And now that we are all fully refreshed after an extra week's break from the show, it's back with the reviews. Starting with the first of a 4-part season finale.
Something that really intrigued me in the Nightsisters trilogy was the Nightsister ways, so I liked seeing more of that explored in this episode. The scene with Ventress being turned into a true Nightsister was very interesting. Katie Lucas did a great job exploring character's and giving every character heaps of character development. I'll get to that more later. Has to be said, if Katie Lucas wrote every episode of every season, there would be no flaws with the show. She is THAT good a writer. Arguably better than the maker himself. The talk scene with Dooku and Grievous was a well-directed scene as well. By the way, is it just me, or does Grievous look more like his Revenge of the Sith appearance in that scene? That's just what I thought when I watched it.
The Battle of Dathomir itself was done extremely well. Lots of great action, interesting twists and turns. And for the first time in ages, the commando droids weren't made to look like stupid tinnies. The animation of the explosions was spectacular. It was nice to see the Defoliator tank from season one show up again. I've always felt that ever since they showed a prototype of that tank way back in season 1, they should show a finished version in battle, and it's explosions didn't disappoint. I was kinda disappointed that Lok Durd didn't get a cameo in the tank, but it's not a big deal.
This isn't the first time we've had zombies in the show. It's the fourth time in Star Wars history, in fact. Twice in the EU, twice in this show. We had zombie Geonosians in season 2 as well. These were kind of creepy in a way. I'm not a fan of the fact they don't even really resemble nightsister's, just your everyday zombie, like in that gameplay mode in a couple of Call of Duty games. The idea was nice, but I wasn't too excited about these, as the idea had already been used on the show before. But, I will say, these would make c-c- creepy action figures! PS: This episode wins as well because it's combined of ideas from the 3 seasons before this season. Example's being the Defoliator from season one, zombies from season 2 and Nightsisters from season 3.
One thing that has been hyped up for a long time has been the much anticipated Grievous vs Ventress duel. It was different to what I was expecting, but it was still really good and very enjoyable, if not a bit short. As I would have liked to see it go on a bit longer. The death of that Nightsister, who then told Ventress to save herself, was quite touching. Throughout the series, the powerful General Grievous has been underdone and made to look like a fool. This episode changed all that crap. He held his own in a duel against a strong opponent, killed lots of enemies (including the worthless old witch) at the end. Grievous was redeemed so much in this episode.
This was interesting twist in the entire plot to this episode. Speaking of which, yes, we finally had an episode with a plot in it. About time. With Talzin using her magic to torture Dooku, using a kind of small statue in which to cause Dooku pain. The warts that came onto Dooku's face were quite disgusting, but I understand it was a necessary process to add to the pain. You could really tell how much pain Dooku was going through, as this quote below shows: "Grievous! You must stop Mother Talzin, before she KILLS me." Have to say, reminded me a bit of Albus Dumbledore in the Half-Blood Prince.
This end scene is extremely touching, has to be said. With pretty much all the nightsister's gone, Ventress talks to the last one remaining, Talzin. Now I admit, I wasn't really a Ventress fan until this episode (I neither liked nor disliked her). But I am definitely a fan now. They did her perfectly in this episode, especially this scene, and the voice-acting was great. We are given many emotional scenes for characters like Anakin in the show, but we just laugh at those because those stories don't work with characters like Anakin. It is not the same for Ventress. We don't know what happens to her (face it, EU is screwed), and she now has one of the most interesting stories out there, for ANY character on this show, and hopefully the last 3 episodes of this finale will show that. Talzin was interesting also, and not dull like in the Nightsisters trilogy last season...
My rating: This was a splendid episode. Wonderful action, every character got major character development, and it was all-round magnificent entertainment. Katie Lucas for the win. Rating: 10/10.
Next-week's episode could be even better. Looks to have some nice action. Bounty Hunter's such as Boba Fett (*yawn*), Embo and Bossk return. As well as the HIGHLY-anticipated debut of my all-time favourite bounty hunter, Dengar. And already making witty remarks as I hoped. "Hey Bossk, who's your girlfriend?" "Shut up, Dengar."
And finally we come to the conclusion of the 4-part arc about bounty hunter's. The last 3 episodes we were told were leading us up to the main point of the arc, but was it really?
Ok, before I get to the negative's of this episode (lots of those), I will start with a scene I partially enjoyed, until you-know-who showed his ugly mug. That's right, I'm talking about Anakin Skywalker. It was nice of course to see cameo's by other Jedi such as Adi Gallia, Ki-Adi-Mundi etc (main appearances please) and hearing Mace Windu and Yoda's voices are cool. This scene went swimmingly well until Anakin opened his mouth and started mouthing off *pun intended*. Like I said, nice to see some lesser known Jedi making cameo's, but we need them making main appearances Filoni. No one cares about Anakin on the show.
This part right here: best scene in the episode, hands down. Loved this part, especially the bounty hunters killing those technicians was awesome, the noise Embo's hat made were cool, and Derrown's crazy face was frickin' hilarious. Cad Bane wins it again with his line "Well, hello there." Cad Bane executing that technician was awesome. The part where Bane tells everyone their roles was cool, but the transforming into senate commando's was kind of weird, I'm not sure why. Bane and Dooku's little talk was a nice touch as well.
This scene is kind of where it began to go downhill. Alright, it had decent action, and I got to see Anakin electrocuted by Derrown. YEAH! But, it was bad. There was no plot at all in this episode, and this scene really shows that. I mean, we know Palpatine can't die (sadly the same couldn't be said for the voice-actor who perished recently R.I.P) so what was the point? The show really needs to introduce more main new characters instead of re-using the same main old one's who we know won't die. After a while, it gets stupid. But anyway, something that weirded me out was Anakin was nearer to the generator when Derrown blew it up then Palpatine was. Shouldn't it have hurt Anakin instead? Want to know what really disappointed me? The promo's hinted that we would get a epic Mace vs Embo fight, but no. It was just Mace jumps in front of Embo, who gives up.
The part where Twazzi (disguised as Palpatine) punching Anakin seemed very dramatic, as it looked like Palpatine was punching his soon-to-be apprentice twice in the face, even if we knew it was a bounty hunter disguised as Palpatine. I liked the touch to Attack of the Clones with Anakin chopping Twazzi's hand off, like he did Zam Wessel in that movie. Cad Bane's quote "So long, Jedi", was cool when he first said it, but it immediately felt over-used when he said it again in this episode. The brief fight between Obi-Wan and Bane was also cool, but Bane was defeated WAY too easily. Moralo Eval's whimpering about his life was utterly pathetic, like the character. Bane and Obi-Wan's quote was very funny also: Bane: "Reward? I'll give you a reward, when I plug you full of laser bolts!" Obi-Wan: "Such a pleasant fellow."
You're probably thinking, this episode can't get much worse, can it? Well, it can. As the next two scenes showed so clearly. This scene especially, gives fans a CLEAR example of how messed up the Clone Wars portrayal of Anakin is. Overdone expressions, acting like a child. The voice actor does a good job, but it's the character itself that is the problem. I like Anakin in the movies, but the Clone Wars is essentially ruining his character, and this scene really shows it. Obi-Wan being as innocent as ever, but now Anakin even has issues with him.
Now, surely we would finish this arc on a thriller, right? Guess again! All we get is another poodoo Anakin vs Dooku duel. Does that awesome quote from Revenge of the Sith even matter anymore. Clearly not, because Anakin WINS this duel. It's bad enough we have to see them keep dueling, as they aren't meant to between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, but now Anakin wins a duel. The WHOLE idea in Revenge of the Sith is for this to be Anakin's first (and only) win against Dooku, but no. He won this duel, which completely screws up that quote in question even more now if you think about it. And the duel itself was poor, very slow and weak, and no real feel to it. I actually laughed when the chair stopped Anakin at one point. Even chairs have had enough of the Anakin/Dooku duels. Very weak ending, and Revenge of the Sith is officially screwed at the start.
My rating: What a poor episode. The arc as a whole (as highlighted by this episode) had no purpose and the arc should never have been made. It ends the way it starts (Bane & Eval in prison). The action was ok, but there was no plot, and absolutely no character development. Rating: 3.5/10
But, what is more exciting is the new clip of Darth Maul that was revealed. Okay, it was 25 seconds of nothing and 5 seconds of Maul, but the animation is awesome and Sam Witwer's voice for Maul is awesome.
What a title for an episode. But did the episode live up to it's awesome title?
The opening scenes were well directed and written, but at the same time, I do have a complaint about it. Dave Filoni is constantly saying that they can't put this, that etc in due to limited screen-time. And yet in this scene, the show introduces us to 11 bounty hunter's, the majority of which we knew were going to die and did die. It was a well-worked scene, but Filoni being a hypocrite as usual is annoying. I loved the part when Cad Bane kills Bulduga so he can get his old hat back. I'm disappointed in one part of that scene though, there is no reaction whatsoever from Bulduga's brother, Onca who is right beside him. It's another one of those scenes that's like "Oh, my brother died. Whatever." One of the flaws in this episode is that none of the bounty hunters are developed at all, it's all Rako Hardeen this, Rako Hardeen that, which allowed almost zero development for the others.
The challenges themselves were pretty basic. Nothing really too special, and if it wasn't for the fact that the majority of these so-called best bounty hunters were quite stupid to say the least, then it would have been easy to complete the whole thing. As it was, Hardeen was the only reason most, if not all of them survived. At least until the second challenge, that is. Every bounty hunter's death in this episode was weak. You had Onca trapped against a wall, when the laser misses him, he sighs with relief instead of running away from danger, and another laser gets him. Kiera Swan, also killed by a laser. Jakoli, too slow and got electrocuted. Mantu, slipped and got electrocuted. And I'll save Sixtat's death until later.
Let's talk a little about the character Moralo Eval. After the first episode of this arc, I found him to be a interesting character, but by now I've lost almost all liking for this character. If just he wasn't voiced by the awesome Stephen Stanton! I'll outline some reasons I dislike this character. He's boring, he does nothing, he's not a man (to quote Bane: "If you're gonna kill him, do it like a man."), and to top it all of, his armour is a RIP-OFF of my all-time favourite bounty hunter, the awesomeness that is DENGAR! His talking in the third-person, like "Moralo Eval, will have you slaughted" is unique, but it doesn't make it cool. It's a pity that the character is really quite crap to be honest, because they gave him a good back-story, but the character isn't living up to it.
This scene here was pretty cool. I like sniper rifles, so seeing characters testing their sniper skills was interesting. But Sixtat annoyed me in this scene, and then the show made his death (falling into flames because he missed the target) so cheesy. I was glad to see this bounty hunter die, as he looks too much like a bald Obi-Wan for my liking...
This is the one scene in this episode where any character goes through any character development. Cad Bane. The way he saved Hardeen to defy Moralo Eval was a great moment in this episode, as was his awesome quote. The fight scene between Hardeen and Eval was awesome, especially with Hardeen smashing Eval's annoying face in. Again, Eval makes a threat he can't deliver: "You, my friend, have seen nothing yet!" For me, this whole scene (Cad Bane's save/Hardeen vs Eval) is among the best scenes the show has delivered, when taking everything into account.
My rating: This was a great episode, and by far the best of the arc. I did have a few issues with it though, such as no characters really being developed (except for one Cad Bane moment). But the action and pacing was good, but Moralo Eval will need to improve 100% for him to ever be liked by me. Rating: 9/10.
Rad Cad Bane quote: "If you're gonna kill him, do it like a man."
