Episode: The Clone Wars 3.13 – “Monster”
Original Air Date: January 14, 2011
Screencaps from The Clone Wars Screencap Gallery.
Count Dooku should be careful what he wishes for.
Picking up from the end of last week’s episode, Dooku goes to Dathomir in search of a new assassin to replace Asajj Ventress. However, Dooku still doesn’t know that it was Asajj and Mother Talzin of the Nightsisters who attacked him last week and is also unaware that Talzin’s offer of a new assassin is really a carefully-laid trap.
Once Dooku leaves Dathomir, Talzin sends Ventress to the far side of the planet. This is where all the men live, separated entirely from the women. It’s certainly an interesting aspect to their society and explains why someone like Darth Maul would be different from Ventress. There, Ventress is presented with a group of males offered to serve the Nightsisters. She immediately cuts four or five of them for perceived weaknesses, and then the real test begins.
Before the tests begin, we get a glimpse of Savage Oppress (pronounced Saváge) and his brother Feral who are amongst the selectees. Ventress breaks the test down into three parts, though in each the selectees are expected to fight her in mortal combat. She cuts down the men until only Savage and Feral are left. During these trials, Savage displays a great compassion for his brother, coming to Feral’s aid at the risk of his own life. He even saves his brother from Ventress and offers himself to her in exchange for letting Feral live.
She takes him up on his offer, besting him in combat and owning Oppress’s life. Ventress brings Oppress back to Talzin and the Nightsisters, who give the new assassin a Steve Rogers-esque magical makeover, increasing his size, strength, and rage. Then it’s time for his final test, as the Nightsisters bring out Feral and Ventress orders Oppress to kill his own brother. As Feral begs for his life, the new Savage snarls at the other man’s weakness and strangles him. He is then given an enchanted blade and sent to his new “master.”
After delivery to Dooku, the Count decides to put Savage to the test by dropping him off in a battle to take a small Jedi temple. Charging into battle, Savage sweeps aside his own droid troops and then makes quick work of the clones. Even the Jedi and his apprentice who are defending the temple are no match for him. He shrugs off blaster fire and blows as if they never happened. This completes Savage’s tests, and as he returns to Count Dooku, the Sith Lord calmly spells out his plan to destroy Darth Sidious and rule the galaxy (sound familiar?).
Good introduction to this character. I find myself wondering how Dooku can be so ignorant of this trick if he’s so attuned to the dark side of the Force, but ignoring that there’s an origin story here with plenty of allusions to other fictional characters. For one thing, you have the Captain America angle of regular-looking-guy-transformed-into-powerhouse, but with the magic and enchanted blade, there’s a little King Arthur element as well. Granted, it’s for evil and not good, but it makes for a fairly compelling story.
The only other thing that was hard to believe was that Savage could breeze through combat so easily. I think we’ll have to see more of what he can do before judging him fully, but for now it seems like the producers just wanted to show off how much of a badass warrior he is by making everything he does look easy.
Lastly, I’ll point out how cool it is that Savage is voiced by Clancy Brown. If you’re not familiar with this actor, you well should be. From Buckaroo Bonzai to the Kurgan in Highlander, as well as voicing Mr. Krabs on Spongebob Squarepants and Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series, the man is just simply awesome. Essentially, he uses the same voice for Savage that he did for the Kurgan. Now I want to hear Oppress uttering the Kurgan’s lines.
Rating: 5 / 5 Stars
About the Author
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about John Rabon:
John got started on the path to geekdom thanks to his brother's collection of comic books and Star Wars toys but was cemented into the geek class forever when LeVar Burton took Reading Rainbow viewers on a backstage tour of Star Trek: The Next Generation. A love of Monty Python soon followed, and it wasn't long before he was starting to collect his own comics. The rest, as they say, is history. But really, who are they to say something?
Since discovering the BBC some years ago, John has become an obsessive Anglophile. In fact, he even likes the food they serve over there! As such, some of his favourite programmes include: Doctor Who, Primeval, Coupling, QI, The Mighty Boosh, The IT Crowd, and Shaun the Sheep.
Upon choosing a university, John enrolled in the University of South Carolina, which was nice enough to give him a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a Master's in Teaching. Feeling that he hadn't been put through enough academic torment with student teaching, John decided to enroll in law school at Campbell University.
Hobbies, when he can find time for them, include: writing, video games, reading, and wasting time in the pub.