Star Wars: The Clone Wars is one of the most beloved entries in the Star Wars franchise, but some harsh realities become clear while re-watching season 1. Many TV shows take a while to reach their full potential, and The Clone Wars had many problems in its first season that held the series back from its full potential. That's not to say The Clone Wars season 1 is terrible, as it has some of the show's best episodes, but it also contains some of the worst episodes in the Star Wars franchise.

Unfortunately, these problems with The Clone Wars season 1 make it hard for newcomers to get into the series. This keeps many viewers from experiencing the superb storytelling of the later seasons and gaining context that makes other Star Wars movies and TV shows more enjoyable. Re-watching The Clone Wars season 1 after 15 years reveals 10 harsh realities that held the show back from the beginning.

10 The Clone Wars' Anthology Approach Is Confusing

The Clone Wars' anthology approach has benefits but creates confusion, especially for first-time viewers. The series would often jump around the timeline, so when viewed in release order, it can be jarring when dead characters are suddenly alive or when battles are waged on planets that were liberated in earlier episodes. The Star Wars website's official Clone Wars chronological episode order fixes this problem, but there are still instances where it feels unnatural to jump around seasons.

9 Star Wars' Animation Has Improved With Time

Star Wars animation looked superb when The Clone Wars season 7 was released in 2020, but the animation looked rough when the show began in 2008. The team was still refining the animation, making it bizarre that Lucas released a Clone Wars movie in theaters when it was designed for television. The animation is never terrible in The Clone Wars season 1, but several moments seemed unpolished compared to later seasons.

8 Clone Wars Season 1's Ahsoka Doesn't Show The Nuance She Would Develop

Ahsoka Tano has become one of the Star Wars franchise's most popular characters, but that wasn't the case in The Clone Wars season 1. May fans hated the idea of Anakin Skywalker having an apprentice, so it didn't help that Ahsoka sometimes came across as annoying and hot-headed. The character quickly improved as the show continued and developed into a fantastic character, but The Clone Wars season one shows no signs of that outcome.

7 Some Star Wars First Encounters Should Have Been Left For Revenge Of The Sith

The Clone Wars season 1 didn't always perfectly align with the movie timeline, with some character encounters being the best example. As great as the Anakin/Dooku and Obi-Wan/Grievous rivalries were, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith strongly implied that these characters had never come face to face between the films. This makes it feel like Filoni and the team wanted to include as many characters as possible regardless of whether it contradicted the prequel trilogy.

6 Clone Wars Season 1 Retconned Established Stories At The Time

Before the Star Wars canon reboot in 2014, The Clone Wars season 1 was already contradicting stories that were part of the official continuity at the time. The 2D micro-series Star Wars: Clone Wars and the Clone Wars multimedia project had already covered the Clone Wars in detail, so Lucasfilm initially promised that everything would fit together in the timeline. Unfortunately, it soon became evident that Filoni's team was creating a new Clone Wars timeline, and many Expanded Universe fans still resent the show for this reason.

Related: Star Wars Has Completely Changed The Clone Wars Since A New Hope - But Why?

5 The Two-Part "Downfall Of A Droid" Arc Is Pretty Bad

The Clone Wars doesn't have many outright terrible episodes, but the two-part "Downfall of a Droid" arc is one example. As the second episode produced for the series, The Clone Wars season 1, episode 6 "Downfall of a Droid" has the worst animation of the season, and the voice actors lack the same energy that would be in future episodes. While Anakin's desire to save R2-D2 is understandable, it doesn't change that he abandoned his Padawan and all his men to save one droid. It also makes General Grievous look weak when he can't kill a Padawan who hasn't been in the war for long.

4 Anakin Changed A Lot In A Short Time After Attack Of The Clones

The Clone Wars shows how Anakin has grown from an insecure and reckless Padawan to a more responsible and confident general, even though the show begins shortly after Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. The Clone Wars multimedia project had Anakin become a Jedi Knight near the war's end, making his character development gradual. Star Wars: Brotherhood by Mike Chen attempted to explain Anakin's transition after the Battle of Geonosis, but when viewed on its own, The Clone Wars season 1's version of Anakin takes a while to get used to.

3 Clone Wars Season 1's Lightsaber Duels Are Lacking At Times

One of the challenges the animation team had to overcome in The Clone Wars season 1 was the lightsaber duels. Whereas the prequels had mastered fluid choreography by Revenge of the Sith, the mechanics don't always seem right in The Clone Wars season 1. The animation improved with time and later featured some of the best lightsaber duels in the Star Wars franchise, but this makes the fights in season 1 look worse.

2 Clone Wars Season 1 Victories Can Feel Hollow Knowing What's To Come

A problem that plagued The Clone Wars, especially in season 1, was that many heroic victories were ultimately pointless. Viewers familiar with the Star Wars movies know that only Palpatine will win the war, meaning planets liberated by the Republic are destined to be oppressed by the Empire. Later seasons of The Clone Wars fixed this problem by adopting a darker tone and acknowledging that everyone was destined to lose, but the happy endings tended to fall flat in season 1.

1 Clone Wars Anakin & Live-Action Anakin Are Very Different Characters

While it makes sense for animated series to do things differently than live-action, the most noticeable disparity between the movies and the show is Anakin. Matt Lanter's Anakin in The Clone Wars season 1 is a wildly different character than Hayden Christensen's, making it hard to imagine that they could coexist in the timeline. Christensen helped rectify this problem somewhat in Ahsoka by incorporating aspects of the animated Anakin into his performance, but there are still noticeable differences. The animated Anakin may have been well-received by many fans, but the disconnect from his live-action counterpart is one of the harsh realities of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 1.