Battle Droids: Requiem.
Obviously, mileage will vary greatly for this episode depending how much you care about or have nostalgia for anything to do with both the prequel era or, of course, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. There was certainly a meta aspect occurring here too and the idea of how the war never ended for some – reflecting how The Clone Wars, the series, never got a proper ending, given it was cancelled before the intended final episodes were completed.
All of which is to say this was a poignant installment that managed to bring in some major Clone Wars elements (most notably, Battle Droids!) while telling a story about two old soldiers – Rex and, interestingly, that Super Tactical Droid – both coming to terms with their past and present.
There was a lot packed into these 22 minutes, so much so that I somewhat wish it had been a story told over a couple of episodes. Still, it was impressive how much we saw occur here, as Rex, Kanan and Ezra discovered a group of still-functioning Battle Droids, were captured, and agreed to “The Last Battle” of the title.
“Who’s Roger?” may have been an easy joke, but it was hard not to grin at it, as Ezra got to play the role of the kid raised in the original trilogy era who didn’t understand anything about these prequel-era creations. And while this episode leaned a bit too heavily into “the wise kid sees more than his elders” terrain, it was still pretty damn effective to have Ezra note, “The Clone War ended, but why? If none of you won, then who did?” And for the realization to occur that it was the Empire (and, without mentioning his name, Palpatine) who beat everyone.
The entire concept of the Clone Wars is that Palpatine manipulated both sides, so it was very compelling to have this sad realization occur onscreen for someone like Rex who gave his all for the war – and, as odd as it was, for his droid counterpart (I’m trying to avoid using the abbreviation STD, dang it!) to do so as well.
All of which led up to the incredibly crowd-pleasing moment of… Battle Droids vs. Stormtroopers!! Sure, we’d seen Battle Droids fight Clone Troopers a million times, but there was something about seeing true original trilogy designs like the classic Stormtroopers (accompanied by walkers, no less) go up against the Battle Droids that was very thrilling, as two era of Star Wars literally clashed onscreen.
The Verdict
It’ll always sting that Star Wars: The Clone Wars ended so abruptly, but “The Last Battle” was a nice way to bring things full circle and fondly look back at that era of Star Wars, all while telling a suitably emotional story that addressed what a lost cause that war was for, essentially, everyone fighting it - when no one understood who was really pulling the strings and stood to most benefit from it.
The end of the episode left some of the Battle Droids still active (and, indeed, Stormtrooper dialogue in this episode lets us know this is not the only time Battle Droids have been found that are still functioning), but even if we never saw any again, this feels like a good way to say goodbye to them. Or, as they might put it, "Roger Roger."
Editors' Choice
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