🌌 Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld

🎥 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

👀 Another “Tales Of” — But Is It Any Good?

Yay, another one of these Tales Of shows!

So is this one any good?

Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.

So what’s the plot rundown?

📺 Episode Breakdown

We get six episodes:

The first three show us what Assaj Ventress has been up to.
And the last three give us Cad Bane’s backstory when he was a kid.

Yes, the show actually gives an answer to how Ventress is still alive, even though in the comics she gets killed off during a mission with Quinlan Vos.

So how is she still alive?

Stay tuned—I’ll spoil that later.

🧒 Cad Bane (aka Colby): Origins

Cad Bane’s story starts with him as a kid—except his name is Colby instead of Cad.

So I wonder how he got the name Cad?

Spoilers: there’s no explanation.

But essentially, Colby and his brother/friend Miro live as street rats.
They’re homeless and have no family.

One day this mysterious figure named Lazlo finds them and wants to recruit them.
He gives them a coin to give them a taste of what can be.

🤠 Who Is Lazlo?

Lazlo is essentially Cad Bane 1.0:

He’s got the cowboy hat
The brown trench coat
He’s chewing on a toothpick

So glad to see that Cad Bane basically ripped his whole look from Lazlo.

No creativity in him whatsoever, I guess.

But who cares—I still really like this bounty hunter.

💘 Enter Aaron

We find out Cad Bane has a love interest named Aaron, who he falls in love with when he joins Lazlo and his team permanently.

Meanwhile, his brother gets arrested by cops.

So the two brothers are separated after the first night they do a job for Lazlo, which involved distracting a store owner that Lazlo kills.

❓ Big Questions

So:

How does Colby become Cad Bane?
How did Ventress survive?
What’s she up to now?

All will be revealed in the spoilers.

🌟 Overall Thoughts

But for now, let’s get the rating out of the way.

Overall, I absolutely loved this show.

Both Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Underworld are great.

So what happened to Tales of the Empire?

No seriously—what the hell happened?

Why did that season turn out horribly and this one didn’t?

But yeah—doesn’t matter.

What matters is I enjoyed seeing Ventress again and I’m glad to see more Cad Bane.

😐 Only Real Complaint

My only issue with this show was Cad Bane’s story arc felt kinda cliché.

By the end of it, his story boils down to:

He gets mad at his friend because they separate and work on different sides
He gets mad that his friend took/saved his girlfriend from him

So this is why Bane becomes the cold-hearted, ruthless bounty hunter?

Because:

His friend took his loved one
His boss he looked up to got killed by the Marshal?

Yeah, I know—spoilers—but Lazlo doesn’t matter.

We clearly knew he wasn’t surviving.

What matters is what happens after, which I’ll get to now.

🎩 The Hat Origin

Also—Cad takes the hat of Lazlo, and that’s how he got his iconic hat.

I do love how his arc is based on old western shows.

😶 Assaj’s Story Feels… Unfinished

Also, Assaj Ventress’s story feels kinda unfinished.

The way it ends feels like it’s setting up more storytelling.

🧪 Rating

So I’ll give this show a solid 8/10.

⚠️Warning: spoilers ahead y’all been warned. ⚠️

💀 How Does Ventress Survive?

Well… it’s through the power of love.

You see, both Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan take her body back to her home planet, and she gets revived.

She’s given the choice:

Join her sisters in the afterlife
Or return to the normal world

She picks to stay in the normal world.

🧒 Meet the Jedi Kid (Again…)

Down the line, she meets a Jedi kid.

Oh great—another Jedi that survived Order 66.

I’m getting sick and tired of Disney taming down Order 66.

🚀 Hidden Path Shenanigans

These three episodes are about Ventress helping the kid get to the Hidden Path.

Spoilers: she gets him there after helping two bounty hunters who end up getting them intel on the location.

Ventress decides not to come with the Jedi kid—she lets him go and leaves on her own…

Except the kid doesn’t enter the ship.
He wants to stay with Ventress.

So off they go.

And this is where her story ends.

🤷‍♂️ Worth Bringing Her Back?

I didn’t care much for it.

Heck—I still don’t think it was fully justified bringing her back from the dead.

These three episodes, plus that one episode in Bad Batch Season 3, didn’t really convince me they needed to bring her back.

Especially the way this ends—it ends like it’s a pilot episode to a new season.

🔫 Now Let’s Talk About Cad Bane

To me, the best arc is Cad Bane.

Let’s continue off where I left off.

So Cad and his girlfriend head back to Bane’s home planet, where they bump into his brother.

Keep in mind—this will be the last time Cad Bane is ever happy.

He sees him and a smile comes over his face.

This will truly be the last time Cad is happy.

Because things spiral down…

🧨 What Happens Next (Quick Notes)

Bane finds out his best friend is now a deputy—completely on the other side
He wants revenge for Lazlo, so he lures out the Marshal by blowing up a building
Bane shoots the Marshal first
The Marshal tries to shoot back but accidentally hits Bane’s girlfriend instead
She tries to get Bane to stop while Niro (the friend) is aiming the Marshal’s gun at him
She takes Bane’s gun out of his hand to stop him from going full dark side
Bane is arrested

💍 Aftermath

Niro marries Bane’s girlfriend, and they have a son.

Yay. Happy ending.

Except… Bane escapes prison early.

He was supposed to be in for 15 years but gets out on a technicality.

Uh oh.

🏙️ The Final Duel

Now Bane is coming for Niro for revenge.

So Niro sends his son away with a cop droid, and he stays to face Bane downtown in front of the station.

He tells Bane that his girlfriend passed away, to which Bane says: “You’re saying the thing I wouldn’t want to hear today.”

Uh oh.

Just then, Niro’s son steps in the way…

But Bane is done. He’s done talking.

They both draw their guns.
Bane shoots first.

👶 The Final Twist

As Niro is dying in his son’s arms, Bane walks up and says:

“You took everything away from me.”

But then Niro drops the bombshell:

“Not everything.”

Turns out—Niro’s son is actually Cad Bane’s son.

Makes sense:

Niro is green
The son is blue
So was Bane’s girlfriend

Last I checked, green + green doesn’t equal blue.
But green + blue? That equals blue.

🥶 Bane’s Fate Sealed

This ruins any chance of Bane having a relationship with his son.

Because the person the kid thought was his dad?
Got killed by his real dad.

Right in front of him.

So Bane sealed his fate.
He’s alone forever.

He just walks off into the sunset.

❓ Why Give Him a Son?

I wonder—what was the point of giving Cad Bane a son?

We never heard about this son before.

And we all know what happens to Bane:

He stays loyal to the Underworld
Becomes the coldest and best bounty hunter
Until his supposed death in The Book of Boba Fett

The less we remember that show the better.

🔁 Thematic Loop

Also—I love that this season continues the message of the first two.

Think of it:

In Tales of the Jedi:
- We follow Ahsoka and Dooku
- Ahsoka lets go and moves on
- Dooku gets consumed by darkness and stays loyal to a Sith Lord
In Tales of the Empire:
- We follow Morgan and Barris
- Barris lets go and moves on
- Morgan stays angry and loyal to the Empire
In Tales of the Underworld:
- We follow Assaj and Bane
- Assaj lets go and moves on
- Bane gets consumed by rage and stays loyal to the Underworld