Monday, February 4, 2013

The entire fight between Palpatine, Darth Maul, and Savage Opress should leave you awestruck

This weekend's season finale of The Clone Wars reminds me continuously why 1) I wish I had this kind of programming when I was a kid and 2) why Star Wars is so cool and can continuously reinvent itself. For those of you who have kept up with the storyline, Darth Maul and his apprentice/brother Savage Opress (it falls to him to continue the legacy of the lightsaber staff) have taken over Mandalor from Duchess Satine. Remember: Darth Maul only got cut in half when he battled Qui-Gon Jinn in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. With the technology available in the Star Wars universe, he now has a cybernetic lower half that is hinted about via a belt of shiny illuminated buttons that girds his waist.

I first spoke of season 5 in this post located HERE. And as predicted in that post, my favorite scene happened in "The Lawless" which premiered this weekend.
Obi-Wan and Duchess Satine (the ruler of Mandalor)
have found themselves in this situation a lot.
Season 5 Episode 16 called "The Lawless" ended with a spectacular lightsaber battle between Palpatine, Darth Maul, and Savage Opress. Needless to say, it did not go well for either of these upstarts. I had a few favorite lines, most of them spoken by Palpatine.

Palpatine: (Upon admitting that he is impressed with what Darth Maul has accomplished he hurls both him and his apprentice against the windows of the throne room cracking the transparisteel glass and says) "You have become a rival! (thus starting the lightsaber duel to the death).
Palpatine: (Upon killing Darth Maul's apprentice) "There is only one reality of the sith: there can only be two, and you have been replaced." At that point, he just cooks Darth Maul with force lightning which reminds one of the same treatment Luke Skywalker received at the hands of the Emperor in the film "Return of the Jedi."

A ton of things happened in this episode. Duchess Satine (who is in love with Obi-Wan and vice-versa and also a major character through at least three seasons) was imprisoned by Darth Maul who is now in control of the crime lord syndicate. She did manage to get a message off to Obi-Wan. Of course, Yoda and the Council of Jedi's can't do anything because Mandalor is a neutral territory, and the senate won't get involved in a territory that has openly declared it's neutrality. This doesn't stop Obi-Wan from going to the rescue. Already a great jedi by this point, Obi-Wan reminds us of why he's such a great hero and also, that he's not immune to love.  All is in vain because this happened (a difficult scene for those in love with the series):
I wanted to scream "Nooo! You can't kill Satine! You bastards!" I hate it when my favorite characters die.

So yeah, Darth Maul using a black lightsaber killed Satine right in front of Obi-Wan, and he couldn't save her (I think that's rather cool, because previously I'd only known of three colors for the lightsabers). It's also quite poetic because now Obi-Wan has lost two people he loved to Darth Maul (his former master went that way as well, and he couldn't save him either).

Obi-Wan also finds out who Duchess Satine's sister is (leader of the rebels on Mandalor). In a way, Mandalor is a mirror of the Old Republic's fate. It's completely overrun by criminals who ultimately are enslaved by the sith in the form of Darth Maul. Although by episode end, it's essentially headless as far as we know unless Darth Sidious wants to use Mandalor somehow in his plots within plots. By far the most spectacular part of the episode though (minus the emotional drama) is when Palpatine took out two powerful sith all by himself because he views them as rivals.

I love how the extensiveness of the universe that Lucas created essentially makes for infinite storylines with characters and villains from the original series popping up all over the place to give credit to what I'm watching.

Below in the 4 minute YouTube clip is the most exciting part of "The Lawless" in which you see the entire interaction between Darth Maul, his apprentice, and Darth Sidious (Palpatine). If hearing about the death of Duchess Satine didn't tug at your heart strings and make you fall madly in love with this cartoon series because of its emotional content, then the entire fight between Palpatine, Darth Maul, and Savage Opress should leave you awestruck  because this is a Saturday morning cartoon. Impressed? Nods head.
Are you watching "The Clone Wars?" If so, what have you thought thus far of season 5? Does the crispy clean super-detailed HD make you think "boy, kids sure have it nice these days with mp3 players, smart phones, and high definition so clear it's better than what we got in movies in the nineties).

Have a great Monday my writer friends.

27 comments:

  1. The illustrations look beautiful. I hate losing characters I love! On the other hand, great loss makes for a better development of character, right?

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  2. Ah heck, another woman falls just to gain sympathy for the MC. Okay, so I've done it too, still I did hate doing it. When I killed my character, I cried and cried...

    I'm such a sap!

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  3. Mostly, I had to skim through. We just watched season 4 and months and months to go until season 5 is released on disc.

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  4. Um, nope, haven't seen it. But a black light saber? Cool. And I saw a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day at Target yesterday that had a black velvety box with a rhinestone Darth Vader embedded on top. Says love, don't you think? :D

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  5. So not to totally nerd it up or anything but there are actually dozens of lightsaber colors (the color is derived from the crystal placed in the hilt). Also, the saber Maul used was likely a darksaber, not a normal lightsaber. I'm holding back from going off on a huge lightsaber tangent, but yeah :)

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  6. Love Clone Wars, and I watch it with the kid units. They all love it too. Nothing like this when I was a kid, but I'm glad I get to enjoy it.

    I want a black lightsaber!

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  7. @Alex: Fair enough.

    @Brinda: I know, right?

    @Daft: *giggle

    @Yolanda: Fiction writers do love their cliches.

    @Andrew: I understand, brotha.

    @L.G.: I do.

    @CBame: I'd like to know more!

    @Jay: Me too.

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  8. Never seen it---but I do think this kind of animation is beautiful!

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  9. the ruler of Mandalor? Pfftt... somebody should inform the duchess that me is the only ruler of that realm!

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  10. Kids today are going to be our rulers tomorrow. The longer we can keep them sedated with shiny gadgets the better.

    mood

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  11. I saw a few of these a couple years back. Sounds like I should watch the entire series and get caught up to speed. :-)

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  12. Awesome. I haven't watched it - but I plan on catching up on it. Really. I'm just not sure when.

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  13. Haven't gotten into the CW yet but it looks really good. I'm sure my kids and I would love it, but I'll give them a couple more years before letting them watch it. They have time, especially my youngest.

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  14. I need to watch Clone Wars almost as much as you need to play KOTOR.

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  15. Very interesting how many people said they never saw it. I saw parts of that last episode with child 2 and child 4 (AKA the husband). They did a great job on the animation. Palpatine looks just like the character from the movie. CW a little too much all fighting all the time for me.

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  16. ...by that I mean CW IS a little too much fighting.

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  17. I've watched Clone Wars on and off. But DAYM i wish i was watching it more! This episode sounds right up my alley!

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  18. I haven't watched the show, but man, I hate when a favorite character dies.

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  19. It looks interesting if I could just get the time. :)

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  20. I've never watched it, but maybe I'll take a look.

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  21. I was not aware of this show. Not like I have time for a new show right now...

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  22. I've never seen this, and didn't even know about it. Since I'm a fan of Star Wars, I may need to look into it.

    I don't watch a lot of TV.

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  23. This sounds like a really cool show. I can't believe I'm just now hearing about it. I guess I thought Saturday Morning Cartoons wasn't a thing anymore, or lemme tell ya that's where I'd be every Saturday morning. All the stuff I see on the cartoon network just doesn't engage me like the older shows used to. (I was seriously into Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon for years.)

    I do hate it when they kill characters I love. I've literally stopped watching shows when they kill my favorite character. Still quite angry with the writers of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I did eventually get over it long enough to finish watching the rest of the show, but still upset.

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  24. Can't say I've seen it, but looks interesting...

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  25. How do you keep all these weeklies straight in your mind?

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