Full Series Discuss/Regrade the Episode: S03E16: Altar of Mortis

==Episode 3.16 // Alter of Mortis==
Mortis continues


"He who surrenders hope surrenders life"

Before the Jedi can leave Mortis, the Son takes Ahsoka captive in an attempt to entice Anakin into joining him to use their combined strength to overpower his Father and Sister. To this end, the Son casts Ahsoka under the spell of the dark side.
Meanwhile, the Father attempts to stave off a disastrous showdown between his children and maintain the Force's increasingly precarious balance on the planet. Fearing that the Son may be unstoppable, the Daughter does the forbidden by taking Obi-Wan Kenobi to the Altar of Mortis, wherein is kept the Dagger of Mortis, a weapon capable of killing a Force-wielder. The Son steals the weapon, and attempts to use it against his Father to steal his power and end his rule, but the Daughter sacrifices herself, placing herself in front of the blade.

http://starwars.com/explore/the-clone-wars/ep316#!/about
Now that you've rewatch the episode lets regrade it. Feel free to discuss as much as you like.

 

8/10, I thought it was the best episode of the arc, and the Son vs. Daughter duel was the best scene in the whole arc.

 

Altar of Mortis was certainly an interesting continuation of Overlords. There are more revelations about the nature of the balance in Mortis as it pertains to the GFFA as a whole, but the focus of the episode was really about the Son, and Sam Witwer does do a convincing, if mixed, job of embodying a Dark Side avatar.

The Son was really channeling his inner Sidious in this one, and even a little bit of Vader as well ("I HATE YOU!"). His evil monologues rip off pay homage to various lines of Emperor Palpatine, and at one point he actually does sound very much like Sidious. Probably not too surprising, given that he voiced Palpatine in TFU. After the Son kidnaps Ahsoka and takes her to his dark tower, a nearly blatant rip-off of Orthanc or Barad-dûr, complete with a glowing green orb of light taking the place of Sauron's eye. Here we see Anakin's guilt at being unable to prevent Ahsoka's capture overtake his reason again, as he insists on rescuing her alone instead of following Obi-Wan to consult the Father. Speaking of which, we get to see a rather selfish and somewhat whiny Son attack his father, claiming he needed to speed up the latter's death so that he could reign supreme. Apparently, the growing darkness and conflict in the galaxy has fueled the Son's power in Mortis, and his desire is to escape that realm and unleash himself upon the galaxy at large.

With the Father incapacitated, the Daughter decides to allow Obi-Wan into the Altar of Mortis in order to retrieve a Dagger that can defeat the Son. Ironically, this choice would ensure the family's ultimate doom. Meanwhile, the Son, disguised as a foul hunchbacked creature, infects Ahsoka with the Dark Side after uttering the first instance of a tenet of the Sith Code: "The chains are the easy part. It's what goes on in here that's hard." I have to say, though, Dark Ahsoka was to me a highlight of this episode. She was to me far more entertaining, in a creepy way, than the real Ahsoka, channeling her inner Harley Quinn and freaking out Anakin as much as the viewers. Striated with dark veins throughout her skin and sporting yellow Sith eyes, she sure looked the part; isn't she adorable? Anakin, forced to duel his Padawan, plays defense throughout the fight while the Son and the Daughter fight as well. The Son's crimson-colored Force Lightning was certainly an interesting visual. Eventually the Father awakes from his stupor, breaking up his children's fight with a rapid defenestration of the quarreling siblings.

Then we get more weird shenanigans, as Dark Ahsoka pilfers the Dagger from Anakin and Obi-Wan and hands it over to the Son, who intends to use it to kill his Father. And he instantly zaps Ahsoka's life force with a touch to the forehead, the beginning of a very puzzling scene to end the episode. The Daughter takes the Dagger to the back trying to protect her Father, and the Son is ridden with horror and flees. Why? With the demise of the Daughter, should not the Force on Mortis be inexorably tilted toward the Dark? Perhaps he does care for his sister after all, but is far too beholden to his own greedy and selfish nature to admit it... This of course is the beginning of the end for the Ones, as the Father realizes that the Force is now out of balance, while all Anakin cares about is finding a way to get Ahsoka back...and conveniently the dying Daughter offers her own dwindling life force to restore the Padawan, using Anakin as the conduit. But what does this all mean? Ahsoka is restored with the Daughter's life force, but what greater consequence does this have for the future? Considering this plot point was never revisited, we are really left with more questions as the episode ends...

Regardless, Altar of Mortis was a continuation, and as the middle part of a trilogy it worked for me. We learn more about the Ones, particularly the siblings, and I enjoyed the various "tributes" to the Sith despite the hammy execution. Again, Dark Ahsoka was nice to see, and the anguish Anakin experiences at having to battle his Padawan and later seeing her "killed" sold those scenes for me as well. Again, the inextricable link between Mortis and the Force in the GFFA was touched upon, leaving (some of) us wanting to know more.

I gave this episode a 9/10, mostly for the cool visuals of the fight scenes and Dark Ahsoka shenanigans, but this was a definite step down from Overlords, no doubt.

 

This episode was awesome 10/10

 

I keep reading this as Degrade the episode....

 

I thought the resurrection of Ahsoka thing could have played into Anakn's obsession re: "I will even learn to stop people from dying!"

He said it once, and now it's actually happened in front of him, and through him, with him being the conduit that allowed the Daughter to bring Ahsoka, who was dead, back to life again. So now he knows it's possible if you're powerful enough...

 

Alter of Controversy

 

Alter-native spelling.

 

That's a good point, interesting!
I usually like when a hero-character taps into her/his power, so I liked seeing Anakin doing something magical/god-like. Makes me wonder just how much potential power he had before he lost any limbs.

 

*ahem* I think you should "altar" the thread title...

 

It's just

 

"I have altered the deal. Pray I don't blah, blah, blah... I am your father. Or something"

 

I really like the Mortis-arc and this and the next episode are the strongest of the arc. 10/10.