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.

Luminara Unduli versus the droid saboteurs of Ilum

Today I want to tell you about one of my favorite secondary characters in the Cartoon Network's The Clone Wars. Her name is Luminara Unduli. She was a Jedi Master and trained Barriss Offee (you can find the post that I did on Barriss located HERE).

First off, Luminara was a complete master of Soresu style combat. In Soresu, a Jedi uses the lightsaber to establish defense. And even if an attack manages to get past a lightsaber's blade, a proper user of Soresu should be able to avoid the blow through bodily contortions. Essentially, Luminara was almost impossible to hit if she was in her fighting stance. Think of a martial art based on the principle of economy of motion. In other words, keeping up constant blade movement to build up momentum, but at the same time conserve energy. Practitioners of Soresu were marathon fighters, using their lightsaber skills to wear down and tire an opponent and take advantage of them when they made mistakes.

Luminara served as a Senior Jedi General in the fading years of the Galactic Republic. She also advised the Jedi High Council, the Supreme Chancellor, and the Galactic Senate.

Luminara Unduli (left) and Barriss Offee (right). Luminara loved Barriss, but
only in a professional way. She was often critical of Anakin who seemed to
cross a line when it came to his own padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Anakin was
always kind of cursed when it came to women, getting too attached, etc.
And we know how that story went. Luminara was always prepared to lose
her padawan, whereas Anakin would have been devastated.

Four months after the Battle of Geonosis depicted in Attack of the Clones, Luminara led Offee to the secret Jedi Temple on the icy world Ilum. This is where the Jedi go to construct their final lightsaber (a right of passage so to speak). During the construction ceremony, Master and Padawan were attacked by cloaked Separatist chameleon droids, which had infiltrated the temple in an attempt to destroy the cavern's precious natural lightsaber crystals. In the destruction of the temple, Barriss and Luminara held up the roof for days with nothing but telekinesis. It's actually a pretty incredibly display of TK and goes beyond anything any of the other Jedi ever did with the same power. I think Barriss and Luminara together had the strongest telekinetic ability out of any of their contemporaries.

Below is the clip of Luminara Unduli versus the droid saboteurs of Ilum. The animation comes from the 2003 Clone Wars series which predates the one with the fantastic animation that I've been raving about for weeks now. If you are a Star Wars fan, you should watch it, because it is the only clip I know of that shows exactly how a lightsaber is assembled and what goes inside it.

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).

Juyo and Vaapad

Mace Windu demonstrating
the Vaapad fighting style.

In my own writing, I like to create my own metals, my own magic systems, and my own races. I suppose that fighting styles are up there too (demons do not go quietly into the night). Here's one from the Clone Wars that caught my eye and probably answers the question that always nagged me: Could Mace Windu defeat the Emperor if Anakin hadn't been a douchebag? The answer is "Yes" because Mace Windu was not only one of the most powerful Jedi, but also the creator of the Vaapad fighting style.

Juyo/Vaapad, a.k.a. "The Way of the Vornskr" is the seventh of seven forms recognized as canon for lightsaber combat by the Jedi Council of the Old Order. Juyo itself was described as the most vicious form of lightsaber combat and was said to involve significant internal focus on the part of the user. Members of the Sith, such as Darth Maul, employed Juyo without reservation. You guys remember how awesome Darth Maul looked, right? Well that's Juyo.

Mace Windu created the style Vaapad from Juyo. He explained it as a state of mind rather than just a fighting style, allowing the wielder to channel his own inner darkness into the duel, and accept the fury of the opponent.

"Six there were for generations of Jedi. The seventh, is not well-known. Powerful form it is. Deadliest of all. But dangerous it is, for its master as well as its opponent. Few have studied. One student alone, to mastery has risen."
                                                          --Yoda

Here's a clip from the 2003 Clone Wars that shows Mace Windu

just being completely awesome. The animation is poor but it's 

really fun to watch. You can kind of see the makings of the 

C.G.I. Series that aired on Cartoon Network years later.

Witnesses of a true practitioner of Juyo say that it is filled with both fury and malignant grace. Skilled combatants of Juyo were said to be able to eviscerate a lone enemy. It's use was controversial among the Jedi Order as many felt it violated the "there is no emotion, there is peace" tenet of the Jedi Code. Have a great Thursday and may the Force be with you.

Ima-Gun Di for the Republic

This is not my "oh" face. I'm upset cause I have no flash to wear and my stapler's missing.

In the third episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars television series' third season, we get to meet Jedi Master Ima-Gun Di. The title of the episode is "Supply Lines."

A Kajain'sa Nikto (yes that's his race and I think someone rolled their face across a keyboard) Ima-Gun Di was so named in order to sound like the phrase "I'm a gonna die" which reflects his fate. Nice, eh?

And you authors out there thought you were so clever with your names. Anyway...

Jedi Master Mace Windu sent "I'm a gonna die" to the planet of Ryloth where he never had much hope (fancy that). Di fought on the ground against the droid army as a bad guy named Wat Tamor led an invasion of the Twi-lek homeworld.

"I'm sooo gonna die for the republic!" Cheesy naming? Well dear reader,
I never said that Star Wars was high brow entertainment. It really is the
"Twilight" for fat nerdy pimpled boys now isn't it? And I chain watched
the episodes thinking "Damn this is gooood" eatin' my popcorn and
channelin' Eddie Murphy's "soul singin'" brotha "Sexual Chocolate"
from "Coming to America" where he sings and the guys in the
audience say, "Damn...that boy's good!"

His last stand happened after he planted explosives in a canyon wall to seal off access points that the droid army could exploit. As the droids made their way around to the only opening (a bottle-necked canyon), the surviving Twi-leks that Di protected escaped without interception because this Jedi stood in the way alongside Captain Keeli and other surviving clone troopers. So the droids came in enmasse and there was a huge slaughter. Di fought valiantly but was inevitably slain as the droids closed in on him, sustaining five direct blaster bolts to the chest during a crescendo of melodramatic music.

Dude was tougher than Boromir (and if you get that reference you are a true nerd).

Ima-Gun Di for the Republic! I'm still snickering about this one. Oh how awful (the people who are behind this franchise made millions for brilliant stuff like that--are you angry yet?). Embedded below is the snippet where Ima-Gun Di makes his last stand. You should watch it and listen to the dramatic music they play as he gets taken down. Oh the death of a hero...so sad.

Hutt Grand Council

Ziro the Hutt going before the Hutt Grand Council in the episode "Hunt for Ziro"

The Clone Wars did for Star Wars canon what the movies simply couldn't do even in six films because the universe is so huge. For me, one of the more intriguing characters was always Jabba the Hutt. I always wanted an answer to the question: where did the Hutts come from? To know this requires a little information borrowed from the Clone Wars Wiki:

The Hutt Grand Council is the governing body of the Hutts. It convenes on the planet Nal Hutta, the capital of Hutt Space. Who knew, right? I never thought the Hutts would have their own planet or even a capital city. Anyway, the council arbitrates disagreements and makes the laws that the Hutts live by and is regarded by other races as "fair" in their rulings.

One member of each clan represents their family's position and criminal enterprises in the Hutt Council. However, not all Hutt clans are allowed a seat on the council, as each clan has to trace their lineage to the Hutt's old homeworld "Varl" to win a seat. During the Clone Wars, the five members of the Hutt Council are Jabba, Gorga, Arok, Oruba, and Marlo. Watch the clip below and see how good the animation really is.

So just like the Jedi High Council, the Hutts had one too...albeit far less athletic. You see the Hutt Council in "Hunt for Ziro," which is the ninth episode of the third season, and again in "Eminence," which is the fourteenth episode of the fifth (and last) season.

Communication by holonet is the only way to talk to someone, even for
a huge space slug like a hutt.

Greedo

The guy on the right is Greedo (in case you didn't know). The animation in this show is
bar none the best I have ever seen from a syndicated cartoon series. Look at the detail.

Greedo is probably the most famous of the bounty hunters to appear in Star Wars canon outside of Boba Fett. And honestly, the only reason everyone liked Boba Fett was because he wore cool looking armor that's now copied by every first-person shooter from Crysis to Halo.

Greedo's race is Rodian and he lived in Mos Espa alongside the young Anakin Skywalker (who became Darth Vader) and he met his end by Han Solo, which is where we get the whole "continuity" controversy that I shall talk about below.

CONTINUITY:

This scene in the Mos Eisley cantina is probably the biggest controversy of the films.

Who shot first?

In the original 1977 release of Star Wars, Greedo did not shoot at Han at all. When Lucas re-released the film in 1997, Greedo gets a badly-aimed shot at Solo before Solo kills him. Lucas said that this change is to enhance Solo's overall heroism. But it pissed a lot of fans off...people who had lived with Han Solo being this complete roguish bad-ass for twenty years. So it forced Lucas to edit it yet again in 2004 to make it so the two shots are almost simultaneous, with Greedo shooting first. Thus Han is still a "hero" because he kills Greedo now in "self-defense" to match up with the morals of an unforgiving public.

Having "shot first" and not out of defense is what most die-hard fans of Han Solo
are so upset about. I personally don't care. It's amazing the implications a few seconds makes.

GREEDO'S APPEARANCE IN CARTOON NETWORK'S THE CLONE WARS:

Greedo takes center stage in the third season of this completely awesome t.v. show during episode four entitled "Sphere of Influence." Here's the plot summary:

Pantora in peril! The newly elected

Chairman of Pantora, Baron Papanoida,

is caught in a deadly political game.

The Trade Federation has blockaded

Pantora and suspended all commerce

with the system. Isolated from the

rest of the Republic, the people of

Pantora are beginning to rally

against the Senate, who have seemed

unsympathetic to their plight.

To make matters worse, Count Dooku

has come forward offering aid if

Pantora joins the Separatist Alliance.

Chairman Papanoida has dispatched

Senator Chuchi to Coruscant with the

hope that she can motivate the Senate

to act in favor of Pantora before

Lott Dod can legitimize the

blockade....

In this particular episode, Papanoida's daughter is kidnapped from their quarters. Papanoida discovers that one of the kidnappers is Greedo because of some blood left at the crime scene. He goes to Tattoine, enters Jabba the Hutt's palace, and traps Greedo. Evidence is presented before Jabba the Hutt and Greedo is forced to take Papanoida to a seedy bar in Mos Eisley where his daughter is kept. Here's a clip of the shootout that ensues.

Have a great Monday.