THE CLONE WARS: SURROUNDED!

Down but not out from his conflicts with former master Count Dooku and the agile warrior Asajj Ventress, Savage Opress must escape to lick his wounds and fight another day. But first there's the additional firepower of varying Trade Federation battle droids to tackle, in a scene from The Clone Wars Season Three classic episode Witches of the Mist.

THE CLONE WARS: COLOURFUL CLASHING!

The heroes and villains of the STAR WARS animated universe gather for conflict in another great promotional poster image of colour and conflict, concocted during the later point of THE CLONE WARS series run.

THE CLONE WARS: SITH SWORDPLAY!

As civil war erupts across the Mandalorian city homeworld, an even worse battle is taking place deep below it, as Savage Opress locks horns (forgive the pun) and lightsabers against the fearsome power of that old Sith devil himself, Darth Sidious, in a classic moment from the genuinely epic duel closing the powerful and acclaimed THE CLONE WARS Season Five episode, The Lawless.

THE CLONE WARS: JUNKYARD DEMON!

Continuing his epic and violent quest for his not dead brother, Darth Maul, the brutal Savage Opress arrives on the far-off scrapworld of Lotho Minor, and soon goes into battle against some weapon wielding Junkers, clueless as to what they're taking on, in this scene from the popular THE CLONE WARS Season Four episode, Brothers.

THE CLONE WARS: OUTER RIM SLAUGHTER!

The formidable Savage Opress, now allied with his brother Maul, begin their rein of terror in the Outer Rim, killing anyone, or any Jedi, that stands in their way- as seen during the opening scene events of the Season Five episode Revival.

THE CLONE WARS SEASON FIVE. AFICIONADO's TOP FIVE EPISODES. NUMBER ONE: 'EMINENCE'

Deadly new alliances are forged in Eminence! Images: LUCASFILM ANIMATION.

Pole position has now been reached, as AFICIONADO's countdown to the Top Five episodes of THE CLONE WARS Season Five, out now on UK Blu-ray and DVD from WARNER BROTHERS, concludes in spectacular and explosive style. Its time for the baddies to get centre stage in the superb Dark Side unleashed showcase that is Eminence - our favourite game-changing episode of the shows final year, and an indication of the epic storylines planned but lost for its aborted final seasons-though at least the completed episodes of Season Six are on their way sometime soon to whet our continued appetites for the show...

Here's five reasons why Eminence was our Numero Uno!

Darth Maul reveals his Force might against Bo Katan.

1. Saga Enemies Unite! The kind of team-up we'd always dreamt about when playing with our PALITOY/KENNER figures during our formative years- now amazingly come alive thanks to George Lucas bold idea, with the kind of assembled quadruple threat villainy that could give MARVEL's THE AVENGERS a run for their money, let alone the STAR WARS universe heroes. The Maul brothers, the Mandalorian Death Watch, newcomers the Pyke Syndicate, together with the large-scale criminal universe belonging to the Black Sun organisation. They all hate and distrust one another, obviously, but in the end its the power of revenge and greed that binds them together. The benevolent Duchess Satine and the rest of the universe don't stand a chance!

A return to the nightmare well of Mustafar...

2. Fused Universes. Black Sun on the volcanic hell of Mustafar (quite a busy little planet that one!), Hutts on Tatooine and Nal Hutta, the outcast Sith brothers found in deep space (a nice visual nod to the beginning of ALIENS), the flying Mandalore Death Watch. Heck, even ineffectual but great to see in action Gamorrean Guards! This episode's supremely enjoyable, dizzyingly fast visual and storytelling pace sees a wealth of planets and battles satisfyingly mixed together and ripe for epic conflict, well handled by writer Chris Collins and director Kyle Dunlevy, with CG Supervisor Joel Aron and the brilliant animation team clearly working overtime on this ambitious entry. It's the perfect fusion of Classic and Prequel Trilogies characters and environments that only THE CLONE WARS animated series could do, and so well, particularly fleshing out the other parts of the under-rated Prequels beyond Anakin's overall storyline in the films.

Black Sun heads will roll...

3. Black Sun Arrives. Steve Perry's dangerous and consuming alternate empire of scum and villainy, led by the reptilian Falleen- first introduced back in the nineties with the excellent SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE comic and multi-media platform- finally get the powerful and threatening onscreen realisation they deserve. Unwilling to join the Mandalore/Sith combo- considering themselves all powerful to any outside influences and threats, even if they are Sith, the commerce conglomerate of evil soon have no choice but to align themselves with the party-poopers new enterprise, especially after the majority of its core leaders are swiftly decapitated by a lightsaber javelin Savage Opress (this scene is shown complete on the Blu-ray, having been edited on its original transmission by CARTOON NETWORK).

Hard-hatted Embo (middle) and the Bounty Hunters retaliate.

4. The Return of the Bounty Hunters. Pushing in on the Hutt territories, the slug empire soon decides that, to fight such powerful encroaching superb baddies, you need equally resourceful opponents- popular anti-hero bounty hunters Sugi, big hatted fan favourite Embo (soon to be seen in the "Bonus Content" Rush Clovis storyline), Marrok, Latts Razzi and Dengar (thankfully not voiced by Simon Pegg this time around-the producers presumably having learnt their lesson!) give Maul, Vizsla and co. a headache they'll not soon forget, but ultimately failing to stop them, during a beautifully rendered and edited action sequence, showing all the skilled combatants in their prime, within the core of Nal Hutta. Swatting them away like flies, Maul ultimately can't be bothered to kill the bounty hunters- instead they escape to fight another animated day!

Attack from the sky! Death Watch converge on Jabba's Palace.

5. A State of War. Black Sun may be down, but the still powerful Hutt crime empire tries to retain its independence from Maul and Vizsla's ambitions. But its not for long- soon that duo's gathering force strikes a further incredible blow beyond Nal Hutta and their slaying of Oruba, attacking the heart of Jabba the Hutt's palatial territory on Tatooine!

Having previously seen the power and dominion of the Hutt empire in film, TV and the Expanded Universe, their might having threatened to damage the Republic in the first THE CLONE WARS movie, its genuinely unnerving to see Jabba and co. being so soundly, but credibly, defeated!

Get hold of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS SEASON FIVE on Blu-ray here:
Star Wars Clone Wars - Season 5 Blu-ray Region Free: Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV

Get hold of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS -THE COMPLETE SEASONS ONE TO FIVE here: Star Wars Clone Wars - Season 1-5 Blu-ray Region Free: Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV

THE CLONE WARS SEASON FIVE. AFICIONADO's TOP FIVE EPISODES. NUMBER TWO: 'THE LAWLESS'

Well armed and very dangerous. Darth Sidious wants Sith blood in The Lawless. Images: LUCASFILM ANIMATION.

We're almost at Pole Position celebrating the top five episodes of THE CLONE WARS Season Five, out now on stellar Blu-ray and DVD from WARNER BROTHERS, and the final choices were getting more and more difficult. Ahsoka's difficulties being The Jedi Who Knew Too Much was a close one, as was Pere-Vizsla's darksaber last stand in Shadow of Reason. Ultimately its was the super chaos on Mandalore with The Lawless, and Darth Sidious's revenge on his scheming former apprentice, Darth Maul, that outclassed the opposition for Number Two.

And here's five reasons why...

Mandalore's end has come?

1. Death Watch civil war! Having watched increduously as their leader, battle scarred Pre Vizsla is killed in epic single combat against the formidable Darth Maul, his aggrieved red-headed flying lieutenant Bo Katan is not ready to let the Sith warrior's control of Death Watch stand, soon leading her own fraction of skyborn dented helmet militia into epic battle in and out, above and below the capital city in some spectacular high-flying, missile-launching warfare. By the end of the episode the battle proves completely out of control and Mandalore, always having a volatile, conflict-strewn history, is doomed to self-implode unless the Republic can come to its rescue-basically via an occupying force-one of the very things that Katan was fighting against in the first place! This last adventure in the fan controversial world of Mandalore, whose Expanded Universe history was mostly chucked aside by Lucas for the animated series, had now reached its finest storytelling point, so its a shame we never got to see what happened next with the world and the consequence of its actions towards the thousands of neighbouring systems...

Obi-Wan and Bo Katan, rushing headlong into battle.

2. Obi-Wan goes solo! With the Jedi unable to help the beleaguered Duchess Satine and her call for help on the neutral Mandalore, Obi-Wan begins his own perilous secret mission to aid her. But it all goes wrong from the start, with his borrowing of Anakin's ship, the Twilight, now falling to bits from disrepair and neglect, only just making it to the planet and ultimately failing in its role as an escape ship- Darth Mauls's Death Watch fraction ultimately bringing it down with key missile strikes. Bruised and beaten, his once dead enemy has him captured and is determined to make him suffer the consequences of his arrival...

Goodbye, my love...

3. The murder of Satine. The first of this episode's two major character losses, as Obi-Wan is helpless to watch senselessly cruel Maul brutally murder his friend and former lover in front of his eyes. Trained in the Force and aware of the power, and price, of revenge, Obi has no choice but to sit there and take the pain, tremendous pain- unwilling to retaliate and pay the ultimate price against Maul that may possibly lead him to death or to the dark side. Its a tough call, and we the viewers are shocked that he does nothing in response, but such an action is the essential price of being in the Jedi Way-to ultimately let go of his attachments- an ability and bravery that his former Padawan Anakin would never have. Cradling her dying body, the pair's final goodbye is a touching moment, nicely written by Chris Collins and played by Anna Graves and James Arnold Taylor. Truth be told, Satine wasn't one of my favouritre characters in the series but her importance to Obi-Wan, who deserved a romantic sub-plot in the overall saga, was not to be underestimated.

Pity the Maul brothers!

4. Darth Sidious arrives! He'd been an irritant amongst the scores of rabble operating within the Outer rim, but former apprentice Darth Maul's growing powerbase criminal organisation and control of Mandalore, and its possible far-reaching consequences, is too much for Darth Sidious to now ignore. The Sith "rule of two" must remain in force, and he's determined to make sure that it stays that way. Right from the moment he arrives on Mandalore, his first in the flesh appearance in the series, chillingly making his way from the outer port after having choked several Death Watch soldiers, accompanied by Kevin Kilner's slow-building omnipotent interpretation of John Williams supreme "Imperial March", we know he has fury and death on his mind. His quick to double lightsaber armed confrontation with now rival Darth Maul and brother Savage Opress surely one of the series most uber-cool anticipated moments ever.

Maul's prior duel with Pre Vizsla had been superbly realised, but that was just a warm-up for things to come here- the greatest Dark Side lightsaber clash ever seen in STAR WARS, with the whirling dervish Sidious clearly enjoying his superiority in battle, Banshee-shrieking that hidous animalistic laughter of his which he'd later torment Yoda with during EPISODE III, and showing incredibly cunning dexterity, physical strength and lightsaber prowess over his soon outmatched opponents. Sidious controls this game- right from the start!

Note: the Blu-ray release contains an extended animatic sequence from the duel, here:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 5 Deleted Sequence - IGN Video

Unlimited power!

5. No Mercy!  He's already performed a stupendous back speed lightsabers move capably, efficiently slaying the once mighty Savage Opress (his corpse soon withering back to its original form-Mother Talzin's witchcraft spell broken!), and now its Darth Maul's turn to face his wrath, as Sidious disarms the robot limbed warrior and quickly showers him with an unstoppable wave of destructive Force lightning energy that literally has the horned warlord begging for his life. This former apprentice will never be allowed to rise above his station again, of that we have no doubt. Sidious clearly relishing the power anew he has over Darth Maul. "I have other uses for you..." he promises, as the mush-missed Ian Abercrombie's final vocal performance in the role (with one insert piece of dialogue from his successor, Tim Curry) chillingly resonates into the episodes end titles. Sadly, what those "other uses" entailed from the demon king we would frustratingly never see, but let's hope some future LUCAS BOOKS fiction reveals just what happened next between the pair, presumably leading to Maul's likely demise before the opening of EPISODE III!

Get hold of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS - THE COMPLETE SEASON FIVE here:
Star Wars Clone Wars - Season 5 Blu-ray Region Free: Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV


Get hold of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS - THE COMPLETE SEASONS ONE TO FIVE here: Star Wars Clone Wars - Season 1-5 Blu-ray Region Free: Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV

THE CLONE WARS: THE PERFECT STORM...

Now inseparable, Sith renegades Darth Maul and Savage Opress begin to make their vicious mark known throughout the galaxy, resulting in Darth Sidious finally stepping out of the holographic shadows, so as to bring his own sense of "order", alongside his genuinely lethal skill of using two lightsabers, to an already tense situation...

Season Five of THE CLONE WARS-it's last hurrah as a full year of episodes- has finally begun airing on the UK's CARTOON NETWORK. Thank you, Dave Filoni, and the cast and the crew of the series, for all the fun, action, and imagination we've had since 2008.

Check out our coverage of the season (so far) here:
STAR WARS AFICIONADO MAGAZINE: THE CLONE WARS SEASON FIVE

Check out the KOOL TV site for a season preview: UNFINISHED BUSINESS. 'STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS' - THE FINAL SEASON ON UK TV

THE CLONE WARS: UNHOLY ALLIANCE!

I always loved those old super villain team ups in comic books as a kid, and THE CLONE WARS will be keeping my kidult soul very happy indeed when it returns to CARTOON NETWORK US early next year, what with its hopefully kick-ass multi-part adventure involving the Maul brothers teaming up with Death Watch to capture Mandalore and it's Queen. Fingers crossed for an actually successful story arc this time for Pre Vizsla!

Clip: EXCLUSIVE clip from The Clone Wars: Season 5 - Black Sun Arrives! - YouTube

"SOMETIMES HEROES FALL..." 'THE CLONE WARS' SEASON FIVE BEGINS!

No longer seen as an out of the way hologram in the series, the physical embodiment of Darth Sidous is now one very pissed off Sith Lord, out to restore balance to the Dark Side in THE CLONE WARS Season Five.

Revenge, tragedy and betrayal: the evil of the Dark Side of the Force is escalating to a new crescendo of terror in the fifth season of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, making its stellar animated premiere on the US CARTOON NETWORK from tomorrow morning's new time slot.

And it looks even more of a packed season than anything we've seen previously, if that's possible, and presumably carrying on the multi-episode arcs storytelling of last season. We have the return of the Maul brothers, their alliance with Death Watch and the Black Sun crime cartel to take Mandalore, and the following civil war that branches out from it, a pissed off Darth Sidious out to restore brutal and bloody order to his grand scheme against the Republic, the building beginnings of resentment and bitterness towards the Jedi from the people they've sworn their lives to protect, a great adventure for Artoo and some of his Astro Droid buddies, Ahsoka and Ventress possibly joining forces, Padme reunited with ex-lover Clovis, and facing another assassination attempt, a huge epic battle on the Expanded Universe popular world of Onderon, and lots more angst and emotional struggle for Anakin and Obi-wan, their friendship often challenged in leading their galactic Clone Troopers ever further into conflict, as the war seems out of control and unstoppable leading up to the film events of EPISODE III.

Here's a few snaps from the recent epic, and we do mean epic, trailer: StarWars.com | Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5 Trailer

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine confers with the Jedi about the new threat from Darth Maul...

...as Jedi Masters Mace Windu and Yoda listen on.

War on Onderon rages...

A Clone Trooper fights on 'till the last drop of his blood has been spilt!

Artoo and a team of droids are part of an ambitious new Jedi plan. Note the welcome reappearance of Jedi Tera Sinube.

Deadly partnership. Black Sun and the Death Watch plan to attack Mandalore.

Pre Vizsla is one very happy mercenary!

Anakin enters the underbelly of Coruscant's 1313 level in search of his prey.

A re-match between Asajj Ventress and Ahsoka Tano leads to an unlikely partnership...

Obi-Wan infiltrates the Death Watch and gets more than he bargained for.

Anakin gets jealous all over again with Padme and her ex, Rush Clovis.

Mid-air problems for Ahsoka and Anakin in their Starfighters.

Maul and a betrayed Pre Vizsla clash!

Another epic battle awaits our heroes...

Hold tight! Obi-Wan holds dearly on to Duchess Satine.

Death Watch. The new rulers of Mandalore?

Possibly the moment of Season Five? Sidious takes on Maul and Savage!

Some more clips to keep the appetites whetted:

EXCLUSIVE clip from The Clone Wars: Season 5 - Black Sun Arrives! - YouTube

Star Wars: The Clone Wars -- First look at Darth Maul | Inside TV | EW.com

Celebration VI Coverage: Joel Aron and Dave Filoni Q&A and SUDDENLY GEORGE LUCAS | Tosche Station

Comic-Con: Star Wars The Clone Wars Season 5 Exclusive - Meet Obi-Wan's Surprising New Allies - IGN

'Clone Wars': Season 5 Trailer shows Darth Maul and Death Watch | Inside TV | EW.com

‘Star Wars’ reignites - The Daily

'Star Wars: Clone Wars' Season 5: See exclusive trailer | Inside TV | EW.com

Uneasy alliances on tap for new season of 'Clone Wars'

The war continues. And the STAR WARS saga continues...

'THE CLONE WARS': INTO THE FUTURE WITH 'A WAR ON TWO FRONTS'

Eyes for chaos! Darth Maul wants vengeance on everybody in THE CLONE WARS Season Five. Images: LUCASFILM ANIMATION.

Here's a few great images from the recent STARWARS.COM trailer release for September's US CARTOON NETWORK screening of the eagerly anticipated Season Five, with what looks like Savage and Maul galore, lots of Death Watch (and a take-over of Mandalore?), a major conflict on the EU world of Onderon and it's dragon riders, and some cool stuff with emerging classic bounty hunter Embo!

Space battles galore, and more Y-wings!

Our first glimpse of the Onderon people.

Those pesky bucket heads, the Death Watch, are back, with Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) in the front seat.

Our heroes Obi-Wan and Anakin on the hologram.

A new alien race resists the Separatist forces.

Our first glimpse of the dragons of Onderon.

Bounty hunter Embo returns, in an exciting ice chase against Anakin and Padme.

Two 'sabers Kenobi!

Fire-starter! Pre Vizsla strikes back.

Our first look at the criminal Black Sun cartel, and it's Falleen overlords?

Here's the link to the trailer: StarWars.com | Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5 Trailer

Look out for more on THE CLONE WARS Season Five soon...