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WARNING: Mild/Moderate Force Awakens spoilers in the image below.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 2 Review

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Aw yeah. Despite the rough start that was Season 1, I found myself greatly looking forward to the followup entirely thanks to the comparatively awesome finale episode. The promise of an entire season of episodes like Hostage Crisis? This Star Wars fan is on board.

-Episodes/Arcs-

Episodes I-III: Bounty Hunter Hunt arc

The three-parter consisting of Holocron Heist, Cargo of Doom, and Children of the Force begins with Count Dooku hiring Cad Bane to break into the Jedi Temple vaults to steal a holocron. This is a spoiler-free review so I won't go into it, but it's a very solid season opener, and Cad Bane swiftly rises the ranks of my favorite Star Wars villains. He's Lee Van Cleef in Star Wars, and I'm loving it. The arch is not perfect, mind you. The evil scheme is rather goofy and the final episode of the trilogy is the weakest. But Anakin and Ahsoka chasing Bane across the galaxy is just fun, making most of the flaws easy to overlook.
    Side note, but this is where the chronology of the series starts getting a little confusing, as these three episodes actually take place long before Season 1's Hostage Crisis, making this Bane's real introduction.



Episode IV: Senate Spy arc

Having fun with those bounty hunter episodes? Well, here comes a bucket of ice water in the form of Padme Amidala, her husband, her ex-boyfriend, and space politics.
Kidding, this is actually a fairly decent episode. Padme and Anakin still make a lousy couple though.



Episode V-VIII: Point Rain arc

The episodes Landing at Point Rain, Weapons Factory, Legacy of Terror, and Brain Invaders aren't so much a four-parter as they are four episodes that directly lead into one another, as each one does have its own style and story. Point Rain is pretty basic, with Republic forces(Consisting of clones, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Luminara, and Kiadi Mundi) launch an attack to take a Geonosis weapons factory. It's pretty much just a lot of action, but I found it fun. Weapons Factory is more interesting, mainly focusing on the two padawans, Barriss Offee and Ahsoka Tano as they infiltrate the factory on their own. There's some good character development in here, and I enjoyed seeing the underpowered Jedi have to work without the support or backup of their masters.
    The next two episodes take a wander into left field however, with the introduction of brain-leeching zombifying worms. Basically the things from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, only with zombies. Yeah, really. It's weird, it's dumb, but... eh, I can roll with it I guess.



Episodes IX-X: Grievous Intrigue arc

Grievous Intrigue and The Deserter are some of the weaker episodes in this season. It has Grievous in it, for starters. I don't hate the character, but we all know how his episodes go, don't we? He shows up, acts menacing for five minutes, has a saber duel with someone(Usually Obi-Wan. See above), then ends up running away. Luckily there's a bit more going on in these episodes, such as the titular deserter in the second episode - a clone who's left the Republic to start a family. It raises a lot of questions and challenges some preconceptions we had about clones, and seeing how the other clones react and interact to the situation not only deepens the entire clone concept, but the character of Rex.
    Also, Eeth Koth is in it. I always love it when they manage to give some obscure Jedi screen time.



Episode XI: Lightsaber Lost

This is quite possibly my favorite standalone episode of the series. Basic premise is, Ahsoka's lightsaber is stolen, and rather than admit that to Anakin, she enlists the aid of Tera Sinube, an ancient Jedi Master, and tries to get it back herself. This is the episode where I finally caved and decided I liked Ahsoka as a character - the dynamic between her and Sinube here is just great, with her wanting to run and leap about rooftops after the thief while he urges a more methodical(Read: Inch around on a cane whilst uttering Jedi Wisdom™)  approach. We get a lot of character development on her part, Sinube reminds us this is a kids' show by giving life lessons(Pretty good ones though), and the action and visuals are great.



Episode XII-XIV: Duchess of Mandalore arc

The Mandalore Plot, Voyage of Temptation, and Duchess of Mandalore mark the overall high-point of the season for me. Not only do we get to see the Mandalorians en mass for the first time outside of the now defunct EU, but also some solid character development for Obi-Wan - not something I was expecting, given how established he already is across the six movies. Anakin really shines in this arc as well. Seeing their banter and relationship here make these the kind of episodes I wish the prequel movies were more like.



Episode XV: Senate Murders

And now for my least favorite episode in the season. It's not bad per se, it's just... dull. Too dull for something with the title of Senate Murders, anyway. Here I was hoping for Bane assassinating people or something. Perhaps it'd be more meaningful if watched in chronological order - which is to say, putting this episode in the middle of Season 3. As I said earlier, things get confusing sometimes.



Episode XVI: Cat and Mouse

Chronologically the first in the entire series - yes, before Season 1's Hidden Enemy, and the 2008 Movie - this episode has Anakin matching wits with the spider-like Separatist Admiral Trench, in order to break through the blockade so they can reach Christophsis for the events you've already seen. There's not much to say about it really, it's a decent episode, not particularly good or bad. Perhaps I would've appreciated it more had I seen it in the correct order, I don't know.



Episode XVII: Bounty Hunters

Be it samurais, cowboys, gladiators, or bugs, you've probably seen some form of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai at some point in your life. Well now you can see it again, in Star Wars! So if that sounds good, you'll probably like this episode(It was okay), if it doesn't, you probably won't.
Side note, but for no reason that I can tell, this episode and the following two-parter(See below) chronologically take place between the first Cad Bane arc of the season, and Senate Spy.



Episodes XVIII-XIX: The Zillo Beast arc

You know those things in life, where you don't realize you've been waiting for it or wanting it until you see it? Well, a Kaiju stomping around Coruscant(Come on that's not a spoiler, you could see it coming a mile away. Literally) was one such thing for me. To be fair, this two-parter probably wasn't that great, but not too long ago I'd binged the classic Godzilla movies, and I've always had a love for King Kong and dragons, so... yeah.



Episodes XX-XXII: Deathtrap arc

And finally the three-part finale comprised of Death Trap, R2 Come Home, and Lethal Trackdown. Basic premise: Boba Fett seaking vengeance on Mace Windu for the death of his FATHER. If you've seen Revenge of the Sith, you know that won't happen, but some pretty cool stuff happens along the way all the same. The second episode in this arc was a little weak, but the third more than made up for it, being a great finale and one of the best episodes of the season. It also made me realize how awesome Plo Koon was. Hopefully we get to see more of him in the future.

• Cad Bane kicks serious butt. All the serious butt. But seriously, he's one of my favorite characters.
• Boba Fett has a long way to go before becoming the Hunter we all know and love - But I won't hold it against him, he is still just a kid after all.
• Aurra Sing and Bossk - aka, 'That woman watching the pod race in Episode I', and 'That lizard guy in Episode V', respectively, are back, and they're pretty cool.
• Obi-Wan and Anakin are who we wished they were in the prequels.
• Ahsoka is finally on my good side.
• Padme is still lame.

Being a season centered on bounty hunters, there isn't much sabering to be had. Really the only notable ones were Anakin vs. Hondo, which was okay, Obi-Wan vs. a Mandalorian, which was a cool scene, but a bad duel, and Obi-Wan vs. Grievous for the fourth time. All in all, nothing to write home about.
The visuals are a step up from Season 1, but some of the movement's still awkward and the facial animations are all still very stiff, and the duels just don't look very good. Beyond that, I quite like the additions to the soundtrack, and the multi-episode story format is really working wonders.

While there's nothing earth shattering to change how you look at the movies here, Season 2 did offer up a lot of spiffy new planets and characters. For planets we've got Devaron(Home to the devaronians - the Satan-faced guy in the Mos Isley Cantina was a devaronian, for those of you with lives), Malastare(Mentioned in The Phantom Menace), Mandalore, and Vanqor. As far as new concepts are concerned, the Mandalorians have apparently become pacifists, Obi-Wan had a love interest in his past, and darksabers exist.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 2 is superior to Season 1 in nearly every way, from the stories, to the writing, the character development, the visuals, soundtrack, and tone. For what it is, a children's animated show, it's great. For Star Wars - it's just okay. Just about good enough to stand with the prequels, still a long way from standing with the originals. It's far from perfect, but I enjoyed it.


7/10, better than Attack of the Clones, almost as good as The Phantom Menace - If you're a die hard Original Trilogy purist who can't stand the prequel era, this show will not change your mind. If you're a big Expanded Universe fan, the changes made to Mandalore might kill the show for you. But if you don't care so much about that, and made it through Season 1, this season makes for an enjoyable supplement to the prequel trilogy.