We've established that this blog is, ultimately, about what makes good Star Wars. It's a fact that any good Star Wars has to have a moment that makes you say "Hell yeah!". But what if it's only "Hell yeah!" moments. Clone Wars puts this to the test and the answer is some pretty thin stuff.
The best bits are the Dooku / Ventress arc in the first series and the Anakin / Ventress fight in the second, because both attempt to give the incessant spectacle some sort of character-led heft. The Dantooine episodes are some of the worst Star Wars of all time and has done irreparable damage to the fandom, who largely believe it to be some of the best.
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Headcanon parking space: it's clear to me from how it's portrayed that Muunilinst is Obi-Wan's first deployment leading a sizeable army. This tracks with Republic, where he's largely been on strike team missions with Anakin and Alpha. Muunilinst is where Obi-Wan's reputation begins to grow more significantly, and he's increasingly given large commands, leading up to when we next see him in Jabiim. (Cestus Deception don't @ me).
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Here's my theory of Star Wars conflict geography (Essential Atlas don't @ me). There are two types of spatially coherent conflict:
- Geographically consistent - such as the New Jedi Order, where you can follow the conflict on a map;
- Topologically consistent - such as the Galactic Civil War. You can't credibly attempt to map the war, but we know that the Empire are concentrated in the Core, the Rebels scattered across the Rim, that the main form of engagement are hit and fade attacks, etc.
The Clone Wars, as depicted in my reading thus far, are neither. Battles are erupting all across the place, there's no sense of the ebb and flow of the war, and there's little rhyme or reason as to whether a certain planet is aligned with the Republic or the Separatists. None of this is an impediment to good storytelling but it does mean the stories have a strange lack of stake or any real weight.
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