Here we are, the final episodes of the Clone Wars. Well, for about six years before the 7th and final season came to us with Disney Plus last year. I wasn’t sure what to expect from these episodes, but it does seem like they were made with them being the final episodes of the series in mind.
My initial suspicion was that they would be acting as some kind of lead up to the events of Revenge of the Sith somehow. But that’s not what we got, instead, we got a more mystical journey starring Yoda as he both discovers and comes to terms with how the Jedi as they currently exist are all but doomed.
Season 6, Episode 10: The Lost One
This episode, surprising enough picks up a thread left dangling since the days of Attack of the Clones; the very creation of the Clone Army. As far as the other Jedi knew, the Grand Army of the Republic was ordered by the late Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas. A former member of the council who had previously urged the Jedi to prepare for war.
The entire episode laid out as an investigation by the Jedi. Discovering the wrecked ship of the dead Master, Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin chase threads to try and understand what actually happened to him before he mysteriously died. Meanwhile, Dooku is berated by his master for leaving a loose thread after his involvement in the whole affair and ordered to clean it up.
When their investigation leads Anakin and Obi-Wan into confronting the Pyke Syndicate for their part in the disappearance of a personal aide that was accompanying Sifo-Dyas, they realise that the man is still alive. Being held in the cells under the criminal syndicate’s stronghold, the man has gone totally mad from being left in solitude for so long. Before he can reveal the identity of the mysterious Jedi that was also present at Sifo-Dyas’s murder Dooku shows up and pretty much outs himself as the grand architect of the whole conspiracy.
If Obi-Wan and Anakin weren’t sure before, they sure were when the Pyke’s identify Count Dooku as this Tyranus character. The gears finally start clicking into place within Obi-Wan’s head and he finally realises that it was Count Dooku that created the very army the Republic are using to fight against him and his Separatist forces.
Season 6, Episode 11: Voices
Following the disturbing realisation that the Sith themselves were behind the creation of the Clone Army, the Jedi are in moral turmoil. No more than Yoda himself, the extent to which the Jedi have been manipulated seems to put them all on edge. It has them jumping at shadows, which isn’t helped any by the fact that Liam Neeson starts talking to Yoda inside his own head.
Unsure whether the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn is real, a dark side trick or the pressure of the war getting to him, Yoda decides to slip away from the Jedi Temple and go on a little odyssey to discover the reason behind the voices he is hearing. Doing so in a very cute little ship that looks like something of a combination of the Eta-2 interceptor and a TIE Fighter.
Yoda is lead to Dagobah, where he comes to learn that the voice of Qui-Gon is real and that the old Master had been learning how to retain his consciousness within the force after death. Although Qui-Gon’s training was incomplete, which explains why he cannot appear as a force ghost before Yoda. It’s a cool episode in which we get a lot of parallels to Luke original journey into the cave on Dagobah from Empire Strikes Back.
We also get to see a number of scenes from Revenge of the Sith recreated in Yoda’s vision, mostly of how his fellow Jedi die. Through starting this journey of learning, Yoda seems to both realise and come to terms with the fact that he is going to have to die and persist in some form in order for the Jedi to eventually overcome the Sith.
Season 6, Episode 12: Destiny
This is a very mystical, origin of the force kind of episode. Whereas the previous one harkened back to Luke’s training on Dagobah, this one is a bit more fantastical. Yoda’s travels take him to a planet hidden within a golden nebula. Once there he realises he is on a world where the very living force erupts from the world like a geyser.
He also meets five ghostly priestesses, former moral beings who were able to retain their individuality after death. They begin testing Yoda to see whether he is worthy or not of being taught how to become a force ghost.
Yoda goes through a series of trials, facing the darkness within himself. Which I swear is just a skin pigment away from just being Gollum. After letting go of his hubris and realising he does have something to learn here, Yoda is shown two visions. The first shows all of the Jedi he has known and cared for dead, including a returning cameo from Ahsoka Tano. The other is a vision of a perfect Jedi Order, one in which the Clone Wars never happened and his former student Dooku never fell to the dark side.
Yoda denies them both, the purpose behind which is kind of lost on me. Trying to use temptation on Yoda seems a little silly to me, but it was visually striking non the less.
Season 6, Episode 13: Sacrifice
In the final part of his journey, Yoda must travel to the ancient home of the Sith: Korriban. Oh wait, I meant Moraband… Urgh..
Y’know, I know George Lucas created this series, and at the time he still had final say on what was Star Wars canon. But Korriban has been a deeply established planet and part of the Star Wars lore for years at this point, for him to casually change the name just because he thought Moraband “sounded better” bums me out. I’ll just stick to my head cannon that it’s a pronunciation thing and to the ancient Sith themselves the planet still goes by its original name…
It’s strange because while Moraband’s name was changed, the show’s writers made the choice to include the old continuity concept of Darth Bane and him being the originator of the Rule of Two. Although they change his brutish, hulking design and replace it with a more generic ghost in armour looking guy. Although I am happy that it seems like Dave Filoni seems to want to try and keep part of the Old Republic continuity the fans love so much alive in the new canon.
Yoda faces a final trial on Moraband, as both Darth Sidious and Tyranus put a direct hand in using Sith magics to try and break him. Through a vision battle, Yoda finds himself battling the Dark Lord of the Sith and his apprentice along with Anakin Skywalker. The battle has a number of allusions to actual future events, but in the end the battle ends with Yoda giving up discovering the identity of Sidious in order to save the life of young Skywalker.
Sidious fails to break Yoda in the end and the priestesses seem content that Yoda is ready to begin learning from the spirit of Qui-Gon how to persist as a force spirit.
These were a cool and unusual collection of episodes. It seems kind of strange to me that for years and years these were the final episodes of the Clone Wars series. Although that was obviously taken out of creator’s hands given the series was cut short. The implication of this episode seems to hint that Yoda might know that the Jedi are doomed and learning this technique is the only chance they have to survive in the long run.
I always found it ironic that Sidious seemed to desperate to find a way to live forever, and it was the one power that was denied to him as a Sith, a power that only a Jedi could attain. Because it was all about a lack of hubris and letting go of everything.
As a conclusion to the series, this does put us on the road towards what will eventually happen in Revenge of the Sith, but does leave an awful lot of threads open and unanswered. I’m actually really looking forward to getting into the final Clone Wars series now and seeing how much of a jump in quality of animation and storytelling it receives after it’s prolonged absence.
We’re in the final stretch guys!
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 