Tales of the Underworld: Episode 1: A Way Forward
What is it ? : Quinlan Vos and Obi Wan Kenobi are returning Asajj Ventress body to Dathomir, placing her body into a pool of water, with Quinlan Vos saying as they leave that he will always love her. Asajj hears the voice of Mother Talzin, who tells her that Quinlan's words are a gift to her, but offers her the chance to return to the land of the living, but at the cost of her hearts desire, and Ventress steps out onto Dathomir once more.
Elsewhere a town with a busy starport and Stormtroopers patrolling, a woman named Cort is taking money from people to obtain transport, with Asajj Ventress standing nearby as her bodyguard.
A Rodian cannot afford her price, so pulls a gun on her, but Ventress disarms him and expels him from the office. Cort questions why someone with her skills is just acting as a bodyguard, but Ventress deflects the question and says she just wants to be a security guard for the moment.
While Ventress is having some lunch and sharing crumbs with a bird, a young human enters the office, offering 3 credits for transport, but Cort says it is not enough. He then tries to use a Jedi Mind Trick on her, but it doesn't work. Ventress goes to expel the boy, but notices Stormtroopers and a probe droid outside, so shelters him, and when Cort questions if he is in trouble, Ventress tells her to shut it, hiding the boy.
The Stormtroopers enter and ask for ID, and Ventress Mind Tricks them into leaving, but Cort reveals the boy's location, meaning both the boy and Ventress pull their lightsabers and dispatch the troopers, while Cort faints only awakening later to find the dismembered Stormtrooper laying in her office.
Ventress leads the boy to the Starport, and he identifies himself as Lyco Strata, asking her who she is, and she tells him if he doesn't know he should consider himself lucky. As they enter the Starport, she gives him money, telling him it should be enough, but as they wait to board a ship, an Imperial Inquisitor approaches, and Ventress ignites her lightsabers and fight him.
They battle, and the Inquisitor knows who she is, telling her that she should have stayed dead, but when he manages to disarm her, Lyco strikes him from behind, killing him. They flee the Stormtroopers who are entering the hangar, and leap aboard a departing ship.
Lyco thanks her for her help, and once again asks her who she is, and she tells him that she was a separatist commander, Count Dooku's assassin, and her name is Asajj Ventress, turning back to him to find him staring at her with a worried expression.
High Points : It's nice to see Ventress again, and seeing what happens to her after the end of the Clone Wars, similar to Obi-Wan she has taken a fairly low status job to hide from the Empire and it's Inquisitors. Seeing these powerful characters hiding out, reduced from commanding armies and swaying the galaxy, to hiding in the crowds to avoid detection, is great to watch.
And seeing how Ventress has changed, where once she would have butchered Lyco herself for merely being a Jedi, now she sees that he is a scared youth, and protects him accordingly.
Low Points : Since when did Quinlan Vos love Asajj Ventress, it's probably from some comic or novel or something, but it's news to me. And I can only guess she loves him back and it is this love, her "hearts desire", that Talzin takes from her in payment for her resurrection.
So what do you really think ? : It's nicely done, but obviously the first part of a story, where the previous Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire tended to show episodes from throughout someone's life, this is just a longer story cut into three parts.
Final Words : This one is fine, it looks good, there's some action, and we get to see the return of a favourite character, but really there's nothing we haven't seen before. The Inquisitor fight, is so similar to the one between Ahsoka and a different un-named inquisitor we've saw in the Tales of the Jedi series, and it all just seems very familiar without going into anything new.
Score : 8/10
Comments made about this Article!
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21/Jun/2025 11:54:04
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Posted by josejay00@gmail.com
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The story of Quinlan Vos and Asajj Ventress, leading up to her "death", was in the novel Dark Disciple.
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