Shout Out / Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is very heavily Reference Overdosed. Here is an extensive list of evidence:

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• In a Deleted Scene in the pilot movie, Ahsoka calls a Vulture Droid Laser-Beak.
• The pattern of Ahsoka's Facial Markings is partially inspired by San from Princess Mononoke.
• Clone Captain Rex has a scar resembling one of Harrison Ford's.
• In "Clone Cadets", the training program variant that Bravo squad runs is Version THX Variable 1138.
• There are several references to Indiana Jones:
  • A couple of the season one episodes have snuck in artifacts. A senator in "The Gungan General" had a cane styled after the Staff of Ra (which later served as a sort of Weapon Tombstone) and one of the treasures Wat Tambor tried to loot from Ryloth in "Liberty on Ryloth" was the Ark of the Covenant. Much later in "Wookiee Hunt", a crystal skull is in the Trandoshans' trophy room.
  • In "Children of the Force", Mace Windu loses his lightsaber on one side of a closing door and gets it back at the last moment, similar to the Indiana Jones scene with the hat.
  • "Hunt for Ziro" features a dance number performed by Sy Snootles and three Twi'lek girls, that's very similar to Wille Scott's "Anything Goes" routine in Club Obi-Wan from The Temple of Doom.
  • During the Mon Calamari arc, Kit Fisto comments "Eels. Very dangerous."; just like in Raiders of the Lost Ark's Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? scene.
  • In the pawnshop scene of "Friends and Enemies", Cad Bane checks out Indy's fedora before settling on his own trademark hat.
  • "Escape From Kadavo" reuses screams from the slave children from The Temple of Doom during a scene set in the Kadavo slave operation.
  • "The Disappeared Part 1" is almost a Whole-Plot Reference to The Temple of Doom, while "The Disappeared Part 2" has an extended chase across a market, trying to save Queen Julia, similar to the one in Raiders of the Lost Ark of Indy trying to save Marion, with the ending borrowed from The Last Crusade of Mace and Jar Jar riding into the sunrise, instead of into the sunset.
  • In "Dangerous Dept" while trying to escape the Pikes, Ahsoka and Martez sisters have to jump over a widening gap, left by a retracting bridge. The sisters make it, but since they don't know Ahsoka is a Jedi, they think she's trapped. While arguing over, whether to wait for her, or leave her, Ahsoka jumps over the gap, and even their heads, landing behind them, leaving them thinking she fell, looking distraughtly down the gap, before Ahsoka walks-up to them. Much how Jones Sr,, Brody and Sallam reacted to Indy seemingly falling to his death with the tank, in The Last Crusade, before he climbs up and joins them staring at the wreckage of the tank.
• In "The Gungan General", Hondo tells the captive Dooku, Anakin, and Obi-Wan that he'd hate to kill them, "you seem like decent fellows".
• "Legacy of Terror" has several references to films that feature aliens:
  • When the Geonosians are about to put one of their mind control bugs in Luminara, Obi-Wan asks Anakin, "Come now, the nose or the ear, which one do you think it will enter?"
  • A lot of elements are similar to Aliens - these undead Geonosians are mindless drones (not sentient bug-people like the living versions) under the control of a hitherto-unknown Queen, who even has an enlarged egg-sac and elaborate crest like the Alien Queen. And like the Xenomorphs, the Geonosians can crawl around walls and ceilings in swarms.
• "Voyage of Temptation" has a shout out to Doctor Who when Obi-Wan used the small assassin probe to find out which Senator smuggled the droids on board.
• The Malevolence arc is effectively a whole plot reference to Sink the Bismarck! and therefore the real life events the inspired it. The name of the last episode in the arc, "Destroy Malevolence" even broadly recalls the film's name. George Lucas notably took a lot of inspiration from British war movies when making the original trilogy.
• Star Wars has a long history with Akira Kurosawa. Accordingly, "Bounty Hunters" is an homage to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai For bonus points, bounty hunter Embo's species is "Kyuzo", one of the samurai from the film, and "Lightsaber Lost" is a homage to Stray Dog.
• The Zillo Beast arc is an homage to Kaiju films.
  • The name of the beast itself is similar to Zilla, God or otherwise.
  • The clone pilot who drops the bomb that starts the whole mess is named Goji. His Wingman is named after Rodan
  • The Republic forces are shown using tanks similar to the Maser Cannons of Toho's movies.
  • The T-series tactical droid in charge of the Separatist forces has a symbol shaped like the Oxygen Destroyer.
  • These episodes also contain references to King Kong. Specifically the use of gas to subdue the monster, bringing him to the big city, and how he was chained up.
  • In addition, two of Mace Windu's clone troopers are named Trapper and Hawkeye.
• The black painting around Aurra Sing's eyes in "Assassin" is very similar to the one painted around the eyes of Daryl Hannah's character in Blade Runner.
• In "Evil Plans", one of the senators at the state banquet is named Aang.
• In "Hunt for Ziro", Ziro's last words:
  Ziro: Oh, what a world...
• In "Nightsisters", a Separatist Tactical droid says "By your command" in their already Cylon-like voice.
• Also in "Nightsisters", the way Count Dooku sleeps looks very familiar, as a reference to his original actor's most famous role.
• Mortis' levitating rocks make it suspiciously similar to Pandora.
• "Altar of Mortis" has quite a few in itself:
  • The Son's tower is a homage to the Tower of Orthanc from Peter Jackson's film adaptations of The Lord of the Rings. Also, the cave of the Altar is very similar to the Mines of Moria from The Fellowship of the Ring.
  • The scene in which Obi-Wan finds the Dagger of Mortis is a reference to the scene of Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung, when Siegfried passed through a ring of fire to find Brünhilde.
  • The scene when Father regains consciousness is similar to the last scene of Avatar.
  • The Son and The Daughter's battle opens with the former forming closed fists, while the latter shows open palms. Closed Fist and Open Palm were the Dark Side/Light Side equivalents in Jade Empire
• In "Citadel Rescue", Obi-Wan pulls off a very familiar maneuver to defeat an anooba.
• In "Wookiee Hunt":
  • The whole concept: two meters tall, reptilian-humanoid alien hunters Hunting the Most Dangerous Game in a jungle. Does that sound familiar?. Deleted footage shows, that the Trandoshan's were even supposed to be able to camouflage themselves, although this it didn't make the final cut.
  • The Trandoshan relief call is the same as the Velociraptors' call from Jurassic Park.
  • One of the Trandoshans is modeled after and named for Walter Sobchak.
• In "Water War", the music played when Tamson was seen swimming through the battlefield, surrounded by the corpses of Mon Cala soldiers, eerily resembles the infamous ''Jaws' main theme. It even does the distinctive swell-and-fade as he swims right past the camera. Later on in the climax of "Prisoners", Prince Lee-Char kills Riff Tamson by shooting an explosive attached to Tamson's body while he charges at the prince. Riff Tamson is a shark (or, Sharkman, that is).
• The C-3PO and R2-D2 Misadventures arc is one long Shout-Out, most extensively to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but also to Alice in Wonderland, The Lord of the Rings, and Gulliver's Travels. If that isn't enough, there are also callbacks to the A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
• "Friends and Enemies" makes a reference to Avatar: after he was KO-ed by Bane and Hardeen, Ahsoka crouched protectively over an unconscious Anakin much the same way Neytiri crouched over Sully's avatar-body after the battle with Quaritch.
• "The Box" manages to be a homage to both The Cube and Cube.
  • It also features Kiera Swan, a female weaquay pirate-turned bounty hunter, and two-time winner of the Obsidian Sphere. Kiera for Keira Knightley, Swan for Knightley's Star-Making Role of Elizabeth Swann, a female pirate, and Obsidian Sphere for Black Pearl, reads Pirates of the Caribbean.
• The relationship between Morley and Darth Maul in "Brothers" resembles the one between Gollum and Shelob. The latter also looks like a spider!
• "Bound for Rescue" features the Jedi Younglings rescue Ahsoka by disguising themselves as acrobats of a traveling circus. Sounds familiar?
• "Missing in Action" features posters referencing the box art of LucasArts titles such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle appear in the background.
• In "The Lawless", some members of the faction of Death Watch that are loyal to Maul had a black hand on their helmet. This might refer to Saruman's orc army from The Lord of the Rings, who wore the mark of the white hand since Maul was very in a similar position to Saruman.
• The scene of the final duel between Darth Maul and Darth Sidious in "The Lawless" has a very Pablo Picasso-esque fresco in the background.
• The Fugitive arc is a Hitchcock homage to his films. The episodes in this story arc are even named after a few of his movies.
• When Ahsoka and Anakin investigate the bombing of the Jedi Temple in "Sabotage", they're helped by a Crime Scene Analyser droid called Russo-ISC who keeps putting his glasses-like visor on and off.
• "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much" ends with a chase scene inside a sewer system and Ahsoka jumping off an effluent port.
• In "To Catch a Jedi", Ahsoka bargains with a bum for his cloak so she can use it as a disguise.
• Fives' final story has him learn of a vast, shadowy conspiracy in which both sides seem to be involved or even one and the same, and focuses on his struggle to maintain that, despite using a number as a name, he's more than just a number, he's a free man.
• Marlo the Hutt, one of the members of the Hutt Council, looks like Marlon Brando in The Godfather.
• In "Fugitive", upon being told to try act normal so he and Fives can pass by a pair of Kaminoans without drawing attention to them, AZ-3 mimicked the "annoying Kuriboh-speech" from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series. This reference was made on the part of Ben Diskin.
• Commander Thorn (The clone trooper with wings painted on his helmet) was designed as an official congratulations to Joss Whedon and Marvel on the success of The Avengers.
• Hunter, the leader of the elite squad Clone Force 99 (aka the Bad Batch), is an Expy of Rambo. (Though according to the creators, they were going for Billy from Predator, they still ended up with someone who looks just like a young Sylvester Stallone.)
• During the Bad Batch arc, the Separatist droids final words as Echo shuts them down are almost identical to those said by the Portal turrets when you disable them.
• We get a meta-reference in "Shattered" to the entire series itself. In the episode, Ahsoka attempts to access Captain Rex's grievance report in regards to the inhibitor chips using Anakin's security code: 8108. Those numbers refer to the date of when The Clone Wars first began, with its movie premiere - August 10th, 2008 (8/10/2008).
  • The final scene of "Victory and Death" with Darth Vader retrieving Ahsoka's lightsaber amidst the wreckage of the 332nd's Star Destroyer and igniting it in the middle of the snow is one to the launch trailer of the Wrath Of the Lich King expansion, fittingly as Arthas, much like Anakin, became a Fallen Hero in his quest to save all that he loved.
• More for the franchise as a whole, but the way Maul always ends up falling from grace, right when it seems he clawed his way back to the top, can be seen as a reference to Sisyphus of Classical Mythology.

Continuity Nods, Call Backs, and Call Forwards

• As per their Memetic Mutation status, "I've got a bad feeling about this" and "It's a trap! pop up in every other episode.

Season One

• In the pilot movie, Anakin quoted Qui-Gon's "Nothing happens by accident." to reassure Ahsoka that she doesn't have to prove herself worthy of being his Padawan.
  • Also in the pilot movie, Dooku and Ventress replicate the infamous "We shall double our effort." part of Vader's conversation with the commander of the second Death Star, at the beginning of Return of the Jedi.
• In "Rising Malevolence", when the ion-cannon of the Malevolence is fired, the scene is exactly the same as when the Death Star blew up Alderaan.
  • The Malevolence arc also introduces the Y-Wing bomber ships that will be featured in Original Trilogy due to the fact that they are depicted as fresh off the production line long before they had all their panels removed.
  • A distress call is sent from Pod 1-9-7-7.
  • The battle droid that pilotes the pod hunter is humming the Imperial March in one scene.
• The Delta-7 Jedi fighter Anakin gives to Plo Koon in "Shadow of Malevolence" is the same one Plo Koon will fly when he was shot down in Revenge of the Sith following the execution of Order 66.
• In "Destroy Malevolence":
  • Obi-Wan berates Anakin that spinning is not flying. Anakin retorts that it's a good trick.
  • Grievous jumps down behind Obi-Wan and greets him with a "Hello, there." Obi-Wan does the same thing to Grievous in Revenge of the Sith in a retroactive Ironic Echo. Grievous also commands the droids to "keel heem" and, when that fails, he declares that he'll deal with the Jedi himself, almost exactly like in the film.
• In "Cloak of Darkness":
  • After a furious lightsaber-exchange, Luminara and Ventress Force-pushed each other simultaneously, much like how Anakin and Obi-Wan will do during their duel in Revenge of the Sith.
  • Later in the episode, Ahsoka also said "We'll take her [Ventress] together". Obi-Wan will use this line (with proper pronoun of course) prior to him and Anakin confronting Dooku earlier in the same film.
• In "Dooku Captured", Obi-Wan quips "You're not the prisoner I'm looking for", when he accidentally opens the wrong cell, while searching for the one holding Anakin.
• In "Jedi Crash", Anakin is briefly incapacitated by an explosion and placed on life support in a Republic cruiser. While he's hooked up to a respirator machine, the sound effect is the same as for Darth Vader's iconic breathing.
• In The Phantom Menace, Anakin originally confuses Padmé with "an angel", the most beautiful creatures in the Canon that pilots say live on the moons of Iego. In "Mystery of a Thousand Moons", Anakin and Obi-Wan go to Iego and meet an angel and the Separatists were testing a prototype of the Death Star superlaser on Iego's moons.
• In "Storm Over Ryloth", Ahsoka used Marg Sabl maneuver, on a droid commander to devastating effect. It's the same maneuver Grand Admiral Thrawn used on an Elomin commander's taskforce.
  • It comes full circle in Thrawn: Alliances, wherein Thrawn learns of the maneuver through Padme describing Ahsoka's use of it.
  • A vulture droid smashes into the bridge of the Resolute during the initial battle. It seems that the bridges of Anakin's flagships have a strange tendency to be impacted by crippled fighters.
• Blue Squadron from the "Storm Over Ryloth" episode is made up of V-19 Clone Pilots sharing their names with Transformers: Slammer, Kickback, and Swoop are all Transformers from Generation One. Only their leader, Axe, doesn't share a name with a prominent Transformer. The two survivors, Swoop and Kickback, notably are Transformers that turn into winged creatures. It's worth noting that Transformers is a franchise owned by Hasbro, who also held the license for Star Wars at the time. In fact, Hasbro released a Transformer turning into a V-19 Torrent that very year.
• In "Hostage Crisis", Anakin tried to prove his love for Padme by giving his lightsaber to her, with the following quote:
  Anakin: When I finished constructing my lightsaber, Obi-Wan said to me: "Anakin, This weapon is your life." This weapon is my life.

Season Two

• In "Cargo of Doom", Captain Rex made it clear, if it was not already, that clones/stormtroopers hitting their heads on things is genetic.
• In "Landing at Point Rain":
  • Boil had Numa's (the little Twi'lek girl he meets in "Innocents of Ryloth") face painted on his helmet.
  • Obi-Wan and Ki-Adi discussed that it's hard to believe they have to battle on Geonosis once again. Later in the episode, Obi-Wan also told Cody about how he was tied to a column, and had to fight several monsters.
  • Anakin once again quoted one of Qui-Gon's teachings, when he told Ahsoka to "focus on the here and now".
• In "Brain Invaders", Ahsoka is eating dinner and holds her fork in a Reverse Grip, they same way she always holds her lightsaber when she ignites the blade.
• The large scar and cybernetic eye across Commander Wolffe's face in "Grievous Intrigue" is not present in "Rising Malevolence". That was because in one of the comics, Asajj Ventress slashed his face in an attempt to retreat from a disappointing battle on Khorm.
• In "Voyage of Temptation", Satine chewed out Obi-Wan for his tendency to speak in half-truths:
  Satine: Senators, I presume you're acquainted with the collection of half-truths and hyperbole known as Obi-Wan Kenobi?
• In "Cat and Mouse", the way Senator Organa asked for help from Obi-Wan via hologram is the same message that Leia will send to the elderly Obi-Wan/Ben twenty two years later:
  Bail Organa: Help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are our only hope!
  • Also, Anakin noted that small ships don't have cloaking devices. This, unlike most the examples on the page, served a purpose beyond being an Easter Egg: when the imperials lost the signal of the Millenium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back, Captain Needa stated that no ship that small can have a cloaking device. Having Anakin acknowledge how unusual the episode's cloaked ship is reinforced continuity.
• In R2 Come Home, Boba Fett sports a green poncho. In addition to being a Call-Forward to the color of his signature armor, it also a reference to his character's inspiration, The Man With No Name.

Season Three

• ARC Troopers Shows that Fives has a gatling gun painted on the right shoulder of his armor, likely to memorialize the fallen Hevy using his weapon
• There were so many continuity nods in "Assassin" that it certainly qualifies for Continuity Porn:
  • In "Downfall of a Droid", Anakin told Ahsoka that first hand experience is the best teacher. In "Assassin", Ahsoka tried to convince Anakin to let her go with him by repeating it to him.
  • Bannamu's picture that was introduced in "Lightsaber Lost" appeared in the library scene, when Ahsoka was looking over the profiles of various criminals.
  • Ahsoka and Padmé play dejarik, a chess-type board game. Also, Padmé recounts how insecure she felt early on during her reign as Queen before she Took a Level in Badass.
  • When Padmé's ship arrives at Alderaan, Leia's theme is played.
  • The Alderaan soldiers had a helmet shaped like the helmet of the rebel soldiers in A New Hope.
  • In her speech at the conference, Padmé recounted the events of the invasion of Naboo, including the death of Qui-Gon Jinn.
  • After Ahsoka foiled her second attempt on Padmé's life, Aurra Sing recognized her as the "brat who left her for dead" in "Lethal Trackdown", and explained that she survived, because Hondo Ohnaka rescued her.
• The interrogator droid in "Evil Plans" is the same type as the one that will be seen in Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi.
• In "Heroes on Both Sides", Ahsoka mentions to Padmé that she and Anakin are holding what they call "Aggressive Negotiations" all the time.
• In "Witches of the Mist", after Savage Opress failed to complete a training exercise involving the force, he says that it's impossible, just like Luke will tell Yoda when he tries to lift his X-Wing from a swamp. This further contrasted by their master's reaction: while Yoda gave Luke an speech that helps him to understand the Force a little better and then lifted the X-Wing to prove that it was possible, Dooku just fries Opress with Force Lightning for not trying hard enough^note though, to Dooku's credit, Opress then successfully completes the exercise.
  • Obi-Wan confused Savage for Darth Maul on the security footage.
  • When confronting Savage for the second time, Obi-Wan and Anakin had a very similar exchange to the one they will have in Revenge of the Sith prior to their duel with Dooku:
  Obi-Wan: We'll take him together!
  Anakin: Right.
  • The clone commando squad that delivers recovers the bodies of Master Halsey and Padawan Knox to the Jedi Temple is Delta Squad (identified by their equipment and markings.)
• In "Overlords", Anakin confesses his slaughter of the Tuskens Raiders and that his love is haunted by what would happen, if he should let go to the Son disguised as his mother.
• During Anakin's and Ahsoka's duel in "Altar of Mortis", Anakin disarmed Ahsoka the same way Vader will disarm Luke early on in their duel in The Empire Strikes Back.
• In "Ghosts of Mortis", Anakin turns to the Dark Side to stop the Clone Wars, bring peace to the galaxy, and protect his loved ones, even if he has to kill all the Jedi to do so. This is exactly what happened in Revenge of the Sith.
• "The Citadel" has a few as well:
  • Anakin's idea to bypass the lifeforce-sensers was to carbon-freeze the entire infiltrator team. Fives' reaction takes it home:
  Fives: (examining the carbon freezer) Are we sure this thing is safe? I don't wanna end up a wall decoration.
  • Anakin's uncharacteristic overprotectiveness towards Ahsoka isn't all that surprising once you remember what happened to her in "Altar of Mortis", which is two episodes earlier.
  • After Echo got a new Phase II armor for being promoted to an ARC trooper, he painted Rex's hand print on it, which Rex put on his original, "shiny" armor using a Rishi eel's blood, way back in "Rookies". Similarly, Fives painted a stylized Rishi eel on his own helmet, as a reminder of their team mate Cutup, who was eaten by one of the eels.
• In "Padawan Lost", Anakin tries to contact Ahsoka via her comm unit, which has been taken away from her. His one-sided conversation sounds suspiciously familiar to Luke's plea to Threepio for help out of the trash compactor in A New Hope. And here "familiar," means "identical."
• The Trandoshan trophy room in "Wookiee Hunt" has an old style Mandalorian helmet as seen in Legends' Knights of the Old Republic video game series.

Season Four

• The Mon Calamari arc is basically an expanded version of a similar underwater battle sequence on the same planet in Star Wars: Clone Wars (which was only a few minutes long), including Kit Fisto shirtless throughout.
• C-3PO and R2-D2 Misadventures arc recalls the non-canon short series in the 1980s Star Wars: Droids. In some ways, it reconciles the Continuity Snarl by showing them getting involved with other adventures even while a part of the big mythology stories.
• In "Plan of Dissent", Fives replicates Han Solo's panicked conversation with a Death Star officer from A New Hope when their General Krell tries to figure out why the alarms are going off in the fighter hangar.
  • Fives also mentions that Anakin destroyed a droid commander ship when he was a kid, and that Anakin explained to him that the trick was to blow up the main reactor from the inside.
  • The scene of Fives' and Jesse's fighter's escaping the exploding ship was identical to the scene when the Millenium Falcon escaped the exploding Death Star II.
• In "Carnage of Krell", Dogma is warned to avoid stepping on one of the vines lying on the ground, with another clone trooper pointing out that it is actually a tentacle for a vicious carnivorous creature and that he saw Hardcase attacked by one just like it. That happened in the first episode of the Umbara arc, "Darkness on Umbara".
  • When Captain Rex leads a squad to attempt to arrest Krell, the entire sequence and the nature of their actions are strongly reminiscent of both Order 66's execution and Mace Windu's attempt to arrest Palpatine (only in this case, the clone troopers are not being mind controlled by their inhibitor chips). Their target even says "It's treason, then" before tearing into his would-be captors, just as Palpatine will do before tearing into his would-be captors.
• In "Kidnapped", Obi-Wan asked Ahsoka if Anakin told her about his past. She replied that he only told her that he wouldn't talk about it. This referred to the pilot movie, when she and Anakin were walking through the desert on Tatooine, trying to return Rotta to Jabba's palace.
• In "Slaves of the Republic", the slave arena scene starts as an excellent Call-Forward to the start of the Sarlacc scene of Return of the Jedi - Anakin making eye contact with everyone, saluting, and R2-D2 catapulting his lightsaber (as well as Obi-Wan's and Ahsoka's).
• In "Escape from Kadavo", the death scene of the Zygerrian queen Miraj Scintel is a shout-out to Anakin/Vader's death scene in Return of the Jedi. Miraj even quotes Anakin's "You were right."
• In "Crisis on Naboo", Anakin and Palpatine enter a dining room where Dooku happened to be waiting for them ala The Empire Strikes Back which ironically has Anakin as Darth Vader doing this to Han, Leia, Chewie, and Lando.
• Remember that Defoliator tank the Separatists were testing back in "Defenders of Peace"? Grievous uses one against the Nightsisters in "Massacre".
  • Darth Maul's design (elongated horns, shirtless, circlet around the neck, cybernetic lower body) seems to be a homage to his appearance in the non-canon comic "Old Wounds". Once he switches to his second pair of cybernetic legs, he actually becomes nearly identical to that design: only his horns were returned to their normal length.
  • Also, the way he draws his lightsaber just before the Raydonia massacre is just like when Anakin slaughters younglings in Revenge of the Sith.

Season Five

• In "Revival", Obi-Wan chews out Maul and Savage for partnering with pirates, saying "How the mighty Sith have fallen." He used this exact line in "Dooku Captured", when he snarked at Dooku, who at the time was the prisoner of the exact same pirate gang.
• In "A War on Two Fronts", Ahsoka and Lux discussed their adventure on Carlac in "A Friend in Need".
  • Also Anakin found Steela's marksmanship "Impressive. Most impressive."
• In "Front Runners", Lux starts to openly gawk at Steela, while she's trying to concentrate at coming up with a plan to rescue King Dendup:
  Steela: Lux, please don't look at me like that!
• In "Tipping Points", after Steela stormed off on her own into battle, Ahsoka and Lux drop this:
  Ahsoka: She sure leads by example.
  Lux: What good will that do, if she gets herself killed?
• The Opening Narration in "The Gathering" has a brief flashback showing Plo Koon meeting and taking Ahsoka to the Order, when she was just a toddler. This was mentioned for the first (and until then only) time back in "Rising Malevolence".
• In "A Necessary Bond", General Grievous tells Hondo that "You can dispense with the pleasantries, pirate."
• In "Secret Weapons", WAC was humming the Cantina-theme.
• In "The Lawless", Maul quips "I sense something. A presence I haven't felt since..." upon noticing Darth Sidious' arrival.
  • Also in "The Lawless", there's a Call-Back to the Deception arc in that, when Obi-Wan first arrives at Mandalore to extract Satine, he's wearing his Rako Hardeen disguise, doubling as another Call-Forward to A New Hope when Han tricks a stormtrooper into coming into the ship and then knocks him out to steal his armor for a disguise.
• "Sabotage" opens with a Jedi Master-Apprentice duo entering a battle with two Eta-2 Actis-class light interceptors, a rocket being shot at them, which missed and exploded in front of them, throwing a swarm of buzz droids on one of the ships, the Separatist droids proceeded to dismantle it, and the apprentice had to save the master. Except unlike in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin was the one who needed to be saved by Ahsoka.
  • The gunship that picked up Anakin and Ahsoka after their crash is the "Lucky Lekku" with a paintjob of a blue-skinned Twi'lek girl in clone trooper armor. It's the same gunship that dropped them off back in the pilot movie during the Battle of Teth.
• In "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much", Ahsoka and Barriss recall when they were stuck inside a tank under the rubble in "Weapons Factory".
  • Also, the fact that Rex seriously considered it possible for Ahsoka to have killed three clone troopers might sound strange at first, but when you remember what General Krell put him through, it's understandable that he wasn't willing to take risks.
  • Tarkin entering the cell that Ahsoka was held in is framed in the same manner◊ as Darth Vader entering Princess Leia's cell in A New Hope. Also, Tarkin holds Ahsoka's chin in much the same way he held Leia's◊ in the same film.
  • The ending of "The Jedi Who Knew Too Much" is highly reminiscent to the climax of The Empire Strikes Back, with Anakin/Vader trying to convince someone close to him to go with him, and that someone throwing themselves into the deep.
  • In the war-meeting scene, Obi-Wan mentions the Anoat system, where most of The Empire Strikes Back took place, as well as Saleucami, where "Grievous Intrigue" and "The Deserter" took place.
• "To Catch a Jedi" takes place almost entirely in the Coruscant underworld. Although it's not stated outright, the streets Ahsoka is first seen strolling look suspiciously similar to the ones shown in the trailer and on concept-arts of the canceled video game Level 1313. Rex later indirectly confirms the location, by identifying Level 1312, as the level where Ahsoka escaped to next.
• "The Wrong Jedi":
  • Anakin arriving to the trial with the proof of Ahsoka's innocence in literally the last moment is a throwback to the pilot movie, when he and Jabba's men were about to start a fight and Ahsoka arrived just in time with Rotta, proving Anakin's innocence.
  • Anakin disarmed Barriss by catching one of her wrists with his cybernetic hand, and squeezing it until she dropped her lightsaber from the pain, just like the Legends version did with Ventress during their duel in the non-canon Star Wars: Clone Wars.
  • The ending of "The Wrong Jedi" gives a nice contrast to "Wookiee Hunt": during both story arcs, Ahsoka had been separeted from Anakin, and then they got reunited, thanks to the aid of unexpected allies. "Wookiee Hunt" ends with Anakin and Ahsoka walking back to the Temple side-by-side, with Yoda smiling proudly, "The Wrong Jedi" ends with Ahsoka leaving the Temple and Anakin, with Yoda casting his eyes down in shame. Both scenes took place during sunset.
  • Also, the scene of Ahsoka disappearing from view as she walks down the stairs in front of the Temple's main gate mirrors the scene◊ of Vader appearing as he marches up them leading the 501st during the execution of Order 66.

Season Six

• In "The Unknown", the technique taught to the rebels in "A War On Two Fronts" is used to disable several destroyer droids.
• In "The Disappeared, Part II", as Jar Jar and Mace enter the city where the Franglaw Cult had taken Queen Julia, Jar Jar mentions that he has a "creeping feeling", to which Windu responded, "Do not center on your anxieties," much like Qui-Gon did when Obi-Wan stated that he had a bad feeling about the Trade Federation blockade at the beginning of The Phantom Menace.
• The Yoda arc features several Call Forwards to the Original Trilogy, including a trip to Dagobah's Dark Side Cave and Yoda being told "there is another Skywalker" near the end.
  • In "Voices", Yoda sees a vision of multiple possible futures, including some that came true in Revenge of the Sith. These includes the Jedi fighting against a squad of clone troopers, Kit Fisto, Saessee Tiin, and Agen Kolar being cut down, and Windu being electrocuted by Darth Sidious. Another vision shows one of the deleted scenes of Shaak Ti being stabbed in the back with a blue lightsaber by Darth Vader.
  • Also in "Voices", R2 is rather creeped out when Yoda leaves him alone on Dagobah. When Luke headed to the planet in The Empire Strikes Back, R2 warned him against going there.
  • In "Sacrifice", Yoda sees a vision of him and Anakin confronting Sidious and Dooku. In this vision, Anakin kills Dooku the same way he killed the Count in Revenge of the Sith via decapitating him, using the Dooku's and his own lightsaber in a scissor-formation. Yoda's confrontation with Sidious also includes Yoda holding Sidious's Force lightning with his palms until the concentrated energy blasts them apart.
  • Also in "Sacrifice", Yoda flies over the ruins of the Sith Academy (or an identical structure) on Moraband/Korriban from Star Wars: The Old Republic before landing his ship.

Season Seven

• In "The Bad Batch", Rex reminisces about the clone troopers who served and died beside him, specifically the Dominos: Fives, Echo, and Hevy. He also holds a picture of them (minus Hevy), himself and Cody. They also speak about how Echo was presumed to have died at the Citadel, which Rex starts to suspect might have been a mistaken assumption.
• In "A Distant Echo", Anakin uses a holoprojector to contact Padmé, who's very clearly pregnant, setting-up that the series is approaching Revenge of the Sith in the timeline.
• In "Dangerous Debt", Rafa explains how her and Trace's parents were caught in the crossfire of Ziro's break out from prison.
• "Old Friends Not Forgotten":
  • Ahsoka's request for aid to the Siege of Mandalore, and capture of Maul, is compromised by the start of the Battle of Coruscant, seen in Revenge of the Sith. Also, Obi-Wan claims that Windu has been unable to contact Shaak Ti, who was sent to protect the Chancellor, which is exactly what happened in the non-canon microseries.
  • It also has a number of Call-Backs to the pilot movie:
    • The episode begins with Obi-Wan and his clone troopers pinned down by the Separatist droids until Anakin arrives and pulls an I Surrender, Suckers both to buy time and draw out the enemy commander (much like Obi-Wan did in the pilot movie).
    • Meanwhile, the 501st gets behind enemy lines by approaching it hiding under on object (in this case, the bridge the clones are trying to capture). This is just like what Anakin and Ahsoka did in the pilot movie when they were sent to disable the Separatists' Energy Shield.
    • Just as they win the battle, Admiral Yularen calls the Jedi to inform them of an urgent message and they're surprised to discover that it's from Ahsoka. Again, this is just like when she appeared on Christophsis to deliver Yoda's message in the pilot movie.
    • When they're reunited, Anakin is eager and happy to see her again, but Ahsoka keeps her distance. This is a complete 180 from their first meeting in the pilot movie, when Ahsoka was enthusiastic to meet her new Master while Anakin was not happy to have her as his Padawan.
    • Ahsoka's mid-air charge on the defences of Sundari, including a race to see who gets to the enemy frontline first, contrasts the vertical siege of the B'omarr Order Monastery on Teth. In the pilot movie, Ahsoka jumped on top of an AT-TE and remained mostly stationary, using her lightsaber only to repell enemy fire. In this episode, she leaps from one gunship to another, takes out Maul's Death Watch soldiers by disabling their Jet Packs mid-flight (once even hitching a ride on one of them), rescues a clone pilot from a crashing gunship when his emergency hatch won't open in order to eject, and leaps from the gunship straight to the docks of Sundari, clearing a bridgehead for her clone troopers to land at. Oh, and this time, she wins the aformentioned race, granted it's against Rex instead of Anakin.
  • Ahsoka having left the Jedi Order is not swept under the rug. Obi-Wan refuses to authorize her taking a command post in the army, forcing Anakin to divide the 501st and promote Rex to Commander. Ahsoka herself also acts rather unreasonable, when Obi-Wan priorizeses saving Coruscant, over opening an other front in the war, on a neutral planet no less, calling it "playing politics", probably because she's still hurt by the Council's abandonment of her.
  • Ahsoka also references the events of the previous story arc: first by explaining that she obtained information on Maul while on Oba Diah, then during her argument with Obi-Wan, she mentions the people lost their faith in the Jedi, refering to the death of the parents of the Martez sisters, and Luminara's out-of-touch handling of their grief.
• "The Phantom Apprentice":
  • Maul has attached another red lightsaber with a different-looking hilt to the remaining half of his original lightsaber, making his weapon double-bladed once again. The hilt for the new half of his saberstaff happens to be based on concept art for Asajj Ventress' new lightsaber used in the unfinished animatics from the Dark Disciple arc of The Clone Wars (later adapted into the novel of the same name). It is possible (though unconfirmed) that Maul may have retrieved it from Dathomir at some point after Ventress' memorial ceremony and then bled the crystal to use for his own weapon.
  • During Ahsoka's briefing to him, Obi-Wan mentions he first heard the name "Darth Sidious", when Dooku told him about him in Attack of the Clones. He follows it up, with explaining that unfortunately they won't learn more from Dooku, because Anakin killed him, while rescueing the Chancellor. He then tells Ahsoka about how neither he, nor Anakin, can back them-up, because he is on his way to confront General Grievous, and Anakin's been assinged to keep watch on the Chancellor.
  • Maul mentions how Saxon and Kast liberated him from Sidious's prison, and how he thought Dooku was an old fool, when they last met, both of which happened in Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir. He is also shown sending the Syndicate leaders into hiding, including Dryden Vos, Marg Krim from the previous arc, and Ziton Moj of the Black Sun.
  • Ahsoka, Rex, and Bo-Katan enter the throne room, while discussing the clone occupation, only to find Maul already sitting there on his throne, prompting Bo-Katan to open fire immediately, which he deflects using the Force, mirroing Han, Leia and Chewie's capture by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Furthermore, both Maul and Vader has a Jango Fett clone by their side, albeit in differnt positions: Jessie is Maul's prisoner, while Boba was the one who led Vader to Cloud City.
  • Maul proposes an alliance to Ahsoka, on the grounds that, just like he was cast aside by Sidious, so was she cast aside by the Jedi Council. Ahsoka briefly accepts, on the condition he tells his plans for Anakin Skywalker. Maul reveals, that he had a vision of Anakin becoming Sidious's new apprentice, so he wants to kill Anakin, before that happens, which is of course, unacceptable for her. The Dramatic Irony, that Maul describing Anakin's career as "long since he's been groomed to be my master's new apprentice", echoes Ahsoka's own description of Palpatine as a "great friend and mentor to Anakin", earlier in the episode, is lost to her.
  • After Ahsoka rejects his offer for an Enemy Mine, Maul claims that "The Padawan needs one last lesson." "One last lesson" is how Ezra described Kanan's spirit as the Loth-wolf Dume, sending him to the World between Worlds, to learn to let go. Not coincidantly, Ahsoka's unable to let go of her image of Anakin as the kind and good natured hero she knew him as.
  • During their duel, Maul knocks one of Ahsoka's lightsabers out of her hand. After she manages to disengage from him for a moment, she notices it's right behind Maul, and tires to use it to cut him-up from behind, by activating it and pulling it into her hands with the Force, much like how Kylo Ren killed Snoke. Maul is of course more aware and dodges it with ease.
  • When the heroes question Almec, he let's it slip to them that Maul was not just after Kenobi, but someone named "Skywalker". This can be seen as a parallel to Lando telling Han, Leia and Chewie that Vader's not interested in them, but he's after some "Skywalker".
• "Shattered":
  • The episode uses archival records from Revenge of the Sith, of the Jedi Council's discussion about removing Palpatine from office, if he refuses to voluntarily step-down after the death of Grievous, as well as of Mace's confrontation with the Chancellor, and Anakin's betrayal. The former is shown as a holo-transmission, while the latter is felt by Ahsoka through the Force.
  • Order 66 is issued on Ahsoka. Rex, who receives the order, manages to fight it off long enough to tell Ahsoka to "find Fives". This is due to Fives' warning about the plot involving the chip, having planted doubts in his mind.
  • Maul's corridor rampage is very similar to the "Darth Vader's wrath" scene from Rogue One.
  • The sarcophagus Maul is imprisoned inside, resembles the one Luminara Unduli's corpse was kept by the Empire in "Rise of the Old Masters"
• "Victory and Death":
  • Doubling as a Shout-Out to Gandalf, Ahsoka wears a grey cloak in the last shot of her in the series, calling forward to the white cloak she wore in the finale of Rebels.

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir

• In issue 3, Windu ordered Dooku to surrender, stating that the war has gone on long enough. As a reply, Dooku promised him that their deaths won't be remembered. This is a Call-Back to their discussion during the arena battle on Geonosis, when Dooku promised Mace that the bravery of the Jedi fighting in the battle won't be forgotten.

"Crystal Crisis on Utapau"

• "In Search of the Crystal":
  • Anakin and Obi-Wan discuss Ahsoka's decision to leave the Order. It ends with Anakin asking Obi-Wan how he'd feel if he (Anakin) turned into a major disappointment.
  • After being captured and forced to walk for hours, Anakin starts snarking about the boring landscape.
  Anakin: Oh look, another mound!
  Obi-Wan: That's no mound! It's a spaceship!
  • During their escape from the Sugi, Obi-Wan and Anakin try to hide in the ventilation ducts. When it doesn't work, Obi-Wan lampshades how they always seem to end up in the airvents, which acknowledges how overused this trope was in The Clone Wars.
  • Once they find themselves in the Sugi's armory, Anakin starts searching for useable weapons. The blasters he ultimately picks up? They're the same type used by Han Solo throughout the original trilogy. Obi-Wan immediately calls it a clumsy weapon. In A New Hope he described the lightsaber to Luke as "not as clumsy and random as a blaster"
  • When Endente pressures Dooku to pay him for killing the Jedi, double what they agreed upon for the crystal, Dooku tells him that once Grievous arrives, Endente will get what he deserves. This is exactly what Sidious promises Vader would do to the Separatist leaders in Revenge Of the Sith. Endente doesn't catch on and thinks he'll be payed triple.

Actor Allusions

• Corey Burton:
  • Ky Narec and Dooku were both Ventress' masters and they're both voiced by Corey Burton.
  • In "Deception", Cad Bane mentioned that "any imbecile can kill a Jedi with a lousy sniper blast". In "Nightsisters", during Ventress' Troubled Backstory Flashback, Corey Burton voiced Jedi Ky Narec, who was killed by a pirate sniper.
• Sam Witwer:
  • In "Ghosts of Mortis", the Son mentions that while the Father still has control over the realm, he'll soon be able to draw any ship there. Guess what was the most over the top feat Starkiller, another Star Wars character voiced by Sam Witwer, ever pulled?
  • In "Brothers", Darth Maul says, "The chains, the chains are the easy part. It's what goes on in here that's hard." The same line was spoken by the disguised Son to Ahsoka in "Altar of Mortis" after she was captured.
  • In "Victory And Death", Maul pulls a Starkiller and brings down a Star Destroyer using just the Force.
• Others:
  • Tera Sinube seems quite similar to another eccentric-but-wise mentor voiced by Greg Baldwin.
  • Savage Opress is not the first villain played by Clancy Brown, who had been transformed into a monster, and is related to a Predecessor Villain who had caused great loss to the heroes.
  • Huyang, the ancient lightsaber architect droid featured during the Yo ung Jedi arc voiced by David Tennant, is a thousand years old and is addressed as "Professor" Huyang...
  • A double dose: during the Citadel arc, Stephen Stanton voiced Captain Tarkin, who was on the run from a Separatist prison, chased by the prison warden Osi Sobeck, a Phindian, voiced by James Arnold Taylor. Aiding Tarkin in the escape was Obi-Wan Kenobi, also voiced by James Arnold Taylor. Almost exactly a season later during the Deception arc, Stephen Stanton voiced Moralo Eval, a Phindian on the run from a Republic prison, aided (and secretly thwarted) by Rako Hardeen, who was also voiced by James Arnold Taylor.
  • Hondo is not the first flamboyant non-sea-based pirate captain, with a funny accent voiced by Jim Cummings.
  • Sergant Appo's helmet◊ stripe was redesigned from the design it will have in Revenge of the Sith in order to look like the arrow-shape on Appa's head. Appa is of course voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.
  • Greg Cipes during the Young Jedi arc once again plays a young, green-skinned hero, albeit a more mature one this time around.
  • During the same story arc, Dee Bradley Baker and Olivia Hack were no strangers to circuses.
  • In a rather ironic twist Mark Hamill played Darth Bane in "Sacrifice". While Darth Bane was a Sith, he carries a few key similarities to Luke Skywalker: both of them are immensely powerful Force-users who hadn't been trained in the ways of the Force until they were in their twenties. Like Luke, Bane was the last Sith to be trained by the masters of the old ways, and each of them recreated their respective Orders.
  • It's hardly surprising that Rush Clovis was able to carry out the Banking Clan sting operation. After all, he's a professional thief.
  • Pre Vizsla, a Mandalorian villain wearing a high-tech fullbody armor is voiced by Jon Favreau, the director of the first and second Iron Man movies.
    • Becomes Hilarious in Hindsight with the 2019 premier of The Mandalorian, a series about a heroic Mandalorian, created by Favrou.

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