Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series, as well as the galactic conflict of the same name, pluralizes “war” when the main aggressors are just the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. First teased in George Lucas’ original Star Wars movie in 1977, the Clone Wars were finally explored on the big screen in his prequel trilogy, beginning with Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. But the bulk of the Clone Wars were shown in Lucasfilm’s animated TV show.

Taking place in the three years between Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the Clone Wars series expanded on several storylines and character arcs, and it introduced even more characters, worlds, and conflicts into the bigger franchise. One such character was Ahsoka Tano, whose relationship with Anakin Skywalker came to define the animated part of the Star Wars saga. She and Anakin spent years fighting in the Clone Wars, battling the Separatists, and attempting to liberate worlds across the galaxy, where possible. Although they always had one collective enemy – the Separatists – and two leaders to defeat – Count Dooku and General Grievous – the Clone Wars were more far-reaching than viewers may realize.

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Generally considered to have begun with the Battle of Geonosis, the Clone Wars were fought on numerous fronts in both the known systems and the Outer Rim. But throughout the galaxy, smaller wars – comparatively, that is – were being fought on various worlds, such as the Battle of Ryloth, the Outer Rim Sieges, and even the Siege of Mandalore. Overall, the Clone Wars were comprised of multiple wars involving the Separatists, in some form, and the Clone Army. This is unlike the Galactic Civil War, which consisted of a small band of Rebels fighting to abolish the Empire.

In this case, battles and wars may have been used interchangeably. The Clone Wars could’ve been called the Galactic Civil War (and the proceeding war could’ve easily been the Second Galactic Civil War), but the sheer scale of the conflict lends itself to the pluralization of Clone War. Perhaps the only contradiction to this is that Yoda says, “Begun, the Clone War has.” But then again, there weren’t multiple wars/battles being fought at that time. The Clone War could’ve easily become the Clone Wars down the line.

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In real-life, a comparison can be made to World War II. While it was all considered one war with the Allies fighting against the Axis powers, there were really two separate wars being fought: the European Theater (against the Nazis) and Pacific Theater (against the Japanese). For Clone Wars, it was comparatively the same, seeing as there were smaller wars – almost large-scale battles – being fought in the middle of the greater civil war.

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Mansoor Mithaiwala
(1888 Articles Published)

Mansoor Mithaiwala is Screen Rant’s TV Lead Editor. He originally joined the site as a freelance writer on the Lists team before moving over to News and Features, eventually becoming an editor in 2018. Over time he’s done quite a few different things, including helping launch gaming on the site, often handling news, features, and guides simultaneously. Now he sticks primarily to movies and TV, and spends way too much time looking at analytics. It sure seems like he’s put his Political Science degree to good use, huh?

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