A's Fan Radio

The “Cpl RFA Movie Review” is a segment that appears from time to time during show broadcasts and has been a part of AFR since the show’s return in 2011. During this segment, show producer & co-host Keith “Cpl RF Asshole” Salminen reviews a new movie or show series that he has recently seen.

On this edition of the segment, appearing for the first time ever as a blog post, The Corporal takes a look at the 7th & final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

“You fought in The Clone Wars?”

A simple line uttered by Luke Skywalker to old Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope. A point in the saga’s timeline that fans dreamt of seeing come to life for decades in some media form that finally did so in 2008 in the form of an animated film and TV series that ran until 2014. Now, over 12 years after the film and series aired and 6 years following the show’s cancelation, Star Wars: The Clone Wars got its proper send off with Disney+ airing the 7th & final season of the show. The final episode aired, fittingly, on Star Wars Day 2020 last Monday.

I, for one, am among the many who was glad to see this series get a proper send off. I remember going with Kristy to see the movie, which was made from 4 episodes of the TV series that Lucasfilm combined into a movie to promote the series, about 2-3 weeks before the public did when the base theater at Camp Pendleton showed it. I followed the show as well, all the way through its 5th season before it was canceled and watched the 6th season, aka “The Lost Missions”, when Netflix broadcasted it the year after the show was canned. Myself, and many others, just didn’t like the way it ended and always hoped that one day it would be finished the way it was meant to be. The final season did that and more.

Season 7 opens with “The Bad Batch Arc” (episodes 1-4), where we follow the exploits of a group of 4 clones with desirable genetic modifications known as “Clone Force 99”, aka “The Bad Batch”, who have been brought into the fold during the battle taking place during this arc to help determine how The Separatist are able to figure out every move The Republic is making on this battlefront. Picture Seal Team 6, but as Clone troopers. The arc also features familiar characters from the series like Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu, Clone Trooper Echo (Who was thought to have died during “The Citadel Arc” in season 3) and Separatist Admiral Trench. This arc was also among the 60-80 episodes of the show that had been in some sort of production when the series was canceled, so it was nice to see a finish version of it after having only animatic version of the arc floating around online to watch the past couple of years.

Episodes 5-8, “The Martez Sisters Arc”, gives us a bit of a glimpse into some of the things that Ahsoka Tano has been up to since leaving The Jedi Order at the end of season 5. During these middle episodes, Ahsoka meets Rafa and Trace Martez, two sisters living in the lower levels of Coruscant who are just barley getting by in life who end up dragging Ahsoka into a bunch of shenanigans with the Pike crime syndicate following a trip to Kessel. Some felt this arc dragged on a bit and felt like filler material, though my thoughts from it differ as I felt it helped show Ahsoka learning what many in The Jedi Temple did not know or just flat out choose to not see and believe, which was the people of The Republic losing faith in the Jedi. The stages for the final arc are also set at the end of this arc.

The final arc (Episodes 9-12) takes place before, during and briefly after the events that play out in Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith. It also features a battle that fans of the franchise have waited a long time to see unfold: The Siege of Mandalore, one of the last major battles of The Clone Wars. You not only get to see one of, if not the best, lightsaber duels we have seen a long time when Ahsoka squares off with former Sith Lord turned crime lord Darth Maul, you also get to feel the unfortunate gut punch once again that is the infamous “Order 66”, this time from the point of view of others elsewhere in the galaxy when that same moment goes down in Revenge of The Sith. Maul even gets his own version of the Darth Vader hallways scene from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which many in the fandom have dubbed “The Maulway Scene” since its appearance in the second to last episode of the series. The final moments in the last episode are a fitting touch to cap of a series that consisted of 1 movie and 131 TV/Online Streaming episodes as well as serving as a bit of a tie in to the events that happen in Star Wars: Rebels years later and involving some of the characters who made it out alive from The Clone Wars to either help aid and later form The Rebel Alliance or join The Empire.

Overall, I was very pleased with how the final season of this series played out. It finally gave closer to this story of a 3 year long battle across the stars. I encourage all out there that have never laid eyes on Star Wars: The Clone Wars before to check it out, not just the final season but the previous 6 and the film as well. They help give you a better picture of the overall Star Wars Universe as well showing how things enfolded between Attack of The Clones and Revenge of The Sith while also connecting the dots with aspects of events that go down in the other films and media tied to the canon of the franchise out there. All this from a line uttered by a farm boy growing up on a desert planet.

All 7 seasons of the series and the film are available for viewing on Disney+.