Star Wars: The Clone Wars premiered in 2008 with George Lucas working closely with Dave Filoni to craft the space opera franchise’s animated addition. The series explored the titular conflict set during the gap between the second and third installment of the prequel trilogy.
Across its seven-season run, the series was canceled and revived a couple of times, resulting in more than one episode serving as a series finale. However, the actual definitive finale aired in 2020 and became the show’s highest-rated episode. Five years later, it remains one of the best Star Wars episodes, and here is why.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ finale is the ultimate episode of the Dave Filoni series
George Lucas co-created the Star Wars animated series The Clone Wars, alongside Dave Filoni, with the latter serving as the co-showrunner. The series premiered in 2008 but was canceled in 2013 after five installments, only to be revived for a single season by Netflix in 2014.
Almost five years later, the fan-favorite series was once again revived for a seventh and final season. The series finale, titled Victory and Death, premiered on May 4, 2020, bringing the stories of fan-favorite characters like Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex to a satisfying conclusion.
The episode also emerged as the show’s highest-rated entry on IMDB, with a 9.9/10 rating on the website. At the same time, it received extremely positive reactions from fans, who praised the emotional conclusion, which directly led into and ran concurrently with the events of Revenge of the Sith.
The series finale also features an epic skirmish between Ahoska and Darth Maul that caps off the prequels era while unfolding parallel with the events of the third installment. At the same time, an epilogue leaves the door open to explore more of Darth Vader and Ahsoka’s storyline.
Dave Filoni revealed how he pulled off the complicated Star Wars: The Clone Wars finale
Arguably, the biggest challenge ahead of the animated show’s series finale was its place within the wider Star Wars continuity. The episode follows Ahsoka and Rex as they attempt to liberate Mandalore from Darth Maul’s control. These events take place concurrently with the events of Revenge of the Sith.
During an interview with Deadline, Filoni opened up about the challenge of crafting a story that ran parallel to the films, while also having to cap off the prequels era and the overall narrative of the animated series. Therefore, Filoni admitted he had to tread a very fine line.
Filoni explained that he always intended for Vader to be a part of the series finale, especially since Anakin Skywalker is a major character in the previous seasons.
I’m trying to maintain the integrity of what George did in his work and just say, this is how it went for Ahsoka and Rex.
Filoni made the above statement, explaining that since Anakin and Obi-Wan’s stories concluded in the prequel trilogy’s third installment, he instead chose to reveal how Ahsoka and Rex managed to escape the effects of Order 66. Thus, the series finale feels like a satisfying conclusion of a larger story and remains one of the best episodes of the show five years later.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is currently streaming on Disney+ (USA).
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
