‘Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld’ Gives New Life To Fan Favorites

Disney’s Tales of anthology series remains one of the most compelling entries in modern Star Wars storytelling. Tales of the Underworld is the third iteration and this time around, we’re following Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane. Arguably, this iteration might be just as good as Tales of the Jedi, which gave us more insight into Ahsoka and Count Dooku. The animation has certainly gotten even more beautiful and the score helps highlight these well-written short episodes.

As previously mentioned, Tales of the Jedi followed Ahsoka and Count Dooku – two great and well-known characters in the Star Wars world. The first iteration of this series brought both great depth to a character like Dooku and showcased why someone like Ahsoka is worthy of her adoration within the fandom. Tales of the Empire offered a really good story following Barris Offee after her betrayal in the Clone Wars, but admittedly, the episodes following Morgan Elsbeth were slightly boring and unnecessary. Even if those episodes gave us a brief, chilling appearance by General Grievous that reminded us why he remains one of the saga’s most fearsome villains

Tales of the Underworld made a good decision in giving us episodes centering around two fan favorites. Bounty hunter Cad Bane was a highlight of any episode he was in, with his cool swagger and Western-like attitude. Both are center-stage for his three episodes, as with Count Dooku in Tales of the Jedi, Cad Bane’s episodes delve into his origins with surprising emotional depth that reveals a layered past that makes him far more than a cold-hearted killer. Even the coldest of bounty hunters were once children…

Slight Spoilers

Let’s start with Asajj Ventress. Ventress went from a lethal assassin to one of the most fully realized characters of the Clone Wars era. From her frequent rematches against Obi-Wan and Anakin to her betrayal by Count Dooku, Ventress’s arc within the Clone Wars show is one of the best examples of redemption I’ve ever seen.

When Ventress popped up in the third and final season of The Bad Batch, fans were both elated and confused. If you solely watched the Clone Wars show, Ventress was last seen as a bounty hunter helping Ahsoka when she was wrongly accused of a terrorist attack. However, if you read the canon novel Dark Disciple (which, fleshed out the deleted episodes when Disney bought out the Star Wars franchise) you’d know that Ventress died after falling in love with Quinlan Vos and working to take down Count Dooku. This book is considered canon and when she appeared in The Bad Batch, there was no explanation as to why and how she was alive.

Now, the first episode of Tales of the Underworld explains why and it was so beautiful seeing the first minute highlight the end of the novel, with Quinlan Vos bringing Ventress back to Dathomir and proclaiming his love to her. Also – cameo by Obi-Wan! While this was beautiful, people who are unfamiliar with the novel, might be confused as to how we even got from A to B. Maybe a quick explanation or flashback would have been good? Either way, her arc was heartwarming and showed how much Ventress has grown. It was a nice compliment to her story and after this series, we’d love to see more of our favorite ex-assassin.

Everyone’s Favorite Space Cowboy

Now, the next arc follows Cad Bane. Just like with Count Dooku’s arc in Tales of the Jedi, I was not expecting to get such a rich backstory about Cad Bane. His arc has that underlying Western feel to it and it’s always great when Star Wars becomes a space Western. There’s so many emotions in these three episodes and the short episodes do a great job in not rushing any scene or dialogue, while also not overcrowding his story. We see who Cad Bane was before putting on the hat, how he became who we saw in Clone Wars, and get a little insight on possible story setups for the future.

Admittedly, the Cad Bane was the more emotional arc out of the two. While Asajj Ventress’s episodes held a degree of emotional weight, it was Cad Bane’s that really hit the heartstrings. From seeing Cad Bane as a child, to the old-fashioned Western standoff in the last episode, everything about this arc is beautiful. The animation beautifully highlights the story, the music perfectly frames each scene, and the story is very well-written.

Tales of the Underworld is an unexpected treat from Star Wars and hopefully, we’ll continue getting more short-series like this to satiate our need for more animated shows, which is where Disney Star Wars seems to excel. Maybe Tales of the Clones? We can only hope.

What do you think of Tales of the Underworld?