'Star Wars' Most Devastating Ending Still Hasn't Been Topped 6 Years Later

Image via Merrick Morton/TM and ©copyright Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. Published Oct 20, 2026, 12:10 PM EDT Rotten Tomatoes | Letterboxd | Metacritic Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King. Sign in to your Collider account Star Wars is one of the most marketable brands out there, but it may be a surprise that some of its best content didn’t come from creator George Lucas. The galaxy far, far away has always been a combined effort, no more so than in Dave Filoni’s first entry into the world. The Clone Wars debuted in 2008 as an animated series set between Star Wars Episodes II and III. The Clone Wars would become known for its impressive character work, specifically when it came to Matt Lanter’s portrayal of Anakin Skywalker. The seven-season series developed these characters immeasurably, as well as introducing Anakin’s fan-favorite Padawan, and best Star Wars character, Ahsoka. The animated series also has a claim to fame of hosting one of the saddest scenes in Star Wars history. This is a high bar to clear since The Clone Wars contains many brutal and heartbreaking arcs. However, it was the series' conclusion that really got fans. ‘The Clone Wars’ Features Ahsoka’s Perspective of Order 66 No matter how many times Order 66 is featured in Star Wars canon, it always hits hard. The infamous tragedy was the downfall of the Jedi as Palpatine instructed all the clones to turn against the peacekeeping force. The clone army had been outfitted – unbeknownst to them – with an inhibitor chip that forced them to assassinate the Jedi they were with. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Star Wars Faction Do You Belong To? Rebels · Empire · Mandalorians · Crimson Dawn Eight honest questions about how you actually are: how you feel about rules, where your loyalty goes first, what you do when somebody criticises you in front of other people. Answer them and we will tell you whose side you would really have ended up on. Four factions are recruiting: the believers, the organisation, the ones with a code, and the ones with a price. ✊Rebel Alliance(Andor) 🛰️The Empire(Original Trilogy) 🪖Mandalorians(The Mandalorian) 🌅Crimson Dawn(Solo) PICK YOUR SIDE → 01 How do you feel about rules at work? This one sorts people faster than anything else. AI break the ones that are clearly wrong. BThey exist for a reason and I follow them. CI follow my own, which are stricter. DRules are a starting position for a negotiation. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is your relationship with money? Nobody answers this the way they think they will. AI get by, and that is genuinely fine. BA steady salary and a clear ladder. CI take exactly what the work is worth. DNever enough, and I know how to get more. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What makes you respect somebody? Whatever you pick, you apply it to yourself too. AThat they speak up when it costs them. BThat they are very good at their job. CThat they keep their word without exception. DThat they deliver, whatever it takes. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you behave under real pressure? Your friends would probably answer this for you. ALoud and improvised, but I get there. BCalmly, and strictly by the book. CQuietly, and one step at a time. DColdly, which people find slightly unnerving. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Where does your loyalty go first? Everybody has an order, even if they never say it out loud. ATo the thing I believe in. BTo the organisation that took me on. CTo the people I grew up with. DTo whoever I currently have a deal with. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Somebody criticises you in front of other people. What happens? Be honest about the first thing you feel. AI argue back, right there and then. BI take it, then raise it through the proper channel. CI say nothing at all, and I remember it. DI smile, and make them regret it later. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What does a good life look like in ten years? Pick the one you would actually be happy with. ASomething I helped change, still standing. BA title, a team and a decent office. CA home, a family and my people safe. DOwning the thing I used to work for. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What do you want more than anything else? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your side. ATo be on the right side of it. BOrder, and a clear place inside it. CTo belong somewhere that would never abandon me. DPower, and nobody above me. REVEAL MY FACTION → The Transmission Is Decoded Your Faction Is…Four sides, four completely different answers to the same question about how a galaxy should work. Here is where you would have signed up, what it would ask of you, and what it would give you back. Rebel AllianceYou belong with the side that has almost nothing and keeps going anyway. The Rebellion is not a glamorous posting, and anybody who tells you otherwise has not seen what it actually costs the people inside it. You are wired to notice when something is wrong and to say so, which makes you useful here and awkward almost everywhere else. Andor is the best thing Star Wars has made in years precisely because it shows the unglamorous half, which is the meetings, the paperwork and the people who never get a medal. Your kind of courage is the ordinary kind, done repeatedly, by somebody who is fully aware of the odds. The Alliance wins because enough people decided separately that they were finished being quiet about it. The Galactic EmpireYou belong to the machine, and the uncomfortable truth is that the machine mostly runs on people who are competent, orderly and convinced they are doing their job properly. Very few of them think of themselves as villains. You want structure, clear expectations and a way to measure whether you are doing well, none of which the other three factions can offer you. The Empire is frightening because of how ordinary it is on the inside, which is the single smartest thing Star Wars has ever done with it. Your risk is the quiet one, which is looking at something wrong and deciding it is somebody else's department. You would be genuinely good at this, and that is exactly the part worth thinking about. The MandaloriansYou belong to the people who lost their planet and kept their code anyway. Mandalorian culture is not a nationality so much as a promise, and anybody who makes that promise and keeps it is one of them. You are loyal to people rather than to institutions, which is why an organisation chart has never once told you who you actually owe. A code only counts when it costs you something, and you are the sort of person who would pay rather than bend it. Mandalorians spend the whole saga arguing about what being one even means, and that argument is far more interesting than the armour. The Mandalorian and Grogu took the creed to cinemas over Memorial Day 2026, the first Star Wars film in seven years. Crimson DawnYou belong to the syndicate, where nobody wastes your time pretending the galaxy runs on ideals. Crimson Dawn deals in leverage, and it is the only faction on this list that would tell you so to your face. You read a room for who owes what, and you are usually right, which is a talent that makes people slightly wary of you. Qi'ra is the most interesting thing to come out of Solo, because she is the one character who learned the actual lesson about power. You would rather be the person setting the terms than the person being told what the terms are. The catch is simple enough. In a syndicate, everybody is leverage, including you, and the smart ones never forget that part. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ This plan was how Palpatine took control of the Senate, and in one of the best Star Wars shows, fans endured this heartbreak one more time. It would be enough just to show Order 66 take place in the series that had been leading up to it the entire time, but The Clone Wars made sure to twist the knife with Ahsoka’s experience. For seven seasons, viewers had grown accustomed to Ahsoka and her particularly close relationship with the clone trooper, Rex. Part of her and Anakin’s outfit, he was as close as family. The final episode of The Clone Wars depicts Ahsoka and Rex attempting to transport Maul when everything goes haywire. Order 66 commences, and Ahsoka pretty quickly realizes something is wrong with her friend. Rex has the inhibitor chip just like the rest of the clones and struggles to fight against it. While other infamous troopers such as Cody were given no reprieve, Ahsoka works quickly to dismantle the chip that is controlling Rex. Ahsoka succeeds in removing the chip, returning Rex to himself before he can do her harm, but that is just the beginning. The rest of the clones aren’t so lucky, and the duo has the difficult task of taking out the people they had fought beside for so many years. For Rex, this is particularly harrowing as he has to kill brothers of his who all look exactly like him. This grueling depiction of war changed Star Wars as much as it changed Ahsoka. Ahsoka Leaves the Path of the Jedi For Good The Clone Wars accomplishes what arguably six previous movies didn’t. While the saga films are big-budget, escapist romps, The Clone Wars gets into the nitty-gritty of what a war really looks like. More importantly, the series shines a light on the hypocrisy of the Jedi, something the films weren’t entirely successful at doing. After being raised to be a Jedi Knight, Ahsoka eventually gets disillusioned by the whole ordeal. Accused of a crime she didn’t commit, the Jedi turn against her only to realize their mistake later on. When they invite her back into the fold, Ahsoka refuses, turning away from the Path even before Anakin does. The treatment of Ahsoka is another interesting plot point that gives context to Anakin’s eventual turn to the dark side as a powerful force user. Even when Ahsoka returns at the end of The Clone Wars to help fight for a higher cause, she still turns away empty. Though she and Rex survive Order 66, they have lost immeasurably. The Jedi created the means of their own destruction, whether they realized it or not. Ahsoka had to lose all her friends, including Anakin, whom she believes to be dead. The talented former Padawan sees the mistakes of the Jedi and gives up that path forever. The Clone Wars may be animated, but it is a true portrayal of what war does and how it costs more than lives. Release Date 2008 - 2020-00-00 Network Cartoon Network, Netflix, Disney+ Showrunner Dave Filoni Cast Tom Kane Narrator / Yoda / Medical Droid / Yularen / Kraken (voice) Matt Lanter Anakin Skywalker (voice) Directors Brian Kalin O'Connell, Steward Lee, Giancarlo Volpe, Bosco Ng, Danny Keller, Rob Coleman, Justin Ridge, Nathaniel Villanueva, Saul Ruiz, Jesse Yeh, Duwayne Dunham, Atsushi Takeuchi, Robert Dalva, Walter Murch Writers Katie Lucas, Christian Taylor, Brent V. Friedman, Matt Michnovetz, Drew Z. Greenberg, Steven Melching, Chris Collins, Charles Murray, Eoghan Mahony, Bonnie Mark, Craig W. Van Sickle, Daniel Arkin, Jose Molina, Steven Long Mitchell, Cameron Litvack, George Krstic, Carl Ellsworth, Craig Titley, Julie Siege, Jonathan W. Rinzler, Ben Edlund, Douglas Petrie, Kevin D. Campbell, Kevin Rubio Franchise(s) Star Wars