Star Wars The Clone Wars Season One To Season Six / Tropes G to Z

Tropes A to F | Tropes G to Z

G

• Gasshole: In "Downfall of a Droid", how does Gha Nachkt first greet Anakin and Ahsoka? By farting in their faces of course!
• Gatling Good: The Z-6 and Z-7 rotary blasters are of the Energy Weapon variety.
• General Failure: Pong Krell. He belittles and insults his clone troopers and their clone nature, and orders full-frontal attacks with exhausted soldiers against fortified positions. His own soldiers point out the flaws in his strategies, and think that he might be deliberately trying to get them killed. As it turns out, he is intentionally sabotaging the Republic's efforts on Umbara so he'll have a good accomplishment to present to Dooku when he defects to the Separatists. Suffice to say, this comes back to bite him.
• Genre Roulette: While The Clone Wars primarily remained true to the Space Western-Science Fantasy-Space Opera-mashup genre within the franchise, it also had more opportunities to dip into other genres every week, or choose just one of the above and devote itself entirely to doing a story in that genre. Just a few examples:
  • The large battle-centric episodes and story arcs are often straight-up pastiches of Military and Warfare Films of different sub-genres. For instance, "Cat and Mouse" is a World War II Sub Story, "Landing At Point Rain" is Saving Private Ryan and A Bridge Too Far, and the Umbara arc is a Vietnam War story, down to an officer fragging and a (neon-lit) jungle.
  • A number of stories lean completely into the fantasy side of Star Wars. The Mortis arc is High Fantasy about Anakin's destiny. "Nomad Droids" puts R2 and C-3PO in quirky Magical Land riffs on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Gulliver's Travels and Oz. The Dathomir stories are Dark Fantasy with witches, ghosts and sorcery, and Yoda's arc is a Vision Quest through the more mysterious and mystical side of the Force.
  • "Senate Spy", "Duchess of Mandalore", "Pursuit of Peace", "Senate Murders", the Obi-Wan Undercover arc, the Fugitive arc, and the Order 66 arc are various sub-genres of Conspiracy Thriller. In particular, "Senate Murders" is a straight-up Murder Mystery, the Fugitive arc is a Hitchcock homage, and Fives in the Order 66 arc is a 1970s Conspiracy Thriller protagonist in the style of Warren Beatty or Robert Redford.
  • "Bounty Hunters" and "Bounty" are Space Westerns with the heavy emphasis on "Western" for a change.
  • The Zillo Beast arc is a Monster Movie.
  • "Legacy of Terror", "Brain Invaders", and "Massacre" are horror. The first is a Zombie Horror (with a dash of Aliens), the second is a creepy bodysnatcher horror, and the last is more of a Dark Side sorcery zombie story.
  • The Young Jedi arc feels very much like an Eighties Amblin movie.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Son (who is introduced in "Overlords") has them in his default and gargoyle forms. It's not surprising considering he is the living personification of the Dark Side.
• Gonna Need More X: In "Escape from Kadavo", Anakin confirms that not only are they going to rescue Obi-Wan from a slave facility, but every single slave. Ahsoka states that they are going to need a bigger ship.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: When Luminara Unduli and Ahsoka are interrogating Nute Gunray in "Cloak of Darkness", Luminara calmly and systematically questions Gunray and picks apart each denial he makes. Ahsoka, feeling this method takes too long, draws her lightsaber and threatens to gut Gunray right then if he did not talk. Unfortunately for the interrogation, this had not been planned out and Luminara drags Ahsoka away to sternly remind her that terror is not a weapon that the Jedi use.
• Good Is Not Soft: The Jedi Order. They still classify themselves as peacekeepers, but have taken up arms in the war because that is the best way to restore the peace. The nature of the trope is discussed by many characters throughout The Clone Wars, as they wonder at what point it changes from Good-Doing-Hard-Things to just plain being bad.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Darth Maul's rampage in "Revenge".
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Averted. At certain points in The Clone Wars (first in "Rookies"), characters will say the word "hell" when shocked, surprised, or needing to use emphasis. There was backlash after those episodes aired, however, and subsequent airings had the points edited to replace them with "Heck". The original "hell"s were retained on the home video releases.
• Götterdämmerung: The Mortis arc introduces the Force-wielders, who are manifestations of the Light Side, Dark Side, and Balance of the Force. The Son (The Dark Side) tries to turn Anakin to his side, which both the Daughter and the Father try to prevent, so they start fighting. Things end with all three of them dead.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe:
  • A lot of alien females show up with bodies almost identical to humanity, and they tend to be very beautiful and Stripperific. Ahsoka is the most prominently featured as one of the main characters, but is not very heavily sexualized given her age.
  • Ironically, the yellow-green skinned female Mirialan Jedi Master Luminara Unduli is portrayed as classically beautiful rather than sexy. The same goes for her Padawan learner Barriss Offee (who is the same species as her).
• Grievous Harm with a Body: On the rare occasions when they remember that they have the ability to use the Force, Jedi can use their enemies as weapons.
• Grooming the Enemy: Cad Bane, due to his intense rivalry with Jango Fett, indulges in this trope to train Boba Fett explicitly because he wanted Boba to reach the same level as his deceased father. At which point Bane would challenge and kill Boba because that'd be the closest he'd get to beating Jango.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Occasionally another Jedi will join the main group of Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex for a single mission or arc; some examples include Plo Koon in the Malevolence arc and Aayla Secura in "Jedi Crash" and "Defenders of Peace".
• Guilty Until Someone Else Is Guilty: Aside from her closest friends, all the characters believe that Ahsoka Tano killed Letta Turmond, who was instructed by a Jedi to bomb the Jedi Temple. The characters also believe that Ahsoka is the mastermind behind the bombing. Once Anakin captures Barriss Offee in "The Wrong Jedi" and makes her confess that she was responsible for the crimes, everyone is finally convinced of Ahsoka Tano's innocence.
• Guns Akimbo:
  • Captain Rex wields two guns. Apparently, he has a bit more of Jango in him than the average clone trooper.
  • Chairman Papanoida of Pantora pulls it off briefly in "Sphere of Influence".
  • Every single Mandalorian Death Watch member. Word of God states it is meant to reflect the symmetry that their culture favors.
  • Boba Fett wields two blaster pistols in "R2 Come Home", "Lethal Trackdown", and "Bounty", although he does not use both of them at once in the earlier story arc.
• Gunship Rescue:
  • In "Landing at Point Rain", the clone troopers under Obi-Wan are falling back and an injured Obi-Wan activates his lightsaber for their Last Stand... and a squadron of Y-Wings arrive to take out the incoming Separatist droids and Geonosians.
  • During the Umbara arc, Anakin and his clone troopers call in a squadron of bombers to take out a strong section of Umbarans.
• Gutted Like a Fish: Ahsoka threatens to do this to Nute Gunray in "Cloak of Darkness".
  Ahsoka: Liar, liar! I'm tired of all this whining! Tell us what we want right now, or I will gut you like a Rokarian dirt-fish!

H

• Hack Your Enemy: The Citadel arc presents three battle droids that were reprogrammed to work as R2-D2's sqaudron. The Republic uses them to fly the infiltration team's ship since battle droids are nothing unusual on a Separatist planet.
• Half-Human Hybrid: According to other sources, the children of Twi'lek woman Suu Lawquane were fathered by a human male before she married Cut (who is also a human, but a cloned one).
• Half the Man He Used to Be: When Kit Fisto leads the ambush on General Grievous in "Lair of Grievous", Grievous's legs are cut off as the clone troopers trap him with cables. Unlike most examples of the trope, however, Grievous' four arms mean that he is still mobile and the loss of his legs is more of an annoyance than crippling injury. He is repaired during the episode and returns fully active.
• Hand Cannon: Even though the DC-17 blaster is categorized as a carbine, it is small enough and light enough to handle as a pistol. The more experienced clone troopers like Captain Rex (or other clone troopers akin to him) appear to utilize this trope.
• Handshake of Doom: In "Citadel Rescue", Anakin and Tarkin share a handshake in which a brief snippet of the Imperial March starts playing, foreshadowing the death and sorrow that will come as part of their partnership in the future once the Republic becomes the Empire, most infamously the destruction of Alderaan.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: In "The Academy", Korkie Kryze informs Prime Minister Almec that he has information about the corruption on Mandalore. Almec tells Korkie to meet him and bring the recording and everyone else who knows about it. Korkie sees nothing unusual about this whatsoever.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Nossor Ri and the Quarren Army in "Prisoners".
  • General Tandin in "The Soft War".
  • Bo-Katan and her Night Owls in "The Lawless".
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Hondo Ohnaka is this trope to the extent that you can hold a betting pool about it every time he appears.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In "Rookies", when a remote detonator malfunctions, Hevy stays behind to blow up the charge manually, ensuring both his squad's safety and that the Republic will know something is amiss.
  • Subverted in "Weapons Factory" when Ahsoka and Barriss Offee assume that using their hijacked battle tank to destroy a power reactor will take them with it, and are prepared for a triumphant death in a blaze of glory. However, this particular battle tank is touted as invincible and lives up to that. They find themselves trapped in the rubble afterward and the prospect of dying of either starvation or asphyxiation is much less appealing than death in combat. Ahsoka is able to improvise a communicator to signal that they're alive and eventually they're dug out of the debris.
  • In "ARC Troopers", 99 (the deformed clone who does maintenance duties on Kamino) dies like a soldier while trying to get extra ammo for the clone troopers fighting invading Separatist droids. For bonus points, Hevy was a friend of his, perhaps the only friend a defective clone like him ever had, and treated him like any other soldier. However, his death ultimately accomplished nothing and could also be counted primarily as a Senseless Sacrifice.
  • In "Supply Lines", Master Ima-Gun Di and his Clone Troopers fight an unwinnable battle to stall the advancing Separatist droid army long enough for the Twi'leks to retreat. Di only goes down after hearing that supplies have come, and he had already been shot once and was the last man standing.
  • In "Altar of Mortis", the Daughter does this twice in a row to save the Father and Ahsoka.
  • In "Shadow Warrior", Captain Tarpals allows himself to be run-through by General Grievous in order to put himself in the proper position to disable Grievous in turn. Unfortunately, it eventually ends up not ending well.
  • In "Plan of Dissent", clone trooper Hardcase leaves his ship to get past the ray shields that are protecting the generators he, Fives, and Jessie are there to destroy. He tells the other two to fly away and escape the explosion, telling them to live to fight another day.
  • In "Missing in Action", Gregor takes out an entire shuttle port and himself with it to give D-Squad the time to escape, though the door is left open for his return.
  • In "Point of No Return", M5-BZ blows himself and a swarm of buzz droids out of an airlock to save the rest of D-Squad. R2 also tried to do this, but his Saved by Canon status is a lot thicker and he comes out of it alright.
• Herr Doktor: Doctor Vindi (the Mad Scientist in "Blue Shadow Virus") certainly has the accent down pat, despite being an alien. He looks the part much better when he puts on a pair of pince-nez spectacles.
• He's Back!: Darth Maul makes his return after being presumably killed by Obi-Wan back in The Phantom Menace.
• Hey, Wait!: In "Heroes on Both Sides", Grievous sends a group of Demolition Droids designed for infiltration and suicide-bombing in order to destroy Coruscant's central power distribution grid. The Demolition Droids are built to look like sweeper droids in their disguised forms and have fake permits to enter the secured zone. After clone trooper Commander Fox examines the permit and allows for the droids pass, he stops them again as they're about to turn around the corner... because they almost turned the wrong way!
• Hijacked by Ganon: In "Assassin", who hired Aurra Sing to kill Padmé? Ziro.
• Hive City: Due to its surface mostly being covered by barren desert, the cities of Mandalore consist of large domes whose volumes are almost entirely filled by clusters of buildings piled around and on top of each other — the walls, floors and roofs alike are covered in occupied buildings, and further clusters of urban growth form pillars connecting them and filling up most of the intermediate space; movement is mostly by flying vehicle in hollow areas within the urban mass. Unlike other examples of this trope, these cities are kept very clean and organized; their aesthetics mostly center around geometric Art Deco looks, with lots of glass, good lighting, and public spaces in the open areas.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • In "Rookies", Separatist droids take control of a Republic outpost on the Rishi moon via initiating an attack on the outpost. When Cody and Rex arrive for an inspection, they attempt to deceive them by disguising themselves in clone armor. The surviving clone troopers then gain entrance to the outpost via Captain Rex pretending to be a commando droid.
  • In "Prisoners", Riff Tamson stabs a few enemies with small time bombs that blow them into a bloody mess. Lee-Char manages to fight Tamson and kills him by taking and stabbing Tamson with one of his own bombs.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs:
  • Played straight in "Mystery of a Thousand Moons" when Obi-Wan says to Anakin, "There's more than one way to skin a womp rat."
  • Days get referred to both as days and as planetary rotations.
• Hollywood Tactics: This gets Played With throughout the series:
  • The battle droids are especially vulnerable to this, although one has to account for their commanders' strategies and tactics.
  • The clone troopers averts this most of the time, especially under the command of the more experienced Jedi, as they usually make use of cover and ambush tactics to gain the upper hand. However, standard tactic for close-quarters fighting is apparently "stand out in the open, ignore cover, and shoot at the enemy".
  • The Second Battle of Geonosis is determined to be a ground invasion and it focuses on infantry and armor attack. As a result, they use all of their aircraft and spacecraft to land their clone troopers instead of attacking, with only the occasional bombing run. The second phase of the battle had the Jedi invoke the idea; they launch one of Anakin's trademark direct attacks across a natural chokepoint, but it's only a diversion.
  • During the Umbara arc, this trope gets averted. Both sides make good use of cover, there is omnipresent air support on both sides (and light mechanized support for the clones, with some armored appearing for the shadow people occasionally), and both sides demonstrate a decent understanding of tactics. The trope is then Deconstructed when General Krell takes command of the 501^st Legion. Not only do his tactics get a lot of clone troopers killed when it could have been avoided, this causes severe tensions between the Legion and their temporary commanding officer. Of course, there's another reason this happens that isn't Krell being incompetent...
  • Double Subverted during the Nightsisters and Brothers arc. In "Massacre", the Separatist droid army lands in an open area with little cover, indicating that the Nightsisters will engage them directly. Instead, Ventress orders the Nightsisters into elevated sniper positions where they will be safe and provides support for a ground counteroffensive by the more hardy and expendable Cavalry of the Dead and only pressing the attack once the Separatist droids are routed. Ventress engages Grievous personally, knowing that the Separatist droids will be easy prey without him, but does not ambush him when she knows he would do the same to her. Then, she loses and all of the Nightsisters die when they apparently disappear back to their home, where they abandon all semblance of tactics and stand in the open firing randomly until they're killed. Only at the beginning of the battle does Grievous make use of air support.
    • Mother Talzin deserves specific mention during the story arc. Despite clearly being capable of almost single-handedly wiping out the Separatist droid army, she declines to take part in the battle save for a brief involvement at the beginning. While she does attempt to target Count Dooku directly using magick, she does so in an extremely slow and inefficient way during the battle when she could easily have waited until after repelling the invasion.
  • Despite heavy use of fighters and bombers on all sides, no one ever opts for orbital bombardment even of military-only targets. Later material states that the vessels outright lack the capability, and Imperial Star Destroyers with their more powerful Turbolasers were later created specifically to address the lack.
• Holographic Disguise: The Holographic Disguise Matrix introduced in "Crisis on Naboo" was invented by a Bounty Hunter named Sinrich. Cad Bane, Twazzi, Derrown, and Embo use it to disguise themselves during an attempt to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine.
• Holy Halo: The Daughter is visibly glowing in both her humanoid and griffin form since she's the physical embodiment of the Light Side.
• Hope Spot: "Conspiracy" ends with quite a cruel one. After finding out the Kaminoans plan to euthanize Tup, Fives enlists AZ's help to prevent that from happening. In the end, they manage to remove the control chip that is causing Tup's illness, Shaak Ti arrives at the lab meaning Nala Se can't attempt any foul play, and Tup wakes up, seemingly starting to recover. Then it turns out the malfunctioning chip in his brain and the surgery to remove it have weakened Tup too badly, and he dies shortly after regaining consciousness.
  Fives: No. No! I thought I saved him...
• Horrible Judge of Character: It is eventually revealed that almost every named official in Duchess Satine's government is a traitor or corrupt in some way. Pre Viszla, governor of Concordia, is the leader of Death Watch and senator Tal Merrik is in league with him. Prime Minister Almec controls the black market on Mandalore, supplied with smuggled goods and protected by bribes and corrupt security officials. Satine never suspects any of them until they are exposed by other characters.
• Horse of a Different Color: It pops up a few times:
  • In "Trespass", the Talz use Narglatchs (blue-skinned, sabertooth lion-like creatures) to ride into battle.
  • In "Liberty on Ryloth", the Twi'lek freedom fighters use Blurrgs, (which are large, bipedal reptilian creatures) both as beasts of burden and as riding mounts.
  • The Zygerrians use Brezak or "gliding lizards" for air-gliding around their city.
  • In "Bounty", the Kage warriors of Quarzite use giant centipedes called milodons for traveling and chasing the subtram.
  • The Onderon rebels use various beasts: large fambaas to pull carriages and horse-like dalgos as battle mounts. They also used the large flying creatures called rupings for stealth infiltration, and to provide air-support during battle.
• Hostage Situation: Defied by Anakin during the Zygerria arc. When they threaten to kill the Togruta colonists if he doesn't surrender, he dismissively states that he's done listening to slavers. It also helps that he brought a Republic fleet for backup.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Ziro the Hutt and Sy Snootles (the long-lipped alien singer in Jabba's palace) were in a relationship with each other. Even if Ziro is slightly small for a Hutt, that just boggles the mind.
• Huge Holographic Head: A team of maintenance droids rule a primitive society by generating a giant hologram.
• Human Shield: During his breakout from Republic captivity, Gunray is held before his rescuer Argyus, who knows that the clone troopers will not want to risk the valuable intel that Gunray can provide. This is true, so Commander Gree shoots his blaster and then proceeds to fight him hand-to-hand.
• Humiliation Conga: This happens to Darth Maul and Savage Opress in "Revival". Maul and Savage first double-team a lone (albeit Dual Wielding) Obi-Wan and lose, with Savage losing his arm in the process. The two of them then flee, thinking they're regrouping with the pirates they recruited, only for the pirates to open fire and force them to flee again, this time with Maul getting one of his robotic legs shot off in the process. Then after they frantically hobble back into their ship and take off, it gets shot down and they're forced to jettison out the escape pod. In other words, their plan fails spectacularly and the next we see of them, they're still drifting around in space and are nearly frozen to death.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Trandoshans kidnap members of many different species to release on an uninhabited world to hunt. Jedi Knights are too difficult to capture, so they often take Padawans.
• Hypocritical Humor: While still in prison fatigues, Cad Bane says that they need to get new clothes so they don't stand out. Naturally, he goes for the first hat he can find, even though it stands out in a crowd. He's called on this, and indeed Ahsoka is able to spot him from a distance later on precisely because he's wearing the hat.

I

• I Am the Noun: In "Lethal Trackdown", Boba Fett says he wants justice (for the death of his father) and Plo Koon simply responds "We [the Jedi] are justice". Unlike most examples of the trope, he says it with such calm certainty that Boba is affected by the statement.
• I Don't Pay You to Think: In "A Sunny Day in the Void", when one of the droids says that he's been thinking, Colonel Gascon tells him that it's his job to think, not the droid's.
  • This becomes a running gag, as WAC-47 repeatedly states that "I've been thinking" or "I was thinking" or "I think" and Colonel Gason all but shouts "STOP DOING THAT!"
• If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!:
  • In "Lethal Trackdown", Aurra tells Boba to shoot a clone trooper named Ponds. Yes, a clone trooper. Basically his brother. He doesn't go through with it, so Aurra does.
  • In "Slaves of the Republic", Queen Miraj Scintel orders Anakin to whip Obi-Wan in order to prove that he really is a slaver.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: In "Brain Invaders", Ahsoka finds herself the only individual not infected with a mind-controlling parasite and spends some time trying to snap people out of it. However, once it becomes clear that she cannot snap the other person out of it, she does fight to defend herself.
• I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: When Rex realizes that his duty requires him to report Cut, a clone deserter, to the authorities, he expresses regret that his memory of the event will be too poor for him to make any kind of report.
• I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: In "Citadel Rescue", Master Even Piell does this to Ahsoka in order to make sure the hyperspace route coordinates he's carrying gets to the Republic.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
  • In "Escape from Kadavo", Keeper Agruss meets his end via being impaled on a shock staff thrown by Rex.
  • In "The Lawless", Savage Opress gets killed this way with two lightsabers, courtesy of Darth Sidious.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy:
  • The battle droids. In "Rookies", a clone trooper manages to evade droid fire for a few seconds by walking sideways. Their effectiveness does vary by episode. Starting in "The Hidden Enemy", they have fewer humorous moments and an obscenely large clone trooper body count.
  • In "Point of No Return", a bunch of battle droids are walking toward a corridor intersection, with a bunch of Republic droids crossing in front of their field of fire. The battle droids unload their blasters trying to hit the Republic droids, and the ones who are being shot at all make it past the unending stream of blaster fire safely... except for one, who can only take little tiny baby steps. Even with that poor slow-moving bastard, the battle droids miss him like twenty or thirty times before one bolt finally blows his head off.
  • The clone troopers also tend to miss their targets a lot, although not as much as the battle droids.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: The lightsabers are naturally this.
  • "The Mandalore Plot" manages to up the cool factor by introducing a historic black-bladed lightsaber called the Darksaber.
• In a Single Bound: Jedi tend to leap very large distances easily. Justified, since they use the Force to do it. Other characters like Embo and Cassie Cryar can jump obscenely far and high due to being a Heavy Worlder and Bizarre Alien Biology respectively.
• Incredibly Obvious Bug: In "Lightsaber Lost", Jedi Master Tera Sinube plants one on Ione Marcy's back; it's large, it beeps, and it's a surprisingly long time before Cassie Cryar spots and destroys it.
• Indy Ploy: Many characters tend to go with the flow via coming up with plans along the way. Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, the clone troopers, Padmé, Yoda, and Cad Bane have come up with plans, but Anakin has definitely pulled this the most often via instantly improvising a plan in the middle of the situation. This tendency of his is lampshaded by Obi-Wan, Mace, and Rex in "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" as they watch Anakin cut apart the hull of their escape ship, which is in the grasp of the titular Zillo Beast:
  Mace Windu: What is Skywalker doing?
  [hands macrobinoculars to General Kenobi]
  Obi-Wan Kenobi: It appears to be one of Anakin's improvised plans.
  Mace Windu: How can it be a plan if it's improvised?
  Obi-Wan Kenobi: Not to worry, just catch them when they fall.
  Captain Rex: A lot of the General's plans involve falling.
• I Never Said It Was Poison:
  • In "The Hidden Enemy", Slick accidentally reveals that he is the traitor by saying "when the Jedi get back", when only the traitor could have known the Jedi were gone.
  • During the Fugitive arc, Letta reveals herself by stating that the bomber is dead when only the person who actually planted the bomb would have known that. Anakin practically name-drops this trope, saying "We never said he was dead". Ashoka actually did say that Jackar was dead while scanning Letta for nano-droids, but indirectly.
    Ashoka: We believe someone set Jackar up, and... made him the bomb.
• Ink-Suit Actor: A lot of characters resemble their voice actors, alongside their facial expressions and body language being inspired by actors during recordings, where the production had cameras filming the actors.
  • Anakin Skywalker looks very similar to Matt Lanter.
  • Cham Syndulla and Gobi Glie resembles Robin Atkin Downes and Corey Burton respectively.
  • Wilhuff Tarkin looks like Stephen Stanton. Stephen took it one step further at Celebration VI by cosplaying as Tarkin himself.
  • Satine Kryze looks like Anna Graves, but she's been noted to have a Comic-Book Fantasy Casting resemblance to Cate Blanchett.
  • Chairman Chi Cho resembles Brian George.
  • Senator Mina Bonteri resembles Kath Soucie, except with short brown hair with graying streaks and a beauty mark near her mouth, and Lux Bonteri looks like a younger version of Jason Spisak.
  • Prime Minister Almec shares some resemblance to Julian Holloway, but with a beard.
  • Korkie and his friends resemble their voice actors.
  • The Father, the Son, and the Daughter resemble Lloyd Sherr, Sam Witwer, and Adrienne Wilkinson, respectively.
  • Kalifa, Jinx, and O-Mer look like younger versions of Gwendoline Yeo, Sunil Malhotra, and Cam Clarke, respectively. Weirdly enough, you can also see a bit of resemblance between Gwendoline Yeo and one of her characters Peppi Bow (who is a female Gungan).
  • Queen Neeyutnee resembles her voice actress Jameelah McMillan, although we never see her without her headdress and make-up.
  • Bo-Katan looks like Katee Sackhoff, except with short red hair. Her hairstyle is similar to Sackhoff's role as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica (2003).
  • Saw and Steela Gerrera resembles Andrew Kishino and Dawn-Lyen Gardner respectively (the latter except with dreadlocks and teal eyes).
• Interquel: The Clone Wars is set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, in addition to being canon to the Star Wars franchise in the Disney era.
• Informed Ability: Much talk is made about how General Pong Krell's tactics are very effective, but every command he issues during the Umbara arc leads to defeat that his clone troopers need to reverse by disobeying his orders. The opening narration describes him as reckless. It turns out he's deliberately sabotaging the Republic advance prior to his planned defection to the Separatists.
• Insectoid Aliens:
  • The Geonosians. They even have a queen, who is immobile and spends her time laying eggs, living deep inside the catacombs of the Progate Temple.
  • Admiral Trench is a humanoid spider, with six arms, six eyes, large chelicerae, and small mouth with fangs. If that wasn't creepy enough, he later returned with half his body consisting of cybernetics.
• Insignia Ripoff Ritual: Double Subverted. Ahsoka gets her Padawan braid taken when she is expelled from the Order in "The Wrong Jedi". They offer it back once she is cleared, but she declines.
• Invincible Hero: Yoda is most certainly this. The reason why he rarely gets A Day in the Limelight is that the writers had problems coming up with something that would challenge him. He directly fought the Separatists only once and eventually had a prominent role during the Yoda arc.
• Invisible to Normals: A slight variation. Kyber crystals only glow for their intended owner, while others see nothing.
• Invulnerable Knuckles:
  • Though no one is ever shown breaking their fist on the metal, whenever a clone trooper punches a battle droid, he reacts in pain and has to shake his hand out afterwards. This occasionally has tragic outcomes, as their moments of pain and distraction often lets other Separatist droids shoot them dead.
  • When Padmé punches Lolo in "Senate Murders", she immediately rubs her obviously injured hand.
  • In "The Rise of Clovis", Rush Clovis injures his hand when his fist connects with Anakin's cybernetic hand during their brawl.
  • Played straight whenever clone troopers fight each other bare-handed, since they're usually wearing armor. Most egregious with Fives during the Order 66 arc, where he spends most of an episode completely unarmed and unarmored and takes out fully-armored clones with nothing but punches and kicks. Sure, he's an ARC trooper, but really!
• Iris Out: True to Star Wars form, every episode except for "The Wrong Jedi" and "Sacrifice" ends with the screen turning to solid black starting at the edges and pushing inwards.
• Ironic Echo: "Rookies" features this: "Roger, roger."
• I Surrender, Suckers:
  • Obi-Wan and Anakin both pull the ploy from time to time.
  • Kit Fisto pulls a similar trick on Grievous in "Lair of Grievous", but substitutes an escape for the trope's dictated attack. Grievous' look when his surrender demand is (seemingly) accepted? Priceless.
• It Amused Me:
  • In "Evil Plans", Cad Bane captures Threepio in order to get information out of him by administering painful electrical shocks. When he learns he has grabbed the wrong droid of the duo, he dispatches his minions to grab Artoo. While he waits for his minions to return with Artoo, he continues to zap the heck out of poor Threepio.
  • Once General Krell admits that he was a traitor in "Carnage of Krell", Captain Rex asks him why. "Because I can. Because you fell for it. Because you're inferior."
• It Has Been an Honor:
  • The reprogrammed battle droids in "Citadel Rescue" tell R2, who was their designated commander during the mission, that it's been an honor serving under him.
  • Clone Commander Gregor tells this to Colonel Gascon after thanking him for reminding him who he was. He also promises, however, that he'll fight his way home.
• It Only Works Once: In "Plan of Dissent", Fives, Jessie, and Hardcase are unwilling to risk their lives under Krell's reckless command and plot a mission against a resupply ship which they compare to Anakin's destruction of the droid command ship back in The Phantom Menace. They manage to get up to the ship and fire on its reactor, but the Separatist droids activate a ray shield to block them. Hardcase has to physically disconnect a damaged cannon, walk it around the shield, then smash it into the reactor to detonate it.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Characters frequently denigrate the clones by dismissing them as "only" clones and how they were designed to be expendable. Even clones do this (though they're often angry or resigned about it). A non-clone who does this is either a straight up villain or will learn a very special lesson.
• It's Personal: In "Kidnapped", Anakin is particularly furious with the slave-trading Zygerrians because of his own childhood status as a slave. The Zygerrians themselves have a vendetta against the Jedi, who destroyed their Slave Empire and greatly reduced their galactic influence and planetary prosperity.
• I Will Only Slow You Down:
  • The nameless Senate Commando piloting Chancellor Palpatine's escape shuttle in "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" insists that Palpatine escape riding R2-D2's jets, which cannot carry them both. He is crushed by the Zillo Beast mere moments later.
  • Kalifa to Ahsoka after the former is shot through the chest in "Padawan Lost".

J

• Jealous Romantic Witness: Anakin and Padme have to keep their marriage a secret. She is sent on several diplomatic missions that include an old flame of hers, Rush Clovis. Rush keeps trying to rekindle things between them, while she accepts his advances and responds in kind without actually getting involved with him again. Whenever Anakin is present, he can't keep himself from getting angry and jealous.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Bric sabotages Domino Squad he is not doing it with their interests at heart, but Shaak Ti points out to El-Les that battlefield conditions will be even less forgiving and they need to figure out how to deal with problems like this. Their struggles to overcome his challenges are what inspire them to excel, which everyone acknowledges at the end of "Clone Cadets".
• Jet Pack:
  • It's standard issue for the Mandalorians who are members of Death Watch.
  • Used by some clone troopers, where it is apparently specialized equipment.
  • Cad Bane has jet boots. He uses them to maneuver while in anti-gravity in addition to regular flight.
• The Juggernaut: Savage Opress is nearly unstoppable. Not only does he continue to fight multiple enemies, all of who outclass him, in rapid succession, he also shrugs off repeated blaster shots, Force lightning, and being slammed against walls, which would have instantly killed or at least incapacitated most other people. By the time he does retreat, he's half dead from all the abuse he took.
• Just a Machine: Ironically, the Jedi and clone troopers view the battle droids this way despite said droids exhibiting a whole lot more personality and emotion compared to how they are in the Prequel Trilogy. Obi-Wan also feels this way about Artoo.
  Obi-Wan Kenobi: R2 units are a dime a dozen. I'm sure you'll find a suitable replacement.
• Just a Stupid Accent:
  • Aayla Secura, as played by Jennifer Hale, and the rest of the Twi'leks are French — a nod to the French Resistance.
  • The Pantorans are South African — a nod to Apartheid-era dictators.
  • The Felucians sound vaguely Japanese — a nod to Seven Samurai.
  • Kit Fisto has a slight Jamaican accent. As a result of being voiced by Phil LaMarr, he sometimes sounds like Hermes Conrad from Futurama.
• Just Hit Him: Played With during Darts D'nar's fight with Obi-Wan in "Kidnapped". Darts throws Obi-Wan across the room a number of times when it probably would've been more effective to just start beating the hell out of him right where they are. But, at other times during the fight, Darts does beat on him, and choke him, and pick him up only to slam him onto the floor. As much as he wants to win, he also wants revenge. Obi-Wan made a good outlet for those frustrations.
• Just in Time:
  • In "Dooku Captured", Ahsoka and the clone troopers free Anakin and Obi-Wan from a cave filled with toxic gas at the last second.
  • In "Blue Shadow Virus", a clone deactivates the bomb with what appears to be a few fractions of a second before detonation and then comments "plenty of time to spare".
  • In "R2 Come Home", Anakin and Mace Windu, injured and pinned in the wreckage of a downed starship, are extracted with only seconds to spare before the wreckage collapses.
  • In a Call-Back to the pilot movie, "The Wrong Jedi" sees Anakin arriving to the trial with the proof of Ahsoka's innocence in the last moment, before the verdict is announced.

K

• Kaiju: The Zillo Beast is pretty much the Star Wars counterpart to Godzilla.
• Kangaroo Court:
  • Pong Krell invokes this in "Plan of Dissent", stating that Jesse and Fives will be court-martialed, found guilty, and executed. He then tops it moments later by deciding that this will take too long, and orders Rex to execute them without trial.
  • Two within "The Wrong Jedi":
    • The Jedi Council brings the verdict of Ahsoka being guilty of the crimes she has been accused of in advance, without even giving her an audience first. When they do give her an audience, they constantly interrupt and further confuse her with cross-questions. They were themselves being pressured heavily by the Senate. Anakin even lampshaded it when he says: "You've already made your decision, haven't you!? This meeting is just a formality!"
    • The military tribunal is just as bad. Tarkin, the prosecutor, presents indirect evidence and presumptions he made based on them as if they're unshakable proofs. When Padmé brings attention to the lapse of logic in them, he simply steers the conversation away to another question, that was completely irrelevant to the point that had been discussed until then! Palpatine, the presiding judge, gets to make an argument against the defense before the jury has rendered a verdict.
• Keystone Army: During the Onderon arc, the rebels take out the city's primary power generator, knocking out every substation in turn. With no power, the droids have no way to recharge, making their defeat an eventuality. This only applies locally, though; there's nothing keeping Dooku from sending reinforcements, which is exactly what he does.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In "Shadow of Malevolence", Grievous decides to attack medical frigates as a prelude to attacking the whole medical outpost.
  • In "Monster", Asajj Ventress' final initiation for a newly-brainwashed Savage Opress was having him kill his brother.
  • In "The Lawless", Darth Maul takes over Mandalore and uses pacifist Duchess Satine to lure Obi-Wan Kenobi to Mandalore as part of his Roaring Rampage of Revenge. When Obi-Wan and Satine are both captured, Maul kills Satine in front of Kenobi just so he can watch Obi-Wan feel the pain that he felt in the years after his defeat.
• Kid-Appeal Character:
  • Ahsoka is this at the beginning of The Clone Wars, but she grows out of this role as the series progresses (although she is very popular with older audiences).
  • The younglings introduced during the Young Jedi arc.
• Kid Hero:
  • Ahsoka, who is an adolescent female Togruta and a skilled Padawan learner.
  • The younglings introduced during the Young Jedi arc also get their shot at being heroes.
• Killed Mid-Sentence:
  • In "Carnage of Krell", General Krell says "Eventually you'll have to do the right thing and–" only to be shot mid-sentence.
  • Many, many hapless battle droids. One example of many:
    Battle Droid 1: What is that?
    Battle Droid 2: It looks like an explosive.
    Battle Droid 1: How can you tel– [explosion]
    • Moments later in the same episode:
      Battle Droid: Surrender rebel! You will answer for your crimes agains– [explosion]
• Kill It with Fire: A group of Geonosians in the Second Battle of Geonosis gets burned by flamethrowers.
• Kill It with Ice: Geonosian brain-worms, although it is just cold in general, not necessarily ice.
• Kiss of Death: This scene of Ventress killing an ARC trooper named Commander Colt that's featured in "ARC Troopers". Cartoon Network insisted that it should be cut before the episode's airing, although it's on the DVD.
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: Obi-Wan is the Knight, Anakin is the Knave, and Ahsoka is the Squire.

L

• The Lancer:
  • Anakin usually fulfills this role to Obi-Wan when they are on a mission together.
  • Ahsoka and Rex share the role for Anakin.
• Large Ham:
  • Colonel Gascon (who is introduced during the D-Squad arc), which is helped by his Napoleonic ego.
  • The Space Pirate Hondo Ohnaka takes hamminess to glorious new levels.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In "Ghosts of Mortis", the Father erases Anakin's memories of his future, which includes the knowledge of his Face–Heel Turn and transformation into the Sith Lord Darth Vader, to keep him from siding with the Son.
• Lava Adds Awesome: A significant amount of episodes and scenes took place on volcanic worlds, but most the time the lava is there only for the "awesome special effect bonus".
• The Laws and Customs of War: The Clone Wars presents the first explicit mention of a codified set of laws governing the rules of warfare within the Star Wars canon: the Convention of Civilized Systems, named in "Trespass". The exact nature and details of these laws, however, have yet to be revealed.
• Leave Him to Me!: Pre Vizsla does this twice, once with Obi-Wan and again with Ahsoka. He eventually has to call for backup with Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka abandons the fight after taking out his jetpack.
• Leitmotif: Practically all important and semi-important characters have their own theme tune that somewhat reflects either their personality or the role they play: Ahsoka's is bright and confident, Ventress' is sinister, Savage's is ominous, etc. Even the clone troopers and the rest of the Galactic Republic in general receive a theme that is worthy of any war movie!
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen:
  • In "The Mandalore Plot", Pre Vizsla, leader of the Mandalorian Death Watch, returns Obi-Wan's lightsaber to him so that they may properly duel in a fair manner. He has his henchmen attack Obi-Wan once he starts to lose.
    • In "Shades of Reason", he returns Darth Maul's lightsaber to him when Maul challenges him to a duel.
  • Obi-Wan provokes an enemy into fighting him hand-to-hand in "Kidnapped" as a stalling tactic.
  • In "The Rise of Clovis", Rush Clovis challenges Anakin to "try fighting like a man without your Jedi tricks". Anakin is more than happy to oblige.
• Lilliputians:
  • "Nomad Droids" features a bunch of aliens so tiny that C-3PO accidentally kills their tyrannic leader by simply toppling R2 over on him.
  • Colonel Gascon is also quite small, which is a constant source of frustration for him due to his dreams of becoming a front-line war hero.
• Limited Wardrobe: Everyone except for Padmé initially mostly wears the same clothes in the first two-and-a-half seasons due to the expense and effort it would take to render separate models. It is a little strange when Obi-Wan is constantly wearing his battle armor even while in the Jedi Council Chamber and Ahsoka and Barriss Offee sleep in their beds without blankets and still in their normal clothes, complete with boots for Ahsoka and a long robe for Barriss. They all have new outfits as of "Heroes on Both Sides" and receive small variations in later seasons, such as winter parkas and scuba gear.
• Love Triangle: During the Onderon arc, both Ahsoka and Steela (one of the leaders of the rebels) have a crush on Lux Bonteri. The triangle eventually smooths out without conflict, as Lux begins to reciprocate Steela's feelings and Ahsoka easily slides into simple friendship.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Some episodes feature almost nothing but clone troopers, although a Jedi or two tends to make a token appearance.
• Luck-Based Search Technique: Apparently, a species trait of Gungans is "Amusing Alien who stumbles into exactly what the competent characters are looking for". This happens several times in "Blue Shadow Virus".
• Ludicrous Gibs: This happens when Artoo accidentally kills the leader of some Lilliputians on a world he and C-3PO are visiting. R2 spends the rest of "Nomad Droids" with alien blood spattered all over him.

M

• MacGuffin:
  • The Nexus Route coordinates carried by Master Even Piell and Captain Tarkin from the Citadel, which is marking a hyperspace-lane that connects Coruscant with Separatist space. Getting them is of immense interest of both sides, but they will not be put into use until Revenge of the Sith.
  • The "cargo" Boba's crew and Ventress are entrusted with protecting in "Bounty". It turns out to be a Damsel in Distress, Pluma Sodi, sister of Kage leader Krismo, who was to be married to the Belugan dictator, Otua Blank.
  • During the Young Jedi arc, the lightsaber crystals have very little actual purpose after the younglings find them in "The Gathering", but Hondo wanting to get them kicks off a chain of events long enough for three more episodes.
  • The encryption module, getting which was Colonel Gascon and the droids' mission during the D-Squad arc.
• Made a Slave: Obi-Wan, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex in "Slaves of the Republic" and "Escape from Kadavo". Anakin starts out posing as a slave trader, although he hates doing it due to his background, and Ahsoka is his slave. But, Anakin winds up captured and made a servant to the queen, Ahsoka is put in a cage, and Obi-Wan and Rex get sold to the mines.
• Madness Mantra: In "The Unknown":
  Tup: Good soldiers follow orders.
• Mad Scientist: Doctor Nuvo Vindi is hell-bent on releasing the Blue Shadow virus to the entire galaxy.
• The Mafia: The Hutt Clan.
• Magic Knight: Both the Jedi and the Sith use the Force for various purposes, including Combat Clairvoyance which allows them effective use of their lightsabers. However, the Sith appear to be more on the "magic" side, while the Jedi seem to be purposefully limiting their more direct applications of the Force.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: A simple injection (nanites, presumably) can rebuild a person's entire facial structure. In all fairness, it's shown to be incredibly painful.
• The Magnificent: Jabba the Hutt's protocol droid is constantly coming up with new flattering adjectives for her boss.
• The Magnificent Seven Samurai: "Bounty Hunters".
• Make It Look Like an Accident: In "The Mandalore Plot", the Mandalorian Death Watch straps Obi-Wan to a Conveyor Belt o' Doom in order to make his death look like an accident.
• Male Gaze:
  • Padmé Amidala tends to get subjected to these whenever she wears a very form-fitting white bodysuit or other outfits that highlight her very shapely rear end.
  • Ahsoka Tano is occasionally subjected to these shots whenever the camera shows her very nice legs, especially in "Heroes on Both Sides". She immediately lampshades it. Incidentally, there was a Mid Season Up Grade between the previous episode and this one, since Ahsoka has visibly grown up since the last time we saw her.
• Malevolent Architecture:
  • The Citadel is chock full of lethal traps, like electronized walls, electromagnets on the ceiling that can disarm any intruders. Even the air vents have security doors that can cut a human in half!
  • The titular Box in "The Box". It is a death trap maze that is meant to lethally weed out bounty hunters to find those skilled and hardy enough to participate in a plot to kidnap Chancellor Palpatine. It helps that it is also being run by a Killer Game Master who wants to kill his closest rivals to prove he is the number-one bounty hunter.
• Mama Bear: Satine may be a pacifist, but she is willing to threaten someone with violence at the hands of her guards when the lives of children are at stake due to poison. She is also clearly outraged/devastated at everyone else's apparent indifference to the situation.
• Manipulative Bastard: Darth Sidious and Count Dooku.
• Masculine Lines, Feminine Curves: While generally not the case in character designs, this seems to be one of the Togruta's Secondary Sexual Characteristics: adult males have large angular horns and short head-tails, while females have smaller, curvaceous horns and very long, rounded head-tails.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": The Weequay pirate gang led by Hondo have one when reminded that Dooku knows where they live.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: Typical Star Wars fare, although it gets a bit long:
  • Yoda > Count Dooku > Qui-Gon Jinn > Obi-Wan Kenobi > Anakin Skywalker > Ahsoka Tano.
  • There's also the rather entangled chain of Sith:
    • Darth Sidious > Count Dooku > Ventress > Savage Opress.
    • Darth Sidious > Count Dooku > Savage Opress.
    • Darth Sidious > Darth Maul > Savage Opress.
• Mathematician's Answer: In "A Test of Strength", a couple of pirates discuss how to capture the Jedi younglings.
  Pirate 1: Dead or alive?
  Pirate 2: Yes. [Evil Laugh]
• Mauve Shirt:
  • Nahdar Vebb was created just to get shot full of holes by General Grievous in "Lair of Grievous". Rather humorously, the clone troopers who accompanied him all wore red armor and also died horrible deaths.
  • A clone trooper named Denal showed up in two episodes, and in "Cargo of Doom", Cad Bane kills Denal to fake his own death and then takes his armor.
  • Captain Rex serves the same role to Anakin as Commander Cody does to Obi-Wan, except he was not featured in Revenge of the Sith. It gives his story in "The Deserter" where he gets injured a bit more unease because he can die.
  • ARC trooper Echo was wearing one of these shirts during the Citadel arc.
  • Waxer, who was given a lot of focus and likability in "Innocents of Ryloth", dies in "Carnage of Krell".
• Meaningful Background Event: In "Defenders of Peace", when Ahsoka, Captain Rex, and Commander Bly are running flat-out after a probe droid and frantically wondering where it went in the tall grass, Aayla Secura can be seen slowly walking behind them looking around. Immediately afterwards, when the probe has out-floated its pursuers, Aayla simply steps out from in front of it and cuts it in half, having previously seen where it was heading and cutting it off.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Jedi Master Ima-Gun Di (which is pronounced as "I'm gonna die")
  • Many of the clone troopers have meaningful names, as none of them are given birth names and so they give each other nicknames or pick their own:
    • "Chopper" was taking battle droid fingers to string together as a necklace.
    • "Droidbait" is frequently the first one shot in training combat, and is the first of Domino squad to die in actual combat.
    • "Echo" repeats instructions, rigidly sticking to orders and the plan.
    • "Cutup" frequently makes sarcastic remarks.
    • "Hardcase" is a Blood Knight who enjoys battle more than the other clone troopers.
    • "Slick" is a traitor and extremely difficult and slippery to catch.
    • "Dogma" is fanatical about obeying orders and the official chain of command.
  • For a group example, Domino Squad. What are dominoes known for? Falling down one by one.
• Mecha-Mooks: The Separatist droid army mostly consists of these.
• Metaphorically True:
  • Obi-Wan's famed penchant for using half-truths is lampshaded in "Voyage of Temptation" when Satine refers to him as "a collection of half-truths and hyperbole".
  • The Mortis arc is filled with obscure, misleading and contradictory information from the Father, Daughter, and Son. All of them are couched in metaphorical language. The Son quotes the original trope name that will be featured in Return of the Jedi: His actions are good, or evil, "from a certain point of view".
• Mind Rape: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Mace pull this on Cad Bane during their interrogation of him in "Children of the Force".
• Mirroring Factions: As shown in "Heroes on Both Sides", aside from the military commanders, most of the Separatists are not the greedy bloodthirsty monsters the Republic makes them out to be. In fact, they are being manipulated into believing the Republic are the ones who started and are perpetuating the war and many members of their civilian government sincerely believe that they are fighting for democracy against the oppressive and corrupt Republic.
• Mistaken for Own Murderer: Obi-Wan, when he's undercover during the Obi-Wan Undercover arc. This one is deliberate: Obi-Wan's been disguised as the bounty hunter hired to "kill" him so he can get criminal credit to get in on Moralo Eval's plot.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal:
  • Throughout the Mon Calamari arc, Tamson never misses an opportunity to belittle, threaten, and bully Nossor Ri and the Quarren. Eventually, they decide that enough is enough, and turn against him.
  • Despite the general policy of betrayal amongst the Sith, Count Dooku has no active plans to overthrow Darth Sidious until Sidious forces Dooku to betray Asajj Ventress to prove his loyalty. Afterwards, killing Sidious becomes a present goal for him.
• The Mole: There are some characters in The Clone Wars that decide to betray the Republic: R3-S6, Captain Argyus, and Sergeant Slick.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Some creatures and even a few sapient alien beings look like amalgamations of Earth-creatures: The mastiff phalones that are introduced in "Jedi Crash" have vulture-head, feet, talons, frontal body, and legs proportioned like a big cat's, covered by a mane of thick feathers, but wind a hind resembling a canine.
• Morally Bankrupt Banker: A Planet of Hats of them in the Banking Clan.
• More Dakka: Quite a few examples, but the battleship Malevolence, which has a dorsal surface studded by countless guns, probably takes the cake.
• Mugged for Disguise: Fives does this to a fellow clone trooper during the Order 66 arc. Of course, in this case they are all clones and thus sized identically.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: At the end of "Senate Spy", Anakin leaves Clovis to Lott Dod and his Separatist droids. Anakin has displayed jealousy and barely-concealed rage towards Clovis throughout the entire charade.
• Musical Spoiler: It's pretty easy to guess that everything isn't going to be sunshine and daisies in "The Wrong Jedi" given the music that precedes the big moment.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Ahsoka Tano, the Padawan learner of Anakin Skywalker, starts off in The Clone Wars wielding a single lightsaber with a reverse grip. When she reappears with a new design during the third season, she has taken up Dual Wielding. Why does that sound familiar?
    • The gag continues with Ashara Zavros, another dual-wielding Togruta Padawan.
  • In "Brothers", Darth Maul recites part of the Sith Code while ranting deliriously.
    "Through power I gain victory; through victory my chains are broken..."
  • Maul's robotic legs could be considered a reference to the non-canon comic Old Wounds, which also features him hunting down Obi-Wan.
  • Ahsoka's role during the Fugitive arc is nearly identical to Zayne's storyline in Knights of the Old Republic.
    • Speaking of KOTOR, Onderon is depicted much like it was in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Just like there, Onderon is a monarchy on a jungle planet. The capital city here is even the same as it was in KOTOR 2.
  • Pre Vizsla says the Darksaber was taken from the Jedi Temple by his ancestor during the fall of the Old Republic. In Star Wars: The Old Republic, a Mandalorian named Shae Vizla was involved in a Sith attack on the Jedi Temple during the Sacking of Coruscant.
  • When we get a first-person perspective from Gregor, we see a very similar view to the HUD from Star Wars: Republic Commando.
  • In Dark Empire, the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse II is destroyed when our heroes land on its outer hull, cut their way through, and reprogram the hyperdrive without the Imperials knowing. Which is exactly how Anakin destroys Grievous's flagship, Malevolence.
• My God, What Have I Done?: No one actually says it, but when Ahsoka resigns from the Jedi Order in response to the Council's distrust and her expulsion in "The Wrong Jedi", the looks on several of the Jedi Masters' faces (especially Yoda's) convey this message painfully well.

N

• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • In general, Star Wars tends to be bad about this. Darth Sidious, Darth Tyranus, General Grievous...
  • Mandalore is threatened by a dangerous splinter group that wants to return to the old Mandalorian ways of combat. The name of this splinter group is "Death Watch".
  • The Dathomiarian Zabrak warrior and brother of Darth Maul has the name of Savage Opress.
  • Bounty Hunter Moralo Eval. "Moral Evil", get it? Also Cad Bane, for that matter.
• Navel-Deep Neckline:
  • Aayla Secura's top showcases more than it covers.
  • Suu Lawquane wears an outfit that is open down on the center to her stomach.
  • The Daughter wears a very low-cut dress.
• Near Misses: In "Holocron Heist", Obi-Wan grabs Anakin and pulls him away from a walker just before a droid fighter crashes into it. Anakin remarks how close it was.
• Neutral in Name Only: Many leading figures of the Separatist Council claim that they and the corporations they run are neutral in the conflict between the Republic and CIS, though they show blatant favoritism for the latter by supplying them with soldiers, ships, weapons, and other resources. All while using the thinly veiled excuse that their support of the Separatist cause is their personal choice and doesn't speak for the companies as a whole.
• Never Trust a Trailer: In the trailer for "The Wrong Jedi", the color of Anakin's second lightsaber was changed to green so that viewers wouldn't be as likely to suspect that Barriss Offee was behind the bombing of the Jedi Temple hangar.
• New Meat: Throughout The Clone Wars, there are frequent introductions of clone troopers who have not previously served on the front lines, and they try to deal with gaining real-world experience on top of their training.
• Newsreel: The Previously on… segment at the start of each episodes take the form of news blurbs that often verge into pro-Republic propaganda.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Anakin and the Father have this during the Mortis arc, where their combined mistakes — the Father bringing Anakin to Mortis awakens Son's vanity, and Anakin turning down the Father's request to stay and keep the balance between Son and Daughter — results in the death of all three Force-wielders.
  • Yoda assigns a Padawan learner to Anakin in order to teach him a lesson about responsibility and attachments, but the way the Jedi Council (including Yoda) treats Ahsoka in "The Wrong Jedi" actually becomes another reason for Anakin losing his faith in them. Although, Yoda does have feelings of guilt about this, which manifest in "Destiny".
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Ventress is beginning to have second thoughts about turning a young woman over to a warlord. Cue Boba Fett mouthing off at her, removing whatever hesitation Ventress had about double-crossing him.
• The Nicknamer: Ahsoka initially has a tendency to use these for people in the first season, but it eventually disappears as The Clone Wars progresses.
• Ninja: The Kage Warriors who battle against the Belugans wear black bodysuits and have great stealth and agility. If that’s not clear enough, Kage is also the Japanese word for shadow, the realm of ninjas.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • The character, especially the voice, of Ziro the Hutt was based explicitly on camp gay true-crime author and actor Truman Capote, best known for either his writing of the seminal true-crime expose In Cold Blood or for his role as Lionel Twain in Murder by Death.
  • Several members of the Hutt crime families are based on real and fictional crime bosses. One is based on Marlon Brando's portrayal of Vito Corleone in The Godfather, another is based on real-life gangster Al Capone.
  • The voice of Osi Sobeck (the warden of the Citadel) was based off of Christopher Walken's. James Arnold Taylor also added a bit of Al Pacino to his voice as well.
• No Flow in CGI: This is heavily present in the first season as the subsequent seasons saw significant advancement in fabric and hair movements.
  • The hair on most of the human characters initially looks solid as rock, Obi-Wan's beard being the best example. The Jedi also all wear gauntlets and have no sleeves and wear sleeveless Jedi robes which are easier for the animators to deal with than if they wore their traditional robes. The seventh season is set to avert this trope by presenting the Jedi wearing robes with sleeves.
  • Count Dooku frequently appears without his cape.
  • Ventress first averts this by always wearing a skirt, but has to take it off before fighting because they thought that it was too difficult for them to animate her with her skirt on. Eventually, they played this straight, and Ventress ended up losing the skirt altogether from the third season onwards.
• No Hero to His Valet: General Grievous' doctor constantly berates him for getting damaged in battle, and even calls him out on becoming a cyborg, despite the fact that Grievous is more than capable of turning him into a pile of scrap. Justified, since this is the droid who repairs Grievous after a battle.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Darth Maul and Savage Opress inflict a brutal one to Obi-Wan in "Revenge", as a prelude to the "beyond excruciating" vengeance that Maul has planned for him.
• Noir Episode: "Senate Murders" presents a Whodunnit? on Coruscant.
• Nom de Guerre: All of the clone troopers qualify for this since so few of them have actual names. Some examples include Rex, Fives, and Waxer.
• Nonchalant Dodge: This backfires on Anakin in "Sabotage". When a droid fighter fires a missile at him and Ahsoka, Ahsoka rolls off to the right while Anakin just lowers his wing slightly so the missile will fly past. As a result, the missile releases its payload of buzz droids right ahead of his fighter, covering it from top to bottom, while Ahsoka's maneuver has put her completely out of harm's way.
• Non-Lethal Warfare: Averted to a great extent.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: It is very glaring on the Gungan, Rodian, and Mon Calamari females.
• Non-Uniform Uniform:
  • While most clone troopers wear the same basic armor, each battalion has markings of some color (blue for the 501^st, orange for the 212^th, etc), and within the battalion, each clone will have his own pattern of colored markings to display individuality. Interestingly, the earlier seasons have more distinctive-looking clone extras than the later ones.
  • To a greater degree with Wolffe and especially Rex's Phase II armor. Despite the rest of the 104^th and 501^st wearing the standard Phase II helmets, Wolffe has a helmet with a thin visor similar to those used by the 91^st Recon Battalion, and Rex has a completely unique helmet design that incorporates a Phase I-style visor into a Phase II helmet.
• No One Gets Left Behind: In "Clone Cadets", Domino Squad receive an automatic failure on their final test when they abandoned Droidbait after he was more seriously wounded than intended during the simulation. They are told explicitly that they broke the number one rule.
• No OSHA Compliance: Averted for the most part, but being the Star Wars canon, disregard for safety regulations pops up every now and then.
  • There are plenty of walkways aboard both Republic and Separatist ships without guardrails, particularly in the reactor and engine rooms.
  • The transportation cars on the Malevolence's tram system have very few rails (and General Grievous doesn't even use them), and the only safety system they have is an automated PA system reminding passengers to "Mind the gap". At the very least, the hangars have fire hoses in case of exploding ships, but unfortunately it seems that no one told the fire-control Separatist droids that the hoses need more than one person to operate without being thrown around by the high-pressure water blast (then again, the fire-control Separatist droids are battle droids).
  • The Hard Light bridge to Lessu on Ryloth in "Liberty on Ryloth" seems pretty cool (and understandable for security purposes), but can be dangerous for those crossing if there's a power failure with the bridge controls. This is demonstrated in "Liberty on Ryloth", in which a Too Dumb to Live battle droid ignores the alert while on the bridge and falls to his doom.
  • Darth Sidious's secret facility on Mustafar in "Children of the Force" — besides the fact that it's on Mustafar of all planets — is built right into the side of a mountain and hanging right over lava. The computer diagram of the facility shows that the architecture isn't physically stable, and gravity supports are the only thing keeping it from breaking off the mountain and falling into the lava. That said, Sidious may have had it built that way on purpose in case he needed to quickly bury his activity, which he does when Anakin and Ahsoka trace Cad Bane's kidnappings to Mustafar, but imagine if the staff weren't droids and there was an unintentional power failure.
  • The docks on Coruscant in "Senate Murders" have large crates that are stored near the edge of platforms without support rails, just above some civilian walkways. When one of these crates got knocked loose, it fell off the platform and almost crushed some civilians to death.
  • Averted with the Trandoshan air fortress on Wasskah, as it has plenty of guardrails to be OSHA-compliant. However, the rails don't save the Trandoshans from being thrown over by powerful Force-users and Wookiees.
  • The underground temple of Malmourral on Bardotta has some narrow stairways and walkways next to the sacrificial slide, but no safety rails around the outside. Cue a few cultists saying hello to the lava below (one of them even stumbles into it).
• Not Helping Your Case: In "Holocron Heist", Ahsoka is being disciplined for disobeying orders and is reassigned to guard duty at the Jedi Temple. When she exclaims in shock about the transfer and asks for how long, Mace Windu simply responds "longer now" after her outburst.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order in "The Wrong Jedi".
• Not Quite Dead: Despite being cut in half by Obi-Wan, Darth Maul is still alive.
• Not So Above It All: In "Landing at Point Rain", Anakin and Ahsoka hold a Body-Count Competition during the Second Battle of Geonosis. After the battle, Ahsoka asks for Anakin's total, and it turns out she won. Anakin, however, claims that since he called in the airstrike, it adds enough to his tally to make it a tie. Upon hearing this, Master Ki-Adi-Mundi adds his own total, which is larger than both Ahsoka's or Anakin's, and then casually asks what he's won.
  Anakin Skywalker: My everlasting respect, Master Mundi.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • WAC is quick to point out that all of Gascon's arguments against droids ultimately only show that his "programming" is the same as theirs.
  • Pluma thought Ventress has no idea what it's like to be ripped away from her own. When she voiced this to her, the realization struck Ventress really hard.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: For all his whining and cowardice, Nute Gunray can be quite surprisingly cunning and resourceful when he wants to be.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Averted by Obi-Wan in "Legacy of Terror" when he calls the zombies what they are.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • A dramatic example. In "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much", Ahsoka is in Letta's cell when she gets Force-choked by an unseen party (eventually revealed to be Barriss Offee). As the audio receivers in the cell were conveniently offline but the holorecorder was still running, Ahsoka's frantic motions come across as much more sinister than they really are.
  • In "To Catch a Jedi", where Ahsoka is found in a room loaded with explosive nanodroids matching the type used in the temple attack, knocked in there by an unidentified attacker (eventually revealed to be Barriss Offee) after having the tar beaten out of her by said attacker. She tries to explain, but the troopers stun her and knock her out before she has a chance to go beyond "I can explain". To their credit, Anakin and Plo Koon note that things do not add up.]]
• Not Zilla: The Zillo Beast is a homage to Godzilla. Bonus points for being awakened by a proton bomb.

O

• Off with His Head!:
  • In "A Friend in Need", Ahsoka takes out four Death Watch members this way in a single circular move with her dual-wielded lightsabers.
  • In "Prisoners", Riff Tamson does not technically lose his head, but rather it is the only thing left of him after he gets blown up.
  • The droid Huyang receives a non-fatal version in "A Test of Strength", and his head was eventually reattached in "A Necessary Bond".
  • In "Eminence", when he is faced with the leaders of the Black Sun criminal organization sitting along a long boardroom table, Savage Opress throws his double-bladed lightsaber to decapitate them on both sides of the table all down the line.
  • At the end of their duel for leadership in "Shades of Reason", Darth Maul decapitates Pre Vizsla with his own darksaber.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In "The General", a screaming, mechanical thing erupts from the ground right in front of a clone trooper.
    "Oh, skrag."
  • Darth Maul gets one in "The Lawless", which is also a Call-Forward to A New Hope:
    "I...sense a presence. A presence I haven't felt since... (he realizes who it is) Master."
• Oh, My Gods!: During the Mortis arc, Ahsoka asks "What in the Universe was that?"
• Old Master:
  • Yoda serves the role as this to the Jedi Order as a result of being a powerful, old, and legendary Jedi Master in addition to being as Grand Master of the Jedi Order.
  • Tera Sinube qualifies as this as well. He is a seemingly feeble old Jedi who shows considerable wisdom, approaches any problem with a calm, methodical approach to great success, disarms a thief who stole Ahsoka's lightsaber using his own lightsaber (which is built into his walking stick), and is one of the foremost experts on Coruscant's criminal underworld.
  • On the evil side, there is Count Dooku, who is in his eighties but can still beat the younger Anakin, his own failed apprentice Ventress, and the monstrously powerful Savage Opress.
  • Darth Sidious himself, as he is in his seventies and still one of the most powerful Force-sensitive individuals in the Galaxy.
• Old Soldier: In "Darkness on Umbara", when Anakin remarks that the rookie clone trooper Dogma reminds him of Captain Rex, Rex responds that that might have been true, but only "back in the day".
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Savage Opress' leitmotif includes a male choir chanting ominously in a language that sounds at least similar to Latin.
• Once a Season: R2-D2 had A Day in the Limelight episodes in every season in which he usually ended up saving the day.
• Once per Episode:
  • In the first two seasons, a character would quip either "I have a bad feeling about this" or "It's a trap!" in nearly every single episode. Sometimes, two different characters dropped one of the two each within the same episode. "X is our only hope" was also very popular. The tendency was toned down in the later seasons, but the phrases still popped up from time to time.
  • During the D-Squad arc, WAC calls Colonel Gascon "a map-reader" once in each episode.
• One-Man Army:
  • The Jedi in general, but Yoda is explicitly described as such in "Ambush", where King Katuunko decrees that Yoda is worth a thousand battle droids.
  • An unidentified Death Watch commando during the beginning of the Mandalore arc single-handedly attempts to take an entire Republic cruiser out of commission. He does not quite succeed, but kills himself rather than be captured and interrogated, and it is implied he came within a hair's breadth of completing his mission.
• Only a Flesh Wound:
  • Captain Rex is the king of this trope. In "The Deserter", he gets on his feet within less than a day from taking a blaster shot straight to the chest, which leaves a visible burn on his back.
  • This is said word for word by a medical droid in "Assassin" after Aurra shot Padmé in her shoulder.
• Opening Monologue: Each episode starts with a short clip show flashback and the narrator explaining events leading up to the story of the episode. It overlaps with Previously on… when it recounts the events of an earlier episode of a story arc.
• Opening Scroll: Although not used in The Clone Wars itself, the official episode guides included a crawling text version of the episodes' Opening Monologue for a while.
• Orphaned Etymology:
  • In "Downfall of a Droid", Obi-Wan once said that the R2 units of astromech were "a dime a dozen", despite the decreed serving as their 1/10 of a unit monetary unit.
  • In "Clone Cadets", when Bravo Squad is complimented, Cutup remarks "Bravo for Bravo Squad" and Bravo Squad later mocks Domino Squad with "time to watch the Dominoes fall". The Italian language and the game of dominoes are not otherwise shown to exist.
• Our Zombies Are Different: Undead Geonosian warriors are featured in "Legacy of Terror". Immune to pain and injury? Check. Creepy? Check. Caused by mind-control worms that go up people's noses? Check.

P-Q

• Papa Wolf:
  • Anyone who gets between Anakin and Ahsoka is going to figure this out the hard way, which is unsurprising considering his previous record.
  • Chairman Papanoida is a prime example via being willing to break into Jabba's Palace and gun down waves of outlaws in order to save his missing daughters.
• Parasite Zombie: The Geonosian brain worms introduced in "Legacy of Terror" are capable of controlling Geonosian corpses.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": In "Senate Spy", Rush Clovis uses "Padmé" as his password to access the plans of the Separatist's new droid factory because he's had a long lasting crush on Padmé Amidala. She successfully guesses it just after a few tries and is visibly unnerved at how creepy it is.
• Percussive Maintenance:
  • Anakin restarts a faulty holo-table this way in "Trespass", after Obi-Wan and the clone troopers failed with their more subtle attempts.
  • Hilariously in "Wookiee Hunt", Chewbacca does this to a Trandoshan after the lizard man proves initially resistant to Jinx's Jedi Mind Trick.
• Pirates: Hondo Ohnaka's Space Pirate gang.
• Physical God: The Force wielders. Their power is so great they have to be confined and kept secret from the rest of the galaxy.
• Place of Power:
  • Mortis is an intersection of the Force, where the Force-wielders live. When Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka arrive there in "Overlords", they immediately notice that the Force is exceptionally powerful. Anakin is able to draw on the planet's power in order to defeat the Son and the Daughter simultaneously.
  • According to the manuals, Dathomir is also an intersection of the physical and the spirit world.
• Plant Aliens: The kindalo (which are introduced in "Mercy Mission") are basically ents that look like humanoid-skeletons.
• Poorly Disguised Pilot: The Young Jedi arc was originally conceived of as a Pilot Movie for a potential Younglings spinoff, but was folded back into The Clone Wars after test screenings resulted in George changing his mind.
• Portal Statue Pairs: In the episode "Gathering", Yoda takes padawan younglings to the mysterious Crystal Cave of Ilum, where they will seek the kyber crystals to create their own lightsabers. The entrance to the caves is a large circular chamber with two giant statues of Jedi on either side.
• Praetorian Guard: Palpatine's red guards that were introduced in the films appear in the series. The Jedi also have a security force, the Jedi Temple Guards, who dress in identical white robes with white masks and carry yellow double-bladed lightsabers.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • In "Rookies", one of the clone troopers screams "What the hell was that?" This caused many parents to complain and it was removed for later airings, although it was retained on the home video release.
  • In "Liberty on Ryloth", it is dropped again regarding the fight Ryloth's freedom fighters put up.
• Previously on…: Every episode starts with a newsreel-style recap of previous episodes, often in the form of pro-Republic propaganda. Sometimes, they reveal the backstory of a new story arc as though it was a previous episode, which is fitting with the Star Wars aggressive sense of history.
• "Psycho" Strings: The main instrument in Ventress' leitmotif is a sinister-sounding violin, emphasizing how dangerous and unpredictable she is.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: A few characters shout like this sometimes. For example:
  Hondo Ohnaka:' THIS EFFORT! IS NO LONGER! PROFITABLE!
• Punishment Detail: When Waxer and Boil become preoccupied with Numa (a Twi'lek child they have encountered) in "Innocents of Ryloth", they are delayed from returning from their scouting mission. When Commander Cody makes radio contact, they expect to be put to work cleaning R2 units.
• Puppet King:
  • Invoked by Count Dooku in "Ambush" when he orders Ventress to kill Katuunko, as he will have an easier time "negotiating" with Katuunko's replacement.
  • King Sanjay Rash of Onderon was so obviously a figurehead that the people recognized it and had little tolerance for him. It was only the droid army stationed in the capital that kept him in power.
  • In "Shades of Reason", Prime Minister Almec of Mandalore willingly becomes the public face for Maul's rule when the Sith Lord takes over Death Watch, and the freshly conquered planet with it.
• Puppet State:
  • While the Republic Senate can't have any real influence over galactic events due to the manipulations of the Sith, Senators and politicians like Padmé and Satine can alter events by overcoming such manipulation, despite not realizing what they're up against.
  • The Separatist Parliament, on the other hand, has absolutely no power — Dooku quite simply ignores their decisions as he pleases. The vast economic organizations such as the Trade Federation and the Banking Guild are likewise under the control of Dooku and the Separatists, despite constantly claiming to be neutral in the war.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The bounty hunters Count Dooku hired during the Obi-Wan Undercover arc.

R

• Radar Is Useless:
  • Season 2 Episode 16 ("Cat and Mouse") features an inversion: Anakin and Obi-Wan use a stealth ship, fitted with a Cloaking Device rendering it invisible to radar, to try to slip past the Separatist blockade on Christophsis... But once the Separatist commander Admiral Trench realises what the Jedi are up to, he's smart enough to track the stealth ship's magnetic signature instead and lock onto it with homing missiles.
  • In the season 4 episode "Shadow Warrior", General Grievous deploys a detachment of Separatist landing craft on Naboo seemingly unnoticed. You'd think the inhabitants might
• Railing Kill: Plenty of these are featured in "Wookiee Hunt" during the battle on the Trandoshan air fortress. Their leader, Garnac, falls victim to this when Ahsoka Force-pushes him through a door and over a guardrail to his death.
• Ramming Always Works: Anakin's method of dealing with the blockade flagship.
• Reality Has No Subtitles:
  • All alien and droid languages are untranslated. Some information is conveyed to the audience by Repeating So the Audience Can Hear in Basic, but a lot of dialogue has to be interpreted solely by tone and context.
  • On the other hand, a lot more characters speak Basic than they did during their live action appearances in the films, including characters who never spoke Basic in their limited film appearances (such as Bossk).
• Recap by Audit: In "Storm Over Ryloth", mid-way through Anakin has to recount the losses from the failed first attempt to break the Separatist blockade over Ryloth to Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi, which hammers home just how much of his fleet he's lost.
• Recycled In Space:
  • The Zillo Beast arc is Godzilla re-enacting King Kong... IN STAR WARS!
  • "Senate Spy" is Notorious IN SPACE, according to the writers.
  • "Landing at Point Rain" is the first act of Saving Private Ryan IN SPACE, also according to the producers.
  • Several episodes were produced based upon the works of Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress was part of the inspiration for A New Hope.
  • "Bounty Hunters" is The Seven Samurai IN SPACE, indicated by the memory card at the beginning. Toshiro Mifune, who played one of the Samurai in the film, was first intended to play the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi before Alec Guinness was chosen.
  • "Lightsaber Lost" is Straydog IN SPACE.
  • "R2 Come Home" features Anakin and Mace trapped in a crashed ship, and his faithful companion R2-D2 has to go and get help. R2 plays the role of Lassie IN SPACE.
• Red Shirt: Many clone troopers, but several do get actual face time to elevate into a Mauve Shirt.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • Obi-Wan (blue) and Anakin (red) are the most obvious examples. Surprisingly, Anakin and Ahsoka constantly change their colors to each other's own.
  • Rex (red) and Cody (blue), who resemble Anakin and Obi-Wan in many ways. Ironically, Rex is the one who wears blue.
• Religion of Evil: In addition to the Sith, we have the Frangawl Cult in "The Disappeared".
• Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: Since there are no subtitles, some information is relayed to the audience by having one member of the conversation repeat alien or droid dialogue in Basic.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Trandoshans in general, but especially the hunters in "Padawan Lost" and "Wookiee Hunt". Tera Sinube is an exception.
• La Résistance:
  • The Twi'leks fighting against Separatist occupation in "Supply Lines" and "Liberty on Ryloth". George Lucas had all the Twi'leks speak with a French accent to compare them to the French resistance during WWII.
  • The Onderon freedom fighters featured in season five, whom the Jedi decide to train on Anakin's advice.
• Retcon: Previously established continuity from the Legends continuity is accepted in general fashion, but many parts have been rewritten at the behest of George Lucas to suit the needs of The Clone Wars, both in the setting of episodes and character/species history. Ironically, the retcons applied by The Clone Wars itself now supersede Legends canonically after Disney declared everything in the Legends continuity (except for The Clone Wars and the original six Star Wars films) to be non-canon.
• Retroactive Idiot Ball: Anakin turning to the Dark Side in order to gain power over life and death in Revenge of the Sith makes a lot less sense after The Clone Wars revealed that he was directly involved in reversing Ahsoka's death not more than two years before, without the use of Sith powers.
• Reused Character Design: The series has plenty of these due to budget limitations. The most frequently used example is a green Twi'lek female, whose model appeared completely unaltered on separate occasions as a bar dancer in two episodes, as a pair of twin dancers at Jabba's Palace, in Anakin's vision on Mortis, as a slave girl on Zygerria, and as another slave girl on Zygerria who committed suicide.
• Reverse Grip:
  • Ahsoka's standard lightsaber posture, although there are some times where she switches to a traditional hold during actual combat. In "Brain Invaders", she holds her fork in the same fashion when she and Barriss are eating in the mess hall. After the Mid Season Up Grade in season three, she begins to Dual Wield two lightsabers, switching back and forth between wielding them both in reverse and wielding one frontwards.
  • When Obi-Wan picks up Quinlan Vos' lightsaber to Dual Wield in "Hunt for Ziro", he holds Vos' lightsaber in a reverse grip.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Apparently, despite being backed primarily by wealthy merchant conglomerates, the Separatists as a whole are very cheap since their preferred method of payment is a lightsaber through the back. Then again, when you are dealing with a crazy Sith Lord or a crazy cyborg and start making demands, you are really just asking for it.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter:
  • The Convoree in "Wookiee Hunt" and their recycled version in season four.
  • The cat-like Tookas (not the dolls based on them in-universe seen in earlier episodes), which appear in the flesh for the first time in "To Catch a Jedi".
• Ridiculously Human Robots:
  • The Separatist droids (especially the B1 battle droids) are full of humorous charm and personality.
  • Taken up a notch in "A Friend in Need". Death Watch has a bunch of harmless droids that they use for target practice, which beg for mercy and scream "Why?" (albeit in monotone). They beg to be repaired by R2 as they crawl to him for help. R2 gives them the chance to get some retribution.
• Rite of Passage: In "The Gathering", a group of Jedi younglings find and harvest their first Kyber crystals in the Temple cavern on Illum. To find their crystals, each must face and come over their flaws and shortcomings, such as selfishness, fear, lack of self-confidence, or lack of faith.
• Roof Hopping: In "Lightsaber Lost", Ahsoka chases Cassie Cryar (who has her lightsaber) over the rooftops of Coruscant.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Parodied in "Heroes on Both Sides", where Grievous tells a bunch of purpose-built suicide Demolition Droids that none of them will be coming back.
  • Played straighter by Padmé Amidala in "Pursuit of Peace" when she convinces the Senate to vote against deregulating the banks for more troop funding, which was powerful enough that her political enemies also applauded.
• Rule of Cool: The Clone Wars exists primarily to give us a significant amount of additional Star Wars battles.

S

• Sadistic Choice:
  • In "Voyage of Temptation", Tal Merrik tries to pull this on Obi-Wan and Satine by forcing them to kill him to stop him, wanting to get the pacifist to prove herself a hypocrite or have her Jedi love interest kill an unarmed man in front of her. Anakin presents an alternative.
  • In "Overlords", the Father makes Anakin choose whether to save Ahsoka or Obi-Wan. It was actually a test to see if he had what it took to Take a Third Option.
• Scenery Porn: The art style, character designs, technology designs, environments, and backgrounds of The Clone Wars are all well-done in a very visually appealing, spectacular, and nigh-cinematic level with photorealistic CGI that has so much detail to the point where it takes a number of re-watchings just to register most of it.
• Schrödinger's Canon: The Clone Wars occupies an interesting slot. At its inception, it was EU canon, though the highest tier of EU canon. As such, it was free to incorporate, modify, or ignore lower-tier EU works. After the Disney buyout, all previously EU material except The Clone Wars and the original six Star Wars films were declared Legends, meaning The Clone Wars retroactively observed and included true, false, or both many aspects of Legends into the Star Wars canon.
  • Notably, Ryloth had long been the home world of the Twi'leks, and this, along with some of their Proud Warrior Race aspects from the X-Wing novels, were observed true. However, Ryloth in Legends is tidally locked, one side permanent scorching day, the other side permanent frozen night, and only the small band of twilight at the terminator is comfortably habitable. Ryloth in The Clone Wars seems to have a normal day-night cycle.
  • The Kyber crystals had long been an important part of Legends and are the focus of the Young Jedi arc.
  • The Nightsisters of Dathomir were prominent villains in some Legends works before appearing in The Clone Wars.
  • Overlapping with Ascended Fanon, the 501^st started out as an official fan club for stormtrooper cosplay enthusiasts, who began styling themselves as the elite "Vader's Fist" legion of stormtroopers, before it was canonized in Legends that the 501^st was Darth Vader's personal stormtrooper legion. Rex serves the role as the captain of the 501^st Legion of clone troopers, who are assigned to Anakin Skywalker. Notably, Star Wars Battlefront 2 had previously indicated that the 501^st clone troopers morphed into the 501^st stormtroopers during the transition from the Republic to the Empire.
• Science Fantasy: The Clone Wars mixes sci-fi and fantasy elements far more than the films did. Probably the best examples are the final two story arcs in season four. The Obi-Wan Undercover arc presents, amongst other tropes, Magic Plastic Surgery and Holographic Disguise devices; while the Nightsisters and Brothers arc presents Old Daka using magick in order to raise an undead army, Mother Talzin torturing Dooku with a Voodoo Doll, crafting magicybernetic-limbs, and healing psychosis with her magick.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale:
  • Planet-wide (or sector-wide) battles often amount to, at max, a few hundred soldiers on either side fighting over a single city or other small area. However, some episodes imply that what the viewer sees is only part of the bigger picture, with concurrent operations going on off-screen.
    • In "Supply Lines", the Republic is attempting to feed the entire population of Ryloth. They accomplish this with a single food shipment that could, at best, feed a single village for a few days. This works because the entire planet is apparently populated by only a few dozen individuals.
    • In "Liberty on Ryloth", this trope is revealed to actually be averted. Mace Windu's campaign on Ryloth spans several cities, and is only one part of the whole offensive. At one point he states that "Master Kenobi has already taken the Jixuan Desert, so the southern hemisphere is ours". This indicates that the operations shown onscreen are merely a part of the overall war, and other (presumably less vital) operations are occurring elsewhere.
    • In "Gungan Attack", the Republic has to arrange for reinforcements to retake the planet of Mon Cala from the Separatists. The entirety of the Separatist army in this planet-wide battle appears to be several hundred droids and less than a dozen heavy machines converging on a very large underwater city. The Republic reinforcements consist of (in two waves) around five Republic gunships worth of Clone Troopers and then a few hundred Gungans. The whole planet appears to be populated by two races of maybe a thousand people each in two cities.
  • In "Clone Cadets", Master Shaak Ti is identified as the General in charge of training new clone troopers. This apparently means she personally oversees the exercises of each clone squad. This is clearly impossible for the number of clone troopers shown in the episode, never mind the number necessary for the whole war. However, there is mention of other cities on Kamino, with Ti only overseeing training in the capitol, implying that the clones we see are only a small part of the whole program.
  • In "Pursuit of Peace", the Senate debates whether or not to buy five million new clone troopers for the war, which is being fought on numerous planets across an entire galaxy. For reference, the Allies had five million troops on the Western European Front alone in World War II. To be fair, the total number of clone troopers in the Grand Army of the Republic prior to the new Clone Troopers being produced was a paltry three million. Meanwhile, the Separatists buying an additional three million droids was treated as some sort of game-changer. A previous episode had established that the Separatists were already outnumbering the clone troopers a hundred to one, so not only are the Separatists adding a relatively small army to their established numbers, but their whole army is positively tiny for a galactic-scale war.
  • In "Plan of Dissent", the clone troopers mention that among the obstacles to taking a capitol are missiles with a "100 megaton yield". We later see some strikes with weapons that produce standard explosions, affecting an area no more than a couple hundred feet each. For comparison, not even the biggest, most powerful nuclear weapons ever made had a 100 megaton yield, and would cause miles of devastation. Granted, while those missiles were never identified as the 100-MT ones, why bother mentioning the yields and then showing missiles being fired if they're not going use the same missiles?
• Scream Discretion Shot: This is done during the Citadel arc when a clone trooper is cut in half by a slamming door. One slams in front of him right before his Family-Unfriendly Death.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In "The Deserter", Captain Rex encounters Cut, a clone who deserted from the Grand Army of the Republic, and it is his duty to report him to the authorities... it's too bad that Rex feels his memory of the whole affair will be too poor to make any kind of report.
• Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Adult Togruta males appear to have rather large and angular montrals with short head-tails, while females have smaller and curved montrals with very long head-tails.
• Send in the Clones: It's sort of expected.
• Sergeant Rock:
  • Captain Rex, although he is not an NCO.
  • Chief Bric (who is introduced in "Clone Cadets") qualifies.
• Senseless Sacrifice: There are a couple in The Clone Wars:
  • In "ARC Troopers", 99 ends up dying in an attempt to get more grenades. While it is certainly heroic that he was willing to try, that hallway was a deathtrap and a Jedi would have had trouble running that gauntlet. His death ultimately accomplished nothing, though his life certainly mattered.
  • In "Shadow Warrior", General Tarpals' heroic sacrifice in defeating and capturing Grievous and dying in the process ends up turning into this because they end up having to give Grievous back to the Separatists in exchange for Anakin Skywalker, who gets captured by Dooku shortly after Grievous' capture.
• Shapeshifter Guilt Trip: Inverted in "Overlords", where the Son takes the form of Anakin's dead mother in order to convince him to let go of his guilt and embrace his inner darkness.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: In "Voyage of Temptation", Obi-Wan says this to Anakin in regards to the Mandalorian Duchess they are trying to protect.
• Shock and Awe: Force lightning, of course.
  • Count Dooku is usually the one to deliver it, employing it in most of his fights.
  • The Son, the personification of the Dark Side of the Force, can use a red variant.
  • Darth Sidious uses it with expertise during the two times he fights in the entirety of The Clone Wars.
• Shoot the Dangerous Minion: In "Nightsisters", Sidious orders Dooku to kill Ventress as a test of loyalty since he believes that she's growing too powerful.
• Shoot the Dog:
  • In "Carnage of Krell", Captain Rex is going to execute General Krell once he learns of his planned desertion to the Separatists since he will be able to give them enough information to cripple the Republic war effort. Dogma does it for him.
  • In "Escape from Kadavo", the Kadavo slave master Keeper Agruss knows that Jedi do not kill unarmed prisoners, but he fails to consider the presence of Rex.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
  • For all their character developments and unique personalities, the clone troopers are going to end up executing Order 66 as a result of being brainwashed by a control chip that is located in each of their brains into slaughtering all the Jedi before they are largely abandoned and replaced by the Empire.
  • Duchess Satine's efforts to keep Mandalore as a neutral, pacifist planet lead to economic havoc when the Republic redirects resources elsewhere, leading to the betrayal of her Prime Minister. Next, a vast army of criminals in secret league with Darth Maul terrorize her populace until the Death Watch "saves" them. Then, Maul and the Death Watch mosey on in and overthrow her to vast popular acclaim. She is used for bait to draw in her old flame Obi-Wan, their escape attempt fails, and she is murdered in front of him. To top it all off, a new civil war breaks out in her capital city. As a result of the events that occur in the subsequent timeline, we know that her pacifist ideals completely fail to take and Mandalore goes right back to its old warrior ways.
• Shoot Your Mate: A non-romantic example. In "Nightsisters", Darth Sidious orders Count Dooku to kill Asajj Ventress in order to test his loyalty, claiming that refusing to comply would indicate his plan to eventually overthrow Sidious with Ventress' help.
• Shout-Out: The Clone Wars is so Reference Overdosed that its Shout Outs and Continuity Nods got a page of their own.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: In "Carnage of Krell", General Krell claims that is no longer naive enough to believe in the ways of the Jedi, which is why he is planning to betray the Republic and defect to the Separatists.
• Single-Biome Planet: Exaggerated. According to a DVD special feature that's about "Trespass", the ice world of Orto Plutonia is supposed to be what Hoth would have been like if George Lucas did not film on location in Real Life. As an actual ice-world, there are no rocks visible.
• Single Tear: Waxer dies shedding one out of guilt at having killed his brother clones due to Krell's deception in "Carnage of Krell".
• Smug Snake:
  • The T-series tactical droids are the epitome of this trope, speaking in a Condescending Monotone.
  • Morley, a literal one, is found by Savage Opress on the junk planet. He also leads victims to Darth Maul's lair where they will be killed and he can eat the remains.
• Soft Water: In "Gungan Attack", the Gungan army jump headfirst into the Mon Calamari ocean from the lower dock of a Venator-class Destroyer that is hovering several stories high above the water and apparently the worst they get from it is getting water in their meatuses.
• Soldiers at the Rear: One of the criticisms of General Krell is that his plans are reckless. When one clone points out that so are Skywalker's, another points out that Anakin leads from the front. Anakin is willing to share the risk, in direct contrast to Krell's We Have Reserves attitude.
• Something Only They Would Say: In "Rookies", Cody and Rex are visiting an outpost for an inspection, unaware that it has been taken over by Separatist droids. When a commando droid disguised as a clone trooper ends a radio communication with their trademark "Roger, roger", they realize that something is wrong down there.
• Space Clouds:
  • Inside a nebula, you can literally only see objects a few meters away from your view port.
  • Umbara is a planet that is located inside a nebula and permanently stuck in darkness.
• Space Elevator: The planet Quarzite, introduced in "Bounty", has one since it is impossible to land a spacecraft on the planet due to its high-pressure atmosphere.
• Space Is an Ocean: After the Malevolence gets its primary weapons destroyed in "Shadow of Malevolence", the ongoing fires around the damaged areas are accompanied by plumes of smoke billowing "upwards" as it cruises along. Not to mention the Republic ship that gets damaged and goes "down" later. It is particularly notable because the only planet in sight, and thus the only gravity well, is behind the ship.
• Space Pirates: The Ohnaka Gang, Hondo's band of primarily Weequay pirates.
• Space Station: Quite a few of them shows up.
  • In "Shadow of Malevolence", Grievous attempts to destroy a Republic medical base that can treat up to 60,000 clone troopers.
  • In "Brain Invaders", Ahsoka and Barriss accompany a transport of supplies to another medical base.
  • The plot of "Bounty Hunters" is kicked off by the Republic losing contact with — yet again — a medical-base orbiting Felucia.
  • In "Revival", Maul and Savage rob the Cybloc transfer station, a space station owned by the Banking Clan.
  • In "Point of No Return", the Separatists attempt to blow up a military station hosting the Republic's strategy conference.
• Space Whale: The neebray mantas are essentially this trope.
• Spanner in the Works: This is the only thing Jar Jar Binks is useful for.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Animals seem willing to do whatever Jar Jar asks of them for some reason.
• Spirit Advisor: Qui-Gon appears as one to Obi-Wan in "Overlords". Later in the same episode, it looks like Shimi Skywalker has appeared in front of Anakin, but it turns out in was just the Son in disguise. Qui-Gon also appears to Anakin in the next episode as well.
• Standard Sci-Fi Army: Both the Grand Army of the Republic and the Separatist droid army quality for this trope.
  • The Grand Army of the Republic is divided into infantry units, light combat vehicle drivers (BARC speeders and All Terrain Recon Transports) and heavy vehicles (such as All Terrain Tactical Enforcers). There are also special units, such as Clone Captains, Clone Commanders, ARC troopers, Clone pilots, clone ordnance specialists, and clone SCUBA troopers.
  • The Separatist droid army has a massive array of different types of droids is more divided: light infantry consists of B1 battle droids, heavy infantry from B2 super battle droids, and the OOM commando droids fill in the rank of elite-squads. Then, they have light vehicle-type spider droids and crab droids, with the hovering AAT tanks as heavy vehicles. Somewhere in-between are the droidekas, which have the firepower of tank, but size of the super battle droids combined with high speed. Finally, they have the T-series tactical droids and super tactical droids in order command battle droids. This is just scratching the surface.
• Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Once again, both the Republic and the Separatist fleets. They both mainly consist of capital ships, support ships, fighters, and fighter-bombers.
• Standard Snippet: When Maul arrives to stop Obi-Wan from escaping in "The Lawless", a bit of A Night on Bald Mountain plays in the middle of more original music.
• The Starscream:
  • Turk is this to Hondo in "The Gungan General".
  • Despite the general policy of betrayal amongst the Sith, Count Dooku has no active plans to betray Darth Sidious until Sidious forces him to betray Ventress in "Nightsisters". Afterwards, killing Sidious becomes a stated goal.
• Status Quo Is God: Played With. As part of being Doomed by Canon, The Clone Wars cannot present any real progress in the war because the whole ordeal was basically a stalemate until Revenge of the Sith. There will be setbacks in a battle, peace negotiations that will not succeed, and so on. However, the status quos of many other points in the series are changed significantly.
• Stealth in Space: In "Cat and Mouse", Anakin is given a special new Republic ship with a stealth shield that renders it invisible from eyes and scanners to fly past a planetary blockade.
• Stepping Stones in the Sky: In "Liberty on Ryloth", when the energy bridge is shut off beneath the feet of Mace Windu during his liberation of Ryloth, he leaps atop the falling pieces of equipment and transports to reach a battle droid's STAP, which he uses to crash into another droid's STAP before leaping across the side of the chasm.
• Stock Scream: It's inevitable, since this is Star Wars we are talking about. A clone trooper lets out a Wilhelm scream during the Citadel arc, and that's just one of several examples of the Wilhelm scream in The Clone Wars.
• Stopped Dead In The Tracks: In "A Distant Echo", Anakin secretly communicates with his wife Padme via hologram in the clones' bunker while Rex stands outside to serve as his lookout. Just as Obi-Wan arrives, Rex tries to stall him while Anakin wraps up his call. After Anakin emerges with the excuse that he was cleaning Rex's helmet, he and Rex begin to leave when Obi-Wan mentions that he hopes Anakin told Padme that he said "hello". This stops Anakin, whose face flashes with anger. He turns to face Obi-Wan for a few moments before leaving for his mission.
• Story Arc: A significant amount of the episodes are part of different story arcs that focus on the efforts of different characters during a particular event in the Clone Wars.
• The Strategist: Given the portrayals of other Neimodians, Mar Tuuk is surprisingly capable. He is able to anticipate most of what his opposition will do, and makes an effort to know his enemy by learning all he can about Anakin.
• Strawman Political: The leader of the Lurmen, Tee Watt Kaa, seems to be a straw pacifist. There are a lot of solid arguments to be made against war and violence. These arguments are made stronger by all of the on-screen deaths shown, some of which are pretty horrific. Tee Watt Kaa could have made some of these arguments, but he does not. His position pretty much boils down to "if we put up any kind of fight at all, for any reason, even if we don't kill anyone, we'll be evil" and he does not explain any further than that. Plus, he does not run for cover when he is in danger and he orders his people to similarly stand still and accept their fates, which makes absolutely no sense.
• Stroke the Beard: Obi-Wan does this throughout The Clone Wars.
• Stuff Blowing Up: It IS Star Wars, after all.
• Stupid Sacrifice: In "Altar of Mortis", the Daughter sacrifices herself to save the Father and ends up breaking the balance of the Force. She has the Force and could have easily used that instead. Mind you, she looked exhausted beforehand...
• Suggested by...: "Bounty Hunters" is based on "Seven Samurai", complete with an on-screen dedication to Akira Kurosawa.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: During the Zygerria arc, Queen Miraj Scintel thinks she can control Jedi almost as easily as any other slave, a fact which Dooku is quick to correct her on. Then she tries to disobey Dooku himself, and things naturally go downhill from there.
• Suicidal Pacifism: The Lurmen on Maridun, at least those who follow the views espoused by Tee Watt Kaa. His son and many other members of the younger generation disagree, however.
• Suicide Attack: This is used by Demolition Droids on Coruscant in "Heroes on Both Sides" in order to avoid the signing of a peace treaty. And it works.
• Summon Bigger Fish: "Bombad Jedi" presents this. It may be a native creature, so it is not exactly summoned, but otherwise this trope is played completely straight. Fish and all.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Many of General Grievous' failures can be at least partially attributed to the hopelessly incompetent battle droids serving under him. One gets the impression he would be a very capable opponent if he could only convince the Trade Federation to build some more intelligent droids.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Plan of Dissent", when their unauthorized experiments with the Umbaran fighters set off alarms in the control room, Fives attempts to cover and dissuade General Krell from investigating. Amidst a general ramble that's a reference to Han Solo's comm call in A New Hope, Fives insists that there is nothing out of control in the hangar.
• Sword Cane: The elderly Jedi Master Tera Sinube uses his with great effect against Cassie Cryar in "Lightsaber Lost".
• Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: Many of the villains on the CIS side of the war have less sympathetic qualities; General Grievous is a Card-Carrying Villain who only seeks the extermination of all the Jedi (his more sympathetic Legends backstory having been discarded from canon), the entire Separatist Council and military leaders like Nute Gunray and Riff Tamson only exist to serve Count Dooku's whim and fulfill their own desires, and the traitorous Jedi Pong Krell is a Hate Sink who seeks only to gain standing in the new order. By contrast, Count Dooku (as elaborated upon in Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi) was a genuinely good man who turned to villainy because his efforts to fight the corruption within the Republic and the Jedi Order failed and allowed himself to be swayed by Darth Sideous, Asajj Ventress had a Dark and Troubled Past where she was taken from her family, enslaved, and taken in by the Jedi until her master was killed and turned to the Dark Side as a result, and former Senator Lux Bonteri was once a staunch supporter until Dooku killed his mother for daring to try and bring about a peace treaty and had a Heel–Face Turn after a brief alliance with Death Watch fell through. This also holds true for the independent villain, Darth Maul, the former apprentice to Darth Sidious, who apparently died on Naboo over a decade ago and miraculously survived his bisection to seek revenge on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Despite going to such lengths as killing Obi-Wan's old lover, Duchess Satine of Mandalore, and enslaving her entire planet to his whim, he still had sympathetic motives due to the horrors he suffered in the years between his apparent death and his discovery at the hands of his brother Savage Oppress. Even as he builds a crime empire, he genuinely desires to stop his former master's plans to reshape the galaxy into an Empire, even if it's for revenge for his abandonment and the death of Savage.

T

• Take That!: The Clone Wars's depiction of the Mandalorians — a once-brutal, war-like culture who so devastated their own planet with internecine conflict that, eventually, the downtrodden non-warriors rose up, exiled their warriors to the moon to die out on their own, and painstakingly rebuilt their planet whilst embracing a philosophy of pacifism — seems almost to have been made to give a great big middle finger to the depiction of Mandalorians favored by Karen Traviss.
• "Take That!" Kiss: In "ARC Troopers", Ventress delivers one to an ARC Trooper named Colt after knocking his helmet off just before he dies from her running him through the chest with her lightsaber.
• Taking the Bullet: In "Corruption", Duchess Satine has to bully a customs captain into investigating over his protests that there is no corruption on his dock. However, it initially appears that he is deliberately stalling and covering up, when they stumble upon active smuggling, he instantly leaps in front of Satine to shield her from the blaster fire. Fortunately, neither of them want to be shot and they quickly take cover once they realize the situation.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Combatants on both sides often relay orders or have conversations in the middle of firefights. Especially egregious when it's a Jedi who was previously busy deflecting laser fire with all their attention.
• Tastes Like Friendship: "Innocents of Ryloth" features Waxer giving a ration bar to a starving Twi'lek girl over Boil's protests. She decides to adopt the both of them and tag along.
• Technicolor Eyes: In an interesting variation, the Father has black eyes but with green irises like his Daughter. This reflects his role as the balancer between both the Light Side and the Dark Side.
• Technology Porn: Much like the backgrounds mentioned above, the animators have gone out of their way to put as much detail as possible on spaceships (the best examples might be the Venator-class Star Destroyers, which are indistinguishable from the ones in Revenge of the Sith) and many episodes included other ways of showing off awesome technology.
• Tempting Fate:
  • In the first season, Ahsoka has the tendency of saying things like this in practically all of her appearances.
  • "Innocents of Ryloth" features this with an unfortunate battle droid:
    Battle Droid: Yup, this is about the worst job in the droid army.
    [the battle droids in the hallway are cut down and the droid looks up to see Obi-Wan in the hallway, holding Numa, and he smiles]
    Battle Droid: And it just went into overtime. [Obi-Wan uses the Force to push a button on a control panel on the wall, closing the cell door] Oh. Oh.
  • TX-20 may want to run those figures again...
    TX-20: Their chances of success against us are 742 to 1.
    Wat Tambor: You had better be right!
    TX-20: I am a droid. I am always right.
  • A clone trooper in a Republic gunship flying through flak during the Second Battle of Geonosis in "Landing at Point Rain": "Good thing those bugs can't aim!"
• Terrifying Rescuer: In "Slaves of the Republic", Obi-Wan scares the crap out of Governor Roshti, whom he is trying to rescue from slave traders, because he is disguised as one of them.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: When Rex finally decides that General Krell is going too far in his treatment of the clone troopers, he affirms that he is to be addressed as "Captain", not CT-7567.
• Third-Person Person: Moralo Eval.
• Three Successful Generations: Ahsoka is the young student who is determined to succeed and become a Jedi, Anakin is the adult who both guides Ahsoka and gets stuff done, and Obi-Wan is the one who oversees and supports both of them.
• Thrown Out the Airlock:
  • In "Downfall of a Droid", R2 throws an assassin droid out of Gha Nachkt's ship when it attempts to stop him from trying to contact Anakin. Unfortunately, he's then caught by an unamused Gha Nachkt.
  • In "Cargo of Doom", Cad Bane threatens Anakin with killing Ahsoka by throwing her out the airlock if he doesn't open the Jedi Holocron.
• Time Lapse: In "Voices", Yoda asks the Council to meditate with him in an attempt to find out the origin of the voice talking to him from within the Force. As they immerse themselves, images of the Temple and Coruscant are shown as the sun rises and sets a couple of times and traffic passes with changing speed.
• Token Heroic Orc: The Citadel arc features a squadron of battle droids that have been captured and reprogrammed by the Republic to serve as infiltrators for covert operations.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • The battle droids are essentially this trope as a result of not being very bright.
  • In "Trespass", Chairman Cho declares his intentions to exterminate a race that was willing to make peace with him, but had shown themselves to be a tad kill-happy in the past, and does it to their face. He then personally leads an attack against a numerically superior force that is lying in wait on their own territory without any military support of his own. It seems like he is actively attempting to earn the trope.
• Took a Level in Badass: In the first season of The Clone Wars, General Grievous is close to losing nearly every battle and retreated before his ship or outpost was destroyed. This is lampshaded in "Lair of Grievous", where Dooku is unhappy with Grievous' unsuccess in battles and sets out to test him. As a result, "Grievous Intrigue" and later episodes in the subsequent seasons downplay Grievous' ineffectuality via presenting him as a deadly, menacing villain, a Chessmaster, and a legitimate threat who still runs when he feels that he's on the losing side.
  • He takes another level of badass in "Massacre" through his duel with Ventress and orchestration of the extermination of the Nightsisters.
• Touch of Death: The Son has such a strong connection to the Dark Side that he can kill with a single finger.
• Traitor Shot: Palpatine at the end of "Duchess of Mandalore", when the evidence that undoes the Separatist plot is revealed.
• Train Escape: A variation happens in "To Catch a Jedi", when Ahsoka is recognized by law enforcement while on a train. After being chased through a few cars, she uses the Force to open a door and jumps off the moving train just to run into more police officers.
• Train Job: The plot of "Bounty" revolves around a team of Bounty Hunters led by Boba Fett protecting cargo on a subterranean tram from a group of Kage Warriors.
• Traintop Battle:
  • A short one occurs in "Lightsaber Lost" between Ahsoka and Cassie Cryar, who's gotten a hold of the former's lightsaber. It ends when the bounty hunter uses the weapon to cut a window and enter the car.
  • In "Bounty", Ventress duels the Kage warriors on the top of the sub-tram.
• Transforming Mecha: The Demolition Droids introduced in "Heroes on Both Sides" can not only disguise themselves as cleaning droids, but combine into bombs so they can fulfill their function.
• Trap Is the Only Option: During the Yoda arc, the Jedi discover that the Sith were behind the creation of the Republic clone army. However, given they are now in a full-scale war with the Separatists, they have no choice but to continue using the clone troopers and hope that they can win the war before the Sith can enact their endgame.
• Trojan Horse: The Demolition Droids sent by the Separatists serve this role in "Heroes on Both Sides", posing as sweeper droids.
• Trojan Prisoner: A variation is featured in "Dooku Captured": Anakin is ordered to let himself be captured by Dooku so Obi-Wan and a cruiser can track down the Count's whereabouts.
• Tron Lines: This is a recurring trait in Umbaran technology.
• Trophy Room: During the Trandoshan arc, the Trandoshan hunter named Garnac has a very creepy one of these containing all his hunting trophies, including Wookiee hides, mounted Gungan heads, and many other races. Most disturbingly, he spends the episodes hunting Ahsoka with the intention of making her his newest trophy by mounting her severed and stuffed head on his wall.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: The Umbara arc begins with Anakin being recalled to Coruscant and General Krell being given command of the 501^th. He immediately begins to denigrate the clone troopers, insult their laboratory origin, exclusively refer to them by their identification numbers, and give them horrible tactical orders. It turns out it's all intentional: he is planning to defect to the Separatists and wants to degrade the Republic war effort before he does as a gift to Dooku.

U

• Ungrateful Bastard:
  • Captain Tarkin never misses an opportunity to berate his saviors' rescue plan, question their competence as military leaders (Anakin actually agreed with him on this), and only gives the barest of compliments when rescued from a fiery death.
  • Duchess Satine has this in her first two episodes, showing little to no respect for Obi-Wan or the Jedi when Obi-Wan's trying his best to help her.
• Uniformity Exception: All of the Galactic Republic's clone troopers are clones of Jango Fett. A sergeant or lieutenant will often sport a peculiar haircut or tattoo, especially if they speak with Obi-Wan Kenobi or Anakin Skywalker. This is mentioned in supplemental material to be a mechanism for humanizing them; they are meant to be seen as Red Shirts and assist the Jedi in preserving law and order.
• Unreliable Expositor: At the end of "Lair of Grievous", Kit Fisto gives a rather tactful mission brief to the rest of the Jedi Council which seriously downplays just how much his former padawan Nahdar Vebb was courting ideas and actions the Council believes lead to the Dark Side and which fly in the face of the Jedi's code at the time. This allows Vebb to be remembered in a better light than he likely would have been otherwise, and there's no danger of him falling to the dark side and becoming a threat since Grievous killed him.
• The Un-Reveal:
  • When Grievous takes some damage and is in need of repairs in "Lair of Grievous", his medical droid begins to remove his cracked and charred mask... and we cut to commercials.
  • Anyone who has never seen any of the films (more specifically Revenge of the Sith) or doesn't know about the canon may feel this way about Darth Sidious. While Chancellor Palpatine is presented in a shady enough light from time to time for the average viewer to know that something is up with him, no single scene ever flat-out says that he and the Dark Lord are one and the same (though some come incredibly close).
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Obi-Wan and Duchess Satine, complete with She Is Not My Girlfriend teasing from Anakin.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Usually averted. Someone makes a plan, and the explanation of this plan does not impact whether or not it fails. In "Storm Over Ryloth", for instance, both Anakin and Ahsoka explain their plan in detail to the clones and they work perfectly.
• The Uriah Gambit: General Krell's horrendous battle tactics are revealed to be part of his plan to sabotage the Republic advance in preparation for his defection to the Separatists. By giving his clone troopers impossible assignments, they'll be easily defeated and ultimately wiped out by the Separatist forces.
• Use Your Head: Captain Ackbar takes out an aqua droid this way in the climatic final battle on Mon Cala in "Prisoners".

V

• Variable Terminal Velocity: Averted in "Landing at Point Rain". Anakin and Ahsoka throw Rex off a wall to avoid an explosion before jumping down to the ground below and catching him using the Force. In order to reach the ground first, they specifically throw him up so that they have time to land and brace themselves with the Force.
• Vibroweapon: BX-series droid commandos often use vibroswords.
• Villain Episode:
  • The Nightsisters and Brothers arc is almost focused exclusively on Asajj Ventress and her vendetta against Dooku, and presents Savage Opress going on a quest to find his long lost brother: Darth Maul.
    • "Massacre" only features the battle between the Separatists and Nightsisters.
  • "Eminence" presents the combined efforts of the Death Watch and Darth Maul against the Black Sun and the Hutt Clan in addition to not featuring any heroes.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Queen Miraj Scintel to Anakin. Of course, he was attempting to invoke this.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left:
  • Oh so many with General Grievous. They must have used that same animation of Grievous escaping in his own personal ship a dozen times.
  • Darth Maul and Savage Opress pull one in "Revival".
• Villain Has a Point: While his methods may have not been the best, the motivation for Slick's betrayal in "The Hidden Enemy" does have merit. He argues that the clone troopers are used as nothing more than puppets to the Jedi Order and he merely wanted freedom. Considering how they were created for war and indoctrinated from birth to follow orders without question and are treated as disposable throughout Star Wars, it is hard to say this is not the case.
• Villainous Glutton: Lok Durd, from the looks of him.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Obi-Wan and Anakin are a classic case — and it would seem that Ahsoka is learning well from her master (and his).
• Visual Pun: A very non-humourous example occurs during Darth Maul and Savage Opress' escape from Hondo's stronghold in "Revival". During the battle, Obi-Wan slices off Savage's left arm with his lightsaber. A short while later, Maul gets part of his leg blasted off.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Matt Lanter's voice for Anakin in early episodes was a bit higher in pitch than in the later episodes.
  • Matthew Wood's voice for General Grievous has changed a bit since his portrayal of the character in Revenge of the Sith. There is less modulation applied to the voice and the Eastern European accent is more or less gone.
  • Ashley Eckstein's voice for Ahsoka got a bit lower over time as her character matured.
• Voice of the Legion:
  • Mother Talzin has a second, much deeper hissing voice, which is slightly out of sync. Interestingly, it is not heard during her holographic conversation with Dooku.
  • The three Force-wielders introduced in "Overlords" have voices with a permanent echo as well.
  • In "Overlords", Anakin gets one temporarily when he taps into the Force to tame the Son and Daughter.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: According to the Father, the Force-wielders "can take many shapes".

W

• Wacky Wayside Tribe: Certain filler episodes involve these. Lampshaded in "Mercy Mission".
  Warthog: Great, it's going to be another one of those planets.
• War from Another World: Occurs with somewhat increasing frequency because of Palpatine's machinations forcing many of the neutral planets to side with either the Republic or the Separatists. This is most prominent in "Jedi Crash" and "Defenders of Peace", which feature Anakin, Ahsoka, Aayla, Rex, Bly, and some Red Shirt clones crash-landing on Maridun. When the native peaceful Lurmen agree to aid the grievously injured Skywalker, the Separatists arrive not long after to claim the planet as their colony.
• War Is Hell: The Clone Wars embraces this view through highlighting the brutality of fighting, the harsh conditions it forces civilians into, and the ultimate futility of combat.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The giant, ship-mounted ion cannon that's on the Malevolence (General Grievous's first heavy cruiser).
• Weapon Tombstone: After making peace with the Talz, Senator Riyo Chuchi of Pantora uses a Talz spear to plant the former Chairman's helmet, crossed with the chief Talz's own weapon, in the ground to seal the deal.
• We Have Reserves: Oddly, the clone troopers see themselves as expendable. They believe they are replaceable and if the mission is over, there is no reason for other clones or Jedi to risk their own lives to save them. Lampshaded by Slick in "The Hidden Enemy", who is pretty angry about it and feels that the clone troopers deserve better. One senator takes this attitude towards the clones as well, but Padmé objects to it and tells him that they are people as well.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • In "The Hidden Enemy", Slick is correct that the clone troopers have been mistreated and enslaved by the Republic and the Jedi.
  • In "The Wrong Jedi", Barriss Offee reveals herself to be this when she gives her reasons for bombing the Jedi Temple hangar. She believed that the Order had started the war and were fighting for a corrupt Republic and bombed the Jedi Temple hangar to strike a blow at that.
• Wham Episode:
  • The Nightsisters and Brothers arc served as one long wham story arc: It features a major change to the status quo via the fact that Darth Sidious forces Count Dooku to have Ventress killed, but she survives and deserts from the Separatists, delves into Ventress' past, and introduces the Nightsisters, Mother Talzin, and Savage Opress in addition to setting up a major future event, Darth Maul's return.
  • During the Mortis arc, Anakin Skywalker realizes the burden on his shoulders as The Chosen One, which was something he previously dismissed as a myth. Meanwhile, Ahsoka Tano sees a vision of her future self telling her to stay away from Anakin because he will lead her to the Dark Side. The Son also corrupts Ahsoka and through her, she reveals her subconscious fears and resentments: her frustration towards Anakin's criticality and dissatisfaction.
  • The Shadow Collective arc is most certainly this. By the end of "The Lawless", Pre Vizsla, Duchess Satine, and Savage Opress are all dead, Darth Maul has successfully conquered both the criminal underworld and Mandalore before being left at the mercy of Darth Sidious, and Mandalore is left in the midst of a civil war.
  • In "The Wrong Jedi", Ahsoka feels betrayed by the Council and actually being betrayed by Barriss, which leads to her deciding to leave the Jedi Order.
• Wham Line:
  • A dying Waxer delivers one in "Carnage of Krell", revealing that General Krell set two battalions of clone troopers against each other, planning for them to all be killed.
  • Ahsoka says one in in "The Wrong Jedi":
    Ahsoka: I'm sorry, Master, but I'm not coming back.
• Wham Shot: Darth Maul's Early-Bird Cameo in "Witches of the Mist".
• What If?: In "Destiny", Yoda has a vision of a utopian Jedi Temple, in which Count Dooku is still a respected Jedi Master, Qui-Gon Jinn and Adi Gallia are alive, Barriss Offee and Ahsoka Tano are still members of the Jedi Order, and everyone seems serene.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
  • Averted. Obi-Wan wants to protect the rights of the Talz, which are less human-looking and more technologically primitive than the Pantorans who want them eliminated for their land.
  • Played straight and averted with the droids. R2-D2 and C-3PO are still afforded a moderate amount of sentience, but Separatist droids are sliced through with no regret.
• What's an X Like You Doing in a Y Like This?:
  • In "Blue Shadow Virus", Doctor Nuvo Vindi asks Padmé "What's a lifeform like you doing in a swamp like this?" when she gets captured by the Separatist droids protecting his lab. She replies that she was about to ask him the same question.
  • In "Bounty", after Ventress enters a cantina on Tatooine and orders a drink, a Bounty Hunter named Oked tries to hit on her with this question. When he continues pushing her, Ventress stabs him with a lightsaber.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In "Deception", Obi-Wan and the Jedi Council fake his death in order for him to go undercover and prevent Palpatine from being kidnapped. Anakin, who was distraught over Obi-Wan's seeming death, eventually learns the truth and is furious with both Obi-Wan and the Jedi Council for lying to him in "Crisis on Naboo".
  • In "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much", Ahsoka snaps at Anakin about seemingly doing nothing to help her after she was arrested, and doesn't think much of his excuse that the guards wouldn't let him see her. As she has just spent the last third of the episode evading capture, she gets more reasonable once given a chance to calm down.
  • Another one in "The Wrong Jedi", where Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order because the Jedi Council threw her under the bus and pretty much made up their minds about her before her trial with them. She never calls them out directly, but she shares it with Anakin, who agrees. Ventress outright calls Anakin on this and he can't really contradict her because she's right.
• Whip of Dominance: The Zygerria arc features many laser whips used to keep slaves in line.
• Who Dares?:
  • When he is being attacked by the 501^st Legion in "Carnage of Krell", General Krell decrees "You dare to attack a Jedi?!".
  • Huyang also says it when his head gets blasted off by a Weequay pirate during the Young Jedi arc.
• Why Am I Ticking?:
  • In "Holocron Heist", Todo 360 has no idea Cad Bane's placed a bomb into him until moments before it goes off.
  • In "Sabotage", an unwitting munitions specialist for the Jedi is fed explosive nano droids in a plot to bomb the Jedi Temple hangar.
• Wipe: Most of the scene-changes are executed by having the two scenes overlap, much like in the films. In fact, it's easier to count when it's not used. Idiosyncratic Wipes, such as a clock-effect, are also used a lot.
• With Due Respect: This is used a few times.
  • In "Trespass", the warmongering Chairman Cho of Pantora tries to order Rex and his men to attack the Talz. Rex refuses, stating that his orders are only to personally protect the Chairman.
  • In "Gungan Attack", the inexperienced Prince Lee-Char isn't willing to follow Anakin's advice of leaving the Separatist and Quarren-occupied Mon Calamari because he fears he'll leave his people to die. Anakin warns him with "due respect" that if they stay, all of them are going to die.
  • In "To Catch a Jedi", Windu wants to keep Anakin out of the search for Ahsoka, who escaped to the Coruscant underworld after being framed. Anakin refuses his suggestion with "due respect".
• With My Hands Tied: Ahsoka does this to a round dozen corrupt Mandalorian Police after being captured in "The Academy" while blocking stun blasts from mounted turrets, even managing to capture their leader in the process, all with her hands bound. She also does it in "A Friend in Need".
• Worf Had the Flu:
  • In "Altar of Mortis", the Daughter is visibly exhausted by her battle with the Son, so when he tries to stab the Father, all she can do is throw herself between them.
  • In "To Catch a Jedi", Ahsoka has a double dose of this during her lightsaber duel against the Hooded Assailant. For once, everything she has underwent through until that point has left her exhausted and confused (the latter of which even she herself realizes and admits when she has to be reminded to use the emergency brakes in a malfunctioning elevator by a child) and she also previously lost one of her lightsabers while escaping from the GAR HQ.
• World-Healing Wave/World-Wrecking Wave: Taken to their logical extreme during the Mortis arc. On Mortis, the healing and wrecking waves are following each other in a constant cycle, as part of the planet's Light and Dark Side in-balance symbolism: when night falls all plants die, and are reduced into ghastly glowing forms, and massive thunderstorms start. When dawn approaches all plant life is renewed.
• World of Badass: The odds are that any named character featured in The Clone Wars will be of varying degrees of badass or at least will take a few levels by the end of their episode. It’s either that or they're killed off.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • In "Cat and Mouse", Admiral Trench claims that Anakin is this trope.
  • In "Storm Over Ryloth", Captain Mar Tuuk openly states that he respects Anakin's military skills and wants to defeat him mainly because of this.
  • In "Crisis on Naboo", Dooku says this of Obi-Wan after he successfully thwarted two attempts to kidnap Palpatine.
• Would Hit a Girl: Some examples of this trope include:
  • Savage Opress kills Adi Gallia in "Revival" via impaling her TWICE, once with his horns on his head and the second stab with his lightsaber.
  • Darth Maul Force-chokes Bo-Katan (but doesn't kill her) in "Eminence" to make a point about doubt leading to failure. He later ruthlessly murders Duchess Satine.
  • Taken to an absurd degree by General Grievous, who has all of zero qualms about committing genocide against the Nightsisters, an all-female clan.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • General Grievous has multiple Padawan braids among his trophies in "Lair of Grievous", and later relishes the idea of killing the Jedi younglings for their lightsabers in "A Necessary Bond".
  • In "Children of the Force", Darth Sidious has several Force-sensitive infants abducted so that he can perform potentially lethal experiments on them. Cad Bane, who completes the actual abducting, doesn't care what becomes of the children, so long as he gets paid.
  • In "The Academy", Prime Minister Almec threatens to kill Satine's nephew if she doesn't give in to his demands.
  • During the Trandosha arc, a group of villainous Trandoshans kidnap members of many different species to hunt on an uninhabited world. Since Jedi Knights are too dangerous, they often specifically target Jedi Younglings and Padawans.
  • In "Revenge", Darth Maul slaughters dozens of innocent people, including several children, to draw the attention of the Jedi, particularly Obi-Wan.
  • Hondo Ohnaka didn't seem to object to the idea of hurting the Younglings in "A Test of Strength" in order to get their lightsaber crystals. He averts this two episodes later when he claims he doesn't like taking children into battle and waves off the earlier incident. He probably just jumps between Would Hurt a Child and Wouldn't Hurt a Child depending on his mood. Word of God is that he would have hurt the kids if necessary, but was hoping to retrieve their crystals with a minimum of fuss.
• Wrench Wench: Ahsoka, taking after her master, has become a skilled mechanic. During the Mortis arc, she is shown repairing a badly wrecked shuttle by herself and modifying the repairs at Obi-Wan's request.
• Wrestler in All of Us: While fighting Obi-Wan in "Kidnapped", Darts D'Nar at one point hoists Obi-Wan high over his head and then slams him down onto the floor.

X-Z

• Xanatos Gambit: Palpatine is both the Big Good Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and secretly the Big Bad Dark Lord of the Sith and leader of the Separatist Alliance. He'll be in power no matter which side wins.
  • Almost every single story arc is a Xanatos Gambit by Palpatine, in one way or another (though some of them are very subtle). Either way the episode resolves, whether the heroes succeed or fail, the plans of Palpatine are ultimately advanced either way. It is very rare for an episode or story arc to be set up in such a way that it is possible for Palpatine's plans to be thwarted (and sometimes it's usually only a delay).
  • Notably, the Order 66 arc. While there is a potential for failure if the Jedi figure out what the control chips are really for, along with if the "defective" clone is caught by the Separatists or delivered to Kamino, Palpatine gets the information he needs to make sure his plans are secure.
• You Are Number 6:
  • In "Lethal Trackdown", Aurra Sing and Boba Fett send Mace Windu a video threatening to execute hostages if Mace does not come face them. They demand one clone trooper's name before executing him. He contemptuously replies that he is CT-411. Anakin, watching the video with Mace, sadly comments that he was "Ponds".
  • General Krell makes a deliberate point of referring to every clone trooper by their identification number instead of by the nicknames that they have been given by fellow clones. He does refer to Sergeant Appo by his nickname, and uses Rex's name at one point, so it seems that using the identification numbers is something he only does when he is mad at the clone trooper in question or when he is proving a point, which is most of the time.
• You Fool!: In "Carnage of Krell", General Krell decrees that Dogma was "the biggest fool of them all".
• You Have Failed Me:
  • Grievous frequently has this reaction, but it helps that he usually does this to the battle droids.
  • In a more brutal example, the leader of Death Watch (Pre Vizsla) casually kills one of his men for failing to kill Obi-Wan in "The Mandalore Plot". Death Watch themselves get hit with this by Dooku for failing to get rid of Satine. They survived, but now they're independent.
  • Count Dooku quotes the complete line when he disavows Asajj Ventress as his apprentice and orders her death in "Nightsisters". This is particularly painful since she hasn't actually failed him, but Darth Sidious wanted to test Dooku's loyalty.
    Count Dooku: You have failed me for the last time.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • After delivering a captured R2-D2 to the Separatists in "Duel of the Droids", Trandoshan scavenger Gha Nachkt demands a higher fee from General Grievous, who promptly gives him a "bonus" in the form of a lightsaber through his gut.
  • In "Cloak of Darkness", Argyus receives "payment" for his help in freeing Nute Gunray, courtesy of Ventress.
  • In "Altar of Mortis", the Son gives Ahsoka a Touch of Death after she delivers to him the only weapon that can kill the Father.
  • In "The Box", Count Dooku does this to Moralo Eval when his testing course for the bounty hunters is easily outwitted. Fortunately for Eval, he does this by forcing him to fight Rako Hardeen to the death. Since Hardeen is Obi-Wan in disguise, he spares Eval. As such, Eval just gets replaced as team leader by Cad Bane.
• You Killed My Father:
  • During the Boba Fett arc, Boba Fett has a quest for revenge against Mace Windu for killing his father/genetic template Jango back in Attack of the Clones.
  • "Padawan Lost" features a Trandoshan who is determined to avenge the death of his son.
  • In "A Friend in Need", Lux Bonteri wants to get back at Count Dooku after Dooku killed his mother Mina.
• Young and in Charge:
  • Ahsoka is fourteen years old at the beginning of The Clone Wars, but she is automatically ranked as a Commander as result of being a Padawan learner.
  • During the Mon Calamari arc, part of the reason the Quarren refuse to accept Prince Lee-Char as the new King of Mon Calamari is his young age.
  • Boba Fett is seen several times leading (or trying to lead) groups of bounty hunters that are far older and more experienced than he is. Lampshaded by Asajj Ventress in "Bounty".
    Ventress: Boss? He is your boss?
    Boba: You got a problem with that?!
• You Remind Me of X:
  • At the conclusion of "ARC Troopers", Commander Cody and Captain Rex congratulate Echo and Fives on their performance during the battle. Rex explains that they showed valor and real courage, and then says that they reminded him of himself.
  • When Dogma is first introduced in "Darkness on Umbara", Anakin remarks that his determination and reflexive obedience to orders reminds him of Captain Rex. Rex concedes that that might have been true, but only back in the day.
• Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: Discussed in regards to the Onderon freedom fighters, who Obi-Wan is worried might become terrorists under the wrong circumstances. He joins the mission with Anakin and Ahsoka to hopefully keep them in the "freedom fighter" category.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: In "Carnage of Krell", when Captain Rex is going to execute General Krell, Krell taunts him over his inability to pull the trigger and his inherent weakness. Too bad for him that Dogma is there to pull the trigger.
• Zerg Rush:
  • This is the standard battle droid strategy. Due to the use of Hollywood Tactics, this often becomes a strategy for the clone troopers as well.
  • After Obi-Wan frees them from Separatist captivity in "Innocents of Ryloth", a horde of Twi'leks save him and exact their revenge by swarming over an armored assault tank and ripping apart the T-series tactical droid commander with their bare hands.

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