There are a whopping 133 episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, taking us through the galactic struggle right up to the tragic events of Revenge of the Sith. Tucked away in that mammoth amount of content are some of the best stories the franchise has to offer, though right alongside them is a lot of filler that can safely be skipped.
We’re midway through a rewatch of the show at the moment, so we can’t disagree with this fan who’s boiled down Dave Filoni’s The Clone Wars writing formula:
The Clone Wars is commonly regarded as getting better the longer it goes on, with later seasons ditching the kid-friendly storylines and characters to focus on the juicy drama around Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan. Other fans of the show are quick to point this out, advising anyone watching it to stick around for when it gets good:
We also have to agree that there is some stuff in early episodes that’s truly cringeworthy:
We’ve found that the best way to get through the show is to stick to the official chronological order, as for some bizarre reason the story was aired completely out of order. This means you’ll get to some of the better stuff faster, and won’t be bogged down in the more juvenile plotlines:
With characters from the animated shows continually making the leap to live-action in the Disney Plus shows, now is a great time to take a deep dive into The Clone Wars. Many fans recently watched the excellent Tales of the Jedi, which gives you a taste of what Filoni can achieve with this style of show.
Ahsoka in particular looks set to pick up multiple stories and characters from The Clone Wars and Rebels, so if you want to see why she’s such a fan-favorite character and learn the backstory of Thrawn and Ezra Bridger, you might want to start grinding through these important stories. Sure, the quality varies, but we can only echo fans in saying that it does get genuinely great.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars is available on Disney Plus.