Star Wars: The Clone Wars is one of the best projects in the entire Star Wars franchise, entering new storylines into canon that flesh out the plotline of the prequels and give new weight to the Clone Wars conflict itself. As such, the animated anthology series has become beloved among Star Wars fans, who laud the show for its dark tone despite being marketed as being for children.
While nearly every episode of The Clone Wars was fantastic in its own right, each season finale always pushed things even further, telling some of the greatest Star Wars stories ever told. Each of these episodes has been ranked by thousands of viewers on IMDb, determining which season finale is truly the best of the series overall.
Season 1: "Hostage Crisis" (7.9)
The first season finale of The Clone Wars, titled "Hostage Crisis" is also an essential episode for fans of the bounty hunter Cad Bane, marking his first appearance in any Star Wars media. The episode features Bane leading a group of bounty hunters, which includes IG-88 and Aurra Sing, among others, into the Senate building, where they take a group of senators hostage and demand the Republic release Ziro the Hutt. Trapped inside the Senate building, Anakin Skywalker attempts to save the day and rescue the captive senators, including his wife.
This episode perfectly blends a Star Wars setting with a Die Hard scenario premise, making for a fun adventure with some interesting bad guys and very high stakes. In the end, Cad Bane even proves victorious, getting away without being captured by Skywalker and freeing Ziro from Republic imprisonment. As far as debut episodes go, Cad Bane had one of the very best.
Season 3: "Wookie Hunt" (8.0)
The season 3 finale of The Clone Wars is the culmination of an arc involving Ahsoka Tano, who has been kidnapped by villainous Trandoshans and put on an island with other quarry to be hunted alive for sport. Banding together with several other Jedi padawans and none other than Chewbacca, Ahsoka organizes a resistance to the Trandoshan hunters and wins back her freedom--but not before losing a friend in the process.
Inspired by works like The Most Dangerous Game, the conclusion to this final arc in season 3 perfectly demonstrates Ahsoka's progress as a Jedi Padawan. Separated from Anakin, Ahsoka is forced to use everything she's learned in order for herself and those around her to survive. This moment marks the turning point in Ahsoka's character arc as she finally began to develop into her own unique Jedi, and thereby, her own self-made character.
Season 2: "Lethal Trackdown" (8.0)
"Lethal Trackdown," the season 2 finale of The Clone Wars, sees the return of Boba Fett, who has put together a team of some of the best bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe, including Bossk, Aurra Sing, and Castas, in order to get revenge on Mace Windu for killing his father Jango in the Battle of Geonosis. Other Jedi get involved in the matter, and things finally come to a head between Master Windu and the young Boba.
For fans of Boba Fett, this episode has plenty of material to get excited about. This marks one of Boba's earliest missions as a bounty hunter, wherein he learns a very hard lesson about loyalty in his line of work. While the future all-star bounty hunter ultimately failed in his revenge mission against Mace Windu, viewers can see the beginning of the slow development of the character into the capable man that he would one day become.
Season 4: "Revenge" (9.0)
The season four finale, "Revenge," marked a turning point for The Clone Wars, as it embarked down a much darker path than ever before. The episode picks up where the previous three left off, having resurrected the long-thought deceased Darth Maul. Teaming up with his brother, Savage Opress, Maul goes on a rampage in an attempt to lure Obi-Wan Kenobi to him and finally gain his revenge on the Jedi Master.
The return of Maul has long been considered to be one of the greatest aspects of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, especially due to the amazing vocal talents of Sam Witwer, who voiced the former Sith apprentice. Maul's journey would continue throughout the course of The Clone Wars and even into Rebels, as the character would become a vital piece of the Darksaber mythos that now permeates the franchise.
Season 6: "Sacrifice" (9.1)
Originally conceived as the series finale, "Sacrifice" is not only the best episode of Season 6 but also one of the best episodes of The Clone Wars overall. Yoda, who has been communing with the long-dead Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn, finds himself on a strange world, where Force beings known as the Whills promise to teach him the art of maintaining consciousness after death. Yoda must first journey through the depths of his own mind, where he learns the truth about victory and war.
Though the series would later be revived for a seventh and final season six years later, "Sacrifice" would have been a sufficient finale for this beloved series. While it moves away from the action-heavy tone of previous seasons, this episode attempts to bring a thematic conclusion to the overall story of The Clone Wars, reminding Yoda that there truly is no victory in war, only casualties on both sides.
Season 5: "The Wrong Jedi" (9.6)
The season 5 finale, "The Wrong Jedi" depicts one of the worst things to ever happen to Ahsoka Tano, when she is framed for a bombing at the Jedi Temple. Tano undergoes a trial before the Jedi Council, who don't seem to believe her insistence upon being innocent. Desperate to help his Padawan, Anakin investigates the crime, proving that it was actually Barriss Offee that bombed the temple and framed Ahsoka. Though Ahsoka is cleared of any wrongdoing, she elects to leave the Jedi Order following their treatment of her during the trial.
This finale is one of the more nuanced and intensely emotional episodes of the entire season. Dealing with themes like betrayal, lost ideals, and loyalty, "The Wrong Jedi" perfectly encapsulates Ahsoka's arc in the series as she exits the Jedi Order. Her decision in this episode would go on to inform the rest of her journey, which continued into Rebels, The Mandalorian, and now, her very own spinoff series.
Season 7: "Victory And Death" (9.9)
The final episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars depicts the events of Order 66 and the formation of the Galactic Empire through the eyes of Ahsoka Tano. After her clones are ordered to kill her, Ahsoka teams up with Captain Rex, who has removed his inhibitor chip, to escape without taking the lives of any of her former friends. While Rex and Ahsoka do escape death, they are unable to save their clone friends.
Despite already knowing the fates of each main character in this episode, fans were still on the edge of their seats throughout its events. This series finale recontextualizes many of the plot points in Revenge of the Sith, telling them from a different point of view. It also ends with one of the most chilling and meaningful final shots of any television series, as Darth Vader inspects the ruins of Ahsoka's flagship, believing her, Rex, and the other clones, to be dead.