The Phantom Menace Reference Everyone Missed Is Secretly One Of Anakin’s Saddest Moments

Star Wars: The Clone Wars was a risky endeavor when Star Wars first announced it, not only because the franchise hadn’t really dabbled in canon TV shows yet, but also because it ran the risk of frustrating fans by retconning or making updates to the prequel trilogy. Of course, there was some of that—the Star Wars fanbase can’t help but become outraged, after all—but for the most part, this show proved to be an essential addition to Star Wars movies and TV shows.

In large part, this had to do with The Clone Wars’ impressive ability to take confusing or controversial plot points in the prequels and make them considerably better. For example, The Clone Wars shed so much more light upon Anakin’s fall to the dark side, which ameliorated, to a degree, fans’ frustrations over how quickly he seemed to fall in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In fact, because The Clone Wars is set between Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, it did some heavy lifting for those movies in particular.

Yet, The Clone Wars had myriad connections to Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace as well, be it additional storytelling having to do with Anakin’s mother, Shmi Skywalker, or the tensions that continued to exist between Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi, which stemmed in part from the fact that Obi-Wan hadn’t wanted to take Anakin on as an apprentice and only did so because it was Qui-Gon Jinn’s dying wish. One much subtler Phantom Menace connection in The Clone Wars actually has a much deeper meaning, though, and many viewers totally missed it.

The Clone Wars Had A Subtle Phantom Menace Easter Egg

In season 2, episode 18 of The Clone Wars, titled “The Zillo Beast,” the titular monster gets loose and begins wreaking havoc and threatening the lives of everyone in its path. Although the Jedi had wanted to avoid killing the creature, which makes sense given their peacekeeping morals, they ultimately feel as though they have no choice but to take it down (which is, of course, what Palpatine wanted all along, as yet another example of his ongoing successful manipulation of the Jedi and the Republic).

Accepting that killing the beast is now unavoidable, Anakin, Mace Windu, and a small group of clones attempt to shoot the Zillo Beast with beams. As the monster continues to attack despite the beams shooting at it, Anakin yells, “This isn’t working!” Although subtle, his intonation is an exact match for little Anakin’s line, “It’s working! It’s working” in The Phantom Menace, when he tests out the podracer he has built and it kicks on.

There’s little doubt that this was an intentional decision from George Lucas and Dave Filoni, particularly because The Phantom Menace line isn’t just a throwaway moment. In fact, that line has become a joke within the fanbase that is frequently used as a meme or shared in video clips. The reference also wasn’t just to be cheeky, either. Instead, this connection between little Anakin’s line and Anakin’s line in The Clone Wars reinforces just how tragic Anakin’s story really is.

Anakin’s Innocence Reinforces How Tragic His Story Is

Lucas’ decision to introduce Anakin as a sweet little kid who just wanted to help in The Phantom Menace was incredibly controversial. Many original trilogy fans were ready to see a teenage Anakin who was already showing signs of the evil being he would become. However, this decision by Lucas was a very intentional one. Specifically, showing Anakin’s childhood and his initially sweet and innocent disposition was meant to reinforce the message that anyone, no matter how innocent at first, could be drawn to evil when subjected to the right circumstances.

For Anakin, those circumstances included leaving his mother, the initial rejection he experienced from the Jedi Order, the loss of Qui-Gon, the loss of his mother, the manipulation of Palpatine, and ultimately his marriage to Padmé as well. This callback in The Clone Wars therefore serves as a reminder of the child that Anakin had once been, and it highlights just how far he’d already fallen—after all, The Clone Wars takes place after his massacre of the Tusken Raiders.

Noteworthy is the fact that this tragedy and his innocent origins don’t absolve Anakin of wrongdoing. He made countless terrible choices and, throughout his life, carried out a range of hideous acts, and nothing about his childhood makes that excusable. However, if one approaches Star Wars with empathy, then this Star Wars: The Clone Wars moment is a brutal reminder that, once, Anakin was just a sweet kid who was eventually led completely astray.