Tales Of The Underworld

Tis' a good day.

Tales Of The Underworld is I feel a story of two halves, one being a more light story that gives a bit of character depth for Ventress and the other being a pretty rock solid heavy drama story about the evolution of for my money the best bounty hunter in the galaxy Cad Bane. Although I will come out front and say the Ventress story really has two things to do with the seedy criminal underworld of Star Wars, jack and shit and jack left town. However an enjoyable and decent story it still was with her taking on a protector role for a young Jedi in hiding and trying to locate the Hidden Path, with fantastic chemistry and banter between her and young Lyco with plenty of lightsaber action to assuage nerds like me. Oh but Star Wars never change, it shows how long I've been doing this when we see a new Imperial Inquisitor and I'm calling that he's dead in two minutes and not even a name will be put to him until a book comes out, which spoilers I'm right again as always! But duuuuuuude WOW this Cad Bane story justifies the whole flip flapping series for my money, taking an evolutionary look from rapscallion youth, to henchmen young adult, to fastest gun this side of the Hydian Way mature badass. And this is a short story, keeping in the style of the Tales series where each arc is pretty much forty minutes without credits so you can knock this sucker out in the course of a meal, but how much emotion and dramatic storytelling they can squeeze in without it ever feeling forced or too densely packed is really damn impressive! It takes the western archetype of main character has someone close to him die by gunslinger who he swears revenge on, tweaks it just a notch, and it becomes a new and interesting story proving Star Wars will never get old. Vocal performances are still top notch, obviously all the love goes to Nika and Corey who have brought these fan favorite characters to life, but even the new talent like Lane Factor as this bit of a smart aleck Jedi or Artt Butler as Cad's oldest friend turned lawman with such short appearance runtimes craft something uniquely theirs. Do I even have to mention the animation? It's pretty clear we're only climbing higher and higher with the attention to detail, movement, and atmosphere with each subsequent series since technically Rebels before even last season of Clone Wars, and this is no exception. Of course I'm an easy sell on this universe, but I will admit I don't always need something groundbreaking as the next big project for Star Wars. I love the side stories, the brief snippets of character development, the connecting threads in this ever expanding tapestry, cause I just find it interesting and really cool. Even if some of the newer stuff doesn't grab your attention trust in me when I say there's been something you haven't experienced in the past almost 50 years of this franchise that will. Considering the grossly uneven (yet still good) caliber of the stories within, I'll give this 3.5 stars, 8.5/10! And truth be told, I honestly think Andor will be next cause new movie wise consider May a graveyard for reviews so we'll see how it goes.

Tales Of The Jedi

Season two, please and thank you.




I do actually hate how short it is, that's my only complaint. When I heard we were getting a 6 episode mini-series, I was hoping in vain that they would be like, okay guys brand new animated Star Wars show, 6 episodes, 30 to 45 minutes a piece, get in! Nope. Whole damn thing is barely more than 90 minutes with credits. But like I said it's just criminally short like with Visions, you want more because there is always more to tell. Make season two take place in The High Republic era, we got Old Republic/early Empire days with this focusing on brief stories around fallen Jedi Count Dooku and rising padawan Ahsoka Tano. What's interesting though is every episode time jumps ahead, we see little baby Ahsoka OH MY GOD I would steal that child hard f***ing core, we see a really expertly designed episode where we see her evolution from newly appointed padawan of Anakin's to competent warrior straight to the goddamn Venator crash, and then we literally pick up after series finale of Clone Wars and partially see her life after the war but before she started aiding rebel scum. But my favorite parts were the Dooku parts, I had to pick up Dooku Jedi Lost and read that as homework before this show came out and it helped a lot filling in a few more gaps, as we see how increasingly disillusioned he becomes of the Senate and his constant pushing to becoming Darth Tyranus. I would watch an entire series dedicated to a mostly still unknown Sith Lord that's been around for 20 years since Attack Of The Clones came out, there ain't much Dooku media and this could be the start of rectifying that situation. I'm not one for blue lightsabers but I'd take his! It still has that distinct Clone Wars animation style yet it looks more glossy and clean, almost like a perpetual soft focus is employed. Now I have a wee theory for that, since more than half the show takes place before the Jedi are even aware the Sith have returned, it's a period of peace and prosperity for the Republic so it has a unique style to the look of everything. There's no rough scarred detail to ships and armor, you see a lot of nature shots that are akin to paintings, even when conflict arises and lightsabers are drawn it seems more mythical like seeing knights with swords right wrongs to help people, until Dooku turns heel at least. So obviously it's a Dave Filoni show with Clone Wars animation so we get our regular voice cast back, and it's always grand to hear Ashley, and Corey, and Matt, but special love for Bryce Dallas Howard voicing Yaddle and Liam Neeson's son Michael Richardson voicing Qui-Gon Jinn, that was so rad man! Lucasfilm needs to stop giving me animation blue balls though, I mean really think about this. Clone Wars started back in 2008 and was cancelled in 2014, Rebels picked up the slack the same year, had 4 seasons and ended in 2018, two years later Clone Wars comes back has 12 episodes and ended in 2020, one year later Bad Batch comes out and actually gives us a proper season, then later in 2021 Visions comes out with 9 short ass episodes, and now one year later we're still in that same boat with Tales Of The Jedi. I know Bad Batch season 2 is coming soon so we're kinda getting back on track, and I know Lucasfilm is pushing for more TV instead of films for the moment in time, I love the live action stuff but the animated fans are kinda starving for a full fledged show here. But screw it, Star Wars is Star Wars and I'm happy. 4 stars, 8/10, and we got one more before the end of it all.

In Retrospect: The Bad Batch

Has it already been a year?

Strange to think but yeah, The Bad Batch came out just last year and after hearing news and seeing the trailer for season 2 it was time to discuss more. I think I appreciated and got more out of it the second time, if on nothing else but the story. I'm almost positive this story at least for this season actually has little to do with the Batch themselves, throughout all 16 episodes it's hammering the fact that the Republic is no more. You start seeing how the Empire formed, exchange for new currency, identification for all citizens on record, tagging ships, the complete deconstruction of the cloning facilities and slow phasing out of the clones. It's almost like a backdoor series just to see this birth of a new era, while of course still centered on our group of protagonists. Most of them, I think the more I see of Hunter, Omega, Wrecker, and Tech the better I like them. But Echo, man he always feels like the odd one out with little stuff for him to even do. It's like they needed a replacement cause they knew they were going to make Crosshair a baddie, which cheapens and lessens Echo's survival even more for me in The Clone Wars. Perfect example to summarize, Cid's got nicknames for all of the group, Hunter is Bandana, Omega is Tiny, Wrecker is Muscles, Tech is Goggles, and Echo.......ah. I mean I know we got a good fair bit of him and his story of course in Clone Wars, but jeez I just hope they give him more material in the next season. Props on making Crosshair a bastard just because he's an evil son of a mother, no inhibitor chip nonsense though again not that big of a shock when the guy who sounds like he assassinates babies in their cots and bombs hospitals turns out to be a villain. But it's still a good solid dynamic to work off of with these two opposing factions. I know I said the animation quality was lagging a bit behind the final season of Clone Wars, and I do stand mostly by that, but the backgrounds and environments are out of this world. I mean seriously, dat look gud!! I do feel like a major ass for having doubts about Omega, because at first I had nothing but intrigue. A female clone, what does that mean? What's her purpose? How did she come to be a pure genetic replication? And then the worry began and I was like, shit she might be this annoying dumb kid who I can't stand. But as the episodes went on, I liked her a good deal and now I'd guard her forever. Someone brought up a point I never considered with this show, in the case of Omega she is a great new set of eyes that vicariously reflects new viewers, because she's seeing everything for the first time and experiencing the galaxy while older more hardcore fans take the perspective of the clones who's seen The Clone Wars and knows all the little details. I think Lucasfilm has done a sterling job with these shows as introductions to Star Wars, while still giving fans plenty of new stuff to sink their teeth into. Now let's talk favorite moments and characters, the biggest one that sticks in my head is the reintroduction of Cad Bane I mean sweet lord. Star Wars never forgets it's roots in film serials, westerns, and samurai cinema. Like that is a Star Wars scene even my Papa could get into who was brought up on westerns in the 40s and 50s, the spaghetti stinger music, the standoff, Bane's new look, molto bene! The small bit right before the Star Destroyers obliterate the cloning facility, just that eerie quiet emptiness with that music playing, the shots are art and puts that final nail in the coffin of the prequel era. Any moment between Omega and Wrecker was a d'awwww moment, they are precious. Seeing frick fraking Republic Commandos en masse, hell yeah! The ruins of the Venators on Bracca in all their derelict beauty and deep sadness, mmm that's good Star Wars. Aftermath I still say is the best episode but that finale is mighty strong as well no doubt. It maybe wasn't the show I wanted which was essentially full on clone troopers transitioning to stormtroopers and serving the Empire, but heaven forbid they actually make a show of a positive light about albeit space natzis despite selling such iconography on literally everything. I know that was the imagery inspiration, I know, but the Empire is cooler and less horrifically evil and not a bunch of punk ass dissidents and terrorists intent on throwing the galaxy into chaos. This is the way. 4 stars, 8.5/10, Boba Fett joins us next time!

The Bad Batch

Where the hell was this crew the while time??

Seriously I went from Jesus H. Christ I can't stand these people to, wow this isn't complete bollocks I quite like them! Oh thank the maker the bad batch was not grating on my nerves. So how was the semi-continuation of The Clone Wars? Pretty good I'd say, it perfectly hits that itch for a new Star Wars show, and while it severely has it's fan moments the story is pretty grounded and doesn't get very big or bombastic until pretty much the end. Now I will fully go on the record and say the premiere episode is easily the best, expertly setting the stage for events as we see order 66 once again and the clones are trying to find their way in the newly formed Empire, but since our group of unorthodox clones are titled degenerate they are found to be superfluous and try to lay low while just attempting to figure out what to do next. I mean this premise alone of seeing the beginning of the Galactic Empire through the eyes of a clone trooper is great stuff. Granted the show very much follows it's formula to a T until the end, a lot of rescue missions, a lot of ultra brief defeats, but it doesn't become boring because of what you get in those missions. You see a lot of familiar faces throughout (for both awesome and I f***ing hate you effects), you get some bonding between the squad and a young girl clone who wants to travel with them. And let's talk about Omega, when I first saw this character I was worried. I knew damn well Dave was working on this but I knew there was a fine line to walk between interesting character and face peelingly awful trope of the lovable rapscallion who always gets in trouble, but with great joy I report that is not the case. I very much like Omega, she is inquisitive, thoughtful, and never comes across as whiny or a tacky sidekick. Excellent work here in that character, and the rest of the main cast is very well done. The animation style I feel is not quite as top notch as the final season of Clone Wars but let that not fool you, some of these shots are like art come to life it is so well done and the detail is still just as great. I like how the plot goes about, it has it's recurring plot points but to go from the first episode to the last gels nicely, but strangely the finale didn't give me a lot of punching power. Now I'm not at 100% while writing this physically so I blame that more than anything, but while big important stuff happened in the finale it certainly relies on continuation. Like all this stuff happened but there's more to be told, more to experience, higher stakes, all that to occur as well. I think it's a solid show, there is more of clone force 99's story to tell in the what some would call dark times but I call the best times, and I did enjoy it. I give it 3.5 stars, 8/10, in the echelon of current Star Wars series it's mid tier and I feel it's more there to tide you over for the next season of Mando or the Kenobi series. Visions was definitely the high water mark of this week, and I'm just happy to talk Star Wars some more. It never gets old for me, and I held off on these shows for the right time and it paid off. Next week we'll shift gears to more classic and recognized cinema from the master of suspense himself.

Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)

I decided to do this today even though it's my birthday, to not only compare notes but to leave no loose ends.

When you get right down to the two Clone Wars series we have could not be more night and day. This series is all about the visuals, with grand scale battles, excellent design, and short but satisfying stories. And when I say short I mean short, the first episode is 3 minutes and 30 seconds. The entire series clocks in a bit over 2 hours, so it's practically the most action packed Star Wars movie ever made. Now you might be thinking, well how could it be so good if each episode is so damn short? Well it's difficult to explain, though most episodes don't have much dialogue you can get easily invested, and each battle is significantly different so the show never feels stale for even a microsecond. Plus the fact that the dialogue is minimum and not full of exposition means anybody can watch it regardless of age or language and totally get it. That is visual storytelling and that's just Genndy's style. The first season follows up after Episode 2, and the end of season two is literally where Episode 3 begins, it could not match up better! I guess it all depends on what you want, if you want large scale battles with great lightsaber duels and stuff you won't find anywhere else in any other Star Wars film or TV series then this is definitely the series for you, but if character and story arcs is what you love then you have the new series. I love both but for very different reasons, though both shows are great. You can watch both seasons on Youtube for free because the DVD's that I bought way back when are ludicrously priced, so you're not gonna lose anything. It's such a well crafted show, with great visuals and designs, excellent action, but also knows when to take a break and give some nice character moments, and it's filled with stuff you just never seen before even with the new series. I never knew that a lightsaber could work underwater, or what would happen if a duel occured during a rainstorm, how Ventress was recruited by Dooku, why General Greivous had damaged lungs, it gives a lot more weight and significance to even small details of Revenge Of The Sith. It's expertly crafted and must be seen by any true fan, you won't regret it.

And thus concludes for now my love for the animated Star Wars series and that's kind of it for Star Wars for a good long while, unless I get a severe urge to watch the Holiday Special which I got news for you, ain't happening. So until December my friend, just remember....no one's ever really gone.

The Clone Wars: Season 4

Well I wish I could say it started off strong.

Now don't get me wrong, this is not a Gotham situation where every season until the 4th has been great, it's still pretty damn good with a lot of great stories and character moments but jeez is there some padding before the good stuff. We start off with an underwater invasion on Mon Cala, which is okay....if it didn't go on for 4 damn episodes. It gets old. Fast. Why couldn't we have this for the invasion of Kamino? There's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, it's a welcome change of pace in terms of the battlefield, it's interesting seeing a young Admiral Ackbar, but it just goes on, and on, and on. How can a season begin and already pull the drag chute? But wait there's more! Then we go on to R2 and 3PO meandering about for 2 episodes and it is not an improvement on the first four episodes. You can immediately skip 6 episodes in this 22 episode long season already. But thankfully after that it's hit after hit until the end and I can safely say the Umbara four parter is excellent, dealing with Captain Rex under the command of a brutish and unsympathetic general, and honestly I was getting 'Nam flashbacks like crazy. Soldiers brought into a battlefield where the enemy is hardly ever seen and completely decimates ground forces to the point they need to call in air strikes, and a leader who will not pull the troops out of a hopeless situation. Yeah. It's grim. And as each episode goes on the tension mounts until shit goes down. I mean Jesus! That is how you should start this season! We move along to a decent three parter with Anakin and friends dealing with slavers, which hits home for our Chosen One but also Ahsoka who's people are captured and used as slave labor. Good story, good character development, solid B+. I will admit I like the premise of Ahsoka teaming up with a past Separatist who battles bounty hunters from Mandalore, but the only problem is I hate this kid. Yeah there's a lot of hate for kids in this show for me, he's an unlikable whiny jerk who tries to martyr himself and the only thing I can say is, I do NOT ship it! But don't worry, we get more bounty hunter adventures with Obi-Wan faking his death and going undercover, so we get awesome angry Anakin moments, a fantastic entertaining episode called The Box, and of course Cad Bane. Woop woop! And then we end on a high note. Darth f***ing Maul is back. And it is every bit of awesome as you think! That is how you end a season. You gurantee a surplus of viewers for the next season to see the best part of Phantom Menace back and kicking ass more than ever! Beautiful, perfect, 10/10! Yeah I'm biased towards the Sith, but only the wisest are. I will say the animation got better and for good reason, the creators wanted to get Maul to look impressive and real so they upgraded the quality of the graphics and it does look excellent, not to mention Starkiller voice actor himself Sam Witwer who is the biggest pimp in Star Wars next to James Earl Jones of course, dude deserves awards and more fans, that's all I'm saying! I am stoked for next season so I can gush relentlessly over Maul so stick around!

The Clone Wars: Season 3

*WARNING what follows is the geekiest review you have ever read. You will witness the true scope of my lifelong love for Star Wars. Be advised!*

Another fine addition to this collection, and the best season yet all around. We begin very much how we ended last with further situations arrising on Mandalore before we are whisked away to bounty hunting with Cad Bane, an invasion of the clone world of Kamino, more backstory into Asajj Ventress and the introduction of an old Sith's brother, the introduction of Captain Tarkin, and quite possibly the best story arc in the entire series. So yeah, lots to talk about! Mandalore is an interesting planet and the stage for even more future events, and always seeing Satine is a pleasure. She's such a well rounded character, and we see a friendship begin with Padme which is a lot of fun and starts the season off well. Then we jump straight into Cad Bane further proving why he is the best at what he does as he accepts a job from the Hutt's to hunt down a member of their family, and yeah it hardly feels like Star Wars and more an episode of In The Heat Of The Night but hey, any episode with Cad Bane brings the entertainment factor to the max for me! Then we move along to a massive invasion of battle droids at the very heart of the Republic's army and you know what, this episode bugs the shit out of me! Why? One simple answer, it isn't long enough. You'd think with such a pivotal battle with a lot on the line, they would take multiple episodes to show off this siege but it's wrapped up in one episode. Granted, they utilize every single last second and make it absolutely amazing but it just made me really want to see more. We get some decent episodes of Ahsoka, who's developed a lot more in terms of power and character and is forced to acknowledge the fact that war is far from simple, and it's great to see her grow up a bit and to become her own Jedi, though of course still taking after Anakin. And we'll get back to him in a moment. Then we get some much needed Ventress screen time, her episodes are excellent, not only showing off a new world and culture of literal witches, magic and all no powers drawn from the Force, that delve into her history and how she came to be the way she is. That was incredibly interesting, and leads to the best lightsaber duel yet with Count Dooku that wows me everytime I see it. Even if you don't watch the show, watch the duel. It really does show off how much better the combat, animations, and graphics have gotten, and they only get better from here which says a lot! And last but certainly not least we have the Mortis story arc. Oh my gawd! This does everything right. We get new character insights, a return to the mystical Force and not just scientific betrayals, literal personifications of Light Side, Dark Side, and Grey Side of the Force with so much allegory and parallels to the Star Wars...everything that it would take me weeks to fully talk about it. I really don't think future episodes surpass this, until perhaps the end of the 6th season and even then I'd have to think about it. I mean wow, they really did some inventive, great, and entertaining things with this season. But you can't have your resounding successes without your crippling failures which aren't that many, hardly at all but it has it's fair share of skippable episodes. About 5 in my count, most of them don't matter in the grand scheme of things whether in plot or character, including a murder mystery so uninteresting I planned better ways to eliminate my enemies, Ahsoka dealing with a bunch of f***ing kids who go full Scooby-Doo mystery solving that made me do other things besides watch it, and this weird like, Star Wars meets The Most Dangerous Game where Ahsoka and a bunch of other kids get hunted down by Trandoshans and Chewbacca is there and I really, really could not care less. Also what the hell is with the voice acting this season? Nothing horribly wrong with our leads but I caught at least 3 major WTF accents, one of the Hutts Ziro and his girlfriend sound like there from the bayou boy, it's like whaaaat?? And this guy, this like warden of this super duper impossible to escape super prison tower....I have no idea what he sounds like. Other than an asshole. The best I came up with is if you took Willem DaFoe and Christopher Walken with a splash of Jersey dickhead, I have no idea what this guy is on. Well, at least they got a good actor for Tarkin. So yeah, it has problems but few and far between with such excellent stories. And Season 4 is right around the corner.

The Clone Wars: Season 2

WARNING: what follows is the geekiest review you have ever read. You will witness the true scope of my lifelong love for Star Wars. Be advised!*

More interesting tales to see. Yet another fine season, surpassing the last in terms of stories and new characters. We already start off strong with an interesting three part story showing the debut of the best bounty hunter in the galaxy, Cad Bane. Yes, I will argue this with you. Cad Bane is a better bounty hunter than Boba Fett! I mean what's not to love? Cool design based heavily on westerns, badass voice, cool demeanor, excellent array of skills, the dude is one of the best mainstays of the whole series. Hell the first 3 part storyline and the last of the season are some of the best episodes of the whole season. The last three part story arc revolves around Mandalore and an old flame of Obi-Wan which is greatly fascinating and leads to a lot of good banter between him and the Duchess Satine. And to see Obi-Wan in such a position with such a remarkable lady it's hard not to ship it you know? It gives us a lot more info about Kenobi before Episode 1. It's a pivotal story arc which will be revisited in the future. Throw in a good tribute to Akira Kurosawa, a mish-mash of Aliens, The Blob, and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers with a zombie twist, and a really good episode that focuses solely on Ahsoka, and you got a really really good second season. Granted there are about 6 episodes that you can skip but by no means are they bad, if you want to see a young Boba Fett try to exact revenge on Mace Windu, or a King Kong style story set in the Star Wars universe, then be my guest and have fun. There just wasn't much there for me to really praise. But come on, you have a complete Seven Samurai tribute with pirate Ohnaka and some really badass looking bounty hunters duking it out for some villagers. Then you get a disturbing deeper look into Genosis which takes a lot of good inspiration and uses it well with very moody lighting, genuinely creepy monsters, and caps off with Ahsoka against an entire ship full of zombified clone troopers. What's not to love? Speaking of her, an entire episode dedicated to Ahsoka retrieving her lost lightsaber sounds like a filler episode if you ever heard one but it tells us a lot about her character and even stirs up some controversy of her training. What will happen after the war is over? How do you go from warrior commander to peacekeeper pacifist? That's a really good part of the show that they keep referring back to, solidifying why this show continues to have such a dedicated and loving fanbase. It truly does rise above just another cartoon show. Through every episode the animation is better, the voice acting is excellent, the stories offer tons of variety and intrigue, and you get to know more about new and old characters. It's hard to go wrong with that! There's so much to talk about in the coming seasons and I greatly look forward to it. So until tomorrow my friends!