So, you don’t like the Duchess Satine? OK, gone. Pacifist Mandalorians? Squashed. Savage Opress? Outta here. And what’s with that name, anyway? Is that not the laziest, piece of bad-villain-name ever? That’s what happens when you hire your kids. And even if for some crazy reason you had something against Jon Favreau’s kick-ace, Mando/Death Watch character, Pre Vizsla, you’ll be happy too.
So what about the biggest ground shaker of the whole series? The return of half of Darth Maul? When this novelization ended, it certainly appeared like he, too, was on his way out. Sidious was in the middle of barbecuing him when it ended mid-scene. It was back to the brutality of the Revenge of the Sith novelization. They viciously tied up a few loose ends that were flapping in the breeze. They should just do what George Costanza would do, and leave on a high note now.
The last five years were a bumpy journey, even for the apologists. Maybe especially so for that group. But, at least for me, this felt like a little reciprocation for the devoted fans. It’s like they woke up and said, “Ok, let’s give them what they want. Let’s clean up some of this mess we’ve made.”
In the first part―which was used as the season opener, and most people have already forgotten―they set the tone by killing off another Jedi Council member. This time Adi Gallia. This was not surprising because some of us already thought she was dead. Just another case of “Piell-ing” a character and getting a little shock value out of it.
But then the story takes an interesting turn. Maul decides to build his own army. He just goes around and starts taking over those belonging to others. As most have already seen, there’s a lot of collateral damage in this army collecting. We finally get to see the Falleen and Black Sun on screen, and… they get killed. We even get to see a Hutt slaughter.
The third part saw the end of Vizsla, at Maul’s hand, for authority over the Mandalorians, adding Maul to the list of Mandalorian leaders if only for a short time. But part four will get really dark with the killing of Obi-Wan’s “girlfriend” right in front of him as a vengeance-killing by Maul, followed by Sidious coming on the scene and schooling the two Zabrak brothers. We actually will get to see the death of Opress, for whatever that means in SW. At least it is some small satisfaction.
The demise of Maul in this story is even less certain than in his Episode I death, but it appears he is getting obliterated by his former master at the conclusion. I kept thinking that I would be disappointed by the end somehow, but since it didn’t really end I was rather pleased with it.
I have watched the show off and on since it premiered and have always been a fan of its visual aspect, though it lacked in storyline quite often. It has also been fairly violent for a children’s show, but strangely still geared toward the younger audience. This story was a bloodbath, at least to my mind’s eye since we are spared most of the gory visuals. There is a high body count, which I’d say is fairly realistic in a show with the word “wars” in the title twice.
So if you’ve never watched the show but want to see the strongest story they have put out in a long time, maybe even thirty years, this is it. Once you get past the fact that Maul is still alive, and has a brother with an even less creative name, that there are Mandalorian pacifists, that Adi Gallia gets killed twice, and that her former Padawan is no longer Obi’s only love interest, you can at least enjoy watching them all get mopped up.
And did I mention there were Mandalorians? Lots and lots of Mandalorians? My faith is restored. It is almost as if the Lucas family withdrawing a little from the franchise is already having a positive effect on the story.
