Star Wars: The Clone Wars has wrapped its first season, and what a ride it's been! I, for one, am greatly enjoying this show. I've got to admit, when I saw the film version last August, I was taken aback by how much it seemed to play to kids (not that this is necessarily a bad thing, as I elaborate upon here). With that in mind, I turned to the TV show. Going in, I wasn't sure if I'd watch every week, but the show proved so enthralling that I found I couldn't help myself, and it's true, I've now seen all 22 episodes. While there were certain moments every now and then that served to remind me that this show's primary audience is preteens, there were also plenty of Easter eggs for us longtime fans, and often some serious complexity in terms of plot, but especially in terms of morality.

Let me warn you ahead of time that if you're spoiler-sensitive and haven't seen some episodes, you might want to skip this review. But without further ado, here's a look at what appealed to me and what I found lacking in this first season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars:


The Good: This show has succeeded on its major goal, and particularly shines with its cast of characters.

--First of all, this show accomplished the mission it set out to do--young kids (and not just young kids, but especially young kids) are hooked on this show! This is great news for not just The Clone Wars, but for Star Wars in general. It's because of this show and similar Star Wars endeavors that we can confidently say Star Wars is Forever!

And frankly, this show has a lot of reasons it deserves to be popular. It brings together great action, great characters, and life lessons. Oftentimes, the best kid's shows seem to be the ones whose writers don't try to dumb the shows down for young kids (Thunderbirds and Batman: The Animated Series are two examples of this non-dumbed down approach), and I think it's safe to say that The Clone Wars also takes this approach. Without dumbing stuff down, these shows make sure to develop plotlines that aren't unnecessarily convoluted and are straightforward enough for kids to get--and honestly, I think we all prefer these types of plotlines most of the time, anyway.

--Probably the major highpoint of the series for me has been the broad range of characters we're seeing. We've got lots of new characters, like Nahdar Vebb, the Lurmen, Numa, and a whole cast of new villains. We've also had a great spotlight on older minor characters like Plo Koon, Luminara Unduli, Kit Fisto, Aayla Secura, and Wat Tambor, to name just a few. And the integration of guys like Admiral Yularen adds a nice flourish.

I was also extremely impressed by Jar Jar Binks's appearance in Bombad Jedi. While his later appearances proved a bit more hit-and-miss, this first episode, I thought, proved Jar Jar has finally found a format where he works!

And I also feel compelled to give a special shout-out to Ahsoka Tano. I wasn't too fond of the idea of giving Anakin a Padawan. And, despite the sense of continuity vertigo she creates, she's turned out to be a very compelling character. For the unconvinced, I recommend you take a look at Storm Over Ryloth as well as Mystery of a Thousand Moons.

The Bad: While the show has done a great job of showing moral shades of gray, the Separatists remain as black as night.

--We've got a show full of bad guys who love to be bad. While I admit that leads to some pretty entertaining villains, it also causes a lot of unnecessary killing that just seems like it would be bad for business. While the firebombing of villages in Liberty on Ryloth at least received some explanation, there were a handful of killings that just seemed pointless. Did General Grievous really need to kill Gha Nachkt in Duel of the Droids? Did Asajj Ventress really need to kill Captain Argyus in Cloak of Darkness? Won't Cad Bane's decision to blow up his hostages in Hostage Crisis hurt any future negotiations with the Republic? I understand the desire to make these guys into real "bad guys", but when they enjoy killing to the point where it could actually do more harm than good to their own causes, it makes me cringe. Plus, the Clone Wars supposedly has "heroes on both sides"--I'm still waiting to see some Separatist heroes.

--I'm also a little annoyed by the Republic dominance of the battlefield. This might be kind of a funny complaint, but it's always bugged me that the Republic always wins. (This isn't a new phenomenon for me; I also didn't like it that the Databank entries for Bal'demnic and Nem Bees took clips meant to communicate Separatist victories and turned them into Separatist losses.) If this is a true war orchestrated by the Sith, shouldn't we see some Separatist victories? I'd love to see an episode that has a seeming Republic victory, but turns out to be a Separatist one, with the Republic troops and Jedi misled into missing the Separatists' true objective--for those who are familiar, I'm thinking of something along the lines of Marvel Star Wars #48: The Third Law.

To be fair, I am painting a slightly bleaker picture than Season One actually held. Nute Gunray did make his escape in Cloak of Darkness, General Grievous can be considered the winner in Lair of Grievous, and Cad Bane did seem to win in Hostage Crisis (though the preview of Season Two worries me that this will be reversed). But what I'm looking for is some big, planetary-battle level victories, like if the Separatists had succeeded in holding Ryloth, for instance.

--Another complaint of mine is that the episode intros often seem packed full of action. Why not turn some of these into episodes in their own right?

--And this final complaint can go for Star Wars in general: frankly, we've got a few too many superweapons running around. From the Tarkin to the Sun Crusher, the Galaxy Gun to the World Devastators, and the Darksaber to the Dark Reaper--even Centerpoint Station ends up being a superweapon--the Expanded Universe is chock-full of these things. And the first season of Clone Wars is no exception. We've got the Malevolence and a defoliator in the span of one season. While this might not seem like much, the prior over-prevalence of superweapons in the EU leads me to come down extra-hard on these things.

The Ugly: Here comes that continuity vertigo again...

--Continuity. I don't envy the person who's going to have to pick up the pieces after this show's finished its run. Is it possible? Oh, certainly; Star Wars has survived worse (think: the difficulty of making everything work in light of the Prequel Trilogy). And I'm comfortable knowing that Mr. Chee and the rest of the Star Wars staff will no doubt take this task very seriously and do a great job with it. But in the meantime, it's going to be a bumpy ride, especially before the series is finished and the true work can begin.

--Also ugly--and I hate to single it out, but Jar Jar's voice when he's not portrayed by Ahmed Best fits into this category for me. Part of it might be how much I enjoyed Bombad Jedi, but this one really stuck out for me. The voice was better in Blue Shadow Virus and Mystery of a Thousand Moons than in The Gungan General, but I still greatly miss Mr. Best.


So overall, I would call this a very positive review of the first season of Clone Wars. I'm much-impressed with the show thus far, and if it continues in much the same direction, I for one will be satisfied. Yes, I have a few nit-picks, but it's certainly a good show overall. Here's hoping that future seasons of Clone Wars continue the tradition of a compelling and large cast of characters, reverse the pattern of Republic dominance on the battlefield, and extend the examination of moral grayness to include the Separatists.

Thanks for reading, and please spout off in the comments section!