The Clone Wars: Season 4 -- speculation/discussion/spoilers

[DigiFluid]

4.21 Brothers trivia from the TCW site:

Spoiler:

RED MENACE
To signify that these episodes are momentous -- and to pay tribute to Darth Maul and his intensity -- the opening logo is red in "Brothers" and "Revenge" rather than the traditional yellow.

SERENNO OPENING
The episode as broadcast begins with Dooku speaking to Grievous about the threat of Opress. As scripted, this scene ended the first act. The first scene in the script involved Mother Talzin mapping Savage's journey through the galaxy towards his brother.

TOUGH CUSTOMER
The diner scene originally began with the waitress droid -- Marwigo -- not having much luck getting Opress's order, and passing off the customer to her human colleague, Sassi. When Sassi reaches toward Opress's amulet, he reacts violently.

MAPPING SAVAGE'S PROGRESS
In the finished episode, Mother Talzin conjures an image of planet Lotho Minor, with dots that represented the approach of Savage towards Maul. At one point, art was generated that showed their relative placement on a galactic scale.

BRINGING A FRYING PAN TO A LIGHTSABER FIGHT
In the script, the cook Loubo is holding a blaster to which the spaceport police droid says, "Lou! Are you crazy, pointing that thing at a Jedi?" Changing the prop into a frying pan turned this moment into a joke.

LOUBO'S TATTOO
Loubo has a tattoo on his right arm of a double-heart that says "MOM".

SNAKE PUPPET
The design of Morley's mouth as well as his animation is a throw-back to a time when creature effects were realized through hand puppets. In the original script, Morley was killed by Maul, not by Savage.

Preview clip for 4.22 Revenge

[Cold Fuzz]

Ahhh, great stuff tonight! I was taken aback when it was over, I couldn't believe the whole episode had gone by already!


4.21 Brothers

Spoiler:

The red text at the beginning instead of the standard yellow--aha, unexpected. And neat. I wonder if it'll be a one-time thing, or if we'll see any other sort of variations.

I'm intrigued that Savage's discovery of Maul created such a disturbance in the Force that it was noticed independently by Dooku, Ventress, Anakin, Yoda, and Obi-Wan. Buuuuuut when did they learn Darth Maul's name?

The garbage planet was actually really cool. It reminded me of the second Lexx episode/telemovie. I also really liked the little cyborgy aliens that Savage made quick work of chopping up.

I was so pleased to see Savage finally kill that snake dude

Maul himself was really terrifically done at every level. Sam Witwer's voice acting was great, the character was written really well as almost completely insane, and I loved how they made him look--horns grown wild and totally unkempt, wild eyes, physically emaciated, and still wrapped in bandages at the waist. Just great.

I just finished watching Brothers. Wow...

Spoiler:

I had much the same reaction you did. I was quite surprised that at how quickly the episode passed. I was so transfixed at what was happening that I didn't notice the passage of time at all. It's a very good sign that an episode is so interesting that you end up paying attention to everything.

I definitely enjoyed Savage slicing and dicing those junk aliens. I almost forgot how satisfying it was to see a double-bladed lightsaber in action.

Sam Witwer's excellent work on Being Human already showed me how much range he really has. Definitely pleased that much of that was brought to his performance as Darth Maul. Very, very impressive work. I definitely liked seeing him on the brink of insanity, with the only thing keeping him grounded in reality relatively speaking was his hatred for the Jedi and Obi-Wan in particular.

Good question about how the Jedi learned of Darth Maul's name. I think that was my only criticism of the episode. Well the only other one would be Morley's fate. I was hope for some lightsabered sliced and diced snake meat but I was willing to settle for strangulated and roasted snake meat instead.

[mandogater]

Ahhh, great stuff tonight! I was taken aback when it was over, I couldn't believe the whole episode had gone by already!


4.21 Brothers

Spoiler:

The red text at the beginning instead of the standard yellow--aha, unexpected. And neat. I wonder if it'll be a one-time thing, or if we'll see any other sort of variations.

I'm intrigued that Savage's discovery of Maul created such a disturbance in the Force that it was noticed independently by Dooku, Ventress, Anakin, Yoda, and Obi-Wan. Buuuuuut when did they learn Darth Maul's name?

The garbage planet was actually really cool. It reminded me of the second Lexx episode/telemovie. I also really liked the little cyborgy aliens that Savage made quick work of chopping up.

I was so pleased to see Savage finally kill that snake dude

Maul himself was really terrifically done at every level. Sam Witwer's voice acting was great, the character was written really well as almost completely insane, and I loved how they made him look--horns grown wild and totally unkempt, wild eyes, physically emaciated, and still wrapped in bandages at the waist. Just great.

Spoiler:

Great point about everybody knowing Darth Maul's name. I hadn't thought about it at the time but how could the Jedi discover it?

The fact so many picked up the disturbance in the Force has me wondering if they plan to really go all out with the showdown next week.

[Leleth]

I totally agree with everyone saying Brothers was amazing...

Spoiler:

And I'm also wondering how did the Jedi know Maul's name? I find it strange that the Jedi didn't know he is alive, I mean didn't they bother search the body after Obi-Wan sliced him in half? How was Maul able to survive the cut and the fall? And more importantly why didn't he take his legs with him and find a doctor to sew all the pieces back together.

I liked the fact that Maul looked emaciated, it made his years of suffering and insanity seem so much more authentic. I'm so hoping we get to see epic Anakin vs. Maul duel...

[Teddybrown]

Very good episode, agree with all of what you guys have said.
I too wondered how they knew his name.
Only thing Im annoyed about is that Ill have to wait 2 weeks to see the final episode!

[DigiFluid]

Two weeks? The finale is this Friday; there's no more breaks.

[Teddybrown]

Two weeks? The finale is this Friday; there's no more breaks.

I go on holiday on the Saturday, and I dunno how fast the finale can be uploaded... =(

[DigiFluid]

I just found out something I didn't realize...

Ian Abercrombie, the actor who does the voice for Palpatine, passed away in late January. His most recent work was in Crisis on Naboo.

I wonder who he'll be replaced by.

[P-90_177]

Very good episode, agree with all of what you guys have said.
I too wondered how they knew his name.
Only thing Im annoyed about is that Ill have to wait 2 weeks to see the final episode!

In regards to how they knew his name, keep in mind that the Nimodians, including the Viceroy were captured at the end of episode 1. And they did know Maul's name from when Sidious told it them. No doubt they would have mentioned it during interrogation.

[mandogater]

In regards to how they knew his name, keep in mind that the Nimodians, including the Viceroy were captured at the end of episode 1. And they did know Maul's name from when Sidious told it them. No doubt they would have mentioned it during interrogation.

Very good point. I guess it's time to rewatch Episode I if I forgot something like that.

[P-90_177]

Very good point. I guess it's time to rewatch Episode I if I forgot something like that.

Oh my friend, no need to torture yourself because of it.

[mandogater]

Oh my friend, no need to torture yourself because of it.

True but seeing Darth Maul in action with his double-bladed lightsaber is a good reward for sitting through the rest of it.

[DigiFluid]

That was excellent! And painfully brief!

How badass would it be if they made a telemovie out of this storyline?

[mandogater]

That was excellent! And painfully brief!

How badass would it be if they made a telemovie out of this storyline?

It was way too brief!!! I almost screamed no at the tv when the end credits started.

A telemovie for this storyline would be totally awesome!!!

Spoiler:

I really want to know what will happen with Kenobi and Ventress on the way to wherever they were going at the end.

[DigiFluid]

The trivia for tonight's episode has show up on the TCW official site now:

4.22 Revenge

Spoiler:

A WRETCHED HIVE
In the finished episode, Asajj Ventress is in the Mos Eisley Cantina when she discovers that Savage Opress has a hefty price on his head. In the background are Embo, Sugi and Seripas. In the original script, she was to be in a bar on Florrum, frequented by Hondo Ohnaka's pirates.

WANTED
Among the bounties listed are: Nim Mindbend, a Siniteen, wanted dead for 120,000 credits for kidnapping, theft and murder; Omar Toggs, a Rodian, wanted dead or alive for 75,000 credits for racketeering and extortion; and Zug Tassik, a Trandoshan, wanted dead or alive for 800,000 for mass murder. Though the hunters say Savage is worth a million credits, his on-screen bounty only lists 550,000. His warrant lists "fleeing the scene of a crime."

MAUL DESIGN ORIGINS
Maul's cyborg form was first defined in illustrations by ILM concept artist Aaron McBride (seen on the left), developed for a 2005 graphic novel, Star Wars: Visionaries.

I LIKE TURTLES
The Turtle Tank design was inspired by Dave Filoni's pet turtle, Goji.

NOT LOST IN SPACE
For those wondering, the Turtle Tanker is not stranded in space without its cockpit/escape pod. There is a secondary command module in the ship. It's where Maul sits at the end of the episode.