Friday, April 12, 2013

Kit Fisto and the Lair of Grievous

Jedi Master Kit Fisto and his padawan Nahdar Vebb (the fish-faced dude with
the blue lightsaber). Click to Embiggen for detail. This is not an illustration.
It is a screenshot from the actual episode. Yes, the Clone Wars animation
frickin' rocks. It's the best I've ever seen in a t.v. series.
Kit Fisto was a Nautolan (the name comes from a nautilus sea creature, because he has tentacles on his head) Jedi Master. During the Clone Wars his padawan Nahdar Vebb got killed by General Grievous. Kit often got deployed on water worlds, because he had the ability to breathe underwater.

Kit's own life ended abruptly fighting Darth Sidious alongside Mace Windu in Revenge of the Sith. And no, the part where Kit defends himself basically lasts five seconds. I always thought that was b.s., but I guess Lucas just really wanted Darth Sidious to come across as someone you cannot mess with unless you are Yoda or Mace Windu or Darth Vader. Those are the only three people that ever stood a chance against him. Sigh. Imagine if Mace and Yoda had showed up in Revenge of the Sith to arrest Palpatine instead of Kit and some Jedi that I don't even recognize. I think the movies would have ended up different for sure.

Anyway, back to the Cartoon Networks: The Clone Wars and the role Kit Fisto plays.

Kit shows up in the episode "The Lair of Grievous", which is episode 10 of season 1 and entirely excellent. Here's the blurb from it:

Viceroy Gunray escapes!
En route to Coruscant to stand trial
for war crimes, evil Separatist leader
Nute Gunray has broken free of his
Jedi escort. With the help of Count
Dooku's sinister agents, the villainous
viceroy has made a daring getaway.

Alerted to the bold prison break,
Jedi Master Kit Fisto has traced the
stolen ship to a remote system,
hoping to recapture Gunray and
return him to justice.

Kit and his padawan follow the tracking beacon to the planet Vassek, but Nute is gone. However, in cowardly Nute style, Gunray has left behind a gloating hologram which then transforms into a hologram of Dooku. Dooku then says, "You can't have Gunray, but I've got an alternative prize for you." The "alternative prize" ends up being General Grievous who really is quite a badass robot with multiple limbs and multiple lightsabers. A battle ensues in which General Grievous uses the fortress on the planet to his advantage.
General Grievous makes a pretty good bad guy, I think. Click to Embiggen.
Grievous and Kit play a cat and mouse game. The general sits in the control room and slowly whittles away at Fisto's clone support and then gets Kit separated from his padawan. Grievous makes short work of Kit's apprentice. Below, I've embedded a clip from the episode showing Kit Fisto fighting Grievous. It's a pretty sweet lightsaber battle and really shows how great the animation is. I like the two lightsaber fighting style. It just looks awesome. If you are a fan of Star Wars, you really should take the time to watch this clip.
Come back tomorrow for my post on Jedi Master Luminara Unduli (she's one of my favorites).

43 comments:

  1. I don't know much about this series, but I'm sure getting interested in it because of you. :-)

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  2. The Star Wars universe has some great character designs. And then there's Jar Jar.

    mood
    Moody Writing

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  3. I watched the video and agree, the animation is very good. R2 manages to be in everything Star Wars. He needs to star in his own movie.

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  4. Just stopping by for my daily dose of all things Str Wars. This is awesome.

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  5. You're right. The animation in that clip is awesome.

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  6. I thought that blurb was a poem. At least it's in the right format.

    They should have made an animated series based on the original Star Wars movies. Then I might've watched. None of the prequel characters were very interesting.

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  7. >sigh<
    Poor Kit.
    I love his first appearance in the original shorts.

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  8. I thought I used to be a Star Wars fan, but you're showing me how much more there is to the Star Wars universe. I need to check out The Clone Wars at some point.

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  9. What a super video! Loved the deus ex machina at the end. That dramatic device still works after thousands of years!

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  10. There's so much to love about Star Wars. That video was awesome!

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  11. It's so interesting to see how the original Star Wars has spun off. Fans are lucky because there's so much out there.

    But nobody can replace the Han Solo on screen from the original trilogy.

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  12. I don't know a thing about this series but the characters sound/look fantastic.

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  13. It's so intense! Best of the weekend to you, Michael:)

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  14. That is a killer scene. You would think General Grievous would win that one hands down, but Kit is beyond impressive. I love that smirk and then leap onto the ship. COOL!

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  15. I don't know diddlysquat about Star Wars but I'm enjoying learning about it. Call me the Star Wars Virgin.

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  16. Hmm, I wonder if Kit is distantly related to Davy Jones...all those tentacles...

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  17. I love the Star Wars films, just not all the spin off stuff like merchandise, games, cartoons.

    Sorry!

    I can't wait for the next three new films though!

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  18. Hope you are enjoying the A to Z challenge! Just stopped by to cheer you on. :D

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  20. I often perk up at the mention of holograms. They seem like a futuristic sci-fi kind of technology, but I wonder if they'd ever become an everyday household item during our lifetime.

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  21. That's an awesome clip. You're right--the animation is really good!

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  22. More weird creatures!
    Have a great weekend!

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  23. I love that you're giving this series a thorough study. It deserves it.

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  24. The animation really is amazing. Can't wait what you've got lined up next.

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  25. Is this on Netflix. I'm starting to think I must see it.

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  26. ...the part where Kit defends himself basically lasts five seconds. I always thought that was b.s., but I guess Lucas just really wanted Darth Sidious to come across as someone you cannot mess with unless you are Yoda or Mace Windu or Darth Vader.

    This made me think of some making-of show I saw about a movie (The Rock I think, but if not that then something similar) and they talked about how the military went in and got captured in next to no time. They explained that that was not how a professional group would go in and secure such a place, but due to storytelling constraints, they did the stupid thing to get the military out of the way.

    I think that's probably what happened in RotS. It would have taken time away from other story developments if they had given that battle the time it really deserved.

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  27. Sweet!!! Great post! Lightsabre fighting is one of my favorite kinds of sword-fighting.

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  28. The clip was all you said it was. Waaay cool!

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  29. So many things I never knew existed! ;-) you rock, Mike. I miss chatting with you.

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  30. Kit Fisto is such a great name. Loved the clip!

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  31. Kit Fisto is one of my FAVES. Yeah, I agree, he totally got screwed out of an awesome death.

    I love how he always has to grin. This is why I love the CW - you get to learn more about these characters we love.

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  32. The animation really does make this scene!

    Thanks Michael for sharing.

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  33. Out of my league, hmm, I think I am.

    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

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  34. Great video Michael. Thanks for sharing it. Has given me an idea for a character in my book ;)

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  35. In one of the Clone Wars cartoons...before the series...they featured Kit Fisto and he was bad @$$! A very cool character :)

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  36. This is awesome and I am sending it on to my son and grandsons who are passionate Star Trek followers.

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  37. Dude, I know I'm obscenely weird, but "Kit Fisto" sounds like a porn star. Sorry, really couldn't help myself, there. :-D
    Some Dark Romantic

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  38. Such great characters that all came to naught in the films. I hate those films even more as I read your posts on these warriors.

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