Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Eminence (5.14) Preview

What is better than Sith and Mandalorians? Sith and Mandalorians together!

Tune into this week's Star Wars: The Clone Wars to see part two of Season 5's Darth Maul: Shadow Collective arc.

These episodes will be some of the darkest and most dramatic of the series.  Episode 5.14 "Eminence" is the second part of a four part arc. The first episode was moved into the season premier slot, so you may want to go back and watch "Revival" before Saturday.

The other two episodes in the arc are "Shades of Reason" and "The Lawless." Stuff really kicks into high gear in these final two episodes and some rather dramatic fates are revealed.

Jedi Fortune Cookie for "Eminence":

"One vision can have many interpretations."Savage and Maul forge an alliance with Death Watch to target a common enemy: Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Video Preview #1:


Video Preview #2:


SOURCE The Clone Wars Official Facebook Page

Starwars.com Member Exclusive TCW Season 5 Darth Maul Arc Preview

Membership has it's benefits.

If you sign up for an on-line membership at Starwars.com you can now view an exclusive video clip from an episode of the upcoming Darth Maul arc.  

The video can be found HERE.

The video features an introduction by Darth Maul actor Sam Witwer and shows a scene in which Maul, Opress, and Pre Vizsla are appearing before the Hutt Grand Council on Nal Hutta.  

Hutt Grand Council as seen in Season Three's "Hunt for Ziro"

It appears that our sometimes hero and sometime villain band of bounty hunters, Sugi, Embo and  Dengar are working security for the Hutts.  Most likely scenario is that Maul is present to attempt to convince the Hutts to follow him and negotiations aren't going very well. Facing the bounty hunters and Hutt thugs, Maul, Opress, and Vizsla a retreat and are pursued as the clip ends. 

Just a tease of what is in the video clip...

SOURCE: Starwars.com

Clone Wars Season 5: Darth Maul Arc Episode Titles Revealed

Pablo Hidalgo's Star Wars: The Essential Reader's Companion released Tuesday contains a section entitled, "Spotlight: The Clone Wars Adaptations."

This section talks about five Clone Wars books that adapted episodes from the series. Included in this discussion is Jason Fry's The Clone Wars: Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy which is due out in January 2013.

Fry's book adapts four episodes of TCW series including the series premiere "Revival" which aired this past Friday.

The other three episodes in the Darth Maul Crime Lord arc are "Eminence," "Shades of Reason," and "The Lawless."

It seems likely that "The Lawless" is the episode we have seen clips from in the Season Five trailer with Darth Sidious versus Maul and Opress.

I would expect we see these three episodes after the TCW winter break.

Stay tuned to Lightsaber Rattling as we learn more about Darth Maul's master plan.

Clone Wars Season 5 Trailer Speculation: Darth Maul & Savage Opress Arc

Sith, Bounty Hunters, Jedi, oh my!

We have already taken a look at two of the three story arcs previewed in the Disney Star Wars Weekends Season Five Trailer.  Now lets dive into the Sith.

We all know that Savage is the less chatty of the the duo, so it is fitting that all three lines we get in the trailer from the pair are spoken by Darth Maul.  In the order that they appear in the trailer, Maul says:

"We are brothers, true Lords of the Sith." 

"I serve no one." 

"Our combined strength will be rewarded when Kenobi, that Sith pretender Dooku, and all our enemies will fall."

We have a number of distinct scenes involving the brothers in the trailer, no doubt they are greatly out of order.

Scene 1: Opress and Maul descending landing ramp on a planet with smoke billowing in the background.  Next we see the pair involved in a battle either inside a ship or inside a building where Maul force chokes and throws a Twi'lek.

Scene 2: Maul speaking line #3 followed by a lightsaber duel of Maul and Obi-Wan on what looks like the Lion King's Pride rock on an unknown planet with smoke (presumably from a ship/speeder crash) in the background.

Scene 3: Dooku at his mansion on Serenno, Opress slashing his lightsaber in the dark, then Maul and Opress dueling some unknown Jedi on the same planet where Maul and Obi-Wan dueled in earlier clip.

Scene 4: Followed by shots of Sugi and Dengar blasters firing and Maul and Opress deflecting blaster bolts.

Scene 5: Next we have a scene of Anakin on the back of a speeder on a snow covered planet protecting two dark haired humans from Embo, who is snowboarding using his hat.  This scene is the one that may not be part of the overall Maul/Opress arc, the reason I include it is that Embo is in both clips and while I wouldn't be against it, I would be a bit surprised if Embo features prominently in two separate story arcs.  The other reason I include it is that it is an odd clip that doesn't seem to be connected to either the Mandalorian arc or the Ahsoka/Lux/Onderon arc.

Scene 6: Obi-Wan wielding two blue lightsabers, followed by a quick cut of Maul toying with a fallen enemy using lightsaber slashes against the floor around what looks like Sugi. Why do I get the feeling that the unnamed Jedi dueling Savage Opress above loses that battle and Obi-Wan ends up with his/her lightsaber? I certainly hope Sugi survives.

Scene 7: We then see Embo engaged in hand to hand combat with Savage Opress until Opress caches him with a force punch to the helmet that sends him across the room.

Scene 8: Opress igniting his double-bladed lightsaber as a trio of aliens are at a table, one of them begins to rise and Opress throws his saber at the central alien.  Maul's face is superimposed between the appearance of Opess igniting the saber and throwing it. Over at the Star Wars Report, I had a post speculating on the direction Darth Maul's story arc would take in Season Five of The Clone Wars.  This speculation was based on the description for a Scholastic book, "Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy" written by Jason Fry.  The description of that book states:

"For the first time ever, Scholastic is publishing Star Wars Clone Wars... based off the hit Cartoon Network TV show, viewed by over 2.4 million every week! 

Our story will follow the highly anticipated return of Darth Maul--the infamous villain of Episode I: The Phantom Menace--whose popularity rivals that of Boba Fett. When Darth Maul reunites with his brother, Savage Opress, can even Obi-Wan Kenobi stop him before he rallies the criminal underworld to his cause?" ~ Edelweiss Link

Based on the fact that we are dealing with the criminal underworld and the fact that the three characters clothing is vaguely similar to Prince Xizor's robes, I have been speculating that these are the new heads of Black Sun that replaced Alexi Garyn whom Darth Maul hunted and executed on Darth Sidious' orders in the Dark Horse Comic Darth Maul #3 and #4. I would also note that the pattern on the wall is vaguely similar to  the Black Sun logo inverted.

It would make sense that if Maul is trying to gain control over the criminal underworld that he would go after the biggest criminal organization, i.e. Black Sun.

What do we make of all this?

Maul and Opress certainly know how to pick their enemies.  Both the Jedi and the "other" Sith, Dooku and Palpatine will be gunning for them in Season Five.  For the Jedi the motive is obvious, they need to stop these two monsters.  For Dooku and Palpatine, the motivation is to remove these destabilizing forces from the chess board. The Chancellor and the leader of the Separatists are playing a very delicate game with the Clone Wars and the fact that their is this now alternate branch on the Banite Sith tree poses a risk to that balance and a threat to the Grand Plan.

I believe that Dooku, who we have seen deal with the bounty hunters directly in Season Four will be hiring the bounty hunters based on Palpatine's orders to hunt down Maul and Opress. At the same time we have Obi-Wan hunting after the pair. My best guess is that both Obi-Wan's Jedi shuttle and the bounty hunters led by Sugi are in pursuit of Maul/Opress' turtle-ship, all three ships are damaged and crash land on a planet or one ship is damaged and believed destroyed and the other two ships arrive in close proximity to each other.

Could this planet be one of Black Suns Outer Rim hideouts?  It would seem to make sense if Opress/Maul where intercepted on their way to decapitate Black Sun's leadership.  Perhaps what we see happen is that in a multi-part battle first the unknown Jedi is killed and Obi-Wan is injured.  Maul and Opress head towards their targets, while the bounty hunters continue pursuit and engage them.  This is it ends up with Sugi vs. Maul and Embo vs. Opress.  Opress incapacitates and possibly kills Embo, while Maul is about to kill Sugi when Obi-Wan shows up with his two lightsabers.  Obi-Wan engages Maul in battle and forces him out of the hideout onto the rock outcropping in an epic duel.  Meanwhile Opress continues to his targets and is successful in eliminating them.  Opress then commandeers a vehicle and hovers over the outcropping as Maul leaps into the vehicle and the escape, leaving Obi-Wan looking up impotently.

I am still not sure how the Anakin-Embo scene fits in or even if it does.  It is also possible that the Obi-Wan vs. Maul and bounty hunters vs. Maul/Opress are from separate episodes or arcs, but I think my theory works overall.

What do you think?

May the 4th Be With You: The Clone Wars: Darth Maul Season 5 Preview Image

Looky looky at what Lucasfilm posted on Facebook:

May we get a The Clone Wars Season 5 Trailer on May the 4th?

SOURCE: http://www.facebook.com/StarWarsTheCloneWars

My latest Clone Wars Season 5 Speculation on The Star Wars Report: Darth Maul: Underworld Crime Lord

Please head over to SWR and check out my overactive imagination about where Darth Maul's story could go in Season Five of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Click Image below for LINK: 

Battle Meditation Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode 4.22 "Revenge"

So this Darth Maul guys is pretty cool.  

"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. 

Direct Link to Watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Episode 4.22 "Revenge"

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. 

Battle Meditation Review: Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode 4.20 Bounty

Remind anyone else of ESB?

The Clone Wars takes one part western train robbery, one part Japanese Ninja flick, and six parts Bounty Hunter to make one intoxicating brew.

"Who we are never changes, who we think we are does."An aimless Asajj Ventress joins a team of bounty hunters under the leadership of young Boba Fett. On an alien world, they undertake a dangerous but profitable mission that tests the limits of their skills, and the strength of Asajj's character.

It really must be the gravitational pull of the twin suns of Tatooine that pulls all the riff-raff to the point farthest from the bright center of the galaxy.  Ventress follows in the footsteps of other such riff-raff and ends up at the Cantina, but when you are a hot looking bald former Sith, its hard to enjoy your drinks alone.  One thing leads to another and the Cantina claims another victim. Fortunately for Ventress this spur of the moment murder leads her into the company of Boba Fett's band of merry bounty hunters.

Ventress joins the gang that includes Dengar and the bounty hunters must transport a mysterious package aboard the monorail.

Some nifty looking ninjas

That is when things get awesome and the space ninjas attack and things get crazy.  Turns out the mysterious package is actually a kidnapped girl who is going to be the evil Lord Otua Blank 's forced bride.  Ventress discovers the nature of the cargo and makes the choice to free the girl, Pluma and puts young Boba Fett in his place.  When Lord Otua Blank opens his bridal chest it turns out his bride is a bound and gagged Fett. Ventress extorts Pluma's brother Krismo for some credits but ultimately lets the siblings to depart.

Boba in a Box

Once this episode got going it was non-stop action.  I loved the classic train robbery motif being turned on its head with the bounty hunters instead of trying to steal the cargo aboard the train, they are trying to protect it.

It was also fun to see Dengar (Simon Pegg) flirting with Asajj Ventress, who would have thought that the old fat dude in the turban was a ladies man in his youth? If you enjoyed Dengar's inclusion in TCW I suggest you check out his starring role in the SWEU novel The Bounty Wars: The Mandalorian Armor.  If you have read this novel this particular episode was interesting in giving more depth to the background relationship of Boba Fett and Dengar.

Latts was a very cool looking character (made me think of DC Comic's Poison Ivy), but her go to lasso move was a bit predictable.

Such beautiful animation

C-21 Highsinger was a very cool looking new model of droid who really knows how to clear a room.

Over all this was a fun romp that served for further character growth for Asajj Ventress.  Ventress seems to be much more in control and centered at the end of the episode, finally comfortable in her own skin.  In retrospect this may be the first time in TCW where Asajj forms a plan and sees it through to successful completion.  Whether it is the Jedi or Dooku, it seems like Ventress' plans are always thwarted, it seems like she always fails.  In this episode she made up her mind independently in the middle of the operation when she learned about Pluma.  Perhaps Asajj saw a bit of herself in young Pluma, having no control of her own destiny and in freeing Pluma she helped heal some of her own internal psychic wounds and finally found that internal emotional control that she always lacked.

The episode also shows that as much of a bad bad man that Boba Fett will end up being later in life, he is still a bit out of his depth against some of the more powerful individuals in the galaxy.  Asajj steals his lunch money and throws him in a locker.

The curious thing we see also developing in this episode is Asajj forging her own personal morality.  While the episode starts out with her killing in cold blood, it ends with her showing mercy.  Even though she extracts a monetary price for her mercy, I think she would have done it even without the credits.

We know in the TCW comics continuity would suggest that at some point Ventress returns to Dooku's service, but I have a feeling TCW will not be going in that direction.  Ventress is no longer a Sith acolyte and no longer a Nightsister, what she becomes still remains to be seen, but I look forward to following her journey.

Rating: Bounty gets 8.0 unmarked credits.  Great visuals and action in this wild ride.

Direct Link to Watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars Episode 4.20 "Bounty"

Next Time on Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Brothers (4.21)

"A fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished."The dark warrior Savage Opress is on a quest to find his long-lost brother. Could Darth Maul truly be alive, after more than a decade since his gruesome bisection at the blade of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Savage voyages into the depths of a twisted planet to find whatever became of the fallen Sith Lord.

What is Mother Talzin's angle in all this? I guess we will have to stay tuned to find out.

Link to StarWars.com High Quality Preview Clip from Brothers

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Four Darth Maul finale trailer images

"This world will burn!" ~Darth Maul

Stuff is about to start getting crazy on The Clone Wars.  Check out images from the new Lucasfilm trailer for Darth Maul's return to TCW.  Commentary with each image will follow later. 

 "I have been waiting, fueled by my singular hatred for you." ~Darth Maul

 "It is over Sister." ~Mother Talzin
"No one remains.  It is all my fault." ~Asajj Ventress

 " Fear you are in danger, I do. From the dead, an old enemy has awakened seeking vengence." ~Yoda to Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 "His capture is far to important" ~Mace Windu

SOURCE: USA TODAY