Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a great series, but it didn't quite have a great first season. Season 2, on the other hand, I remember absolutely loving when I was younger, with larger scale arcs, better character development, and stronger action. So let's see how it holds up...
Magic Of The Holocron Arc: I actually really like this arc, it feels like a big rip-roaring adventure with high stakes, jumping between multiple settings and packing in a ton of great action scenes. Cad Bane is still a great villain, but having him steal something as valuable as a holocron makes him even more intimidating. Holocron Heist is an incredibly fun and tense heist episode where Bane steals the titular item, but it's also notable for continuing Ahsoka's development by having her actually get in trouble with the council. There's also a pretty fun lightsaber fight in the library. Cargo Of Doom, while the weakest, was still really great! It was pretty much a nonstop action-packed game of oneupmanship between Anakin and Bane, with Ahsoka's development continuing even further. Children Of The Force was probably my favorite, mostly because of the insanely high stakes and the sheer amount of planets visited as the Jedi tried to save the children. The action scenes were great, the finale on Mustafar stuck out to me even as a kid, and Ahsoka and Anakin's character arcs come to a great end. Overall, a really good way to kickstart the season and probably my favorite arc yet!
4/5 Stars
Senate Spy: So apparently this is part of the Return To Geonosis arc, but it feels so far removed in both storyline and quality that it just doesn't feel right fitting it in there. Senate Spy is not a great episode, at all. I never liked the Padme politics episodes, but that doesn't quite mean I don't like politics in Star Wars, it can be great if done well. However, this episode forgoes otherwise interesting lore and world-building for a *sigh* jealous boyfriend storyline. I don't like the trope where a boyfriend becomes jealous of his girlfriend's guy friend, and this episode doesn't execute it very well at all, Anakin's jealousy of Clovis is really annoying and just plain hard to watch in this one. In addition, even though this episode should have focused entirely on Padme spying on Clovis, she ends up getting poisoned about halfway through and taken out of commission. What a waste...
1/5 Stars
Return To Geonosis Arc: Hey, we finally did it! A 5/5 story arc! (Rookies doesn't count, that was a single episode). This storyline has some of the best episodes yet, especially once the characters arrive at Geonosis. It has great action, a ton of characters, and a tense finale. Landing At Point Rain is a roaring start to the arc, easily the largest battle to date that follows three separate groups of characters. It's also great that the series is returning to Geonosis, one of the best planets in the prequel trilogy. Weapons Factory is even better, as Ahsoka and Luminara's Padawan Barriss to go on a mission on their own. There's still a ton of great actions and high stakes, but I really like the differences between Ahsoka and Anakin and Luminari and Barriss, and the finale where Ahsoka and Barriss nearly die from being caved in was intense and striking. Legacy Of Terror takes the series into full-on horror, utilizing a combination of the creepy Geonosians and dark catacombs for maximum scares. It's a tense and scary episode that, despite being the weakest in the arc, is still pretty great. And then there's Brain Invaders, and where do I even start with this one? This episode was absolutely traumatizing as a kid, but nowadays, it's easily become one of my favorites in the series. The titular worms are a terrifying threat, far more effectively scary than the catacombs in the previous episode. I love how claustrophobic and personal this episode was, and the finale with Ahsoka nearly having to kill Barriss was even more intense than Weapons Factory! But what really pushed this episode over the top was the foreshadowing for RoTS. There's the parasitic clone army which resembles the events of Order 66, there's Anakin using the force chock for the first time in the series, and there's even Ahsoka bringing up the question of whether Jedi are really keepers of the peace. It's insane how important Brain Invaders is in hindsight, it's dark, compelling, intense, and the best episode so far by a mile. Every episode in this arc is great, but Brain Invaders is a special kind of great that brings the whole arc up to a 5/5.
5/5 Stars
Saleucami Arc: This is another weird arc for me, as not only is it just two episodes, both episodes are drastically different from each other and barely connected. Thankfully, though, I quite like both of these episodes and I think this is a solid arc in its own right. Grievous Intrigue is a great, action-packed episode that does a good job of finally getting you to take the titular character seriously. Grievous is intelligent, intimidating, and legitimately threatening, putting this up there with Lair Of Grievous as one of his best episodes yet. I also like the focus on Obi-Wan and his developing grudge against Grievous, another great piece of set-up for RoTS. Then there's The Deserter which is a bit more standard of an episode, but it does introduce a very interesting premise. Cut is a clone who left the army to start a family, bringing up a lot of thought-provoking questions about the individuality of the clones, and a lot of the episode is composed of Rex and Cut debating their viewpoints, which I quite like a lot. However, the story is pretty predictable and the fight scenes with Grievous are a bit underwhelming coming after Intrigue. The Deserter is still a pretty good episode, but the weaker of the two, in my opinion. Regardless, this is a solid arc with two solid episodes.
4/5 Stars
Lightsaber Lost: This episode was actually pretty fun. It was cool to see the deep and seedy underbelly of Coruscant again after Attack Of The Clones, there were a lot of unique alien species that I've never seen in the series before. I also quite liked how moody this episode was with its noir aesthetic and the parkour-heavy chase scenes. And Sinube was a great foil for Ahsoka, his slow and thoughtful approach was fun to watch in his own right, and the character development for Ahsoka as she learns to be more patient is another great step forward for the character. There was also another great piece of lore about accusations that the Jedi started the war for their own malicious needs. Overall, this is a fairly solid and fun episode. Par for the course for the series, but I enjoyed it more than I expected.
3/5 Stars
Mandalore Arc: The Mandalore episodes are some of the ones that I remember the least (outside of the Siege which I watched recently). It's a shame too, because this arc is far more fascinating than I remember. Mandalore is a cool planet with a beautiful geometric design and some of the most interesting lore and politics out of any planet in the series (way better than Coruscant, that's for sure), and the themes on pacifism are dealt with far more carefully than Defenders Of Peace. The Mandalore Plot is jam-packed with lore, action, and new ideas. We meet Duchess Satine whose banter with Obi-Wan is a joy to watch, learn about Mandalore's policy of peace and its opposers, see the Darksaber for the first time, and get some pretty great action scenes. It's a very eventful half-hour episode, funny, exciting, and intriguing, easily the best of the trilogy. Voyage Of Temptation was a bit weaker but still pretty fun, with some more great interactions between Obi-Wan and Satine, a tense storyline, and a really intense finale with a hilariously dark payoff. Duchess Of Mandalore is easily the weakest of the three, as it felt pretty rushed and overstuffed, lacking the great dynamic that the first two episodes had. However, it's still a solidly satisfying resolution with some pretty cool Palpatine scenes. While this arc did drop off in quality a bit near the end, the first two episodes picked up most of the slack with some great lore, fun action, intense scenes, and a strong dynamic between its main duo.
4/5 Stars
Senate Murders: Out of the two Padme politics episodes this season, Senate Murders was definitely the least bad of the two, mostly because it was entirely focused on the senators this time around and not Anakin being a jealous jerk. I actually really liked Onoconda, so his death definitely made me compelled to learn who killed him. On the other hand, the inspector Divo was kind of annoying, and the reveal of who did kill Ono was pretty predictable, of course it was the other Rodian! Still, murder mysteries are somewhat fun and it was nice to see Padme take charge for the first time in the series, even if this wasn't the most exciting episode.
2/5 Stars
Cat And Mouse: Similarly to The Hidden Enemy, this episode serves as a prologue of sorts to the Clone Wars film. Unlike The Hidden Enemy, however, I'm not entirely sure if this episode was all that necessary. It doesn't have the fun Ventress fights or compelling clone drama that episode had, rather Cat and Mouse feels like something straight out of early Season 1. Still, the character of Trench is pretty cool, and I like how we get a bit more fleshing out of Yularen, which I absolutely did not expect from the series. It's also a bit odd that the stealth ship doesn't appear anywhere else in the show since it's a really cool-looking ship with a ton of potential, and it makes this episode feel like even more of an anomaly. Overall, Cat And Mouse was just alright, nothing really special.
2/5 Stars
Bounty Hunters: Another fairly average episode, but one that initially had a lot of potential. Everyone knows how Star Wars got its inspiration from the Seven Samurai, so I quite like that the series had an episode that would be a homage to the iconic film. However, I've seen several Star Wars homages to the Seven Samurai (The Mandalorian's The Jedi being the best of the bunch), and this episode was pretty derivative all things considered, never expanding on the original story in any meaningful way. However, I can't hate this episode too much since it introduces Endo, one of the coolest characters in the whole franchise. He's intimidating, well-designed, and the way he uses his hat to fight is both fluid and badass. Not to mention Hondo returns after the Gungan General arc in an episode much better than anything from that.
3/5 Stars
Zillo Beast Arc: The Zillo Beast arc isn't bad per se, I actually quite enjoyed it, but I think the bulk of what I liked about this arc was in the second half. The first episode is pretty much just a battle with the titular beast, though it does introduce the arc's main themes about protecting animals along with some actual depth for Mace Windu. However, Strikes Back is where things really get good, as we focus on none other than Palpatine for the first time as he decides what to do with the beast. I like how Anakin and Padme fight over whether or not he's right, the beast being let out into Coruscant makes the action far more tense and high stakes, and I like how tragic the final killing of the beast ended up being. After a lot of episodes this season started to sprinkle in Palpatine's manipulations, it feels like Strikes Back is where things begin to come to a bit of a head, with one of his plans resulting in a lose-lose situation for everyone involved. Overall, this was an alright arc, but its second half is the stronger episode by a long shot.
3/5 Stars
Boba Fett Arc: As a season-ending arc, I think these three episodes work far better than Hostage Crisis did. Not only does it tie into the overarching theme of bounty hunters, but Boba Fett's compelling revenge plot is a nice connection to the films, and the final episode of the arc has a bunch of really big status quo shifts. Death Trap is a strong opener with an interesting concept of Boba hiding in a group of clones while secretly trying to kill Mace Windu, it's pretty fun if not anything amazing. R2 Come Home is the weakest of the three due to being more of a lighthearted transition episode, but despite the focus on the titular droid, this isn't one of those weak comedy episodes from Season 1. R2-D2 takes his mission very seriously and is kind of a badass here, winning against the bounty hunters without making them seem like bumbling idiots. Add in some great banter between Mace and Anakin and you get a pretty fun episode. Lethal Trackdown is easily the best episode in the arc, it feels far more like a finale, it's action-packed, dramatic, and ends with not everyone left unscathed. This episode packs in the deaths of characters like Ponds and Castas, the return of Hondo, fun fight scenes, a backstory for Aurra Sing, and some more great character development for Ahsoka. It's an excellent finale and a strong way to end off the season.
4/5 Stars
Overall, I'm surprised at how much of a massive improvement this season was from the first. Aside from just two weak Padme episodes, most of the storylines here were consistently strong, with even better action and character work, and far less weak moments of humor. Add in the first 5/5 arc of the series and you get a season that ended up being much better than I remembered, even if it peaks fairly early on.
4/5 Stars
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