Back in 2003, my friend Nathan Butler penned quite a few guest reviews for this site including a complete, episode by episode review of The Clone Wars mirco-series by Genndy Tartakovsky that aired on Cartoon Network. Lucasfilm had ventured into animation before with the likes of Ewoks and Droids, not to mention the Star Wars Holiday Special, but this series of shorts was different. Nathan’s reviews were posted as individual articles dated November 2003 to March 2005, but I’m going to compile them all here into one big retro-review. Here’s Nathan…
Tag: sith
Rescue and Transformation
It’s true that Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader before he was badly disfigured on Mustafar, but most people associate Vader with the black suit. That final transformation took place after Palpatine’s search and rescue mission was a success. Vader was rebuilt, and the rest was cinematic history. The shots discussed here are not all full scenes loaded with dialogue, but mostly extra bits from or changes to the existing shots.
Rescuing Palpatine
You have to hand it to Palpatine. Organizing his own capture and rescue to reinforce his cover as a phantom menace to the galaxy was a stroke of pure evil genius. Poor Dooku probably thought so too until he had two lightsabers criss-crossing his neckline. I’m not sure that even Palpatine foresaw what a troublesome rescue it would be, however. What we saw in the finished film was a trimmed down version. Let’s take a look at some of the deleted/altered bits from the opening space battle to the big crash landing.
To Kill a Senator – Part 1
Five minutes into Attack of the Clones, one thing is perfectly clear. Someone is trying to kill Senator Amidala. Two major attempts to assassinate her are made early in the film. The first takes place on a Coruscant landing platform. Let’s take a look at some of the deleted/altered scenes involving this first attack in the film.
Darth Maul
Let’s face it. You can say what you want about The Phantom Menace, but you have to admit that Darth Maul was pure Sith genius. The only complaint that I’ve ever heard about him was that he just wasn’t in the film enough. Not to pour salt on the wounds, but he did have a few more scenes in the film that were eventually dropped. Sorry, Maul fans! Let’s take a look.
Leaving Tatooine
New Hyperdrive? Check. Free slave who will grow up to be a Sith? Check. Step in icky icky goo? Check. Time to get off this dustbowl of a planet, but not without taking a few moments to say goodbye and clean up some loose ends. This page deals with departing that lovely yellow-orange planet we know and love: Tatooine.
The Secret of the Sith
This editorial was written before the release of Episode III.
Hiding, keeping secrets, duping people, duality—these are all themes that are at the forefront of the Star Wars saga. Padmé poses as a handmaiden and vice versa multiple times, Anakin and Padmé’s marriage is kept secret from pretty much everyone, the Sith hide in the shadows refining their evil machinations, Obi-Wan and Yoda hide themselves away on separate planets for years after Episode III, the Skywalker twins are separated and hidden at birth, Count Dooku is actually Darth Tyranus, the seemingly innocent Palpatine is actually an alter ego for an evil Sith Lord who will reveal himself for who he is and take over the galaxy as an Emperor—but is that last statement entirely true? Does he actually reveal himself or is it all about keeping things secret?