The Clone Wars Heroes on Both Sides Television 

Five Thoughts on Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ “Heroes on Both Sides” and “Pursuit of Peace”

By | April 4th, 2018
Posted in Television | % Comments

This week, The Clone Wars decided it was time to start giving some motivation and characterization to the Separatists, and the results are mostly satisfying.

1. Some background

While the show never gets into the super specific minutia as to what caused the conflict, “Heroes on Both Sides” does a nice job illuminating the viewer on the basic machinations of this situation. Showing that Padme could still have a friend on the other side shouldn’t be as shocking as it is presented here, but I understand why it is. So far, the separatists we’ve met are: Dooku, Ventress, Grievous, Trade Federation derps. Those are about as evil and one dimensional as you can get, so it’s not too hard to root for the Republic.

But when you see actual, seemingly rational voices behind the movement, it makes it presents the conflict in a more nuanced way. This episode uses Ahsoka as the audience proxy in that way, though I doubt the viewers are as partisan as Ahsoka is. Speaking of the padawan…

2. Icky boy stuff

The Ahsoka and Lux stuff was about as heavy handed as you could get, both from the ‘one party never considered the other’s position’ standpoint, as well as the ‘boys only care about chasing girls’ perspective. Lux makes a dumb joke about Ahsoka’s looks, and it just lays there with no real reaction in the chamber. Is he flirting? Is he trying to be a dick? Is that just how he is?

This show has been as subtle as it can be about love affairs in the past, but this is like a scene out of Back to School dumped in the middle of the episode. I don’t understand why it was there; if they wanted to make Lux seems sleazy, they should’ve followed up on that. Or, if they wanted to redeem him, then it needed to be mentioned after the initial comment.

3. Terrible assassins

Can the Separatists only afford the world’s worst assassins to try to kill Padme and Bail? Killing unarmed diplomats shouldn’t be very hard, especially not for droids who, it would stand to reason, have better aim than a human would. Yet this show is full of botched assassination attempts, and the Senate seemingly has very poor security.

4. Bail’s reputation

Bail Organa is a name that many of us longtime Star Wars fans knew long before Jimmy Smits was ever cast as him for the prequels, and we knew few things about him. In The Clone Wars, he is regarded as one of the most respected senators in the galaxy, and a beacon of the ‘right’ way to play politics. This is interesting, given what we know about Organa’s future. That is, he’s a Rebel, and he’s someone who would likely be disapproved of by lots of his congressional compatriots.

Although, perhaps this is being set up as a reason for the Rebellion’s eventual success; with a voice like Organa’s at the forefront, people would be far more likely to take such a risk. I do like how this show is making a number of moments in the films feel more important, although I am still 100% convinced that Rogue One represents the best Bail we’ll ever see in a live action setting.

5. Deregulation

Hey y’all, remember how this is a show for kids? The entire plot of one episode is about the need to deregulate the banking system to give an influx of cash to the government. This is about as far from child’s programming as possible, just a few weeks after a gag-heavy droids episode. This is one of the many weird things about The Clone Wars: it’s total disregard for age-appropriate tone.

This also feels like an episode that could only have been written after the George W. Bush administration and the financial collapse of 2008. The terminology used here is so steeped in post-9/11 fear mongering and the phony promises of winning an unwinnable war, it feels really of a time. I don’t mean that as a detriment, but it is interesting to see how much the current geo-political climate feels absolutely different than it did just a few years ago. I wonder if the new, currently unnamed and not yet announced Dave Filoni series will reflect the new hellscape we live in today.


//TAGS | The Clone Wars

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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