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Geek Vibes Nation
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld' Gives New Life To Fan Favorites
Disney's Tales of anthology series remains one of the most compelling entries in modern Star Wars storytelling. Tales of the Underworld is the third iteration and this time around, we're following Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane. Arguably, this iteration might be just as good as Tales of the Jedi , which gave us more insight into Ahsoka and Count Dooku. The animation has certainly gotten even more beautiful and the score helps highlight these well-written short episodes. As previously mentioned, Tales of the Jedi followed Ahsoka and Count Dooku – two great and well-known characters in the Star Wars world. The first iteration of this series brought both great depth to a character like Dooku and showcased why someone like Ahsoka is worthy of her adoration within the fandom. Tales of the Empire offered a really good story following Barris Offee after her betrayal in the Clone Wars, but admittedly, the episodes following Morgan Elsbeth were slightly boring and unnecessary. Even if those episodes gave us a brief, chilling appearance by General Grievous that reminded us why he remains one of the saga's most fearsome villains Tales of the Underworld made a good decision in giving us episodes centering around two fan favorites. Bounty hunter Cad Bane was a highlight of any episode he was in, with his cool swagger and Western-like attitude. Both are center-stage for his three episodes, as with Count Dooku in Tales of the Jedi , Cad Bane's episodes delve into his origins with surprising emotional depth that reveals a layered past that makes him far more than a cold-hearted killer. Even the coldest of bounty hunters were once children… Let's start with Asajj Ventress. Ventress went from a lethal assassin to one of the most fully realized characters of the Clone Wars era. From her frequent rematches against Obi-Wan and Anakin to her betrayal by Count Dooku, Ventress's arc within the Clone Wars show is one of the best examples of redemption I've ever seen. When Ventress popped up in the third and final season of The Bad Batch, fans were both elated and confused. If you solely watched the Clone Wars show, Ventress was last seen as a bounty hunter helping Ahsoka when she was wrongly accused of a terrorist attack. However, if you read the canon novel Dark Disciple (which, fleshed out the deleted episodes when Disney bought out the Star Wars franchise) you'd know that Ventress died after falling in love with Quinlan Vos and working to take down Count Dooku. This book is considered canon and when she appeared in The Bad Batch, there was no explanation as to why and how she was alive. Now, the first episode of Tales of the Underworld explains why and it was so beautiful seeing the first minute highlight the end of the novel, with Quinlan Vos bringing Ventress back to Dathomir and proclaiming his love to her. Also – cameo by Obi-Wan! While this was beautiful, people who are unfamiliar with the novel, might be confused as to how we even got from A to B. Maybe a quick explanation or flashback would have been good? Either way, her arc was heartwarming and showed how much Ventress has grown. It was a nice compliment to her story and after this series, we'd love to see more of our favorite ex-assassin. Now, the next arc follows Cad Bane. Just like with Count Dooku's arc in Tales of the Jedi, I was not expecting to get such a rich backstory about Cad Bane. His arc has that underlying Western feel to it and it's always great when Star Wars becomes a space Western. There's so many emotions in these three episodes and the short episodes do a great job in not rushing any scene or dialogue, while also not overcrowding his story. We see who Cad Bane was before putting on the hat, how he became who we saw in Clone Wars , and get a little insight on possible story setups for the future. Admittedly, the Cad Bane was the more emotional arc out of the two. While Asajj Ventress's episodes held a degree of emotional weight, it was Cad Bane's that really hit the heartstrings. From seeing Cad Bane as a child, to the old-fashioned Western standoff in the last episode, everything about this arc is beautiful. The animation beautifully highlights the story, the music perfectly frames each scene, and the story is very well-written. Tales of the Underworld is an unexpected treat from Star Wars and hopefully, we'll continue getting more short-series like this to satiate our need for more animated shows, which is where Disney Star Wars seems to excel. Maybe Tales of the Clones? We can only hope. What do you think of Tales of the Underworld?
Washington Post
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
‘Andor' and ‘Revenge of the Sith': Two Star Wars tales about rebels and dictators
Pinpointing exactly what Star Wars is about these days might be as tricky as blowing up the Death Star. Since 'Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker' opened in 2019, there hasn't been a feature film from the franchise — even though more than a dozen have been rumored or announced. Instead, the universe has lived on in live-action and animated Disney+ shows, like 'The Acolyte,' 'The Bad Batch,' 'Visions,' 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' and 'Ahsoka,' which have offered divergent ideas about (and had mixed success in) that galaxy far, far away. At the Star Wars Celebration event in Japan last week, Lucasfilm sketched out its plans, including Star Wars movies featuring Ryan Gosling and Baby Yoda, along with yet another project about Darth Maul.
Forbes
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld' Brings The Galaxy's Bad Guys To Disney+ On May 4th
Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld Like many Star Wars fans, I've been pining for a good 'underworld' story set in a galaxy far, far away for a long time now. We've gotten versions of this. Solo: A Star Wars Story certainly delved into the grittier corners of the Star Wars universe. Andor and Rogue One did as well. We almost got a full-fledged underworld game with Star Wars: 1313, and Ubisoft's Star Wars: Outlaws certainly takes us into the seedier sections of the galaxy. But we've had some big disappointments along the way. Not only was Star Wars: 1313 cancelled, Disney's The Book Of Boba Fett was a huge letdown. So much potential to really get into the various criminal factions wasted. Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld looks like it just might scratch that itch, however. The new animated anthology series was just announced. The six-part series of shorts lands on Disney+ on May 4th (Star Wars Day) and features anti-heroes like Cad Bane and Asajj Ventress. Cad Bane appeared most recently in The Bad Batch, though his live-action version last showed up in Season 3 of The Mandalorian, when the blue-skinned Duros bounty hunter was spotted on Tatooine. He previously appeared in The Book Of Boba Fett. The character debuted back in the Season 1 finale of the animated series The Clone Wars in 2008. Ventress joined the Star Wars universe earlier in Genndy Tartakovsky's 2003 animated series The Clone Wars, appearing later in the second Clone Wars series as well as The Bad Batch later in 2021. The Zabrak Nightsister was trained as a Jedi Padawan before becoming one of Count Dooku's apprentice and assassin. These are both great, morally complex characters with compelling stories and the trailer certainly looks terrific: However much Disney has fumbled the Star Wars IP over the last decade, the animated stuff has mostly been quite good. I hope that trend continues with Tales Of The Underworld.
