Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 3 Episode 14: Witches of the Mist
What is it ? : The dead bodies of the Jedi killed by Savage Opress are returned to the Jedi Temple by a squad of Republic Commandos, and Anakin and Obi-Wan are assigned to discover who killed them. They are shown footage of the killer, and informed they are from the same family as Darth Maul, and are from Dathomir.
They head there and speak to the villagers and are told that one of the nightsisters took a male as a mate, so Obi-Wan heads to meet the high priestess of the Nightsisters, who uses her magic to divine his location is on Toydaria.
Savage Opress after training with Dooku is sent to Toydaria to capture the king, and successfully grabs him just as Anakin and Obi-Wan arrive. After a short fight in which Opress kills the king, he flees destroying their ship in the process and rendezvousing with a Separatist capital ship now in orbit where Dooku awaits him.
Dooku punishes Opress for killing the King, and Ventress arrives and intervenes. Opress and Ventress fight Dooku, almost defeating him before he flees with Ventress in close pursuit. Meanwhile Anakin and Obi-Wan arrive and continue their battle with Opress, as Ventress and Dooku fight their way towards the escape pods. Dooku defeats Ventress who escapes, and although Opress is nearly killed by Obi-Wan and Anakin after the ships Droid complement is ordered to kill Opress by Dooku, he flees back to Dathomir.
Back on Dathomir the Priestess tells Opress his brother, Darth Maul survives and can train him further.
High Points : While I'm impressed with the entire episode, I was especially impressed by the return of the Clone Commandos, having been a fan of Republic Commando and completed it back in the day, I loved seeing the characters return and become Canon. The design is absolutely spot on, and the Clone Commandos look as cool as they always did.
I made note while watching the episode that the three way battle between Dooku, Ventress and Opress was spectacular, only to be even more impressed when Ventress and Dooku continue their battle at the same time as Opress battles Obi-Wan and Anakin. This really is one of the most amazing battles I've seen in Star Wars, five opponents involved in two seperate fights, as the story cuts between the two. Spectacular.
Dooku spends part of the episode teaching Opress how to use telekinesis, which becomes vital later in the episode, and much of the dialogue is a dark side mirror to Yoda teaching Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. A brilliant scene, and although short is vital to the episode and a fascinating glimpse into sith training techniques which aren't a whole load different to the Jedi ones we've seen before.
Low Points : A couple of very minor niggles . . .
Although I knew he was coming, Darth Maul's return is annoying. He clearly died in The Phantom Menace and he's not so great a character that he couldn't remain dead. While this will eventually lead to some amazing storyline, I can't help feel that the dead should remain dead.
Also, Darth Mauls history has changed again. When he was first introduced he was described as an Iridonian. Later this was revised to Zabrak, but to avoid contradicting the earlier statement he was described as an Iridonian Zabrak. Now his background is that he is from Dathomir, but his people are from Iridonia. Why they couldn't have said that he trained on Dathomir I don't know, but his background has changed again.
So what do you really think ? : This was a brilliant episode, action packed with some amazing scenes, and the story is tied together brilliantly. From Dooku training Opress in telekinesis which he uses later in the episode against opponents, to the dialogue during the training mirroring Luke's Jedi training, right up to the amazing lightsaber battle at the end. Fantastic.
Final Words : Looking forwards to seeing where this goes next, but I'm vaguely aware we jump into a totally different storyline next time which runs for a few episodes. Not sure when we return to Opress and his search for his brother.
Score : 9/10
Comments made about this Article!
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03/Jan/2018 05:25:09
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Posted by Alex Panzerkit
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I really feel bad about the Toydarian King! I liked him from the very first episode, then hes come back again
And now they killed him!
I got to admire his warrior spirit, then Savage shows up and mows through his guards, whats he do? He draws his sword and prepares to have at it
Toydaria REALLY needs to beef up its security. Apparently some random goofus can fly up and just waltz right in to attack the King with only a handful of guards in the way. And said guards are trained to suicidally fly into melee ranged of a melee armed foe . . . . when they have wings and are flying! I don't think the Toydarian guards got off a single shot
It would have come across a lot better if the King had less pathetic security and Savage was more awesome . . . I can't imagine that a handful of Commando Droids would have had any difficulty kidnapping the king (though actually, I would have liked to see the King face a commando droid in a sword duel)
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