 | Star Wars The Clone Wars -The Savage Oppress Trilogy |
review
Star Wars The Clone Wars is soon to enter its fourth year. With a questionable beginning as a feature film, the CGi-animated series has gone from strength to strength each week. The key feature that I have most enjoyed in the animated universe has been the rich characterizations given to the various clone troopers. Devised as a linking thread between the prequel and original trilogies, they start as being very sympathetic individuals before becoming a mass of white armor unable to shoot straight. The episodes centered on the Jedi, I have to admit, have been less interesting to me. Imagine my surprise when three Jedi-centric episodes strung together caught my attention!
After a series of stories that opened the 3rd series (Clone Cadets and ARC Troopers), the third series has been serviceable but nothing has really jumped out at me. That is until news started to spread about a new character named Savage Oppress and his role in a new three-part adventure. It's not just the character of Oppress that so caught my attention, however. The plotting was tight, the animation superb and the action far more impressive than we have seen before.
Beginning with a brutal assault on the Republic forces, Asajj Ventress finds herself abandoned by her master Count Dooku. Fearing her power may threaten his rule, the Emperor had instructed Dooku to eliminate her to prove his loyalty. This of course goes back to the statement that only two Sith may serve the Dark Side; a master and an apprentice.
She seeks comfort and guidance in her homeland and the Nightsisters of Dathomir who assist in plotting her revenge. Part of this revenge involves the use of a Dathomir male, who are so fearful of the female witches that they dwell on the opposite side of the planet. It is thought that one of their number can be offered up as a replacement apprentice to Dooku in Ventress' absence. To make it evident that he needs a body guard, a 'Jedi assassination attempt' is staged using witchcraft to cloud Dooku's mind.
Desperate and paranoid, Dooku is only too pleased to accept the offer of Savage Oppress, a being so brutish that he makes Darth Maul look like a kitten by comparison. Leading several assaults against the Republic, Oppress proves his loyalty to Dooku while Ventress watches from the sidelines, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.
When the time arrives, the battle is fierce and unrelenting. The Clone Wars series has excelled itself not only in storytelling but also in animation style and storyboarding. Thanks to the advent of technology, the lightsaber duels in the prequels were far more ambitious than the modest samurai sword fights seen in the original films, but they lacked the emotional impact that the the earlier fights had. The Clone Wars cartoon achieves a synthesis of the two, producing mind-blowing action sequences that are rich with emotional violence.
Oppress may be the most impressive combatant on screen, smashing his weapon in devastating blows that send enemies flying like ten-pins, but it is Ventress that is the real danger. Driven mad with bloodlust by Dooky's betrayal, her rage knows no limits. I also quite like the human-ness of Dooku's reluctant assent to abandon her in order to prove his loyalty to the Emperor. It's a moment of sadness in him, but it's a weakness as well that he can leave someone so devoted to him to the wolves. Dooku's betrayal is a lovely testament to the nature of evil. This is exactly the kind of characterization that I think Lucas was shooting for in Darth Vader in the prequels, but it never really worked for me.
Part of the problem with the Clone Wars cartoon is that it takes place between Episodes II and III, greatly restricting what the animators can do. No matter how many more episodes we get, we know that the final episode will end in the battle seen in Episode III. Lucas states that he'd like to release about 100 episodes, meaning that we have quite a way to go until we reach that point. But that means that any character we see in Episode III is impervious to harm in the cartoon. That is certainly a storytelling handicap, but the animators have overcome it with the introduction of new characters like Cad Bane and deeper storylines that more fully develop the Star Wars universe.
When I was a kid playing with my Star Wars action figures, I envisioned vast universes of stories with unlimited potential. But I could not have imagined that a cartoon like the Clone Wars would come along seemingly fueled by a similar imaginative energy.
One of the most impressive stories thus far, the Savage Oppress Trilogy (Nightsisters/Monster/Witches of the Mist) is an unflinching look at the Dark Side and its savage nature.
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