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Monday, April 15, 2013

The Mandalore Plot

The soldiers of "Death Watch." They are dressed in Mandalorian armor,
which should remind you of Boba Fett.  Click to embiggen. Yes, this is
an actual screenshot from the Clone Wars and not a painting. The
animation is really THAT good. NOTE: this is not from the episode I'm
talking about. It's just a really cool screen grab. Dude on the throne is
Darth Maul (this is from season 5) Guy without a helmet in front of Maul
is the Governor of Concordia (moon of Mandalore).
"The Mandalore Plot" is the twelfth episode in Season Two of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series, and I think, stands out as a pinnacle of good storytelling. Here's why in a nutshell:

1) Mandalore is a world behaving similar to the nation of Switzerland on Earth. It's neutral. It wants to stay out of the conflict going on between the Separatists (the droid armies and Count Dooku) and the galactic government.

2) Mandalorian armor is the stuff that Boba Fett wears. It's the really cool tight-fitting combat armor that you now see everywhere from G.I. Joe, to first-person shooters, to Iron-Man, to my own books, etc. Just think "athletic young guys wearing sexy battle armor" and you got the picture.
Duchess Satine. The headress she wears smacks of Queen Amidala
in episode 1: The Phantom Menace. Anyway, I really got to like her (more so
than Amidala). I think it had to do with the fact that her love to Obi-Wan
never seemed forced because let's face it, Lucas had to get Anakin and
Amidala together in like the screen time of two hours flat.
3) Mandalore is ruled by a woman by the name of Duchess Satine. Satine is beautiful, smart, bold, and a really charismatic character. And she becomes a staple in the series, appearing in many episodes because Obi-Wan Kenobi ends up falling in love with her. Yes, the Clone Wars cartoon series is the only place we actually see what Obi-Wan's life could have been because it's never revealed in the movies that he loved a woman.

4) "The Mandalore Plot" is a mystery/thriller that unfolds intricately and weaves its way into other storylines that pass from episode to episode. I like that. We also get a recurring villain in the Governor of Concordia (moon of Mandalore).

Here's a summary for you on what happens in the episode:

Obi-Wan arrives on Mandalore and meets Duchess Satine (of course he thinks she's pretty groovy looking). Satine tells Obi-Wan of a rogue group of Mandalorians called Death Watch who may be responsible for terrorist attacks on a Republic cruiser. They are criminals hiding out on the moon Concordia.

Death Watch launches a terrorist attack on Mandalore and both Obi-Wan and Satine chase down a man responsible who tries to jump to his death rather than be interrogated. A few seconds before he bites it, he whispers some last words to the Duchess in the dialect of Concordia.

Below is the short video clip wherein you see the explosion done by the terrorist group, Death Watch, and a conversation between Obi-Wan and Duchess Satine. Again, the animation is amazing.
So Satine and Obi-Wan pay a visit to Concordia. She goes to dinner with the Governor of the moon wearing a wire in her ear through which she can hear Obi-Wan (women are so duplicitous). Meanwhile he goes to investigate a "non-operational" mine. Obi-Wan gets captured by Death Watch, Satine hears it, and goes off to save him! It turns out that the Governor is the leader of Death Watch and he and Obi-Wan battle lightsaber vs. darksaber in a duel (of course Obi-Wan wins). The Governor escapes though and orders his Death Watch to kill them both. Obi-Wan and Satine escape Concordia to Mandalore safely, and despite the evidence that the Separatists are aiding Death Watch, Satine insists on Mandalore staying neutral.
Obi-Wan protecting his babe, Satine, who's hiding up on the rocks behind
him. He's facing off against the Governor wielding a darksaber pictured
below.
The Governor of Concordia. In his hands is the afore-mentioned darksaber.
I've no idea how it's different than a lightsaber. Maybe Andrew will stop
by and let us all know in a comment. I do kind of dig the Gov's mohawk.

35 comments:

  1. Weird how CN cancelled all their best cartoons in one go. I hope the replacements are as good.

    mood
    Moody Writing

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  2. The show did have a unique style of animation.

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  3. My son loves this stuff!
    Dani @ Entertaining Interests
    #warriorminion

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  4. The darksaber's different humming sound was pretty cool.

    Mandalores always get the cool toys. Jet packs, gauntlet flame thrower, and missile launcher.

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  5. Is a darksaber made out of dark matter? Though according to Futurama it would be pretty heavy then.

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  6. We are worlds away in our knowledge. This is interesting. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    Deanna
    www.punkndeanna.blogspot.com

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  7. Those graphics are sick! You are doing a great job breaking these down Michael :)

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  8. The animation is spot on... very cool!

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  9. The intricacies and imagination behind the Star Wars empire absolutely amazes me. And how do you find the time to watch all these shows!?

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  10. I am so going to miss this series. They have canceled clone wars and lucasarts. Wonder where the axe will fall next. My bet: comics.

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  11. I feel smarter now. Especially since you used the word duplicitous. :)

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  12. I'm just here to watch the cool animation and read everyone else's comments. (;

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  13. "mandalore" - that word is like a chocolate in my mouth....

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  14. Very cool. I love the complexity of these plots. I really need to catch up on the show.

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  15. All this Star Wars talk reminds me of SWTOR - the Star Wars MMO from Bioware that came out last year. It was one of the worst investments ever made by a company as it cost over $200 million to make and although 2 million people bought the game for $60, few of them stayed long. When EA's investors realized this, the stock dropped to half its value. It was a definite factor why their CEO to lost his job last month (plus SimCity).

    Despite its flaws, the early game for SWTOR is really good. Anyone interested in a good Star Wars game should try the first 10 - 20 levels. The first few planets are amazing though the writing gets repetitive after that. The best part is the game is free to play from level 1 to 50 so the only investment is time.

    I created an account for my nephew and when the mood strikes, we've taken a few trips through the galaxy with me controlling the mouse and him hitting the buttons. One thing I discovered is that 8 year old boys tend to the dark side but I expect most people that have had 8 year old boys already knew that.

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  16. Awesome to see another strong female character in a leadership position. And it's funny that Obi-Wan was hot for Satine. :D

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  17. I am so shocked that my house of sci-fi men does not watch this!

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  18. Did you know that there was also an intended fling between Qui-Gon and Anakin's mother? Except for his hand on her shoulder in one scene, all of that got cut out.

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  19. You won at life today (see Nathan Bransford's blog).

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  20. I probably should have known there was a whole level of back story I could get from cartoons, but I didn't... in my defense, if it were Harry Potter, I'd totally know. Also in my defense, I hold you responsible for totally sucking me into Game of Thrones (TV and books both). This means my obsession with and unproductive activity is currently all spoken for...

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  21. I knew, know nothing of this, talk about out of it. Love the story line with the added romance! I thought it was all about war and more war, with just a hint of relationship to carry the story along. Thanks for setting me straight!

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  22. Wow love the idea of an ObiWan romance with the Duchess!!

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  23. "Embiggen" is a word they only use in Springfield. Are you a curiously yellow individual?

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  24. Go Obi-Wan! Duchess Satine sounds like my kind of character.

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  25. It's about time Obi-wan had a woman.

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  26. So cool to find out that Obi-Wan has a back story that includes falling in love and what the lady is like. I really find it interesting that someone like Lucas could create a whole galaxy of people and stories that other writers can now expand on. I can also see how these stories influence your own, Michael darlin'.

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  27. I love the body armor concept that you've used so well in your books.

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  28. I have to agree that the animation looks amazing. Glad to know that Obi-Wan had a life outside of the Jedi. I wonder if he had any kids?

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  29. Hey, Mike,
    Howdy! How you remember all this stuff is beyond me.

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  30. I'm still lost, but that sounded an awful lot like Ewan McGregor.

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  31. Fascinating. One of these days I'll have to get to that episode (and perhaps the series).

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  32. I'd love to be in a room while you discussed this with my son (in a child friendly way). You two would talk for hours.

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