Star Wars the Clone Wars Animated series made me excited about the Star Wars universe again. I had lost most of my interest following the bitterly disappointing Prequel movie trilogy. Like most guys my age, all we’ve ever know is Star Wars, Star Wars has been with us from our earliest memories. Star Wars has been in our blood since day one. It’s also why we can forgive so much of the crap that was that Trilogy. Recently watching all of them, I can easily say that Phantom Menace is pretty much unwatchable with the Darth Maul fight scene being the only enjoyable part. Clone Wars is a mix of bad and good while Revenge of the Sith is a good movie with some bad parts and bad pacing. Bad pacing can be said for all of these movies.

So, I’d kind of dropped off the Star Wars radar for a while after these movies—until recently. I don’t totally remember what made me watch the Clone Wars cartoon series. It was way after the movie they put out, probably about halfway through Season One. But I did sit down and watch one and was instantly hooked. This was what the Prequel Trilogy should have been. The series has adventure, fantastic characterization, heart and soul, and most importantly—a whole bunch of lightsabers! It’s hard to say this one out loud but yes, even the episodes with Jar Jar Binks are great. I know, I know but it’s true. I’ll even say it again—the episodes with Jar Jar Binks are great. There is literally not a bad episode in the series.

The most important characters are of course Anakin Skywalker, his new padawan Ahsoka Tano and Obi-Wan Kenobi. But they definitely aren't the only characters in it. Some episodes don't even have those characters in it. The first episode of Season One focused totally on Yoda and some Clone Troopers. Oh yeah, the troopers. They made them fantastic, especially Captain Rex, double handgun wielding kick-ass clone. He is my son's favorite character. Actually, most of the kids of that age seem to like the Troopers over the Jedi. Strange, because when I was their age it was Jedi, scoundrels or bounty hunters only--no one loved the Stormtroopers!