I'm a big fan of the original trilogy of Star Wars. I enjoy a fair amount of the Extended Universe novels. I like what some of the video games bring to the table. I like The Mandalorian series, and love the season 2 finale.
The Han Solo movie should have been a series. They crammed way too much of his story into a movie. It could have easily been a limited series, nicely ending with the story of how Han got in trouble with Jabba. I guess the movie was okay. Just disappointing. And Rogue One... well... it had pretty good characters that made me like them, and I admit I enjoyed seeing Darth Vader cut loose, but the idea that the weakness had to be designed in and that the dad assigned his daughter the task and fate instead of just sending the information to the active rebels is weak. I also don't like how it bled directly into the beginning of Episode 4. When you watch Episode 4, the impression they give is that Darth Vader has been hunting the plans for a while... not one day.
I very much dislike the Prequel Trilogy. I dislike the Sequels too, especially episode 8 which harmed the setting and characters I love. I dislike the Book of Boba Fett series for having very little to do with Boba Fett and for portraying Luke Skywalker in a stupid way. I should add too that I don't like how Ahsoka Tano is written in The Mandalorian or Book of Boba Fett.
That's my setting of expectations so you know where I'm coming from in my review of The Clone Wars series. I don't think I can avoid spoilers, so I'll give the short review quickly here. There's a lot of illogical junk in the series as well as weird decisions made by the writers in some places, but they do manage to tell some good stories in there. And they do end it well. I'm glad I watched the whole thing.
Now that I have the foundation laid and a warning that spoilers are to follow, I'll start the more detailed review. I had tried watching Clone Wars while it was coming out and again a bit later on Netflix I think. I didn't make it very far. I made it to season 3, episodes 15 to 17. And I gave up on the series because of how dumb those episodes are. They insert into the setting the idea of near-god-like beings with sway enough over the Force to affect the balance for everyone. I hated those episodes enough that I just stopped watching the show. Now, having watched the whole series, I can say they had a few of those things where they tried something odd and the only reason I kept watching was so I could say I had seen all of it. Yoda's adventure to learn about how to become a Force ghost comes to mind as another bad inclusion in the series.
I'm going to pile on a little more that I dislike before I get to the parts I do like. First is a thing that isn't the fault of the series. The Prequel movies set up this show poorly. The show has to exist between Episodes 2 and 3 and can't really change anything. To begin with, the prequels set up a war that is CALLED the Clone Wars, but could just as easily have been called the Droid Wars, or more accurately called the Separatist Wars. Why were they called the Clone Wars? Sure, one side was primarily composed of clones, but the war wasn't about them. I think George Lucas failed to give us something that makes sense. And it makes it difficult for me to just brush that idea off and go along with the movies. What I wanted was a good-buy side fighting for morality against a bad-guy side fighting for their immoral tradition. One side fighting to stop slave clones from being made and used, and the other fighting to protect their economies that depend on slave clones. That would have made sense as something called the Clone Wars.
Additionally, in the Prequels, George Lucas gave us a Jedi Order that willingly used slave clones to fight and die in the war. I'm having a hard time understanding why the Jedi Order accepted that. Had the order fallen so far already? Forgotten to protect life? And really, why were the Jedi involved in government and military leadership? Did anyone elect them to government? Why did they have any government authority? And with respect to being diplomats or generals, did any of them receive any training for those skill sets? Why were Jedi sent to be diplomats to end the trade blockade on Naboo? As a side note, why bother sending the Jedi if no one will believe their findings?
Seriously though, why are the Jedi generals in the Galactic Republic's military? Do they understand strategy? Tactics? Use of resources without sacrificing those resources? How many clones died because the Jedi have no idea what they're doing? How many stupid plans happened? The Jedi should never have been an arm of the government and should never have been military leaders. The Jedi should have been a monastic order the teach the ways of the Force and dealing with emotions enough to not be controlled by them. And Obi-Wan should have been a Jedi that saw the war happening and couldn't leave it alone. He should have pleaded with Yoda to get involved, but Yoda tells him that they must try to use their power to help people in need and encourage the people in power to stop the fighting... not join the fighting. But Obi-Wan doesn't listen and he offers his help to the Republic military to fight the clone slavers. Along the way, he meets the adult Anakin who is strong in the Force. Obi-Wan asks Yoda to train him, but Yoda refuses and suggests Obi-Wan not train him either. Owen (Anakin's real brother) tries to convince Anakin to not get involved, but Anakin and Obi-Wan both want to follow that path. Anyway... I apologize... long digression.
The Clone Wars show had the faulty premise of the Prequel movies to build on. It had to use the illogical basis for the war (trade agreements? and some star systems wanting to leave the republic? No legal recourse? just straight to war?). And it had to use the bizarrely defined Jedi order as generals in the war. And the show does make a LOT of logical errors around military efforts, crafting situations that wouldn't occur in reality and making very bad choices that only work because the show makes them happen that way. It's pretty clear that the writers don't have military experience or knowledge. Though I suppose some of that might be because even the original trilogy is patterned around World War 2 fighting. It wasn't trying to be realistic. It was trying to tell a story. So, while I am unhappy with the amount of problems in The Clone Wars show around military efforts, I can consciously decide that it takes a back seat to the story they're trying to tell.
There are problem stories in there that feel like mistakes or just filler, but there are plenty of good stories, and the big overarching story seems to be the story of Asokha Tano. It shows her first becoming the student of Anakin Skywalker, and ends with what happens to her during Order 66. Through her experiences (mostly) we get to see character development of Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padme, and more familiar characters. But we get introduced to a few new characters that are good, and they even bring Darth Maul (just Maul now) back in a way that isn't dumb. I actually like how much more intelligent he seems in the series where in the movies he seems like nothing more than an attack dog. Another Star Wars favorite, the Mandalorians are explored quite a bit. There's a lot here worth watching the show for.
I think I'll end by saying I think the show is worth watching, as long as you can ignore the bad military decision making. And it's probably safe to just skip the episodes with side stories you don't like.
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