One of my favourite story arcs in The Clone Wars has been the two episodes centering around the Zillo Beast on Malastare. It is an absolutely heart-breaking story but also an incredibly serious one. The first episode, simply titled The Zillo … Continue reading ‘The Zillo Beast’ arc: Innocence in a Time of War
Although we try very hard to write seriously about Star Wars here at Clone Corridor, sometimes you just have to take a moment and fan out a little bit. On May 5th Disney Infinity announced its new instalment focusing on Star Wars, all … Continue reading Corridor Chat: Geeking Out over Disney Infinity 3.0 Figures
There has been an ongoing debate about both clone wars series for years now. Recently the old series was brought to my attention again and I thought I would revisit it and try to compare it to the new series … Continue reading One war, Two stories (The Clone Wars)
Today is Natalie Portman’s 34th birthday and in honour of that I thought it would be interesting to take a look at Padmé Amidala’s role in one of the key moments in Attack of the Clones: the Battle of Geonosis. So here … Continue reading Scene It? – Padme in the Geonosis Arena
So, what’s been happening in Star Wars-related news this week? Jedi’s Journey back to Star Wars – Ahsoka’s journey (USA Today) Could we be getting an Obi-Wan Kenobi trilogy? (Cinema Blend) Star Wars novel Heart of the Jedi resurfaces (IO9) Clone Trooper gets … Continue reading Weekly Round-up
The Attack of the Clones was the first Star Wars movie I got to see in the cinema, after an extensive campaign for the chance to. Walking out of the cinema I was all about the Clones, the Battle of Geonosis … Continue reading Star Wars’ Forgotten Women #1: Zam Wesell
Sir Christopher Lee was born on May 2th, 1922 and is best known for his roles as Dracula, Francisco Scaramanga and Saruman. Today is Sir Christopher Lee’s birthday and in honour of this amazing man, we have a post about Count … Continue reading Christopher Lee’s Dooku: The Importance of the Count
Asajj Ventress, as voiced by Nika Futterman, is a character that fascinated me, and many others, from the first moment she graced our screens in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, both film and series. Initially introduced as a Commander in the Separatists’ army and an apprentice to Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress is a feared force in the galaxy during the Clone Wars and the nemesis of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Although this post will largely focus on her portrayal in the 2008 TV show, it is worth mentioning that many of the things briefly mentioned below are worked out in great detail in comic books and novels which are all worth reading. This post will contain spoilers for those who haven’t watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars in its entirety.
In the comic series Star Wars: Obsession Asajj says of herself:
“I am fear.”
Ingeniously, this applies to her character in two ways. On the one hand she is a woman feared throughout the galaxy because of her strength and her ruthlessness. On the other hand, she is a woman who is terribly afraid herself. Asajj is a character who is frequently used as a pawn by others. Most notable in that respect is her relationship with Count Dooku, starting when he presents her to Darth Sidious who sends her out to kill Anakin Skywalker. She is used by both men to further their own agenda. Dooku shows his loyalty to Sidious and Sidious is able to trigger Anakin to use his anger as a way of defeating his enemies. After this defeat, Asajj becomes an assassin for Dooku while always hungering to be trained as a full Sith. She is kept on the periphery by Dooku and Sidious, never fully trained, never fully accepted, which means she is constantly striving to prove herself to others and fearing that she is lacking. This comes to a close in the 12th episode of the third season of The Clone Wars when Sidious starts to consider her a threat and orders Dooku to eliminate her. He does so by betraying her during the Battle of Sullust and she is left for dead.
Continue reading “‘I am fear’: Asajj Ventress and the Strong Woman”
In today’s Scene It? post I’ll be looking at one of the most heart-breaking scenes in The Revenge of the Sith (2005), the third prequel film which depicts Anakin’s switch to the Dark Side of the Force. I am, of course, talking about the scene between Padme and Anakin on Mustafar, shortly before the battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Naturally, this post contains spoilers for The Revenge of the Sith. If you want a quick refresher on the scene, help yourself to the video below, the first half of which I will be discussing:
Some of the criticism directed towards RotS focused on the development of Padme Amidala’s character. In The Phantom Menace she is a young queen, exclusively focused on saving her planet from being taken over by the Trade Federation. In The Attack of the Clones she returns as a senator of Naboo and a key senator in trying to stop the outbreak of a war. We also see her trying to cope with her feelings for Anakin Skywalker and fighting for her life. In The Revenge of the Sith, Padme and Anakin are married, with the twins on the way, while she continues in her role as senator. As the Republic falls apart, so, it could be argued, does everything she has worked for. The difficulty with which Padme switches between her roles as senator and wife is, I believe, on purpose. As Anakin slowly loses himself it becomes harder for her to unite her principles with her emotions. The reason this scene is heart-breaking is because everything Padme believed in has either been corrupted or fallen apart. Below I will discuss why her choice of response to this is one which is probably singular in modern cinema and makes her stand out as one of the strongest women in sci-fi.
When George Lucas made the choice to start the Prequel Trilogy with Anakin Skywalker as a kid and to include Jar Jar Binks as a character he must have had an inkling of what was coming. But he must have made this choice deliberately because of its story-telling value. In this post I want to have a look at how intimately the stories of these two great characters are entangled and how they mirror each other. Unwittingly, in their joint rejection of these two, the prequel-bashing community not only misses out on a vital element of the story Lucas tried to convey. But above all they confirm the message that is in Jar Jar and Anakin’s story for those who did make the effort to recognize it.
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