– Spoiler Review –
When Tales of the Underworld was announced, I had my reservations about Cad Bane as one of the two characters, but I went in with as open a mind as I could. While Cad Bane’s section doesn’t climb the hill of my reservations, certain aspects with other characters piqued my interest.
When I review the Tales series, I split it up between the two characters, giving general thoughts and hammering down on each episode (which I’ll do for Asajj Ventress’), but after sleeping on my thoughts for Cad Bane’s story, I’m going to cover it all together instead.
Everyone has an origin story, but we don’t always need it to better understand a character, and I feel like this was the biggest hill Tales of the Underworld had to climb for me. I’ve enjoyed Cad Bane over the years, his deadly instincts, no-nonsense attitude, and jet boots leaving quite the impression and making him a formidable antagonist, but I’ve never once felt like I needed to know the crucible he faced to become the Duros we see before us in The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, or even The Book of Boba Fett. After seeing his backstory, growing up a street rat and falling into a gang and holding a grudge against a friend, I felt like what we got here made him less interesting and unique, and more like something any other being in the galaxy could experience. I loved how the story wore its inspirations on its sleeves, the biggest being Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade‘s revelations about Indy’s origins, given the way young Bane, known as Colby, ends up inheriting the mannerisms of a mysterious stranger (down to the toothpick and hat) and also choosing his own name, which felt as fun of a way of revealing these details for Bane as in the Indy film.
Yet all the new details, like Bane’s relationship with his street rat friend and his girlfriend who had a kid of his he had no idea about, felt underdeveloped, while his actions towards either character didn’t seem dissimilar to what the Bane we already knew from TCW and TBB would’ve chosen/done. This story therefore didn’t change my feelings towards Bane in any way, as by not developing anything which feels like it has a lasting impact on Bane, only just par for the course moments, watching it felt more like a Wookieepedia page coming to life. With regards to his girlfriend Arin (Dawn-Lyen Gardner), who appears in the second episode, their relationship isn’t explicit and is made to seem like she thinks they are together and he doesn’t, and by only just introducing them with such a frosty relationship and her ‘betrayal’ later in the same episode, it doesn’t land as a big heartbreak for either of them, though the potential she’s having his kid is an obvious implication. For her to die off-screen, of unknown means, and young Issac left unaware of his true parentage, and Bane already much like who we know in TCW and such, him walking away from the child after killing his friend doesn’t read as any big struggle for him, so if this was meant to make us feel bad for him, it doesn’t land.
As for Bane’s friend Niro (voiced by Eric Lopez as a child and Artt Butler in the following two episodes), I found his arc to be far more interesting. Left behind by Bane as he’s captured by the police droids as a child, after they help the hat-wearing stranger Lazlo (Philip Anthony-Rodriguez), Niro ends up becoming an officer himself, trying to clean up the streets and make it place where there’s less violence and kids like him, without homes. He even takes in Arin after Bane’s arrest, with the two later marrying, though context clues suggest this was to provide a cover story for the birth of Bane’s son Issac, and after her death he continues to treat the child as his own until he dies. What made him choose to become a cop after being captured? Did he see the slick gun moves of Lazlo and think how one could use those skills to stop the violence? And how did his time with Arin go, living with someone who’s heart lay elsewhere despite her laying next to him? Did he see Issac as a chance to get things right with Bane, nurture him into someone good? There’s a lot to unpack with Niro’s side of the conflict and while Tales of the Underworld doesn’t dig far into his motivations, nor even Bane’s at times, it left me wanting to learn more about him than Bane, while I felt more for Niro in the end.
I also enjoyed the glimpse of seeing efforts to make the city these episodes take place in a better place, outside of something done by the Republic or the Empire. So often the stories are about how the Jedi Order and/or the Republic coming to a town to help clean it up or the Empire instills order through fascism, so it’s refreshing to see a city take care of itself, trying to be better regardless of who or what is in power. There’s not a lot of direct details on how and why the city is getting better throughout the episodes and it’s rare to see a place iterated on and bettered in such a way, as most places animated shows visit are static, so it did a lot of heavy lifting, seeing its progress via a cute little park with kids running around it, of what Niro’s efforts were able to accomplish. The downside to this thread is how it implies a place can only get better thanks to the presence of a strong police force, yet the abuses and death officers contribute to is an unfortunately well-known statistic most recently launched into the public consciousness with the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests, though the history of which is long, messy, and far too often ignored. I get these are shorter episodes with a narrow focus so there’s probably more going on here than just a good police force making these changes, yet what’s here doesn’t offer any other option so it’s a correlation one can’t avoid but make.
In my opinion, I’d argue had Bane’s episodes focused on the never-finished/cancelled arc of The Clone Wars where Bane partners with a young Boba Fett so he can teach him to be the best…and then he can claim to defeat his biggest reputation rival, Jango Fett, since Boba’s literally a Jango clone, it would’ve done a lot more for the character then going for the origin story. Not only would it tell us more about Bane and what he actually cares about, as well as feature his penchant for a good grudge and need for revenge, it would also add stakes to Bane’s live-action appearance showdown with Boba, which was neat but felt hollow and largely robbed the moment.
Tales of the Underworld attempts to develop Cad Bane’s history into something tragic, yet it ends up detracting from the character rather than adding to him, though I still enjoyed a few aspects of the story and wanted more about his friend Niro.
+ Niro’s choices deserve exploration
+ Seeing the city develop, especially with the density and quality of the animation…
– Felt like it took away from Bane’s mystique, rather than add to his story
– … though it comes with potentially unintentional connotations
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky and Instagram @mynockmanor.