Rebels: "Visions and Voices" (Ep. 3.11)

-- "Our futures converge on a planet with two suns."

This episode has so much in it, I hardly know where to begin, especially if you want it without spoilers. Oh, who am I kidding? None of you are going to watch this, so I'll just spoil away!


Ezra is being plagued by visions of Darth Maul... which turn out to be not so much visions as the real thing. Talk about a way to ruin your day! Maul is still stuck on that thing whole Ezra being his apprentice thing. PLUS he wants to know what it was the holocrons were going to reveal to him and Ezra. He REALLY wants to know.

Which leads them back to Dathomir, apparently where Maul has set up shop, in the ruins of the Nightsisters' temple. Or something. And the dead Nightsisters don't really seem that happy... about anything.

Just to ponder, because the episode implies that the Nightsisters are now extinct. But are they? I mean, I never assumed that Maul's group of Nightsisters were all of the Nightsisters, but the episode implies that that is so. Maybe it's the influence of having played Galaxies, but my impression was that the Nightsisters were spread all of the planet in different clans. So now I don't know... Are all of the Nightsisters dead? All of them?
Yeah, I probably won't look into it.

At any rate, they're not happy and are looking for a way to hook themselves back into the land of the living.

And the darksaber shows up.

And Obi-Wan... Well, that's all I'm going to say about that.



"I told her I had a plan."
"Really? And she left anyway?"

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

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

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

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 -- Season Three

When the Clone Wars was conceived as a series, it wasn't meant to be a linear telling of the events of the Clone Wars. It was meant to be a collection of stories of events from the Clone Wars, meaning that the stories told could be from any time during the war since many things were all happening at once. If you've studied closely the Civil War or either of the World Wars, you will know that you can't really study those things linearly. It's more like studying a tapestry. And that's what Clone Wars was meant to be.

Season three is the only season that really makes the attempt to jump around in time; at least, if I'm remembering correctly, that's true. And from what I'm remembering at the time, people didn't respond well to the falling back to the past to tell other stories that weren't told initially. That's too bad, I think, because there is so much there. At any rate, I think season four goes back to a straight linear progression that's never deviated from again.

Unless I'm just not remembering, which is entirely possible. I'm not always all that linear.

This season has a lot of important stuff. When I say important, I mean it's important to the larger Star Wars Universe. Primarily, the Mortis story arc. As I said back in my review of the arc, this trilogy of stories provides more information about the fundamental nature of the Force than we get from any other source. If you're a Star Wars fan, this, being canon material, is a story you should see, whether or not like The Clone Wars itself as a show.

Savage Opress is also introduced in season three. He's the brother of Darth Maul, and his arc is interesting and exciting. And hints at some things that will be revealed later. This story line also deals with the fall from grace of Asajj Ventress and the fallout that happens because of it. Besides Savage, we are also introduced to the Nightsisters, a splinter group of Dark Side Force wielders. They will be back.

Duchess Satine returns for another series of appearances. I didn't like these as much as her appearances in season two, but it's good to see her again.

Tarkin is also introduced as a character in season three, and the groundwork is laid for the later relationship between him and Anakin.

Plus, there's some exploration into the lives of people who have sided with the Separatists. That's an interesting arc and deals with some heavy themes. It's well worth watching.

Overall, season three is a real winner, I think. The only off episode I can think of (without looking back at my reviews) is "Evil Plans." It's entertaining enough, I guess, but it has some real plot issues.

As far as single episodes go, I might have to go with "Clone Cadets" as my favorite, but it's outmatched when you look at some of the story arcs in the season.

Probably, you can still come into season three of Clone Wars without having seen the first two seasons and be just fine bit, seriously, just go watch it. It's a good show, and there are some things you shouldn't miss as a Star Wars fan. Of course, if you're not a Star Wars fan, it really doesn't matter that much.

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

-- Evil is not born; it is taught.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

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.

Clone Wars -- "Nightsisters" (Ep. 3.12)

-- The swiftest path to destruction is through vengeance.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

The first thing I want to say is that Asajj Ventress has a cool star fighter.
Oh, yeah, Ventress is back!

The second thing is that it's nice to be back on Dathomir, kinda like going home. Wait a minute, you say, we've never been to Dathomir. Well, that's true. But Dathomir was one of the planets available for exploration in the old Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG, and the Nightsisters are an enemy I'm familiar with. It's nice to see the home of the rancors finally make its way into Star Wars canon. Even so, The Clone Wars is not Galaxies.

When Asajj Ventress was first introduced, it was without any kind of back story. She just showed up and kind of demanded that Dooku train her (this was back in the original Clone Wars micro series in 2003), which he relented to do after she managed to impress him. Now, after years as Dooku's top assassin and most effective agent, Darth Sidious has decided that she has become a threat.

You know the whole Sith thing, right? There can be only two. During the Clone Wars, those two are Darth Sidious (Palpatine) and Darth Tyranus (Dooku), but Sidious has come to believe that Ventress is becoming strong enough as Dooku's apprentice that Dooku will be able to displace him as the master. For Sith, such displacement means assassination.

So Sidious calls up Dooku on the holophone and tells him to put Ventress down. Period. Prove his loyalty and kill her. Now.

Which is an interesting thing with the Sith, since it's common practice to kill your most powerful agents because they are your most power agents. You know, that's why Palpatine has Anakin kill Dooku rather than just take them both on as his apprentices, and, yeah, there's some history to why this is, but, right now, as far as I know, none of that is canon.

All of that to say that this episode takes us off on a new path in The Clone Wars, a path full of all kinds of interesting things and interesting characters. Oh, and there are a lot of light sabers in this one. It's definitely a must see episode.


"There's a disturbance in the Force."