Hello everyone and welcome to another double sized edition of Clone Wars catchup, this time looking at season 3 episodes 14 and 15. Starting with episode 14, the Jedi worked to fight back against Dooku’s bulky, yellow Darth Maul assassin. I liked how Dooku wasn’t fully satisfied with him straight away despite his physical prowess: he was sloppy and needed to not just rely on brute strength alone. In fact he never really grew that fond of him as the short-lived alliance collapsed before the end of the episode. If I’m honest I think it was rushed and they should have had the pay-off further down the line. Have him show development and growth for a while and gain Dooku’s trust to give the turn all the more impact.

In saying that, the three way fight between him, Dooku and Ventress was really good and I have to admit it was fun to see it evolve from a two on one to an every person for itself free for all. It is always satisfying to see the amount of effort the animators put into the lightsabre duel cinematography as they could easily become complacent or repetitive. Overall a strong episode which also gave another good example of how the chemistry and banter between Anakin and Obi Wan is better here than in the movies. And was that image at the end of Darth Maul? So he just survived the Phantom Menace? I knew he came back but I was expecting some sort of mystical resurrection. Maybe it will still happen in a flashback…who knows.

The next episode was just kinda weird. I enjoyed it but for the most part I wasn’t really sure what was going on. Were they in a different galaxy or dimension? It had a very mystical and metaphysical feel to it with bat people and other beings that could transform into different things. At one point I thought that they were physical representations of the light and dark side of the force. They were rambling about the Chosen One but then the old guy wanted Anakin to stay to guard his creepy children. Obviously Anakin declined but I do wonder if this was a very strange one off or any of this is ever going to be referred back to.

I did like seeing Qui-Gonn Jin and his interaction with Obi Wan. I preferred it to the vision of Anakin’s mum, mainly because it took me a minute to work out who she actually was and Obi Wan’s vision was a lot more emotional for me because The Phantom Menace introduced me to Star Wars and I think that was actually Liam Neeson doing the voice.. The design of the older Ashoka was interesting and I wonder if she ever actually grows into that design as the show progresses. She looked rather bad ass I must say.

DD Rating (14) 7.75/10 (15) 7/10