DISCUSSION: The Siege of Mandalore spoilers
As mentioned in my spoiler-free review of season 7, the majority of the spoilers that I wanted to talk about for the season was from the final arc of the show, "The Siege of Mandalore." I also said the arc felt more like a movie than anything else, so in that sense, as I've been doing throughout all my past movie reviews, I've broken them down into spoiler and non-spoiler articles.
I should point out, I won't be going beat-by-beat of all four episodes, just the moments, scenes, and sequences that I thought were the most important.
The first big element I want to discuss is the reunion between former master and apprentice, Anakin and Ahsoka. To me, the reunion felt perfect...because it felt awkward. Anakin, after a long fought battle with the Separatists, gets a huge surprise seeing Ahsoka reach out to him, and would love nothing more than to catch up with his former student. Meanwhile, Ahsoka is in a hurry, as she is trying to recruit the Republic to help Bo-Katan capture Maul on Mandalore. Ahsoka still feels unsure of her relationship with the Jedi and Anakin, as she left the former due to her being falsely accused by them, and the latter for leaving him on a heart-breaking note.
Therefore, their reunion felt tragic because right after Anakin presents her with her old lightsabers (made blue by him to put a piece of himself with her), he and Obi-Wan have to leave to rescue the chancellor, as the season finally crosses into Revenge of the Sith.
It's all the more tragic, at least to me, because this will be the last time "Anakin" meets and speaks to Ahsoka, as the next time they'll cross paths is years later in Rebels when he is Darth Vader. Also, the whole reunion scene with Ahsoka meeting R2 one last time, and Ahsoka getting her own company of clone troopers, led by "Commander Rex," with her likeness painted on their helmets was wholesome...and tragic, given what is to come.
There are many times throughout the arc that certain plot threads from Revenge of the Sith are brought up. After their initial invasion is successful, Ahsoka speaks with Obi-Wan via hologram, who at this point is on his way to fight General Grievous. During this scene, Obi-Wan tells her of Count Dooku's death and Anakin's secret mission to spy on Palpatine. What I liked is that despite all the hardship that went on with Ahsoka during season five, she and Obi-Wan, who thought she was innocent back then, had a last nice moment between them, with Ob-Wan promising to pass along a nice message to Anakin by Ahsoka, which of course, never happens.
Later on in the arc, we see Ahsoka just miss meeting Anakin virtually, and we see the Jedi meeting in Revenge of the Sith where Mace Windu says he senses a plot to destroy the Jedi. Of course, Ahsoka and the council don't see eye to eye, and their pride and hubris both get in the way of telling each other important information that could have helped each other in the long run. Of course, Yoda and Ahsoka have a nice, though a little awkward, final moment together, which mirrors their brief exchange they had with one another in Rebels.
One of the best parts of the arc to me was the dynamic between Ahsoka and Maul. Maul points out that both of them were both apprentices who were cast aside by their respective orders. I also mentioned previously this felt like a thematic final confrontation for the show because Ahsoka is the main overall character of the show, while Maul had so much more development in the show compared to The Phantom Menace, which was none, that he can almost be seen as an original villain in some way.
What really blew me away with Maul this season was his master plan for the battle of Mandalore. While he is still the leader of his Shadow Collective in the criminal underworld, he orchestrated his entire takeover of Mandalore and subsequent Republic invasion, in order to lure Obi-Wan and Anakin to him. He would then kill Anakin, as he sensed his former master, Sidious, has been grooming him to become his new apprentice, and wants to kill Anakin to essentially spite his former master and halt a key part of his plan to rule the galaxy.
Granted, Maul isn't stupid. He senses the dark side growing stronger, and gets information from the clone Jesse about Order 66. Therefore, he ultimately explains everything to Ahsoka and asks her to join him to defeat Sidious, and she initially agrees. Yeah, I did not expect that at all. Granted, you can argue, for all his selfish reasons, Ahsoka helping Maul would actually be a "good" thing to try and stop Sidious.
However, Ahsoka ultimately refuses when she learns that Maul wants to kill Anakin, stating she has faith in Anakin.
This leads to the actual fight itself, which, is really good. It's a lot more technical and refined, and felt more like a martial arts fight in a lot of ways than some of the other lightsaber battles in the series. This makes sense, because the duel, at least the first part of the duel, was actually motion captured, with veteran Darth Maul actor Ray Park returning to motion capture the fight as Maul.
Like I said, the fight itself is great, and it ends on a great note, as Ahsoka helps capture Maul, leading to a chilling moment where Maul actually begs for death rather than him be taken alive to Sidious.
However, it is here where the arc differs greatly from the 2014 novel Ahsoka, which first detailed the Siege of Mandalore in flashback scenes. In all honesty, as someone who read the book beforehand, I actually prefer the "retcons" the show made over the book, as I thought they made the story more impactful.
That being said, the actual Siege of Mandalore only took up the first two episodes of the arc. The rest of the story deals with Order 66. The actual implementation is exhilarating to watch as we see Ahsoka fight for her life from the soldiers that literally honored her on their helmets. It was also heartbreaking to see as Rex is the one who fires on her first, though, he initially tries to fight it, and tells her to "find Fives."
This leads her to look into former Arc trooper Fives, who died in season six trying to uncover the conspiracy about Order 66. It turns out after he died, Rex looked into the matter further regarding the biological chips placed in clones' heads, which, of course, was covered up. This leads Ahsoka to capturing, and ultimately removing Rex's chip, where in turn, they begin their plan to escape together from clones that now want both of them dead.
The entire sequence of events was amazing, especially the heartbroken look on Rex's face when he has to kill some of his "brothers" in order to save Ahsoka. It just goes to show just how close of a relationship they have formed since their first meeting in the clone wars film.
However, to help in her escape, Ahsoka allows Maul to escape in order to, as Ahsoka puts it herself, cause chaos. At first I was skeptical as to why Ahsoka would release Maul when she just went through all of that turmoil to capture him, but then I realized she needs a good distraction to escape from dozens upon dozens of clones that want her dead.
Thankfully, Maul provides more than a distraction. In truly standout moments, Maul, single handily, without a lightsaber, goes through and kills numerous troopers, proving just how powerful he truly is, and makes me believe he was holding back in his duel with Ahsoka until the very end. He destroys clones in a hallway that was a clear homage to the hallway scene from Rogue One with Darth Vader. He also single handily kills all clones in the hyperdrive control room, and single handily destroys the entire hyperdrive generator, pulling the cruiser they're on out of hyperspace, on a collision course to a nearby moon. Needless to say, my jaw was dropped on both scenes.
Eventually, everything leads to one final push by Rex and Ahsoka to try and leave the cruiser, while fighting their way through the remaining clones led by Jesse. What I liked about the whole sequence of events, other than it being action packed and emotional, was Ahsoka's stance that she didn't want to kill any of the clones, telling Rex to put his blasters on stun. It shows just how much she cares about the clones, while it also shows just how bad she feels for the situation they are in, as she knows they are not doing any of this willingly.
Of course, Ahsoka has to make a tough choice, stop Maul from escaping on a ship, or help Rex from being killed, in which she chooses the latter.
Eventually, Rex and Ahsoka are able to escape in time before the cruiser crash lands on the moon, killing everyone else inside. This leads to a beautiful, yet heartbreaking scene, with no dialogue, where Ahsoka and Rex bury as many clones as they can find, and Ahsoka fakes her death by abandoning her lightsabers.
That would have been the end of the series, except, there is an epilogue, where, an uncertain amount of time in the future, the Empire finds the remains of the crash site and graveyard, and Darth Vader himself finds the lightsaber of his former apprentice, while also noticing the bird that accompanies Ahsoka in Rebels, Morai.
The series ends with a closeup of a clone trooper helmet with Vader leaving in the visor, a representation that the Republic and the Clone Wars is truly over, replaced with the shadow of the dark side and the Empire.
While obviously not the happiest of an ending, it was an ending that made sense thematically, and, more importantly, it was the ending the show deserved, and was the ending Dave Filoni and his team wanted to tell all those years ago.
I already mentioned this was my favorite arc of the show, as each episode on its own is among the best in the show's history. However, put together, it truly is one of the best Star Wars experiences in years, and made the final season of the show, with all of its faults beforehand, worth it.
