I’m watching my way through Star Wars the clone wars for the first time, just, how is this a children’s show??? Like there’s death in almost every episode, seriously a clone just got cut in half, and how!?
I think that’s one of the things I like about Clone Wars is that it doesn’t hold back. I think western society’s penchant to be horrified at material and content and be like this is for children?!?!?is a very modern concept. And while I’m not advocating chucking scarring or too mature content at kids,I think as protective adults we have a penchant to think children are less capable at understanding the nuances of something like the violence and emotional traumas in Clone Wars.
I don’t have any kids of my own but I have a whole horde of nieces and nephews ranging from the ages of 13 to 1 and I’ve watched Star Wars with almost all of them. It never fails to surprise me the really subtle and sometimes prolific things they pick up or understand from the movies and series. I was recently explaining the process of the Clone Troopers becoming Stormtroopers and my 10 year old nephew looked at me and said, “But if they had chips in their heads they didn’t have a choice,so they aren’t evil they’re just slaves.” I think kids understand death and pain and struggle a lot better than we give them credit for,which is further what endears Clone Wars to me. Ultimately the show is about war and the horrible things that stem from it,and the trauma individuals who experience it go through. The creators trusted that the kids watching it could endure these darker topics because they are lessons and facets of the human experience that we all must learn.
My family is American and we all grew up in the states. My nieces and nephews don’t know what war is,but by the content like Clone Wars they consume they understand that violence inflicts pain and struggle. Those kids have strong moral codes,taught by their parents and family and society of course,but also by the heroes they watch and look up to. Sure they love to lightsaber fight with me and play war and fight,but I’ve had enough discussions with them to know that they ultimately understand other kids don’t get to play fight because their everyday lives are real battles and violence and turmoil. Not all kids have the luxury of turning to something like Clone Wars and that being their point of reference for war,for some it’s a more peaceful escapism to how bloody and horrible their real lives are. I love the levity that Clone Wars approaches it with. It is a cartoon and it’s light and funny and fun,but like you said,there’s death and violence in most every episode and it’s taken seriously and often with a point of a lesson or advice.
Star Wars is one of those things that’s super interesting because the different eras of content very much reflect the societal and historical stage of the world during the period of its making. The original trilogy came out in the late 70s and then the 80s and was made for a generation who had lived and fought through World War II and then their children lived and fought through Vietnam. Everything was more black and white,good versus evil,innocence against corruption. I mean the empire uniforms were repurposed Nazi uniforms. The indigenous species gorilla fight against invaders and conquerors. George Lucas has stated that the og trilogy had commentary on Vietnam in it. We understand the historical context of viewers for that era.
But the prequels and Clone Wars came out in the late 90s and early to mid 2000s. Attack of the Clones went into theaters in 2002,to an American audience permanently altered by 9/11 and a global audience permanently altered by international terroism,the media’s perception of modern warfare and the wars in South America,Africa,Eastern Europe,China,Russia,and the Middle East. Between the 80s and turn of the millennium the world saw a vast rise is publicized and televised corruption and warfare and internal National conflict. The 90s saw a huge rise in distrust for political figures for western countries and after Korea,Vietnam,the Philippines,Sarajevo,Kuwait,Iran,Iraq,Afghanistan ect. Americans increasingly grew to distrust their government and leaders.
That’s the world the prequels and Clone Wars emerged into and that’s the political and social commentary it builds on. It’s in dialogue of a world who can’t trust its governments and militaries and leaders. The Clone Wars is made for generations of children whose parents fought in those wars and some who have bought into the toxic nationalism and propaganda that is such an issue in our modern world. It’s what I love about this era of Star Wars so much,because it so heavily focuses on the choices we must make everyday. It teaches that war isn’t black and white,good versus evil,that good people can do bad things and bad people can be motivated by good things or think their actions are good.
Ultimately Star Wars is a tale of good and evil,the Jedi are good the Sith are evil. But the wars and the choices and the world the character live and fight and die in is not so clear cut. I love that Clone Wars gives us good and evil characters who must make ambiguous choices amidst a gray world of violence and internal corruption and lies. It’s the perfect media to let children take that social commentary on war and violence and investigate it for themselves,adults too. It teaches children the difficulties and the complexity of the moral decisions we make everyday,because good and evil is not a feeling,it’s a choice. Our education systems and society and lots of media shows kids that good or evil is inherent,but we know the reality and our modern world is not that way at all. The Clone Wars is one of the few shows that I think truly delves into with levity and nuance for children,just how gray and unsure war and the fight of good guys versus bad guys is,through Star Wars,and as an excellent representation of the reality of our own world.
