Star Wars: Clone Wars / YMMV

And You Thought It Would Fail: The cartoon is set during the divisive Prequel Trilogy and follows the particularly divisive Attack of the Clones, so the premise didn't exactly endear it to older fans. However, when it came out, it became an unexpected success, with many praising it and Genndy Tartakovsky at the expense of George Lucas and Attack of the Clones. In hindsight, it helped kick off the more favorable view the Prequels have gotten over the years, along with the rest of the Expanded Universe works set in the era, by first fleshing out Anakin and Obi-Wan beyond the movies' scope and demonstrating the amazingly rich potential of the setting, which was parlayed into another, bigger animated series. It also helped build up hype for Revenge of the Sith which it directly leads up to (it ended in March 2005, with the movie out by May), though many were later disappointed in the film's depiction of General Grievous compared to here.
Audience-Coloring Adaptation: For a generation of fans that grew up watching this series, Grevious's Memetic Badass portrayal here dominated the conversation about the character prior to the release of Revenge of the Sith and The Clone Wars... Which revealed him to be a sniveling coward, albeit one that was still dangerous. Because of this, Grevious's canonical counterpart is seen as something of a Memetic Loser compared to his portrayal as an unstoppable murder machine in this series.
Badass Decay: Ventress is first seen to eliminate her competition without even really trying, but in a manner that made her seem efficient and terrifying in combat, which appears again when dispatching Anakin's clone force. However, against Dooku and Anakin herself, she is first handily beaten and then ended up soundly losing in her only other duel, making her seem far from the threat she presented herself as.
Better on DVD: Considering the original 4 minute segments, it merges well into a wall-to-wall hour long movie. As a matter of fact, watching episodes 1–25 back-to-back will take less time than the entire runtime of Revenge of the Sith.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: In Chapter 21, C-3PO shows off his new gold plating while sultry saxophone music plays. No more of this kind of risqué humour appears at any point in the series.
Crosses the Line Twice: During the escape from Grievous, the Jedi accompanying Palpatine get a brief respite when Grievous is being held off by the clones. While waiting for the elevator, they can hear the sound of Grievous slaughtering his way through the clones and getting closer and closer to them... Not funny. One of the Jedi frantically pressing the "call" button on the elevator to get it to come faster? Funny. The fact that one of the noises heard during Grievous's rampage is a chainsaw? Somehow puts a cherry on top.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Captain Fordo, the leader of the ARC troopers is beloved by fans for being a legitimate badass and one of the first competent clones shown in the series that isn't killed off. Many point to his One-Man Army moment while he and other soldiers are fighting droids, where he single-handedly holds his ground and takes out several droids while dual-welding a blaster rifle and a pistol as one of the most badass moments in the show.
- Durge, the insanely hardy bounty hunter who simply will not die. Fans were overjoyed when the character was eventually canonized via Star Wars: Doctor Aphra.
- A number of fans prefer this series' version of General Grievous over the Canon one.
- In a vehicle example, the repainted Republic gunship used by Captain Fordo and his men◊ is beloved by fans because of how badass it looks. As is Anakin's heavily modified Delta-7 Aethersprite-class Jedi starfighter, the Azure Angel, for much the same reasons.
- The Nelvaanians are a race of Darkhorses, complete with their fictional language (wich is modelled after actual Hungarian).
- Despite only having a few minutes of screentime before being cut down by Grievous, the Whiphid Jedi Master K'kruhk was popular enough to be brought back by Legends writers, who revealed that he not only survived his duel with Grievous but also the entire Clone Wars and Order 66, and he's still around during the Legacy era over a century after A New Hope, meaning he outlives Luke. Maybe it's because, while he did lose, for those few seconds he held his own against Grievous, he was fighting all on his own with his eyes closed.
- While the series is far from her only source of popularity, Shaak Ti's marathon of a fight holding off Grievous and his Magnaguard was certainly a major contributor to her popularity among fans. It also helps, for this appearance in particular, that her cartoon design looks very appealing and adorable. Not that she looks bad in other mediums, but this cartoon’s art design really suited her.
- Padawan Sha'a Gi, despite only appearing in one episode solely to be a Sacrificial Lamb against Grievous, has gained massive popularity due to being a Expy of Shaggy. The latter gaining prominence in the internet as a Memetic Badass definitely helped.
Epileptic Trees: Some people play the entire series as propaganda films made by a brief character in Windu's episode. Said character did (in Legends canon) make pro-Jedi propaganda during Palpatine's reign and his entire backstory began as an excuse to explain the inconsistencies in Jedi portrayal between the show and the films, which some fans had complained about. So it's somewhat implied in his backstory that these are his cartoons, or at least are very similar to them.
Evil Is Cool: The series introduces us to Durge and General Grievous. They are practically up there in being one of the most fondly remembered villains in the entire franchise. Both being nigh-unstoppable villains, who leave one hell of an impression upon fans. The former being the local Bounty Hunter, able to go toe to toe with a Jedi, while the latter is pretty much a Jedi-killing machine, striking down Padawans, Jedi Knights and Masters almost left and right.
Fandom Rivalry:
- With Samurai Jack. In fact, Clone Wars' fandom is much more popular considering the Star Wars brand.
- There is also a minor one with Star Wars: The Clone Wars, mainly in debates as to which one is better. This sentiment only increased when this show was removed from canon entirely while The Clone Wars remained in continuity.
Fan Nickname: The series is given one by fans: "Clone Wars 2003" or alternatively "Clone Wars Micro-series", due to people mislabeling this series as The Clone Wars when there's no "the" in the title, as well as the opposite problem; the 2008 CGI show, which does have "the" in its title, is often just called "Clone Wars" with no "the". The name "Genndy Wars" has seen some usage as of late as well.
First Installment Wins: General Grievous's debut to the franchise is easily the most popular of his characterizations, with Revenge of the Sith being criticized for his much weaker depiction, and the second animated series being viewed as an improvement, but not as good as the first, for being a balance between the two.
Fridge Brilliance: It would make sense that Anakin wouldn't be so picky about eating a bunch of bugs (and a very long worm), considering his past as a slave. He most likely learned to eat what he could get.
- Dooku reminding Grievous that he needs to have "fear, surprise, and intimidation" to succeed against Jedi explains why it's Ki-Adi-Mundi, Shaak Ti, Mace Windu, and eventually Obi-Wan to have the best performances against Grievous:
  - Ki-Adi-Mundi is extremely controlled, to the point of verging on emotionless. He's a Jedi Grievous cannot really scare, so he maintains his composure and can call on the Force even when faced with Grievous' intimidation tactics.
  - Shaak Ti is a member of the High Council, so she's more emotionally controlled than most Jedi, and survived the fight on Hypori. The latter means she's familiar with Grievous' fighting skills and patterns, and when they face again on Coruscant he doesn't have surprise on his side.
  - Mace Windu is a Jedi that cannot be scared, and they actually had a previous encounter shortly before during the Battle of Coruscant. Grievous had none of the advantages Dooku told him he needed, and barely survived the second encounter. Further, his Vapaad fighting style redirects such emotions back at his opponent.
  - As shown in The Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Grievous had a number of encounters, making him the Jedi most familiar with Grievous fighting abilities and his fear and intimidation tactics. Grievous survived their last fight on Utapau only because he still had more surprises, but without fear and intimidation on his side they weren't enough.
- There's possibly another emotion that Grievous draws out of Jedi to his advantage: pride. When he hits the scene wielding Jedi lightsabers, any Jedi who give into their pride are goaded into duels to avenge the fallen. This blinds them to the fact that the Force might end Grievous much quicker, something seasoned Jedi like Mace Windu and Shaak Ti have no problem seeing.
Harsher in Hindsight: Go here.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Go here.
It Was His Sled: Grievous having four arms was a dramatic reveal during the climax of this show's finale, but nowadays it's widely known because advertising and merchandise involving the character make no attempt to hide it.
Magnificent Bastard: This microseries' portrayal of General Grievous contrasts his later writing by being a brutally efficient, badass strategist and fighter rolled into one. Stepping onto the scene of the Clone Wars and immediately beginning to turn entire battles into Separatist favor with his tactical mind, Grievous is introduced properly by ambushing and decimating an entire group of Jedi, giving them a "warriors' death" at his hands with the only survivors escaping thanks to a small army of clones holding Grievous back. Later dispatched to kidnap Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Grievous kills his way through clone troopers and chases the Chancellor's Jedi bodyguards across Coruscant, adapting to their techniques and keeping pace with them. Even when temporarily overwhelmed by two Jedi Masters, Grievous reveals his proficiency with using four lightsaber blades at once to murder his opponents and succeed in his mission, ending as the most competent, deadly villain in the series.
Memetic Badass:
- General Grievous. His failure to live up to it in Revenge of the Sith and the subsequent series making the "Memetic" part stand out more.
- Captain Fordo for his awesome dual-wielding defense of Sector Four.
Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
Narm Charm:
- Grievous fighting with lightsabers held in his leg-claws instead of his hands and spinning around like a lawnmower to attack the Jedi is, honestly, pretty unnecessary and silly-looking... but it doesn't make it any less awesome. Crosses over into Fridge Brilliance when you realize Count Dooku has been specifically teaching Grievous to "use the unorthodox", and that using fear is one of the only ways a non-Force user can get the upper hand against a Jedi. This means Grievous is showing off just to confuse and intimidate his enemies, interfering with their Force senses.
- There's a rather drawn out sequence where Asajj takes out the clones accompanying Anakin in far from subtle manners, which includes throwing them into the air, or dragging them screaming and firing wildly. Not only does Anakin take notice of this far too late after all but one had been killed, when he finally does find a clone that had recently been attacked, he sounds far more concerned about his droid then the dull questioning of the survivor or any of his men. That said, this has been regarded as hilarious by viewers, as unintentional as it may have been.
Nightmare Fuel: Anakin's Vision Quest on Nelvaan is almost literally this in-universe, complete with prophetic metaphor and (in a Freeze-Frame Bonus) the mask of Darth Vader.
Older Than They Think: A lot of Grievous' negative character traits actually originated in this series. For one, he suffers a humiliating defeat when Shaak Ti ties his cape to a train, and another when Mace Windu simply crushes his chest with the Force rather than fight him hand-to-hand.
Once Original, Now Common: While still considered pretty good, part of what made the show attractive to Star Wars fans at the time was being the first TV show set during the events of the movies and having an overall storyline (Droids and Ewoks were first but aside from some minor arcs they were just normal cartoons set in the same universe with very little connection to the movies) but after shows like Rebels, The Mandalorian and ESPECIALLY The Clone Wars (2008) which also expands in the events between the movies but with the duration of a regular TV show, the shorts can be not as attractive to newer viewers as they were when they were released. You could even argue that since the newer CW show expands so much in the same time-period, the shorts no longer feel like their own thing and more like a expanded arc of the latter show with a different animation style (it doesn't help that the entire series was moved to the Star Wars Legends continuity meaning the show is no longer canonical with the series unlike the newer Clone Wars show).
Popular with Furries:
- While a relatively minor character, Voolvif Monn sees some decent popularity with furry fans for essentially being a Wolf Man Jedi.
- The Nelvaanians are a race that has definitely caught the attention of furry fans when they watched this series. Due to being a species of beastly blue-bodied wolf-like creature.
Signature Scene: Fair to say that there's a lot of iconic scenes in this animated series.
- Mace Windu fighting the Super Battle Droids on Dantooine barehanded. Within that scene, there's the scene of him dismantling a Super Combat Droid and using its metal to destroy a wave of other Droids.
- General Grievous attacking the Jedi at Hypori.
- And subsequently, the ARC Troopers rescuing the Jedi from Grievous.
- Anakin's vision in the cave on Nelvaan.
Special Effect Failure: In Chapter 20, Sha'a Gi's body very noticeably just vanishes when Grievous lands on and crushes him (likely done for Bloodless Carnage effect).
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Many fans prefer this over The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
Unfortunate Character Design:
- San Hill. His eyebrows make him look like a butthead.
- Qui-Gon Jinn suffers from this as well, due to the huge honker they gave him.
Win Back the Crowd: The show was released during the heyday of the very controversial prequel films, and managed to win back faith in the franchise by fleshing out Anakin and Obi-Wan and showcasing the rich storytelling potential of the Clone Wars setting.
Woobie Species: The Nelvaanians, Woobie-esque beast-men. Their men were captured by Separatists and used as test subjects, being mutated into grotesque obese mind-controlled creatures. Their reveal and their appearance are part-Nightmare Fuel part-Tear Jerker.
Woolseyism: The Hungarian dub added an extra gag to Durge's defeat:
- Original:
  Commander: Control room secure, General.
  Obi-Wan, after blowing up Durge: Seems I've created quite a mess now, haven't I?
  Commander: Yes, Sir.
- Dub:
  Commander: The control room is clear.
  Obi-Wan, after blowing up Durge: Now you can't say that the control room is clear anymore.
  Commander: No, Sir.

YMMV / Star Wars: Clone Wars

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