It’s the season finale of Clone Wars. Oh, how time flies. The series has really evolved from the premiere movie that certainly seemed to be aimed at a younger audience to a well-written and often somewhat dark animated series. In R2, Come Home, Anakin and Mace search for survivors from a crashed starship that was downed by Boba Fett’s attempt to assassinate Mace Windu. As if once wasn’t enough, Anakin springs another trap and he and Windu are pinned under a pile of wreckage. Another epic fail by our Jedi heroes!

Death Trap is a neat little episode. The plot revolves around Boba Fett’s attempt to assassinate Mace Windu. As you probably remember, Mace Windu sliced Boba’s father’s head off right in front of him. Ouch! Apparently Boba Fett has allied himself with some Bounty Hunters who have it in for the Jedi. Here I’m using Bounty Hunter in the loose Star Wars sense. We’re not too sure what they want yet, but I’m sure the next episode will reveal this.

So the Zillo Beast is brought back to Coruscant to be studied because its armor can’t be penetrated by lightsabers. As predicted, while studying the beast, it breaks free and wreaks havoc on Coruscant. The episode was predictable (except maybe for the ending) but the animation was great and it was fun watching the minor bedlam caused by our misunderstood beast. In the last episode the Zillo beast was more like Godzilla, but in this one he is more like King Kong. When done sparingly, it’s fun when this show pays homage to other sci-fi classics. When the Zillo Beast is swatting at fighters from atop the building, we get a good laugh. Like the last episode we get all the awesome animation and brilliant lighting that we can often expect from this show.

I enjoyed this one. While deploying a Republic secret weapon to fight the Separatist army on the Dug world of Malastare, Anakin and Mace Windu awaken the dangerous Zillo beast. Hunted to near extinction by the Dugs, this may be the last Zillo beast. The Dug of course hate the Zillo beast and feel it is their duty to hunt the monsters that have caused their ancestors so much grief.

In this week’s episode, our three Jedi crash onto a planet during a rescue mission. They find that indigenous alien culture X is being oppressed by villain Y. The Jedi reluctantly decide to teach these cowardly natives how to defend themselves against a superior force.

I really wasn’t feeling Clone Wars this week. Bail Organa is trying to get supplies from Republic ships and the bad guys are trying to prevent him from receiving them. The bad guy of the week is a humanoid spider, named Trench, who is allegedly a brilliant military strategist. It was one of the most ill-conceived character designs in Star Wars yet, as the thing looked ridiculous. Why make it a spider-guy? Named Trench on top of it all? And why does he have a spider logo on his ship? Do humans put the Vitruvian man on all of their ships? It’s so stupid.

I can’t imagine anything more boring than watching the politicians of the Star Wars universe ramble on about the ethics of war, except maybe writing a review about it. That being said, this review will be short.

This storyline concludes with an episode that was at least as good as the others. What it lacked in action it made up for with a very solid story. What struck me most was the well thought out politics behind this episode. To justify a Republic occupation, the Separatists conspire with Deathwatch to terrorize Duchess Satine, convincing the Republic politicians that Mandalore is unable to handle the terrorists on their own. A message from one of her most trusted men seems to have been doctored to convince the Republic that the situation on Mandalore is growing out of control.

On the way to pleading her case with the Senate, Duchess Satine under the protection of Obi-Wan and Anakin, becomes the target of an assassination attempt. This episode explores the romantic relationship that Obi-Wan and the Duchess had on one of his missions on Mandalore while he was still Qui Gonn’s padawan.

Call me old fashioned, but I like me some good old Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Mandolare Plot delivers that and then some. If the word Mandalore looks familiar then 1) You’re probably a Star Wars geek, and 2) You’ve probably come across the term Madalore in reference to Boba Fett’s Mandalorian armor. If that last sentence makes no sense to you, more power to you.

Lightsaber Lost is a light episode of Clone Wars with a few humorous moments and some interesting character moments. Don’t let the simplistic title fool you though. Ahsoka’s lightsaber isn’t lost, but rather stolen. I was really expecting this episode to be a stinker, but they used the simple premise to great effect. Wanting to get her weapon back without alerting her master Anakin, she enlists the help of an old Jedi named Tera Sinube who she found asleep in the Jedi Library.

I remember sitting in the theatre watching the movie, Valkyrie. I remember laughing at the people in the theatre who would get upset when Tom Cruise’s character failed to assassinate Hitler. Did they know who Hitler was? Likewise it’s under whelming to watch Obi Wan and Anakin chase down General Grievous once again. Will Grievous get away? Of course he does.

I think the latest episode of the Clone Wars gets the award for darkest in the series. The alien parasites that were zombifying the Geonosians now infect some Clone Troopers on a cargo ship. I sometimes get the feeling they draw straws to see which Jedi will be featured in a particular story arc. In this episode Ahsoka and Barriss lose the draw and are stranded on the ship with Zombie Clone Troopers.

These days zombies are everything. In an era where there is nothing more important in a story than having an enemy that deserves death, an enemy that you can kill by the barrelful without having any moral repercussions, zombies have become a staple. Star Wars started off with Stormtroopers, faceless goons that you didn’t mind seeing shot, impaled or strangled to death. In the prequel movies and everything since our Jedi have brought the pain to armies of incompetent droids. The problem with the droids is there is no satisfaction in watching these pitiful devices getting destroyed time and time again. Besides, they’re clearly no threat to our heroes whatsoever.

I certainly enjoyed this episode of the Clone Wars better than the last. It was a continuation of last week’s mission to destroy a droid factory. My main problem with the last episode (Landing at Point Rain) was that all of the emotional motivations seemed entirely absent and the little dialogue that did come up often revolved around the bizarre competition between Anakin and Ahsoka to kill more droids during battle. This was very much like the competition between Gimli and Legolas in The Two Towers, except whereas that competition was a reflection of the tension between Dwarves and Elves, the competition between Anakin and Ahsoka is about the tension between children and adults...or a teacher and a student? Or two friends? I often find relationships between Jedi very poorly defined.