Darth Maul returns in Star Wars: The Clone Wars' fourth season
Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Complete Season Four
During the 2008 fall television season, the
Time-Warner-owned Cartoon Network and Lucasfilm Limited returned to George
Lucas’s “galaxy far, far away” with a new animated series titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Set during the intergalactic conflict from which its title
is derived, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is
a 3D computer-animated follow-up to the 2003-2005 2D Cartoon Network
“micro-series” Star Wars: Clone Wars, which
bridges the three-year gap between the Prequel Trilogy’s Attack of the Clones and Revenge
of the Sith.
(Supposedly, the two shows are intertwined, with the newer
series taking place between Chapters 22 and 25 of the 2D series, even though
there are always going to be some continuity issues that hopefully will be
addressed as the narrative of Star Wars: The Clone Wars evolves.)
Although the feature-length film Star Wars: The Clone Wars was not warmly received by many Star Wars fans and media critics, the TV
series which it was launching gained a loyal following among viewers of all
ages and was one of the most-watched shows on
Cartoon Network.
Like Lucasfilm’s The
Young Indiana
This means that some episodes or story arcs in one season
can be either “prequels” or sequels to episodes in a previous season, and that
some characters’ costumes and/or hairstyle (Anakin Skywalker’s, for one) will
change subtly depending on when the particular story takes place.
Generally speaking, though, Star Wars: The Clone Wars depicts the many battles and other
adventures in which the newly-minted Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, his former
Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Skywalker’s Padawan apprentice Ahsoka Tano are
involved during the three-year-long conflict between the Galactic Republic
However, the series’ anthology format allows executive
producer George Lucas, supervising director Dave Filoni,
producer Cary Silver and their creative team of writers, animators and directors
to tell stories about other Jedi Knights (Quinlan Vos, Kit Fisto and Plo Koon,
for instance) which play minor roles in the movies or have appeared only in
other Expanded Universe media like novels and video games.
Star Wars: The Clone
Wars, Season Four: Battle Lines
Pong Krell: Time and rest
are luxuries the Republic cannot afford.
On September 16, 2011, Star
Wars: The Clone Wars’ fourth season – Battle Lines – opened with two
episodes (Water War and Gungan Attack) airing back to back on
Time-Warner’s Cartoon Network. Written
by Jose Molina, the two stories form two-thirds of a story arc set on Mon
Calamari, the water world best known to Star
Wars fans as the home of Return of
the Jedi’s Admiral Ackbar (who, incidentally, makes his first appearance as
a character in the Prequel era here).
Though the fourth season premiere was the lowest-rated in
the series’ run (1.93 million viewers watched it), it presented a superb story in
which Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter), Padme Amidala (Catherine Taber), Kit
Fisto (Phil LaMarr), and Anakin’s Padawan Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) team up
with Capt. Ackbar (Artt Butler) and Prince Lee-Char (Adam McArthur) to prevent
a Separatist-backed civil war between the fish-like Mon Cal and the squid-like
Quarren.
The Quarren – egged on by Riff Tamson (Gary Anthony
Williams) – have long resented the Mon Calamari and seek to end the
power-sharing arrangement the two races previously had prior to the murder of
King Yos Yolima, the father of Prince Lee Char.
Ostensibly an a Separatist observer, the Karkarodon is actually tasked
by Count Dooku to assist Quarren leader Nossor Ri (Corey Burton) in his
rebellion against the Mon Cal.
The three-episode arc (which concludes with Prisoners), foreshadows the darker
direction in which Star Wars: The Clone
Wars is heading. Not only is Molina’s story darker thematically, but its violent content and murky underwater settings are also visually
dark.
This darkening
trend, of course, is consistent with the show’s Prequel Era setting; the
twilight of the Republic and its Jedi protectors is rapidly approaching. The Sith, personified by Darth Sidious/Supreme
Chancellor Palpatine (Ian Ambercombie) and his apprentice Darth Tyranus/Count
Dooku are manipulating the Clone Wars to
hasten the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire, events
which are chronicled in Star Wars –
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Season Four: Battle Lines features a plethora of very
dramatic story threads which require multi-episode arcs. For instance, the Battle for Umbara (four episodes)
delves into the tense relationship between the clone troopers of Anakin
Skywalker’s 501st Legion and Jedi general Pong Krell (Dave Fennoy).
Krell, a Besilisk Jedi Master and an expert swordsman, is a hard-driving, even
sadistic leader who expects success in battle no matter how many clones get
killed or wounded. Though at first he is presented as a stricter commander than
young Skywalker, Krell has a hidden agenda.
There are also quite a few “carry-over” stories from Season
Three, including an episode which features Ahsoka Tano’s friend Lux Bonteri
(Jason Spisak), the son of a Separatist Senator who was murdered after she
tried to initiate peace talks with the Republic). In A Friend in Need, Lux enlists Ahsoka’s help in his dangerous quest
to find justice for his mother’s murder.
The most dramatic bridge between Seasons Three and Four, of
course, is the continuation of Katie Lucas’ story of the Nightsisters, Savage
Opress and his long-lost brother, Darth Maul. The revelation that Maul, Darth Sidious’
apprentice in Star Wars – Episode I: The
Phantom Menace, had survived after being bisected by Obi-Wan Kenobi on
Naboo was hinted at in Witches of the
Mist, but it’s confirmed in the two-episode arc of Brothers and Revenge. (This is not a spoiler; the cover art for
the Blu-ray/DVD Complete Season Four set
features Darth Maul’s fierce visage.)
That’s not to say that there are no light, kid-friendly
among the 22 episodes. There is a two-story arc centered on Star Wars’ R2-D2 and C-3PO (Anthony
Daniels), Laurel-and-Hardy team of
droids, as well as a semi-comical episode (Shadow
Warrior) which features uber-clumsy Jar Jar Binks (Ahmed Best) as he tried
to impersonate the Gungans’ current leader, Boss Lyonie (Best, in a dual role)
to foil a Separatist plot.
My Take: Though
the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie
which launched the series in 2008 was at first dismissed as being too
kid-oriented, the TV show has enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim. Even
fans who do not like the live-action Prequel Trilogy seem to have embraced the
series’ strong narrative sensibility.
Like many fans, I sometimes wish Lucas,
Winder and Filoni had chosen a more linear (i.e. chronological) approach to the
story telling rather than showing Star
Wars: The Clone Wars as an anthology, but once viewers get used to it they
can tell that big arcs often are chronological within the context of the whole
saga and that one-shot stories (such as A
Friend in Need) are little sideway jaunts that take viewers away from the
Anakin/Obi-Wan narrative and allow them to learn about other characters,
including other Jedi Knights and Count Dooku’s former apprentice Asajj Ventress
(Nika Futterman).
(The anthology approach, by the way, will be dispensed with
as Star Wars: The Clone Wars goes
into syndication in the fall of 2012. The episodes, which will be distributed
by Trifecta Media and Entertainment in the U.S., are going to air in
chronological order.)
Though the series airs on kid-friendly Cartoon
Network, it is rated TV-PG for good reason; unlike most
"cartoons" where characters can go through battles and other nasty
situations virtually unharmed (as in the 1980s' GI Joe series), Star Wars:
The Clone Wars features many episodes in which clone troopers and even
Jedi Knights are injured or even die.
On Animation: For first-time viewers, the
animation (which was inspired by the British animated series The
Thunderbirds) does take some getting used to. It's rendered in
three-dimensional computer style and done in a slightly exaggerated style
(Count Dooku, for instance, has a decidedly knife-like look in
his face-and-beard) reminiscent of both the 2003-2005 Clone Wars series and anime.
Once the viewer gets used to the visual style, though, the strength of the writing will win over almost all Star Wars fans Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Fourth Season Episode List (Blu-ray Edition)
Once the viewer gets used to the visual style, though, the strength of the writing will win over almost all Star Wars fans Star Wars: The Clone Wars - The Complete Fourth Season Episode List (Blu-ray Edition)
Disc 1:
Water War
Written by Jose Molina
Directed by Duwayne Dunham
Gungan Attack
Written by Jose Molina
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Prisoners
Written by Jose Molina
Directed by Danny Keller
Shadow Warrior
Written by Daniel Arkin
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Mercy Mission
Written by Bonnie Mark
Directed by Danny Keller
Nomad Droids
Written by Steve Mitchell, Craig Van Sickle
Directed by Steward Lee
Disc 2
Darkness on Umbara
Written by Matt
Michnovetz
Directed by Steward Lee
The General
Written by Matt Michnovetz
Directed by Walter Murch
Plan of Dissent
Written by Matt Michnovetz
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Carnage of Krell
Written by Matt Michnovetz
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Kidnapped
Written by Henry Gilroy, additional writing by Steven
Melching
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Slaves of the
Republic
Written by Henry Gilroy, additional writing by Steven
Melching
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Escape from Kadavo
Written by Henry Gilroy, additional writing by Steven
Melching
Directed by Danny Keller
A Friend in Need
Written by Christian Taylor
Directed by Dave Filoni
Disc 3
Deception
Written by Brent Friedman
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Friends and Enemies
Written by Brent Friedman
Directed by Bosco Ng
The Box
Written by Brent Friedman
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
Crisis on Naboo
Written by Brent Friedman
Directed by Danny Keller
Massacre
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Steward Lee
Bounty
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Kyle Dunlevy
Brothers
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Bosco Ng
Revenge
Written by Katie Lucas
Directed by Brian Kalin O’Connell
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