Star Wars: The Clone Wars The Final Season: Shattered/Victory and Death · 5:22pm May 4th, 2020
"Execute Order 66."
There's no getting away from it. This entire arc had been leading up to the fall of the Jedi Order. And when it comes, it hits you like a punch to the gut. You know it's coming, but you're still not emotionally prepared for it. It's one long slow incline of dread, that feeling just increasing with each passing moment.
Then, the ball drops and all chaos breaks loose. Like, the Nine Sith Hells, is this an emotional gut punch. And unlike with Rebels' finale, there's no real hopeful epilogue. It just... ends. Okay, yeah, you know eventually the galaxy will see the light of freedom again, but it's not going to be an easy path to get there.
It starts with Mace and the council realizing just how the dark side of the force surrounds Palpatine. Word for word, a lot of lines are lifted from Revenge of Sith including a certain famous sequence with Mace, Palpatine, and Anakin. You know the one. Hearing Matt Lanter say those lines, it's... By the Force. You can see the sheer pain on Ahsoka's face as she realizes what's happening, and by god it makes you want to hug her. The heartfelt conversation between her and Rex a moment before about how great friends they are DOES NOT HELP.
Then chaos breaks loose, and it's a fight for survival as Maul is unleashed by Ahsoka as a distraction, and he takes full advantage of it all. Even without a lightsaber, he shows just why he was Sideous' apprentice. He grabs bulkheads and uses them as shields and then slices clones clean in two with them. He goes to the hyperdrive room, and brings the whole thing down just to cause even more mayhem. It actually brings to mind Starkiller. All the while, Ahsoka unravels the mystery behind 66. It's the sheer pain in Rex's voice when he says all of the Grand Army of the Republic is under their control that just sells it.
"Ahsoka...it's all of us. The entire Grand Army of the Republic has been ordered to hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights."
Note during all of this, Ahsoka refuses to kill. Never once does she strike a mortal blow against any of her former comrades. Neither does Rex set his blasters to kill on his former brothers. It... it's yeah, it's something during this time of upheaval that neither refuses to lose sight of their values that warms your heart. And then breaks it clean in two.
There's just a painful amount of irony in this story arc. Ahsoka knows she's meant to keep the peace, but all she's ever done is learn to be a soldier. She recruits droids -including her old R7- and droids are technically more vulnerable to being reprogrammed than humans. Also, the clones are now just as mindless as the droids they once fought. Even Jesse, who wears the republic symbol proudly on his helmet, now is a representative of the fact that the entire republic had an enemy within.
The entire story is... yeah, it's bleak. As I said, the ending isn't even remotely hopeful. It just ends on a graveyard of clone trooper helmets, then it cuts to Darth Vader visiting the site with a legion of Stormtroopers. He finds Ahsoka's forgotten lightsaber, ignites it, and fade to black with only the screech of the Morai heard.
"Ahsoka held her lightsabers, her last physical connection to the Jedi and to her service in the Clone Wars. It was so hard to give them up, even though she knew she had to. It was the only way to sell the con of the false burial, and it would buy her a modicum of safety, because whoever found them would assume she was dead, too."
Best episode of Season 7. By far.
Of the entire series? There's competition.
5255895
Yeah, I'd say the Yoda Arc is my personal favorite finale, but this comes pretty close.
5255896
Agreedm this was just. damn. Like, you think "Oh wait, Rex has his chip out. So he's just gonna fake following Order 66." Then you hear "Yes, Lord Sidious." And the way he mumbled "Fives." Just holy shit
5255896
5255905
I think the Umbara arc, the Clone Cadets/ARC Troopers arc, and the Battle of Geonosis were my favorites.
5255913
Yeah, the Umbara arc and the entire show length arc with Fives/Echo/Hardcase's squad were both awesome. Honestly, seeing the War from the clones side? It really sold the show for me at times.
That’s how Star Wars Rebels (and by extension, the original trilogy and the Freemaker Adventures) started.
5255933
Hush, we don't speak of the Freemaker Adventures!
5255925
Yep. It did.
5255933
Rebels was good, just not as good as Clone Wars.
Also, don't mention anything Lego-related here. Those ae completely unrelated and bad.
5255925
Agreed, its one thing to see it from the eyes of the superpowered warrior monks, but then you see it from the side of the grunts, the soldiers, it hits you
5255946
The Lego games were fun
5255994
Yep. This video tribute sums it up.
5256020
Also Fields of Verdun
5256003
They were. I'm talking about the Lego animations like the freemakers.
5256026
5256020
Love those videos, and you beat me too it.
5256057
Ah, yeah, those were....odd
I know I'm about a year late on this reply (recently rewatched all of the Clone Wars for the Bad Batch), but I still feel the need to share my thoughts on this finale. It's just....
The heavy sense of dread of seeing all the clones before Order 66 is declared.
The way Rex's hands shake as he initially points those blasters at Ahsoka.
The bitter sense of relief that Fives's death wasn't entirely in vain in that it ultimately saved Rex.
The agony of when Ahsoka removed Rex's helmet to see the tears on his cheeks.
And the final shot of the episode, of the Clone Wars series. The clone helmet half-buried in the snow with Darth Vader reflected off of the visor as he slowly vanishes in the distance.... That shot shows the antithesis of The Clone Wars. All of the clones, the bravery, the sacrifice....Hevy, Hardcase, Fives, Thorne, Jesse...
What was it all for?!
I suppose to close off my thoughts, I leave you with the theme of the last shot of The Clone Wars.