Star Wars: The Clone Wars/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • And the Fandom Rejoiced:
    • There was worry that Star Wars would be over after Revenge of the Sith. Then we found out that Star Wars was going to be on TV every week.
    • Delta Squad's thirty-second cameo. Boss even had a speaking role. Though good luck trying to hear his two lines over the squees of the fans.
    • "May I present... Savage Opress."
    • Darth Maul. That is all.
    • In season three's "Overlords", Liam Neeson reprises his role as Qui-Gon Jinn.
    • In the season three finale, Chewbacca shows up.
    • Ackbar playing a large role in the first arc of season four.
    • The clones having enough of Krell's crap and killing him.
      • Since he was Evil All Along, this can be the moment where Jedi and Traviss' Mando fans can cheer together in unison.
  • Ascended Meme: Most likely why Ackbar's character got fleshed out more, in an attempt to give him some characterization beyond "IT'S A TRAP!".
  • Awesome Music: Plenty of it. It is Star Wars after all.
  • Bellisario's Maxim: The season one episode "Trespass", which occurred on an ice-world, featured a scene with a group of native Talz huddled around a fire. According to the special features, the writers and producers have been bombarded with questions asking what the Talz were burning, more-so from people involved with the production than even rabid fans, and they can not give an adequate explanation. They quote the maxim almost verbatim, and explain that this is something that people really should not think about.
  • Broken Base: This show (especially the first season and the movie) has been very divisive among Star Wars fans who like the Expanded Universe, and those who just like everything Star Wars.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Darth Sidious, naturally, who was planning on performing possibly lethal surgery on said infants, while in a red-tinted laboratory that even the most mad Mad Scientist would be afraid to work in, over a lava lake on the planet which is basically the Star Wars version of Hell.
    • Pong Krell. This needs some elaboration. When introduced, he seemed to be the standard General Ripper, just following orders no matter what the casualties. This is unexpected from a Jedi, but there have been some like that in the past (like how the Jedi Exile and other Jedi were in Mandalorian Wars, or in the last Sith War a thousand years prior). Then he orders the death of Jesse and Fives, as well as a court martial for disobeying orders after they saved the day by doing so. Then he truly crosses the Moral Event Horizon-he plays two armies of Clone Troopers against each other by saying that there were infiltrators, having them kill each other. And shortly after that, he confesses that he's been trying to lose as many clones as possible because his plan was to sabotage the Republic war effort from within in order to ingratiate himself to Count Dooku and become the Sith Lord's next apprentice.
    • Keeper Agruss the Zygerrian is a slaver, which is bad in itself, but goes above and beyond the call of duty on that. In particular, he has no problem casually murdering dozens of slaves if it means breaking a Jedi, tortures and kills other slaves for Obi-Wan's defiance, not only making his help unproductive but actually alienating those he seeks to protect. He truly earns his credentials at the end. The Republic has arrived and it's quite clear he's lost. What does he do? Set the system to dump the slaves into the abyss, smashes the panel to prevent Obi-Wan from saving them (Ahsoka manages to get them to safety), then gloats about how Obi-Wan can't retaliate because he's a Jedi. His death at Rex's hands was very deserved. Even the queen had a redeeming moment at the end. This guy was just straight-up evil.
    • Dr. Nuvo Vindi is the Monster of the Week for the season 1 two-parter " Blue Shadow Virus" and "Mystery of a Thousand Moons", and the Mad Scientist who recreated the titular virus, a disease that kills all who contract it and which no lifeform is immune to, after it had been wiped from the galaxy. Vindi not only brought the virus back, he converted it to an airborne strain so it could spread more easily. Vindi's ultimate plan is to send a virus-laden bomb to each key Republic star system, creating a galaxy-wide plague that could kill entire planetary populations. When his operation iss put at risk by the Republic, Vindi just decides to prematurely activate the bombs while they're still on world, with the intention of killing everyone on Naboo, himself included. Though hired by the Separatists to perform these actions, it's clear that Vindi takes great joy in his work, and sees unleashing the revived virus as passing judgement on the galaxy that once "murdered" it.
    • Wat Tambor, Foreman of the Techno Union and former Emir of Ryloth, is a vile force even among the Separatist Council. Using his position as Emir to oppress and starve the Twi'lek populace of Ryloth while having resistance fighters massacred even after forcing them into surrender, Tambor responds to the Republic's attempts to liberate the planet by using Twi'lek people as living shields to dissuade them from attacks. Tambor eventually gives up on the planet, ordering Twi'lek villages full of women and children wiped out and trying to firebomb the entire planet to wipe out it and its populace to spite the Republic, attempting to make off with its riches to further salt the wound. As Foreman of the Techno Union, Tambor leads horrendous experiments against sentient creatures on Skako Minor, using fallen Clone Echo as a living computer and forcing him to experience the last moments before his "death" for months on end and trying to use his organic decimator to slaughter Anakin and the Bad Batch when they try and free him — testing its effects on a Poletec subject before them and cruelly dismissing it and Echo as mere Techno Union property. Vile, smug, and cowardly,
  • Critical Backlash: Not so much the series, but the movie was universally panned by critics and many long time Star Wars fans, even though it wasn't that bad for a pilot arc.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome:
    • The music during the latter parts of the "Brain Invaders" episode was particularly memorable with chanting when Ahsoka fights a brainwashed Bariss Offee in the halls of the ship.
    • The tune to which the Republic marches onto the bridge in "Weapons Factory" was surprisingly epic as well.
  • Die for Our Ship: Amidala gets this from Anakin/Ahsoka shippers.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Cad Bane became one of the most popular characters in the series, as an Expy of Boba Fett with a cool voice, unusually sinister tendencies, and characteristics of spaghetti-western villains.
    • Hondo Ohnaka is starting to become one of these.
    • The mercenary Embo from "Bounty Hunters" was a One-Scene Wonder with acrobatics to make a Jedi jealous, a Nice Hat that serves as a blaster-proof shield and as a Precision-Guided Boomerang. Despite being a relatively minor character in one of the less important episodes of the series, he's popular enough that he got his own action figure.
    • Savage Opress is quite popular too. The fact that he's Darth Maul's brother help.
    • The ridiculously human battle droids are so funny that it's really hard to dislike them.
    • A few of the one-arc villains are also quite popular. Riff Tamson and Commander Sobek are two good examples.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: In the "Citadel" trilogy, Ahsoka sneaks in with the team against direct orders not to do so, then lies about it, insisting that another high-ranking Jedi authorized her to go. At the end even though she does confess her lie to a dying member of the team, Jedi High Council Member Plo Koon covers up for her, saying that he did indeed sent her on the mission. So not only does she face no punishment or any consequences at all for her actions and lie (which Jedi aren't supposed to do anyway), she has adults covering up for her before authority. Make sure you learned this week's lesson, kids!
  • Fan Dumb: In the tail end of the second season, Boba Fett shows up to wreak his vengeance on the Jedi with a team of bounty hunters. Still young at 12, his appearance continues the establishment of his presence in the prequel era begun in Attack of the Clones. On theforce.net boards, his thread was filled with fierce flaming and heated back-and-forth exchange over the first image of him in the show, just released on the net. Several PAGES of posts were devoted to the fact that he was wearing a green shirt, and how this was so very terrible since he had been wearing a blue one in Attack of the Clones a full year earlier in canon. It turned out he was not even wearing a green shirt anyway, it was a poncho over a gray jumpsuit.
  • Fan Nickname: A few show up. Savage Oppress is Randy, Anakin is Mannequin.
    • Ahsoka is Orangebutt.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Ahsoka/Rex (or Rexsoka, if you wish) remains the most popular Ahsoka pairing, even though she has a canon love interest in the form of Lux Bonteri. This is probably because Lux is comparatively new on the scene, and Rexsoka was already well-established in the fandom before his episode premiered in Season 3. Karen Traviss and Karen Miller's teases towards Rexsoka in the novels did not help things.
  • Foe Yay: Asajj decides to strip off most of her outfit during her fight with Kenobi. Supplementary materials say that she gets pretty obsessed with Obi-Wan over the course of the war. His retort when she tries to distract him by throwing said clothes in his face? "You'll have to do better than that, my darling." They continue this "flirtation" several more times, but it seems Obi-Wan, at least, is being sarcastic.
  • Growing the Beard: Despite complaints on various things, the biggest being the cartoony Battle Droid humor, the series has been very well received after the first season (and even a few first-season episodes are well-liked). The first episode to shuffle that humor aside, and coincidentally one of the more popular episodes, was "Rookies", which introduced the efficient Droid Commandos. Despite the droids eventually losing it was a step forward in maturity and threat level for the series. The later episode "The Hidden Enemy" is also cited for the same reasons, the droids are more intimidating when using zero-humor swarming tactics.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Episodes 15-18 of Season 4 are about Obi-Wan going undercover to uncover a Separatist plot against Chancellor Palpatine. On January 26th, the day before the second episode in the arc premiered, Ian Abercrombie (Palpatine's voice actor) passed away.
    • Also, remember the Father's warning to Anakin when he refused? That his selfishness would haunt him and the galaxy at large for refusing to replace the Father? Although at the time the episode was made, they probably were intending to mean the oncoming Jedi Purge, but after the revelation of Abeloth's ties to the Ones in the final book of Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse, as well as what Abeloth did throughout that series, the Jedi Purge actually seemed not so bad in comparison.
    • "Ghosts of Mortis" has Obi-Wan confront a Dark Side-turned Anakin Skywalker in the Well of the Dark Side, a volcanic crater. One can only imagine the thoughts running through Obi-Wan's head the next time he ends up in a similar setting with Anakin.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: The second episode of Mad TV has Gary Anthony Williams doing a parody of Count Dooku (or "Count Poo-Poo"). One year later, he is voicing Riff Tamson, one of Dooku's subordinates, on The Clone Wars.
  • Idiot Plot:
    • The entire "Children of the Force" mini-arc is based on multiple characters, both good and evil, making errors in judgment.
    • The second half of "Lightsaber Lost" is ten minutes of Le Parkour which could have been resolved with three seconds of telekinesis.
    • The episode "Shadow Warrior" comes to mind, as well, particularly on Grievous' part.
  • In Name Only: Due to George Lucas' ideas for the show (see Broad Strokes and Continuity Snarl) some characters, species and planets that originated in the Star Wars Expanded Universe have been altered to suit the needs of the show. This often results in well-written epsodes, but they bear little resemblance to their source material except their name.
  • Internet Backdraft: This series vs. the rest of the Expanded Universe, ie. "They retconned the climate of Ryloth? NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
  • Jerkass Woobie: Asajj Ventress. Even discounting her Dark and Troubled Past, and even though she's an evil, vengeful psychopath, she's had a rough go of it. Frequent failures, betrayed through no fault of her own, utterly failed to gain retribution for said betrayal, and has now lost everything she ever worked towards or cared about. Even after everything she's done, seeing her break down and beg Mother Talzin not to leave her alone is still quite the Tear Jerker.
    • Darth Maul. Bisected and left for dead, and somehow made his way to a hellish, fiery scrap pile of a planet, only to be crudely attached to a nightmarish spider-like machine and go almost completely insane over the next decade. Even for an evil, Badass Sith Lord, seeing him reduced to a crazy, sobbing wreck engenders quite a bit of sympathy.
      • It doesn't help that he was raised by Palpatine.
    • Dogma becomes one at the end of the Umbara arc.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: If it moves, it's likely Ahsoka has been paired with it.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Palpatine's maneuverings during episodes like 'Destroy Malevolence' where he sends Padme on a diplomatic mission that just so happens to lead her right into General Grievous's hands; 'Heroes on Both Sides' where he discovers that Mina Bonteri is responsible for sponsoring the Separatist bill to end the war and her subsequent fate, etc. seem to show that the guy can play the odds and adapt like only a Magnificent Bastard could.
  • Misblamed:
    • An inordinate amount of people seem to think that George Lucas is responsible for any problems with this series. Dave Filoni is the real frontman of the project. To be fair, whole episodes have been written on Lucas' orders, and Dave Filoni has also implied that the show would be rather different if Lucas had not unexpectedly become more involved later in its production.
    • Likewise, some misblame Filoni or other writers for disregard of certain EU elements, when, by their account, Lucas exercised Executive Veto power.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Bo-Katan's "You're late."
    • "Shut up, Dengar!"
  • Moral Event Horizon: Cad Bane tortures Jedi to death and kidnaps children. Cool he might be, but he has since passed into Complete Monster territory.
    • Asajj Ventress flies past it on hyperdrive, when she goes to recruit an assassin against Count Dooku. Particularly when she tests the brainwashing of the chosen candidate by ordering him to kill his brother. This strikes the viewer even harder, as before that Ventress was almost (sym)pathetic, due to her constant failures.
    • Pong Krell crosses it when he states that Jesse and Fives will be court martialed, found guilty, and executed. Worse still, when Rex tries to argue against it, he just decides to straight-up execute them without trial.
      • He crosses it yet again he manipulates the clones into killing each other. When confronted on this, he reveals he's actually been a traitor the entire time.
    • Pre Vizsla crossed his by ordering the burning of a village that Death Watch had been terrorizing, simply because they demanded the return of the women he had kidnapped, particularly the chief's daughter. Not only did he burn down the village and kill countless villagers, he started the massacre by returning the chief's daughter, only to stab her in the back immediately afterwards.
    • Darth Maul murdering a village full of innocent people to get Obi-Wan's attention.

Darth Maul: In a galaxy at war, Savage, the only way to draw the attention of the Jedi is with the slaughter of the innocent. Mercilessly, and without compromise.

  • Narm: The Robo Speak Evil Laugh.
  • No Yay: Even Cad Bane had hints of this with Ahsoka, but the most obvious example would be the way Garnac, the leader of a Trandoshan hunting party acted towards her. If the whole kidnapping Jedi children to hunt them down thing wasn't clear enough, he provides lines like these:

Garnac She (Ahsoka) can't hide for ever! Mark my words, I'll have her skin, and nail it to the wall for killing my son!
Garnac A valiant effort, little younglings. Especially you, Togruta. You'll be a prized trophy of my collection.

  • Pandering to the Base: David Filoni acknowledged the negative reaction from the first half of the third season (which was focused on heavily on politics, trade blockades, bank interests, and stuff like that) and said that the amount of such episodes will be severely cut down.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name: The ones that are unique to the fandom of this show are: Anisoka, Obisoka, Rexsoka, Luxsoka, Barrisoka... seeing the pattern here?
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jar Jar Binks. Yeah, you read that correctly, no mistake - they successfully rescued Jar Jar Binks from the scrappy heap in one episode.
    • Also, Anakin. Originally a Base Breaker in the movies, he's far more unanimously liked in the series due to his stronger characterization, his decreased tendency for Wangst, and Matt Lanter's voice acting being more well-received than Hayden Christensen's acting.
      • Ahsoka started out with similar levels of hatred to Jar Jar Binks (mostly for her Mary Sue and Spotlight-Stealing Squad tendencies), but her flaws have been toned down considerably, to the point that (in a bizarre inversion of sorts) some of the show's detractors actually label her as the only good character in the series.
    • As of season four, arguably the entire Gungan race as well. In the episode "Shadow Warrior", they take down General Grievous, albeit only when Captain Tarpals pulls a Heroic Sacrifice, successfully incapacitating him and allowing him to be captured.
  • Ruined FOREVER: Some have expressed that this wouldd be the case if it turns out that Darth Maul is really still alive.
  • Shipping: Mostly involving Ahsoka.
  • Straw Man Has a Point: In Corruption, Duchess Satine of Mandalore is shocked to discover just how far corruption has spread throughout her government. When she, Padme and her guards manage to find and apprehend smugglers bringing in tea which they have diluted with toxic chemicals, she orders the entire facility burned to the ground. The commander of the police protests that there is evidence in the building, but Satine explains that if he does not comply she will consider him a co-conspirator with the smugglers and then she goes off to find out just how high this conspiracy reaches. His initial disinterest in investigating her accusations certainly was suspicious, but by ignoring his advice and burning down the building Satine has eliminated any chance of finding records or documentation listing who was involved in the smuggling program, physical evidence placing people at the scene, etc. For a person who claims she is interested in following the web back to its source, Satine ignores rather legitimate points about proper criminal investigations.
  • Temporary Scrappy: After R2-D2 is lost in battle, Anakin is distraught over losing a friend, while Obi-Wan dismisses R2 as a "dime-a-dozen" droid. Ahsoka gets Anakin a new droid, R3-S6 ("Goldie"), who seems vastly inferior, and she doesn't make anything better by saying that the R3 models are supposed to be better. And in the end R3 turns out to be The Mole.
    • Pong Krell serves as one both in-universe and out in the Umbara arc. Cartoon Network's ads even outright say that Krell is not as cool as Anakin.
  • They Just Didn't Care: What the crew decided to give the Jedi Master's name in the episode "Supply Lines".
  • Uncanny Valley: Though most of the characters look exaggerated enough to not really fall here, Riyo Chuchi in the "Trespass" episode, when she is looking head on into the camera and speaking, you kind of have to do a double take.
  • Villain Decay: General Grievous in early episodes was losing every battle and running away before his ship or outpost is destroyed. Acknowledged In-Universe with "Lair of Grievous", where Dooku is unhappy with Grievous' decay and sets out to test him.
  • What an Idiot!:
    • "Duel of the Droids" gives this to all sides. The clones throw a shock grenade at a group of commando droids, who reasonably attempt to shoot it so it doesn't go off (which fails). Then the clones do the same to a group of regular battle droids who had just witnessed this, and they proceed to pick the grenade up as if it's a mysterious device. On the side of good, Anakin's entire team continues to rely on the R3 unit which has done nothing but fail horribly at every task it is assigned, often managing to do the opposite (because it is actually programmed to sabotage their efforts). Even Anakin, who makes no bones about his dislike of the droid, doesn't have the common sense to just exchange it for one which isn't grossly incompetent. It's not like he couldn't do so, either; there's on a military vessel loaded with everything they could need, including replacement droids.
    • Pre Viszla deciding to engage a Jedi in a lightsaber duel was probably not the most intelligent thing he ever did.
      • He did it again in season 4 and almost shares Boba Fett's fate (malfunctioning jetpack, anyone?). In his defense, though, he did go straight for the "undignified execution" route at first. His quarry just happened to get free.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: From the very beginning, the series has thouroughly averted both Non-Lethal Warfare and Never Say "Die", and features some exceptionally brutal Family Unfriendly Deaths, and some very dark, dramatic storylines, with subjects such as torture, slavery, and murder handled with aplomb.
  • What the Hell, Casting Agency?: Simon Pegg being the voice of Dengar in the season 4 episode "Bounty". This is a man who's known for his hate for the prequel trilogy, special editions of the original trilogy, and The Clone Wars series itself, and he takes every opportunity he can to bash anything Star Wars post-1983, and the fact that he's getting rewarded for all his hate elicited this reaction from the die-hard Star Wars fans.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars/YMMV?oldid=1572894"