Welcome back to my series “Why I love Star Wars”. This is a series that was inspired by reading Ken Napzok’s Why We Love Star Wars: The Great Moments That Built A Galaxy Far, Far Away, a countdown of the top 100 moments from Star Wars that made him love it all, including canon stories from every medium. As I was reading this book, I found myself thinking of some of my own favourite moments and wanted to discuss them.
While there are certainly some films that I do not like as much as others, every movie has some wonderful moments that I would always say outweigh the bad, so for that reason I wouldn’t say that I hate any of the Star Wars films. With the way that too much Star Wars talk has gone down a dark hole in recent years, hopefully reminding ourselves of the great moments and focusing on the positives will help the fandom recover.
Why I Love Star Wars:
- A New Hope
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Return of the Jedi
- The Phantom Menace
- Attack of the Clones
- Revenge of the Sith
Unlike in the book, I will not put the moments in any specific order (I do things like that enough in my Top 10s!) as the order would probably change on every viewing. Today I will be looking at The Clone Wars
This movie was not great… and that’s being kind. It is comfortably at the bottom when I rank all of the movies, however I came to love the series that followed and can now accept the movie as a very long episode of the show when I watch in chronological order.
Beware: this will contain spoilers for the movie!
Anakin accepts Ahsoka
Who would have thought that Anakin Skywalker would have had a padawan? Well that reveal in The Clone Wars movie certainly caught a number of us out. While I was not initially a fan of Ahsoka (seeing her grow over the years has made her into one of my favourite characters, so I can now go back to the movie and the early seasons of the show and appreciate her more), I did like the way that her prospective apprenticeship to Anakin was shown in the movie. As someone who himself was impulsive and focused on the war, it’s understandable that he didn’t feel ready for a padawan, but I like the way how being forced to take her on a mission helps him realise how similar she is to him with her impulsiveness, leading to a wonderful moment at the end of the mission when he sits down next to her and says “You’re reckless, little one. You never would have made it as Obi-Wan’s padawan… But you might make it as mine.”
And so begins one of the greatest pairings in Star Wars.
Brave or stupid?
Early in the movie, as the Republic try to repel the Separatists on Christophsis, we get a moment that can’t help make me chuckle. As Obi-Wan and the clones charge to meet the droids face-to-face, one clone tries to run deeper into the ranks, only to have his blaster shot out of his hand. Rather than try to tackle the droid in front of him and steal its blaster, the clone decides to punch the droid on the head… only to yowl in pain at his hand being hurt, before being shot at close range.
Alas poor silly clone trooper, we barely knew ya!
Prioritising the mission
With Anakin and Ahsoka finding Rotta the Hutt ill, they need to urgently get their charge medical attention. Anakin wants to go back to help Rex and the clones, who are surrounded and being picked off by Separatist forces, using the remains of a crashed vulture droid as cover. However Ahsoka convinces him of the importance of the mission. I love how reluctant and disappointed Anakin is having to contact Rex to say that he can’t help, but Rex’s quick acceptance: he is a soldier who knows that he and his troops are expendable in the name of a larger cause, but it also shows how much Anakin respects and cares about the troops he commands.
Outnumbered?
Another fun moment that works as a perfect bookend to the last moment I mentioned. Rex’s forces have been picked off to the point that it is just him and one other trooper left sheltering behind the remains of a vulture droid. Knowing their hopes of survival are slim-to-none, they decide to go on the offensive, jumping on top of the vulture droid, to find themselves surrounded. In a great early show of Rex’s tactical flexibility and ability to react on the fly (helpful with Anakin as his general), Rex buys the two of them a moment by telling the droids that they are outnumbered. Suitably dumb, the lead droid reacts by beginning to count just how many other droids are with it, only for them all to be blown up as Obi-Wan arrives in his fighter to provide reinforcements.
“Experience outranks everything”
How do you explain the hierarchy of the Grand Army of the Republic quickly and easily while also building on the characters of 2 people completely new to the audience? I think Rex and Ahsoka’s discussion of how, as a padawan, she technically outranks Rex gives a great hint to how playful she can be, while Rex’s response of “Experience outranks everything” straight away shows that though he his kind, his respect has to be earned. What makes this even better watching back now is knowing that Rebels gives a throwback to this at the start of the season 2 finale, the last time that we have currently seen the pair together.
What are your favourite moments from The Clone Wars movie?
Thanks for reading. May the Force be with you…
The Canon Padawan 
Frankly, I don’t have a favorite moment from the CW film but your explanation about Anakin and Ahsoka’s relationship is at the top of the list. I’ve thought of them as an older brother/little sister relationship and the story effectively built up their relationship as one that Anakin cherished. It made Ahsoka’s loss when she leaves the Jedi all the more tragic. I believe the adversity allowed her character to mature while exploring Anakin’s growing resentment and inability to let people go.
Some people have commented they thought Vader would have killed Ahsoka in the season 2 finale of “Rebels”. Tragedy is a big part of this saga but I’m sure many are glad–and relieved–that Ahsoka survived and had a helpful part to play as she gave guidance to Ezra and Kanan.
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I will admit that I found this article harder than the other similar ones I’ve been doing, but I’m trying to do one of these for each of the movies and the 3 main series (though I’m probably going to separate TCW season 7 from seasons 1-6).
I do love the Anakin/Ahsoka relationship and I think your brother/sister comparison is spot on. He sees himself in her and realises that makes him the right person to train her, while it also matures him somewhat – as well as sadly putting him down a darker path. I fully believe that Vader would have killed her in Rebels, just for the fact that they focused on Matt Lanter’s voice in the moment that he says “you will die”, it shows that even someone as close to him as Ahsoka can’t bring him back, it has to be Luke.
Thanks for reading!
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