Star Wars: The Clone Wars "Massacre"

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."