4. Onderon Arc
You may or may not be surprised to find that this is fourth on the list, but I had difficulty in deciding between this arc and the arc that achieved third place (Can you guess which one?). In the end I had to make the decision this way round, but there is barely anything between them, as I generally enjoyed this arc. What I loved most about the Onderon saga was the fact that it was a war. Despite the show being called The Clone Wars, in recent seasons the war element has become more of a backdrop for the stories that are told, which I am not condemning for a second. The stories that are told and brilliant and engaging, whether it is exploring the Slave trade or infiltrating a band of bounty hunters, the war is always there but elsewhere, which is why I enjoy it when we are given a series of episodes that give us the third word. The battle sequences of Tipping Points were fantastic; thorough in both animation and depth (though I still dont understand why the soldiers insist of charging at the droids rather than shoot from behind cover). The scale was unmistakable and the amount of soldiers/droids on screen gave us something similar to the Landing of Point Rain, the return to Geonosis in Season Two. Though it was absent of a good old space battle, the use of the dragon-like creatures (which was a nice nod to Avatar) and the Droid Gunships, which was another nice little nod to Episode III, created a thrilling dogfight in the skies that was both brutal and beautiful. Though I still cant past the fact that the resistance was practically being led by a bunch of teenagers, this arc was rich with plentiful characters that fleshed out as the series went on. The obvious ones being Steela and Saw Gerrera were extensively developed as they went along which made the ending more painful when Steela falls to her demise. Though not strong with development, minor characters such as General Tandin, King Rash and the super tactical droid, Kalani, all made distinct impressions. What was quite nice to see was The Clone Wars team exploring the political aspects of the war, something that hasnt been seen much throughout the series. Indeed, we have political episodes, but not in terms of the conduction of war. It was interesting to see King Rash manipulate the rebels actions to his benefit and the loyalty of General Tandin wavering from what was lawful and what was right. It was also nice to see Lux again. Hes had very little screen time, featuring in only two episodes previously, but even in that short space of time his character has been completely fleshed out, with the only development really being his relationship with Ahsoka which is where I expected this episode to explore. However, surprisingly their interactions were rather low key, despite being strongly hinted in his other episodes that there is strong romantic potential between the pair, but here it only seems to be suggested rather than directly addressing. There were a couple of moments in the first two episodes that clearly display Ahsoka struggling with her feelings but it could have been easily mistaken for her feeling responsible for the rebels as a whole. Yet there were other moments in the later episodes where the concept seemed to be forgotten completely. My main example is the moment right after Steela kisses Lux before the fight and Ahsoka barely shows an jealousy at all, hardly even reacting, other than giving him a friendly punch. Maybe this is simply a more mature Ahsoka who is learning to control her feelings (despite all the ironic comments made by Anakin), but I feared that the team was trying to wrap up the relationship in preparation for the finale in which I believed Ahsoka would meet her end.