Countdown to ‘Ahsoka’: Revisiting ‘The Clone Wars’ Season 2
Welcome back to our series of daily articles counting down the days until the release of Ahsoka on Disney Plus, in which we look back at the history of the character and her impact on the Star Wars franchise. After looking back at the first season of The Clone Wars earlier in the series, now we will be diving into season 2. You can check out all articles on our “Countdown to Ahsoka” here.
It had been a while since the last time I saw the second season of The Clone Wars in full, so I was caught off guard by a few things with the main takeaway being that it was much better than I remembered. After binging the whole show for the first time, I thought to myself that the first two seasons were mostly OK, getting increasingly better until the series really gets off the ground in season 3, namely with the Mortis arc and thereafter. Well, I haven’t revisited those further seasons in full yet, but I was pleasantly surprised by the second season.
Right away, we are treated to an Ahsoka-heavy arc when she is given library duties as a punishment after she refused to follow orders during a battle. However, things are not as boring as she thought they’d be, because Cad Bane was hired by Darth Sidious to steal a holocron from the Jedi temple, for which Bane and his team will need access to the library. In this arc, Ahsoka is still one of, if not the main protagonist and she shines as a highly-skilled Padawan, while still heeding to Jedi masters when needed.
Most importantly, I was surprised about Anakin pushing for a near-torturous interrogation of Bane when they tried to locate the missing holocron. I remembered Anakin’s descent into his Revenge of the Sith dark side state was something the series explored, but once again, I thought it was left for much later in the series. Right away, season 2 opens with a hint that Anakin is no regular Jedi, and it’s not the only time. There are a few moments throughout the following episodes where he is definitely tempted by the dark side and toes the line dangerously.
I had also forgotten about Admiral Yularen being in the show, let alone as such an integral part of the narrative. Elements like this make The Clone Wars such a deep exploration of the Star Wars galaxy, perhaps more than any other series in the franchise. It’s not just fan service, but rather a comprehensive study of everyone involved in the war and their character exploration that serves the overall narrative of the show. He is definitely not the only Republic officer that ended up in the high ranks of the Empire (see: Tarkin).
The second season also marks the introduction to Barriss Offee, Luminara Unduli’s Padawan and a pivotal character in Ahsoka’s journey in the future seasons of The Clone Wars. For that reason, I’ve always supported the long-running theory that Barriss will be making the jump to live-action too. This is pure speculation for now, but if the Ahsoka series is going to revisit Ahsoka’s history in animation like we think it will (its ties to Rebels are well-documented by this point), exploring the reason why Ahsoka left the Jedi Order,(which is central to Barriss’ story, as well) would fit perfectly, even if it’s not strictly necessary.
As far as negatives go, one of my biggest surprises was seeing the episode “Bounty Hunters“, which is essentially a Seven Samurai rip-off or homage (depending on how you view it). The episode features a title card that says “In memory of Akira Kurosawa”, who was a huge influence to George Lucas (see: The Hidden Fortress), but that didn’t stop it from feeling like a cheap copy of one of the best films of the 20th century. Perhaps what threw me off the most about it is that Chapter 4 of The Mandalorian was essentially the same thing, so in retrospect that would make that episode worse, not “Bounty Hunters”. In any case, we can probably move on from Seven Samurai at this point. There are always episodes that fall below the quality of some of the arcs in a season, but I guess that’s always been true for Star Wars animation, even for the best seasons of Rebels.
What’s most fascinating about going back now and watching The Clone Wars is that Ahsoka’s growth feels real. And I don’t just mean in terms of character arcs, but also her transition from annoying teenager to young adult. The character in the second season is already more mature than the one we saw in the 2008 movie, but still has much to learn. She is very well characterized because she feels like a character that has been through a few battles, but probably doesn’t fully grasp the gravity of the situations she often finds herself in.
That said, she has a lot more to experience, and we will be reliving it here with our countdown series of articles. Check back next week, when we’ll look at her transition in the following seasons of The Clone Wars.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
