Captain Jesse
Captain Jesse

Well, there we have it.  The true ending to the Clone Wars.  ‘Victory and Death’ ends Filoni’s tale of the clone wars and brings the resolution fans desired since the show was cancelled many years ago.  As I stated in my review on ‘Shattered’, season 7 can be viewed in two ways.  In this article let’s look at how this season and the ‘Victory and Death’ finale exceeded expectations.

Victory and Death – Family Above All

Ahsoka and Rex Contemplate the future
Always in Motion is the Future

As I talked about in my last article, Ahsoka Tano felt a kinship with her troops, something the troopers responded to under normal conditions.  Rex, a true brother and clone, showed no hesitation to blasting his way through every last trooper to escape.  The very thought turned Ahsoka’s stomach.  While never a quitter, she refused to accept hurting the clones even though they were trying to kill her.  She even made Rex set his blasters to stun.  We really see how much value Ahsoka put into family, which parallels and accentuates the pain of her leaving the jedi order.

In fact this final episode can be entirely about Ahsoka and a character study on her love and compassion for the troops.  This is epitomized when she removes Rex’s helmet and says “You’re a good soldier Rex. So are the men down there. They may be willing to die, but I’m not the one whose gonna kill them.”  They keep running, but she refuses to compromise her love of them.

Victory and Death – Toaster Love

Ahsoka does what Star Wars is known for ever since A New Hope.  This has come up many times in chat rooms.  Questions like why doesn’t Ben Recognize R2?  In the Star Wars universe, droids are no different than toasters or cars.  They are pieces of machinery to be owned and thrown away.  Luke showed compassion for R2 and so we all became hooked.  In Rogue One, the same thing happens with smart ass K-2SO.  He really is a dick, but by the end of the movie his death is one of the saddest of the movie.

Ahsoka befriends three random astromech droids and recruits them, but instead of commanding them, she asks them for help as if they were dear friends.  As a result, we pull for them as we do Ahsoka and Rex.  To such an extent, when the droids get blasted it is almost painful like we just watched innocent friends die.  Like I said, this is a Star Wars trademark and it was wonderful to see this in the final episode.

Victory and Death – Force Beyond Force

I remember when the game Force Unleashed came out.  The extraordinary over-the-top force powers were so cool.  In one level the hero even uses the force to tear down a star destroyer from the sky.  We were told these powers were a bit over the top, but now we have seen this twice now.  Rey does it in Rise of Skywalker and now Ahsoka force grips a fleeing shuttle.  Apparently, over the top is becoming quite canon.

The best part of this scene though is again, Ahsoka and her face.  She maintains a solid grip on the shuttle despite her feet sliding, but it is when Rex starts becoming overwhelmed by troops that you see that sad, resigned look in her eyes.  Reluctantly, she lets the shuttle, and Maul, slip away because friends are more important.

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