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Ahsoka Primer / Rebels Recap
1.2k Plays1 year ago
The Ghost Crew is making its live action debut during the Ahsoka series, and we took the time to break down all the major moment of Star Wars Rebels! So whether you haven't had the time for a rewatch, or are new to rebels, this is the episode for you! Shout out to Hayley Hobbs from Source Pages: A Reading Collective for breaking down all the episode arcs!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
On another exciting episode of the Animation Deliberation podcast, we are reacting to trailers talking about our favorite gross crew moments and filling you in on all you need to know about Ahsoka. We're going to talk about that much more right after these ads. We have no control over. Sing along if you know the words. It's animation, deliberation, conversation, and a celebration of our favorite action animated series. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:00:31
Speaker
Mailed it! Totally.
Guest Hosts and Star Wars Fandom
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Animation Deliberation, the podcast where we take action animation and cartoon seriously, but not too seriously. I'm your host, Suhara Lee, and joining me today is one of the biggest Rebels fans I know, definitely the biggest Ahsoka fan I know, and a co-host of the Source Pages podcast. Welcome back, Hailey Hubbs. Woohoo! I'm so glad to be here and, like, just you and me casting about Rebels. What could be better?
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, because it's not like we talk about it almost all the time, ever since the first time. We can't help that it's the best Star Wars content out there. True.
Ranking Star Wars Series and Films
00:01:06
Speaker
So with that being said, I'll bring up the conversation. What is your top five Star Wars ever? Like what's your ranking of just Star Wars content? Rebels, Mandalorian, for sure. Gosh, top five?
00:01:24
Speaker
The Force Awakens. Okay. Empire. And maybe Clone Wars. Yeah. Okay. Nice. What's yours? Mine is season two of Rebels. Oh, see, okay, you went specific. I got very specific. The last four episodes of Clone Wars. Showing off. Empire, Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One is my number one.
00:01:55
Speaker
That's solid. I stand by my list. My list changes. So for today's sakes, that's my list. We'll go with it.
Ahsoka Tano's Legacy and Influence
00:02:06
Speaker
And for today's sake, the reason that we're here is because we got a trailer from Disney for Ahsoka, which is airing August 23rd of this year, so about two weeks from the time of this recording. And for a lot of people, their first and only exposure to Ahsoka was the cameo in Mandalorian.
00:02:27
Speaker
And a lot of people don't know much about her. Who is she? Where'd you come from? How long she's been in the franchise? She's got nine seasons in Clone Wars and about two in Rebels. So she's definitely been around for a while. She is an iconic character, Anakin's student. And there's just so many heartfelt moments with her that it's awesome that she has her own show now. But a lot of people haven't made the time or just haven't had the interest in
00:02:53
Speaker
watching the animated content, but we like our loopholes. So if there's animated content affiliated with it, we're going to find a reason to talk Star Wars. Oh, yeah. And it is truly some of the most high quality Star Wars content, all the animated stuff. Well, Clone Wars and Rebels, like without a doubt, hands down. Yeah. And Tales of the Jedi, to be honest. Oh, yes. Oh, I love tales. Oh, that might have been in my top five.
00:03:17
Speaker
It's okay. I stand by my list. That's fair. Ask me later. Depends on the day.
Mandalorian's Impact on Exploring Star Wars Lore
00:03:24
Speaker
After the recording, it'll change. My exposure to Clone Wars and Rebels was actually because of the Mandalorian, because my friend had been telling me for the longest time, watch Clone Wars and Rebels, watch Clone Wars and Rebels.
00:03:40
Speaker
And then when Mandalorian ended, spoilers, spoilers, anything Star Wars at this point. When Mandalorian ended, there was a cut scene of Moff Gideon, you know, cutting out of the TIE Fighter with the Darksaber. And I went, Ooh, what is that? Big mistake. Because my friend Ross was like, I've been telling you to freaking watch Clone Wars. Go start watching it right now.
00:04:03
Speaker
go to your room, turn on the TV, watch Clone Wars. That's so funny though. And that's exactly what I did because that was when they announced the last season of Clone Wars. So I had pressured myself to catch up, so I was able to watch it by then. I think I finished two weeks ahead of when it came out.
00:04:20
Speaker
But it wasn't hard to do because it was such a wonderful show if and I mean that's no secret that I love anime and the fact that a show like this and rebels was able to compartmentalize everything into arcs and have continuing storylines and give you something to want to look forward to and just these stories building up and the character development and of course the action sequences like we are seeing all these
00:04:46
Speaker
scenes that were cut from the prequel trilogy of Star Wars, like, why didn't Lucas keep this in? Why didn't Lucas keep this in? Like, anything that we wanted expanded on is in these shows. This was their time to experiment and establish lore and give character development. And I like that it's gotten enough recognition that Filoni's like, we're giving it a live action pleasure
Dave Filoni's Contributions to Star Wars
00:05:05
Speaker
now. Have I liked it to stay animated? Sure, but we're finally getting Rebel season five and they're just calling it a Soka.
00:05:12
Speaker
Yeah, that was like literally the same journey I had with it, though, because we watched Mandalorian, right? And same thing, it ends. And I'm like, what is that? And then it was COVID. And so I was home all the time. And I was like, well,
00:05:26
Speaker
going online, trying to find things out. It's like, clearly, I just need to watch the Clone Wars animated show. And so I watched it all the way through, probably in a very short time span. I was not that busy at home during COVID. And then I made Nathan watch it, my husband, with me. And then we went right into Rebels, and we both just loved Rebels so much. And I think I've rewatched it three or four times now. We're rewatching it right now.
00:05:51
Speaker
I'm in the middle of my rewatch too. I was hoping I'd have everything done before this recording, but I've rewatched scenes enough that we can make this happen. We can totally make it. I wrote very wonderful descriptions for you. Yes, you did. With that being said, why don't you tell the people about your podcast, what you guys do on there, and what you guys are doing in preparation for Ahsoka? Sure. I'm on Source Pages, a reading collective. I co-host with Ryan V. Klein.
00:06:20
Speaker
premise of our podcast is that we read the source material that is being used for the content coming out in the geeky world. So we've covered everything from Dune to the Book of Boba Fett even. And for Ahsoka, we're going to cover the Ahsoka novel by E.K. Johnston.
00:06:40
Speaker
which they have changed some things from it, but it still lends a lot to her character. And then we'll also be doing our own kind of rebels review primer show. It'll probably be not as in depth as this one, but it will still be a good coverage. So yeah. Yeah.
Source Pages and Expanded Star Wars Lore
00:07:00
Speaker
And I think you informed me today. It seems like PandaVision is going to be covering a soak on a weekly basis and you're going to be on that lovely panel.
00:07:09
Speaker
I am. I'm going to be on there with Ashley Coffin and Jeff Randall. And yeah, we're going to cover that for the network because Star Wars needs to be there.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, I love network interconnectivity. Yeah. So all the primer material from here in source pages, all the weekly action on Pandavision, and then source pages and animation deliberation will be doing a post-season review of the show. And for them, it's standard procedure for us. It's loop, pulse, loop, pulse, loop, pulse. It totally makes sense. I mean, like from Ryan with the Thor show, he'll cover
00:07:45
Speaker
Like I was on his show to cover quantum mania, which doesn't really have Thor in it, other than one little joke, but he finds ways to make connections. So loopholes are the best. So, yeah, I kind of touched on it a little bit at the beginning already about how it's really incredible, the medium of animation with something as vast to Star Wars with so many stories that are able to be told that they had this time to experiment over what, nine seasons?
00:08:14
Speaker
Clone Wars? I think it was seven. A lot of seasons for Clone Wars and four of Rebels. Lots of episodes. And a movie. I think with Clone Wars coming out first, they took a lot of what was working and what wasn't working and put that into Rebels because Rebels really doesn't have that much filler in it. There are some times that feel a little episodic, not as bad as Bad Batch does.
00:08:40
Speaker
But they kind of took what works and doesn't work, and they were able to put so much of the lore and storytelling. As a person who was a fan of the Battlefront II video games, it was really cool seeing the 501st and that perspective starting from
00:08:56
Speaker
the Clone Wars and moving on to the transition to the Empire. So that's why I like Clone Wars so much because you get to see the boots on the ground, the politics, the soldier perspective. You get to connect with a lot of those characters and then Rebels touches more on Jedi lore, which the movie itself really doesn't get into. They kind of drop a couple of nuggets here and there. You just kind of make what you will out of it. So
00:09:21
Speaker
I definitely think that these two shows are very underappreciated. If you guys are listening to this, I highly suggest that you watch it. But if not, we're going to be going down kind of like the key episodes and talking about
00:09:36
Speaker
the things that could be relevant to what happens in the Ahsoka series. But if I do have to leave you with something, watch the last four episodes of Clone Wars. It is a great Ahsoka story. It is lined up perfectly with Revenge of the Sith. You get lots of Maul, you get lots of Mandalorians, you get lots of just tear-jerking action. It's wonderful. It's full of everything Star Wars.
00:10:01
Speaker
Yeah, it is prime, prime, prime Star Wars. And if you have to watch anything before Ahsoka comes out, those four episodes are in. I agree.
Deep Dive into Star Wars Animated Series
00:10:11
Speaker
And then we learned today about a series that came out a few years ago called Star Wars Forces of Destiny. Apparently there's two seasons on it. Apparently it's Ahsoka training Ezra. Probably should have watched it, but we didn't learn about it till today.
00:10:27
Speaker
I'm definitely going to try to watch it before Ahsoka comes out in two weeks, but I thought it was just like a little short or something that popped up on Twitter. It's like, oh, it's two seasons on my cat. Yeah. Web series, right? Yeah. Yeah. 50 some episodes. I think it's all on YouTube. Yeah. So never. Never. There's so much of it that some of it got lost. She's the star right now. Yeah. Rightfully so. She's a badass character. Yes, she is.
00:10:58
Speaker
So with that, we're going to start with Season 1. We're going to talk about episodes 1 and 2, The Spark of the Rebellion. In the first two episodes of Star Wars Rebels, we meet Ezra Bridger, an orphaned force-sensitive preteen who lives on his home planet of Lothal after his parents were captured by the Empire. While out scrounging for some food of the day, Ezra runs into members of the Ghost Crew, a group of different beings, human Cain and Jarrus,
00:11:24
Speaker
Twilight pilot Harrison Dula, her astromech droid Chopper, Mandalorian Sabine Wren, and the Lassat warrior Garazeb Zeb-Orealis, who call Lothal home while taking out small strikes on the planet's Imperial presence and also assisting those suffering under the Empire's rule.
00:11:43
Speaker
After ending up on the cruise ship, the Ghost, Ezra assists them with freeing Wookiee slaves where it is revealed that Kanan is a Jedi. Kanan recognizes Ezra's force sensitivity and he joins the rest of the crew as they continue their fight against the Empire. This was an awesome start to a show. Because, especially when you go in blind.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, you get so much character development in two episodes, the first two episodes of a show. You never get that. You see the maturity of Kanan and Hera, like throughout the series, Hera is even like, all right, kids, make your mom and dad proud. Hera is the best mom. Hera can be my mom.
Character Growth and Dynamics in Rebels
00:12:30
Speaker
So it's not entirely like teenagers learning their way, like the fact that we have
00:12:36
Speaker
Canaan being a jedi who survived execute order and going to the colon wars and throughout the series they expand on that about all of it right here but each of them have their crazy past we learn a lot about like why people like the empire and why some people don't the politics of it all it's just a really really well done first two episodes yeah we see like a crew that's already a family these are
00:13:02
Speaker
people who come from all over or not people beings that come from all over and they are joined in this one cause which is to fight the empire and then they literally run into Ezra and he's all about taking care of himself rightfully so he's been on his own for eight years since he was seven and so all he knows how to do is take care of himself and
00:13:23
Speaker
the character growth for Ezra in these two episodes is if you're only fighting for yourself, you're not going to fight for anything, really. And that's basically what Hera tells him. And so it's really cool to see this 14 year old. I wrote preteen. I guess he's already a teenager. Get these lessons in how big the galaxy is because he's never left Lothal. And oh, maybe I do need to be part of something bigger than my little abandoned comms tower on Lothal. Yeah.
00:13:53
Speaker
I think one of my downsides of Star Wars storytelling is that there's just so many damn planets. Yeah. I wish that they would just say that they're in a galaxy and there's X amount of planets and stick with it. Because the amount of times that they have to mention Lothal and come back and forth and we have this relationship and understanding with like landmarks. I don't think we can do that with any other Star Wars planet except Tatooine. Yeah, Coruscant.
00:14:20
Speaker
little bit of course not so three max and then it's like, you know, the one part of Camino, you know, the one part of Kashi, you know, the one part of Mustafar. So that's one of the things learn because like in the throne books, and at the end of the series, so kind of skipping ahead, but we learn from the throne books about the unknown regions.
00:14:42
Speaker
And so, like, where everything we know about Star Wars takes place is the known region. So it just goes so it's even bigger than we even think. And where we go to like, what, 20 planets? Yeah.
00:14:54
Speaker
Yeah, but there's other shows and stuff where it's like the planet of the day and I'm just kind of like, how many places are here? So I like that Filoni decided to pick places that we actually have an understanding with or found places to build off of in this series. But before I get too carried away with everything else, last point on these first two episodes, Ezra is Aladdin and the ghost crew is definitely like the Robin Hood crew. Yep, absolutely.
00:15:23
Speaker
They were made to be in the Disney canon. Yeah. This was originally a Disney XD show, so all of this tracks. All right.
Ezra Bridger's Trials and Growth
00:15:34
Speaker
Season one, episode 10 is the Path of the Jedi. Kanan and Ezra, now his padawan.
00:15:40
Speaker
make their way to a Jedi temple located on Lothal. Kanan is eager to test both Ezra's potential as a Jedi and his own mettle to be Ezra's master. The two are separated by the force inside the temple and face their own challenges. Guided by Jedi Master Yoda, Ezra confronts his fear of abandonment, which is manifested through visions of the Grand Inquisitor.
00:16:01
Speaker
an agent of Darth Vader who is hunting remaining Jedi and Force-sensitive beings. Ezra and Kanan both pass their tests and Ezra is rewarded with his kyber crystal and builds his own rather unorthodox lightsaber. This was such a cool episode because it's taken stuff that we got from the original trilogy.
00:16:22
Speaker
and was just able to find a way to expand on it and make it something part of Jedi culture and be able to make more around it. Because we saw that part when the Jedi were like a foreign concept and now we're coming back to where it's like there's people who still know the practices. So the fact that they were able to not only have consistency, but have wonderful storytelling that added to like the culture of the show was just fantastic to see. Yeah. And we bring in
00:16:51
Speaker
a fan favorite Yoda to mentor Ezra through this first like force challenge that he goes through really. And it's such a good way to anchor the audience in the episode because everybody knows who Yoda is.
00:17:05
Speaker
Yeah, and his just wisdom throughout it all, because it's not just Ezra's trial, but, you know, Kanan has to basically rot away if Ezra can't get through. So the fact that Kanan's able to recognize Master Yoda and have a lesson in his own with him as well is something that's very heartfelt. And something else that we did talk about in the first two episodes is the way that it ended with Obi-Wan's message.
00:17:32
Speaker
Oh, yeah, the hologram that Canaan played and that's how it kind of like wrapped up that arc and everything. So just just all the praise to Dave Filoni for just understanding what works and being able to build around that instead of making things up like midichlorians. Well, absolutely. I had to fill that job in there once. I hear you. And I love the prequel trilogy. So just want to make sure I add that in there.
00:18:02
Speaker
I love Ezra's lightsaber. So he's, and they kind of talk about it. He, he's fussing around making it and the rest of the ghost crew is like, what's taking so long? And he comes out finally, and it's a lightsaber, but with a blaster, but it's not a blaster. It's like his little slingshot thing, right? Where he can sort of stun people with it that he has in the beginning.
00:18:25
Speaker
And Kanan looks at it, kind of examines it, checks it out. He's like, yeah, it's a little, I think he calls it unorthodox. And Ezra's like, well, I guess that fits us perfectly. Yeah. And then it's like an episode or two later where he starts shooting from it. Yeah. It's like, oh, I didn't think of that.
00:18:43
Speaker
I know, Kanan's like, I want one of those. It's just a great, they do a great job of like, making you want more and I am skipping ahead of myself a little bit, but there's a point where it's like, Kanan has to use his lightsaber and he's like charged again and like shooting and then turning it on and then doing the source, jumping back, the shooting and he was like, Ezra's watching like, why didn't I think of that? He hasn't taught me how to do that. So our training works.
00:19:11
Speaker
I love it. Yeah, we have a couple of teenagers in my Filipino martial arts class that own sparring grade lightsabers. And we've been doing projects where they're watching scenes from Rebels and Clone Wars and live action Star Wars and they're trying to like, reenact some of the fight scenes. So like, I helped them break it down and we use it with the sticks and stuff before they bring in lightsabers. So being able to watch that stuff and break it down and see like the consistencies and fighting styles as the show carries on is just so much fun.
00:19:42
Speaker
Is the Maul Ahsoka duel at the end of the Clone Wars one of them? That hasn't made it there yet because they're struggling with single stick stuff. I mean, one has a staff and he does a really good job of it. So the one with the staff, they've tried doing Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan versus Maul. Yeah. But one of the ones that they wanted me to do, I think it was Vader versus Kanan and Ezra.
00:20:09
Speaker
Oh yeah, that's a good one. They wanted me to be Vader for that. Yes. You have his lightsaber. And speaking of Vader, let's talk about, you know, my, it's on my top five season two of. Yes. Rebels.
Vader's Role in Rebels and Relationship with Ahsoka
00:20:25
Speaker
So we start off with episode one and two, the siege of Lothal just got chills thinking about it. The opening episodes of season two, see the ghost crew and especially Canaan and Ezra hunted by Darth Vader and his inquisitors.
00:20:39
Speaker
which includes an oppressive Imperial presence on Lothal. As the heroes are smuggled off-road by Lando Calrissian, they meet with another rebel cell led by former Jedi Padawan Ahsoka Tano. Ahsoka has been providing intel to various rebel cells under the disguised transmission of Fulcrum. While in aerial combat with Vader and the Empire, Ahsoka feels a presence she hasn't felt in a long time, a very long time.
00:21:08
Speaker
but does not fully know that Darth Vader is her former master, Anakin Skywalker. Though Vader does know now that she lives following the events of Revenge of the Sith. This, I remember when I watched this and remember we were watching it right after the Clone Wars, season seven of Clone Wars hadn't come out yet either. So we didn't have that like going into it. But I was so excited when she comes down the stairs and the first thing you see is her lightsabers swinging from her hips and she's like,
00:21:37
Speaker
My name is Ahsoka Tano and I was like, yeah, Ahsoka's back. We were both so excited because she's just the best. She's the best. And they needed her. They were struggling. They needed Tom Ahsoka. A little bit. Especially because Vader is menacing as ever. Like they actually got. Yeah.
00:21:58
Speaker
James Earl Jones to come back to our prizes role. The music was on point, there's the balance between Tarkin being on screen too. So him just being the bossy dude that he is and Vader just being as savage as he is. Like we don't see people in that scene, right?
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah, he just straight up cuts me. I'm like, this is a kids show. There's a one part where they like accidentally use the, um, what is, what, what do they use when they're like pulling the ships in to the star destroyers? The, the gravity wells. Yeah, but I'm forgetting the word they actually use, but they like accidentally capture Vader and they let him go. Oh, the tractor beam. Yeah. The tractor beam. Thank you.
00:22:45
Speaker
So Ghost Crew gets away and just kind of like, oh, don't worry. Like, we'll be fine. It's not your fault, but Vader doesn't know that. So good luck. And it's like, there's only so much that the original trilogy showed about how menacing Vader is and things like Rogue One and Rebels. And they just, it really amplifies that. Like he is a menace when
00:23:10
Speaker
He put the ambush on the ghost crew in the first two episodes. And the way he walks out of that hallway and you hear his breathing, the last thing you see is a lightsaber before episode one cuts. Yeah. Oh my God. Was that good? Yeah. It's just you get the fear from Canaan and Ezra who can both sense his presence and they're like, it's cold and it's scary and it's dark and you he's at his most savage like at this point. Right. Yeah. Yeah. He's he's a badass. Yeah. And
00:23:38
Speaker
A lot of fans will often look at this from a viewer perspective and be like, Oh, it's only been five to seven years and the Jedi haven't been gone that long. And how do people not remember and how do people not know? And it's like, we just talked about how they keep making up planets. Like this world is huge. It's not like everybody was running into a Jedi all the time. And
00:24:08
Speaker
for all anyone knows, like Anakin could have been a victim of Order 66, like Obi-Wan and Yoda were the only ones that really saw like who he actually was. So to anybody else, it's like, you just had this Emperor Palpatine and then there's you people don't even can't even talk about Vader unless they're stormtroopers, because anybody that Vader sent out to fight is probably dead before they could ever tell the tales about him. Yeah, he's just truly Palpatine's assassin. And
00:24:35
Speaker
You only know him if he's going to kill you or if, I mean, there's the, the rare chances where you get away from him, but he's just his puppet. And so, and plus most of the like Imperial fleet and stuff are, they either think he's like a kook, like he's crazy or because of his, you know, he follows this weird religion or he, they're just scared shitless of him.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, like propaganda really goes a long way because people are rooting for the Empire. They think they have an advantage. They think they have a lead. So it's like, oh, the Emperor says that, you know, we have this guy and the Jedi are dead and we don't have to worry about them anymore. Like, sure. Like, what reason do they have not to believe them? Right. So I think I think a lot of fans just kind of need to like turn off the viewer perspective and just kind of like understand the perspective from the world because it definitely goes a long way when you do.
00:25:29
Speaker
I agree. And the second half of this episode, where Vader being as menacing as ever, he's like, prepare my ship. And it's like, I don't understand. He's like, well, they're about to get fucked up as Vader just said. Well, you'll never understand anything again. So yeah, it's like, it's like, Oh, why does he have a TIE fighter against our whole fleet? It's like, cause he's an Anakin fricking Skywalker. That's why a star pilot in the galaxy. Yep. And
00:25:57
Speaker
Oh, my God. Why did her hair? Excuse me. There is pretty good, but she was even struggling for a while. She was like, yeah, we need to get out of here like now we can not sustain this. The end is chilling to where Vader goes to Palpatine case. He senses Ahsoka's presence and he thinks that Ahsoka is dead until this point. And he goes to Palpatine and he says the apprentice of Anakin Skywalker lives. And they're kind of like, well, now we have to take care of that. And I'm like, I was like thinking she was not going to make it through this series.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yeah. And there's all that dialogue of Anakin Skywalker is dead and Vader is a whole new person and it's it's just a mission. Yeah, I love that they explored that. I want to talk about so much. Let's keep going. Okay. Season two, episodes three and four, The Lost Commanders and Relics of the Old Republic.
Rex's Loyalty and Character Development
00:26:53
Speaker
Knowing the Rebel cells need help, Ahsoka dispatches Kanan, Ezra, Chopper, Sabine, and Zeb to locate her former clone Captain Rex, who now wanders the planet Silos with Commander Wolf and Clone Commando Gregor. Kanan's fear of the clones, who turn on their Jedi generals during Order 66, manifests in anger.
00:27:13
Speaker
Equally mistrusting, Wolf betrays their location to the Empire. Imperial Admiral Constantine and ISB Agent Callus arrive to capture the Ghost crew, but are thwarted by the clone's knowledge of warfare, the terrain, and their eventual trust in each other, the crew and their Jedi, Kanan. Hera picks the new recruits and her crew up, and Rex and Ahsoka are reunited.
00:27:36
Speaker
And it's so cute. Oh my god. Because Rex was her dude. She was like, do we know how old she was when Yoda drops her off in the Clone Wars movie? I mean, she's like,
00:27:51
Speaker
12, right? She's like 13. She's a child soldier. Yeah, it's very not okay. But, you know, Anakin and Obi-Wan are always like, bing-bonging off doing these side missions and side hustles. Go and see Padme, you know what I'm talking about. And so a lot of the time, probably Ahsoka was just left with Rex and with the 501st. And so they were together probably the most.
00:28:19
Speaker
commander Tano even. I know not even a soak commander Tano. The fact that Rex could not stop calling Cain in general. He's like, I'm not a general. It's like, sorry, commander. It's like, he literally was a child too. Yeah. For him, it really was. I don't care how you feel about me because I understand it's tough times, but I'm going to respect you and I have respect for you as a Jedi and you as a person. Yeah.
00:28:45
Speaker
So if Ahsoka saying she needs my help and I'm in the presence of a Jedi, tell me what you need and it's done. And that's why Rex is one of the all time greatest characters to come out of the Star Wars universe because he is just such a fantastic person. Yeah, he's a total gangster. There's so much in Clone Wars that's just like heartfelt stuff. We see him so much in Bad Batch. There could be a whole episode literally just geeking about how amazing Rex is.
00:29:16
Speaker
Do you think we'll see live action Rex? I hope so. I think we will. Because forgive me for forgetting the actor's name. Tamora Morrison. Yes, he has been making little cameos here and there. I love when he was just like the homeless trooper and Obi Wan was it? Yeah. So they could 100% shave his head and give him a little gray beard and have him pop in like
00:29:40
Speaker
I'm not going to be disappointed if they don't, but they have no reason not to either. I totally just need it. Just because. I will cry. I will cry. And because, well, this is all after indoor and stuff. So maybe, maybe not. I don't know. We'll see.
00:29:57
Speaker
Yeah, he might be just like really old at this point. Yeah, he might be dead. He's really old in this. But I love how much they shit on Stormtrooper armors and when the AT-AT walkers come in, it's like, I've only got four legs, how's it gonna stay up?
00:30:15
Speaker
Yeah, they're like living on an old, is that, where are they in the cloud wars? Like a Republic tank. Yeah. And they have like six legs. They're like these weird like giant beetle looking things. Yeah, they're like lower to the ground. Hunting zoopas. Yeah. Jupas. With poor Zeb as bait. It's like they love the taste of it. I think it's a textured thing. It's like, what do you mean textured thing? I love that.
00:30:44
Speaker
I love that they all come together and the scene where they're being hunted by Callus and Constantine, and Constantine's such a tool. But Callus is actually smart. He's not, which is why he's on the Imperial Security Bureau, not just on a Star Destroyer, but. Yeah.
00:30:59
Speaker
you feel because it's like all this wind and this dust storm and it just feels claustrophobic. And it's like, well, I wouldn't know what to do. But those guys know they know they're Celos planet. And I love when they win. Which a fantastic job to the animators for giving us as the audience that sense of claustrophobia. It's like we always assume that the heroes are going to win. But
00:31:22
Speaker
It all comes down to emotion now where it's like, you know, what's going to happen, but you're still sitting there. Like, how are they going to get there? What's the next step? Is it actually going to work? Are they going to get stomped?
00:31:33
Speaker
And of course, they really they really weren't going to make it. That's when they have to rely on Kainan. And Kainan has to have trust in them and in himself to use the force to get them out of the situation. And trying to give Ezra the confidence, like, I think you should go. I was like, nope, we need to do it. You're in this too. Ezra takes the shot. And then the way that Rex gives him the helmet and was like, you're going to need this. And he's just like, man, I want this in my collection, too. Yeah. He's like, this is fantastic.
00:32:01
Speaker
I think this is the first time Kanan tells Ezra about Order 66 because they go into the chips and that's when Rex is eavesdropping. He was like, Yeah, I already I already got mine out. I wasn't part of that. But I understand what you're going through. And then in the first episode of Bad Batch, we actually get to see Kanan live through watching his master die and run away from Hunter. Heart wrenching.
00:32:27
Speaker
enemy that stuff is so good. I don't understand. All right. So that is the extent of my current rewatch. All right. So apologies. We need Canaan to guide us. We're still moving through. That'll be great. I'm with the force forces.
00:32:50
Speaker
Episode 18, Shroud of Darkness, as the Inquisitors continue to hunt Ezra and Kanan, they, along with Ahsoka, take refuge at the Jedi Temple on Lothal in an attempt to find answers and take danger away from their crew. Each of them have a vision. Ezra communes with Yoda, who tells him to find Malachor, a forbidden Sith world. Kanan is confronted by a Coruscant Jedi Temple Guard, who is now the Grand Inquisitor.
00:33:15
Speaker
To beware of Ezra's temptation of the dark side and dubs Kanan the Jedi Knight, Ahsoka grapples with her guilt regarding Order 66 and also understands that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker. As the Inquisitors close in on the temple, visions of temple guards battle the intruders and Kanan, Ahsoka, and Ezra escape. Two things that I want to see on a Future Tales of the Jedi episode.
Inquisitors and Their Role in Star Wars
00:33:43
Speaker
Gran Inquisitor as a Temple Guard. Yes. To see more about Temple Guards, period, because we do not get enough of them. No, and they're cool. And more of the Mandalorian that was a Jedi. The first one? Yeah. Oh, God, we need that so much. Yeah, like how that conversation happened and how he forged to save her and the relationship with the Jedi. And those are two things that are really neat. We definitely need that going into Mando season four. Yes. Give it to us, Filoni.
00:34:12
Speaker
like, you need to give us more tales anyways, because it's one of the greatest, I think it's the greatest animated thing they've ever done. But it is awesome. There are comics about the Grand Inquisitor, like right after the Empire takes hold. And basically, when he was a temple guard, he was always trying to get access to certain records in the temple and Madame Jocasta, like wouldn't let him. And so
00:34:37
Speaker
then he thinks things are going to change now that he's an inquisitor and still Vader won't let him access those records. So he's portrayed as this very grasping, information-hungry character. And we see that, I think,
00:34:53
Speaker
even in this show, he's kind of like that as well. But I like that we see him before. And, you know, we can see what he might have been like as a Jedi, like somebody who did want to protect and did want to warn. And it's really it's really strange and bizarre that Filoni has him dub Canaan a Jedi Knight. And yet it's very fitting that in the way that he's he's hunting them, he's connected to them in that way. And I love that.
00:35:25
Speaker
So what is your understanding of what it Inquisitor is? I mean, based on what I've read or just like, whatever. Because really what it was was they kind of went after
00:35:46
Speaker
They didn't like give people a choice, but they kind of knew who? struggled with their force connection to the light side versus the dark side or people who wavered like Barris Offee comes to mind she would have been a great
00:36:00
Speaker
Inquisitor to be snapped up. The person who bombed the Jedi temple in Coruscant and framed Ahsoka for it. And that's why she left the Jedi Order. There's a quick little lesson on that. Such a good arc. So sad. It genuinely pissed me off, but it was so wonderfully done. Otherwise, you know, they're just, they're just these little slaves to Vader and to Palpatine. They're hunters. Yeah.
00:36:27
Speaker
They're hunters. They're hunting children. They're hunting anybody that's forest sensitive and they're hunting for any knowledge that Palpatine wanted that he didn't have at the temple, which is, you know, we see that later in rebels as well. Yeah. I think Inquisitors was trying to like be a way to work around the rule of two. So it's like they kind of play with the dark side, but they don't hit like
00:36:58
Speaker
the grand possibilities of it, like how the Grand Inquisitor was still denied access to temple archives. Like, yeah, you're on our side, but your leash only goes three feet away. Yeah. Like Grievous was kind of like the first touches in Inquisitor, really, because he was a general and he knew how to use a lightsaber and had some force sensitivity, if not force capabilities.
00:37:28
Speaker
So I think it's one of those things where it's like, the rule of two thing kind of screwed up future storytelling. So it's like, let's just come up with like Sith light. And that's what Inquisitors are.
00:37:43
Speaker
Well, and the reality is that Palpatine doesn't want anybody empowered by him. And he'll do and say whatever he needs to do and say to make you think that you're under his wing. But we see in Return of the Jedi, you know, he very quickly is like, oh, if you kill your dad, you could be my person, Luke. Like, it's all good. Like, he's willing to throw Vader away after Vader has committed all these atrocities on his behalf.
00:38:10
Speaker
Which is exactly what he did for Anakin towards Dooku. Yep. Which another great Tales of the Jedi series that we need to check out. I love all the Dooku stuff. It was top tier. Okay. All right. Possibly the peak of this show, which still says a lot because it's a great show. Yeah, and we're only in season two. Yeah.
Ahsoka vs. Vader: A Climactic Duel
00:38:34
Speaker
The Season 2 finale episodes 21 and 22, Twilight of the Apprentice. The Force-sensitive trio head to Malachor, per Ezra's message from Yoda at the Lothal Temple. While walking through an ancient Sith and Jedi battlefield, they are attacked by a new Inquisitor who is actually hunting Darth Maul. Ezra is separated from Ahsoka and Kanan and encounters Maul, who offers to help Ezra if he will help him. More Inquisitors arrive and alert Darth Vader of the situation.
00:39:03
Speaker
Ezra convinces Kanan and Ahsoka they should all work together with Maul to find a Sith holocron, but Maul betrays them, fighting Ahsoka and blinding Kanan with his lightsaber. Wanting to make Ezra his apprentice, Maul has him unleash the power of the holocron, activating the Sith temple. Kanan manages to throw Maul from the top of the temple, and Ahsoka faces down with her former master, Darth Vader, as Ezra and Kanan remove the Sith holocron and escape the temple.
00:39:31
Speaker
Maul also escapes Malachor. We see Vader limping from the ruins of the temple and a shadowy figure turning back to walk inside. As the Ghost crew reunites, Ezra unlocks the Sith holocron.
00:39:47
Speaker
these are the best. Between Ahsoka and Vader just happened to pop up on my Facebook one day and I was like, what the hell was this? Top five lightsaber battles. Absolutely.
00:40:02
Speaker
We see Ahsoka force run. We see her almost take Vader down until she sees just a glimpse of who she thinks is Anakin still under there. And just breaks my heart every time when she breaks his mask. And you can hear him say, Ahsoka. Like Anakin used to call her and I'm like, it's terrible.
00:40:26
Speaker
There was a beautiful thing that I saw after the Obi-Wan series where Ahsoka was able to break one half of his mask. Obi-Wan was able to break the other side of his mask, but Luke was the only one that was able to fully get Anakin back. And naturally, I burst into tears as I read that. It was so beautiful.
00:40:48
Speaker
Of course, Fellaini is an absolute genius. I think we just have to say that every reading that we do. But at this point, Clone Wars wasn't done. So we never even had the conclusion of Ahsoka and Maul before this came up. So for her to be like, oh, it's you again.
00:41:11
Speaker
So the fact that they were actually able to make that last fight scene with Ahsoka and Maul, again, top five fights in the battle. Oh my god. And to write that and still have it relevant to like everything that happened in this arc was really impressive on their point. I think they have like what, three Inquisitors?
00:41:32
Speaker
versus Ahsoka and Kanan. Because it's the one that's hunting Maul, and then the two who have been after Kanan and Azra the most. Yeah. Yeah. So you have three Inquisitors, two Sith, versus a Padawan, and two Knights.
00:41:48
Speaker
Yeah, and then Vader coming in with his his traumatic entrance. He's flying his freaking TIE fighter. He's standing on top of it. He's using the force to create wind because they're underground.
00:42:03
Speaker
He had it with you in the form of the TIE fighter too. And he's pitch black so he's turned off his like chest panel and stuff because he needs to come back. He's like holding his breath. Yeah. So I'm like he's like willing to kill himself for the theatrical moment that he has in his brain. Like my heart stopped beating but I look awesome. Did that look cool? Like yes it did. Like that should have been Ahsoka's moment of like yep that's my master. Right.
00:42:31
Speaker
Well, she didn't know by then. And she probably was like, Yeah, that reeks of Anakin. I was 90% sure before we're definitely 100 now. Oh, we show button. Hey, Anakin. Yeah. So many iconic things in these two episodes.
00:42:48
Speaker
Yeah, speaking of iconic Kane and losing his vision that was so sad, especially with... Why you do that? Because I was about to say it anyway, so it's like the word eyes dirty, like on the tip of my tongue, where did it go? I'm just like, I'm gonna be awful now. Yeah, this was these two episodes alone, or why season two of Rebels was my top five. Yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
or a surprise to streaming. Whatever it is. Yeah. And if you didn't know about Maul, so we're reintroduced to Darth Maul after he was cut in half by Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace. We're reintroduced to him in The Clone Wars. And he's been just festering and growing stronger in the dark side of the force with his hatred. And he has this obsession, of course, with Obi-Wan Kenobi. And we'll see that come to a head later on in our analysis.
00:43:46
Speaker
Maul and Savage versus Palpatine. Sick. Top Jedi fights. Absolutely. I love when Palpatine unleashes like that. He's just laughing and having a good time just whooping both these guys. Yeah, like not even breaking a sweat.
00:44:06
Speaker
Another reason animation is so good because you don't have any limits of like, oh, the CGI looks cheesy and we need the stunt doubles for this and the main actor can only do X, Y, and Z, but we want them to do the stunts. And it's like, can you imagine how much longer Palpatine versus those five Jedi and Mace Windu should have been? But, you know, Ian McDermott was like, I'm old. I love it. Unlimited acting.
00:44:38
Speaker
Alright, moving on to Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2, Steps into Shadow.
Bendu and Thrawn's Influence in Rebels
00:44:44
Speaker
In the beginning of Season 3, we see a change. Ezra, his hair is shorter and so is his temper. It's been 6 months since the event of Malachor and we learn that Ezra is utilizing the Sith Holocron to set up his strategy and skills. Kanan, still struggling with his blindness, confiscates the Holocron and meets Bendu, an ancient force user who is neither Sith or Jedi.
00:45:04
Speaker
He helps Kanan adjust to his loss of sight, and Kanan leaves the holocron with him, then flies from Rebel base to assist Ezra on his latest mission. Lothal's Imperial Governor, Arinda? Arinda Price requests the 7th Fleet, under the leadership of Grand Admiral Thrawn, as she insists that the Rebel threat needs greater response.
00:45:28
Speaker
I don't know who I love the introduction of more, Bendu or Thrawn, because both of them were phenomenal characters with great dialogue, awesome storytelling. Focusing on Bendu first, we talk about how much the show emphasizes the lore of the Force and the relationship between the Jedi and Sith and with the Force. So for him to be a being that's like, I don't know all this light and dark shit that you're talking about, like,
00:45:57
Speaker
This is just here. This is like a way of life. This is a synergy. This is something that just exists. This is what we exist with. So that perspective and that dialogue between him and Kanan is just amazing. Yeah. I love Ben Do. He's or whatever they are. We don't know.
00:46:19
Speaker
You know, voiced by Tom Baker, who was one of the doctors in Doctor Who and gives us this season three, we get into all the crazy. We start to really delve into Filoni's mind of the force, like you were saying. And he's got some very out there and cool ideas. And we see a lot of them at the end of the show. And Ben do is one of those things. But it's it's you know, he's like, I am not this, I am not this. I am the middle. And he stands very true to that.
00:46:46
Speaker
And Canaan needed somebody to guide him. It doesn't have to be one way or the other. And Canaan was already kind of that way, just given his history and his background. He didn't necessarily hold super fast and true to either light or dark side, in my opinion. But he needed to be reminded of that after going through this traumatic experience with Maul. Yeah.
00:47:10
Speaker
Yeah, he was basically being taught how to use the force and the general concept of the Jedi Order, then it was up to him to just have his own opinion. That's how factions and sects of religions come to be.
00:47:24
Speaker
Yeah. So the fact that he has this Jedi order that he was raised on, but then seeing his padawan edging on the dark side because of his temper and because of what happened, and then him having to need to have his composure to guide Ezra, but needing to have this outlet like Bendu could not have come at a better time for him. Yeah. Bendu was the therapy, the better help that K-9 needed.
00:47:52
Speaker
And which planet are they? Because this is when they like establish a new base that wasn't Lothal. Yeah. This is when they're on Chopper base on the planet Atollon with the creepy spiders. Chopper. Chopper, my favorite little murder droid. Mm hmm. I'm going to definitely see what his body count is in Ahsoka. Yeah. Yeah, I always say he has the personality of a cranky old war vet.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah, they've flown the R2D2 as a dog and chopper as a cat. Even the episode where they meet for the first time, because we get like a 3PO and R2 appearance, he just starts being the shit out of R2. I'm just like, what the heck?
00:48:37
Speaker
Chomper's the worst, but in the best way possible. And you can always understand what he was saying, because Filoni read his lines, and then they just... It's so good. Is that actually what they did? That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. Filoni, you damn genius. And then Thrawn. Yeah. Any questions, Thrawn?
00:49:05
Speaker
Thrawn is sick. Thrawn has the best fleet in the galaxy. Thrawn has the best uniform in the galaxy. Excuse me. Nobody else has a white uniform. One would say that his uniform is very grand.
00:49:22
Speaker
It's what? It's grand. It is grand. His composure and just how calm he is and how perceptive he is and his appreciation for art and where things come from, but still like he's a badass fighter too. It's like it rarely comes down to him actually needing to, you know, flex his moves, but you're not getting by him easy. No.
00:49:46
Speaker
He makes me think he's like the Tom Cruise of Star Wars Rebels because he's very intense, very intentional. And this is supposed to be our main antagonist of the Ahsoka series. It's a big deal that they have him and that Lars Mikkelsen is
00:50:03
Speaker
playing him in live action. So we're getting that continuity with his voice because the voice is what makes Thrawn. And if they don't have the Kevin Kiner organ in the background, they're like, it's so good, which I know he's scoring the show. So I'm super excited about that. I don't know. That's good to know because I cannot skip the end credits ever because that music is just so freaking beautiful.
00:50:27
Speaker
Yeah, no, yeah, Kevin Kiner is doing it. I'm so excited that he gets to do it. And what was the name of the song that we love so much, Twin Moons from season two? That I love so much? Maybe. Well, both of us. The one, oh, you mean like in the last episode? Like when they've come back from Malachor?
00:50:56
Speaker
This is like the end of season two. It's called two of them. They're kind of they do this kind of montage of all the ghost crew members. And the music is amazing. Go check it out every time. It's so, so beautiful. Like they incorporate John Williams so well, but just the own flavor that they add to it. Yeah. Why is this show so good? It just is. It's just the damn best. Shall we move on? Let's do it.
00:51:26
Speaker
Alright. Season 3, episodes 15 and 16, Trials of the Darksaber and Legacy of Mandalore.
Sabine's Journey and Mandalorian Heritage
00:51:33
Speaker
After acquiring the Darksaber from Maul on Dathomir, Kanan encourages Sabine to wield it in order to rally the Mandalorians into the ranks of the Rebel Alliance. Reluctantly, Sabine agrees to be trained by Kanan. After some frustration and eventual reconciliation, Sabine begins to open up to the Ghost crew in a way she never has.
00:51:54
Speaker
expressing her guilt about the weapons she designed during her time at the Imperial Academy and how the Empire used them against Mandalore. Sabine, Kanan, Ezra, and Mandalorian pilot Finn Rao make their way to Cronest to meet with her estranged family. After initial hostilities, Sabine's mother, Ursa, urges her daughter to sell out Kanan and Ezra to the Empire. Mandalore Imperial Governor Gar Saxon arrives and Sabine engages him in a duel.
00:52:21
Speaker
which she wins, but is stunned when Ursa shoots Saxon as he tries to kill Sabine with her back turned. Knowing this will cause an uproar, Sabine and Rao stay behind to assist her people.
00:52:32
Speaker
So the training scene of Sabine and Canaan was the first thing that those teenagers tried to do the choreography for. And I was sitting on the right because we finished class. So it's like I had I shouldn't be doing this as a teacher, but I was trying to get them to like stop thinking about what they did in class and focus more on like a whole other fighting style, which is what they're doing in here.
00:52:57
Speaker
So I'm like sitting in the corner like watching the video frame by frame and like showing them like how they're supposed to do it and correcting their movements and stuff. It was such a fun time. We killed like an hour and a half after class like just doing that. So you were like the Hera who comes in and says stop letting her with you know practice with these stupid sticks give her the sword and really do it. And I was like keep using the sticks. No I don't use the soft sticks. We still have lightsabers thankfully.
00:53:24
Speaker
Yeah. Cause those, uh, cause we had like the aluminum trainers too. So it's like, those are heavy. Let's stick with the soft sticks. Isn't that the class going on? So we're going to see Sabine and Ahsoka. And so it's important to get a little bit of background on her before you, before you see live action Sabine and she's got a complicated little history. Yeah. There was a lot that I definitely wanted to say before because she's by far one of my favorite characters. Um, but.
00:53:49
Speaker
there was a lot that was going on in terms of her learning how to use the saber and the relationship of the Mandalorian culture, which we've seen a lot of in Mandalorian, but obviously it was born from Clone Wars and expanded upon in Rebels. Like all of that story up until Mandalorian season three is all related. It's all connected. It's one thing after the other, which is why I need that Tales of the Jedi episode that shows the start of this all because there's so much family political drama
00:54:19
Speaker
I agree. But the fact that Kanan is struggling so much with Ezra, that it's kind of like, I'm just going to transition over to Sabine. And, you know, hopefully it works out from there. But I geeked out in the trailer when Sabine runs into Ahsoka and calls her master. I was like, I need a lot of.
00:54:42
Speaker
Yeah, well, Sabine, well, at this point, Ezra is doing a lot better, right? He's far more skilled in the forest and in his own saber training. And he kind of thinks he's got one up on Sabine and she, you know, shows him after Finn Rao brings her some special gadgets that the Mandalorians developed to fight the Jedi. And he's like, hey, that's not fair. And King's like, well, shit, dude, life's not fair, basically. But we find out that Sabine
00:55:12
Speaker
created a weapon while she was a cadet at the Imperial Academy that targets the best scar in Mandalorian armor and basically disintegrates it and whatever it's being worn by. And so the Empire used that against Mandalorian. That's part of why she she has all this guilt. I can't remember if they've done it yet.
00:55:36
Speaker
or if this was something I found online, but it was basically a Disney plus playlist of Mandalorian related episodes. Oh, yeah, I think they have. I think a lot of season three of this. Yeah, we get so much Mandalorian stuff and it's all really good. We meet like all of her family. Her mom's a badass. I love her. So she's kind of crazy, but I love her. Yeah, I don't know if I have.
00:56:03
Speaker
too much more to add on this arc, but there was just a lot of sick action and in Sabine fashion, a lot of explosions. Yes, she loves to blow shit up. I don't think it was until this season that I realized that the mark that she created was what ended up being the rebels logo.
00:56:26
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So cool. Needing to like buy that sticker to like put it on my bottles and stuff from Redbubble. But the fact that I mean, we talked about in season two how there was like these rebel cells and the concept of the rebellion as a whole hadn't been yet. It's just these small little factions of people who don't like the Empire. So this show really is the birth of like everything coming together, which leads up to like what Luke joins one
Formation of the Rebel Alliance
00:56:53
Speaker
day, which is what? Yeah. Seven years later from here.
00:56:57
Speaker
Oh, I'm gonna say the wrong number if I try to guess. It's like five or seven years, something like that. Yeah, we even see Mon Mothma in this series. We see her being taken to the Rebel Alliance to start really bringing everybody together. So lots of cool name dropping.
00:57:16
Speaker
Alright, so we got two more arcs for season three and two more for season four. So episode 20, Twin Suns. Ezra suffers a vision of... I'm sorry, I forgot that I just went...
00:57:31
Speaker
I'm just like, I want to do a twin's lungs. I'm just kidding. Do you want to? No, I can't wait to talk about it. Okay. Ezra suffers a vision of Maul hunting Obi Wan Kenobi on Tatooine. The rest of the crew refuses to help him as they prepare for the siege of Lothal. So Ezra leaves with Chopper to follow through on his mission. After their ship is destroyed, they wander aimlessly through the desert until Chopper runs out of power and Ezra passes out. Still haunted by visions of Maul.
00:57:59
Speaker
Obi-Wan finds and rescues Ezra and Chopper. Ezra attempts to warn him of his vision and asks for his help with the Rebel Alliance. Obi-Wan refuses, saying the Rebels have everything they need and knows of his inevitable confrontation with Maul, who appears after Ezra and Chopper are sent on their way safely. Obi-Wan defeats Maul, a decades-long quest for revenge now over. Kenobi reveals that he is watching over the chosen one, Luke Skywalker, and Maul's last words are, he will avenge us.
00:58:30
Speaker
Okay, so the first thing you have to do after you listen to this episode is Google Sam Witwer talking about the duel in Twin Suns because it is the most ridiculously amazing description of this.
Maul's Final Confrontation with Kenobi
00:58:44
Speaker
It's very short, like Kenobi kills Maul in like three seconds because he's prepared. He's like, I've been waiting. And but like the way that Sam Witwer who voices Darth Maul, by the way, in the Clone Wars and Rebels,
00:58:59
Speaker
describes it is just like PhD level amazing. So go do that. But this this episode is so tragic.
00:59:08
Speaker
Maul is, he's like so desperate. He's always been this way since we meet him again in the Clone Wars and his desperation is only to find Obi-Wan Kenobi and kill him because he cut him in half. I mean, it's understandable to a point. And he gets there and he's like, you know, look at you, you're like a rat in the desert. What are you doing in this hole? And he's just trying to goad Kenobi and Kenobi's
00:59:32
Speaker
old Kenobi at this point. He's like, yeah, bring it on, Maul. And so he's shocked when Obi-Wan defeats him. And Obi-Wan cradles him the way he cradled Qui-Gon, the way he cradled Sabine in the Clone Wars when she dies. And he just holds him. And
00:59:53
Speaker
you know, mall is like, Oh, he's figured out what Obi Wan's on Tatooine for. And he's like, Oh, okay. Like he kind of fruit. They forgive each other. It's so beautiful. Yeah. And I don't know if like what I'm about to mention is from the article that you talked about.
01:00:13
Speaker
but there was this breakdown of his movements and everything too. He starts off in his typical stance of his hand forward and the blade back, and then he switches into Qui-Gon's stance because he's baiting Maul into a vulnerable position. I think it's like three slashes, if anything. It's like block, block, slash, slash, and then he's dead.
01:00:35
Speaker
So the first time I saw it, again, I hadn't seen Rebels at this point. I was just scrolling through Facebook. I will have to say that I was like a little disappointed because it was so quick. Right. But then like once you watch the show and appreciate it and just have an understanding for just how big all of this was, like literally decades led up to this.
01:00:56
Speaker
And the fact that, you know, Obi-Wan and all of his skill and wisdom was just kind of like, and after watching the series now, too, I think the weight of this episode has definitely been amplified of just how aware Obi-Wan is and how understanding of everything he is. And it's like, he knows his his place in this world now. And this encounter through the Obi-Wan series has definitely gotten him here.
01:01:24
Speaker
So it was just, it wasn't heavy. There was a part of me that was just like the obsessive fan that I was like, man, Obi-Wan should have joined. Like maybe this could have ended things quicker. Why didn't he meet up with Ahsoka? Why didn't he train Ezra? Like all this stuff. It's like, I want this to happen. But it's like there was a reason for it all. And he was aware of what he needed to do.
01:01:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yes, you're right. That is the video that I was talking about where he starts in his clone wars, you know, aggressive, and then he goes to Qui-Gon and then he settles into the Allie Guinness pose at the end. It's the best. So there's a little teaser, but definitely. Watch Sam where we're talking about it though. He's a huge Star Wars nerd. All righty. You ready to move on? Let's do it.
01:02:14
Speaker
Episodes 21 and 22 of season 3, Zero Hour. Rebel cells begin to gather at their base on Avalon to prepare for the attack on Lothal.
Thrawn's Strategic Challenges
01:02:23
Speaker
Thrawn, aware of their battle plan, has a trap ready to spring. Agent Calus, who has taken on the role of Fulcrum, attempts to warn the Rebels, but his message is intercepted and he is captured by Thrawn.
01:02:35
Speaker
During the battle, Ezra escapes to get assistance from Sabine and the Mandalorians. On Adalon, Kanan asks Bendu for help, but the being refuses and Kanan accuses them of cowardice. Bendu angrily disappears. After aerial bombardment, Thrawn deploys a ground-force assault. Bendu intervenes at the same time Ezra, Sabine, and the Mandalorians make a dent in the aerial assault. The remaining rebels rendezvous at Yavin IV.
01:03:02
Speaker
Oh my god, Bendu getting mad, just disappearing into the sky. And then going full Zeus with his lightning, I was like...
01:03:13
Speaker
And Thrawn being so terrified and taken aback and unsure, the most sure admiral in Palpatine's fleet. And he's like, what the F is this thing? And he's like, my favorite thing is when he shoots up into it. Yeah. Like shooting the shooting of the ship with his pistol on the carrier. It's not gonna do anything, but I appreciate the effort.
01:03:38
Speaker
Like listen, if you have not watched Rebels, I cannot stress enough how composed of a character Admiral Thrawn is. So for him to show anything more than a smirk is you know he is terrified.
01:03:54
Speaker
Yes, and just just lost and he doesn't his whole thing is strategy and planning and knowing what his enemy is going to do for steps before even they do and this been do thing and the force he doesn't understand the force. You know, it just it takes him by complete surprise. And he's like, well, I guess we got to start figuring that kind of thing out to now.
01:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, that was an insane battle
Sacrifices and Losses in Rebels
01:04:20
Speaker
sequence. It was just so much emotion and intensity. Like keep an eye on your heart rate as you're watching this one if you're like, if you get invested in content like I do. Well, and the rebels take a huge hit, they lose a lot of their people and they lose. You have to retreat to go to Yavin. So yeah, it's intense.
01:04:40
Speaker
I'm not ready to read this one. I'm sorry that you have to. All right. We got two more left for season four. Three. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. Oh, okay. Scrolling, scrolling, scroll. We're almost done. Not scroll, scroll. Scroll to scrolls. Season four, episodes 10 and 11, Jedi Knight and Doom.
01:05:09
Speaker
On Lothal, Hera has been captured and tortured by Governor Price. Ezra, Kanan, and Sabine hatch a plane to extract her. Kanan gets Hera, while Ezra and Sabine secure a gunship escape craft. While Kanan and Hera wait to be picked up in the field depot, Price orders her troops to blow it up. Ezra and Sabine rescue Hera, but Kanan is left as the only barrier between the explosion and his friends.
01:05:36
Speaker
With one last give, the Force allows him to see Hera before the explosion envelops him. Governor Price covers up her blunder with the victory parade while the Ghost Crew mourns the loss of their Jedi. Aloth Wolf communes with Ezra and tells him to go back to the Jedi Temple on the planet.
01:05:58
Speaker
This makes me cry so hard every time. I'm not okay just reading that. It's because it's awful. Because it sucks. That was one it's like, I was in absolute shock. Watching him trying to hold back this explosion when the episode ended like I'd sort of turn off the TV and just like have a quiet moment to myself because everything was just so perfectly done. Yeah.
01:06:27
Speaker
They hurt us. They hurt us real good. And it's special though. I mean, we, we see what amazes me about Cain and as like we've said, he, he lost his master during order 66 and he's still a child. He's probably maybe a Soka's age when we first see her. Maybe he looks a little younger. And so he's a very,
01:06:52
Speaker
potent Jedi to have not been trained as long as he should have been. And to be at this point, this ultimate sacrifice, he's holding back this incredible force. And he's holding the ghost crew back as well. He pushes them back with the force to save them. And he becomes the embodiment of what a Jedi should be, which is to save and to sacrifice. And it's amazing. Also, loath wolves are cool.
01:07:22
Speaker
So cool. I can't wait to see that in live action. Ooh, you can be well. Them and the cats. Oh, I love the little loaf cats. They're so cute. They wear teeth, like human teeth. It's gross, but it's cute. Yes, we miss our friend Kanan.
01:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, and every time, like they keep dropping him in other animated series. So, in Tales of the Jedi, he's sitting on the bleachers while Ahsoka's taking her test. In Bad Batch, like we mentioned, we see Execute Order 66 and how his master dies and him running away from Hunter.
01:08:01
Speaker
So it's beautiful how they continue to honor him. And I will cry when they name drop him in the series because I'm sure they will. Yeah. And we should give lots of props to Freddie Prinze Jr. who voiced him in the show and did a amazing job. And my I got goosebumps and the rise of Skywalker when I heard Canaan's voice in that monologue to Ray at the end.
01:08:29
Speaker
And he gets the last words that are in the heart of a Jedi lies her strength. I'm going to cry. I see you watering up a little bit. It's so damn good. And we can reveal now that his real name is Caleb Doom. And that's why the episode is called Doom. Shall we move on? Let's. All right. Episodes 12 and 13 from season four.
01:08:59
Speaker
wolves, and a door, sorry, wolves and a door, and a world between worlds.
The World Between Worlds and Its Impact
01:09:05
Speaker
The crew, aided by the Loth Wolves, discover the Imperial's mistake to claim on the temple. A team led by Imperial Minister Haydn are attempting to unlock the temple's secrets. Ezra and Sabine decode a mural featuring the Mortis Gods, and Ezra uses the Force to unlock a secret door.
01:09:21
Speaker
just as he escapes into the temple Sabine is captured by the Empire for questioning. Ezra wanders a void between space and time until he finds the scene of Ahsoka's battle with Vader on Malachor. Before Vader can deliver a killing blow, Ezra pulls Ahsoka into the void with him, changing her fate.
01:09:39
Speaker
However, Emperor Palpatine locates them and attempts to capture them both. Ezra and Ahsoka escape through different portals and he closes the doorway. The temple collapses as Hera, Sabine, Ezra, Zeb, and Chopper escape. Ezra receives closure knowing that if he had tried to alter Kanan's fate, he and his friends would have perished too. So, you sent me an article today.
01:10:05
Speaker
that both of us laughed. You were mad at it. I was laughing at it. It was stupid. But I will say because of my burnout with time travel and multiverse and all that stuff, that was one part that was kind of like, like if this show is in eight, I think that scene kind of brought me down to like,
01:10:35
Speaker
Six if anything just showing that it's still great because they were quick with it They wrapped it up and it's something that Star Wars hasn't revisited and I'm hoping they don't
01:10:47
Speaker
But time travel stuff is just kind of like a little bit of a cop out, but it was cool to see how Zoko survives. But it is followed up with an incredible scene of Palpatine talking to Ezra and how he comes up as the nice old Emperor Senator Palpatine that we knew from the prequel series and then how he changes into
01:11:10
Speaker
Palpatine and just his anger and destroying everything and just like he's trying to like You know for him into joining into the dark side and then it just goes like berserk when he declines So those just really really really that was like if the show is at 8
01:11:26
Speaker
And that brought me down to a six. That shot me all the way back to like a nine or ten. So the world between world stuff and Brian had brought this up to those of the guests we're going to have on our show about how that's a big contentious point with Star Wars fans. And I was like, I actually never even thought about it. Like I never thought that it would be used or abused in a way to
01:11:50
Speaker
to rewrite stuff from the past. And I don't think with Dave Filodi at the helm, who is an absolute acolyte of George Lucas, I don't think it's gonna happen. I think it's gonna be like the threat of it existing is always maybe going to be something unsavory people are trying to access, but they can't kind of a thing. Like I think that might be part of the Ahsoka show, like
01:12:16
Speaker
Bailin and Shin are trying to access it Ahsoka is keeping them away from it. You know, who knows maybe not but Yeah, I had just never even thought of it like as being a bad thing. Yeah Now it really is just a result of my burnout that I was just like I didn't think like I said, like the show was great no matter what but that was probably just like a small low point for me because it was like so that's how Ahsoka escapes and
01:12:42
Speaker
But the fact that they even, like you mentioned this in your write up, that they brought up, it's like Ezra doesn't go to save Kanan because there's consequences to that. So that kind of adds to what you were saying about Ahsoka protecting this from the antagonist, that they understand and they've mentioned that like they don't even use this because if X, Y, and Z were to change, like,
01:13:09
Speaker
who knows what could happen. So I do like that this is something that they're just like, okay, we used it once. We are staying away from this. We are not allow anybody else to do it. We will never revisit it ourselves. So at least I can say because she's a Dave Filoni character. Yeah.
01:13:25
Speaker
And you were even worried that it was like... Right. Yeah, Ahsoka might die throughout the series. And it's like, okay, we still have her. I'm not 1000% happy with how they did it, but she's back. Yeah. And they're not going to retouch this again. And we're all okay. But it is cool. So back to our Twilight of the Apprentice breakdown. And then we say there's a shadowy figure walking back into the temple. That's Ahsoka going back through the portal after Ezra saved her. And I think that's cool.
01:13:54
Speaker
Yeah, they just knew all along. It was part of the plane. It wasn't a cop out. It was Ezra all along. But yeah, this is more of that Filoni weird.
Ezra's Sacrifice and the Series Finale
01:14:06
Speaker
We see weird like force magic stuff with Palpatine as he's chasing them through the world between worlds and we see
01:14:14
Speaker
that there's this space that exists. We hear lots of different Jedi from the past. We even hear stuff from the sequel trilogy. Like we hear lines of dialogue from those movies. So it's very cool. And it looks cool. Yeah, it's aesthetically very pleasing. Oh, yes. It has a different look. It's almost like it. It has like that Tron look and then Ezra and Ahsoka kind of look very out of place there, but that makes sense.
01:14:42
Speaker
Yeah, they really were just like animators, have fun. And they delivered. As they typically do in these series. All right. Episodes 15 and 16, Reunion and Farewell. The Rebels enact the final attack, Governor Price's, Governor Price in tow on the Imperial presence in Lothal City. They plan to launch the command center into space to self-destruct.
01:15:06
Speaker
Thrawn is alerted in positions to Star Destroyer over the city. Given an ultimatum, Ezra surrenders himself to Thrawn to keep him from bombarding Lothal. Palpatine tempts Ezra to join him with the promise of reviving his parents. Ezra refuses and traps him on the Star Destroyer with Thrawn. Rebel pilot Mart arrives with the purgill?
01:15:33
Speaker
with the Pergill per Ezra's instructions, which envelops the ship that has Thrawn and Ezra on it and drags them into hyperspace. The rebels succeed in freeing Lothal from the clutches of the Empire. Five years pass and the Battle of Endor secures the Empire's defeat for good. The Ghost crew goes their separate ways, but we see Sabine team up with Ahsoka to search for Ezra leaving behind only a mural depicting the Ghost crew on Lothal.
01:16:04
Speaker
And this is where Ahsoka the series picks up. Yep. And it's going to be awesome. But we have a big sacrifice play from Ezra. Yeah.
01:16:13
Speaker
He takes a big one for the team and it's really that part makes me cry too. So they're all in the dome that they're planning to launch into space, right? And Ezra has known all along that this is going to be what happens and he's been like whispering instructions to Chopper. He gives him his lightsaber, his new lightsaber because his old crazy one got destroyed and
01:16:35
Speaker
Sabine sees all this. And they just have this kind of relationship now where she understands what he needs to do. And so she lets him go. She distracts everybody else while he leaves. And it makes me cry because it's like you're allowing your friend to go to what you are pretty sure is death or a fate worse than that. But that's how committed these people are to their mission, to their
01:17:04
Speaker
their plan for freeing themselves from the Empire. And it's, it's very noble. Yeah. Especially after just losing Canaan, but like the love that he has for his home and the rebellion. And we see so much of Sabine's past and why she's doing what she's doing. Uh, I was low key hoping to see her in Mandalorian when they retook Mandalore, but it's okay. Um, maybe she'll get to visit or, you know, maybe we'll see her next season. Yeah.
01:17:35
Speaker
just a lot of great storytelling. And the article that you hate was even talking about it. It's like, oh, it's so dumb how they kept it loose-headed. It's like, well, we're getting the Ahsoka series because of it. Screw that article. It's the worst. It's a screen-ran article, y'all. Go look at it.
01:17:53
Speaker
write some hateful comment on it. It's just terrible. But it was just such an interesting thing to bring up where it's like series, a lot of series do not know how to wrap up a show. And with Star Wars being an ever growing
01:18:09
Speaker
universe, it made sense for them to have the ability to just work with this whenever they felt like it. Like if they never touched any Rebels characters again, they would have wrapped it up just fine. Yeah, and we had the opportunity to still play
Legacy and Continuation of Rebels Characters
01:18:23
Speaker
with them. Like the fact that we saw Zeb show up in a Mandalorian episode and Chopper has popped up before and the ghost has been in what, Rogue One? Yeah, and the Rise of Skywalker.
01:18:39
Speaker
and the Rise of Skywalker, I think there was like one more. They called Hera's name out in Rogue One as well. Yeah. So the fact that they're able to like play with stuff like that and have those options, like they did a fantastic job at wrapping up that series and so did Clone Wars.
01:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, there's no loose ends. Not really. Like, if you tell yourself that Thrawn and Ezra are in the Unknown Regions, which is where we assume they are, that's where they are. And they either died or they killed each other or, you know, maybe not. We don't know. And it's okay. Like, it was his point was to go and do that very thing. So he's, he's good. Right. And then, yeah, I mean, Sabine stays there to see everything through.
01:19:22
Speaker
We should mention though that Ezra leaves a message for Sabine and it says, come find me. I trust you to see this through and then I trust you to come find me. So he does have a plan. I don't know. That's such a stupid thing to say. That's the hologram that's in the trailer for the series too, right?
01:19:44
Speaker
because Ezra kind of pops up for a second yeah but he's saying the thing about being a Jedi well I don't know that's a good question I don't I think they're different messages okay but they might not be I could be wrong somebody will I'm sure let us know yes
01:20:02
Speaker
All in all, fantastic series, loved every second of it. Great storytelling, great comedy, great character development, fantastic fight scenes, incredible music. I cannot speak enough phrases of just how great these four seasons are. Yeah, it's a 10 out of 10 every single time I watch it. Yeah.
01:20:25
Speaker
We got two weeks. Hopefully I can finish my catch up and check out this other show that we didn't know existed. That there's two seasons of Ahsoka training Ezra. Like, yeah, I kind of want to see that. Which I love that. Like that explains how he got so good, not just from Canaan, but from Ahsoka who was trained by two of the best Jedi ever. Yeah. Ahsoka is such a badass. Any final remarks?
01:20:54
Speaker
I just hope people enjoyed this. And if you felt daunted by watching the show, hopefully this educates you a little bit. Yeah. And you have the episodes that you should watch if you don't want to watch every single one. But we highly suggest that you do watch them because they're great. And we hope that you guys watch Ahsoka and write in. I'm not even asking, Hailey, you're coming back for when we do our Ahsoka recap episode so that we can talk about
Engaging with the Star Wars Fanbase
01:21:24
Speaker
All of this and connections right into the show because we will have Any reason to talk Star Wars that we guys like on a Soga overload and I'm not sad about it It is a it is a difficult fan base to be a part of so to find the people who can just sit back and enjoy the content that we get and
01:21:47
Speaker
you know, be able to appreciate this universe and storytelling for what it is, is always a blessing. So I appreciate you greatly. I appreciate you. And I love that we can geek out over all the same Star Wars stuff.
01:22:05
Speaker
August 23rd, please send in your feedback animation deliberation podcast at gmail.com sliding our DMS on any of the social medias and We'll be looking forward to hearing from you guys and talking more Star Wars with the fans as well So be sure to tune in next time that's t 00 and I end and as always stay whelmed. I am no Jedi
01:22:30
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email AnimationDeliberationPodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at AnimationDelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash spchat. Tune in next time and remember, stay well.