The Star Wars Story That Made The Prequels Worth It

5. The Prequels, Their Potential, And The Clone Wars

Star Wars The Clone Wars
Lucasfilm

Love them or hate them, or just generally accept them, the prequels are a part of the Star Wars canon, and shouldn't be erased. Yes, they had plenty of flaws, but they weren't without some interesting concepts. The concept of seeing Anakin Skywalker succumb to the dark side and join the Sith is an inherently compelling one, but the execution was lacking.

By the time Anakin had been reduced to a smouldering wreck on Mustafar, audiences weren't exactly left with a gratifying journey. We understood that Obi-Wan thought his former Padawan a brother, but the evidence for that connection was scarce, save for brief expository dialogue regarding Gundark nests and "that business on Cato Neimoidia." Evidently it needed more exploration, which came - eventually - in the form of the Clone Wars TV show.

Genndy Tartakovsky had previously tried his hand at a 2D animated Clone Wars series - and it was great - but the era needed something more. There were years' worth of stories to explore, and in Dave Filoni's Clone Wars, they were.

The 2008 movie was lacking in plenty of departments, as were the earlier seasons of the show, but it improved drastically towards the middle of Season 2. Central to this was the time spent developing the relationship between the clones and the Jedi, the return of Darth Maul, and the relationship between Kenobi and Skywalker.

The series added so much, in fact, that it invites viewers to reappraise Revenge of the Sith. When viewed with the Clone Wars in mind, you're left with a completely different impression of Anakin and Obi-Wan's relationship - one that informs the entire Saga going forward.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.