A Long Time Ago Before, During and After the Clone Wars: Tales of the Jedi

 Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi

The last cycle of posts I skipped over a "Star Wars" post because I was still trying to figure out how I was going handle wrapping up the Republic/Clone Wars era before transitioning to the Empire. Then, I remembered this little series of vignettes that came out a couple of years ago. The stories told here take place before, during and after the events we've already covered. It focuses on Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano. That makes a lot of sense. They are both Jedi that became disenfranchised due to the corruption of the Senate and how the Jedi was being affected by it and being shaped it. But these two people handled that disenfranchisement in very different ways. We have six mini episodes. Three that focus on Dooku and three that focus on Ahsoka. We are going to briefly talk about and rate each one. Let's get to it.

Sisters are hunting before they can walk.

"Life and Death"

For the first, I don't want to call them episodes, mini-episodes? we are in a Togrutan village where we are present for the birth of Ahsoka Tano. About a year after her birth, Ahsoka's mother, Pav-ti, takes her hunting which is a Togrutan tradition or just one of their family traditions. They are attacked by a beast and the beast takes Ahsoka. Ahsoka is able to use the Force to save herself and have the beast bring her back to the village. Once she returns, the wise woman of the village reveals that Ahsoka is Jedi.

I just have to say this mini-episode is so beautiful. I loved the sequence of Ahsoka and Pav-ti walking through the woods with Pav-ti imparting lessons to her infant daughter. Hitting the giant dandelion puffs until the fluff flies through the air around them. It's such a weird thing to see a blaster that is shaped like an actual rifle. It's a little jarring. Another really beautiful frame in this episode was whenever they would do a close up of Gantika, the wise woman's, face. Every wrinkle and crack in her face seemed like it was painstakingly animated and I paused the episode to kind of study it. My main issue with this mini episode was that it didn't add anything major to the mythos or to the story it feels like this series is trying to tell. It is great to see Ahsoka's parents. To get a glimpse of the life that Ahsoka could have lived. But we know that this is how the story went for most Jedi. Why not tell a story of Ahsoka as a youngling in the temple before she met Anakin? This is a beautiful little tale, that has beautiful visuals, but overall, it's not adding much to Ahoska's story.

Grade: B-

Dooku don't fuck around.

"Justice"

Count Dooku and his apprentice, Qui-Gon Jinn, are dispatched to a small village where the son of the planet's senator has been taken hostage. Senator Dagonet has let his planet fall into disrepair and his people have kidnapped his son because it is the only way they feel they can effect real change. Senator Dagonet shows up along with a company of Republic soldiers, tipped off by one of the starving villagers. Dooku tries to get Dagonet to stand down, but there is a scuffle. Dooku begins to let his anger get the best of him, but Qui-Gon takes action saving countless lives and pulling his master away from the Dark Side.

I want to see more stories of Count Dooku and Qui-Gon when they were Master and Apprentice. I feel like people are clamoring for that. I would have watched a two parter that was thirty minutes each of this particular story. Again, the animation. Stunning. I love how it was filmed. It feels like Dooku and Qui-Gon are walking into an old time American Old West town that has fallen on hard times. There is an undercurrent of menace whether it's a mangy dog growling at them or a droid ramming repeatedly into the doorway of a saloon. The doors closing on the Jedi as they walk through the town. This story isn't re-inventing the wheel and it doesn't really need to do that. We are starting to see the beginning of the path that turns Dooku away from the Republic and the Jedi and towards the Sith and the Dark Side. He's really seeing the corruption that is taking root in the Senate and he lashes out. If I have one negative for this, it's that it is a little heavy handed. But otherwise, this is exactly the sort of story that I want from a series like this with these characters.

Grade: B+

Mace Windu was always the worst.

"Choices"

Mace Windu and Count Dooku are Raxus Secundus to retrieve the body of Jedi Master Katri. Katri was killed protecting the Raxus senator from an ambush. Count Dooku isn't convinced that the senator is telling the truth and wants to investigate. Mace believes they should follow the Council's orders. When they get there, Dooku does his own thing and they learn that Katri was killed by Senator Larik who was being blackmailed for lining his pockets with special interest money to the detriment of the people. The guards thought they could use Larik to their advantage. They believe the Jedi are corrupt as well for working with the Senate. Mace and Dooku return and Dooku learns that Mace was offered Master Katri's Council seat before they left on their mission.

I feel like this mini episode is similar to the first one. I feel like this vignette all boils down to the conversation that Mace and Dooku have at the end of the episode. If the last vignette was to show Dooku becoming disenfranchised with the Senate then this episode was to show his disenfranchisement with the Jedi. Learning that Mace had been appointed to the council before they went to Raxus makes Dooku believe that Mace was more concerned with following rules to keep his seat secure than finding out what really happened to their friend and colleague. Now, I don't really think that true. Mace Windu is a rule follower who is kind of a hypocrite and I truly believe that he would have acted the same way even if he had not been appointed. I appreciate them telling this story, but the first ten minutes of the fifteen minute vignette feels like a re-hash of the last vignette we just watched with this Jedi stuff tacked on to the end. 

Grade: B-

Yaddle!!

"The Sith Lord"

Count Dooku is surprised to learn that his former apprentice, Qui-Gon Jinn, has potentially encountered a Sith Lord on Tatooine. Dooku speaks with his former apprentice and Yaddle about his concern that the Council is not taking this potential threat seriously. Soon, Qui-Gon is dead at the hands of the Sith and Dooku is meeting with his new Master, Darth Sidious while Yaddle looks on. Yaddle and Dooku duel and it is Dooku killing Yaddle that seals his pact with Sidious and the Dark Side.

When I was watching "The Phantom Menace" way back in 1999 at sixteen years old one of the things that I took away was the female Yoda. What is her story? Where did she come from? And now, in, well 2024, for me, we learn a little bit more about this impressive Jedi Master. Yaddle is voiced here by Bryce Dallas Howard which is pretty cool and I also love that they didn't have her try to talk like Yoda. That would have been awful. These are the types of stories that a series like this should tell. These ancillary characters that maybe didn't get their due in the other canon materials. And also showing different sides of characters that we know. This is probably my favorite vignette of the six. We've seen so much of Count Dooku throughout the prequel era, but this is Dooku that isn't the mustache twirling villain that we are used to. You feel like he does really believe that he is doing this for the right reasons. That it feels like it's only choice. That he doesn't realize that he is being manipulated by Darth Sidious. You feel the anguish when he thinks he's killed Yaddle by the door and then again when he kills her, but when he kills her for good, there is that switch that flips. You see it in his eyes. I maybe wouldn't recommend this entire series to anyone outside the "Star Wars" diehards, but I'd definitely recommend "The Sith Lord."

Grade: A

"Practice Makes Perfect"

Anakin is late to a test administered by the Council to test his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, to test her preparedness for battle. Anakin isn't impressed with this test and so he devises a new one where Rex's troops fire stun rays at her and she needs to anticipate them and block them. This is a test that Ahsoka tries to pass for years and it ends up potentially benefitting her once Order 66 is enacted. 

Man, I wish I liked this vignette more than I do. I always love seeing Ahsoka and Anakin together. That is always going to like hit the nostalgia button for me. But there is nothing in this vignette that various episodes of "The Clone Wars" haven't done a million times. This lesson that Anakin teaches her about wanting to prepare her for actual life and death battle is a lesson that we have seen Anakin teach Ahsoka many, many times. And trying to tie it into that final episode of "The Clone Wars" just feels like a cheap emotional ploy that left me feeling really cold.

Grade: D

I'll set fire to this village.

"Resolve"

Post Order 66, Ahsoka Tano is working on a wheat farm and keeping to herself. When an over stocked repulsor sled almost crushes one of her workers, Ahsoka uses the Force to save her and the young woman she saves sees her. Ahsoka tries to convince her she is not a Jedi, but she isn't convinced. The young woman's brother overhears the conversation and ends up turning Ahsoka in. An Inquisitor shows up and burns the village to the ground leaving only the siblings and their father alive. Ahsoka reveals herself and kills the Inquisitor. She calls Bail Organa to come and pick up the family using a communicator that he gave her the day of Padmé's funeral. She decides to join the Rebellion.

This vignette kind of ends this series with a little bit of a whimper. It's clear that they want to sort of use this to bridge the gap between Ahsoka at the end of "The Clone Wars" to her becoming Fulcrum and showing up in "Star Wars Rebels." And that is all fine an good, but I kind of wish that the story was better. That it was maybe more original. This feels like a super condensed version of a lot of things that happened in "Obi-Wan Kenobi" when it comes to the Inquisitor portions and innocent bystanders getting caught in their hunt for Jedi that escaped Order 66. There are some cool portions of this episode. I do enjoy the scene at the top with Ahsoka and Bail. I love him talking the the Troopers but he's actually talking to Ahsoka. Ahsoka continues to be a badass taking out the Inquisitor super easily without just the Force and his own lightsaber. But again, I just feel like there was a better, more interesting way to tell this story.

 Grade: C+

Overall, I had really high expectations for this series and it kind of let me down. I think there is a place for series like this in the SWU, I just feel like they need to learn how to use the limited real estate that a series like this provide better. I'm hopeful that the sequel series, "Tales of the Empire" learns from the mistakes of its first incarnation.

Grade: C+

Next up, we actually close up the Clone Wars era with the novelization of "Revenge of the Sith" and the comic series of one shots, "Star Wars: Age of Republic."

What did you all think of this series? Am I being too hard on this series? What was your favorite of these six vignettes? What do you hope to see in "Tales of the Empire?" Let me know in the comments.