Rediscovering the POWER of the Dark Side

Again I watched "The Clone Wars" over the weekend.

Not the movie. The TV series.

Why? Well, it leads into "DC Nation" ("Green Lantern" and "Young Justice") on Cartoon Network and I have to admit I enjoy those shows (so, of course, they've been cancelled).

Also the current Clone Wars stuff is set on Mandalore, the hypothetical homeworld of the Boba Fett people.

So, coolness is almost a given. I mean you have a planet of Iron Man-people in space who fight Jedi for fun. Only these ones are working for Darth Maul and... oh you know what? Nevermind. Don't think about it too much.

No, I don't know why Darth Maul isn't in two pieces. I don't really care.

Why? Because I got to see shit go DOWN in that last episode.

The first part was some sort of stupid thing where Obi-Wan Kenobi comes to save his Mandalorian princess/girlfriend from Darth Maul and fails. It was pretty grim, actually.

This is when the writing started to take directions that impressed me. First of all, Obi-Wan didn't go all "NOOOOO!!!!" and Dark Side up when Darth Maul does something unforgivable.

He stays Light Side all the way. Props to Obi-Wan.

Fast-forward to the good stuff. Meanwhile, across the Galaxy, Chancellor Palpatine (better known as Darth Sidious or the-guy-who-will-become-the-Emperor) senses something amiss.

"Get my ship."

Fast-forward to Sidious landing on Mandalore. He spares no time smacking the CRAP out of the armored guys with his Dark Side mojo.

Maul and Maul 2.0 (his apprentice? I don't care) are sitting in the throne room, having sent Obi-Wan off to the dungeons (to get rescued by a lady Mandalorian... oh, it doesn't matter, moving on).

Maul looks up. He senses Sidious. Sidious comes in, smacking the crap out of every guard in the room using the Force to choke them. Choke them to death.

This is a kid's show and the body count is already in double-digits.

I am, at this point, hooked.

Sidious greets Maul and Maul-deux. There's perfucntory grovelling from Maul. Then Sidious starts smacking down. Why? There can be only two.

Sidious busts out two lightsabers. Maul and Maul-deux bust out their own lightsabers. There are glowing scars in the floor from Sidious as he dances between the Mauls!

Cue five - Maybe ten - minutes of Sith-on-Sith lightsabery action that nearly matches the battle in The Phantom Menace (the only good part of that movie) and Yoda's bust-out in Attack of the Clowns (see what I did there?).

There's really no doubt how that's going to go, though. Maul-deux is dusted with humiliating ease by Sidious and Maul gets an awesome lesson from Sidious in the "reality of the Sith".

I was impressed with the savagery of the episode. I was impressed with the willingness to show just how badass the Sith can be. I could almost get past the terrible animation.

And I have to say, I think Palpatine may well be my favorite Star Wars character. He's coming dangerously-close to edging out Han Solo, at the very least.