1. Better Stories
This is the single most important reason Clone Wars is infinitely better than the prequels. As Mr. Plinkett demonstrated, the most important failing of the prequels was that they failed to tell good stories. And thats the most important success of Clone Wars. Many Clone Wars stories are long term. An arc can last seasons, like the Satine arc. There are stand-alone episodes and 3 or 4 episode long plots. There are some bad, boring, or cheesy plots (one arc is all about droids, which is not what anyone watches Star Wars for). There are some arcs filled with profound drama and shocking intensity. Theyre just better stories. They have beginnings, middles, and ends. They have sympathetic character drama and exciting plot twists. When a character dies, you shout at the television in shock and rage (the body count puts it up there with Game of Thrones, I swear. Sometimes Im shocked its a kids show.) When a character succeeds, you whoop and cheer. These things seem to matter. Theyre not just boring, and they dont just have nostalgia value. Clone Wars makes you care. Thats the basic thing every halfway decent story has to get out of an audience. And its the thing the prequels most ludicrously ignored.