Star Wars-ing: The Clone Wars Season 3 Ep 1-11

Season Three was one of my favorite seasons so far.  Here is a recap with mild spoilers of the season.

Clone Cadets Arc (E1-2):  Episodes that focus on the clones and their role in the war and in Star Wars in general tend to be my favorite shows.  This episode tends to follow the After School special trope about learning the value of teamwork. However, it’s expertly done and kind of chokes up you at the end of the arc.

Supply Lines (E2): A Jar Jar episode that can work in either the Jar Jar is a clown or a Sith paths.

Sphere of Influence (E3):  It’s amazing to me how much Ahsoka has grown as a character.  When the movie came out, I thought she would be annoying and a distraction from learning about Anakin and Obi-Wan.  However, this episode proves she can carry a story by herself which has been true for sometime now.

Mandalore Season 3 Arc (5-6):   Mandalore is a one of the best settings in the Clone Wars.  The people of Mandalore are neither truly good or bad, Separatist or Republican.  The first episode has Padme investigating a weird illness, while the second episode has Ahsoka continuing the investigation. Satine also plays a huge part in this arc. More importantly, these episodes again prove that Star Wars is no longer a boys club with Princess Leia standing in for all the strong women.

Assassin (7):

 This is one of the best episodes in the series. It recalls (or foreshadows) the dreams that haunt Anakin in Revenge of the Sith.  However, Ahsoka handles it a lot better.  This is a tense, dramatic episode and again proves that the female characters are just as interesting as the male leads.

Evil Plans (8):

As most of the C3Po-R2D2 episodes, this is a Rosencrantz and Guilderstern is Dead trope.  The main action, the one we should be interested in, is with Padame but the more interesting adventure is occuring behind the scene.  Plus, it’s a Cad Bane episode which is usually a good thing.

The Out of Order Episodes (9-11):  These episodes led to lots of confusion when watching them.  However, if you place these episodes after Season 1’s Hostatge Crisis, it makes sense.  I would rate these a lot higher if they were actually in order. In fact, it would have made me forgive the Clone Wars movie by making it more layered.