Clone Wars -- "The Disappeared: Part 2" (Ep. 6.9)

-- Wisdom is born in fools as well as wise men.

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[Well, actually, considering that we're into season six, now, probably no one new is going to sign up, BUT! Hop over to The Armchair Squid for his take on the current episode.]

Last episode was Temple of Doom; this episode is Raiders. You know the whole thing where Indy chases Nazis (see, Indiana chases hates Nazis! If it's good enough for Indy, it should be good enough for, well, everyone) carrying Marion through the streets while she's yelling his name? Except this time it's cultists carrying Queen Julia while she yells "Jar Jar!" Which is fine as far as it goes, except that it's Jar Jar chasing them because Mace Windu stopped to beat up some cultists.

I have a serious problem with Mace stopping to beat up Nazis. I mean cultists. I don't have a problem with him beating them up, but they were chasing the dudes who had the queen, and Windu had no reason to spend his time on those dudes. He stopped long enough to get split up from Jar Jar which gave the cultists time to get away. But, see, those particular guys were no threat to Binks or Windu, and they could have just bypassed them and retrieved the queen.

Yeah, I know that would have been the end of the episode... except it wouldn't have to be! I mean, Mother Talzin is the big bad in this, so any number of things could have happened! Probably not what did happen, but I hate when a story hinges on a stupid decision someone makes that isn't a decision the person would normally have made. [It's okay for a character to make a stupid decision if it's a stupid character who makes those decisions all the time, but a smart character shouldn't make stupid decisions just to further the plot.]

So... As it turns out, this two-episode arc was here to give us closure on the dangling Mother Talzin thread, which, I suppose, give us closure on all of the Dathomir plots. Other than, technically, I suppose, Darth Maul and Asajj Ventress, but I don't consider them part of the Dathomir plots even if they did both come from there.

Anyway... Cut ending. Anti-climactic. It's fun to see Jar Jar with some romance? Maybe.


"Maybe using the Force is taking too long..." (paraphrased)

Clone Wars -- "Revenge" (Ep. 4.22)

-- The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

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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.

Clone Wars -- "Massacre" (Ep. 4.19)

-- One must let go of the past to hold on to the future.

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We return to the Nightsisters story line we last saw in episode 3.14, "Witches of the Mist." Asajj Ventress has been in hiding since her failed attempt on Count Dooku's life, but she is finally returning home to Dathomir to become a full Nightsister. Dooku, finally discovering the whereabouts of Ventress, seizes the moment to take his revenge upon her... by sending a full fleet to Dathomir with Grievous at the head of the army.

And that's really all you need to know about the episode other than that there are zombies.
And the zombies are gross.

But let me take this moment to highlight something we frequently see with bad guys: their thirst for revenge.

Dooku is in the middle of a war with the Republic. You'd think that would be the thing he would focus on most. I mean, it's a freaking WAR. But as soon as Ventress shows up, he goes after her. Let me point out that the Nightsisters are reclusive. They do not go out into the galaxy and get involved in what's going on out there. All of the problems that Dooku has had with Ventress and the Nightsisters are because HE went THERE and got involved in what they were doing, not because they came after him. That and he tried to have Ventress killed.

Basically, he diverted resources against someone who wasn't bothering him and had almost no chance of seeking him out to bother him or cause him any problems.

Because of a personal grudge.

Classic bad guy behavior. Classic bad guy behavior we can see mirrored almost daily in the actions of our own petty tyrant, Trump.

Seriously, if you want to know who the bad guys are, just look around at the ones who stay focused on getting revenge against their enemies, even when their "enemies" aren't seeking to do them any harm. Like the Republicans who have been gnashing their teeth to get vengeance against Obama and who are now set to undo everything he accomplished while he was President. Not because it's for the good but because they hate him.

You can see how much they don't care about what is for the good as they begin to dismantle the Affordable Care Act while spewing their propaganda about how they aren't going to take away any of the coverage of the 20 million people who are now insured due to the ACA.

Now, the Nightsisters are not good guys, but it's time for those who oppose Trump to take to heart some advice from Mother Talzin:

"There is no time for regret; now, we must fight."

Clone Wars -- "Witches of the Mist" (Ep. 3.14)

-- The path to evil may bring great power, but not loyalty.

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The Jedi Council discover that it is a kin of Darth Maul's who has murdered two Jedi at one of their outposts. Not just the two Jedi, either, but wiped out the whole outpost. Considering his connection to Maul, they send Kenobi to investigate. He takes Anakin with him, which, actually, was probably a really good idea.

One of the things that has begun to bother me a little is how quickly characters gain mastery over the force these days. It's not that I don't understand the expediency of it; I mean, they want these characters to be able to pose a threat to the heroes, but it still bothers me. It hasn't really happened in Clone Wars before this, but Savage attains his power and some (enough) control very quickly. Basically, we get a brief training scene where he learns to harness his hatred, and he's a match for Anakin and Obi-Wan at the same time.
[A similar kind of thing happened in the most recent episode of Rebels I watched. And it's one of the things I have an issue with in The Force Awakens.]

But aside from that -- it is actually a small thing in this show because I don't remember it happening any other time -- this is an episode that probably shouldn't be missed. This whole arc shouldn't be missed.

And, well, I'd like to say more than that, but you should really just watch it.



"So much for not starting something."

"This place is all kinds of fun."

Clone Wars -- "Monster" (Ep. 3.13)

-- Evil is not born; it is taught.

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If you haven't watched season three, episode 12, yet, you should go do that before reading this review. While I didn't spoil that episode in the review for it, I will be spoiling it in this review.

The fallout from Dooku's failed attempt to kill Ventress continues.

After her failed revenge assassination attempt against him in the previous episode, an attempt made to look like the Jedi had done it, Dooku, ironically, goes to the Nightsisters for aid in finding a replacement for Ventress. Of course, not knowing that Ventress is still alive, he doesn't know that Ventress has already returned to Mother Talzin and that they have already formed a plot against him. He is, in effect, playing into their hands.

Darth Maul's origins are never explained or elaborated on in the movies, but we find out here that Maul was one of the Nightbrothers of Dathomir. Talzin convinces Dooku that he needs one of Maul's kin, one of his brothers, as his new assassin. Mother Talzin will provide just the right one.

And, so, we are introduced to Savage Opress, a literal one-man (um, alien) killing machine. And, still, Mother Talzin is the more scary of the two.