Clone Wars Debriefing: "Altar Of Mortis"

[lazypadawan]

There were times while watching last night's episode when I thought to myself, "How are they ever going to top this arc?" Is it really possible to make it more mind-blowing? Where do you go from here?

There are fans who would much rather focus on the "real world" battles with clones and stuff, but for someone like me who has been intensely interested in the mythical, mystical, and philosophical aspects of Star Wars and an Anakin fangirl to boot, well, it's almost as good as finding Hayden gift-wrapped on my doorstep.

The Dagobah Cave On Steroids Adventure Continues when Son continues to entice Anakin to join him in a dream. Anakin awakens and Son suddenly shows up on the ship--remember, Anakin, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan are trying to fly out of Mortis--then Son grabs Ahsoka and takes off. Shortly after an amazingly animated chase scene Anakin and Obi-Wan crash in the ship.

Let's pause for a moment. Son knows Anakin's big weak spot is his attachments and while he would have just as easily gone off to rescue Obi-Wan, Ahsoka is a little different because she is young and she is Anakin's responsibility. Naturally, Anakin is drawn out to rescue Ahsoka. But while disguising himself as a House Elf, Son bites Ahsoka and gives her Dark Side Rabies. I know I knocked the magic ritual used in the Savage Opress episode but here it worked for me. Biting is a rape motif and the idea here is that Son is corrupting Ahsoka against her will with a means to an end...to draw out Anakin and trap him.

Ashley Eckstein does a great job as Evil!Ahsoka. She's creepy and disturbing, giggling while telling Anakin he'll be forced to kill her. She sort of reminds me of Harley Quinn from the Batman animated series.

Meanwhile, Son is also plotting to rub out Father. Daughter figures she has to stop him, so she breaks a forbidden rule and leads Obi-Wan to a magic dagger hidden in a cavern, explaining that it's one of the few things that can stop a Force-wielder. It's interesting to note that the representative of light is the one who leads Obi-Wan, the lifelong Jedi, to this item. He doesn't do a heck of a lot with it but it is kind of like the Lady of the Lake and Excalibur.

Evil!Ahsoka attacks Anakin and the two duel while Anakin desperately tries to talk some sense into her. Anakin shows a lot more compassion toward Ahsoka than Obi-Wan does toward Anakin in ROTS. Ahem. Eventually Obi-Wan is drawn into this battle while Daughter and Son fight. The fight scenes are all fantastic. My favorite animated shot was Ahsoka getting pushed back by the Force and her lightsabers drag into the ground. Awesome!

Obi-Wan tries to hand off the magic dagger to Anakin, but Evil!Ahsoka intercepts it and gives it to Son. Son "kills" Ahsoka and then tries to kill Dear Old Dad, but Daughter, ever the self-sacrificial nature of the light, throws herself in front of Son's blade. Son freaks out and leaves. The mortally-wounded Daughter offers, in yet another sacrificial act, to give what's little of her life force to Ahsoka. Demigod!Anakin acts as a Force conduit. So we see Anakin using powers to save someone's life, naturally reinforcing the idea that power can "cheat" death. He probably doesn't think too much about the fact it's really a sacrificial act.

I'll also note that it's interesting how the light is represented by a female, the anima in Jungian terms, saves another female. The elimination of the female in ROTS represents an imbalance just as the dark side overwhelms the light. And as soon as Daughter croaks, things start to go to heck on Mortis. Father fears Son is going to try and escape. Remember he'd brought Son and Daughter to Mortis in order to prevent them from tearing everything apart. But now that Ahsoka has some of Daughter's light, does that make her the light of the galaxy?

I think I'm starting to get what Lucas's point is re balance. Too much dark means there's evil. The light, as represented by Daughter, is "good" but she is also passive and aloof. Too much light then could mean apathy, even weakness.

Sam Witwer as Son has been doing an amazing job. He manages to bring elements of every bad guy we've seen so far in Star Wars into his part as Son.

This arc has exemplified the benefits of bringing aboard ILM staffer Joel Aron this season. Several shots look just as good as anything in the actual films.

There has been some grumbling about the fantastical elements or the references to other movies. The episode guide on starwars.com flat out says the visual references to LOTR were intentional. I guess we're so used to seeing Star Wars influence other people we forget that influences can run both ways.

Next week: Anakin is shown spoilers from ROTS and fails to heed them.

Comments

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the episode. But I cannot make myself feel like this is part of canon. Especially next week's episode. He' shown his future and doesn't take it as a warning to not follow that path in RotS? Just does not make sense.

[quidawn.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't seen the episode yet, meself (that comes later today - thanks sincerely be for file-sharing!....we'll resort to whatever we must for our CW, after all :) ) - but I will say that whilst anakin is actually in the midst of the events of ROTS directly, and so as they're affecting him most personally, right then and there - he really isn't in a position to just....stand back, take a deep breath, and collect his thoughts enough so's he might able to....what, like ever think back on anything which might have happened and so whatever he might've been vision-shown or made privy to before (though if it's coming from the likes of Son, Father or even Daughter, well, me having seen "Overlords" at least thus far, all's I can say is that I quite understand Anakin not being so much inclined to trust in the likes of *them*....given what they put him through, so-called "test" or no, there are some things it's just impossible to ignore-!)....

....well ,yeah, he's just really not in a frame of mind or state of heart right then, as the events of ROTS are actually happening, *to* him, and so he's very much existing in the moment directly because, of course, that's all he ever *can* do!....he's not at all privy to what we may know from our objective outsider's point of view, is the thing, what we're all of us full well aware of he very much isn't - all's he has to go on is just what's happening and so what he has to deal with, what's frazzling and distressing him and basically wearing him down, soul-harrowed and stricken, in the very moment that it does!....and so by the time it actually happens and then he's past it, well, rather too late then for any kind of hindsight or anything of the sort - because he's swept up in the course of events as they transpire, and once started they can't be stopped, alas.... *thoughtful look*

'Course, I'm already feelin' as....well, I just don't know as it's really all that fair to be unduly judging Anakin, here in the CW timeframe, for things he says and does and so how he's inclined to react in the here-and-now of CW....but looking at it through the prism of what happens later, I mean, like to judge him or say he somehow said or did or reacted the "wrong way" and so if he'd only done this, or that, then it would've supposedly somehow averted something else or another....well, see, the thing is that ROTS hasn't actually *happened* yet, and so what's the point of trying to view Anakin's actions and reactions and so him as a person in CW - like through the literal lens of *Vader*, come ROTS-time, that just doesn't seem at all fair to *him*....because, after all, he doesn't actually fall to the dark side before he does. He's not Vader until he becomes Vader - until then, he's still in every way *Anakin*....

....and so, yeah, realistically one can't be judging what happens here in CW, with Anakin, through the point of view of how it all falls so tragically apart in ROTS-time....because in the purest sense, that is *then*....but this, CW, is *now*. And *then* just hasn't happened yet! :)

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

I get what you are saying, but I just cannot see how these events fit into canon. I just cannot.

Unless they all get amnesia when they leave that place, the warnings they gave should have set off a lightbulb in Anakin's mind.
Not to mention everything Son says sounds exactly like Palpatine.

I am enjoying these episodes, but from a licensed fanfic POV. There is no way this is canon.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

These episodes came directly from GL himself - which you could argue makes them just as canon as TESB, or ROTJ. *shrug*

As far as next week's episode, I don't see any point in judging it until we've seen it.

Beautiful icon, btw!

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

GL constantly contradicts himself so I have made my own canon.

Thanks. sith_romantic made it.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's done any worse contradicting himself than the EU novels themselves have done (he's not near as bad IMO), but obviously YMMV. As far as GL himself contradicting the EU with TCW, IMO that doesn't count as contradicting his own continuity: unlike TCW, GL never had such a heavy hand in the books. He doesn't care about them. If other people do care, that's fine, but I've always thought it was a mistake to try to shoehorn the EU into a hard, fast, singular continuity with the films.

As far as Anakin seeing that vision of the future in the next episode, it occurs to me - even if he is shown a play-by-play of RotS on Mortis, I doubt he'd believe it. Anakin doesn't seem to much believe in things he can't hold in his hands - the Chosen One prophecy is a "myth" to him; Iego's angry god was "a load of" superstition. The Shmi vision he experienced - which he immediately labeled as "black arts" - turned out to be a fabrication by the Son, who has proven himself more than willing to manipulate Anakin into joining him. I don't have any trouble believing Anakin would dismiss such a troubling "vision" of his future shown to him by the Son as yet another fabrication.

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

I don't mean the EU, I mean within the 6 films alone. There are little inconsistencies that bug me. Like Leia remembering her mother when she died 2 seconds after she was born, yet Luke doesn't remember.

YMMV?

You are totally entitled to your opinion, but I can't accept that even though Anakin thought it was fabricated hocus pocus at the time, that once ROTS events started that he didn't think back and question that maybe that hokey pokey was true after all, and to stop going down that path.
It has not escaped me that everything that comes out of the Son's mouth sounds like Palpatine. Ya think he'd catch on to that?

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying there aren't some inconsistencies in the films, I just think the novels are much worse about it. (As far as remembering Padmé goes - Luke repeatedly parrots her last words, which to me says that he does remember her, if subconsciously.)

YMMV = Your mileage may vary.

Let's assume Anakin does remember a vision from Mortis during RotS and does pay it heed: why would he treat it any differently than his vision about Padmé? He believed the vision about Padmé could be stopped, so he would probably believe the Mortis vision could be stopped too.

Or, for all we know everyone could get their memories of Mortis wiped. Which would render everything else moot. ;)

[frostbit-sky.livejournal.com]

See it makes sense for Luke to subconsciously remember! He was in Obi-Wan's arms when she said it!
Ok, I didn't think Padmé should have died in ROTS, but whatever. If she had to die then what I would have done was have Leia born first. She sees her mother and Padmé touches her forehead. So she sees and senses her mother's despair.
Then Luke is born, Obi holds him, and Padmé says her last words, which Luke carries with him to ROTJ.

You have no idea how hard I am praying their memories are wiped LOL

YMMV = Your mileage may vary. That is a new one I have not heard ;)