So last night I watched a SPECTACULAR episode of The Clone Wars. And I mean REALLY SPECTACULAR, like, I haven’t gotten this excited over a piece of media in months spectacular. I’ve kind of been thinking about it all morning because it was just so darn good. It’s Season 5 Episode 16: The Lawless.
(THAT ANIMATION THOUGH. THIS BLURRY GIF DOESN’T REALLY DO IT JUSTICE BUT OH MAN, IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL)
I wasn’t surprised at all to find out that this is actually the highest rated episode of the entire Clone Wars series on IMDB. Everything about this episode: the pacing, the score, the drama, the emotional impact is just
There are SPOILERS AHEAD, so if you care about that kind of thing, and if you are considering watching the Clone Wars, (or the Phantom Menace) I would strongly advise you not to read any further, because I’m about to talk about plot stuff here.
Although the Clone Wars is an anthology series, and the viewer is generally not required to watch the episodes in chronological order, much of the impact from this particular episode comes from the fact that it is the climax to several of the previous episodes’ slowly building plot-lines, and man, is it satisfying.
Soo okay really brief background:
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This is Saltine Satine, Duchess of Mandalore, Obi Wan’s scandalous love interest, pacifist attempting to mitigate a civil war that’s been going on between the Mandalorian government and the Death Watch.
This is Maul. Maul hates Obi Wan( enormous understatement) because Obi Wan CUT HIM in half
in the Phantom Menace, and Maul suffered for years on a garbage planet surviving only through his hatred for Obi-wan (classic Star Wars), and he was robbed as his status of apprentice to Lord Sidious.
This guy, Savage, is Maul’s brother/apprentice, and a tragic Frankenstein figure with zero autonomy who didn’t deserve any of this.
In the previous episodes, Maul teams up with Death Watch to take over Mandalore. In this episode he takes Satine to bait Kenobi and then KILLS THE HECK OUT OF HER in front of him and oh man it’s impactful. I shed a tear watching it. Also the dialogue is top notch and explores the dynamic between Obi Wan and Maul in SUPER cool ways. Also there is a callback (callforward???) to this line in a New Hope and it made me yell.
I’ve been planning a full character analysis of Obi Wan and how he represents the at times flawed moral compass of the series for a while but more to the point, I really love this scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lGETyUkjdo
Now…. isn’t this kind of sexist? Yeah actually. But if you ignore the fact that this is a continuation of the all-too-prevalent trope of fridging women for the sake of manpain, but it is done so well and fits into the plot well enough that I can only complain a little. In the next post I’ll talk about the second main impactful scene in this episode, the part where Sheev, Maul’s old master shows up to kick his ass and be almost uncharacteristically cool and awesome. Stay tuned.