"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."Savage and Maul, now reunited, pursue Obi-Wan Kenobi in search of revenge, and the Jedi Knight finds himself forced to unite with a surprising ally to defend against the deadly siblings.
I could spend a lot of time dissecting this episode, but realistically just go watch it. This was so much better then last week's episode.
To briefly recap:
Savage takes Maul back to Mother Talzin on Dathomir, who uses her magic to coax the crazy Maul out of the cargo bay to the Nightsister alter and works her magicks on Maul. Talzin's work done she disappears and Maul and Savage stop at Raydonia to slaughter a bunch of innocent victims. Personally I would have just placed a call to the Jedi Temple, but wholesale slaughter probably gets you past the operator quicker.
Obi-Wan decides to go face Maul alone, but conveniently Ventress decides to take a bounty on Savage Opress and ends up arriving just in time to save Obi-Wan's butt. Obi-Wan of course wasn't expecting to face both Maul and Opress and gets his butt all kinds of kicked.
A tag team match breaks out aboard the Zabrak's ship and Obi-Wan and Ventress cut and run, launching in the escape pod for parts unknown. Maul and Opress are left aboard the freighter and use the auxiliary bridge to pilot the ship to their own unknown destination.
I found it interesting that Talzin worked her magicks on Maul, but as soon as he regain consciousness she dissolved into green mist and high tailed it out of town. Was she afraid of the power of a Sith Lord and potentially unpredictable character like Maul, or did she simply have nothing left to contribute at this point. I really wonder about her motivations at this point.
It is cool to see Ventress hanging out with the Bounty Hunters at the Cantina, I dig her purple bounty hunter costume. It reminded me of some bounty hunter in the wild west walking up to the bulletin board and tearing off a wanted poster before going after their targets.
I thought the initial battle between Obi-Wan and Maul and Opress was well done. The animation conveyed the strength advantage that Opress had over Obi-Wan and just how formidable of an adversary he would be. Poor Obi-Wan got knocked out pretty quick, but of course Maul commits the classic villain mistake of toying with his prey and well eventually Obi-Wan manages to escape.
The four way battle aboard the freighter was interesting, I love the banter between Obi-Wan and Asajj and as much as I am sure Obi-Wan would deny it, I think there is some real chemistry between the characters. The battle between Maul and Obi-Wan felt a lot like the Vader-Luke duel aboard the second Death Star, as Obi-Wan slipped briefly into anger and went on the offensive, just like Luke did.
It was interesting to see Obi-Wan come to the realization that he and Asajj were over matched and decide to flee. Of course I am not sure how Obi-Wan knew that the ship's cockpit also was an escape pod, but lets just chalk that up to the Jedi being well read on ship designs.
Where does this epsiode leave these four characters. Obi-Wan and Asajj are together, but Obi-Wan is in a curious position. Logically because of her actions as a Separatist and his role as a Jedi, Obi-Wan should be duty bound to return Asajj to Coruscant and to a Republic prison. On the other hand she just saved his life, so does he do the right thing and drop her off somewhere? It is not like she could completely change and become a Jedi at this point, there is no way the Order would accept her. But perhaps Obi-Wan's long term goal is to redeem Asajj.
It is curious that Savage and Maul don't go after the fleeing escape pod. With the final line of the episode Maul says that he is counting on the Jedi to come hunting for them. What is Maul's first move after this? Does he seek out his former Master? Does he find a place to lay low, access the galactic situation and begin training Savage?
Maul is really a wild card in the series now but it does have me wondering if they are setting up Ahsoka's fate. I wonder much like Obi-Wan sacrificing himself to Vader in Episode IV, if Ahsoka will end up sacrificing herself fighting Maul to save Anakin.
I also wonder if Maul has been significantly weakened in the Force given he has lost half of his body. We seem him in his first attempt to use the Force to summon his lightsaber, struggle a bit. Is this simply being rusty after spending ten years insane with the only likely Force use being instinctual? Or much like Vader, is Maul destined to be a pale imitation of the Sith Lord he should have been? It is interesting that we saw very little Force use overall from Maul, especially no Force Lightning.
Rating: Revenge gets a 10. Tremendous episode, great sound design and visually stunning.
Next time on Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season Five
No preview trailer for Season Five yet. Last year we got a Season Four teaser trailer at WonderCon, but today (Sunday 3/18) is the final day of WonderCon 2012 and with no Star Wars: The Clone Wars programming scheduled for today it seems likely they are saving the trailer for a later convention, perhaps CVI or San Diego Comic-Con.
We do have some very interesting possibilities with the new element of Darth Maul and Savage Opress introduced into the mix. I for one am very curious to see how Palpatine reacts to the return of Maul.
As always stay tuned to Lightsaber Rattling and I will provide you with the latest TCW news, commentary and speculation as we learn more about the future of the show.
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bring it on! i hope i'll be there for the 1st time. ROCK ON SW TCW!
ReplyDeleteObi Wan, you've been defeated like every episode, why won't you die already!....wait, what? they made movies? and he defeats Anakin, the chosen one? you must be joking, 'this' Obi Wan?
ReplyDeleteI like The Clone Wars but I would really like to see an animated series (or movie) geared to a more mature audience. Something along the lines of the SWTOR cinematic trailers... How epic would that be?!
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