Awesome Music / Star Wars: The TV Series

aka: Star Wars The Clone Wars

Awesome Music pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.

---

Live Action Series

The Mandalorian

For The Mandalorian, Ludwig Göransson's atmospheric, mystical score blends together dozens of different seemingly clashing tones that clearly establishes the unique Space Western and Lower-Deck Episode tone of this show compared to almost anything that's been heard in Star Wars previously.

---

• The main theme starts mystically and tribally, switches to something out of a western, and then gets progressively bombastic and heroic. Perfectly contrasting the movies' usual fanfares, it's low key and embraces the dangers of a bounty hunter's life, fitting the Lower-Deck Episode tone of the series like a glove.
• The music for Season 1, Episode 6 has a very different, but fitting feel to it; it foregrounds the electronic elements of the score in an innovative fashion (for Star Wars), showing the influence of both John Williams and John Carpenter.
• Nurse and Protect plays for the main action sequence of Season 1, Episode 8. It's been compared to the stormtroopers hearing JRPG boss music.
• Moff Gideon has particularly sinister anthem (first appearing in "The Arrival"), incorporating trap beats and ominous string sections into a particularly unsettling time signature of 15/8 (imagine a regular 4/4 piece but every other bar is skipping half a beat) to emphasize his status as the true threat.
• Ahsoka's theme returns with her in Chapter 13, present throughout the episode in small snippets and returning in full, bittersweet force just before the credits.
• Boba Fett gets a theme similar to Mando's but with a harsher, more ominous quality to contrast our noble, compassionate hero with the more selfish (at first) and unhinged older bounty hunter.
• The opening of Season 2 Episode 7 is accompanied by a more tense, downbeat version of the main theme to hint at the danger and tests of his creed Din will have to go through to get Grogu back from Moff Gideon.
• "A Friend" serves as an intriguing counterpoint to "Hope" from Rogue One, highlighting the stark contrast between their otherwise very similar hallway scenes. Whereas "Hope" used heavy orchestra and dramatic vocal chanting to instill the terror of Darth Vader, "A Friend" uses a soft choir and heroic strings to convey a sense of quiet awe for the Jedi.
• "Open the Door" is a gorgeously bittersweet piece that culminates in an amazing Triumphant Reprise of the main theme to cap off the Season 2 finale.
• The Dark Troopers' Leitmotif is a horrific mess of metallic Scare Chords unlike anything else in the entire franchise, instantly making clear just how scary and unnatural they are.
• In season 3, Din runs afoul of the ire of some pirates. Their leitmotif sounds sufficiently piratey, yet partly synth-sounding, befitting their nature as Space Pirates.
• The Mythosaur leitmotif is first introduced after a few reverent takes on some of Din's leitmotifs as he baptizes himself, and a long sequence of Bo-katan's new and previously-heard character leitmotifs in a musical context of hurried searching after Din falls into the water before she hauls him back to the surface. And then after a brief, eerie moment of suspense in the music, it slams your ears with a crescendo near the end as Bo-katan meets the gaze of the Mythosaur, capturing the feeling of encountering something straight out of legends.

The Book of Boba Fett

• The title song, another item from Ludwig Göransson, is an imposing sequence that evokes not only similar tones from its sister show The Mandalorian, but also incorporates tribal chanting and darker notes from the Prequel Trilogy's music, reflecting the long history and struggles of Boba Fett's life. Göransson based the music on the theme for the film adaptation of Ronja the Robber's Daughter, a Swedish work that Göransson would have been familiar with growing up.
• "The Mod Parlour" plays during the scene where Boba brings Shand to receive her bionics. It sounds very unlike any other Star Wars music, with heavy electronic beats and even some hip-hop influence setting it apart from the usual soundtracks.
• The title card of Chapter 5 intertwines the show's theme song with the recorder solo from The Mandalorian, to help increase the viewer's excitement for another Mando adventure.
• The end credits of Chapter 7 celebrate Boba and his friends' victory over the Pyke Syndicate by adding a chorus chanting his name.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

• The title song, performed by John Williams, is a gut wrenching melancholy melody of Obi Wan's life of exile on Tatooine set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith.

Andor

• Episode 2 ends with "Pilgrim", an unusual (for Star Wars) orchestral rock theme heavy on drums and violin as Andor walks to his meeting with Luthen.
• "The Rono Trawler" from Episode 6, where the tension reaches its boiling point and turns to bliss as the Aldhani heist team flies into the Eye.
• "Forming Up/Unto Stone We Are" from the finale reveals that the main title theme, broken up across each episode's intro, is actually Maarva's funeral dirge played by her marching band. The tension slowly builds until the band breaks into a fast horn and drum section and begins marching the entire town straight at the Imperial troopers sent to stop them.

Ahsoka

• The End Credits theme is simply glorious. Opening with a pounding, daring theme before weaving in the welcome return of Sabine’s theme from Rebels, then transitioning into an awesome take on Ahsoka's theme before finally giving way to a truly John Williams-esque motif and ending on a soft reprise of Ahsoka's theme once more.
• In episode 5, during Ahsoka's duel with Anakin in the World Between Worlds, a remix of "Duel of the Fates" briefly appears. This is the first time the theme has been played in a Disney Star Wars work, and it's very exciting to hear.

Animated Series

The Clone Wars

The Clone Wars has plenty of its own Awesome Music made just for the show instead of always relying on the iconic soundtracks introduced in the theatrical films. Kevin Kiner (the show's composer) also has some of the soundtrack released on his own website.

---

• The opening theme of The Clone Wars is brilliant in the fact that it is still recognizably the traditional Star Wars theme while managing to be different enough that you know this is something else. With a slightly more militaristic bent tone, the opening theme suits The Clone Wars perfectly.
• The music throughout the series' pilot movie, particularly during the scenes of the opening narration, the Battle of Christophsis, Anakin accepting Ahsoka as his Padawan Learning (along with them flying in a Republic Gunship), the Landing on Teth, the Battle of Teth, the B'moore Monastery, Anakin vs. Count Dooku, etc.
• The musical scores presented throughout the episodes that are part of the Malevolence arc are just amazing.
• The music presented in "Duel of the Droids" is brilliant, especially during the scenes that feature the Republic army landing at the Skytop Station, Ahsoka and the clone troopers' battle with the Separatists droids, Ahsoka and the clone troopers' duel with General Grievous, Anakin’s duels with both the Super Battle Droids and the Magnaguards, the battle in the South Landing Bay, and the duel between R2-D2 and R3-S6.
• The music throughout "Trespass" is awesome, doing a great job of conveying the intense drama of the tensions between the Talz and Republic soldiers and lending surprising pathos to the death of Chairman Cho before culminating in the dramatic final confrontation between Thi-Sen and Senator Chuchi.
• The music presented throughout "Weapons Factory" memorably captures the full might of the Droid and Geonosian forces as the Jedi try to stop the combined armies.
• The music in "Legacy of Terror" is great, especially during the scenes in which Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the Clone Troopers rescue Luminara Unduli and all of them escape from the Geonosian Temple.
• The music during the latter parts of "Brain Invaders" is particularly excellent, especially with the chanting when Ahsoka fights a brainwashed Barriss Offee in the halls of the ship.
• The musical score that plays in "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back" when the Republic gunships arrive to rescue Palpatine, Anakin, Padmé, C-3PO, and R2-D2 from the clutches of the titular Zillo Beast while Anakin is cutting the ship they are inside of in half in order to escape from the beast and Yoda and Aayla Secura are fighting against it is both well-composed and amazing in addition to being able to highlight the intensity of certain situations.
• Savage Opress' Leitmotif (which is introduced in "Monster" and used at certain points in most of the episodes he appears in) is both epic and catchy.
• The music presented in "A Friend in Need", especially during the battle that Ahsoka, Lux, and R2-D2 has with the Death Watch (the score is so great that it gets reused in certain episodes during certain duels).
• The music in "Revenge" during the lightsaber duel that Obi-Wan and Asajj Ventress have against Darth Maul and Savage Opress is excellent. It even gets reused and slightly modified in "Shades of Reason" during Darth Maul’s duel with Pre Vizsla (which also has an awesome musical piece during the scenes in which Maul confronts Vizsla).
• The epic music in "Eminence" (especially during the Shadow Collectives' attack on Nal Hutta) lays out the chaos in a war-torn galaxy where anyone can be an enemy.
• "The Lawless":
  • The music during Satine's death is brilliant in addition to sounding beautiful and sorrowful.
  • The piece that accompanies Darth Sidious' duel with Darth Maul and Savage Opress is fittingly epic for a clash between some of the (and in Sidious' case, the) most powerful Dark Side users to ever live. In particular, the brief rendition of Savage’s fantastic theme when he engages Sidious one on one is insanely impressive, with dizzingly fast trumpets, the familiar chorus, and lower brass all competing in a chaotic and awesome moment.
• The music that plays at the end of "The Wrong Jedi" was actually orchestrated and not made on a computer, and it adds to the already emotional scene of Ahsoka leaving the Jedi Order.
• "Overlords", the music played while Anakin defeated the Daughter and the Son on Mortis, reeks of tension and dread with subtle hints of Vader's theme, a neat foreshadowing of Anakin's final fate.
• The music that accompanies the opening air battle of the Siege of Mandalore in "Old Friends Not Forgotten" is a fantastic remix of the "Battle of Coruscant" theme from Revenge of the Sith combined with Ahsoka's theme.
• The new rendition of "Anakin's Dark Deeds" from Episode III that plays during "Shattered" serves to effectively break the eerie quietness of the first part of the episode and captures the tragedy of Rex and the clones turning on Ahsoka as a result of Order 66.
• The title track of "Victory and Death" is a tragic and dramatic arrangement of the already-emotional theme from "Qui-Gon's Funeral"/"Padme's Destiny", now marking the finale of The Clone Wars. It really sends the message that this seven-season-long journey with these characters you know and love is about to end, and it won't be a happy ending.
• "Crash Course Moon" from "Victory and Death". A perfect encapsulation of how screwed you are when a situation happens that is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• "Burying the Dead" from the same episode is a hauntingly beautiful piano/synth piece that plays as Ahsoka and Rex prepare to leave the crash site after burying Jesse and the rest of the 332nd.
• The train fight music from "Bounty" (which also partly shows up in "The Unknown") is a neat combination of electronic and orchestra.

Rebels

• With Kevin Kiner (as well as David Glen Russell and it appears Dean and Sean Kiner as well) returning from The Clone Wars this is a given, especially since the original film themes figure prominently in the soundtrack. A special moment of awesome is the Imperial March slowly playing as a Star Destroyer flies overhead to kick off the series.
• "Empire Day" features "The Imperial March", as one might expect. Except, it's rearranged from the traditional foreboding song the Star Wars fans have known it has for over 34 years into a rousing anthem of hope. And it works.
• "Ahsoka's Fate" (currently removed likely due to spoilers), used in the first half of the S2 midseason trailer and a rendition of "Ahsoka's Theme". Since the link is down as of this writing, someone managed to rip the audio from the trailer. The build-up in the beginning is extended from the original.
• "Hera Soars", a triumphant theme as we see Hera master the B-Wing in "Wings of the Master".
• "Ketsu", the theme and Leitmotif of the titular character, which plays during her introduction in "Blood Sisters". It has a mix of orientalist and invokes a Showdown at High Noon tone to the scene.
• "Twin Moons" plays at the end of "Legacy", when Ezra says goodbye to his recently-deceased parents after discovering their fate, accompanied by a vision of a better Lothal. It fits as a parallel to "Binary Sunset".
• The second half of season two starts off strong; Leia's arrival means that several audio cues from the original trilogy make an appearance. Two moments in particular are the Ghost's arrival to the Star Wars main theme, and a later cue borrows heavily from the moment when the Falcon was captured by the Death Star.
• "Journey into the Star Cluster" from "Legends of the Lasat", during the star cluster scene. It is different from the usual fanfare soundtrack Star Wars is known for, which helps showcase the mystique and ritualism of Lasan's culture and its connection to Ashla, or the Force. "Lasat Ritual," from earlier where Zeb uses his bo-rifle on the map, has a similar idea.
• The Inquisitor's theme is suitably sinister.
• The theme song is a stirring number stuffed with resolve, determination and valour in the midst of a galaxy ruled by an iron-fisted Empire. There's also the official remix by Flux Pavilion.
• The stirring theme during "Rebel... (he's a) Jedi... Rebel... yeah, and what if I don't wanna be either?" is a thriller embodying the resolve of Jedi Kanan Jarus. And the Season 3 version.
• "It's Over Now", the music used for the final few minutes of Season 2, reflecting its epic scope and conclusion. There is a piece that was used before the final version, called "Where the Sun Sails and the Moon Walks". Someone edited the ending montage with this song.
• The pieces in the initial Season 3 trailer, which someone managed to rip, are completely badass. It begins feeling darkened and with a much more jaded and serious feel, mirroring how the characters (especially Kanan and Ezra) are still broken (or at least have their pieces in the wrong places) from the Downer Ending we last saw them in, before escalating into something evocative of an action-adventure movie trailer, and suddenly quieting down into an organ that establishes its volume right when Thrawn emerges from the shadows. Then the final piece tells us the stakes are much crazier than before.
• In "Trials of the Darksaber", we have "Sabine's Suite". Sabine has a Leitmotif now that plays throughout the episode, and it noticeably plays during her Motive Rant at the end. Its forlorn tone helps showcase how the sins of the generation that lived through the Clone Wars has affected Sabine and her generation.
• In "Legacy of Mandalore", we have "Duel for the Darksaber" as Sabine fights Saxon and ends up victorious. There's also the pieces that play as Sabine refuses to kill Saxon]] and when Ursa shoots him instead.
• "Thrawn's Web", especially the organ part, is a suitably sinister leitmotif for the cunning and sophisticated Grand Admiral.
• "The Temple Collapses" is a hauntingly epic piece full of mystique and drama, perfect for the event it's titled for.
• "Kanan's End Credits", a sweeping orchestral version of Kanan's theme that plays during the end of "A World Between Worlds", underscoring the crew's, and by extension the audience's, final farewell to Kanan.
• "Sabine Sees Ezra", one of the final recitings of our protagonists' leitmotifs, building up to Ezra choosing to defy orders and go alone to confront Thrawn in order to save Lothal, while Sabine notices and silently lets him go as she distracts the others. And as it turns out, this was the last time our heroes ever personally saw Ezra... at least for a very long time, perhaps.
• The finale's epilogue encapsulates the Bittersweet Ending, with the Empire losing its iron grip on the galaxy and being unable to attack Lothal at the cost of Ezra's disappearance, alternating between sounding sombre and sweet. It also goes on to play over the heartwarming "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue for the Ghost's crew before ending on a hopeful note and "The Force theme" as Sabine and Ahsoka head off to find Ezra and bring him home.
• The finale's end credits. What better way to wrap up this series than with the same triumphant tune that plays over the beginning of all the films' end credits, along with the same stirring theme of the show?

Resistance

• The show's main theme is quite upbeat and catchy. Even the heavily shortened version that serves as the show's intro is bound to get stuck in your head.

The Bad Batch

• "Mayday" from "The Outpost" largely consists of a recurring heart-wrenching motif, usually performed with a solo French horn. It embodies the chilling and somber tone of the episode, ranging from quiet and mournful to big and dramatic.

---