Being late is frowned upon in all etiquette circles however, there is one aspect of being late to something that has a benefit: entertainment. While some TV shows and movies are big hits and the subject of buzz, coming into something late gives a lot more perspective.
Being a decade late to Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated show has been a wonderful thing. For starters, I already know characters such as Ahsoka Tano that people originally weren't sure about are now fan favorites. I also don't have to wait any time between seasons, even the multi-year gap between the show ending on Cartoon Network and getting a final Disney+ season. My experience was seamless.
It is also wonderful to see the evolution of a show's storytelling without the speculation and fandom noise that happens with many shows. The time I spent with Clone Wars was one in my own bubble free from outside influence.
As for the show itself, I am amazed at how it went from a "Kiddie" program at the outset and delved into multi-episode story arcs with dark stories to tell. It's like the training wheels came off and the writers said "This is a war, let's show it." And they did. I am quite impressed at how some topics were handled and the deep, character-building stories added so much to a universe we all thought we knew.
With the final 4 episodes genius move taking place during Episode III, I re-watched that film after finishing the series. And I must say the show does a lot of heavy lifting where the movie needed it. The bonds we never got to see truly form between Anakin and Obi-Wan are now firmly in our minds. The tech, clone troopers, and messiness of the war are all familiar and help us get into the movie even more. And of course, Anakin turning to the dark side had even more of an impact when we knew what was going on within the final episodes of the show.
I slept on Clone Wars and I'm happy I did. It let me blow through 7 seasons in only a couple of months and it enhanced what I consider to be the strongest of the prequel movies.
Now, it's onto the Obi-Wan Kenobi show that I've slept on. Because it's evident that going into this directly after an Episode III re-watch is a perfect setup.
-Aaron
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