Star Wars The Clone Wars is widely considered
the best of the best when it comes to Star Wars animation, and possibly even Star Wars as a whole.
But hidden beneath the surface of this show is a huge range of hidden facts, references and easter
eggs that will probably shock even the most die hard fans… So today we’re going to break down
to the deepest and darkest layers of the Clone Wars iceberg… And for those of you who don’t know
how the iceberg format works, we start off at the top discus
sing some of the really obvious and
well known facts and references, before moving deeper to the obscure and very unknown parts…
So, hit the sub button and lets get into it! Animation models based on 2003.
This refers to the models of the 2008 series being largely based on the
artstyle of the 2003 Clone Wars series, which was in the style of Genndy Tartakovsky.
Originally the 2008 series was meant to continue the same spirit of the earlier show, which is why
multiple characters are based on
or inspired from their 2003 counterparts, but eventually
the show spiralled into its own thing, and gained a more independent identity. This is
why Count Dooku has the extremely stretched head, why Anakin is called Chin-Akin and why
Obi-Wan has a beard as sharp as a knife. LEGO.
This is obviously talking about the Star Wars branch of LEGO products, they
have sets both for kids and adults, and recently some of the new sets were revealed, and they look
pretty awesome. LEGO Star Wars has made
a lot of great memories for kids growing up, especially
me, so it’s only right to give it a mention. Movie. This refers to the 2008 Clone Wars movie which
started it all, the theatrical release met very mixed reception as it was on one hand a new
and interesting concept, but on the other, prequel haters were really bitter about
the franchise and this new project didn’t help them with that at all. But for fans of
the show, this movie is what started it all. Defective. Deficiency is somethin
g which has, in a
funny way, become a mainstay for Clone Wars fans. Defective clones have made their
way into our hearts, whether it be the very cool and deadly Bad Batch, or sweet and kind
99 who made all of us tear up when he passed. Kid’s show.
I don’t know about you, but growing up with online forums, I kept seeing people talk about
how The Clone Wars is a silly kid’s show and that nobody would watch it. Well, as any fan knows,
the series has its share of very graphic moments, as well a
s features some of the most devastating
storytelling in the Star Wars franchise. Fives. The subject of one of those amazing storylines,
Fives was a clone trooper who discovered the inhibitor chips which were capable of controlling
the clones and forcing them to do horrific things under the rule of the Chancellor. Upon trying to
bring his findings to the Jedi, he was killed, but his legacy was never forgotten, as it’s thanks
to his acts that multiple clones were able to remove their chips an
d avoid becoming traitors
to the people they had fought beside for years. Anakin’s Admiral in A New Hope.
Wulf Yularen, the renowned Admiral under Anakin’s command throughout the Clone
Wars, he was largely seen on the Resolute, Anakin’s venator-class flagship. Later on, after
Order 66 and Anakin’s fall to the dark side, Yularen remained loyal to his superiors, and
became a senior member of the Galactic Empire, and it’s thanks to this that we actually see
him during A New Hope. He was statio
ned on the Death Star, so we see him in a meeting
with Vader, and, later on in the movie, he’s killed in the destruction of
the Emperor’s ultimate creation. Quotes.
Each episode of the clone wars until the final arc had little quotes
before the episodes started. These were morals of the story which carried the general theme of each
episode, since it was targeted towards children. Anakin ghosting Grievous.
In Episode 3, which obviously came out before The Clone Wars did,
Anakin meets Grievou
s for the first time. It’s due to this that in the series, we
have Obi-Wan meet the General multiple times, but Anakin doesn’t at all. Well..
technically, he was in his vicinity, but he never actually met him. In the one episode
they could have met, Anakin was knocked out and Grievous couldn’t see properly thanks to a helmet
that was put on him. A pretty cool detail which shows the attention the writers pay to the source
material. Quite unlike what happens nowadays.. Watch order.
This refer
s to the very bizarre release order of The Clone Wars. Did you know that watching it in
the order it comes with on a DVD or Disney plus is actually wrong? The show’s early episodes weren’t
released in chronological order, so in order to do that, you need to follow this very long and
confusing watch order provided by Lucasfilm. Dryden Voss Cameo.
In season 7 of The Clone Wars, we can see very briefly Dryden Voss, one of
the high-level members of Darth Maul’s crime syndicate Crimson Dawn. We f
irst meet him in Solo:
A Star Wars Story, where he played a major role. Returning cast.
Multiple actors from past Star Wars projects came back as voices for The
Clone Wars, whether as their own characters or new ones. Christopher Lee was the voice of Count
Dooku in the 2008 series, before his role was given to somebody else, and the same goes for Mace
Windu’s actor Samuel L. Jackson. Matthew Wood, the original voice of General Grievous in
Revenge of the Sith, reprised his role, as did Liam
Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn, and, of course,
Mark Hammill voiced Darth Bane in season 6. Nik Sant.
Nik Sant is this Rebel soldier right here who was first seen in Return of the Jedi during the attack
on the Death Star’s shield generator. Well, many decades later, fans noticed he bore a striking
resemblance to Captain Rex, particularly his Star Wars Rebels appearance. Although it hasn’t
been confirmed in canon, Filoni has said it’s up to interpretation and that in his headcanon
it is indeed Capta
in Rex helping out on Endor. Chips.
The Inhibitor chips were introduced in season six of The Clone Wars, where
Fives, as mentioned earlier, discovers that each clone has one of these chips on them which is what
led to the execution of Order 66. Prior to this, as is seen in the 2005 game Star Wars: Battlefront
2, the clones were actually just very obedient, carrying out missions alongside the Jedi knowing
that they were eventually going to kill them, and, after that happened, many of them fel
l
bad, but remained loyal to Palpatine. Clone memorial.
We only get a glimpse of it in The Clone Wars, but this wall right here is actually a memorial of
all the clones who passed away in the first battle of Geonosis. It’s here where, later, Commander
Cody speaks to Crosshair, thinking back on the memories he had with his brothers, ultimately
leading to his defection from the Empire. Your powers have doubled since
the last time we met.. Last week! The infamous line which Anakin says to
Doo
ku in episode 3 was intended to mean that since their duel in Attack of the Clones,
Anakin has grown incredibly stronger. However, in canon, their last duel after episode 2
was actually only a few weeks or a couple months before their final meeting. The
quote can still make some level of sense, since Anakin did grow very quickly in
power, but it’s clear that the line lost some of its impact because of the countless
meetings the two had during the series. Obi-Wan’s death.
This refers to the
arc where Obi-Wan fakes his death to take on a new identity
in order to foil a plot to assassinate Chancelor Palpatine. Thanks to advanced technology, Obi-Wan
was able to temporarily change his appearance and voice to match that of Rako Hardeen, a bounty
hunter who was hired to murder Obi-Wan. We’ll talk more about him in a bit.. I don’t know about
you guys, but when I saw this episode for the first time I was in shock. I knew he couldn’t
actually be dead because I’d seen A New Hope, so I w
as absolutely confused at how they
were going to make this fake death play out. Indy is canon.
Although this one’s a bit of a reach, multiple aspects of Indiana Jones have made
their way into star wars as easter eggs, and there are a lot of references taken from the
series. So while he himself may not be canon, some of his discoveries are, such
as the Headpiece to the staff of Ra, the Ark of the Covenant, and
the crystal skull of Akator. Delta Squad. Originally created for the awesome video
game Republic Commando, this was a squad of elite clone commandos trained for high-value
missions involving kidnappings, assassinations, and other massive-scale operations. The
particular characters from the game were featured briefly in The Clone Wars, and one of
them has made an appearance in The Bad Batch, Revan.
Darth Revan is a fan-favourite character from Star Wars Legends who first appeared in the
Knights of the Old Republic games. He was intended to be brought into canon through Th
e Clone Wars,
where he’d appear as a sith force ghost alongside Darth Bane. Although Bane did make it in to the
final cut, with a different appearance in a later season, the original plan of having these two
characters guide the Son from Mortis was scrapped. Son of Dathomir.
Originally planned as an arc of The Clone Wars, this fell to the wayside after the
show was cancelled, but found new life in a comic adaption, which is universally loved by fans. The
story follows Maul's capture by Dart
h Sidious, who manipulates him to lure out Mother Talzin,
the leader of the Nightsisters and Maul's mother. Seeking revenge, Maul frees himself and captures
Count Dooku and General Grievous, leading to a conflict involving the Galactic Republic and
Jedi Order, aiming to end the ongoing war. In-universe Imperial march.
This refers to a very silly easter egg in the second episode of season one,
which has a droid humming a modified version of the imperial march as he joyfully does his job of
k
illing people by sucking them into space.. Yeah, that’s pretty dark, but it’s not actually too
strange, since other media has in-universe moments like this, such as the Old Republic MMO which
took place thousands of years before this episode. Qymaen jai Sheelal.
The birth name of who would later become General Grievos, Qymaen, a
native of Kalee, became a formidable warrior leading his people in a war against species
which possessed advanced technology. Renaming himself Grievous after many co
nquests, he gained
a ruthless reputation and caught the attention of Sith Lords Darth Sidious and Darth Tyranus. After
a near-fatal sabotage of their design, Grievous was converted into a cybernetic being by the Sith,
becoming a skilled lightsaber duelist and rising to the rank of Supreme Martial Commander of the
Separatist Droid Armies during the Clone Wars. Bug is Morgan Elsbeth.
General Grievous's attack on Dathomir and the Nightsisters' tragic fate
is part of a well-loved The Clone Wars
episode. In "The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark,"
there's a unique short story called "Bug" that loosely connects to the episode, telling the
story of a Nightsister searching for her lost daughter. This tale introduces a girl named
Bug, who was exiled on a world called Sidi and had silver hair. It’s thought that this may
potentially be the origin of Morgan Elsbeth from The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, because the story
was written by E. Anne Convery, wife of Dave Filoni. While the eviden
ce isn’t overwhelming,
this story was published very shortly before Eslbeth even appeared in The Mandalorian,
so there very well may be a connection. Rako Hardeen is Mandalorian.
Rako Hardeen, also known as the "Marksman of Concord Dawn," was born on that planer and as
such was a Mandalorian. He was a bounty hunter hired to assassinate Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Little did Hardeen know, he was unknowingly working for the Jedi Order, who faked Kenobi's
death as part of a larger plan which w
e covered earlier. A lot of people don’t realise that he’s
a Mandalorian, but it’s a cool little detail. Greedo.
Very briefly, we see Greedo in the episode “Sphere of influence”
as he leads the kidnapping of Papanoida’s family. It’s a very quick scene and easily forgotten,
but it’s a really nice easter egg. Interestingly, he speaks basic, which is the Star Wars
version of English, which he was planned to speak in A New Hope, before it was changed
for him to speak an unknown alien language.
Clone trooper “Ridge”.
This is one of the fascinating details which really remind us how interconnected
the Star Wars galaxy is. Ridge was a clone trooper who was first seen in the Clone Wars movie
way back in 2008 fighting alongside Captain Rex in the assault on Teth. Twelve years later
in 2020, he featured in The Clone Wars season 7, as one of the many clones aboard Ahsoka’s
ship, the Tribunal. Unfortunately he succumbed to order 66, turning on Ahsoka and Rex,
leading to his death when th
e ship crashed. Kenobi has a son.
Korkie Kryze was the nephew of Dutchess Satine of Mandalore, but his parents were
never revealed, and anytime he got into trouble, it was always his aunt who he was close with.
Due to Satine and Obi-Wan’s extensive history together, the age of Korkie, and the
fact that his parents are a myster, many theorise that he is actually the son of
Obi-Wan, who Satine kept a secret to the public. Wookieepedia is canon.
In season two episode sixteen, a very cool refere
nce can be found to a project made
by the fans. Wookieepedia is a very popular wiki which covers all things Star Wars, and one of the
articles was translated into aurebesh and placed on a datascreen. While this is something very
small and needs translation to understand, it is very sweet and a nice nod to the efforts of fans
who do their best to keep the wiki up to date. War crimes.
The Clone Wars features many, many war crimes. So many that it’s actually
hard to count without rewatching th
e entire series just for that purpose. Some
of the popular ones are torture, killing fleeing enemies, forced
deportation, usage of false surrenders, which was a personal favourite of Anakin
Skwalker, and, of course, training terrorists. Somehow, Zillo Beast returned..
The Zillo Beast, believed extinct by the Dugs of Malastare, was accidentally
unearthed by the Galactic Republic during the Battle of Malastare. A giant and deadly
creature, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine aimed to utilize its ind
estructible exterior
towards the Republic's benefit, such as powerful armour but the creature broke free on
Coruscant, leading to a destructive rampage. Eventually, the Jedi had no choice but to
kill the Zillo Beast using a potent toxin, after which Palpatine ordered unsuccessful
cloning attempts. At least, that was the case, until the Galactic Empire came into existence,
when Dr. Hemlock achieved success and cloned several beasts in the Weyland facility inside
Mount Tantiss. So thanks to
the cloning experiments that Palpatine was obsessed
with from the early stages of his reign, he was not only able to bring back
the Zillo Beast, but also himself… Anakin and Obi-Wan almost
helped built the Death Star.. In one of the planned arcs for a
cancelled season of The Clone Wars, known as the Crystal Crisis, Anakin
and Obi-Wan go to Utapau to investigate the death of Jedi Master Tu-Anh, leading to
them discovering a plot involving the Amani, Separatists, and a massive kyber crystal
with the potential to power a superweapon. The arc mainly explores Anakin's emotions and
strained relationship with the Jedi Council, following his padawan Ahsoka’s departure. The
obvious implication for the Sepratists trying to get their hands on this insane crystal
is to use it as a source of power for the Death Star. Well, at some point, Obi-Wan
and Anakin get possession of the crystal, then lose it and have to end up destroying
it, narrowly avoiding the Sepratists getting away with it
forever. If that had happened,
they would have directly caused countless deaths through the use of the crystal in the
Death Star. A very dark story to think about. Sabine’s mom appears.
This one’s very simple; Sabine from Star Wars Rebels has an arc which showcases
her rocky relationship with her family, especially her mother, and it turns out that in The Clone
Wars Season 7, her mother can be seen slongisde Bo Katan when she approaches Ahsoka asking for
help on Mandalore. A very cool littl
e detail. The propaganda theory..
This is honestly a really fascinating theory, and one that makes
for a really interesting headcanon. So there’s always been an incredibly passionate
fanbase behind the 2003 Clone Wars show, and when the 2008 one came out and seemed a lot
more childish, they were extremely disheartened. From this there arose a theory that the 2003
series were the true events of the clone wars, showing a lot of the grit and struggle on
both sides, while the 2008 series was Re
public propaganda used to get civillians on their side.
The theory does have some holes, like Ahsoka’s arc clearly showing anto-Republic sentiments,
but in a way, this could actually be a way to show her as some form of enemy or traitor for
leaving the Jedi and Republic when the war was almost at its end. So it’s a very fascinating
idea, and with a little twists here and there it would be a really good piece of headcanon -
both series could be accepted sde by side, but the discrepancies are
due to Republic retellings
trying to make things go one way or another. So that was The Clone Wars Iceberg, full
of many interesting facts, theories, and references tha you might not have known. If you
did know them all, let me know in the comments, but be sure to be honest. Drop a like on the
video if you enjoyed, subscribe for more awesome content, and if you made it this far, drop
a “thank mr Obi” in the comments down below.
Comments