended to the Dark Side, the Daughter tended to the Light Side and the Father was the balance between the two. Mortis WAS the Force in a way. This family was a small reproduction of what happens in the galaxy between the Sith and the Jedi, they were like “Force Gods”. In the end, Mortis was destroyed – the Daughter was dead, the Son was dead, the Father was dead. The balance had been restored and it had been restored by the Chosen One – Anakin Skywalker, who killed the Son.
I think these events on Mortis have hardened our Jedi heroes Anakin, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan. It has been quite a journey for them. This arc proved that the Prophecy about the “Chosen One” had probably not been read in the proper way – the Prophecy probably said that Anakin had to fall on the Dark Side before bringing the balance to the Force. Anakin fell for the first time in the Dark Side on Mortis, by chance the Father was there to erase this part of Anakin’s memory. However, Anakin will repeat the same mistake in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. It was foreshadowing what was going to happen, and it made it feel like it was inevitable. Today, I think this arc has even bigger ramifications with the episodes “Wolves and a Door” and “A World Between Worlds” from Star Wars: Rebels. These episodes expanded what we knew of these Mortis God and the Force mythology.
2. The final Ahsoka arc
This arc concluded the story of Ahsoka Tano as a padawan. It opened with an aerial battle which was quite a Star Wars-y way to open a story with a battle. This one happened on Cato Neimoidia. Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order was quite a shock, of course she was not in Star Wars: Episode III but I would have never expected this at the time. I don’t think there was a better way to end her story in this show. I understand the decision she made. She was trapped by Barriss Offee and Anakin was the only one who stood on her side. In result, she felt betrayed, she devoted her life to the Order and the Order did not support her. She was almost on her own.
This arc showed how weak the Jedi Council was becoming and how superficial they had become – they couldn’t even stand by one of their member’s side because of the public opinion and the pressure of the Chancellor. The Council cared more about politics than their own members. The Republic base on Coruscant announced the premises of the Galactic Empire. Darkness surrounded these four episodes. The ending of the arc was probably one of the saddest moment in the entire Star Wars saga : Ahsoka Tano refused to come back in the Order and Anakin talked to her one last time before she left the Jedi Temple.
Every element was there to make you feel the sadness of the scene – the music, the dialogues, the sets. The sky created for this was astonishing. It was a dark sky but there was a glimmer of light in the middle of it. This darkness of the sky was a way to announce the dark times that were coming and the light was Ahsoka making the right decision – walking away from the darkness. In these final moments of Ahsoka, we learned in an indirect way that she understood Anakin had fallen in love with Padmé. As Anakin said – he understood Ahsoka’s decision more than ever because he would want to take the same decision but he couldn’t – he was the Chosen One, it was his mandate to bring balance to the Force.
3. The Clone Wars Movie
It was the first time we saw Ahsoka Tano. At this time, she was inexperienced and had a lot to learn. It didn’t start well with her master Anakin who didn’t like her but as we move toward the end of the battle of Christophsis, Anakin started to appreciate her and saw something in her. It was the start of a great relationship and a beautiful scene when the two talk after the battle. The movie had two important big battles. The first one being on Christophsis, a crystalline world (there are also two episodes showing more about the battle of Christophsis – 1×16 ‘The Hidden Enemy’ and 2×16 ‘Cat and Mouse’). This is a lovely planet with a beautiful design for the buildings (both the interior and exterior). This battle was explosive, lots of action and lots of clones and droids involved in it. The second battle was on Teth, a jungle planet. It was an original battle – the assault of the B’Omarr Monastery was vertical, quite the first for Star Wars. It was breathtaking. We saw AT-TE’s climbing the cliff of the Monastery – “impressive, most impressive” to quote Darth Vader!
4. Onderon arc
This arc was the premises to the Rebellion that will be created during the Empire Galactic era. Anakin had the good idea to form civilians to fight on their homeland in case of a separatist invasion. It would open another front against the Separatists. In the case of Onderon, the Jedi Council couldn’t really interfere as the King of Onderon decided to join the Separatists. However, this King was not the real king, he had overthrown the legitimate ruler. So that’s why the Jedi Council sent Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan to unite a band of freedom fighters in rebellion. This arc also marked the return of Lux Bonteri, Ahsoka’s friend who was now against the Separatists who murdered his mother. At the end of the arc, he became the new senator of Onderon and joined the Republic. This was a nice character development for him. There was a kind of love triangle between Ahsoka, Lux and the rebel leader, Steela Gerrera.
We clearly saw that Ahsoka had feelings for Lux but she was a devoted Jedi and forbidden from establishing personal attachments. This is where you can see that she was very similar to her master but in the end she took the path, he couldn’t take. Steela died at the end of the arc but her death was seen as a symbol of martyrdom and it was truly beautiful. She was the leader of the rebels, she gave hope to Onderon and she helped her homeworld to be free again, there’s no better sacrifice. In this battle, we didn’t have clones involved except in the first episode when Captain Rex was employed to train rebels with the Jedi. It gave us another look at the war. Civilians became soldiers. First a disorganized rebel group but with the help of the Jedi, this group became an organized band of freedom fighters, schooled in the art of war and able to free their homeland.
5. The Clovis arc
This arc marked the return of Rush Clovis who was last seen in the episode 4 of season 2 ‘Senate Spy’. Clovis hasn’t evolved since the beginning, he has stayed the same man who made the same mistakes and who still wanted to break Padmé’s happiness. Commander Thorn was like the clone trooper Hevy (season 1 episode 5 ‘Rookies’), a big fighter who died in an epic way as a hero. I really love these characters who say goodbye in a big way. The battle of Scipio was a quick battle but it had some good space moments. It was more of a political and economical trilogy, we were on Scipio, the Banking Clan planet.
This arc also dealt a lot with the relationship between Padmé and Anakin. With some moments of jealousy from Anakin that almost lead them to divorce as Padmé suggested him to stop seeing each other as they deceived everyone all the time. Of course, it didn’t happen, it was resolved by the end of the episode but it obviously showed the fragility of their relationship. I loved the ending, this moment when Anakin was trying to save Padmé and Clovis but Clovis sacrificed himself for Padmé. He did it twice but the second time, he paid with his life. I was happy this character was gone but I think his death was a true moment of redemption.
In celebration of its 10th anniversary, team Future of the Force is sharing our love for Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Stay tuned for more awesome Clone Wars content…
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Collectables Editor at Future Of The Force.
Star Wars and Marvel specialist, anime expert
