Clovis Arc Review

If any of you have been sitting under a rock, or have been in a far away land disconnected from civilization, then you should know that all 13 Episodes of the Clone Wars Season 6 are available for streaming in Netflix. And let me say, they look gorgeous. If you wish to have a sneek peek, then by all means, be my guest and watch the trailer here:

As the Clovis arc is apparently set before the season finale events of Season 5, I decided to watch this arc first. So now, here is my review:

SPOILERS AT YOUR OWN RISK

This arc was originally slated for release in Season 5, but it was moved to place the Young Jedi arc and this one was moved for Season 6. After watching these episodes, I can guess that they did this mostly in order to balance the Season with more light-hearted episodes, mainly because this arc went to some dark places, even if it didn't appear so at the beginning.

The arc basically revolves around Clovis discovering that the Banking Clan has no money in its funds, meaning that one of the largest banks of the galaxy is in the brink of collapse. The episodes give the explanation that a group of Muuns heading the Clan stole the money, though to be fair it could all be a "covering up" by the Sith from money that was used to either create the Clone Army (as seen in detail in Star Wars: Darth Plagueis) or some other scheme to finance the war.

Anyway, this discovery and the chain of events that follow are all a scheme made by Darth Sidious in order to nationalize the Banking Clan and cement a step forward in the rise of the Empire. Eventually, the Trade Federation and all the other corporations that fund the Separatists suffer the same fate.

My only real complaint of these episodes was the confusion on what exactly ended up happening in economic terms. Apparently Dooku helped promote Clovis to the head of the Banking Clan in order to allow both the Separatists and the Republic to help save the banks while keeping the operation neutral. Once Palpatine nationalizes it, you can assume that the Banking Clan is saved much in the same way many corporations were saved during the financial crisis.

Anyway, I'm not an economist so what do I know. If any of you understood it better, an explanation in the comments section would be much appreciated.

The best part though, was how these episodes interacted with the fate of Clovis, and in some ways with Anakin's fate as well. We know from these episodes that Clovis wasn't really a bad guy, but more of a martyr and a pawn of the events that happened in the war. His sacrifice in the end was truly a sad moment for a character I wasn't a fan of in Season 2's "Senate Spy".

As far as Anakin goes, we got to see that when he succumbed to the dark side and started to beat up Clovis mercilessly, his own persona seemed to change. Anakin himself couldn't believe what he had done once he snapped out of it, and Padme herself sometimes doubted what was inside of Anakin in that heartbreaking conversation they had later. We start to see a seed of Darth Vader, but more importantly how Anakin's persona truly regrets these actions, while his dark side persona that will eventually become Vader craves them. Anakin ultimately isn't neccesarily a bad person or a bad husband at this point, but due to not controlling his emotions he eventually does become Vader.

I also have to say that I was very impressed with how Dooku and Sidious were managed in this arc. Dooku was very really explored and had great mad guy moments. And man, Sidious's line in the end when he says that the Supreme Chancellor will have control of the Banking Clan is one of the best moments of that character in the entire saga. The late Ian Abercrombie was such a terrific actor.

Also, you just can't beat Embo snowboarding. And that moment when Anakin held a sorrowful Padme at the end of the episode was just priceless.

Needless to say, I can't wait to see the rest and breakdown my thoughts here!!