Both are headed by a resurrected Palpatine, and both seek to dominate the galaxy just like its predecessor, the Galactic Empire, and establish the Sith as a greater power than the old Empire. Consequently, Okami was replaced by Trace and Rafa Martez, two sisters scraping by on Level 1313 of Coruscant’s underworld—a locale initially envisioned as the setting of a canceled video game and live-action TV series, and eventually introduced in The Clone Wars’ second season. Because we already know what’s coming—Anakin’s turn to the dark side, the clones executing their generals in Order 66—there’s a dread that hangs over every scene. All rights reserved. Before The Clone Wars was canceled, this sequence was slated to introduce a potential love interest for Ahsoka, Nyx Okami. Midi-chlorians. But where The Rise of Skywalker used hasty revisionism to get out of the corner The Last Jedi backed it into—by bringing back a dead villain without bothering to explain how, by blaming a major backstory revelation on a technicality, by giving a beloved new character a perfunctory write-off—The Clone Wars has shown enormous respect for its often disrespected predecessors, working with and around the prequel movies as much as possible instead of just hitting Ctrl+Z every time things got inconvenient. The last four minutes or so are accompanied only by Kevin Kiner’s mournful, Blade Runner–aping score, and for fans who have been following this story for more than a decade, they are nothing short of astonishing. Star Wars; The Finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Puts the Prequels Into Perspective Emmet Asher-Perrin. Filoni’s grand finale explores how Ahsoka came to (temporarily) liberate Mandalore from Darth Maul and his Mandalorian super commandos, how she escaped execution after Order 66, and how Rex resisted the preprogrammed command to kill Jedi. The season-opening arc paired Rex with “The Bad Batch,” a unit of misfit-toy clones born with genetic abnormalities that gave them unique looks and a set of special abilities. He has shepherded a number of TV projects at the company, including Star Wars Rebels, Forces of Destiny, Star Wars Resistance, and The Mandalorian, which also marked Filoni’s live-action directorial debut. As Vader holds Ahsoka’s discarded blade, he sees a soaring convor (Star Wars for “owl”), a creature with a mystical connection to Ahsoka on Rebels. Clunky dialogue. Instead, it’s a testament to how much the series has grown, with stunning lighting and animation and a choreographed fight scene that features real actors—including the original Maul, Ray Park—using motion-capture technology. But the most gutting parts of “Victory and Death” are the parts with no dialogue at all. By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. Star Wars: The Clone Wars has reached its conclusion as the season 7 finale officially brings the beloved cartoon to an end. Ahsoka Tano will return to the world of Star Wars on February 21st when The Clone Wars hits Disney+ for its seventh and final season. Season 7 broke down into a trio of four-episode arcs that filled in some of the gaps in the stories of two fan favorites, Commander Rex and Ahsoka Tano, who were introduced in the animated Clone Wars film that preceded and set up the series in 2008. And you'll never see this message again. Their fates weren’t in question. In a subtle but brilliant touch, the John Williams theme that plays as Anakin and Obi-Wan swoop into battle just after Episode III’s opening crawl is reprised as Ahsoka and Rex launch their assault on Mandalore, reinforcing that these events are occurring at the same time. Filoni has a finger (if not a whole hand) in almost every Star Wars small-screen pie, and the command of Star Wars lore that he’s demonstrated in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian, along with his Lucas-protege pedigree, makes him a candidate to assume Kevin Feige–esque oversight of the franchise, at least on the streaming side. Ahsoka senses that Anakin killed Mace Windu and even overhears his words in the seconds before he becomes Darth Vader, but she doesn’t seem to feel any Force ripples from his slaughter of the younglings or his fateful meetup on Mustafar. The Mandalorian: Ahsoka Episode Takes Place BEFORE Star Wars Rebels' Finale?! Most impressive, Filoni manages to tie it all together more cleverly and less ostentatiously than he did in his Mandalorian writing/directing debut. Ahsoka uses her Rebels code name, “Fulcrum,” to contact her former Jedi buds. Dave Filoni and the cast address burning questions about the series finale. Considering Dawson’s star power and Bob Iger’s comments about The Mandalorian as a breeding ground for spinoffs, there’s every reason to believe the recurring rumors about an Ahsoka-centric series (that is probably separate from the Leslye Headland–helmed series supposedly set during a previous unexplored era). The last act features title cards that indicate that the series has something special in store. In "The Tragedy," Clan Mudhorn meets its match (and multiple allies) in the most explosive episode of the series, San Antonio is bringing the Fiesta back as its roster shifts to the future, but embracing a youth movement also means leaving a legacy of excellence behind, Plus, Warren and House recap the Ravens-Steelers ‘Wednesday Night Football’ game. Obi-Wan alludes to Shaak Ti’s downfall at Grievous’s (many) hands, a development depicted in Genndy Tartakovsky’s 2003 Clone Wars microseries and in an Episode III deleted scene. A new trailer for the show teases more of … But if you endured the long wait for The Clone Wars to come back and stuck with the slow start to the season, your patience paid off. Just like the clones killed in the finale, the series deserved a proper burial. WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the series finale of Star Wars Rebels, "A Fool's Hope" and "Family Reunion and Farewell," which debuted Monday night on Disney XD. Ahead of the series finale of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” director and animator Dave Filoni took audiences back through the years and dished on his experiences working on the beloved series. The final four-episode sequence, which covered the Siege of Mandalore and Order 66, was peak Clone Wars, fulfilling Ahsoka actress Ashley Eckstein’s promise that fans were in store for “some of the best Star Wars ever made.” Because the culmination of The Clone Wars coincided with Revenge of the Sith, the story offered few surprises, but the four-part denouement, which was written by supervising director (and Lucas apprentice) Dave Filoni, delivered some of the series’ most cinematic and emotionally affecting moments, as well as a host of elegantly constructed ties to the prequels and the other Star Wars shows that bear Filoni’s fingerprints, Rebels and The Mandalorian. Warning! The Final Order first appeared in the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, the third and final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Their talk soon segues into an extended lightsaber ballet—“I see the Padawan needs one last lesson,” the sinister Sam Witwer intones—that takes place in two settings, much like the duel in The Empire Strikes Back. The series’ spruced-up animation shines in the assault on Mandalore, the unarmed Maul’s The Force Unleashed/Rogue One–style rampage through clones and hyperdrives, and a skirmish in a capital ship that’s plunging to the ground, a set piece straight out of Revenge of the Sith (just as Ahsoka using the Force to freeze a shuttle seems reminiscent of Rey in The Rise of Skywalker). And now, 15 years after The Flanneled One conceived the series, this is finally safe to say: Ended, The Clone Wars has. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. We even get a glimpse of Dryden Vos, the crime lord played by Paul Bettany in Solo, which sets up Maul’s appearance in that spinoff film. We can only infer what he’s feeling, but out of recognition for the friendship he shared with his former Padawan, one hopes it’s some sorrow or remorse. But his greatest contribution to the franchise has been his work on The Clone Wars. But because these episodes were screened as story reels at Star Wars Celebration five years ago and later released online, they seemed somewhat stale to hardcore Clone Wars fans—the ones who were still holding out hope for some kind of continuation years after Season 6. Ahsoka Tano may have finally appeared on … Intergalactic trade disputes. The first four episodes followed Rex, the second four centered on Ahsoka, and the last four brought the two together to explain how they survived Order 66. Maul even mentions that Darth Sidious is “in the shadows, always,” an allusion to Leia’s Episode IX line about Sidious lurking “always in the shadows.”. Mon May 4, 2020 12:17pm 72 comments 25 Favorites [+] Screenshot: Lucasfilm. MAJOR SPOILERS for the Star Wars Rebels series finale ahead!. We might have seen Ahsoka earlier in the Star Wars … That show, Star Wars Rebels, ended its four-season run tonight with a three-episode special that not only concluded the story that began way back in 2014, but offered a peek of the future, too. It’s easy to envision the Bad Batch, whom Lucas created, as the basis of a Star Wars take on The A-Team, or at least as the protagonists of a Republic Commando reboot; in any other Clone Wars season, this arc could have been a highlight. Maul’s moves come courtesy of a motion-captured Ray Park (who’s still in spinning, flipping form at 45), evoking the fierce fight at the end of Episode I. That electrifying John Williams theme with all the chanting—but also Jar Jar Binks. Season 7 set up that possibility by addressing big blanks in Ahsoka’s story in higher-profile fashion than a young adult book could. The Clone Wars‘ final episode, “Victory and Death,” packs a punch. (Filoni says that when he questioned Lucas’ idea to bring back Darth Maul, a character last seen being cut in half and plummeting down a bottomless pit, Lucas told him, “You’ll figure it out.” He did.) Dave Filoni teases Ahsoka's run-in with Mando and Grogu could take place BEFORE Rebels' ending. The penultimate episode in the arc, “Dangerous Debt,” sports the lowest average IMDb user rating of any episode in the series, reflecting fans’ unrest. the time frame for the Original Trilogy) and beyond. The minimovie is presented as a distinct, self-contained entity: Green text that reads “A Lucasfilm Limited Production” hearkens back to the original trilogy, and the red Clone Wars logo from Maul’s death-undoing arc in Season 4 returns, accompanied by John Williams’s opening fanfare from the films. In a landscape that looks like Ralph McQuarrie concept art—the colors have faded to reflect the light that’s gone out of the galaxy—we see Stormtroopers, shockingly rendered in an animation style heretofore reserved for their Old Republic predecessors. Dave Filoni says that Star Wars is not chronological, which has big … Join Slate Plus to continue reading, and you’ll get unlimited access to all our work—and support Slate’s independent journalism. Those four episodes don’t just lead into Revenge of the Sith. Filoni wears many hats at Lucasfilm—including the literal cowboy hats he is rarely seen without. The animated series—which began more than a decade ago—finally concluded Monday with a send-off that positioned both its writer and its most memorable character for expanded roles in the franchise’s future. The long-awaited conclusion to the Emmy-winning animated series kicks off with “The Bad Batch,” available to stream now on Disney+.The first of 12 new episodes to be released weekly, “The Bad Batch” finds clone troopers Rex and Cody teaming up with an elite squad to solve a troubling mystery. Ahsoka is the star of The Clone Wars’ final season, though that fate is no longer in question: She reappears in the future in Rebels and was even more recently included among the “voices of Jedi past” who speak to Rey in The Rise of Skywalker—a curious inclusion for a character who, like her master, eventually becomes disillusioned by the Jedi. Ahsoka chose to walk away at the end of The Clone Wars’ fifth season but returns in the seventh to help capture Maul (Sam Witwer). The last episode nearly leaves us as Rebels did—with an image of a robed and solemn Ahsoka, who drops her saber, her Jedi deeds done. Perhaps the Siege of Mandalore will make it to theaters as a standalone product in a post-pandemic world, bringing the series (that started on the big screen) full circle. The surviving members of the resistance face the First Order once again, and the legendary conflict between the Jedi and the Sith reaches its peak bringing the Skywalker saga to its end. Season 7’s 12-episode send-off was largely intended to tie up loose ends and bid goodbye to a show and an era that hold a special significance for many Star Wars fans who were weaned on the prequels. If there’s any source of disappointment, it’s that the finale and Episode III aren’t even more tightly intertwined. Fifteen years after Lucas presided over preproduction of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the animated series has reached its long-delayed conclusion. The Clone Wars blazed a trail for what came after it: the gritty violence of Rogue One, the populism of The Last Jedi, the sensibilities and lore of The Mandalorian. Why Ahsoka Tano Matters With Mallory Rubin, Everything You Need to Know About ‘The Undoing’ Finale, ‘The Mandalorian,’ Chapter 13 Recap: Baby Yoda Has a Name—and Fans Have a Lot to Process, ‘The Mandalorian’ Begins Digging Into the Mysteries Surrounding Our Hero’s Quest, “The Heiress” Recap: ‘The Mandalorian’ Expands Its Universe, Do Not Let Baby Yoda’s Cuteness Distract You From His Murderous Ways, Tea Time’s Spotify Wrapped, Rihanna’s Potential New Man, and ‘Guy’s Grocery Games’, Week 13 Preview: Pandemic Impact, Offensive Game Plans, and Betting Strategies, For the Sake of Its Season, the NFL Needs a Playoff Bubble. In plotting Season 7, Filoni had the option of setting four episodes aside for finished versions of the Obi-Wan/Anakin Utapau arc that also exists in story reels. By Molly Edwards 01 December 2020. A half-length season was available on Netflix on March 7, 2014, and some story arcs were released in several different mediums in the following years. Juliet and Amelia try and understand why ‘Virgin River’ is at the top of Netflix’s most-popular shows in the U.S. Plus, how is Linda Cardellini one of the most-searched celebrities on IMDb? And now we know why Anakin and Obi-Wan were late to Grievous’s surprise attack on Coruscant: They were meeting with Ahsoka. worst-reviewed theatrical release of the entire franchise, blaming a major backstory revelation on a technicality, the “voices of Jedi past” who speak to Rey in. The Siege of Mandalore itself is referenced by The Mandalorian’s Moff Gideon, and the shot of clone helmets on sticks in the finale’s closing moments echoes similar Mandalorian imagery. Ahsoka Tano may have finally appeared on The Mandalorian, but there's a lot we still don't know about her journey after the events of the original trilogy. There are deaths in this finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, both physical and spiritual.After six seasons, a six-year hiatus, and attempts to spiritually conclude the series in Star Wars … Rex, Ahsoka, and Maul had already appeared in Rebels, and Maul had his holographic cameo in Solo. That’s not to say it never messed with the canon: The series began by introducing a potential plot hole so big you could drive a Star Destroyer through it: that Anakin Skywalker had an apprentice, Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein), who was never so much as mentioned in Revenge of the Sith. Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 5 and the series finale of Star Wars Rebels! Midi-chlorians. In less capable hands, their battle in the show’s four-part finale, formatted as a kind of a minimovie, might have felt like a kid playing with his action figures. If Ahsoka does go solo, it will be another feather in her creator’s cap. This quartet felt like filler, which would have been forgivable in a 22-episode season but was frustrating with so little time to go. And, of course, we see Vader, who retrieves Ahsoka’s saber and stalks away. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (also known as Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker) is a 2019 American epic space opera film produced, co-written, and directed by J. J. Abrams.It is the third installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, following The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), and the final episode of the nine-part "Skywalker saga". Directed by J.J. Abrams. If you value our work, please disable your ad blocker. But the show’s most impressive accomplishment is its redemption of a part of the Star Wars canon that is often reduced to a joke so that for a certain subset of fans, prequel-era Star Wars is some of the best the franchise has to offer—not a Gungan whose tongue is caught on a power converter, but a clone cradling his brother in arms as he breathes his last, Maul wielding the Darksaber, Ahsoka Tano standing in a graveyard of her own making. Warning: this article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 5 and the series finale of Star Wars Rebels! A flash-forward follows. Clunky dialogue. There are plenty of questions to answer after the studio made the decision to release its 2021 slate of films concurrently in theaters and on streaming. That’s how you end an era. Their showdown this season was a triumph for Filoni: Ahsoka, a character he helped design from scratch, and Maul, whom he raised from the dead. 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