The Clone Wars Didn’t Redeem the Star Wars Prequels. They Didn’t Need Redeeming

Finally finished Season 7 of The Clone Wars. The last four episodes in particular were stunning – a visually spectacular and emotional look at what was going happening on the other side of the galaxy during Order 66. The focus on characters such as Ahsoka, Darth Maul and Captain Rex instead of any of the main Jedi characters paid off in spades by giving a fresh take on a familiar tragedy. If you want to know what Anakin, Obi-Wan, et al. were up to during this same timeframe, they released a movie about it in 2005. Dave Filoni deserves much of the acclaim for the series, of course, and he's a really smart guy who's not afraid to show his appreciation for the prequels, such as in this discussion of the importance of my man Qui-Gon Jinn in Anakin's arc.



Which brings me to one of the curious turnarounds in recent years regarding the Star Wars prequels. When Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, the prequels and George Lucas himself were pretty much persona non grata. Critics and fans routinely blasted them (though I still think the prequels are at least one and a half of a great trilogy) and Disney, evidently wary of being associated with them, threw away Lucas’s ideas for the sequel trilogy and distanced themselves from any preqel-era storylines (including cancelling The Clone Wars). It’s hard to argue with that strategy financially, when The Force Awakens went on to outgross every other Star wars at the box office (and is second only to A New Hope when adjusted for inflation).

But, slowly, fan opinion of the prequels started to shift and become more favourable to Lucas. This first became apparent when The Last Jedi was released. A large subsection of hardcore fans hated (mostly unfairly) Rian Johnson’s film and started pining for the days when Lucas was in control of the saga. This only intensified when Solo and The Rise of Skywalker came out and, let’s be frank, both were a bit rubbish. Around the same time Disney itself seemed to warm to the prequels, with the final season of The Clone Wars greenlit and an Obi-Wan series starring Ewan McGregor announced for Disney+ (though this has since been postponed).

The strength of the prequels was the worldbuilding and overall story. They were less successful with the emotional interaction between the characters (although Revenge of the Sith has some really well done character moments) and this is one area where The Clone Wars was able to pick up the slack. The series had time to show us the friendship between Obi-Wan and Anakin, as well as humanize Anakin through his relationship with his padawan, Ahsoka. The series also fleshed out the random Jedi that showed up throughout the movies, and further demonstrated the arrogance of the Jedi Council (one memorable moment in the last series was Mace Windu dismissing Ahsoka as a “citizen” – what a jerk!)
Ultimately The Clone Wars and the prequel trilogy work together really well, each one offering a different perspective on the wars and the fall of the Republic. So no, the series didn’t save the prequels or make them magically better. But I think time has made more people look back fondly on the prequel era and realize that for all his flaws as a writer and director, Lucas had a genuine vision for the saga. The Disney era, though it has contained some really good films, has yet to demonstrate that unified vision.