Draft:Siege of Mandalore

The "Siege of Mandalore" is the collective name used to refer to the final story arc of the American 3D animated science fiction television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The story arc comprises of the episodes "Old Friends Not Forgotten", "The Phantom Apprentice", "Shattered", and "Victory and Death", which are respectively the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth episodes of the seventh season of the series. All four episodes were written by series supervising director Dave Filoni, and Old Friends Not Forgotten and Shattered were directed by Saul Ruiz, while The Phantom Apprentice and Victory and Death were directed by Nathan Villanueva.

The series chronicles various events in the Clone Wars, a galactic conflict between the Galactic Republic and the Separatist Alliance that takes place during the Star Wars prequel trilogy. It primarily follows Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his closest associates as they seek to help the Republic win the war. The arc takes place before and concurrently with the events of the film Revenge of the Sith, and follows Ahsoka Tano and Rex as they seek to liberate Mandalore from Maul, who was occupying it. After a fight, Ahsoka and Rex win, and they then are forced to deal with the effects of Order 66.

All four episodes were released weekly on the streaming service Disney+ during April and May 2020. The episode originally aired in the United States on March 18, 2017, on Disney XD. The meeting between Kenobi and Maul was first shown in a mid-season trailer in January 2017. Filoni was heavily involved in the creation of the episode, believing it would have major implications for all characters involved. Stephen Stanton, who also voiced AP-5 and Tarkin in Rebels, was cast to voice an older Ben Kenobi while Sam Witwer returned for his final performance as Maul on the show. In the United States, "Twin Suns" was viewed by approximately 400,000 viewers. The episode was well-received by critics, who praised its writing and Stanton's performance as Kenobi.

Plot

Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze contact Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, asking them for help in apprehending Darth Maul in his new hideout on Mandalore. While Obi-Wan is apprehensive, Anakin and the 501st give Ahsoka a warm welcome until news arrives that General Grievous and the Separatists are attacking Coruscant. Upon Anakin's suggestion, Rex (field-promoted to commander) and part of the 501st accompanies Ahsoka to Mandalore, forcing Maul's loyalists under Gar Saxon into retreat. Bo-Katan apprehends Prime Minister Almec, while Ahsoka follows a trail into the city's tunnel network, only to walk right into Maul's trap.

Ahsoka faces off against Maul, who mentions Darth Sidious before escaping. Ahsoka relays this to Obi-Wan, who says he had inferred from the recently killed Count Dooku that Sidious is the name of the Sith Lord who orchestrated the Clone Wars. Obi-Wan stresses that Maul must be taken alive as he may be their only chance to learn more about Darth Sidious. The captured Almec mentions that Maul had hoped to lure Anakin to Mandalore, but is assassinated by Saxon before he can reveal why. As Bo-Katan's and Rex's forces lead a final assault against Maul's Mandalorians, Ahsoka confronts Maul again, who reveals that Sidious has engineered the destruction of both the Republic and the Jedi and asks Ahsoka to join him to stop Sidious. When she demands to know his intentions with Anakin, Maul claims that Sidious wants to make him his new apprentice, and that he had hoped to kill Anakin before this happens. Refusing to believe him, Ahsoka fights Maul above the city, where she rescues him from falling to his death. She then leaves Maul to be captured by clone troopers, despite his frantic warnings that everyone will soon die.

With the Siege of Mandalore over, Ahsoka and Rex prepare to take Maul before the Jedi Council on Coruscant. Mace Windu and Yoda contact Ahsoka via hologram and reveal that Obi-Wan has tracked Grievous down to Utapau, indicating that the war may soon be over. On their way to Coruscant, however, Ahsoka senses Anakin falling to the dark side and helping Darth Sidious to kill Windu, moments before Sidious executes Order 66, which brands all Jedi as traitors to the Republic and orders their deaths. As Ahsoka's clone troopers, including Rex, suddenly turn on her, she is forced to escape. Rex resists the order just long enough to mention the incident with Fives, allowing Ahsoka to learn about the inhibitor chips. She releases Maul to create a distraction, then subdues and captures Rex. With the help of three astromech droids, Ahsoka removes the inhibitor chip from his brain, restoring his free will.

As Ahsoka and Rex try to escape from the cruiser, Maul destroys its hyperdrive, causing the vessel to drop out of hyperspace and into a nearby moon's gravitational field. Forced to fight their way through the clones, Ahsoka tries to prevent Maul from getting away in their shuttle but fails. Just barely clearing the doomed ship, Ahsoka and Rex escape to the moon, where they respectfully bury the clones and Ahsoka discards one of her lightsabers. Two years later, Anakin, now as Darth Vader, arrives on the moon and recovers Ahsoka's lightsaber from the wrecked cruiser.

Production

Development and writing

All four episodes were written by series supervising director Dave Filoni.

All four episodes that comprise the story arc were written by Star Wars: The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni. Following the purchase of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, the series was cancelled in March 2013 midway through the production of the sixth season, leaving unmade episodes in various stages of production. This included plans of a series finale involving Ahsoka Tano and Rex fighting Darth Maul during the events of Revenge of the Sith. It was announced on July 19, 2018 at San Diego Comic-Con that The Clone Wars would return for a seventh, final season. George Lucas, the creator of The Clone Wars, was involved with the initial plans for the arc prior to the series' cancellation, but was uninvolved in work that was undertaken following the series' revival. Filoni had stated that out of a desire to keep to Lucas's vision for the franchise, he discusses series concepts and ideas with Lucas.

Substantial care was taken to properly ensure that the series fit with the existing canon of the franchise. Despite the events of the Siege of Mandalore arc intersecting with Revenge of the Sith, Filoni avoided repeating the events of the film, and ensured that they were almost entirely offscreen, despite them deeply affecting the events of the arc. Instead, he chose to focus on characters that were not in the prequel trilogy, such as Ahsoka and Rex. This was both to ensure that the characters and plotline of the film remained intact, as well as out of a lack "of desire to tell any of those scenes necessarily again". He described it as "a challenge not getting something chronologically out of order", particularly for managing character knowledge of the secret identity of Palpatine, who does not physically appear in the arc but is manipulating its events. Following the series' cancellation, Filoni created a new series called Star Wars Rebels, set years after the events of The Clone Wars, in which characters prominently featured in the arc appear. The integration of The Clone Wars characters in Rebels affected how they were utilized in the Siege of Mandalore arc. Filoni stated that it was unfortunate that the appearance of the characters in Rebels may have caused the events of the arc to have reduced tension, as it was known that they would survive.

"Old Friends Not Forgotten" was directed by Saul Ruiz. Filoni stated that due to Anakin and Obi-Wan prominently appearing in the prequel films, Ahsoka and Rex, the two principal original characters, were the show's main characters. He felt that "there was a responsibility to tell the end of their story and then hand off Anakin and Obi-Wan to their proper conclusion, which is in the film Revenge of the Sith". He stated that an important part of the story was properly handling the emotional weight of the reunion and parting of Anakin and Ahsoka, who had been separated since the fifth-season episode "The Wrong Jedi", within the allotted time of the episode. He stated that as Ahsoka had gained experiences away from the Jedi Order, she had changed, while Anakin wished for things to return to how they were before. The cast and crew of the episode noted that key parts of the reunion included Ahsoka's reaction to the clones, who had painted their helmets to match her colors, and Anakin offering her her old lightsabers.

"The Phantom Apprentice" was directed by Nathaniel Villanueva. The lighting in the initial confrontation between Maul and Ahsoka was designed so that Ahsoka was brightly lit and Maul walked out of the darkness, to create a sense of Ahsoka's being trapped. The two characters, who face off in this episode, were designed to mirror each other to a degree, as both had left their respective force organizations and had knowledge of impending events. The creators of the episode reflected this by creating a situation unusual for Star Wars, in which Maul, who asks Ahsoka to join him, had the better plan. Sam Witwer, Maul's voice actor, stated that unlike most animation voice acting, in which he usually exaggerates due to not being able to act facially, he was asked to do "more of a film read", which was more restrained.

The creators of the episode felt that the lightsaber duel between Ahsoka and Maul needed to be big, and that it was very important. To this end, Ray Park, Maul's physical actor for The Phantom Menace, was brought in to perform motion capture for the character. Keith Kellogg, the animation supervisor for the episode, stated that many of Park's mannerisms helped bring Maul's physical performance to life, and that the motion capture data then had to be altered to match the animation style of the series. Park's fighting was sometimes so fast that he would break the motion capture tracking. Stunt performer Lauren Mary Kim performed motion capture for Ahsoka opposite Park. According to Filoni, she "brought a lot of the speed and quickness that we needed to portray this character that had previously only been done by our animation team".

"Shattered" was directed by Saul Ruiz. The timeline of the episode coincides with Order 66, an event that occurs in the film Revenge of the Sith and affects events in the episode. According to Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka, the episode's title reflects Ahsoka's worldview being shattered. Filoni described the problem of how to portray it as being different to that of Revenge of the Sith, as the audience of The Clone Wars saw them as real characters. He stated that the key was "about understanding that they are in a situation where they don’t have free will. [He] tried through every method possible, visually, musically, color-wise to show that they became somebody else." Filoni used Ahsoka and Rex reciting the catchphrase "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me" from Rogue One to display the bond between the characters and explain how Ahsoka is able to remove Rex's inhibitor chip for those that may not have seen a previous arc in The Clone Wars.

"Victory and Death" was directed by Nathaniel Villanueva. The more nuanced portrayal of the clone troopers in The Clone Wars informed the decision to have Ahsoka attempt to not kill the clones that she was fighting. During filming, the voice cast had to be reminded not to allow their emotion from filming the series finale affect their portrayals of the characters. Various elements of the scenes in which the clones are hunting Rex and Ahsoka are framed to evoke the Empire, including the lighting and use of helmets. The use of droids as allies for the main characters was also reflective of the role reversal of the Galactic Republic, as battle droids were the primary force of their enemy, the Separatists.

The final scene of "Victory and Death" involved a time skip, jumping forward to Darth Vader finding the destroyed cruiser and seeing what Ahsoka and Rex left behind, including the memorial to the clones and Ahsoka's lightsaber. The conception of having the final scene involving Vader had always been around, according to Filoni. The scene was designed to emphasize Vader's humanity, as the character had been portrayed as a hero and one of the leads throughout almost the entirety of The Clone Wars. As such, his eyes are visible through the helmet, just as they were in the original Star Wars, and Vader's picking up Ahsoka's lightsaber is meant to mirror Anakin giving it to her earlier in the arc. The ending was changed through the course of production to ensure that Ahsoka and Rex's story was centered, as Anakin's story had previously been told in the prequel trilogy. Multiple versions of the way the morai landed were tested before settling on the version in the final episode. The final scene was also designed to be devoid of color, to contrast the clone troopers, who often colorfully displayed individuality, and the all-white stormtroopers.

Various aspects of animation had changed between the series' original airing and the revival . The motion capture that was successfully used in the lightsaber duel in "The Phantom Apprentice" had previously been attempted for the third-season episode "Wookiee Hunt", but the process was too heavy and was ultimately not used. The crew's experience utilizing previsualization on The Mandalorian, as well as technical advancements at Lucasfilm, particularly in its visual effects studio ILM, allowed the use of the technology. An unexpectedly high percentage of assets from the first six seasons of the show had to be remade due to being substantially lower-quality than new assets. Overall, the technological improvements and additional crew experience did not make the animation work easier, but it did open up new animation possibilities.

Casting

Ray Park reprised his role of Maul from The Phantom Menace through motion capture.

Numerous cast members from previous seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars returned for the final season and final arc, including Ashley Eckstein, Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, and Sam Witwer. For the final three episodes, Tom Kane does not perform the opening narration, for the only time in the series. The voices of Silas Carson, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, and Ian McDiarmid are featured in "Shattered" through archival footage from Revenge of the Sith. The lightsaber duel in "The Phantom Apprentice" utilized motion capture, requiring actors to physically portray Maul and Ahsoka. Maul's motion capture was performed by Ray Park, who originated the character in The Phantom Menace. Park met supervising director Dave Filoni at a Star Wars Celebration, and after discussing his collaboration with longtime Maul voice actor Sam Witwer in Solo: A Star Wars Story, it was decided that he would return again for The Clone Wars. Opposite Park, stunt actress Lauren Mary Kim portrayed Ahsoka. She was the first actress to physically portray Ahsoka, prior to her appearance in The Mandalorian, in which she was portrayed by Rosario Dawson. Filoni also voiced a droid named Cheep in the arc, following his voicing of similar droid Chopper in Star Wars Rebels.

Music

Series composer Kevin Kiner composed the score for the arc. However, unlike most other episodes, Kiner's Clone Wars theme is not played over the title card, which was also changed from yellow to red. Instead, "Old Friends Not Forgotten" uses the Star Wars theme by John Williams, while the other episodes used other compositions by Kiner over the title card.

Promotion and release

The announcement trailer for the seventh season, released on July 19, 2018, included a clip from "Old Friends Not Forgotten". Due to comments from the crew following the series' initial cancellation about story ideas that had at that time been discarded, it was widely expected upon the reveal of a final season that it would cover the Siege of Mandalore. A TV spot for the final arc was released on April 14, 2020. Additionally, clips from "The Phantom Apprentice" and "Shattered" were released three days ahead of the release date of the episodes, on April 21 and 28, 2020 respectively.

"Old Friends Not Forgotten" was released on April 17, 2020, "The Phantom Apprentice" was released on April 24, 2020, Shattered" was released on May 1, 2020, and "Victory and Death" was released on May 4, 2020. All four episodes were released onto Disney+. Every episode of the seventh season was released on Fridays except for the final episode, which was released on Monday, May 4 in order to coincide with Star Wars Day.

Reception

According to Nielsen ratings, the episode's initial broadcast in the United States was viewed by approximately 400 thousand viewers.

"Twin Suns" was listed as one of the "10 Most Essential Episodes of Star Wars Rebels" by /Film. In a review of the Star Wars Rebels season 3 disc set, the New York Daily News named the episode one of "the two best episodes of the season".

The episode was generally well-received by critics, who praised the episode's characterization of Kenobi and Maul and its emotional conclusion of the two characters' storyline. They also felt Ezra was effectively incorporated into the storyline and further developed ahead of the season finale. Stanton and Witwer's vocal performances were also praised as "bringing out both Maul's madness and Kenobi's weary resilience". Reviewers particularly noted the similarity of Stanton's voice to Alec Guinness' in A New Hope. Both Stanton's performance and the episode's writing were credited for showing Kenobi's transition leading up to the original trilogy and enriching its story. "Twin Suns" also received praise for its visuals, particularly its depiction of the desert planet of Tatooine.

Fans had mixed reactions to the duel, though it was well-received by reviewers, who believed other aspects of the episode lessened the need for a protracted duel. In a review for Den of Geek, Megan Crouse gave the episode a 4 out of 5 star rating, finding "so much to unpack that I hardly mourn the loss of a fight scene". Kevin Johnson of The A.V. Club gave an "A−" rating, focusing on Ezra's characterization in the episode; he described the final battle as "hilarious, bold, and humbly ironic" in upending the audience's expectations, believing it fittingly downplayed Maul's importance in the overall Star Wars story. While IGN's Eric Goldman gave the episode an 8.8 out of 10 rating, he took issue with the episode's promotion, believing the duel was too heavily promoted given the outcome.