Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld – A Review
May the Fourth be with you! (And also with you…)
For the third year in a row, Lucasfilm has treated us to a limited series of short stories featuring some favorite characters from the Clone Wars era. And this year they went bold: how else can you describe stories where Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane are the main characters? So how did Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld stack up?
Star Wars animation is consistently some of the best story-telling
I feel bad for those Star Wars fans who don’t watch the animation. I’m not throwing shade at them – we’re all welcome to enjoy Star Wars at whatever level of engagement we want, and all the Star Wars comic fans no doubt shake their heads sadly at me – but I just feel bad that they’re missing out on some of the best story-telling in the saga. Star Wars animation brought us Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger and crew. It breathed life into minor Jedi characters like Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and Luminara Unduli. It expanded minor live-action characters like Darth Maul, Boba Fett and, well, all the clones.
And yes, it gave us total badasses like Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane.
Asajj Ventress and Star Wars redemption
Asajj Ventress is one of the coolest characters in Star Wars. She was first introduced in the Tartakovsky 2D series where she exploded off the screen as a new villain. She returned in the feature film Star Wars: The Clone Wars as easily the most sinister and vicious Star Wars villain since Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. She continued as a major foil in the animated TV series Clone Wars, securing her position as the ultimate femme fatale when she used the Force to pull a clone trooper onto her light saber, and then kissed him as he died.
But then, everything changed. Asajj was betrayed by her Dark Side master. That started a thrilling, heart-wrenching, multi-season story arc of loss, change and redemption, which ended with Asajj actually helping Ahsoka Tano fight to prove her innocence. Her story was originally meant to end on screen, but when Clone Wars was cancelled the decision was made to conclude her story in the outstanding novel Dark Disciple.
I’ve commented in the past on the problems of this new, connected Star Wars that crosses all media, where we’re expected to have read all the books and comics if we want to fully understand the story on screen. Asajj (spoiler alert) dying in Dark Disciple was a great character ending, but it was unknown to many Star Wars fans who don’t read the books. Her return in Bad Batch only further muddied the waters, causing fans in the know to question whether the novel was indeed canon anymore.
Asajj lives!
Fortunately, Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld dealt with this in its opening scene. In a direct pull from Dark Disciple, it confirmed the canon of the book but used pre-established Night Sister magic to bring her back to life. And so we get to enjoy more stories of our favorite Sith assassin.
And what a trio of stories! We discover Asajj trying to just live a quiet life, to put her past behind her, but fate intervenes and she finds herself helping, of all things, a young Jedi padawan trying to escape Order 66. This is Asajj at her finest: reluctant to engage, yet driven by a clear sense of justice that stems from the Light Side of the Force. There’s no question she’s a good guy now – but she’s still just so f-ing badass she’s way cooler than any Jedi.
The Asajj Ventress redemption arc
There are several redemption arcs in Star Wars – Anakin Skywalker, Kylo Ren, and even Kanan Jarrus – but none of them are as rich, believable or sympathetic as that of Asajj Ventress. For the first few seasons we know her, she is truly evil: a cold-blooded killer easily the match for our Jedi heroes. When tragedy strikes her in the betrayal by her master, it’s a believable turn of events and we’re not actually sure who to cheer for. She heads home to her (also kind of evil) family, and after several failed attempts at revenge finds herself lost and alone. We travel with her as she turns to bounty hunting – no longer pure evil but not a nice person – as she tries to find a new way in the galaxy. When she helps Ahsoka she still carries the trappings of her evil past, but her heart has begun to change. By the time we see her again in Bad Batch she’s clearly come a long way. She has a good heart but doesn’t suffer fools.
The Asajj we see in Tales of the Underworld is still a work in progress, somewhere between Clone Wars and Bad Batch, and we get to see on screen what we never have before: Asajj Ventress risking her life to protect a Jedi. It’s a perfect complement to her previous appearances and it rounds out her arc nicely.
If this is truly the last time we see Asajj Ventress on screen, it is a worthy departure.
Cad Bane and absolutely no redemption
The second set of three episodes in Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld follow another fan favorite from Clone Wars: the infamous bounty hunter Cad Bane. I’ve always loved this character not only because he’s totally badass and cool, but because he usually wins whenever he faces off against our heroes. Unlike so many of the bumbling villains in Star Wars, Cad Bane is a truly dangerous individual and every time he enters the story there’s a good chance our heroes are going to lose. He’s bested Anakin Skywalker in one-on-one combat; he’s outwitted Obi-Wan Kenobi; he’s broken out of a maximum security prison, held senators hostage in the senate building itself, and left the entire Jedi Temple in the dust. This guy is unstoppable – and just so cool with the twin blasters, wide-brimmed hat, toothpick and that gravelly voice.
Cad Bane origin story
When I heard that this series was going to explore Cad Bane’s origin story, I confess I wasn’t that excited. Sure, it would be great to see this character again, but sometimes a cool character – especially a cool villain – just needs to be left in mystery. Did I really need to know where Bane came from?
Yes. Yes, I did.
Full credit to the writers, illustrators, voice actors and composers for creating an outstanding piece of fiction in these three short episodes. Written in a noir style of life on the mean streets, this story managed to accomplish something very difficult: it made Cad Bane sympathetic in a way, but didn’t dilute any of his badassery. There’s no question at the end of this: Cad Bane is a bad dude. But he’s also a bit of a tragic figure. This doesn’t make us sympathetic to him, but it does give what might have been a one-dimensional villain some real depth and nuance. Bravo, Star Wars. Bravo.
Just like Asajj Ventress, if this was Cad Bane’s swan song I think it was the perfect send-off for him. He is a richer character because of these episodes but there’s nothing to diminish what we already knew and loved.
The Epic Style of Star Wars animation
I just want to tip my hat again to the creators of this series. Star Wars animation has always been a great vehicle for delivering epic adventure and poignant drama, but each outing just ups the game once again. Clone Wars was amazing and it got better every season. Rebels was a different beast but perhaps even more beautiful and poignant. Bad Batch was stunning in its visuals, tone and depth of ideas. Each one of the Tales of… have been great, but Tales of the Underworld really set the bar high.
The light saber action sequences in Asajj’s stories were top-notch and thrilling. The success with which her complex and subtle emotions were expressed is a triumph of the actress and the animators.
Cad Bane’s story was full-on gritty cop story in tone, taking an existing, well-known style and dropping it seamlessly into the Star Wars galaxy. The characters were real, believable, and the fact that they were almost all aliens with laser blasters never once takes us out of the personal drama.
There is so much to explore in Star Wars and I’m glad that animation is going to remain a big part of it. Bring on the next Tales of…!
Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning, best-selling author and ghostwriter of science fiction and space fantasy series. His newest novel, Light in the Abyss, is now available here.
