Animated Shorts Tales Of The Underworld - May 4th 2025

I found Ventress story a bit boring but im glad Filoni connected with the Dark Disciple novel and didnt contradict it i havent seen Cad Bane's story yet

 

I thought the opening scene was wonderful. As far as I'm aware dark disciple was not retconmed. I've not read it but apparently Quinlan buries her on dathomir which is exactly what happens. I loved the parallel with jedi force ghosts versus witch reanimation

Everything is nowadays. Haven't you heard? Sheeesh

 

Kindly remind me what was "woke" about Season 7 of TCW?

 

These Tales story are nice but they open loose threads that a big animation show needs to adresse. What is Barriss and Lyn doing post her Tales, what will Ventress and Lyco do post her Tales. And will we see all these loose threads of many jedi around in a Path show with Quinlan Vos and Ventress? Is Oppo Rancosis still alive in the Kenobi era, we can see the last Council member again in animation?

 

It's still up in the air on whether or not Barriss actually lives beyond what we see in the ending of that arc.

 

Yess Barriss Offee is not confirmed dead, so she could still be alive and Lyn rejected the Inqusitors at the end

 

^ Agreed with all that, except I'm not particularly impressed by the visuals and music.

 

The Kiners catching strays here.

 

It had two women of color as main characters in one of the arcs and they had ~scary haircuts.~

Spoiler: Reference to another show

They wouldn't be the only ones this week.

 

The animation looks great. The stories are standard/predictable/formulaic. Not that's anything wrong with that.

Of the "Tales of..." series, this is my least favorite.
I'm not the biggest fan of Ventress. I'd prefer if she'd stayed dead and we got the same/similar story with Quinlan Vos inserted as the protag instead. She must be the pet of someone high up in Star Wars animation to keep being brought back like this.

The Cad Bane story didn't resonate with me, either. Not sure why a name like Colby was needed as an origin story. I wonder if one of the animators has a son named Colby (and another Isaac). The name Isaac leaped out to me as very non-sci-fi/star wars-y. Throw in Arin, and I almost believe the writers are tapping into some sort of religious theme.

The compressed time of the short three episode arc didn't allow for the development of Cad Bane's relationship with his mentor enough for me to be convinced he'd risk significant jail time to avenge him, especially since his mentor blew him off and didn't allow him to go on the mission. Maybe it's kicked puppy syndrome. If Cad Bane had witnessed the marshal kill his mentor, I'd be more emotionally invested. And what's with Cad Bane abandoning his child at the end? Nothing in this story endeared me to him. Who am I supposed to root for? Niro? All the heroes died.

In contrast, they did everything they could to make Ventress likable in her arc. She's found redemption but we know Cad remains an unredeemable villain his entire life.

I did get a kick out of the nod to the western tropes, like the saloon and the duel at high noon.

 

Assajj Ventress is one of Dave Filoni's characters

 

He didn't create her but he seems to like writing for her / drawing her an awful lot.

 

Like alot of GL and EU characters. Before this Tales arc. Katie Lucas was the last to write for Ventress.

 

Would've been cool if the kid had been named Izak. Wouldn't be the first time they've Glup ****toified an Earth name.

 

In the pre vis of the "sisters arc" there were no sisters, Ahsoka instead meets a white man. But they changed him to two Latino women who look kinda butch.

 

I found Cad Bane's story to be particularly predictable, an average B Western trope. He's an enjoyable bad guy, but I've never wondered about his back story. Now I'm glad I didn't waste much thought on it.

 

Are you referring to the Ahsoka novel? In fairness, one of the episodes of TOTJ involved Ahsoka befriending the farmhands where she's reluctant to use the Force until she had no choice. That kind of reminded me more of the events of the novel, to a degree.

 

Let's see ... racism, sexism, and homophobia all in just a line or two of text!

This poster wins the no prize for AAA bigotry!

 

His name was Nyx.

 

A very similar thing is said here.

 

Oh I see what you mean. The unreleased episodes from TCW. Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is regarding a change of an otherwise unknown character. And don't forget that TCW was initially cancelled in 2013. Seven years is a long time to be more creative in the storylines.