The Media Man Reviews: Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld

Rather surprised we're getting another of these so soon after last year's Tales of the Empire miniseries, which I've reviewed already.

Tales of the Empire I found to be a mixed bag overall. It had two stories in where one was well told but ultimately didn't need to be told and focused on a character nobody was interested in knowing more about while the other was focused on a character we DID want to know more about but felt too surface level in its execution due to the anthology nature of the series. The series would've benefitted from focusing primarily on Barriss Offee instead of wasting three episodes on Morgan Elsbeth if you want my opinion.

Anyhow, when Tales of the Underworld was announced and the trailers came out, I knew I had to watch it. I mean a series about the stories of Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane? How can I say no to that? That sounds like just the kind of thing we'd want to see from these anthology series!

So is this a pair of tales worth telling? Or should we leave them to rot in the darkest corners of the Underworld? Let's find out as we dive into this new series...

Section 1: The Story

Much like how Tales of the Jedi was about Ahsoka and Dooku and Tales of the Empire was about Morgan and Barriss, Tales of the Underworld is yet another anthology series with three episodes telling the story of Asajj Ventress and three episodes telling the story of Cad Bane. Asajj's story tells of her life after the Clone Wars ended and Order 66 wiped out most of the Jedi, which Cad Bane's is the story of his life pre-Clone Wars and a keen insight into how he became the ruthless bounty hunter he is today.

Much like in my review of Tales of the Empire, I'll review each story one at a time and determine which one is the best. We'll begin with Asajj's story since that's the first one we get of the two.

Asajj's story was...OK at best. I do like how the series confirms that the Dark Disciples novel that adapted an unused concept for The Clone Wars in where there was going to be an arc starring Asajj and the Jedi Quinlan Vos which ended with Asajj dying is canon and it was nice how the story opened up with Quinlan putting Asajj's body to rest before she's revived via the magic of the Nightsisters. However, for those who haven't read Dark Disciples or at least looked it up on Wookieepedia (like I have), they'll be totally lost and feel like they're missing a whole load of context that will require a Wookieepedia page's worth of research just to fill in the gaps. So now I'm asking the logical question of "Why not just adapt Dark Disciples into these three shorts?" Wouldn't that have been a better use of these episode's time instead of essentially giving us three episodic shorts that could've been featured in their own show or something? Granted, they'd probably have to cut out a lot of stuff from the novel to fit those shorts, but it still would've been nice if they just gave us an animated adaptation of Dark Disciples in some capacity.

For the story we DID get instead? We essentially get a look into Asajj's post-Clone Wars life and she ends up meeting a young Jedi named Lyco Strata who becomes her new tagalong buddy, kinda like Grogu with Din Djarin in The Mandalorian accept Lyco's not a literal baby. It's fine I guess, but it just feels like a story that should've been told in say an Asajj Ventress spin-off series or something. Heck, some people even feel these episodes feel like a pilot for an Asajj Ventress series more than anything! As is, the shorts don't really "say" anything about Asajj that we don't already know. We already knew she was turning over a new leaf, we already knew she's going solo and we've already seen her development back in The Clone Wars. We don't really get anything new with her and the story doesn't give her any new developments. So in the end, this story feels kind of disposable. If it really does exist just to set up an Asajj Ventress spin-off series, then I guess it has some kind of purpose. As is, it doesn't feel like we really needed this story to be told and it would've been better if we just got an adaptation of Dark Disciple.

Besides, giving Asajj a new friend feels redundant since Lyco obviously won't stick around for long. By the time we see Asajj in her guest appearance in The Bad Batch, Lyco's nowhere to be seen and Asajj is on her own, so what's the point of ending the story with him sticking with Asajj? Unless these shorts take place AFTER The Bad Batch, I'm calling this a Foregone Conclusion until we know where in the timeline this story fits. Is this story before or after The Bad Batch? Can anyone fill me in?

Now Cad Bane's story on the other hand, THAT feels like a story worth telling and doesn't feel like a potential set-up for another series. Cad Bane's story is a prequel to his appearances in The Clone Wars and we get to see him at three different stages of his life from his childhood to his adulthood and how he became the ruthless bounty hunter it is today. It's easy to argue over whether Cad Bane's origin story needed to be told, but I personally found it pretty fascinating, if a little cliched that he has the incredibly predictable "rags to riches" story. I mean come on, he starts off as a street rat and gets recruited into a cause that makes him money, we've all heard this kind of story a million times before. But it still works for Cad Bane if you ask me. His story does well to explain how he became who he is today without making him too sympathetic or what not. They make it clear he still became a bad guy and the writing doesn't make any excuses for him. It merely explains why he turned out the way he did. Needless to say, you'll look at this character in a whole new way when this is over.

I also like how Cad Bane's story has a big twist in it, but it's told in a way where the story doesn't feel the need to spell it out to the audience and assumes they're smart enough to figure it out. I won't spoil said twist, but I will say that it has me curious if we'll see any future stories in regards to the twist in future Star Wars media. Also it'll REALLY have you unable to see Cad Bane the same way again. No I don't mean that in a bad way, don't worry.

So overall, the series has the same problem as Tales of the Empire in how one story didn't feel like it needed to be told while the other did. However, it's still an upgrade from Tales of the Empire since both stories are about characters we actually wanted to see more of and both stories feel like they tell us enough and don't feel surface level at all. If they just told a different story with Asajj Ventress instead of this one, it would've been perfect...

Section 2: The Characters

This Tales of... series are all about highlighting moments of the lives of iconic Star Wars characters, so naturally it's all about them.

Let's start with the first of our anthology duo for this series, Asajj Ventress (voiced by Nika Futterman). A former assassin who once served Count Dooku during The Clone Wars and after being betrayed by Dooku, turned to a life of bounty hunting, Asajj is now just a lone wolf trying to make her way in life. She's even come to enjoy the peace and quiet of working an ordinary everyday job instead of her old life. As mentioned before, Asajj's story doesn't really say or reveal anything new about her and doesn't really forward her development. It's just stuff we've already seen before, so it doesn't feel like we really needed to tell this story with her. Once again, an adaptation of Dark Disciples would've done her more justice in my eyes and would've been more interesting to see instead of essentially making her the next Din Djarin. Guys, you can't keep repeating The Mandalorian's formula forever, it won't always work. As is, Asajj is still enjoyable whenever she's onscreen thanks to Nika Futterman's performance and Asajj's dry wit, so at least she makes this nothing burger of a story somewhat enjoyable to see.

Next up is the second character we focus on, Cad Bane (voiced by A.J. LoCascio as a kid and voiced by Corey Burton as an adult). Unlike Asajj, Cad Bane's story actually DOES give us a new insight to the character and isn't just rehashing what we've already seen. We get a deep dive into his past in where it turns out he began life as a street rat scavenging food with his friend Niro and then he gets dragged into a life of crime when an opportunistic Duros bounty hunter named Lazlo (voiced by Phillip Anthony-Rodriguez) sees potential in them. While Cad's story is a tad cliched and predictable, I think it worked for him and really made him a more interesting character than he already was. Can't say I ever would've guessed he once had a love interest at any point in his life, nor that twist that I still won't spoil. Unlike The Book of Boba Fett where Cad Bane was brought in for very bad fan-service and felt wasted, Tales of the Underworld better used him here and his story is easily the best of the two stories we have for this series.

For the supporting cast, we have Lyco Strata (voiced by Lane Factor), the secondary protagonist in Asajj's story. I really don't feel much for him. He's just a typical snarky kid character who has a very typical backstory for post-Republic era characters, so he kind of just blends in with the crowd honestly. I don't see why he needed to exist, and Lane Factor's dull acting didn't exactly make him that appealing to me. He should've been scrapped and Asajj's story would've been better without him in my opinion.

Niro (voiced by Eric Lopez as a child and Artt Butler as an adult) on the other hand is a much stronger secondary protagonist and a stronger supporting character for Cad Bane's story. He's more cautious than his friend was during their childhood and while Cad grew into a life of crime, Niro grew up to be a police officer. Ironic considering he got arrested by one. The dynamic between these two gave me The Fox and the Hound vibes a little in how they're both friends driven apart by what life has thrown their way and sadly, it had to end in tragedy for one of them as Cad guns him down and leaves Niro's son Isaac alone in the world without any of his parents. It may have been a predictable ending for Niro's story, but it works well as a part of Cad Bane's story and further explaining how he became who he is today.

Aside from those four, there's not much else to talk about with the characters. We get an Inquisitor (voiced by Daniel Ross) who gives an intimidating first impression as he makes Asajj look like an amateur...only to die immediately since that's all Inquisitors in Star Wars are good for I guess, just being glorified cannon-fodder for our heroes to kill. Would it kill these writers to give us an Inquisitor that doesn't exist purely to die for once? I wanted to see more of this guy with how cool he was!

We also get a return of Latts Razzi (voiced by Clare Grant), but she's there for a single episode and is only here just to get Asajj and Lyco from Point A to Point B. She should've played a bigger role if you ask me, or she shouldn't have been here at all. Maybe making her the secondary protagonist alongside Asajj would've been better than creating Lyco...

We also have Arin (voiced by Dawn-Lyen Gardner) who is Cad Bane's love interest and tries to act as his moral support, only for he pleas to fall on deaf ears and then in the third part of Cad's story, she's said to have died with no further details provided. It would've been nice to see more of her honestly instead of her existing just to further drive a wedge between Cad and Niro.

And that's about all I can say about the characters. Asajj got the short end of the stick here unfortunately while Cad got all the good stuff. His story was better, his supporting cast was stronger and the time spent on him felt better utilized. If you check this series out, you'll definitely walk away with a bigger interest in Cad Bane than Asajj Ventress...

Section 3: The Animation

These animated Star Wars properties keep wowing with the visuals, because by golly has this animation gotten so good since The Clone Wars! The previous Tales have gorgeous visuals and this one is no different.

I won't really be saying a whole lot here since I can't really say anything that wasn't said in my Tales of the Empire review. The character designs still have that stylized look from The Clone Wars while also looking more realistic, the backgrounds are still immersive and beautifully detailed, the lighting and shadows still look incredibly realistic (I especially love how the show's scenes look in sunlight) and the action choreography is still creative and enjoyable. One thing I couldn't help but notice is how with this animation, the characters are so detailed that you can make out little skin creases and minor imperfections on them, like what you'd get in real life. The wrinkled skin on the Grandfather from Asajj's story is one such example. It's amazing how much detail goes into this animation and how much of an upgrade it is compared to The Clone Wars days.

I also liked the action here too with Asajj and Lyco vs. the Inquisitor being my favourite fight scene and the action scene involving a huge rolling sphere from the second episode was also pretty cool. The action scenes in Cad Bane's story aren't as flashy by comparison, but fit with the character's Wild West inspired roots by involving a Wild West style shoot-out between Cad and his opponent. Obviously, we knew he was going to survive his encounters here since the story takes place before The Clone Wars so the scene doesn't feel as intense, but it still looked cool at least.

I also thought the use of colour was pretty clever in the visuals, namely in Asajj's story. When the story begins, we're in a gloom environment that's completely dark and lit up with dull, eerie greens that give the whole place an unsettling Halloween-ish vibe that befits a graveyard for the people of Dathomir to be laid to rest in. Then when Asajj's story ends, it's a bright sunny environment with an open desert ahead of her. It's so fitting to bookend her story like this. It started off dark, grim and unsettling, then it ends with the bright sunshine and desert as a clever visual metaphor for how she has a brighter future ahead of her. Really clever stuff there.

As is, I can't really say a whole lot more about the animation as it's the same level of quality as what we've gotten before in Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire. What else needs to be said other than the animation is amazing?

Overall

I still think Tales of the Jedi is the best of the bunch, but Tales of the Underworld was at least an improvement over Tales of the Empire and easily second best out of all of them. If Asajj's story was better, then we could've had something truly great here. As is, what we got was passable and the series is worth watching just for Cad Bane's story alone. I would recommend this only to die-hard Star Wars fans though as casual fans would struggle to follow this with how much context is required in order to understand who these characters are and such. If you only care for the movies and nothing else, then you won't even bother with this. If you love Expanded Universe material regarding Star Wars, then give it a watch. It's a lot better than what Disney usually produces with the brand these days...

And that's it for this review. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Do you like Tales of the Underworld? Do you not like it? Do let me know.

Next week I'll be doing a Top 10 list of a different kind as instead of movies or characters, this is a list all about toys. Which ones? Transformers toys. See you then media fans!