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00:00Star Wars The Clone Wars began with a 2008 feature film and subsequently spawned a show that ran for seven fantastic seasons ending in 2020.
00:09The series gave us the chance to finally understand what happened between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith,
00:14but there is much more to this show than what lies on the surface.
00:18The series was a maze of planning, well-placed easter eggs and cathartic resolutions to many a character's journeys.
00:24So hold tight, because I'm Gareth from WhatCultureStarWars, and here are 10 mind-blowing facts you didn't know about Star Wars The Clone Wars.
00:32Number 10, The Name Game
00:34Ahsoka Tano is arguably the breakout star of The Clone Wars.
00:38First appearing in the feature film and being expertly fleshed out over the seven-season show,
00:43Ahsoka joined canon as Anakin Skywalker's new and unwanted Padawan.
00:47Ahsoka was created by George Lucas as a way of adding a new layer to Anakin's story.
00:51She represents the true good of the galaxy and is a great character to juxtapose her master's darkening personality.
00:59Originally, however, Lucas wanted to call her Ashlar, which he says means light side.
01:03Also, it's been revealed that Ashlar is actually a canon character, a Jedi youngling who briefly appears in Attack of the Clones.
01:10However, Lucas changed his mind about Ahsoka's name in the end.
01:14Number 9, Crossing Paths
01:15You might remember in Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi come face-to-face with General Grievous,
01:22as they attempt to save Chancellor Palpatine from the evil Separatists.
01:26Grievous famously calls Anakin out and says, I thought you'd be taller.
01:29It's a throwaway line in a long and epic film, but one that proved to be quite the hurdle for showrunner Dave Filoni when he came to make The Clone Wars.
01:37On the show, Anakin is the primary protagonist and Grievous is a major antagonist.
01:42But because it would ruin the continuity of the films if the two were to meet on the show,
01:46Filoni had to execute a series of narrative backflips to keep the two apart.
01:50Every time there's a chance the two will see each other, something steps in to push him away.
01:55It's a shame in many respects that the two never cross paths and get a chance to fight on the show,
02:00but is of course necessary for the continuity.
02:02Plus, in its place, we get Grievous and Obi-Wan's rivalry, which is one of the best in the entire canon.
02:08Number 8, Cast Connections
02:10Anyone worth their kyber crystals knows who Mark Hamill is.
02:14But did you know that he was also in The Clone Wars, playing someone radically different to ultimate good guy Luke Skywalker?
02:20Hamill has a voiceover cameo in Season 6, Episode 13, Sacrifice, where he voices ancient Sith Darth Bane,
02:27who appears as a ghostly vision to Yoda as he visits the Sith planet of Moraband.
02:31Any trace of Luke's voice is lost in Bane, and it gives Hamill the chance to play someone who diverges from his more popular role.
02:38Hamill is not the only one who revisits the canon in The Clone Wars, however.
02:42As in the 2008 film, Samuel L. Jackson got the chance to reprise his role as Mace Windu.
02:47He's replaced for the majority of the show by Terrence Carson, who captures Jackson's voice beautifully, it must be said.
02:53But he also makes an appearance in Season 7 thanks to archive footage from Revenge of the Sith.
02:57Liam Neeson, meanwhile, gets to reprise his role as Qui-Gon Jinn for several episodes of The Clone Wars, where he appears as a Force ghost.
03:05His role is much more significant than both Jackson's and Hamill's, but equally as rewarding for longtime fans.
03:11Number 7, Animating Dueling
03:13Up until Season 7, The Clone Wars was completely animated, even the lightsaber duels.
03:19This isn't a bad thing by a long shot, as many of the fights in the series rival and even surpass those in the films.
03:26I know, blasphemy.
03:27That being said, the best duel the show has to offer comes in Season 7, Episode 10, between Ahsoka Tano and a revitalized Darth Maul.
03:35But did you know that this fight was created mostly through the use of motion capture technology?
03:40When watching it back, you realize just how seamless and complex the characters' movements actually are.
03:44In the scene, professional stunt artist Lauren Mary Kim and Ray Park, who played Maul in both The Phantom Menace and Solo, A Star Wars Story,
03:52provide motion capture performances for Ahsoka and Darth Maul, respectively.
03:57Add their talents to the vocal chops of Ashley Eckstein and Sam Witwer, as well as the stylish animation the series is now known for,
04:04and what you're left with is one of the most visually stunning and satisfying moments of the entire series.
04:09Number 6, The 501st Legion
04:12In 1997, in South Carolina, Albin Johnson and Tom Cruise founded The 501st Legion,
04:18a charitable organization that makes realistic costumes from the original trilogy.
04:23Johnson and Cruise started by making Stormtrooper costumes, and styled themselves The 501st Legion, or Vader's Fist.
04:30The name was coined to honor both the films and the real-life heroes of World War II.
04:34Their popularity grew at such a rate that even George Lucas joined them at a charity event at one point.
04:39Eventually, they became canon in Timothy Zahn's novel Survivor's Quest, and the clone unit subsequently appeared in Revenge of the Sith with Darth Vader as he sacks the Jedi Temple.
04:49Although not named in the film itself, the Battalion of Clones was revealed to be the 501st thanks to Lucasfilm's merchandising.
04:55Of course, all this eventually led to the 501st Legion becoming a part of the Clone Wars later down the line,
05:01serving under Anakin and his Padawan Ahsoka.
05:03All of this makes for a very sweet and respectable way of honoring the many fans of Star Wars.
05:08But perhaps the best thing about the 501st is that it gave us its superior, Captain Rex, who remains one of the show's most popular figures.
05:15Number 5, Humanizing the Clones
05:17Since we're on the subject of Captain Rex and the clones who give the series its name,
05:22let's take a look here at the veteran clone's conception and the work that goes into personalizing the men who all sound and look the same.
05:28Rex was originally going to be called Alpha, after a clone called Alpha 17 who appeared in the comic Star Wars Republic.
05:35But the name was scrapped because Lucas felt the main cast featured too much alliteration already.
05:39Lucas then decided to call him Rex instead, and gave him the job of being the central clone character of the show.
05:45Enter Dee Bradley Baker, who had the job of voicing the clones.
05:48Despite all the troopers effectively being the same person, Baker knew as well as Lucas and showrunner Dave Filoni
05:54that the essence of the show was to humanize the clones.
05:57Baker thus went to great lengths to differentiate the troopers, recording all their lines separately and adding inflections on key adjectives for each one.
06:05Rex was given the most thought due to his large role on the show, and Baker and Filoni even made a clone triangle to help rank the troopers by the importance of their role on the show, which Rex obviously topped.
06:16Number 4, Lost Episodes and Arcs
06:19Despite its popularity on Cartoon Network, The Clone Wars was cancelled midway through Season 6 after being purchased by Disney.
06:25Although Disney brought the show back for a seventh and final season on its new streaming service, the season was shortened and many key arcs and storylines were left unresolved.
06:34The two key arcs have been made into successful and well-reviewed novels and comics, but would likely have been better suited to the show, it must be said.
06:41For example, the comics, Son of Dathomir, detailed a four-episode arc which would have seen Darth Maul kidnapped and tortured by Darth Sidious following the death of Savage Opress.
06:51The whole story would have been epic, pitting Maul against both Dooku and Grievous.
06:55That's not the arc we long for the most, however, as on the show, Asajj Ventress is robbed of the chance to have her story end on a satisfactory high.
07:03In an epic eight-episode arc, the former assassin would have sought forgiveness from the Jedi Council and joined forces with eccentric Jedi Quinlan Vos in a bid to kill Count Dooku.
07:13These stories would have been an excellent addition to the series and would have added further gravitas to characters we had grown to root for already.
07:20Number 3, Radically Different Pitch
07:22There was actually once a time when Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were set to be side characters on the show.
07:28I know, imagine that.
07:29Instead, Dave Filoni wanted the series to revolve around the crew of a ship reminiscent to the iconic Millennium Falcon.
07:35On the ship, audiences would have met a smuggler, his girlfriend, a Gungan called Lunker, a Jedi Padawan called Ashla who would go on to become Ahsoka Tano, and her master.
07:44A lot of this went on to become the basis of Star Wars Rebels.
07:47Filoni's vision was put in place to steer clear of the continuity of the films, as he didn't want to interfere with what had already been put into canon.
07:55However, George Lucas eventually joined the project and decided the series would be better if it focused on the characters audiences already knew.
08:01On top of that, Filoni later wanted Ahsoka to be Obi-Wan's Padawan.
08:05But once more, Lucas saved the day and steered him in a more compelling Skywalker direction.
08:10Number 2, Honoring the Past
08:11In the early development of The Clone Wars, Lucas said he didn't want certain characters appearing in the film or the series.
08:18These primarily included Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, and Han Solo.
08:23Although the former three were all eventually added to the show, everyone's favorite rebel smuggler never made an appearance.
08:28However, that doesn't mean his legacy strayed too far.
08:31Captain Rex, for example, bears a small scar on his chin as reference to a similar cut on solo actor Harrison Ford.
08:38Also, in a less direct reference to the famed pilot, a season 3 arc sees some of our favorites freezing themselves in carbonite.
08:45The fact that the carbonite freezing was a success during this dangerous mission gives us insight into how Darth Vader knew it would work on solo years later.
08:53Whether this was direct foreshadowing or not, it nonetheless remains a nice little nod to one of the original trilogy's most iconic moments.
09:01Number 1, Familiar Soundtracks
09:03Music has always been a unique selling point of the Star Wars films and the Clone Wars.
09:07John Williams' masterful and suspenseful score is a pop culture touchstone, and the Clone Wars does well by honoring the maestro's tones.
09:15Although Williams himself has not written any music specifically for the show, his most famous numbers still make it into the series.
09:21The most prominent examples can be found in Season 7, as the threat of Order 66 begins to loom over the galaxy and the fate of our heroes.
09:29For example, as the Siege of Mandalore unfolds, we get the chance to hear the same music used in the opening of Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin and Obi-Wan are seen racing to save the Chancellor, showing that they are taking place at the same time.
09:41But the most compelling use of Williams' work comes when Captain Rex gets the famous Order from Darth Sidious.
09:46It's a heartbreaking, and unfortunately inevitable moment.
09:50As Rex turns on his friend and joins his brothers in trying to kill Ahsoka, as Ahsoka holds them off, you can hear Williams' Anakin's dark deeds play.
09:58The same song used in Revenge when Darth Vader eliminates the Separatist Council.
10:02It's a sneaky easter egg, and easy to miss given the tension of the events unfolding.
10:06But once you notice it, it's the kind of thing that makes you both smile and feel a sudden pang of nostalgia.
10:11And that's our list. Know of any other mind-blowing facts fans didn't know about Star Wars The Clone Wars?
10:17Let me know all about them in the comments section right down below, and do not forget to like, share, and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:23Also, make sure to head on over to WhatCulture.com and find some more incredible articles just like the one this video you're watching right now is based on.
10:29I've been Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars. Thank you very much for watching this video today.
10:33May the Force be with you, and I will see you very, very soon. Bye-bye.
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