REVIEW: ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars,’ Season 7, Episode 11 – “Shattered”

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is back this week with episode 11, “Shattered.” In the previous episode, we were rooting for Ahsoka as she battled and captured Maul. Despite Maul’s insistence that Ahsoka joins him so they could combat a mysterious person known as Darth Sidious, his insistence that Anakin would aid in the downfall of the Republic spurred Ahsoka to choose to capture Maul instead.

In “Shattered,” we pick up where we left off. Maul is hauled away in some sort of force-sensitive chamber meant to keep him a prisoner while Ahsoka and her clones begin their trip to return to Coruscant. On their journey back, Ahsoka decides against revealing what Maul told her about Anakin and Darth Sidious to the Jedi Council. Not long after, Ahsoka feels a disturbance in the Force that she is sure has to do with Anakin, all the while Rex receives a message initiating the infamous Order 66. Despite obviously not wanting to kill Ahsoka, Rex has no choice and the rest of the clones on the ship follow suit. With the clones and her best friend turning on her, where will Ahsoka go; what will Ahsoka do?

Given that this is the third part of this arc, this episode follows the trends of the last two with plenty of plot to wrap your mind around. The Jedi Council is beginning to suspect Palpatine as an enemy, Anakin is spying on Palpatine, and Kenobi is off to confront General Grievous. This episode’s plot butts up against the storyline and timeline of the Star Wars movies while at the same time filling in plot holes created by the ending of the last season.

Given that “Shattered” relates directly to the plot of the movies, it was a smart move to use dialogue directly from those movies. I’m not sure if this dialogue came directly from the movies, or if it was re-recorded by the series’ voice actors; either way, it was a good choice that lent even more power to these scenes.

Anyone who’s a fan of Mandalorians is going to get excited about the final tidbit of history we receive on the Mandalorians before Ahsoka leaves for Coruscant. The Mandalorians, in the past, waged war on the Jedi. This is how much of their technology, such as their jetpacks, was developed—in direct retaliation to the powers Jedi gained from using the Force. Hence, why the Mandalorians have some sort of force-sensitive prisoner transport to stuff Maul into.

As always, the animation of this episode, and series as a whole, is gorgeous and dynamic. Similarly, the voice acting is top-tier and, in combination with the animation, results in scenes that are highly impactful. And this is important because we know exactly what’s about to happen in these scenes. But, even though we know that the betrayal due to Order 66 is about to happen, it doesn’t stop the actual betrayal from hurting any less.

“Shattered,” despite its somber atmosphere and heartfelt moments, is an extremely satisfying episode for the way it fills plot holes and provides a fluid connection to the rest of Star Wars canon. If these last few episodes are anything to go off of, the next one is bound to be great.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars “Phantom Apprentice” is exclusively on Disney+ now.

Quinn

Quinn is an editor and comic and video game writer with a love for Transformers and cyberpunk. As a nonbinary person, Quinn also takes pleasure in evaluating the inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons in media.