I'd like to get this fact out of the way before I even begin writing this chapter: that is not a ship name. Dreamer/Dreamt forever! (But I'll never forget this moment)

No, Padawans....Asajj and Grievous is actually an arc in Clone Wars, composed of four episodes: "Cloak of Darkness (S1 E9)", "Lair of Grievous (S1 E10)", "Grievous Intrigue (S2 E9)", and "The Deserters (S2 E10)". I recently rewatched this arc while doing crochet, as it is one of my favorites, and I think it's severely underrated. So, let's go through each of the episodes! 

WARNING: SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW. This arc is available for free on Youtube - go watch it! That's an order! 😊

S1 E9: Cloak of Darkness

This is actually the weakest episode in the arc, but as we've seen with Star Wars in general, sometimes weak first episodes can lead to amazing sagas (looking at you, TPM). The plot follows Viceroy Nute Gunray's capture at the hands of Padmé Amidala (I forget the episode name, but it's technically part of this arc, but it has Jar Jar....so....) and eventual escape by Asajj Ventress.

I really like this episode because Ahsoka has sort of a "young upstart" vibe about her, which is a really entertaining thing, especially when the young'uns get cocky and have to be reined in. It also has a theme of everyone, even masters like Luminara, always having more to learn. Also, Ventress is in it. Enough said on that. (I love Ventress.) 

My criticisms of the episode are a lot of minor things that add up to create a bit of an issue overall. First off, some of the dialogue doesn't make sense (i.e. Ahsoka saying she'll give Ventress a merciful death, even though she has to as a Jedi). Second, Ahsoka, in general, is super obnoxious when she's in that tube top. I have a hard time liking her when she's young. But other than that, there aren't major issues with the episode.

S1 E10: Lair of Grievous

Even though "The Deserters" is objectively the best of this arc, this episode is my personal favorite (and not because of Grievous, though he's more tolerable than in other arcs of CW08 *cough* Ahsoka and the Younglings *cough*). I think the reason I enjoyed this arc so much was that it explored a lot. It followed my homeboy Kit Fisto and his former Padawan Nahdar Vebb (though he was still a Padawan in my heart).

The episode was wrought with really, really cool themes. I love the theme of power consuming you, and it makes so much sense in the context of US when talking about Grievous. At first, his intentions for getting the cybernetics were noble, but then as time went on his intentions became selfish as he became more and more powerful. 

Unfortunately, this great theme (and a great Anakin tidbit thingie) is lost because of the retconning. This was my only major, MAJOR fault with this episode. I still like it because I can sort of pretend that it doesn't exist, especially since Filoni said prior to the decanonization that his backstory was meant to be ambiguous. 

But the retconning changed everything. I was greatly irritated at the notion of him chopping off his own limbs simply (and ONLY) because he wanted to be greater than the Jedi. That's an idiotic and shallow backstory, and what makes it worse is the fact that 1.) Filoni, later on, acted like it was so much better based off of a strawman of the story of Unknown Soldier, and 2.) Those changes obviously didn't help him, as he's just as incompetent as presumably before the cybernetics, according to the new canon. 

*deep breaths, Joye. There's still hope for a brighter future.*

I did like this thing a lot:

(Can we talk about how funny Qymaen looks on the right with just the arms? No? Okay.)

According to the LoG featurette, these statues are of pre-cyborg Grievous' slow transformation into the vicious cyborg with 95% of his body parts gone. While I would hate the new canon a bit less if Grievous was better in CW08, I do think these statues depict Qymaen's spiritual fall (if you're like me and part of the old guard of Grievous fans 😉). I actually have a headcanon about these babies if you're interested in hearing it - I'll spare you in this essay though. In my opinion, the only good thing from the new canon for Grievous was the new design for the Kaleesh.

Old design (brace thyselves):

New design (it looks worse because there's a scowl, but Grievous was rarely a happy guy in Legends or Canon):

Anyway....wanted to rant about that. Other things I enjoyed in LoG were Nahdar's uptight attitude, the sweet sadness of Gor's death (I actually teared up a bit at it lmbo), and EV-A4-D, Grievous' sassy medical droid. It's just the little things in this episode that come together to make an enjoyable experience.

(Gor~ Gor~)

Well, I meant to publish this whole arc, but I spent so much space ranting about the retconning that I think that continuing with the rest of it would make the chapter too long. RIP. Well, see you on the other side then, for Part 2! (If anyone reads this, haha)