As much as the introduction of new character Cad Bane was trailed as being the selling point for "Hostage Crisis," he was nowhere near the best thing about it... In fact, he was worryingly generic, all machismo and mystery without much to make you that interested in him (He even lacked the visual impact of other Star Wars badasses like Boba Fett or Darth Maul; he was just a guy without a nose in a trenchcoat). Although the action of the episode was well-done and engaging - in part because, for once, the Jedi didn't obviously have the upper hand from the start - and the animation was (for the most part) as strong as ever, what satisfied so much was a surprising new-found maturity in the writing.

Yes, I said maturity. For Clone Wars. Get used to it.
It wasn't just the opening scenes of Anakin and Padme discussing their relationship displaying a subtlety in foreshadowing Anakin's dark side (Or the series coming close to admitting just how ridiculous their "secret relationship" is, in what had to have been a wink to the audience), and in the same episode that introduces Senator Organa to the series, knowing that he'll take one of Padme and Anakin's children in the future, for that matter; there was something oddly pleasing about closing the season with the bad guys just outright winning, and doing so by freeing Ziro The Hutt, everyone's favorite giant lizard Truman Capote from the Clone Wars movie. It brought a sense of closure (as well as a sense of continuity) to the season that it possibly didn't deserve, but was nonetheless very welcome. I'd love it if the show continued down this more... morally ambiguous if probably too generous a term, but almost fits, route, showing more of a darker side to its heroes and less of a constant stalemate between both sides in the war. If we need to bring in bounty hunters to do it, then I'm perfectly happy with that, as long as we don't see more Baby Boba along the way.

It wasn't a perfect season finale - the ending itself was very anti-climactic, perhaps a "to be continued" that failed to go off - but it was more than enough to make me look forward to what happens when the show returns next fall. Here's hoping that it'll include things going wrong a lot more often.

It's not just that George Lucas' first three films in the series - well, mostly the first two, to be honest - slowly undid all of your parents' hard-taught lessons about a larger morality by showing you that gamblers, smugglers and bounty hunters were all actually really awesome, and that the coolest place in all of a galaxy far, far away is actually a bar (Sure, like any of us were confused by that "cantina" thing). I mean, look at some of the lessons that the original Star Wars trilogy teaches:

Violence does, in fact, solve all your problems. Sitting down and dealing with conflict resolution calmly wasn't a concept that the 1970s/1980s George Lucas believed in, clearly. And, when the alternative involved blowing up lots of people on a planet, blowing up lots of other people on a space station, cutting off each others' hands or just plain shooting them with your blasters, who could blame him?

Good guys lie, bad guys tell the truth. What's Obi Wan Kenobi's most famous line in the entire series of movies? "These aren't the droids you're looking for." And what's Darth Vader's? "Luke. I am your father." Do you see where I'm going with this? The good guys lie all the time in the original trilogy; Han telling the stormtroopers that everything's okay in the cellblock, Leia going undercover as a bounty hunter to try and rescue Han later, everyone who kept Luke and Leia's true identities from them. In comparison, the bad guys tend to... well, be pretty straightforward and honest, if evil. Conclusion: Only villains tell the truth.

As long as you say sorry in the end, you can do whatever you want. That bit at the end of Return Of The Jedi, where the ghost of Anakin Skywalker (either old or young, depending on your taste for the special editions) joins the ghosts of Obi Wan and Yoda, and they're all "Hey, good to see you"? What the hell is that all about? Does tossing the electric Emperor into an endless pit really make up for all the killing, terrorising and other bad shit that he's done in his life, and guarantee a spot in the special Jedi afterlife? Where's the "with great power comes great responsibility" part of the story? Where does he actually, you know, face up to his actions, instead of get all "tragic hero"ed away?

There are more problems with what the series teaches us - "Girls are generally useless apart from as prisoners and eye candy," for example, or "It's okay for fat guys to be called Porkins" - and it's almost enough to make you wonder if part of the reason that The Phantom Menace seemed so dull when it first appeared was because of some cosmic karmic pact that meant that George had to try and be more morally responsible second time around. And if that's the case, does the relative sterility of The Clone Wars mean that we're headed back for more socially irresponsible fun when the live-action series finally hits our screens? We can but hope.

(* - And Other Nations Across The Globe)

[Clone Wars Preview, via Bonnie]

According to the official Star Wars site, Ahsoka is a Togruta with the ability to wield a lightsaber (as you can see) and pilot a spacecraft with great agility. And then there's this bombshell: she's eager to prove herself to her Jedi master, Anakin Skywalker. Somehow I thought Anakin only became a Master five minutes before he turned into Darth Vader. But apparently, he had time to take on a student, and probably warp her completely. It could be really interesting to see that play out. [StarWars.com]