Every year on “May the Fourth,” Disney has been releasing a new “Tales of…” short animated series in the Star Wars universe, and this year the latest installment was Tales of the Underworld, a show in which fan favorite Dave Filoni wrote all six of the stories. The first three episodes of Tales of the Underworld bring back the former assassin Asajj Ventress in an unexpected (and perhaps unnecessary?) resurrection arc only to give her a quirky apprentice of sorts. I guess it’s really true that no one ever really dies in Star Wars (she was apparently killed in a Star Wars canon novel entitled Dark Disciple). And the latter three episodes depict a fairly generic Western-themed origin story for the bounty hunter Cad Bane. Generally, I love the animated Star Wars shows –the animation aesthetic in these shows is simply eye-watering—but Tales of the Underworld struck me as a fairly middling, predictable series all things considered.
Episode 1 “A Way Forward”
“You may join me and your sisters in this realm, or you may return to the land of the living.”
The first episode shows a burial ceremony for Asajj Ventress on the planet Dathomir as Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi lay her body into a pool of water. Quinlan Vos promises that he will always love her as he sets her under the water. But as they depart, she is suddenly awakened as a ghostly apparition by the Nightsisters (particularly Mother Talzin) with the chance to “return to the land of the living” but at the cost of her “heart’s desire” (i.e. Quinlan Vos). Later, we find Asajj Ventress working on a remote desert planet as a body guard at a transport shuttle ticket-station run by a woman named Cort. Now preferring the life of peace and quietude, one day Asajj encounters a young boy with nascent Jedi skills and she decides on a whim to help him escape from stormtroopers. Together, they search for the Jedi “Hidden Path” which is the rumored route Jedi like Quinlan Vos are helping people escape, particularly Jedi survivors of Order 66. In the end, she and the boy battle a fearsome cloaked Inquisitor until the boy sneaks up and kills him shortly before they escape on a shuttle together. Asajj then tells the boy: “I was a commander in the separatist alliance in the war against the republic and the Jedi Knights. I was Count Dooku’s lead assassin, and I probably killed several people that you knew personally. My name is Asajj Ventress.”
Episode 2 “Friends”
“In this business, you have no friends.”
The starship that Asajj and the boy used for escape lands inside a busy city (is it Nar Shadaa?) as Asajj and the boy (we learn his name is Lyco Strata) encounter a bounty hunter, Asajj’s old friend, a humanoid Theelin woman named Latts Razzi (who looks strangely like Poison Ivy in the Batman universe) and her droid C-21 Highsinger. They agree to show Asajj the way to the Jedi “Hidden Path” in exchange for help stealing an Imperial Shield Relay Unit from an Imperial shipyard on Cassaro as it is being transported. During the ensuing scuffle, Razzi and her droid turn against Asajj and Lyco so they are forced to steal the intel about The Path at the point of a lightsaber.
This episode was a fairly forgettable side-quest.
Episode 3 “One Warrior to Another”
“You’ve just been fighting so long, you know no other way.”
Asajj and Lyco ride through the desert on a camel-like creature using the intel they received in the previous episode until they arrive at a homestead surrounded by B1 battle droids from inactive the Clone Wars for a minor confrontation with a girl and her grandfather (who sits in a repulsor-lifted chair). He is revealed to be a veteran of the Clone Wars (a Separatist). He praises Asajj as “Lady Ventress” claiming that their side was correct all along, while Asajj says that both sides were wrong in the war. Just as Asajj and Lyco try to leave, the old man offers his granddaughter as a guide to help them get to Cipher Canyon (the location of the Hidden Path) in her landspeeder since it is near a spring for water. The old man has been injured by raiders over water. But along the way, they are attacked by a band of strange little reptilian creatures. Before they can fight the creatures, Lyco speaks with them using his Jedi skills and he learns they are upset that their water has been stolen. This leads to a confrontation with the old grandfather who struggles to let go of the fight, claiming the water is just as much his own. Once they arrive at Cipher Canyon, Asajj sends Lyco on his own to meet with the Jedi, but Lyco declines and decides to stay with Asajj as they head off into the desert.
This was a strange anti-climactic ending since the first three episodes of this arc were entirely focusing on finding the Jedi transport on the Hidden Path… so now what will they do?
Episode 4 “The Good Life”
“Welcome to the family.”
Two young red-eyed Duros children (Colby and Niro) go running through the busy streets of a city (presumably on the planet Duro) causing trouble, before a mysterious “businessman” with a flat-brimmed hat arrives to offer them a deal (he looks suspiciously like Cad Bane). He hires the boys to cause a disturbance outside a casino which allows for a robbery, but the boys are shocked when the “businessman” (we learn his name is Lazlo) suddenly shoots the casino owner right in front of them. Colby escapes with the gang but Niro is caught by the police.
In this episode a brief Wilhelm Scream can be heard.
Episode 5 “A Good Turn”
“Well, ain’t you fancy now.”
The young boy Colby is now a young man working for a small crime syndicate. Lazlo is killed in a raid at the outset by a “lawman” which leads Colby (who now goes by “Cad Bane”) and his girlfriend Arin to go looking for revenge. He runs into his old friend Niro on the streets where Niro is now the deputy marshal but he was not the one who killed Lazlo. Niro warns Cad to stay away –this leads to a very predictable shoot-out between Cad and the “lawman” who killed his comrade. Cad’s girlfriend is wounded in the fight (she vaguely alludes to the fact that she is pregnant and that they have a “future together) and she disarms Cad before he can shoot his friend Niro. Cad is then led away to prison as Niro says, “You got your revenge, I hope it was worth it.” To which Cad Bane ominously responds, “It will be.”
Cad Bane’s backstory is surprisingly predictable to me, even if this episode did have some nice nods to Western gunslinging.
Episode 6 “One Good Deed”
“You took everything from me.”
“Not everything.”
Years later, the city streets have significantly improved, crime has gone down, even if Cad Bane’s crew has recently started appearing again in the old neighborhood where Colby and Niro grew up. Cad Bane has five more years in prison (a prison on Tyranno) but he has been suddenly released on a technicality. Marshal Niro and his team begin to wonder if Cad Bane will return. Niro now has a son named Isaac and he married Cad’s former girlfriend Arin before she died. In the dramatic fight, Cad kills Niro in a Western-styled shoot-out and he realizes that the boy Isaac was actually his own child all along. In the end, after murdering Niro, someone tells Cad Bane to “stay away from him” (meaning his son boy Isaac). The episode ends as Cad Bane slowly turns and walks away.