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February 4 2011

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"He who surrenders hope, surrenders life."

Episode Guide: Altar Of Mortis

Episode Air No: 60
Production No: 311

Director: Brian Kalin O'Connell
Writer: Christian Taylor

Synopsis: Before the Jedi can leave Mortis, the Son takes Ahsoka captive in an attempt to entice Anakin into joining him to use their combined strength to overpower his Father and Sister. Meanwhile, the Father attempts to stave off a disastrous showdown between his children and maintain the Force's increasingly precarious balance on the planet.

view: (SD HDTV)

[align=center]STILLS • CONCEPT ART • TRIVIA[/align]
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[align=left]Secrets Revealed

• The Son's "prison creature form" has no proper name. Sam Witwer provided the voice for it as well.

• The look of the Altar was very much derived from the Wagner opera Siegfried. In it, Siegfried crosses through a ring of fire to find the valkyrie warrior Brünnhilde, who shall "work the deed that redeems the world." This description could apply to the Mortis dagger, as well as to Anakin.

• The Son's cathedral is an homage to the tower of Orthanc from The Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers, which was also a single dark tower set within a circle. "If you know The Lord of the Rings films you may notice that the tower itself resembles Saruman's staff," says Supervising Director Dave Filoni. Saruman was portrayed by Christopher Lee who also played Count Dooku in Episodes II, III and The Clone Wars movie.

• Though the Father is not depicted in a beast form, he does have wings.[/align]


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Good episode. Not as good as the last one, but good nonetheless.

And where's that commentary?

[align=center]GHOSTS OF MORTIS PREVIEW VIDEO

[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/DUx4h-xTUUg?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash][/align]

I didn't quite like this one, and judging by the lack of comments here I guess neither did most of you.

Still can't pin-point the reason but I didn't like it, it was just so unnecessary or may be it is just the changes being made to what I knew SW to be. It is going too fast and I still can't assimilate it or something, even the prev episode was kind of weird for me but I did enjoy it because I feel it adds to the notion of Anakin feeling 'the weight of it all'.

The two things I did like of this episode is the awesome performance of 'the son', and the fact that Ahsoka was such a tease lol. All that posing and the super cute faces - omg, Dave and crew what are yo doing to us.

I would have to say the opposite. I've been enjoying the Mortis arc, probably more than anything thus far in The Clone Wars.

Epic storytelling utilizing some of the greatest myths of all time. I thought the Nightsisters trilogy was amazing, but this just blows it out of the water - not that I'm taking anything away from the previous arc; it's just that I find this particular concept appealing and can appreciate the many layers there are here, in the Mortis arc.

Excellent job, in terms of story, script, design, animation and voice actor performance - top quality stuff!

The highlight of the episode for me was the scene between a captured Ahsoka and the Son's disguise as that calm, creepy little creature that bites her; and Ahsoka's resulting dark side persona. Kinda sexy.

And yeah, where is that commentary?

Loved it - all of it.

Cute faces,Son's excellent voicing and the action.

The one thing I hope this arc doesn't do is try to explain Anakin's eventual turn as inevitable because of Brother's growing power and influence -- that would remove much of the significance of Anakin's choice to join the Dark Side in ROTS.

If it's to show Anakin a justification for the Dark Side, then the arc is utterly brilliant. And this episode in particular is fantastic. The only moment I didn't like was Ahsoka grabbing the dagger out of mid-air. Seemed to convenient a plot device. Otherwise, phenomenal storytelling.

A very well done episode. Not as good as the last, but not far behind. Overall, this episode arc to me represents the best combination of directing, voice acting, animation, storytelling and music that this show has put together. It's a good thing that this show continues to improve as it moves through the timeline.

A special note goes out to Sam Witwer for this episode. It's obvious they casted him perfectly for his "type" but he has shown a great range within those roles. That little creature is just the right combination of silly and creepy.

I finally nailed down who the Father reminded me of so much. With those wings he kind of looks like the symbol for Zoroaster. And his hat and long beard are very similar to those found on ancient Babylonian statues - most often on the body of a Griffin similar to the daughter's beast form.

Finally, Pablo Hidalgo over at SW.com confirmed that the commentary will now go up on Mondays with the full episodes.

Good catch on the Zoroastrian imagery.

I thought this episode was as good as or better than the first. In terms of drama; the best laid plans of all the characters blew-up in there face. Obi-wan thought he could use the Father to resolve the situation without bloodshed, Anakin though he could save Ahsoka, the Daughter thought she could destroy the Son, the Son thought he could destroy the Father, and the Father thought he could keep his children in balance. In the end, Obi-wan inadvertently helped the Son murder the Daughter, Anakin watched helplessly as Ahsoka was killed, the Daughter’s retrieval of the sword resulted in her own death, the Son lost his one means of destroying the Father, and the Father realized the limits of his control.

In terms of individual scenes, I liked Obi-wan being King Arthur and retrieving the Excalibur-like vapor sword, the prison trickery, and the confrontation between the Son and Daughter. The ending, where Father and dying Daughter were juxtaposed with Anakin and dead Ahsoka was really well executed.

I was hoping to watch the episode yesterday morning, but the Cartoon Network didn’t rebroadcast it like they normally do. I guess patricide and fratricide are too intense for kids at that hour.

BTW, is the OS down for anyone else or is my computer acting up?

The site is working fine for me.

In terms of the lack of initial response - after Overlords there was no where to go but down. That episode saw Liam Neeson, Pernilla August, and Jedi Ashoka. Fortunately, Liam Neeson returns as Qui-Gon Jinn next episode.

From MSN - the next two episodes:

• Episode S03E18 • The Citadel • February 18 2011
• Episode S03E19 • Counter Attack • March 4 2011

Starwars.com has been experiencing offline moments for the past few weeks. In addition, the Episode Guides are getting slowed down by their respective comments section. Which is why the good stuff is embedded here. Lastly the previous week's episode: Overlords is now in OAR format.

This episode suffers from the one that came before it. However, it works well as the middle part of a three-part arc. It's setting up a strong climax.

Sam Witwer's voice work is amazing, and really adds to the quality of these episodes. A stroke of perfection when it comes to casting.

The preview for this week's episode is available at sw.com:



Visually, it looks like it's gonna rock. And it was nice to hear the slow, subtle version of the "Battle of the Heroes" motif in the background. Fitting, of course, because of the surroundings. Just not something I expected from Kiner. If he draws any music from the movies, usually they are just themes from the OT.

The only way now to bring balance is to kill the son

or resurrect the daughter

Just watched it a second time. Sure it is not as fascinating as the previous one which had so much complexity, yet this is still a very powerful and rich episode... Great build up until the 3rd one, and we really can't guess what will happen next exactly. I wish I didn't see it spoiled, of course as any of you I knew about dark side Ahsoka since the Season3 Trailer.

So when it happened I was like "ok here is it, lets see how it turns out"... Then I saw my brother, who likes Star Wars but is not what one would call a fan. He was shocked when she opened her yellow Sith eyes after being bitten by Son, and he was starting to be concerned about her life, wandering if she might die. Although I do know that she will stay alive for at least one more good season, so this reaction was interesting to witness.

Another very interesting point, and I'm surprised it has not been discussed here yet, is that Anakin actually saves someone he cares about (and feeling guilty) from dying, which is the main matter of Episodes II & III. This time he fulfills it, even if its through the help of father and daughter...

Wondering if this will be a plot point to be developed in the next or further episodes, what are your thoughts?

Information about the next episode after the Mortis Trilogy.

• The Citadel: Obi-Wan & Anakin lead a mission to free a captive Jedi general from a Separatist prison surrounded by Droids; The Citadel. (tvguide & tvlistings)

From the description The Citadel is most likely the Even Piell episode featuring the carbon freeze blocks.

And here's a sneak peak at "Commander Tarkin".

That's great news but, "Captain"? Why not Admiral or a more important rank?

I'm guessing we may see some ruthless, but effective, tactic that catches the eye of Palpatine in a future episode and allows him to rocket up the ranks.

Tarkin! Finally a non-Sith, non-alien villain with some real brains!

And yes, in case you were wondering I am a maleficent specialist.

"Human Power!!! Human Power!!! Human Power!!!"

What's wrong with that? By looking at the picture, it is odd for a young man to be holding a high rank. It is cool to see a lower ranked Tarkin in The Clone Wars and then in the OT where he has a higher rank.

But you must remember Tarkin was on the command bridge overlooking the construction of the Death Star in Ep. III. With him being the only officer there we're to assume he's the one in charge of the project. That's something I wouldn't expect from only a Captain, so he's got to gain rank sometime between now and ROTS.

My guess is the show will have him doing something that gets him recognized by the real people in charge. After which, he gets transfered to a "top-secret military project".

Exactly.



I hope they explore this.

I think this is another example of something that doesn't really have to be deeply explored or explained that much. I mean, it already is. He's a Captain or Commander in the Clone Wars, and later gets promoted to "Grand Moff." It would be fun and interesting to see, but I'm not going to be heart-broken if we don't see him go through some sort of Grand Moff hazing ritual.

Would that be like Palpatine tattooing the Imperial cog on Tarkin's ass? Who doesn't want to see that?