-- The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
So, yeah, Darth Maul is back. From a story perspective, the main drawback to this episode is that it moves too fast. Opress finds Maul at the end of the previous episode rather out of his mind and, let's say, dressed like a spider. But Savage takes Maul to Mother Talzin, she waves her hands around a bit, and Maul is all better, including having a new, spiffy pair of metal legs. From the moment Opress finds Maul to the time Maul is "back" is probably only about 10-12 minutes from screen time split between two episodes. It feels rushed to me and, maybe, if they hadn't spent so much time at the beginning of the season on basically wasted episodes, they could have spent more time developing Maul's return.
But, then, it is just a 22-minute show, so maybe I'm expecting too much?
All of that said, this was a pretty good episode.
Not because of Maul, though, but because the episode throws Asajj Ventress, who has picked up a bounty to bring in Opress, and Obi-Wan together against Maul and Opress. The chemistry is... interesting, and neither of them balk at working with each other. Being the last episode of the season, it is, of course, a cliffhanger.
I don't remember what happens with this story, but I suspect it is what softened me on my initial reaction to Maul being resurrected. What I can say is that I am looking forward to the next episode, and, assuming season five picks up where this left off, it promises a much stronger start for season five than four had.
But, then, it is just a 22-minute show, so maybe I'm expecting too much?
All of that said, this was a pretty good episode.
Not because of Maul, though, but because the episode throws Asajj Ventress, who has picked up a bounty to bring in Opress, and Obi-Wan together against Maul and Opress. The chemistry is... interesting, and neither of them balk at working with each other. Being the last episode of the season, it is, of course, a cliffhanger.
I don't remember what happens with this story, but I suspect it is what softened me on my initial reaction to Maul being resurrected. What I can say is that I am looking forward to the next episode, and, assuming season five picks up where this left off, it promises a much stronger start for season five than four had.
In answer to your question on my blog, I am planning to kick off Season Five with "Revival."
ReplyDeleteI have grown to enjoy the Asajj Ventress/Savage Opress story line quite a lot. In fact, that story's strength, to me, renders the return of Darth Maul all the more unnecessary.
Obviously someone, probably Papa George himself, just wanted to bring Darth Maul back and a narrative means was contrived. But seeing as you already have other interesting characters to explore, why retread? Maybe the Savage character wouldn't even have happened without this ultimate vision in mind but it upsets me nonetheless.
I'll keep an open mind...
TAS: So you know, then, I'm starting with "A War on Two Fronts," so we're going to be offset with each other for a while.
ReplyDeleteI did some digging around about Maul but couldn't find anything that said where the order came from to bring him back. The only thing definitive I could find is that Dave Filoni has taken credit for doing it. I didn't see anywhere that he took credit for the idea, though.
One thing of note, Maul was originally supposed to be back for Attack of the Clones. My guess about that was that there was a clone of Maul waiting because they have done a lot of that body transference stuff in the comics and novels. In fact, that's what revived Star Wars back in the 90s. Both Zahn's Thrawn trilogy and Dark Horse Comics' Dark Empire series feature the return of Palpatine through the use of clone technology. However, Ray Park started spreading it around that he was coming back for Ep. II, so Lucas left Maul dead instead. He hates to have his stories spoiled. I can't help but think that this was to make up for that.