Star Wars: The Clone Wars



"Obi-Wan Kenobi: "Subtlety has never been one of your strong suits."

Anakin Skywalker: "Everything I learned, I learned from you."

Obi-Wan Kenobi: "If only that were true.""

A CG-animated film and television series set in the Star Wars universe, covering the period between Episode II and III. The film was released in the United States in August 2008 while the TV series debuted on Cartoon Network in fall 2008.

It is easy to confuse this series with Star Wars Clone Wars, Genndy Tartakovsky's 2003 mini-episodic Animated Series, which also aired on Cartoon Network, and covers the same time period. The Clone Wars, while having no writers in common, borrows many design and plot elements from its predecessor. George Lucas is a producer, while Dave Filoni (known for his work on Avatar: The Last Airbender) is director and head writer.

The film began development as a three-part pilot episode arc for the series, but was converted into a Compilation Movie after Lucas screened the episodes himself. The movie was generally panned by critics, and subject to fan backlash, but being a Star Wars production, was still financially successful.

The series itself has been better received, likely because it is shown in the medium for which it was intended. A major advantage of the television format and choice timeslot is the inclusion of PG-13 level content. Characters are killed in unsettling and dramatic fashion, and some adult language and mild sexual content have slipped in under the radar. Like Clone Wars, episodes feature more obscure Jedi, stories centered entirely around Clone Troopers and sometimes even the Politicians. There is also a set of novels set during the events of the series.

The series was designed in an anthology format, with Anachronic Order as a very intentional stylistic choice. Each season there is a loosely connected Story Arc (most two or three part episodes) while the "Filler" tends to jump around to any point in the timeline. This has resulted in some Story Arcs being told almost in reverse.

See Clone Wars Gambit for the novel tie-ins.

For the unfamiliar, the Clone Wars was a period in Star Wars history that was the result of "Separatists" leading a rebellion against the Galactic Republic. The Republic didn't have a unified military and the Separatists were well financed with a droid army. But it was revealed in Episode II: Attack of the Clones that a secret conspiracy gave the Republic a fully stocked and trained clone army, which served to stretch out the war.

The Jedi serve as the generals of the war, with their own legion and loyal clone commanders. Anakin Skywalker is forcibly given a Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, and they deal with the various battles and adventures fought during this epic war. If you've seen Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (which is set three years after Attack of the Clones), you know how this war ends.

The film and show provides examples of:
"Count Dooku: I don't need to remind you..."
 * Absolute Cleavage: The Daughter's outfit.
 * Also, Suu Lawquane's outfit.
 * Action Girl:
 * Ahsoka, who just as often rescues her Jedi instructor as he rescues her.
 * Whenever Padme actually starts fighting, she tears things up.
 * Other female characters appear more sporadically, but their action scenes are of similar high quality. Even Duchess Satine of Mandalore, an Actual Pacifist, manages to take care of herself while remaining completely non-lethal.
 * Actor Allusion:
 * In The Clone Wars webcomic "Departure", C-3PO and Jar Jar Binks meet "Dannl Faytonni" and "Ach Med-Beq". The latter pair are characters based on cameos by Anthony Daniels and Ahmed Best in the bar scene in Attack of the Clones.
 * There is also a character named "Satine" with whom Obi-Wan, originally played in the prequels by Ewan McGregor, has an affair.
 * Actual Pacifist:
 * Satine is this, being bound and determined to keep her people out of the war. This is somewhat ironic as she happens to be the Duchess of Mandalore, whose people were once some of the most feared warriors in the galaxy. The local rebel group "Death Watch" violently disagrees with her, and hopes to return their planet to its past ways.
 * The Lurmen, a race of Perfect Pacifist People, although they take pacifism a little too far, since their philosophy does not even allow running away from danger.
 * Aesop Amnesia: In the first-season episode "Storm over Ryloth", Ahsoka disobeys orders to pull back and gets most of her fighter squadron killed, which naturally makes her feel like mud. In the season two premier, Ahsoka is in the exact same situation and given just about the same orders, the only difference being that she is commanding troops on the ground rather than starfighters. Obi-Wan tells her that she is putting her troops' lives in danger. You would think this would make her stop and think, rather than continuing to do the same thing that she did in the previous episode, but instead, Obi-Wan and Anakin practically have to drag her off of the battlefield.
 * Air Vent Passageway: The writers seem to be in love with this trope as everyone seems to escape from fights by way of air vent.
 * All There in the Manual: A lot of major plot points are explained in the opening narration or the webcomics, without being featured in the actual episodes.
 * The most Egregious example so far was at the end of "Dooku Captured" and the beginning of "The Gungan General". "Dooku Captured" ended with pirates attempting to subdue Obi-Wan and Anakin with drugged drinks. The two notice the attempt and easily avoid it by switching drinks with the pirates they are sitting next to, whom promptly pass out. In "The Gungan General", however, they have both somehow been drugged and imprisoned, with no on-screen explanation as to how this had happened. This was only explained in the webcomic.
 * Other elements involve plot points made more explicit in the Expanded Universe, like the reason Aurra Sing has such a grudge against the Jedi is because she was trained as a Jedi and always resented them and their authority.
 * An Aesop: At the opening of every episode is a quote that is to be the moral of the episode.
 * Anachronic Order: Though the show has multi-episode story arcs, stand-alone episodes and arcs as a whole are aired anachronically. By making each episode mostly self-contained, you are able to discover additional elements that surround a story you had already seen. Even the official episode guides are chipping in, helping with the identification and leading to some All There in the Manual moments.
 * Chronologically the story order surrounding the planet Christophis is "Cat and Mouse" (season 2: episode 16), "The Hidden Enemy" (1:16) and then The Movie.
 * The story around the planet Ryloth seems to go "Supply Lines" (3:03), "Ambush" (1:1) and the Ryloth Trilogy (1:19-21).
 * "Clone Cadets" (3:1) takes place before "Rookies" (1:5). "ARC Troopers" (3:2) then continues the story of a particular pair of clone troopers.
 * "Holocron Heist" to "Children of the Force" (2:1-2:3) take place before "Evil Plans" (3:8), "Hostage Crisis" (1:22) and "Hunt for Ziro" (3:9), which form their own arc in that order.
 * "Heroes On Both Sides"(3:10) and "Pursuit of Peace"(3.11) take place before "Senate Murders"(2:15).
 * And Then What?: At the end of the Umbara arc, a dejected Rex and Fives discuss the war. When Fives attempts to cheer Rex up by pointing out that the war will eventually end, Rex wonders what will happen to all the clones once it does. Fives does not know, and cannot think of anyone who does.
 * Amazon Brigade: The Nightsisters.
 * Animorphism: The Daughter and Son can turn, respectively, into a griffin and a gargoyle at will.
 * Armed With Canon: George Lucas' approach to many elements of the show, which he sometimes outlines in precise details for the writers to use.
 * Army of the Dead: The Nightsisters are able to revive the corpses of their fallen to battle on their behalf. Though effective against droids, Grievous treated them like a nuisance.
 * Art Evolution: The show started off fairly high quality, especially for an All CGI Cartoon, but the art style lend itself to making the characters look like mannequins and outside of action scenes they would be rather stiff. Later episodes improved upon the facial expressions as well as the character movement, in addition to a Jedi costume switch from (easily animated) body armor and gauntlets to the tunics they are seen wearing in the movies.
 * Artistic License Military: Naturally, the military in Star Wars greatly differs from pretty much anything here on Earth, but it's generally accepted that faking a surrender (which is done at least twice throughout the series - by the Republic) is a pretty significant war crime. Of course, it's only considered wrong when the Separatists do it.
 * As You Know: Dooku in "Citadel Rescue".

"King Katuunko: [Yoda] is not worth a hundred battle droids, more like a thousand!"
 * Ascended Extra: Par for the course in a Star Wars production. One particularly interesting case is an episode highlighting Baron Papanoida, who was played by George Lucas in a Creator Cameo in Revenge of the Sith. The particular episode has him going Papa Wolf when his family is in danger, which reflects his efforts to integrate his family with cameos in his movies.
 * Attack of the Fifty Foot Whatever: The Zillo Beast in its titular episodes, which directly homage the Godzilla movies with a little bit of King Kong as well.
 * Badass: Chances are that anyone who is not a civilian has Badass coursing through their veins.
 * Badass Army: The clone troopers.
 * Badass Family: Chairman N. Papanoida's family. Him, his son, and his daughter take on an entire bar full of bloodthirsty outlaws and bounty hunters and win.
 * Badass Grandpa: Yoda.

"Ima-Gun Di: Captain Keeli!
 * Count Dooku is a villainous version.
 * Badass Longcoat: Cad Bane.
 * Back-to-Back Badasses:
 * Just look at the poster.
 * Satine and Obi-Wan have one of these moments in the episode, "Voyage of Temptation", when upon being attacked by numerous tiny droids, Satine whips out a droid deactivator and begins firing whilst Obi-Wan defends with his lightsaber.
 * Jedi General Ima-Gun Di and his clone officer Captain Keeli perform this feat during their last stand on Ryloth.

Keeli: I'm not finished yet, Sir... we can do this, General!

Ima-Gun Di: Then let's make the end memorable!"

""What? He was going to blow up the ship.""
 * Obi-Wan and, of all people, have a moment of this in "Revenge".
 * Bad Boss:
 * Grievous, in spades.
 * The commander of the Citadel executes droids not just for failure, but even for discovering somebody else's failure.
 * Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: After a fashion. The show frequently has characters who are not villains perform actions which are not evil, but which are nonetheless morally grey and provide an ethical dilemma for the other characters.
 * Anakin in "Voyage of Temptation", right after the villain asks, "Who will strike first, and be branded the cold blooded killer?" Made all the more poignant by The Imperial March, Vader's theme song, playing in the background.

"Ahsoka: That was close!
 * Once Captain Rex captured  he was going to execute him to prevent him from being freed by the Separatists. Dogma ultimately pulled the trigger for him.
 * Bald of Evil: As of Season Four, Pre Viszla has shaved his head, and received a nasty scar from a fight with Count Dooku.
 * Bash Brothers
 * Batman Gambit: Dooku and Ziro's treachery. They create conflict for episodes and even multi-episodes by exploiting how their betrayee will react.
 * In "A Friend In Need", Lux Bonteri barges into a peace negotiation to loudly proclaim that Dooku murdered his mother. He is brought to a hologram of Dooku for this. Lux knew that he would be, and brought a signal tracker so he could find where Dooku was hiding. His escape didn't seem well thought-out, but Ahsoka did interrupt.
 * The Beast Master: Jar Jar, of all people, has a way with animals.
 * The Bechdel Test: With the anthology nature of the series and its rotating cast, the main characters vary from episode to episode. This results in several episodes that revolve almost solely around female protagonists, and other episodes which pass the test even with male characters present.
 * Becoming the Mask: Discussed when Obi-Wan was impersonating Rako Hardeen.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Satine and Obi-Wan, who are pretty much the Beatrice and Benedick of this series.
 * Berserk Button: You seriously do not want to be the person between Anakin and helping his loved ones. Poggle the Lesser found this out the hard way.
 * Better to Die Than Be Killed: A Death Watch bomber commits suicide rather than be arrested and interrogated.
 * BFG: Laser miniguns.
 * Big Bad: Darth Sidious.
 * Some individual arcs also have their own Big Bads, (ex. The Son in the Mortis arc, or  in the Umbara arc).
 * Big Brother Instinct: Anakin to Asoka and Obi-Wan to Anakin.
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Used a few times.

Anakin: Isn't it always?"

"WIRED: What about the reports that Episodes 7, 8, and 9 - which exist in novel form - will never reach the screen?
 * The point of Chewbacca's arrival in "Wookiee Hunt" is pretty much to set up one.
 * Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: At first glance, you wouldn't think that Asajj Ventress is actually female member of Darth Maul's race. Female Dathomirians tend to have chalk-white skin, and if they have any hair, it'll also be chalky in color. Males look more like Darth Maul himself, with red/gold and black skin and a crown of horns on their heads.
 * It started out as a Gender Equals Breed, with the Nightsisters originally being humans, who have been crossbreeding with the Zabrak Nightbrothers for generations, and by the time of the Clone Wars they became a race of their own.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Played straight with, and more mildly with the Mandalorian Death Watch leader, as well as the rest of his clan.
 * Blood Knight: Clone trooper "Hardcase" seems to be turning into one of these. He wields a Z-6 rotary cannon and seems to enjoy standing out in the open hosing down the enemy while bellowing things like "you want a piece of this?" even when ordered to seek cover. Other clones speculate his tank must have been damaged in some way while he was gestating.
 * The Mandalorian Death Watch are made of this trope. They torment droids by taking potshots at them, and they torch unarmed settlements for fun.
 * Bloodless Carnage: Justified in most cases, as lightsabers and blasters would cauterize wounds instantly, with occasional aversions.
 * Played straight during the Nightsisters arc, Ventress spears and slashes several Nightbrothers, and Savage tears through clone troopers, as well as two Jedi (outright impaling one of them) and not a drop of blood is seen. This is with an ordinary spear, mind you.
 * Averted with Riff Tamson,
 * Body Count Competition: "Landing at Point Rain", Anakin and Ahsoka start one up. At the end, Anakin has 55 while Ahsoka has 60. Then Ki-Adi-Mundi says he has 65 and asks what his prize was. It is simply Anakin's respect, though admittedly this is not easy to come by.
 * Body Horror:
 * Savage Opress's transformation in "Monster", where his body mutates into a larger, more powerful form. His bones audibly crack as they expand, and his horns visibly extend from his skull.
 * Obi-Wan's transformation into "Rako Hardeen" (from "Deception), which involves his skin visibly warping, and his skull reshaping itself to create his new face. Judging from his reactions, the procedure was very painful.
 * Bond Villain Stupidity:
 * In "Hostage Crisis", the bounty hunters manage to disable and capture Anakin after he tries to stop their invasion of the senate building. However, instead of just killing him, like they did with every other soldier who tried to stop them, they tie him up and leave him with the senators, planning to kill him with a bomb later. Not even Cad Bane gives an explanation for why they are keeping him alive.
 * The Death Watch in "The Mandalore Plot" manage to knock Obi-Wan unconscious, then put him on the ever-so cliche Conveyor Belt O' Doom with a rock grinder at the end. Their justification for this is so it looks like an accident. Because surely the coroner would be able to spot a blaster wound in mulch. Later, when he is on the run and disarmed, Pre Viszla shows up with several mooks and he proceeds to return Obi-Wan's lightsaber so they may duel fairly (Viszla had his own lightsaber-esque weapon).
 * In "Nightsisters",  decides to get revenge on Count Dooku after he betrays her, and is given a poison dart that will impair his sight and reflexes so she can defeat him in the ensuing fight. Just making it a lethal poison is never even considered.
 * In hindsight, it seems that Talzin needed Dooku alive to teach Savage Opress, so to use a more subdued poison and give Dooku a fighting chance might have been the point. Ventress probably didn't have any real reason to believe that Mother Talzin wouldn't use her best preparations to help assassinate Dooku.
 * Boom Headshot: In season three's "Counter Attack", the commander of the Citadel executes a clone trooper with a direct shot to the face during his interrogation of the captured Jedi. Lucky for the rest of the clones, Commander Cody was next in line, so fate had to intervene.
 * Bounty Hunter: Season two was actually advertised as "Rise of the Bounty Hunters".
 * Broad Strokes: Typical for Star Wars, though this series has its own place in regular Star Wars canon. Star Wars has a complicated "level" system of canonicity, starting with the films and then working down to include novels, comics,, specials and other entries in the Expanded Universe, with each entry receiving its own level determining its place in Star Wars history. Details from the "lower" levels are taken as needed to fit the story of this series, with frequent input from George Lucas on what is or is not an immutable part of official canon.
 * Brought Down to Normal: While not removed of his force abilities, Anakin found himself trying to offset a Hostage Situation without his lightsaber. He is capable of superhuman feats on his own, but without his Weapon of Choice, things were much more difficult.
 * Bus Full of Innocents: The medical station that the Malevolence meant to destroy.
 * In "A Friend In Need", the village being held hostage by the Death Watch.
 * But for Me It Was Tuesday: Dooku acts like this when discussing the death of Mina Bonteri with Lux. He acts like he can't recall her death since it was so meaningless on a grand scale. It's clear he's just doing it to be a jerk, though.
 * Bring It Back Alive: The Zillo Beast. It doesn't end well.
 * By-The-Book Cop: Inspector Tan Divo.
 * By Wall That Is Holey: Happens to Anakin in The Movie.
 * Call Back: Remember that Defoliator gun the Separatists were testing in "Defenders Of Peace"? Grievous uses one against the Nightsisters in "Massacre".
 * Call Forward: The series contains many references and nods to events from the greater Star Wars universe, including the movies and the novels / comics of the Expanded Universe.
 * The Malevolence Story Arc introduced an early version of the original trilogy Y-Wing bomber.
 * The Marg Sabl maneuver, which Thrawn used on an Elomin commander's taskforce, ended up used on a droid commander to similar devastating effect.
 * How many times can you hear "I've got a bad feeling about this?" A whole lot. And many, many references to the line "from a certain point of view," particularly in creator commentary.
 * Captain Rex making it clear, if it was not already, that clones / stormtroopers hitting their heads on things is genetic.
 * In "Cat and Mouse" Bail Organa says the same line his adoptive daughter would say years later: "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope."
 * In "Padawan Lost," Anakin tries to contact Ahsoka via her comm unit, which has been taken away from her. His one-sided conversation sounds suspiciously familiar to Luke's plea to Threepio for help out of the trash compactor in Episode IV. And by "familiar," I mean "identical."
 * In episode nine of season four, clone soldiers replicate Han Solo's panicked conversation with a Death Star officer from Episode IV when their Jedi commander tries to figure out why the alarms are going off in the fighter hanger.
 * When Captain Rex leads a squad to attempt to
 * The "Slaves of the Republic" slave arena scene starts as an excellent Call Forward to the start of the Sarlacc scene of Return of the Jedi - Anakin getting the eye contact from everyone, saluting, and R2-D2 shooting his lightsaber (except also with Obi-Wan's and Ahsoka's).
 * In "Revenge",
 * In "Crisis On Naboo", Anakin and Palpatine enter a dining room where Dooku happened to be waiting for them ala The Empire Strikes Back which ironically has Anakin as Darth Vader doing this to Han, Leia, Chewie, and Lando.
 * Camp Straight: Ziro the Hutt.
 * Captain Obvious: Ahsoka plays this part every now and then.
 * Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Commander Cody and Captain Rex, especially in the episode "Rookies".
 * Car Fu: Captain Rex practices speeder-fu, as he saves the Chairman of Pantora from being killed by a Talz by riding over the chairman and knocking back the attacker.
 * Casual Danger Dialog: Used so heavily the entire war frequently seems to be Played for Laughs.
 * Cargo Cult: Some droids set one of these up on a primitive world in Nomad Droids, with a giant hologram. R2-D2 sees right through it, exposing them and personally kicking one of them out of their Hacker Cave. Then, the natives destroy their facility, which was apparently Made of Explodium.
 * Ceiling Cling: Ahsoka manages to do this while using the Force to suspend Chuchi off the ground in "Sphere of Influence".
 * Chained Heat: Subverted in "The Gungan General". Obi-Wan and Anakin do not become better friends with Dooku, which is really the way it has to be.
 * Chair Reveal: In "Lair of Grievous".
 * Character Development:
 * Throughout the series there are hints of Anakin's future as Darth Vader, with circumstances frequently pushing him to more pragmatic and cold-blooded actions during the war. As the war progresses he has engaged in Cold-Blooded Torture and allowed his Clone Troopers to execute prisoners.
 * Asajj Ventress gets some in "Nightsisters". Before that, she was just a Card-Carrying Villain in the show, although in her earlier portrayal in the Dark Horse comics, she had more depth.
 * Characterization Marches On: In Pre Viszla's first appearences, he was a political terrorist bent on rebuilding the Mandalorian warrior culture. When we see him again in Season 4, he has become a psychotic madman who burns down villages for fun.
 * The Chessmaster: Palpatine's manipulating almost everybody to make sure the war lasts as long and becomes as intense as possible. "Duchess of Mandalore" is perhaps the only episode where he suffers a real defeat.
 * The Chew Toy: If you're a battle droid, then it sucks to be you.
 * Child Soldiers:
 * Ahsoka. Some characters have called attention to it, but nobody really sees a problem with sending a fourteen-year-old into fatal situations when, by the very definition of being a Padawan, she has not yet even completed her training. This is especially evident in the early episodes, when Ahsoka would become depressed and self-critical after a defeat, showing that she is unable to cope with the emotional toll of warfare. After the short timeskip, the older Ahsoka instead seems to be more annoyed that Anakin has apparently realized this himself, and is holding her back from the more dangerous missions.
 * In "Arc Troopers," during a Separatist invasion of Kamino several troopers wind up in the barracks for the still-children clones undergoing basic training. The cadets are armed and brought into the fight as part of a trap set for the droids sent to kill them and the other clones still being trained.
 * Click Hello: "Roger, Roger." BLAM.
 * Clones Are People, Too: The series has several episodes which highlight the casual way that clones are discarded, but it comes to a head in the Umbara arc. The clones begin to resist after they continuosly receive horrible and incompetent orders, demanding that their lives not just be wasted. They ultimately turn on their leader claiming that they ae not droids, but men.
 * Cloning Blues:
 * In seasone one's "The Hidden Enemy," the question of a problem during the cloning procedure is raised in order to help explain the actions of a rogue trooper.
 * The blues are revealed to be an expanding issue in season three. With Jango dead the cloning agents do not have fresh genetic stock, so Jango's stored template has been used more than intended. While they seem to be pretty good at keeping problems to a minimum, there are defective clones.
 * Cold Sniper:
 * Aurra Sing in "Hostage Crisis".
 * An unnamed Mandalorian warrior in "Duchess of Mandalore".
 * Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
 * The clones' uniforms tell who they serve under. Blue for members of the 501st, which can usually be seen along side Anakin, and orange for the 212th attack battalion which is under Obi-Wan's command. Red is for those stationed on Coruscant.
 * In The Carnage of Krell, the Clone Troopers are members of the 501st and thus wear blue, and the enemy Umbarans wearing stolen uniforms wear yellow.
 * Combat Pragmatist:
 * After some time trying to figure out how they were going to portray General Grievous, he was eventually made to be more than willing to use cheap tactics and sic magnaguards on his target before going in himself. It makes his presence much different than Asajj Ventress or Count Dooku and makes him different than a straight-up badass.
 * Cad Bane lives this trope, since he's a non-Force user who often finds himself fighting Jedi.
 * Comic Book Fantasy Casting: Cad Bane is explicitly modeled on Lee Van Cleef, star of many westerns in The Sixties.
 * Compilation Movie: An ascended pilot, as it were, the pilot episodes earned a theatrical release after being praised by George Lucas.
 * Conservation of Ninjitsu: Carries over elements from the films. The droid army outnumbers the clone army, but the clones can be creative. And of course, there's the Jedi.
 * Continuity Cameo:
 * "Witches of the Mist" starts with a short appearance by Delta Squad. They may get more action at some point, as the director admits to being a big fan of them.
 * The season three finale has one with Tarfful, the Wookiee Chieftain that fans of Republic Commando should also immediately recognise.
 * Also from Republic Commando, some of the Trandoshans use the energy shotguns from the game.
 * Continuity Nod:
 * In Episode I, Anakin originally confuses Padme with "an angel", the most beautiful creatures in the universe that pilots say live on the moons of Iego. Lo and behold, Anakin and Obi-Wan go to Iego and meet an angel, and the Separatists were testing a prototype of the Death Star superlaser on Iego's moons.
 * In episode eight of season two, "Brain Invaders," Ahsoka is eating dinner and holds her fork in a Reverse Grip, they same way she always holds her lightsaber when she ignites the blade.
 * The large scar and cybernetic eye across Commander Wollfe's face in "Grievous Intrigue" was not present during "Rising Malevolence". That was because in the comics, Asajj Ventress slashed his face, in an attempt to retreat from a disappointing battle on Khorm.
 * In the final episode of the Umbara arc, "Carnage of Krell," Fives is warned to avoid stepping on one of the vines lying on the ground, with another clone pointing out that it is actually a tentacle for a vicious carnivorous creature and that he saw Hardcase attacked by one just like it. That happened in the first episode of arc, "Darkness on Umbara."
 * In "Brothers",  says the phrase "The chains, the chains are the easy part. It's what goes on in here that's hard." The same line spoken by the disguised Son to Ahsoka during "Altar of Mortis" after she was captured.
 * Continuity Porn: The series loves to showcase familiar locations and characters from, and make general ShoutOuts to the original trilogy (and, to a lesser extent, the prequel trilogy and other parts of the Expanded Universe).
 * Continuity Snarl: The Star Wars Expanded Universe is not a single hard-and-fast canon. If George Lucas gives his consent for a production to be canon, then that production can supersede different portions of the EU, which is separated into separate levels. This series is "T-canon," which is one level higher than the Expanded Universe, but one level below the films. The original microseries was "C-canon," which is the same level as comics, books, etc. All works are canon, but some take precedence if there is a conflict. See here for more information. This means that even characters, planets, etc. that originated in the EU, like Asajj Ventress and Ryloth, can have their backstories changed for the purposes of an episode or two. Word of God has said the novels are the canonical sequels to the Original Trilogy, as most of the recent productions which directly spring from Lucas are placed within the era of the prequel films and earlier.
 * Continuity Snarl: The Star Wars Expanded Universe is not a single hard-and-fast canon. If George Lucas gives his consent for a production to be canon, then that production can supersede different portions of the EU, which is separated into separate levels. This series is "T-canon," which is one level higher than the Expanded Universe, but one level below the films. The original microseries was "C-canon," which is the same level as comics, books, etc. All works are canon, but some take precedence if there is a conflict. See here for more information. This means that even characters, planets, etc. that originated in the EU, like Asajj Ventress and Ryloth, can have their backstories changed for the purposes of an episode or two. Word of God has said the novels are the canonical sequels to the Original Trilogy, as most of the recent productions which directly spring from Lucas are placed within the era of the prequel films and earlier.

GEORGE LUCAS: The sequels were never really going to get made anyway, unlike 1, 2, and 3, where the stories have existed for 20 years. The idea of 7, 8, and 9 actually came from people asking me about sequels, and I said, "I don't know. Maybe someday." Then when the licensing people came and asked, "Can we do novels?" I said do sequels, because I'll probably never do sequels."

""No landing is permitted without permission!""
 * Contractual Immortality: No matter how dire the situation, we already know Anakin and Obi-Wan are going to live, as well as everyone who was in Revenge Of The Sith.
 * Convection Schmonvection: "Citadel Rescue" takes place almost entirely in arms reach of a massive lava flow. It's not even internally consistent, either. Characters hang mere meters over the lava with no problem in one scene, yet the burial cloak for a Jedi burns before it even touches it. Animals die instantly, yet said Jedi's wrapped corpse somehow floats downstream and the worst that happens is it is still on fire.
 * Conveyor Belt O' Doom: Still in vogue on the moons of Mandalore, apparently.
 * Cool Bike: Speeder-bikes, the Star Wars equivalent, make frequent appearances. They come in non-armed "swoop" configurations, blaster-wielding military models, and even with gunnery-mounted sidecars on occasion.
 * Cool Old Guy:
 * Yoda, natch.
 * Tera Sinube embodies this as well. His lightsaber hilt is built into his cane.
 * Cool Ship: The Twilight.
 * Creepy Crossdresser: Ziro the Hutt. Giant crossdressing evil purple space slug version of Truman Capote. Of course people have decreed offense on George Lucas' part. Hutts are hermaphroditic, and Ziro just happens to have an effeminate-masculine personality.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: In the first aired episode of the series, Yoda beats Asajj Ventress, who foolishly thinks she can challenge him, using nothing but the force. Essentially, the entire scene showed that she would never be a threat to him.
 * Savage Opress single-handedly demolishes a batallion of clones and slaughters two Jedi in "Monster".
 * and Savage curb-stomp Obi-Wan in "Revenge", with  distracting him, then Savage getting the drop on him, brutally overpowering Obi-Wan, and ending with both of them beating Obi-Wan unconscious.
 * Day in The Limelight: Many episodes will be dedicated to minor characters. "Bombad Jedi" and "Shadow Warrior" has Jar Jar, "Lair of Grievous" has Kit Fisto, etc.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Obi-Wan sure loves dispensing sarcastic quips, even in the middle of a battle.
 * Death By Materialism: Gha Nachkt, most notably.
 * Decapitation Presentation:
 * In the film, the heads of the bounty hunters Jabba hired to rescue his son are brought back to him to show their obvious failure at the rescue attempt.
 * The Talz plant their spears in the ground to mark where they have defeated their enemies, placing decapitated droid heads or the helmets of killed clones troopers on the ends of the spears.
 * Deconstruction: The tie-in novels written by Karen Traviss can be considered deconstructions of many aspects of the series. No Prisoners in particular calls attention to the problems with the orthodox Jedi code and leadership, among other things.
 * Deliberate Injury Gambit:.
 * Department of Redundancy Department: In "Bounty Hunters".

"Anakin: You must know I will never join the dark side willingly."
 * Depending On the Writer:
 * In "Hostage Crisis" (written by Eoghan Mahony), Anakin makes a large speech about how Padme is the single most important thing in his life, whereas she seems preoccupied by the duties and responsibilities of her office and their obligations to the Republic. However, in "Senate Spy" (written by Melinda Hsu), their positions are diametrically reversed, and Padme becomes upset when Anakin lectures her on the nature of responsibility and the duties they have that supersede their personal desires.
 * The Nightsisters, introduced in the EU novel The Courtship of Princess Leia, were regarded as "witches" because their planet had lost the knowledge of the Force and could only explain their power through magic and witchcraft. With the exception of using verbal "spells" (which worked because they thought that was the only way to get their magic to work), they had none of the trappings of stereotypical witchcraft. In The Clone Wars, they have all the trappings of Hollywood Witches - they refer to their groupings as "covens", use potions and cast spells upon weapons.
 * Determinator: Savage Opress is a nice break from the proud Clone Wars villainous tradition of running away as soon as they encounter someone who can match them in battle. Not only does he continue to fight multiple enemies, all of who outclass him, in rapid succession, he also shrugs off repeated blaster shots, Force lightning and slamming against walls, which would have instantly killed or at least incapacitated most other people. By the time he did retreat he was half dead from all the abuse he took.
 * Die Hard On an X: Anakin channels John McClane when Cad Bane takes some hostages in the Senate Building. Though because of a complicated set-back he finds himself without his lightsaber, limiting his normal strategy and leads to an interesting situation that forces him to fight an assassin droid bare-handed.
 * Disaster Democracy: In "Nomad Droids", after R2-D2 and C-3PO accidentally kill the leader of a group of Lilliputians, they want to put the droids in charge, and C-3PO holds an impromptu election. The three candidates proceed to beat eachother up afterwards while the droids leave the system.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?:
 * According to the official site, one-time villain Chi Cho's behavior, accent, and dialogue were supposed to bring to mind apartheid-era South African dictators. The battle itself is similar to the Battle of Isandlwana in the Zulu Wars. In Isandlwana you have a clear tech advantage in the hands of the British that is wasted due to an arrogant commander stretching his forces too thinly for their superior firepower to overcome the enemies' superior numbers and arguably superior tactics, which is exactly what happens.
 * The New Mandalorians, who are a race of tall, mostly blond, blue-eyed humans with long, angular facial features desperately trying to distance themselves from their ancestors' reputation as brutal conquerors. Opposing them are the Death Watch, who want to return to traditional Mandalorian ways, and whose über-Aryan-looking leader wears his hair in a slight variation of the stereotypical Wehrmacht cut.
 * The Dog Bites Back:
 * Count Dooku, despite having the traditional high regard for loyalty that all Sith have, never made any move to usurp the authority of Darth Sidious
 * also predictably turns on Ventress, who treated him even worse than Dooku did either of them.
 * Doomed By Canon / Restricted Expanded Universe: All the material set chronologically after this show has pretty much guaranteed that most of the main cast and supporting cast will either die/be Put On a Bus or survive anything that comes their way. Examples include: General Grievous and Anakin being unable to meet face to face, due to Revenge of the Sith being their first actual meeting; any so-called "decisive blow against the Republic/Separatists" being doomed to failure; and all of Padme's attempts at a diplomatic solution being sabotaged or ineffective.
 * Its almost as bad for Latts from "Bounty", whose species has been established as being almost entirely exinct by the time of ROTJ.
 * Doomy Dooms of Doom: Not just any droid factory, but a droid factory... of DOOM! And Cargo... of Doom!
 * Double Speak: Averted - a bill being considered by the Senate to take certain measures that would invade people's privacy is called the "Enhanced Privacy Invasion Bill".
 * The Dragon: There is so much Man Behind the Man stuff on the Separatists' side that the only person who really resembles the role is Asajj Ventress, who is sent out specifically to make the heroes' job harder in Dooku's name. Grievous clearly thinks he has this role, but whenever they're in the same scene it's very clear who's really Dooku's top subordinate.
 * Dramatic Irony:
 * It is impossible to ignore the fact that Anakin will turn into Darth Vader and end up killing all of the people he helps.

"Battle Droid: Do we take prisoners?
 * Same with the clone troopers being merged into the storm trooper army. "Rookies" even ends with the surviving troops joining the 501st, later known by the nickname Vader's Fist.
 * Drill Sergeant Nasty:
 * In the episode "Clone Cadets", the troopers of Domino Squad are under the charge of Master Chief Petty Officer Bric, a Siniteen bounty hunter with an oversized brain and a scholarship to the R Lee Ermey school of drill instruction. He does not seem to actually have his troops best interests at heart, but his tough style seems to work and get the troopers motivated to pass their exams.
 * Averted with his Arcona counterpart El-Les, who is rather caring for a drill instructor.
 * Driven to Suicide: A Twi'lek slave, after a failed assassination attempt on her master, throws herself off a balcony rather than continue being a slave.
 * Dual-Wielding:
 * Kit Fisto picked it up on the fly and it was awesome.
 * Asajj Ventress does this as her schtick.
 * General Grievous goes even farther by double dual wielding. He has four arms and is capable of using a lightsaber in each one.
 * Starting in season three, Ahsoka Tano gets in on the action.
 * General Krell dual-wields double-bladed lightsabers!
 * Dying Moment of Awesome:

Hevy: I don't."

"Pilot: You're not gonna kill me, are ya?
 * Dynamic Entry: One of the droid commando squads enter a fight by throwing the basic battle droid at the clones.
 * El Cid Ploy: Jar Jar Binks needs to dress as Boss Leoni when the Gungan leader is in a coma after being brainwashed into leading the Gungans into war against the rest of Naboo.
 * Electric Jellyfish: The Hydroid Medusa from the Season 4 premiere. Justified since they're half-machine.
 * Elite Mooks: The coldly effective droid commandos, who display a level of competence and ruthlessness far above and beyond that of their hapless B-1 cousins. Their commander actually uses a freaking sword. There are also a few others like the super battle droids, droidekas, and tactical droids.
 * Emergency Impersonation: Jar Jar puts on a Jedi cloak he found and is quickly mistaken for being a Jedi.
 * Enemy Mine:
 * Enhance Button: Used egregiously in "The Academy", where Ahsoka is able to use her handheld computer to enhance a hologram of a voiceless, cloaked figure, adding his face when it was never recorded in the first place. No amount of factors given by the hologram could have reliably allowed her computer to do such a thing.
 * Ensign Newbie: Rex explicitly points out to Ahsoka that, regardless of what her technical rank is, experience and knowledge in combat is what really counts.
 * Establishing Character Moment: The slave pen warden in the episode adaption of Slaves of the Republic has one when he
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Cad Bane saves Rako Hardeen when Moralo Eval tries to kill him. Not because he cared for Hardeen, but because Eval purposefully cheated Hardeen out of victory then caused the floor to fall out beneath him. Bane felt that Eval should at least give him a fair fight.
 * Everything's Better With Duchesses
 * Everything's Deader With Zombies: The "Legacy of Terror" episode had alien insect warrior zombies, followed by clone trooper and Jedi zombies (well, just one Jedi zombie) in the next episode. Nightsister zombies make an appearance two seasons later.
 * Evil Chancellor: Besides Palpatine, there is also.
 * Evil Detecting Giant Monster: Word of God says that the Zillo Beast knew Palpatine was evil and set out to hunt him down when it escaped the lab.
 * Evil Laugh:
 * When Anakin takes off on Dooku's speeder bike to save Ahsoka in the movie, Dooku is said to be "(LAUGHING MALICIOUSLY)" according to the subtitles.
 * Riff Tamson seems determined to laugh evilly once for every 5-10 lines of actual dialogue he has.
 * Once  admits that he is a traitor, he laughs deeply in every following conversation.
 * Evil Sounds Deep: Savage Opress gets a deeper voice after the Nightsisters take control of him with their magic. Being voiced by Clancy Brown helps too.
 * Evil Versus Evil: Count Dooku has to betray Asajj Ventress at Sidious' request, nearly resulting in her death. Asajj seeks shelter with the Nightsisters of Dathomir and begins plotting her revenge against Dooku. To this end she and the other Nightsisters train one of the subjugated males on their planet, Savage Opress, to become a Force-using killer. Once this is done Mother Talzin, leader of the Nightsisters, offers Savage to Count Dooku as his new apprentice. The plan is for Savage to work his way into Dooku's confidence, learn to become even deadlier under the Sith Lord's tutelage, and finally murder him when the time is right. Opress does betray Dooku eventually, but fails to kill him. A frustrated Ventress turns on Opress because she believes he is too weak, resulting in Opress attacking her. A lightsaber duel with all three of them trying to kill one another ensues, amazingly with none of the three dying. Talzin helps Opress go into hiding to avoid Separatist retribution, and then welcomes Ventress back, convincing her to forget about Dooku and begin a new life on Dathomir as a full-fledged Nightsister. Just when it seems like this conflict has finally ended and Ventress is becoming happy with her new family, Dooku orders Generel Grievous to attack Dathomir and wipe out all of the Nightsisters for not only supporting Ventress, but sending Savage Opress to kill him. Grievous succeeds, leaving Ventress distraught and more than likely wanting to go after Dooku once more...
 * Exactly What I Aimed At: In a fight with Pre Viszla, Ahsoka slashes his jetpack. He commends her on the close call, only for her to explain that she didn't miss. He quickly realizes that his jetpack is about to explode and ditches it.
 * Executive Meddling:
 * It was actually a last-minute suggestion from George Lucas that led to Ziro the Hutt acquiring his speech pattern, noted below.
 * Interestingly, it was also Lucas who suggested to design Cad Bane to be Lee Van Cleef IN SPACE, so it works both ways.
 * Executive Veto: Word of God has it that Lucas occasionally exercises this power.
 * Face Heel Turn:.
 * Faceless Goons: Subverted. Though their bodies and voices are identical, many clones are portrayed with a surprising amount of individuality. A great deal sport varying tattoos and haircuts when seen without their armor. Some episodes will deal with the differences in certain clones' personalities, occasionally as a main plot point. For example, while most clones are depicted as totally believing in the cause of the war, others do not like it but simply go along with it. Others still have become extremely disillusioned with the war and develop a level of pacifism that borders on desertion or treason, which actually does in at least two episodes.
 * Failure Is the Only Option: There are several episodes dedicated to capturing Grievous, which never work. Obi-Wan notices and lampshades this trope at the end of "The Deserter", and you can see how much it disgusts him.
 * Faking the Dead: The Jedi hire a sniper to shoot Obi-Wan, who takes a drug to make it look like the shot killed him. Then they use Magic Plastic Surgery to make him look like the sniper and have him sent to prison, so he can infiltrate a plot to assassinate the Chancellor.
 * Family-Unfriendly Death:
 * During the series even the technically identical clone troopers will be given a moment or two in order to establish a unique personality and general likability, and then will be killed in way that both uses or subverts the Discretion Shot.
 * Grievous graphically killed an alien mechanic / hacker with the lightsaber blade visibly tearing through his chest!
 * It is not just the villains carving people up with lightsabers, but the good guys, too. When Ahsoka is being attacked by a mind-controlled clone she takes out her lightsaber and guts him, with a close-up of the sword impacting the clone.
 * They really turned it up to eleven with flamethrowers being used on Geonosians. They burn and scream the whole scene and some of them got especially lucky with being sliced in vertical halves by the Jedi.
 * The season three "Nightsisters" arc is rife with this. Most notable are the many ways in which Asajj dismisses unsatisfactory Nightbrothers when she is selecting her future minion from among them, and said minion's test of loyalty.
 * During an escape scene in "Counter Attack", a clone dies in a rather horrible way:, thankfully blocked out by a convenient door closing just prior.
 * in the same trilogy gets mauled by an alien tiger. Though they skipped on showing the wounds he should have had, it's quite clear that it nearly tore out his throat.
 * got blown to bits, with his severed head shown on screen.
 * In his first appearance in the show, Cad Bane snaps a guard's neck.
 * In "Bounty", Dengar kills two Kage Warriors by sticking remote explosives to their chests and detonating them; only the camera angle saves the viewers from the Ludicrous Gibs that could have been. And later, takes out Major Rigosso with an electrified sword through the gut.
 * Fan Service:
 * Aayla Secura. Commander Bly is one lucky clone and Yoda is one lucky... whatever he is. After Windu, Aayla seems to be his most frequent companion.
 * Keelyvine Reus from the tie-in web comic.
 * Fantastic Racism: Chairman Cho and his hatred of the "savage" Talz.
 * Fantastic Slurs: Tinnies for droids, while Boyle calls the Twileks "Tail Heads" rather disparagingly in Innocents of Ryloth.
 * Fauxshadow: The episode "The Deserter" gives an almost assured impression that Cut Lawquane would be killed by the episode's end in a sort of Heroic Sacrifice / Last Stand. He deserted the clone army on Geonosis, something that he feels greatly ashamed by, and that he thinks Rex would view him as a coward for doing so, but he mentions that if it came down to it, he would die to protect his adopted children, and when they are later attacked by droids Cut elects to hold them off himself, leaving Rex as the last line of defence between them and his family. He lives to the end, and Rex leaves him in peace with his family.
 * FemBot: The BD-3000 "Betty Droid" that was in the Galactic Senate building.
 * Finagle's Law: The opening quotation of season three's "Counter Attack" is "Everything that can go wrong will."
 * Five-Bad Band: The bounty hunters hired by Dooku form one near the climax of the Deception Arc:
 * Big Bad: Cad Bane
 * The Dragon: Moralo Eval
 * Evil Genius: Derrown
 * The Brute: Embo
 * Dark Chick: Twazzi
 * Sixth Ranger / Sixth Ranger Traitor: Rako Hardeen(Obi-Wan in disguise)
 * Flying Saucer The ship of Hondo Ohnaka and his pirate gang.
 * Foe-Tossing Charge: Almost anyone who fights Savage Opress gets tossed around like a ragdoll.
 * Foregone Conclusion: None of the heroes are going to realize that Chancellor Palpatine is playing both sides for suckers until it is too late.
 * Foreshadowing: Also Call Forwards.
 * In "Brain Invaders", . When they manage to incapacitate Barris, one clone remarks that if there is one thing the clones know, it is how to take down Jedi.
 * In "Voyage of Temptation". "Who will strike first and brand themselves a cold-blooded killer?" Cue lightsaber through the chest from Anakin, complete with a subdued section of "The Imperial March" as the background music for the scene.
 * In "Overlords", The Daughter --  -- tells Anakin he's forbidden to touch her, while The Son --   -- has no such reservations.
 * Also in the same episode, Anakin is shown by the son in a vision what he will become and in his efforts to prevent that harm, he
 * In "Clone Cadets", Shaak Ti comments on how one of the clones, Echo, fails to adapt to the simulation known as The Citadel. Evan Piel says in "The Citadel" is "Adaptation is the key to survival". Guess who doesn't survive the episode after that?
 * In "Citadel Rescue", as Tarkin and Anakin shook hands before parting, a short section of "The Imperial March" was used as the background music.
 * Forgot About His Powers: Quite often, the Jedi need to gain hold of something just out of reach and, instead of grabbing it telekinetically like they did thirty seconds ago, they will instead try to grab it manually.
 * In "Children of the Force", Mace Windu literally steps into a painfully obvious trap to get the Holocron, while he could just as easily have used the force to grab it and not sprung the trap.
 * In "Lightsaber Lost", even though Ahsoka lifted, pulled and pushed numerous opponents throughout the episode, she never just uses the Force to grab her lightsaber from her opponent's hands.
 * In "Altar of Mortis", The Daugter decides the best way to stop The Son from  instead of using her telekinetic powers or turning into a griffin to knock him away, like she did earlier in the same episode.
 * For the Evulz:
 * Cad Bane captures Threepio in order to get information out of him by administering painful electrical shocks. When he learns he has grabbed the wrong droid of the duo, he dispatches his minions to grab Artoo, and while he waits he continues to zap the bejesus out of poor Threepio.
 * Once  admits that he was a traitor, Captain Rex asks him why. "Because I can. Because you fell for it. Because you're inferior."
 * From a Certain Point of View: Obi Wan's famed penchant for this is lampshaded in "The Voyage Of Temptation," when Satine refers to him as "a collection of half-truths and hyperbole."
 * Full Name Ultimatum: General Krell refers to Rex as CT-7567 most of the time. However, when he is sufficiently impressed by Rex's nerve, he calls him Rex. He also uses Sergeant Appo's nickname, probably because Appo has not ticked him off as much as Rex has yet.
 * Future Me Scares Me: Though time travel is not involved, . The same thing happens to Anakin when he sees what he will do as Darth Vader: he is so terrified,  Ultimately, he does not remember at the end of the episode and continues on his path unchanged.
 * Gasshole: How does Gha Nachkt first greet Anakin and Ahsoka? By farting in their faces of course!
 * Gatling Good: In the Energy Weapon variety!
 * General Failure: Pong Krell. It is better to have rested soldiers than tired soldiers, better to have high morale than low morale, and better to attack from cover than to attack without any cover. Krell sent tired soldiers to attack a city out in the open where they could be easily gunned down like fish in a barrel, and all this after letting them all know that as far as he was concerned, they were expendable pieces of crap. He's no Sun Tzu, that's for sure.
 * Genre Savvy:
 * After several episodes of villains being paid for their services with a sword through the back, the pirates who capture Count Dooku in "Dooku Captured" know better than to try and ransom him back to the Separatists. The Separatists will offer large amounts of cash, but then they will simply land an army and kill the lot of them. Better to deal with the Republic, who will probably actually front the cash. Of course, they then subvert it by capturing the Jedi that came to make sure the claim was legit.
 * is very savvy. He knows that he may very well have to contend with Jedi considering that Obi-Wan Kenobi is a... friend of Duchess Satine, so he trains his co-conspirators to resist Jedi mind tricks and even trained them to play along if neccesary. However, they stop short of being Dangerously Genre Savvy by not using anything stronger to contain Ahsoka besides handcuffs, not even placing anybody in the already open cell right behind them.
 * The unnamed freighter pilot from "Brothers".

Savage Opress: *no answer*"

"Asajj Ventress: My dear General... there is nothing you have that I could want."
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar:
 * Just what is the purpose of that very well-endowed feminine droid in the pink uniform the bounty-hunters find in one of the senate rooms in episode 22?
 * In "Lethal Trackdown", Aurra Sing arrives at Ohnaka's hideout and kisses him.
 * After kissing a dying clone on the cheek (cut from syndication), Asajj informs the cyborg General Grievous in a very sexy tone that...

"Battle Droid: Do we take prisoners?
 * In one episode, Anakin is "always thinking with his lightsaber".
 * In "Senate Spies," Padme and the Jedi Council refer to the fact that she used to have a romantic relationship with a senator currently suspected of treason. Throughout the entire episode no characters even once use the term date, dating, romance, girlfriend/boyfriend or any other explicit relationship term. Instead they use the terms "friendship" and "close friendship", with extreme emphasis on the "close", and occasionally with a significant pause before and after.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Son from "Overlords" has them in his default and gargoyle forms. Not surprising considering.
 * Good Is Not Soft: The Jedi Order, big time. Justified, as they are at war.
 * Gory Discretion Shot:
 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: Averted once - hearing someone say "What the hell?" on Cartoon Network was quite a surprise. Unfortunately the line has been removed from syndication, but not the violent death that preceded it. Later in the same episode there is a brief exchange that ends with "Like hell you did." The episode on iTunes and home release has both "hell" lines intact. Even funnier when you consider that in the same episode, Commander Cody only asks Rex "what the heck [he was] doing" when Rex shoots what appears to be a fellow clone in the head. It's actually just a droid, but still...
 * Guns Akimbo:
 * Captain Rex. Apparently, he has a bit more of Jango in him than the average clone.
 * Chairman Papanoida of Pantora pulls it off briefly.
 * Every single Mandalorian soldier. Word of God states it's meant to reflect the symmetry that their culture favours.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: According to other sources, the children of a Twi'lek mother, Suu Lawquane, were fathered by a human male before she married Cut (also a human, but a cloned one).
 * Hand Cannon: Even though the DC-15S Blaster is categorized as a carbine, it's small enough, and very much light enough to handle as a pistol. More experienced soldiers like Captain Rex, or other troopers akin to him, seem to invoke this trope.
 * Hartman Hips: Aayla Secura.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * In "Rookies", when a remote detonator malfunctions,, ensuring both his squad's safety and that the Republic will know something is amiss.

I don't."

"Grevious: Tell me, how does dying feel?
 * Subverted in "Weapons Factory", when Ahsoka and Barriss Offee assume that using their hijacked battle tank to destroy a power reactor will take them with it, and are prepared for a triumphant death in a blaze of glory. However, they find themselves trapped in the rubble afterward and the prospect of dying of either starvation or asphyxiation is much less appealing than death in combat.
 * In "Arc Troopers", dies like a soldier while trying to get extra ammo for the troops fighting invading droids. For bonus points,.
 * In "Supply Lines", Master Di and his troops fight an unwinnable battle to stall the advancing droid army long enough for the Twi'leks to retreat. Di only goes down after hearing that supplies have come, and he had already been shot once and was the last man standing.
 * does this twice in a row to save.
 * In "Shadow Warrior" allows himself to be run-through by General Grievous in order to put himself in the proper position to disable Grievous in turn.

Not dying. Sacrifice!"

"Obi-Wan: R2 units are a dime a dozen. I'm sure you'll find a suitable replacement."
 * Clone trooper  leaves his ship to get past the ray shields that are protecting the generators he and two other clones are there to destroy. He tells the other two troopers to fly away and escape the explosion, telling them to live to fight another day.
 * Hijacked By Ganon: Who hired Aurra Sing to kill Padmé? Hint:.
 * Hoist By His Own Petard:
 * The BXs in "Rookies" gain access to the base by pretending to be clone troopers. The surviving troopers gain entrance to the base by pretending to be BXs.
 * In "Prisoners," Riff Tamson stabs a few enemies with small time bombs that blow them into a bloody mess..
 * Hold Your Hippogriffs: Both averted and played straight at different times.
 * Averted when Obi-Wan said that certain droids were "a dime a dozen".
 * Played straight when he said "There's more than one way to skin a womp rat."
 * Days get referred to both as days and as "planetary rotations".
 * Obi-Wan plays this trope straight again in another episode when he says "out of the quicksand and into the sarlacc pit."
 * Hollywood Tactics: Apparently, standard tactic for Clone Troopers is "stand out in the open, ignore cover, and shoot at the enemy."
 * Holy Halo: The Daughter is visibly glowing in both her humanoid and griffin form. Not surprising considering she is.
 * Hope Spot: During the Battle of Kamino, General Grievous and his droids are charging the chamber in which Jango Fett's DNA is being kept, which is guarded by ARC commander Colt and two regular troopers. We see them gun down droid after droid, then first one trooper is killed, then the other. Commander Colt takes cover behind a wall, reloads, breaks cover and starts firing away. Now, he's a badass ARC trooper, we know he's gonna -- oh, wait, Asajj Ventress comes out of nowhere and force chokes him.
 * Hostage Situation: Defied by Anakin in the Zygerrian arc. When they threaten to kill the Tortugan colonists if he doesn't surrender, he dismissively states that he's done listening to slavers. It also helps that he brought a Republic fleet for backup.
 * Hot Skitty On Wailord Action: Ziro x Sy Snootles (that long-lipped alien singer in Jabba's palace). Even if Ziro's kinda small for a Hutt, that just boggles the mind.
 * Huge Holographic Head: A teamn of maintenace droids rule a primtive society by generating a giant hologram to rule the people.
 * Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Arguably even more dangerous than usual, since some of them are former Padawans who can Force Choke them.
 * Hypocritical Humor: While still in prison fatigues, Cad Bane says that they need to get new clothes so they don't stand out. Naturally, he goes for the first nice hat he can find, even though it stands out in a crowd. He's called on this, and indeed Ahsoka is able to spot him from a distance later on precisely because he's wearing the hat.
 * Idiot Ball:
 * Seems to be picked up by anyone that goes up against Cad Bane. He's competent as is, but the Jedi consistently do stupid things to make his job easier.
 * Ahsoka's behavior in the season 3 finale has a minor amount of Idiot Ball to it. Kaleefa tries to Force Choke one of the hunters, but Ahsoka convinces her not to. Part of the reason is that Kaleefa is obviously doing it out of anger, a path to the Dark Side if ever there was one, but it doesn't seem to occur to Ahsoka that he'll give away their position if not killed, which he does mere seconds later. To be fair, Ahsoka has no problem killing in self-defense for the rest of the finale, so one could chalk it up to a minor lapse in judgement.
 * If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten: Queen Miraj Scintel orders Anakin to whip Obi-Wan Kenobi in order to prove that he really is a slaver.
 * I'm a Doctor Not A Placeholder: The droid here.
 * I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Master Even Piell does this to Ahsoka in order to make sure the hyperspace route he's carrying gets to the Republic.
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice: The Kadavo slave master meets his end at the business end of a shock staff.
 * Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The droids. "Rookies" has one trooper evade droid fire for a few seconds by walking sideways. Their effectiveness varies, such as in "The Hidden Enemy", with zero droid humor and an obscenely large clone body count.
 * Impossibly Cool Weapon: Lightsabers, naturally, but "The Mandalore Plot" manages to up the cool factor by introducing an old-school lightsaber with a black blade.
 * Indy Ploy: Many characters try these in the series: Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, the clone troopers, Padme, Yoda, and Cad Bane but Anakin probably has pulled this the most.
 * Infant Immortality: Averted. The season 3 opener shows towers of cloning tanks being destroyed during an attack on Kamino. That is hundreds of babies dying on-screen.
 * Interquel
 * Informed Ability: Much talk is made about how General Pong Krell's tactics are very effective, but every command he issues during the show leads to defeat that his troops need to reverse by disobeying his orders. Even the opening narration describes him as reckless..
 * Invincible Hero: After Clone Wars promoted the Jedi into near unstoppable forces of nature, this series has toned it down a little to allow some drama. There are still come concerns from the fans that the good guys are winning nearly every conflict, but thankfully there are a few major villain victories to help offset that. Not to mention that "winning" is a Foregone Conclusion.
 * Ironic Echo: In "Rookies": "Roger, roger."
 * Iron Woobie: Savage Opress. He's part of a Proud Warrior Race who have been subjugated by the Nightsisters, gets the crap beaten out of him by Ventress, is turned into a hulking hate-filled monster under her control, is made to kill his own brother, gets handed over to Dooku in a plot to assassinate him, is trained in the Force by Dooku by getting the bejeezus zapped out of him with Force lightning, then fails both his mission and his secret assignment, which was doomed from the start anyway. Finally, he gets rejected by Ventress and beaten by both the good guys and the bad guys within an inch of his life. Without even waiting for his wounds to heal, he goes on another quest to become more powerful, not realising that he's still just a pawn in Mother Talzin's game. Oh, and everyone treats him like an inferior knockoff of Darth Maul even in-universe.
 * I Surrender, Suckers:
 * Obi-Wan and Anakin both pull the ploy.
 * Kit Fisto pulls a similar trick on Grievous, but substitutes an escape for the trope's dictated attack. Greivous' look when his surrender demand is (seemingly) accepted? Priceless.
 * It Has Been an Honor: The reprogrammed Battle Droids in "Citadel Rescue".
 * It Only Works Once: In "Plan of Dissent", Fives and a couple other troopers, unwilling to risk their lives under Krell's reckless command, plot a mission against a resupply ship which they liken to Anakin's destruction of the droid command ship in Episode I. They manage to get up to the ship and fire on its reactor, but the droids activate a ray shield to block them. One of the troopers has to physically disconnect a damaged cannon, walk it around the shield, then smash it into the reactor to detonate it.
 * It's Personal: In "Kidnapped," Anakin is particularly furious with the slave-trading Zygerrians because of his own childhood status as a slave. The Zygerrians themselves have a vendetta against the Jedi, who busted up their slaving operations thousands of years ago, reducing them to common slavers instead of a galaxy-spanning operation which benefited their entire planet.
 * I Will Only Slow You Down:  to Ahsoka.
 * Jerkass Has a Point: When Bric sabotages Domino squad, he's not doing it with their interests at heart, but Shaak Ti points out to El-Les that battlefield conditions will be even less forgiving and they need to figure this out (which ultimately derives from why living beings are considered superior to droids on the battlefield, because droids can't improvise).
 * Jet Pack:
 * Standard-issue for all Mandalorian Death Watch.
 * Also being used by some clone troopers.
 * Cad Bane has jet boots.
 * Just a Machine: Ironically, the Jedi and clones view the battle droids this way despite said droids exhibiting a whole lot more personality and emotion than they did in the prequel trilogy. Obi-Wan even feels this way about Artoo.

""Eventually you'll have to do the right thing and--*blam*"
 * Just a Stupid Accent:
 * The clone troopers have become Australian, due to Dee Bradley Baker replicating Temuera Morrison's New Zealand accent. They all have slight variations, making each clone distinct.
 * Aayla Secura, as played by Jennifer Hale, and the rest of the Twi'leks are French - a nod to the French Resistance.
 * The Pantorans are South African - a nod to Apartheid-era dictators.
 * The Felucians sound vaguely Japanese - a nod to Seven Samurai.
 * Kit Fisto has a slight Jamaican accent. Coming from Phil La Marr, he sometimes sounds like Hermes Conrad from Futurama.
 * Just Hit Him: Both played straight and averted during Darts D'nar's fight with Obi-Wan in "Kidnapped". Darts throws Obi-Wan across the room a number of times when it probably would've been more effective to just start beating the hell out of him right where they were. But at other times during the fight Darts does beat on him, and choke him, and pick him up only to slam him onto the floor. As much as he wanted to win, he also wanted revenge; Obi-Wan made a good outlet for those frustrations.
 * Just in Time:
 * Ahsoka arrives just in time to save Anakin from Jabba..
 * In "Blue Shadow Virus", Rex deactivates the bomb with what appears to be a few fractions of a second before detonation and then comments "plenty of time to spare".
 * Kaiju: The Zillo Beast is pretty much the Star Wars counterpart to Godzilla.
 * Kick the Dog:
 * Magna guards kick Artoo. Off a cliff!
 * Grievous decides to attack medical frigates as a prelude to attacking the whole medical outpost.
 * Asajj Ventress's final initiation for a newly-brainwashed Savage Opress was having him kill his brother.
 * Kid Appeal Character: Ahsoka.
 * Kid Hero: Ahsoka, who canon places at 14 years of age. Lucas originally intended her to be 11.
 * Killed Mid-Sentence:

"Jar-Jar: Yousa not creatin' life! Yousa takin life!
 * Kill It With Fire: Those Geonosians got burned.
 * Kill It With Ice: Geonosian parasites, although it is just cold in general, not necessarily ice.
 * Kiss of Death: This little bit of Ventress killing a clone trooper from "ARC Troopers" that Cartoon Network insisted be cut before the episode's airing.
 * The Lancer: Anakin usually fulfills this role to Obi-Wan when they are on a mission together.
 * Ahsoka and Rex share the role for Anakin.
 * Large Ham:
 * Doc Vindi, played by Michael York. He is pretty much a card-carrying Hammer villain, complete with dramatic underlighting, thick German accent and exclusive use of his own personal Hitler Cam.

Vindi: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yes yeah yeah yeah yes!"

": Through power I gain victory; through victory my chains are broken..."
 * General Grevious is quite the ham as well. His lines are all exaggerated as well as tearing off a droid's head when things go wrong.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Father erases Anakin's memories of future, which includes the knowledge of his Face Heel Turn and progression to Sith Lord Darth Vader, to keep him from siding with the Son.
 * Lava Adds Awesome
 * The Laws and Customs of War: The series presents the first explicit mention of a codified set of laws governing the rules of warfare within the Star Wars universe: the Convention of Civilized Systems, named in "Trespass". The exact nature and details of these laws, however, have yet to be revealed.
 * Leave Him to Me: Pre Viszla does this twice, once with Obi-Wan and again with Ahsoka. He eventually had to call for backup with Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka abandoned the fight after taking out his jetpack.
 * Let's Fight Like Gentlemen:
 * The Mandalorian leader of Death Watch returns Obi-Wan's lightsaber to him so that they may properly duel in a fair manner.
 * Obi-Wan provokes an enemy into fighting him hand-to-hand in "Kidnapped" as a stalling tactic.
 * Lilliputians: Featured in the episode "Nomad Droids".
 * Limited Wardrobe: Everybody except for Padme due to the expense and effort it would take to render separate models. It is a little strange when Obi-Wan is constantly wearing his battle armor even while in the Council Chamber, and Ahsoka and Barriss Offee sleep in their bed without blankets and still in their normal clothes, complete with boots for Ahsoka and long robe for Barriss. They all have new outfits as of "Heroes on Both Sides", but you can pretty much count on these outfits staying for the rest of the series barring episodes set before that point.
 * It got a lot better by Season 4, as Ahsoka alone had three different outfits in addition to her usual.
 * Lower Deck Episode: Several episodes features almost nothing but clone troopers, although a Jedi or two may make a token appearance.
 * Ludicrous Gibs: This happens when Artoo accidentally kills the leader of some Lilliputians on a world he and C-3PO are visiting. R2 spends the rest of Nomad Droids with alien blood spattered all over him.
 * MacGuffin
 * Mad Scientist: Dr. Nuvo Vindi.
 * The Mafia: The Hutt clans.
 * Magic Plastic Surgery: A simple injection (nanites, presumably) can rebuild a person's entire facial structure. In all fairness, it's shown to be incredibly painful.
 * The Magnificent: Jabba.
 * The Magnificent Seven Samurai: "Bounty Hunters".
 * Make It Look Like an Accident:
 * In the pilot movie, when Ziro explains to Count Dooku that Padme has been snooping around, Dooku suggests that he "have her meet with an accident with extreme prejudice" if she continues to be a problem.
 * In the series proper the Mandalorian Death Watch straps Obi-Wan to a Conveyor Belt O' Doom in order to make his death look like an accident.
 * Male Gaze: Ahsoka is the subject of one in "Heroes on Both Sides". She immediately lampshades it. Incidentally, there was a time skip between the previous episode and this one, since Ahsoka has visibly grown up since the last time we saw her.
 * Mama Bear: Satine may be a pacifist, but she is willing to threaten someone with violence at the hands of her guards when the lives of children are at stake due to poison. She is also clearly outraged/devastated at everyone else's apparent indifference to the situation. It is actually quite fitting for her since, in the EU, Mandalorians are traditionally protective of children, whether their own or not.
 * Manipulative Bastard: Dooku and Darth Sidious.
 * Mass Oh Sithspit: The pirates have one when reminded that Dooku knows where they live.
 * Master Apprentice Chain: Typical Star Wars fare, although it gets a bit long here:
 * Yoda > Count Dooku > Qui-Gon Jinn > Obi-Wan Kenobi > Anakin Skywalker > Ahsoka Tano.
 * Mauve Shirt:
 * Poor, poor Nahdar Vebb, who was apparently created just to get shot full of holes by Grievous. Rather humorously, the clone troopers who accompanied him all wore red armor and also died horrible deaths.
 * Clone trooper Sergeant Denal showed up in two episodes and, despite receiving only a few lines, was memorable due to his distinctive armor design. In his second appearance  The outcry on The Force.net's message boards was amazing.
 * Captain Rex serves the same role to Anakin as Commander Cody does to Obi-Wan, except he was not seen in Revenge of the Sith. It gives his story in "The Deserter" where he gets injured a bit more unease because he can die.
 * ARC Trooper Echo was wearing one of these shirts during "The Citadel" arc.
 * Waxer, who was given a lot of focus and likability in "Innocents of Ryloth"
 * Meaningful Name:
 * Jedi Master Di, full name Ima-Gun Di ("I'ma gonna die.")
 * Clone trooper "Dogma," who is almost fanatical about obeying orders and the official chain of command.
 * Justified in that the clones obviously don't have birth names, so the names the get are often connected to their personality.
 * Mecha Mooks: Battle droids.
 * Merchandise-Driven: And how! The movie's DVD case even has advertisements for all the assorted Star Wars stuff you can buy.
 * Mind Rape: Three Jedi pull this on  at one point.
 * Mistreatment Induced Betrayal: Throughout the Mon Calamari arc, Tamson never misses an opportunity to belittle, threaten, and bully Nossor Ri and the Quarren. Eventually, they decide that enough is enough.
 * The Mole: Happens in several stories:.
 * Moral Dissonance: The Republic in its entirety, and the Jedi specifically, employ millions of clones as slave labor. They are sent out to fight and die without regard for their own wants or desires, going their entire lives without being allowed to make a single decision for themselves. Leaving the military, for any reason, is considered treasonous desertion and A.W.O.L., even if the clone in question has not yet even graduated training or only leaves to become a farmer. Even clones who are unable to become soldiers, due to either physical or mental deformity, are not released from service, instead becoming support workers for the military industrial complex. Throughout this treatment, however, the Republic government and the Jedi continuously speak about how their war revolves around the core concepts of freedom and liberty, and they see no problem with ensuring this via the martial might of those fundamentally without liberty. Ironically, the Jedi themselves would likely have the best understanding of the clones, because although they have a right to leave, they themselves for the most part never had a life that preceded training in the Jedi academy.
 * Morally Bankrupt Banker: A Planet of Hats of them in the Banking Clan.
 * More Dakka: Quite a few examples, but the battleship Malevolence, the dorsal surface of which was studded by countless guns, probably takes the cake.
 * Multiple Choice Past: A new backstory was written for General Grievous, in which his inability to become a Jedi Knight motivates him to procure robotic upgrades to improve his fighting ability, as well as instilling a hatred and resentment of the Jedi. This contradicts the existing backstory, in which he was mortally injured in a shuttle crash arranged by Count Dooku and agreed to help the Separatist cause in exchange for a robotic body. The new backstory is not explicitly shown in "Lair of Grievous", but is implied by a series of statues that exhibit him in various stages of his transformation and a comment from Grievous that he chose the modifications himself. The creators have explicitly stated that they prefer to let the viewer decide which backstory to follow.
 * Musical Spoiler: The "Imperial March" pops ups everywhere, from behind ominous conversations to meaningful handshakes. Also counts as a Musical Nod. When Anakin kills and when Poggle the Lesser becomes the first canonical victim of Vader's trademark Force choke.
 * Mythology Gag: Ahsoka, an apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, starts off in the series wielding a single lightsaber with a reverse grip. When she reappears with her new look for the third season, she has taken up Dual-Wielding. Huh... why does that sound familiar?
 * In "Brothers",  recites part of the Sith Code while ranting deliriously.

"Ahsoka: Well, the hard part's over, right?
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast:
 * The Mandalorian homeworld is threatened by an extremist group which wants to return to the old Mandalorian ways of combat. They are named "Death Watch."
 * The Darth Maul-esque warrior called Savage Opress.
 * Bounty Hunter Moralo Eval. "Moral Evil," get it? Also Cad Bane, for that matter.
 * Never Say Die: Averted pretty well, as people openly talk about killing others and being killed.
 * New Meat: When Ahsoka first meets Captain Rex in the pilot movie she wonders if, as a Jedi, she is automatically his ranking superior. Rex explains that, in his book, experience outranks everything. Throughout the series there are frequent introductions of clones who have not previously served on the front lines, and they try to deal with gaining real-world experience on top of their training.
 * Nice Hat:
 * The broad-brimmed fedora worn by Cad Bane is rather awesome.
 * Embo - he essentially wears Captain America's shield on his head. It is both nice AND practical!
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ahsoka accidentally triggers a droid trap that nearly overwhelms Anakin, and even when her actions ended up saving his life, he was quick to tell her that he should not have been in that situation in the first place.
 * Ahsoka again, much later, in Season 3
 * The Nicknamer: Ahsoka had a tendency to use these for people in the early seasons.
 * Ninja : The Kage species who act as perfect ninjas : black bodysuit, stealth, great agility. If not clear enough, Kage is also the Japanese word for shadow, the realm of ninjas.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: The character, and especially the voice of Creepy Crossdresser Ziro the Hutt was based explicitly on camp gay true-crime author and actor Truman Capote, best known for either his writing of the seminal true-crime expose In Cold Blood or for his role as Lionel Twain in Murder By Death.
 * The voice of Osi Sobeck (the warden of the Citadel) was based off of Chistopher Walken's.
 * No Except Yes: "I don't think this is a kidnapping, I think they're holding them hostage."
 * No Holds Barred Beatdown:  inflict a brutal one to Obi-Wan in "Revenge", as a prelude to.
 * No Flow in CGI: A lot due to budget constraints.
 * The hair on the human characters are solid as rock, Obi-Wan's beard being the best example. The Jedi also all wear gauntlets and have no sleeves and wear sleeveless Jedi robes which are easier for the animators to deal with than if they wore the traditional live action costumes.
 * Padme and Satine manage to avoid this ever so slightly - their bangs / braids sway with movement, but barely so, and the rest is still solid.
 * The Daughter's hair in "Overlords" sways much more noticeably, albeit in a very unnatural way, which may have been what they were going for.
 * Ventress first averts this by always wearing a skirt, but has to take it off before fighting because they thought that it was too difficult for them to animate her with her skirt on. Eventually they played this painfully straight where Ventress ends up losing the skirt altogether from Season 3 onwards.
 * More recent episodes have made efforts to avert this, with Obi-Wan's hair swaying slightly if he is hit hard enough for it to fall out of place (in "Kidnapped", and "Revenge", for example).
 * Noir Episode:
 * Noir act, really. At the end of the pilot movie Padme goes to meet with Ziro the Hutt. His lair, a den of crime and vice, is in a dingy nightclub playing classic jazz straight out of a 1940's Film Noir.
 * "Senate Murders", a Who Dunnit on Coruscant.
 * No MacGuffin, No Winner Osi Sobeck attempted this in "Citadel Rescue".
 * Non Lethal Warfare: Averted. Greatly.
 * Non-Mammal Mammaries: most glaring on the Gungan, Rodian and Mon Cala females. 'Tho slightly subverted in that even "nursing" mothers have a much smaller size, than an average humanoid. Can be justified as Bizarre Alien Biology.
 * Not Quite Dead:
 * Not Screened for Critics: The theatrical film had a rating embargo until release, and ended up with a 35% rating on Metacritic.
 * Not So Different: As shown in "Heroes on Both Sides", aside from the military commanders, most Separatists are not the greedy bloodthirsty monsters the Republic makes them out to be. In fact, they are being manipulated into believing the Republic are the ones who started and are perpetuating the war and many members of their civilian government sincerely believe that they are fighting for democracy against the oppressive and corrupt Republic. If anything their Parliament seems less corrupt, although, much like the Republic Senate, they are not really in charge.
 * Not So Harmless: For all his whining and cowardice, Nute Gunray can be quite surprisingly cunning and resourceful when he wants to be.
 * Nonuniform Uniform: Most clones somehow customize their armor or hairstyle / color in the show.
 * Old Master: Besides Yoda, the season 2 episode "Lightsaber Lost" introduces Tera Sinube, a seemingly-feeble old Jedi who shows considerable wisdom, approaches any problem with a calm, methodical approach to great success, disarms a thief who stole Ahsoka's lightsaber using his own lightsaber which is built into his walking stick, and is supposedly one of the foremost experts on Coruscant's criminal underworld.
 * One-Man Army:
 * The Jedi in general, but Yoda was explicitly described as such in the first episode of the series, "Ambush," where King Katuunko decreed that Yoda was worth a thousand battle droids.
 * The nameless Death Watch commando from the beginning of the Mandalorian arc certainly counts, single-handedly attempting to take an entire Republic cruiser out of commission. He does not quite succeed, but kills himself rather than be captured and interrogated, and it is implied he came within a hair's breadth of completing his mission.
 * Old Soldier: When Anakin remarks that new trooper Dogma reminds him of Captain Rex, Rex responds that that might have been true, but only "back in the day."
 * Only a Flesh Wound: Captain Rex now is officially the king of this trope. He gets on his feet within less than a day from taking a blaster shot straight to the chest, which leaves a visible burn on his back.
 * The Other Darrin: All characters from the live-action Star Wars movies are voiced by different actors in the Clone Wars series, except for Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, a few episodes with Ahmed Best as Jar-Jar Binks, Matthew Wood as General Grievous, who also voiced him in Revenge of the Sith, and Liam Neeson reprising his role as Qui-Gonn Jinn.
 * Ahmed Best himself was Darrin-ed, as many appearances have used an actor named BJ Hughes.
 * Samuel L. Jackson and Christopher Lee put in appearances in the Clone Wars movie before being replaced in the series itself.
 * The Other Marty: When the the three original episodes were edited and released as a feature film, Christopher Lee returned to voice Count Dooku. Corey Burton, who plays Dooku in the ongoing series, had already recorded his lines and Lee re-recorded them, matching his performance to the already-rendered images.
 * Our Zombies Are Different: From "Legacy of Terror". Immune to pain and injury? Check. Creepy? Check. ? Check.
 * Papa Wolf:
 * Anyone who gets between Anakin and Ahsoka is going to figure this out the hard way. Unsurprising, considering his previous record. See Berserk Button.
 * Chairman N. Papanoida is a prime example, being willing to break into Jabba's Palace and gun down waves of outlaws in order to save his missing daughters.
 * Percussive Maintenance:
 * The faulty beacon in "Trespass".
 * Hilariously,.
 * Pirates: The antagonists in "Dooku Captured" "The Gungan General".
 * Physical God: The Force wielders. Their power is so great they have to be confined and kept secret from the rest of the galaxy.
 * Precision F-Strike: In "Rookies", one of the soliders screams "What the hell was that?" This caused many parents to complain and it was removed for later airings.
 * Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Inverted and played with in "Bounty". When Ventress killed a man in a bar, the patrons all look at her strangely. When she delivers a one-liner, they all go back to what they were doing.
 * Previously On: Every episode starts with a newsreel-style recap of previous episodes. Sometimes they reveal the backstory of a new story arc as though it was a previous episode, fitting with the Star Wars aggressive sense of history.
 * Punctuated for Emphasis:
 * Here. They. COOOOMMMMMEEE!
 * THIS EFFORT! IS NO LONGER! PROFITABLE!
 * I said on. Your. Knees.
 * Ramming Always Works: Anakin's method of dealing with the blockade flagship.
 * Recycled in Space!:
 * The Zillo Beast episodes are Godzilla re-enacting King Kong... IN STAR WARS!
 * "Senate Spy" is Notorious IN SPACE, according the the writers.
 * "Landing at Point Rain" is the first act of Saving Private Ryan IN SPACE, also according to the producers.
 * Several episodes were produced based upon the works of Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress was part of the inspiration for the original film.
 * "Bounty Hunters" is The Seven Samurai IN SPACE, indicated by the memory card at the beginning. Toshiro Mifune, who played one of the samurais in the film, was first intented to play the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi before Alec Guinness was chosen.
 * "Lightsaber Lost" is Stray Dog IN SPACE.
 * "R2 Come Home" features Anakin and Mace trapped in a crashed ship and his faithful companion R2-D2 has to go and get help. R2 plays the role of 'Lassie' IN SPACE.
 * Red Shirt: Many clone troopers, but several do get actual facetime to elevate into a Mauve Shirt.
 * Red Wire Blue Wire: Asajj ends up just slicing through the control panel.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Trandoshan hunters in "Padawan Lost".
 * La Résistance: The Twi'leks fighting against Separatist occupation in "Liberty On Ryloth". Lucas had all the Twi'leks speak with a French accent to compare them to the French resistance during WWII.
 * Retcon: Previously established continuity from the Expanded Universe is accepted in general fashion, but many parts have been re-written at the behest of George Lucas to suit the needs of the show, both in the setting of episodes and character / species history.
 * Reverse Grip: Ahsoka's standard lightsaber posture, although there are some times where the switches to a traditional hold during actual combat. In the season two episode "Brain Invaders" she holds her fork in the same fashion when she and Bariss are eating in the messhall.
 * Rewarded As a Traitor Deserves: Apparently, despite being backed primarily by wealthy merchant conglomerates, the Separatists as a whole are cheap as hell, since their preferred method of payment is a lightsaber through the back. Then again, when you are dealing with a crazy dark Jedi or a crazy cyborg and start making demands, you are really just asking for it.
 * Ridiculously Cute Critter The Convoree from the Season3 finale, and their recycled version from Season4.
 * Ridiculously Human Robots: The separatist battle droids are full of humorous charm and personality.
 * Taken up a notch in "A Friend In Need". Death Watch has a bunch of harmless battle droids they use for target practice. They beg for mercy and scream "Why?" (albeit in monotone), then beg to be repaired by R2 as they crawl to him for help. It is very satisfying when R2 gives them the chance to get some retribution.
 * Roof Hopping: Done in "Lightsaber Lost" when Ahsoka chases Cassie Cryar, who has her lightsaber, over the rooftops of Coruscant.
 * Rousing Speech:
 * Parodied in "Heroes on Both Sides", where Grievous tells a bunch of purpose-built suicide infiltrator droids that none of them will be coming back.
 * Played straighter by Padme Amidala one episode later when she convinces the Senate to vote against deregulating the banks for more troop funding. Even her political enemies applauded.
 * Rule of Cool: While not elevated to Clone Wars level of insanity, the show exists primarily to give us some more Star Wars battles.
 * Sadistic Choice:
 * Merrick tries to pull this on Obi-Wan and Satine, wanting to get the pacifist to prove herself a hypocrite or have her Jedi love interest kill an unarmed man in front of her. Anakin presents an alternative. It really would have been easy to capture Merrick alive, but for some reason Anakin, Obi-Wan, and even Satine viewed it as a "kill or be killed" situation.
 * The Father in "Overlords" makes Anakin choose whether to save Ahsoka or Obi-Wan.
 * Sci Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale:
 * Ships can apparently cross inter-stellar distances in a matter of minutes. When Padme is fatally poisoned in "Senate Spy" Anakin decides to bring her to Coruscant for treatment instead of local help. Other episodes feature people traveling back and forth between multiple stars within a single day.
 * In "Supply Lines", the Republic is attempting to feed the entire population of Ryloth. They accomplish this with a single food shipment that could, at best, feed a single village for a few days. This works because the entire planet is apparently populated by only a few dozen individuals.
 * In "Pursuit of Peace", the Senate debates whether or not to buy five million new clones for the war, which is being fought on numerous planets across an entire galaxy. For reference, the Allies had five million troops on the Western Front in World War II and it was still a close battle.
 * In "Plan of Dissent" the clones mention that one of the obstacles to taking a capitol is missiles with a "100 megaton yield". We later see some strikes with the weapons that produce standard explosions, affecting an area no more than a couple hundred feet each. For comparison, not even the biggest, most powerful nuclear weapons ever made had a 100 megaton yield, and would cause miles of devastation.
 * Send in The Clones: Sort of expected.
 * Sergeant Rock:
 * Captain Rex, even though he is not an NCO.
 * Master Chief Bric from "Clone Cadets" qualifies.
 * Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Inverted in "Overlords", where The Son takes the form of.
 * She Is Not My Girlfriend: In "Voyage of Temptation", Obi-Wan says this at Anakin in regards to the Mandalorian noblewoman they are trying to rescue.
 * Shoot the Dog:
 * Captain Rex is going to execute  once he learns of his planned desertion to the Separatists, since he will be able to give them enough information to cripple the Republic war effort.
 * The Kadavo slave master knows that Jedi don't kill unarmed prisoners, but he fails to consider the presence of Rex.
 * Shoot the Shaggy Dog: For all their character developments, crowning moments of awesome, crowning moments of heartwarming and Big Damn Heroes moments... these clone troopers are still going to end up executing Order 66, slaughter all the Jedi and become evil stormtroopers.
 * Shoot Your Mate: Darth Sidious orders Count Dooku to kill  in order to test his loyalty, claiming that refusing to comply would indicate his plan to eventually overthrow Sidious with   help.
 * Shout Out:
 * In "Clone Cadets" the training program variant that Bravo squad runs is Version THX Variable 1138.
 * A couple of first-season episodes have snuck in artifacts from Indiana Jones. A senator had a cane styled after the Staff of Ra (which later served as a sort of Weapon Tombstone) and one of the treasures Wat Tambor tried to loot from Ryloth was the Ark of the Covenant. Much later at the end of the third season, a crystal skull is in the Trandoshans' trophy room. In the Season 4 episode, Friends and Enemies, even Indy's hat appear, as a possible replacement for Cad Bane's old hat. After little hesitation he chose another.
 * Mace Windu losses his light saber on one side of a closing door and gets it back in last moment, similar to the Indiana Jones scene with the hat.
 * One of the Trandoshans in the Season 3 finale is modeled after and named for Walter Sobchak.
 * Obi-Wan Kenobi is close to a woman named Satine.
 * The "Mercy Mission"/"Nomad Droids" arc is one long Shout Out, most extensively to The Wizard of Oz, but also to Alice in Wonderland, The Lord of the Rings, and Gullivers Travels. If that isn't enough, there are also callbacks to the original Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.
 * It is also highly reminiscent of the 80's Droids cartoon.
 * In the climax of "Prisoners", Prince Lee-Char
 * In the pawnshop scene of "Friends and Enemies", Cad Bane checks out Indy's fedora before settling on his own trademark hat.
 * The relationship between Morley and  in "Brothers" resembles the one between Gollum and Shelob.
 * Upcoming character Commander Thorn was designed as an official congradulations to Joss Whedan and Marvel on the success of The Avengers.
 * In a similar vein, clone trooer Appo's helmet stripe was redesigned from its ROTS design to include an Avatar: The Last Airbender styel arrow.
 * Shut Up Kiss: A somewhat more literal example than most.
 * Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids:.
 * Single Biome Planet: Even more-so than the movies. According to the DVD special features, the ice-world from "Trespass" is supposed to be what Hoth would have been like if George Lucas did not film on location in Real Life. An actual ice-world, there are not even any rocks visible in the episode, although the producers do admit that this raises some questions regarding events in the episode which they advise you not to think about.
 * Single Tear:  dies shedding one.
 * Smug Snake:
 * Neimoidian fleet commander Mar Tuuk.
 * The T-series tactical droids are the epitome of this trope, speaking in a Condescending Monotone.
 * Morley, a literal one, found by Savage Opress on the junk planet and who
 * Something Only They Would Say: In "Rookies" when a clone trooper inspection team is heading towards a base occupied by droids, who pretend to be the regular troopers. When the droid signs off with their trademark "Roger, roger", the inspector notices that something is wrong, and actually says as much, but never makes the realization that he was speaking to an impostor.
 * Something They Would Never Say: When Rex uses Anakin's first name when addressing him over a comlink, Anakin realizes that Rex has been taken hostage and has been made part of a trap by Asajj because Rex would never address him by his first name.
 * Space Clouds: Inside a nebula, you literally only can see objects a few meters away from your viewport.
 * Space Is an Ocean: After the "Malevolence" gets its primary weapons destroyed, the ongoing fires around the damaged areas are accompanied by plumes of smoke billowing "upwards" as it cruises along. Not to mention the Republic ship that gets damaged and goes "down" later. It is particularly notable because the only planet in sight, and thus the only gravity well, is behind the ship.
 * Space Whale: The nebray mantas.
 * Spanner in The Works: The only thing Jar Jar Binks is useful for.
 * Speaks Fluent Animal: Animals seem willing to do whatever Jar Jar asks of them for some reason.
 * Spell My Name With a "The": How do you know the difference between this and the the previous Star Wars animated series at a glance? This one has a "the".
 * Spirit Advisor:  appears as one to Obi-Wan in "Overlords". Later in the same episode it looks like  .   appears to Anakin later in the episode arc, as well.
 * The Starscream: Falso was this to Hondo in "Gungan General".
 * The Nightsisters trilogy reveals that Count Dooku has ambitions of overthrowing Darth Sidious.
 * Status Quo Is God: As part of being Doomed By Canon, the series can't show any real progress in the war because the whole ordeal was basically a stalemate until Revenge of the Sith. There will be setbacks in a battle, peace negotiations will not succeed, and so on.
 * Stealth in Space: In "Cat and Mouse" Anakin is given a special new Republic ship with a stealth shield that renders it invisible from eyes and scanners to fly past a planetary blockade.
 * Stock Scream: Inevitable, this being Star Wars we are talking about. A clone trooper lets out a Wilhelm scream on the third of the Citadel episodes.
 * Story Arc: Most episodes are standalone stories forming a greater whole, such as focusing on the efforts of different characters during a particular event.
 * The Strategist: Given the portrayals of other Neimodians, Mar Tuuk is a surprisingly capable. He is able to anticipate most of what his opposition will do, and makes an effort to know his enemy by learning all he can about Anakin.
 * Strawman Political: The leader of the Lurmen, Tee Watt Kaa, seems to be a straw pacifist. There are a lot of solid arguments to be made against war and violence. These arguments are made stronger by all of the on-screen deaths in the series, some of which are pretty horrific. Tee Watt Kaa could have made some of these arguments, but he does not. His position pretty much boils down to "if we put up any kind of fight at all, for any reason, even if we don't kill anybody, we'll be evil", and he does not explain any further than that. Plus, he does not even run for cover when he is in danger, and he orders his people to similarly stand still and accept their fates, which makes absolutely no sense.
 * Stuff Blowing Up: It IS Star Wars, after all.
 * Suggested By: "Bounty Hunters" is based on "Seven Samurai", complete with an on-screen dedication to Akira Kurosawa.
 * Suicide Attack: Used by fake cleaning droids on Coruscant in season three, to avoid the signature of a peace treaty.
 * Suicidal Overconfidence: Queen Miraj Scintel thinks she can control Jedi almost as easily as any other slave, a fact which Dooku was quick to correct her on. Then she tried to disobey Dooku himself, and things naturally went downhill from there.
 * Suicidal Pacifism: An entire planet of them.
 * Summon Bigger Fish: "Bombad Jedi". It may be a native creature, so it is not exactly summoned, but otherwise this trope is played completely straight. Fish and all.
 * Surrounded By Idiots: Many of General Grievous' failures can be at least partially attributed to the hopelessly incompetent Battle Droids serving under him. One gets the impression he would be a very capable opponent if he could only convince the Trade Federation to build some more intelligent droids.
 * Technicolor Eyes: In an interesting variation the Father has Black Eyes but with green irises like his Daughter. This reflects his role as the balancer between the Light and the Dark.
 * Tempting Fate:
 * This exchange in the pilot movie:
 * This exchange in the pilot movie:

Anakin: I wish you wouldn't say that..."

"TX-20: Their chances of success against us are 742 to 1.
 * "This is the lowest job in the droid army! I can't imagine anything worse than this." ** "Oh. Oh."
 * A clone in a gunship flying through flak during the Second battle of Geonosis: "Good thing those bugs can't aim!"
 * TX-20 may want to run those figures again...

Wat Tambor: You had better be right!

TX-20: I am a droid. I am always right."

"Rex: Tell me who gave you orders to attack us.
 * Terrifying Rescuer: Obi-wan scares the crap out of an alien he's trying to rescue from slave traders, because he's disguised as one of them.
 * They Call Me Mister Tibbs: When Rex finally decides that General Krell is going too far in his treament of Clone troopers, he affirms that he is to be addressed as "Captain," not CT-7567.
 * Third Person Person: Moralo Eval.
 * Those Two Bad Guys: Grievous and whichever clanker is his number one today.
 * Touch of Death: The Son apparently has such a strong connection to the Dark Side that he can kill with a single finger.
 * Traitor Shot: Palpatine at the end of "Duchess of Mandalore", when the evidence that undoes the Separatist plot is revealed.
 * Train Job The plot of the episode "Bounty" revolves around
 * Transforming Mecha: The suicide-bomber infiltration droids from "Heroes on Both Sides" can not only disguise themselves as cleaning droids, but combine into bombs so they can fulfill their function.
 * Trojan Horse: The aforementioned sabotage droids.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Chairman Cho declares his intentions to exterminate a race that was willing to make peace with him, but had shown themselves to be a tad kill-happy in the past, and does it to their face. He then personally leads an attack against a numerically superior force that is lying in wait on their own territory without any military support of his own. It seems like he is actively attempting to earn the trope.
 * 24-Hour Armor: Present in the first two seasons, because it was easier to animate Jedi wearing armor over their robes. This led to situations like the entire Jedi Council in session, wearing their armor for some reason.
 * Tyrant Takes the Helm: The Umbara arc opens with Anakin being recalled to Coruscant and General Krell being given command of his clones. He immediately begins to denigrate the troopers, insulting their laboratory origin and exclusively referring to them by their identification numbers, and giving them horrible tactical orders.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: Captain Tarkin never misses an opportunity to berate his saviors' rescue plan, question their competence as military leaders (Anakin actually agreed with him on this), and only gives the barest of compliments when rescued seconds before a firey death.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: Obi-Wan and Duchess Satine, complete with She Is Not My Girlfriend teasing from Anakin.
 * The Un-Reveal: When Grievous takes some damage and is in need of repairs, his medical droid begins to remove his cracked and charred mask... and we cut to commercials.
 * The Uriah Gambit:.
 * Use Your Head: Captain Ackbar takes out an aquadroid this way in the climatic final battle on Mon Calamari.
 * Vibroweapon: BX-series droid commandos often use vibroswords.
 * Viewers are Morons: Ziro is one of the only Hutts that speak "Basic" over Huttese. Originally, he was supposed to speak into a microphone which translated his words, but the idea was nixed because they thought that no one would make the connection as to what the microphone was for. Left unexplained is why Ziro speaks Basic even when talking to fellow Hutts.
 * Villain Episode: Some toe the line with a greater focus on the villains rather than the heroes, but the "Nightsisters" arc is almost exclusively on Asajj Ventress and her vendetta against Dooku.
 * Villain Exit Stage Left: Oh so many with General Grevious. They must have used that same animation of Grevious escaping in his own personnal ship a dozen times.
 * Villainous Glutton: Lok Durd, from the looks of him.
 * Villainesses Want Heroes: Queen Miraj Scintel to Anakin. And definitely hinted with Ventress towards Obi Wan.
 * Vitriolic Best Buds: Obi Wan and Anakin are a classic case - and it would seem that Ahsoka is learning well from her master (and his).
 * Voice of the Legion:
 * Mother Talzin has a second, much deeper hissing voice, which is slightly out of sync. Interestingly, it is not heard during her holographic conversation with Dooku.
 * All the force wielder from "Overlords" have voices with a permanent echo as well.
 * Anakin gets one temporarily when he.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: According to The Father, the force wielders "can take many shapes".
 * War Is Hell: The series embraces this view, highlighting the brutality of fighting, the harsh conditions it forces civilians into, and the ultimate futility of combat.
 * Wave Motion Gun: General Grievous' giant, ship-mounted ion cannon.
 * Weapon Tombstone: After making peace withe Talz, Senator Chuchi of Pantora uses a Talz spear to plant the former Chairman's helmet, crossed with the chief Talz's own weapon, in the ground to seal the deal.
 * We Have Reserves: Oddly, the clones see themselves as expendable. They believe they are replaceable, and if the mission is over there is no reason for other clones or Jedi to risk their own lives to save them. Lampshaded by Slick in "The Hidden Enemy", who is pretty angry about it and feels that the clones deserve better. One senator takes this attitude towards the clones as well, but Padme objects to it, telling him that they are people as well.
 * Wham Episode: Season 3's "Overlords" pulls a double-whammy.
 * Wham Line: At the end of "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back", Then the camera follows Palpatine as he leaves, smirking.
 * A dying delivers one, revealing that


 * It... it was"

"Fire when you're in range!
 * What Happened to The Mouse?:
 * Ahsoka lampshades the trope in the pilot movie. After the helpful droid thanks the Jedi for freeing him from battle droids and points out where the baby Hutt is being held he disappears from the narrative. When he reappears a few scenes later, his role now revealed, Ahsoka actually comments that she had been wondering where the droid had gone to.
 * In a straight example of the trope, early in the movie Mace Windu requests three Republic cruisers to help with the current situation and is never seen again, with no reference made to what the ships were for or where he is during this critical point in the war.
 * What Measure Is a Mook?: Clone troopers die throughout the Citadel trilogy and the other troopers and Jedi continue onwards, but when  dies the entire group pauses for a brief funeral.
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
 * Averted. Obi-Wan wants to protect the rights of the Talz, which are less human-looking and more technologically primitive than the Pantorans who want them eliminated for their land.
 * Played straight and averted with the droids. R2-D2 and C-3PO are still afforded a moderate amount of sentience, however, Seperatist droids are sliced through with no regret.
 * What's an X Like You Doing In AY Like This
 * Whip It Good: The Zygerian slave arc features many laser-whips used to keep slaves in line.
 * Who Dares: When attacked, General Krell decrees "You dare attack a Jedi?!"
 * Why Am I Ticking: Todo has no idea Cad Bane's installed a bomb in him until moments before it goes off.
 * With Due Respect:

Sir, with all due respect, we're only here to protect you."

"Count Dooku: You have failed me for the last time."
 * With My Hands Tied: Ahsoka does this to a round-dozen  after being captured in "The Academy" while blocking stun blasts from mounted turrets, even managing to capture their leader in the process, all with her hands bound.
 * She also does it in "A Friend in Need".
 * Worthy Opponent: Dooku says this of Obi-Wan.
 * Wrench Wench: Ahsoka apparently has become a skilled mechanic during the series; in the Mortis trilogy, she is shown repairing a badly wrecked shuttle by herself and even modifying the repairs at Obi-Wan's request.
 * Wrestler in All of Us: While fighting Obi-Wan in "Kidnapped", Darts D'Nar at one point hoists Obi-Wan high over his head and then slams him down onto the floor.
 * Xanatos Gambit: Palpatine is the Big Good chancellor of the Republic and he's also the Big Bad on the Seperatist side. He'll be in power no matter which side wins.
 * You Are Number Six: General Krell makes a deliberate point of referring to every clone trooper by their identification number instead of by the nicknames that they have been given by fellow clones. He does refer to Sergeant Appo by his nickname, and even uses Rex's name at one point, so it seems that using the identification numbers is something he only does when he is mad at the clone in question or when he is proving a point. Which is most of the time.
 * You Fool: At the conclusion of Umbara arc,  decrees that Dogma was "the biggest fool of all."
 * You Have Failed Me:
 * Grievous, frequently, but it helps that he does this to droids. One episode had a droid continually irritating him, and any viewer who saw the trailer was wondering when he would get his head smacked off.
 * In a more brutal example, the leader of Death Watch casually kills one of his men for failing to kill Obi-Wan.
 * Death Watch themselves get hit with this by Dooku for failing to get rid of Satine. They survived, but now they're independent.
 * Count Dooku quotes the complete line when . Particularly painful since she had not actually failed him, but Darth Sidious wanted to test Dooku's loyalty.


 * You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
 * After delivering a captured R2-D2 to the Separatists, Trandoshan scavenger Gha Nachkt demands a higher fee from General Grievous, who promptly gives him a "bonus" in the form of a lightsaber through his gut.
 * received "payment" for his help in freeing Nute Ginray, courtesy of Ventress.
 * The Son.
 * Dooku does this to Moralo Eval when his testing course for the bounty hunters is easily outwitted. Fortunately for Eval, he did this by forcing him to fight Rako Hardeen to the death. Since Hardeen is Obi-Wan in disguise, he spares Eval. As such, Eval just got replaced by Cad Bane as team leader.
 * You Killed My Father:
 * Boba Fett's quest for revenge against Mace Windu for killing his father/genetic template Jango in Attack of the Clones.
 * "Padawan Lost" features a father determined to avenge the death of his son.
 * Young and In Charge: Boba Fett is seen several times leading (or trying to lead) groups of bounty hunters far older and more experienced than he is.
 * You Remind Me of X:
 * At the conclusion of "Arc Troopers," Commander Cody and Captain Rex congratulate Echo and Fives on their performance during the battle. Rex explains that they showed valor and real courage, and then says that they reminded him of himself.
 * When Dogma is first introduced, Anakin remarks that his determination and reflexive obedience to orders reminds him of Captain Rex. Rex concedes that that might have been true, but only back in the day.
 * You Shall Not Pass: See Heroic Sacrifice.
 * You Wouldn't Shoot Me: When Captain Rex is going to execute  taunts him over his inability to pull the trigger and his inherent weakness. Too bad for him that Dogma is there to pull the trigger.