Full Series Discuss/Regrade the Episode: S03E14: Witches of the Mist

==Episode 3.14 // Witches of the Mist==
A clash of the villains


"The path to evil may bring great power, but not loyalty"


Anakin and Obi-Wan, sent to track down the mysterious figure behind the deaths of several Jedi, soon find themselves on the trail of the monstrous apprentice that Ventress has created: Savage Opress, who has been trained in the ways of the Sith by Dooku.
When Opress returns to Count Dooku after an unsuccessful assignment, Ventress strikes. With Opress at her side, she attacks Dooku. Opress' loyalty is fleeting, however, and Dooku and Ventress discover that this new apprentice has a will of his own.
When Savage returns to Mother Talzin, she gives him a new task: To seek the Outer Rim for his long-lost brother..

http://starwars.com/explore/the-clone-wars/ep314#!/about
Now that you've rewatch the episode lets regrade it. Feel free to discuss as much as you like.​

 

Not a bad episode

 

I will start by saying this is one of my favorite episodes of the series, and IMO the best episode of Season 3. Savage Opress was truly a force to be reckoned with, and Count Dooku proved himself as skillful and adroit as Nightsisters made him out to be while giving us a glimpse of his cruelty and ruthlessness as a Sith Lord.

I liked how the episode started off, with a number of Republic commandos making an appearance for the first time in the series. They presented the coffins of the deceased Jedi that were slain by Savage on Devaron. The scenery was particularly strong with the pouring rain giving atmosphere to the somber scene, culminating in Obi-Wan's assessment that the carnage on Devaron could only be caused by "an animal". When Yoda and Mace Windu later summon Kenobi and Skywalker to watch footage of Savage's onslaught, Obi-Wan notes that he believed Maul to be Iridonian, a nice nod to Maul's original Zabrak species and supposed homeworld before the Dathomir 'retcon', which I prefer to label as an 'expansion'. The scene on Serenno where Dooku trains Savage on lightsaber technique was also notable in that while Savage had been portrayed as physically powerful and overwhelming, he was also extremely raw and unrefined, allowing Dooku to easily sidestep his haphazard strikes and disarm the Nightbrother of his lightsaber. Dooku training Savage to tap into his hatred in order to better utilize the Force was also simultaneously a very nice homage and a contrast to Yoda's method of training Luke in TESB. By torturing his new apprentice with Force Lightning, Dooku is able to effectively provoke Savage into unleashing more of his enormous Force potential. As Savage screamed, "I HATE YOU!", I was reminded of a certain scene in RotS...

The banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin was entertaining in this episode despite its relative brevity. I particularly liked Anakin's quip about attracting all the ladies as the two Jedi head toward Mother Talzin's Nightsister village. I found it curious that Talzin would willingly reveal Savage's location to the Jedi as that would potentially compromise his mission to destroy Dooku. But I suspect that Obi-Wan's appeal about Savage killing multiple Jedi and destroying anyone in his path might have given her some pause. The briefest hint of compassion from the Nightsister leader? Who knows? So now that the Jedi are aware of Opress' location, Talzin notifies Asajj Ventress to quickly proceed with the next phase of their plan, to assassinate Dooku with the assistance of their Nightbrother servant.

Savage's mission to Toydaria was certainly one of the episode's highlights. Savage effortlessly cuts through the guards with his double-bladed saberstaff and proceeds to capture the Toydarian king, Katuunko, for his refusal to assist the Separatist cause in the episode Ambush. A nice sense of continuity between older episodes. I liked Katuunko's courageous defiance, drawing a sword on Savage, but ultimately to no avail. Sith really hits the fan when Anakin and Obi-Wan arrive at the scene, distracting Savage and allowing Katuunko to escape; however, this too was a futile effort as Savage Force Chokes the Toydarian ruler to death, a surprisingly dark turn of events given the Nightbrother's mission. Here Savage acquits himself nicely, manhandling the two Jedi who apparently are only interested in capturing him alive and fleeing with Katuunko's body.

Savage returns to Dooku's dreadnought orbiting Toydaria, surprisingly with no other ships in the vicinity to defend it considering its valuable passenger. I guess the Toydarians don't have much of a fleet at all. Dooku is livid at his apprentice's failure to bring the king to him alive, and punishes him with Force Lightning. However, he is astonished to see Ventress arrive at the scene, and decides Savage can return to his good graces if he killed the witch. Of course, Ventress has other plans, and reminds Savage of his true allegiance; to Ventress and the Nightsisters. Hence begins an awesome three-way duel between Ventress and Savage versus Dooku. This episode is the first time in the series where we actually see red on red lightsaber dueling and it did not disappoint. I was entertained by Dooku's unabashed spamming of Force Lightning to neutralize Savage, the one weakness that he knew he could exploit. As Ventress becomes more and more frustrated, Dooku taunts her, saying "A failed apprentice makes for a foolish Master." While aimed at Ventress, it still seemed ironic as it more aptly described Tyranus, who trained both Ventress and Savage, both of whom failed him and turned against him. Eventually, Savage had enough of Dooku's assault and Ventress' verbal abuse, going all out and tapping into his rage to Force Choke the two combatants simultaneously. The two manage to escape by simultaneously blasting Savage away with the Force, and Obi-Wan and Anakin enter the scene only to get hurled back by an enraged Savage. Randy was truly shown to be at his most powerful in this episode than at any other point in the series.

Dooku manages to hold off and defeat Ventress when the latter attempts to kill him herself, and only a last-second use of the Force to deflect the Sith Lord's lightsaber allows Ventress to escape with her life, with the deflating realization that she had failed in her quest to destroy her former Master, while unleashing a seemingly uncontrollable monster on the galaxy. Dooku then orders the droids to shoot Savage on sight, and we see Randy's Crowning Moment of Awesome when he holds off the many battle droids, SBDs, and droidekas surrounding him, taking multiple blasts in the chest and eventually destroying the majority of his attackers with a massive Force Repulse. Obi-Wan and Anakin escape the scene, as does a beaten Savage who returns to Dathomir, only to be given a bombshell from Mother Talzin: that he has a brother, and that he is none other than Darth Maul himself, somehow alive and alone somewhere in the Outer Rim! Besides the awesome events and music in Witches of the Mist, this revelation helped me remember this episode more fondly and with just a trace of nostalgia.

So ultimately, I would give this episode a 10/10, as I felt it was an excellent end to the Nightsister trilogy and provided the setup to the future Ventress and Maul arcs that to me, provided some of TCW's best stories.

 

This is the episode that got me into erotic asphyxiation.


No, really.

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...ist-discussion-thread.31492324/#post-31492579

 

8/10, great episode with great fight scenes. It was awesome when Dooku, Ventress and Savage were all fighting each other, then Obi-Wan and Anakin turned up and joined in.

 

Well Delta Squad made an appearance, so I guess that's an automatic 10 out of 10 from me...

Okay, so it's not quite that easy, but Witches of the Mist is still all around a pretty good episode. In case it's not obvious already, I absolutely loved the appearance by Delta Squad. Even as small as the teased role turned out to be, the implication that when faced with a mysterious attack on the Eedit Temple that left the Republic's forces annihilated to the last man, GAR command believing that a single clone commando unit would be enough to recon the area and potentially engage the perpetrator(s) should they still be on site, was hugely satisfying. I also thoroughly enjoyed Dooku's training of Savage. The lightsaber training did well to reinforce the idea that Savage is a brawler, a brute force fighter better suited to raw power than the precision of a blade, and the Force-training was pretty enjoyable as well. Lifting the pillars served as a good―if a bit unsubtle―mirror to Luke's training under Yoda, and upon watching it again, it aligned rather well with the training of Sidious in Darth Plagueis, or Maul's training in The Wrath of Darth Maul.

Dispatching Savage to kidnap Katuunko was...interesting, though a bit questionable considering what Dooku should know of his minion by now. And of course, a deft hand Savage does not have, so there goes Katuunko. The series of duels one after the other, with multiple locales, varying sides, and switching loyalties made for a chaotically dynamic action piece, but I have to say that Dooku's use of Force lightning on Savage―slash, slash, lightning; slash, slash, lightning; slash, slash, lightning―became repetitive enough to be almost boring, almost like playing a game where your opponent just keeps using the same cheap move over and over again. Half a point lost for that, unfortunately. Now that I'm on point deduction, I have to say that the dialogue was a bit...bothersome at times, especially with the repeated references to Savage as a monster. Nearly every single character, when given the opportunity to use an adjective, chose "monster," and that was just too much for it not to stand out. Another half a point deduction for the, uh, monstrous dialogue. I liked Savage's ability to shrug off massive amounts of damage, whether it was the result of his armor or his spirit-enhanced body, and there was something rather awesome about his TFU-esque Force repulse, as well.

An all around solid finish to the Nightsister arc, a well-deserved 9 out of 10 from me, and easily one of the better episodes of the series.

 

Sinister corruption, brother.

 

I absolutely loved this episode, It was a great conclusion to a fantastic arc. Savage was shown to be a dangerous opponent who could easily become a thorn in the Jedi's side (pity that was not taken advantage of in later episodes...) I also enjoyed the lightsaber battles in this episode, they were done very well. Overall this arc was a great way to introduce Savage.

And I enjoyed Anakin having some great lines.

 

+Delta Squad with cool rain!
+Serenno training, interesting to see this as a juxtaposition between Yoda training Luke and Dooku training Savage
+The Nightbrothers village scene
+Anakin's and Obi-Wan's dialogue
+Continuation of the Toydaria storyline
+Toydarian ship, there are no ramps, nice detail touch.
+Ventress vs. Dooku vs. Savage
+Nice gas trick by Ventress
+Anakin and Obi-Wan vs. Savage
+Sound design and animation sound as usual

- "He's disarmed!"
"Let's attack him with our lightsabers!"
"No, I think we should jump on him instead!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yep!"

Good episode, but frankly this episode, like Children of the Force, could have used forty-five minutes instead of twenty-two.

9/10

 

Dooku being an ass is understatement. One of the many wrongs TCW did is make this guy into the most unlikable character ever. WHO would rally behind such a failure of a human being that kills people at random and shows no true leadership skills?! That is how he looked in TCW.



Great episode overall. Good duels.

Sad that Katuunko died and they never followed up on his death. Instead of ruining Mon Calamari that never was a kingdom, they could have done the "successor issue" story on Toydaria.

The ending is the worst issue of this episode IMO, but whatever. I do not want to go there.

 

8/10 from me. I liked the Anakin and Obi Wan vs Savage duel and Savage vs Droids but other than that pretty average.

 

Great episode with a lot of action; definitely a solid closing to this arc. The Sith training scenes where Dooku teaches Savage were great and I really enjoyed the plot of Obi-Wan and Anakin trying to track down Savage and put an end to his rampage. As for lightsaber fights, we got a lot here and all were really good: two Obi-Wan & Anakin vs. Savage, a short Dooku vs. Ventress showdown and the best of all, a threeway battle between Dooku, Ventress and Savage; that one was so good and quite memorable (as for Savage, he got a pretty cool part when he used Force repulse to push away the battle droids swarming him). The closing scene where Savage limps back to Mother Talzin and gets his new assignment was an intriguing end scene and a solid way to wrap up this particular arc, while still leaving it open for the continuation. This episode is also a bit notable since it's the last time we see the Toydarian king Katuunko, who unceremoniously gets killed due to Savage's clumsiness while fighting Obi-Wan and Anakin on Toydaria.

(Gotta add that the battle droid telling Obi-Wan & Anakin "You're not supposed to be here" before getting cut down cracks me up and earns the episode a bonus point.)

9/10

 

8/10

Pretty good episode overall. Liked the way that Dooku's Sith training contrasts the Jedi way, as well as a demonstration of the power of hatred. Liked Dooku sending Savage to deal with the Toydarian king, continuity is always nice. Liked Ventress and Savage vs. Dooku.

However, I did not, and do not, like the way Savage seemed to randomly turn on Ventress. She didn't do anything to him, just insulted him a bit, which was totally understandable as he was being pretty useless in a fight for their lives. I mean, in prior episodes she ordered him to murder his own brother, and he didn't turn. Dooku fried his ass with Force Lightning multiple times (and insulted him to boot), and he didn't turn. But suddenly he's got such a fragile ego that a few insults in the heat of the moment make him try to strangle Ventress?

 

I always thought that it was the constant lightning assaults that overpowered or undid the Nightsister mesmerism magic that kept Savage under control.

It makes sense when you think about it, the Nightsister magic is derived from the Force, and it's what Talzin and Ventress used to control Savage. Getting blasted with Force lightning so many times probably countered the Force Spell that kept Savage under control.

It's that last lightning blast that knocks Savage down that breaks the spell completely and then, the now-free Savage attacks both Dooku and Ventress. That's what I always thought happened.