Haven't read the thread yet, but just finished seconds ago and wanted to immediately write my thoughts.
The last four episodes, the concluding "movie" is maybe the best Star Wars movie since the OT. And I mean not just that it's so enjoyable, but it's put together so well with such great moments and action and heart, and all with pretty much just side characters and cast-offs. The score they put together, the money they clearly dumped into the animation, the directing, the incredibly high stakes and serious tone all wrap this into Star Wars that should be in the theater.
Will it lose something for people that are not watchers of TCW and, to a lesser extent, Rebels? Sure, but not THAT much. The first two episodes of the arc especially are very standalone as long as you know the VERY basics, like who Maul is and what a Mandalorian is. It gets a little deeper into the TCW lore with the inhibitor chips and the focus on Rex after that, but I'm still convinced even a casual fan would get it.
Basically, in the end, The Clone Wars delivered a MCU-lite buildup. Everything was brought together and converged into an amazingly compelling, beautiful, and meaningful finale. It just did it with a secondary property and characters.
And, TCW does what all "expanded" properties should do. It made the core properties (the prequels, in this case) better while remaining its own thing. This movie brings so much to RotS.
I'm speechless, really. The performances of Ashley Eckstein and Sam Witwer deliver so hard. Ahsoka so great. Maul so menacing. WOW.
One interesting side note, and I have to go back and review, but I'm pretty sure they somewhat deviated from events surrounding Order 66, the attempt to capture Maul, and Ahsoka's "death" from the Ahsoka novel. That's not a complaint, but thought it was interesting. I could be remembering wrong.
