Ranking EVERY Star Wars Animated Series from WORST to BEST Including Maul - Shadow Lord!

Añadido: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]With the epic completion of Maul Shadow Lord season 1, I wanted to rank every single Star Wars animated show from worst to best, including Maul Shadow Lord season 1, which wrapped up in dramatic fashion. As per usual with my Star Wars movie and TV rankings, we are not including anything that is nonean except for Star Wars Visions, which will be included on this list. including Visions. There are 13 mainline Star Wars animated shows, and I want to know which one is your favorite. So, let me know in the comments below, and make sure you subscribe if you're interested in this type of content.

[00:00:40]Coming in at number 13 is going to be Star Wars Resistance. When I talk about Star Wars Resistance, I always preface the fact that this show really isn't made for people my age, or at least my age when I first saw this show. But this show still remains one of the most disappointing shows in Star Wars history just because we were coming off of Star Wars Rebels, which Star Wars Rebels was a show that had a similar trajectory as Resistance. It started out very much so for young kids, but this show just never matured the same way as Rebels. It stayed fairly lowest common denominator.

[00:01:12]You couple that with the fact that it was cancelled after two seasons. It immediately ended and never really gave us the true sequel era tie-in that we were kind of expecting from a show like this. It makes Resistance not only disappointing, but also pretty forgettable. The animation I've always been mixed on as well. The cell shading looks okay, but the character models are fairly bland, especially when we see character models of characters we know from the film. While I do think Resistance is a show that kids would like, and if I grew up with the show, I might like it a little bit more. It is, and most likely will continue to be one of only a couple Star Wars animated shows that I really get no desire to ever rewatch.

[00:01:53]Coming in at number 12 is Young Jedi Adventures. This is a series that I've left off a lot of my lists before and I probably would still leave it off of a ranking of the movie and TV shows. But for an animated show ranking, I thought I had to include it because it is one of the mainline Disney Plus animated shows.

[00:02:11]But like Resistance, this is a show that is just not targeted at my demographic at all. I think it is great that Star Wars does have its first real entrylevel show for young children since Ewoks, but again, this is one that I don't really ever see myself rewatching, so that's why it's here at number 12.

[00:02:34]Coming in at number 11 is Ewoks. As a child, I preferred Ewoks to Droids. It just is a little bit flashier. It's a little bit more fun. But upon more recent rewatches, Droids is the better program. I don't personally really have anything against the show. I grew up with some of the episodes. I didn't grow up with the whole thing and it wasn't a consistent part of my childhood, but Ewoks is a relatively inoffensive, charming children's cartoon. I do think this show gets a little bit worse in season 2, which is one of the reasons I bumped it down on my rankings. But this isn't a show I hate by any means. It's fine. It is what it is. It's okay. but it's nowhere near the top level of Star Wars TV.

[00:03:17]Coming in at number 10 is going to be Droids. Droids didn't last as long as Ewoks, but what it had there was a bit more creative and a little bit more rewarding for rewatches as an adult. It still has that classic kind of Saturday morning cartoon vibe, but this one's aimed a little bit older audiences, or at least audiences that are a little bit more interested in Star Wars and the Star Wars world. Droid's attempts to do some world building. It brings in a couple classic characters besides R2 and 3PO. You obviously have Boba Fett. Like Ewoks, this was a show I grew up knowing about. I had watched a handful of episodes, but most of my viewing of this show came when I was an adult. And so, this doesn't really hold a special place in my heart the same way it probably does for a lot of you who grew up in the 80s or '9s. But I do appreciate what they tried to do with droids.

[00:04:10]Coming in at number nine is Tales of the Empire. Out of all the Tales of series, this is easily to me the worst. The redeeming elements of Tales of the Empire are first and foremost the animation. The animation is absolutely insane. Seeing characters like General Grievous or Darth Vader get that next level of Clone Wars animation was just awesome to see. It's also great seeing characters like Pelleon or Thron.

[00:04:36]There's a lot of really good stuff in here. The problem is it's not structured very well as a show altogether. The biggest issue with Tales of across the board with all three series is that sometimes it can bite off more than it can chew. This show just did not have the amount of episodes needed to tell the stories of Bars or Morgan. And speaking of the subjects Baris and Morgan, neither one of these characters really had anything to do with the Empire. So, it's a very strange choice to pick these two. As much as I wanted to see what happened to Bareris after season 5 of the Clone Wars, I think the complexities of her character and her story deserved way more than three episodes spread across almost 20 years of time in her life that leads to a pretty unsatisfying death for her and an unsatisfying conclusion for her story.

[00:05:24]The Morgan episodes just kind of flounder for a reason to exist. Not to mention that her journey also spans over 20 years of time and really has a hard time locking in its focus for its narrative. So overall, Tales of the Empire has a lot of flash over substance. There's not much here. It made Tales of the Empire both a disappointing series and a series that's parts are much, much better than its whole.

[00:05:50]Coming in at number eight is going to be Star Wars Visions. For me, Visions as a package is still a much better package than something like Tales of the Empire.

[00:05:58]Episodes like The Ninth Jedi, The Duel, The Village Bride, The Elder from Volume 1 stood heads and tails over stuff from Tales of the Empire. Screechers Reach was another incredible episode from volume 2. Even though volume two I found fairly disappointing overall. And then episodes like The Dual Payback and of course Black were really huge standouts of volume 3. The concept of visions as a whole lends itself to being something that's fairly forgettable, but I found enough highlights in Visions that I could go back to a handful of these episodes over and over again. Something I can't necessarily say about all of the other animated shows that are ranked below this.

[00:06:40]Coming in at number seven is going to be Tales of the Underworld. I thought Tales of the Underworld was an overall pretty big step up from Tales of the Empire. To me, the big standout was the Cad Bane arc, an arc that I personally wasn't that excited for, but I thought it told a pretty good, compelling origin for that character. The Ventress arc remains frustrating. As a big fan of the book Dark Disciple, I'm still struggling with the idea of Ventress returning back to life. I felt it was very pointless and purely just for trailer clicks in The Bad Batch itself. And then in this story, it gave me really no substance to why she was brought back again. The arc as a whole just felt more like a tease, more like a pilot for what's coming next for that character rather than a truly compelling singular arc. The animation was exceptional as always, even better than it was in Tales of the Empire. But Tales of the Underworld was a little bit of a mixed bag for me, mixed positive. I still overall enjoyed this series, but it definitely could have been a little bit better. So, you made it about halfway through the video. Thank you so much for watching. If you could do me a favor, hit that like button. helps out the channel and subscribe to the channel for more content like this. Got tons of other ranking videos on the channel, tons of other great Star Wars content, so make sure you check out even more after you're done watching this one.

[00:07:54]Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you at the end of the video.

[00:08:01]Moving into the top half of the list and at number six, we have Tales of the Jedi. Now, to be honest, comparing the top six here to the bottom seven from the list, these top six are so far superior to everything below them that it almost seems unfair to have this only one spot ahead of Tales of the Underworld. But Tales of the Jedi is a very strong, excellently constructed Tales season. The Dooku arc is the pinnacle of all of these arcs across the Tales of series. It picks a character that we already know a lot about, a character we already know his backstory, and provides us with key pivotal moments for that character's life. It was also great to see Liam Niss back as Quigon Jinn and also get a younger Quigon Jinn voiced by Liam Niss's son. Seeing the death of Yattle finally in Star Wars cannon was another great touch. The Dooku arc is just perfection. It's one of the best stories in any of these arcbased Star Wars animated series, and it's the main reason this show is up this high. The Ahsoka arc is pretty good. Ahsoka is a character we know so much about already, so it felt a little bit redundant getting a story about her.

[00:09:06]The second episode with Ahsoka is the best episode of her arc. Getting to see the new animation style adapt her appearances throughout all five seasons that she's in into season 7. Tales of the Jedi is easily the best of the Tales of series, and it's the one of these Tales of series that I go back to over and over again.

[00:09:30]Coming in at number five is going to be The Bad Batch. The Bad Batch was a show that didn't seem very necessary when they announced it, but it was definitely able to do a lot with a concept that seemed very limited right off the bat from the first episode, which remained one of the best episodes of the whole show. This series showed that it was going to dive into the family unit, really humanize the clones, even more so than we saw in the Clone Wars. Now that we're beyond Order 66, how do we deal with this group of characters who were basically created to fight in the Clone Wars? And we see the Clone's journey mostly symbolized through this rag tag group of misfits known as the Bad Batch.

[00:10:09]Almost every member of the Bad Batch has a distinct arc. They grow very much between the first episode and the last.

[00:10:17]Crosshair being the standout. He's the best character in the whole show. But even characters like Tech and Recker who seemed like kind of gimmicky side characters both have their time to shine. Omega as the younger interest character is never annoying. She's a very competent and capable addition to the group and she grows throughout the series as well. There's a lot of really great stuff in The Bad Batch. My only real detraction from the show is that it does have a similar Rebel style amount of filler. It's a great binge, just like Rebels has become a great binge when you can just plow right through all of the episodes that are just one-off adventures. But that kind of comes with the territory of animated shows like this. They have mandated episode lengths. And because of that, they have to hit their 16 episodes. They have to hit their 22 episodes in the case of Rebels. And sure, it detracts from the overall pacing and flow of the series.

[00:11:09]But when it comes to shows like that, I always look at the pillar episodes.

[00:11:12]Those episodes that make or break the season that really tell the throughine story, are those compelling enough? And for me, The Bad Batch in all three seasons, that's when it really shines.

[00:11:26]Coming in at number four is Maul Shadow Lord. The only reason it's only number four on this list is because it's one season right now and we know we're getting more. If this show was over after one season, I might rank it in my top three. But since there's more to come, it could get worse. It could get even better. But to specifically talk about the series itself, I thought it was exceptional. Easily the best first season of a Star Wars animated show. The characters in this series are compelling, and it doesn't just start with Maul. Everybody across the board, from Brander Lawson and his son Riley to Master Docky and his apprentice Devon.

[00:12:02]This show also doesn't pull any punches.

[00:12:04]The action is so visceral, fast, and fluid. There's a level of violence here that we haven't seen since the darker pretty much Maul ccentric episodes of the Clone Wars. A brutality here that is indicative of Maul's appearances and pretty much everything he's ever been in. And I loved that they held themselves to that standard with a show like this. The 10 episode runtime was perfect for the show. And the way they released it two episodes a week, I thought made the show flow at a pace that we haven't really seen from a lot of animated Star Wars shows. when you're watching them weekly. Maul was, of course, one of the standouts of the series. Seeing him struggle and continue to fall back down and rise again, he continues to fight. And why does he fight? His hatred for his master, Cyius.

[00:12:49]There's a brilliant scene in the middle of this season with him talking to himself, basically an image of himself that he's not going to let what happened to him happen to anyone else. And then, of course, that finale, the Vader stuff at the end. That's stuff we've been wanting to see as Star Wars fans for so long. It was epic. It lived up to the hype. I hope Vader is the main villain of season 2 because I cannot wait to see more. This show will most likely rise in my rankings if season 2 is nearly as good as season 1.

[00:13:22]Coming in at number three is Clone Wars 2003 to 2005. Clone Wars was my first animated Star Wars show. This is the one I grew up with. This is the one I stayed up to watch the five-minute micro episodes as they were coming out on Cartoon Network. This show means a lot to me. It's a fantastic encapsulation of all things Clone Wars between epic duels like Ventress versus Anakin, which is one of the best ones of all time to the best depiction of General Grievous we've ever seen. The show set the standard for what Star Wars animated TV can be. and in volume one was able to tell these snapshot stories that yes didn't have that much depth to them but left a mark really stood on their own as unique visual experiences that you could only have in a series like this then in volume two they took that further instead of the micro episodes instead of these mini arcs that you saw throughout volume 1 we actually had two clear stories you have the battle of Coruscant which is one of the best battles in all of Star Wars and then you have the Anakin and Obi-Wan journey which is a really nice complimentary journey to Anakin's arc in Revenge of the Sith. And having just gone back and rewatched the series last year, I'm still really impressed by the overall storytelling in volume 2 and how this series continued to mature from its inception point as kind of just badass Star Wars to its finale where it actually had some thematic things to say. Out of pretty much any Star Wars animated show, this is the one that I pop on scenes from all the time just to watch the lightsaber dels, just to watch the cool moments.

[00:14:47]This is a show that will always have a big place in my Star Wars fandom.

[00:14:55]Coming in at number two is Star Wars Rebels. By season 2, this show continued to mature and it got better and better throughout each season to the point where season 3, I think, is an absolutely fantastic start to finish season and then going into season 4, which was arc-based. It allowed for the series to make very confident decisions with its characters as it continued to round out into its final episodes. The cast of characters in Star Wars Rebels are amongst some of my favorites from animated Star Wars TV, especially amongst original Star Wars animated TV characters. Characters like Kanan, Hara, eventually even Ezra, Zeb, Sabine, and of course, Chopper, they all had their moments to shine. They all grew throughout the series. Then when you bring in other key Star Wars animated moments and characters like Ahsoka, Vader, Maul, Rex, all of those characters had really nice natural progression from the last time we had seen them. in the Clone Wars. It felt like both its own thing and a true successor to Clone Wars. I know there are still a lot of people out there who don't like the show or, let's be honest, haven't given it a chance and just say they don't like it. Either they watched the first season or they didn't watch it at all. But when Rebels hits, it hits.

[00:16:03]And season 3 and four especially have tons of fantastic episodes. Season 2 finale is one of my favorite arcs in Star Wars animation. And even though the show has quite a bit of filler, its filler is still, for the most part, pretty fun. It makes a binge of the show much better than watching weekly. I did both. I watched it weekly and I have since binged the show and I found the show far more compelling on binge than I did originally when I watched it weekly.

[00:16:28]So, if you're somebody who watched it weekly and didn't love it, maybe go back and binge it. You might enjoy it even more. Once again, Rebels isn't a perfect series, but it's a series that has a lot of my favorite Star Wars characters, a lot of some of my favorite modern Star Wars moments. And to me, its peaks far outweigh its valleys to the point where I think it's the second best Star Wars animated show that we currently have seen.

[00:16:52]And that means coming in at number one, you guys probably knew it from the beginning, but it's Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Star Wars: The Clone Wars has become a fundamental part of Star Wars.

[00:17:01]It seems like almost everybody who is generally even just a moderate Star Wars fan has at least ventured into the Clone Wars at some point. It's by no means a perfect show, but it's certainly my favorite. The arcbased storytelling of the Clone Wars allows for certain arcs to be misses, certain arcs to be hits, but the hits to really stand out amongst the misses. Even when you do have arcs that miss, a lot of times there are still important storytelling there that does pay off down the road for especially the original characters like Ahsoka, like Rex. And speaking of Ahsoka and Rex, there aren't too many non-film Star Wars projects that have had the level of impact in creating core Star Wars characters like the Clone Wars has.

[00:17:43]And by the time you get to the end of the show, pretty much everything you've gone through, good and bad in the series pays off in such a way that it makes this long journey feel so warranted.

[00:17:54]Some of my favorite all-time Star Wars moments are in the Clone Wars. When it comes to Star Wars, we can't hide from our own nostalgia factors. As much as some people want to pretend like they know the objective truths of what's correct Star Wars and what's not, Star Wars is so fundamental to a lot of our childhoods, to a lot of our growth and development as people. And it's been around for so long that so many of us have just grown up with Star Wars and different iterations of Star Wars in different times in our lives. And for me, this was a show that I watched literally day one. I watched the first episode the first week it debuted. and I watched every single episode the day it came out from episode 1 through the end of the series. It's a fundamental piece of my Star Wars fandom and warts and all it's something that I truly love and it remains my favorite Star Wars animated show of all time. But what is your favorite Star Wars animated show of all time? Let me know in the comments. Make sure you hit the like button if you haven't already and subscribe to the channel for more content just like this.

[00:18:49]And if you have any other suggestions for videos you would like to see in the world of Star Wars and beyond, let me know in the comments below. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you all next