Star Wars: Rebels

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"You will lead, this has to be your plan," Kanaan - Grey Master

Spoiler: S04E10-11 Jedi Knight

This is huge step away Anakin's example or even Obi-wan's. Kanaan laid his complete trust upon his apprentice. It is almost if he reached the zen with the Force at the end as he saw clearly that he wasn't going to make it. In other words I think the Grey Master tried to alter the future when he entrusted everything to Ezra.

But to be honest, Kanaan also has a confidence that his apprentice, his follower, his friend and battle-brother can do miracles. There hasn't been one incident, or a couple when Ezra has pulled a rabbit out from his hat... er, "loaned stormtrooper helmet." He simply is a miracle maker, but we never call him that. Maybe in the past Force users were called miracle mans or magicians.

If you compare Kanan's vision against Grand Admiral cold hard logic, sometimes Thrawn wins the game because he forces the odds on taking out the pieces from the board. Pieces like Kanan. So to counter that walking computer, I believe it was a logical choice to choose Ezra, as that boy has a perfect tactical mindset and he isn't afraid to do improvisation on fly.

I believe the production team might have even tested this for real and there might be some footage about it in the Disney archives. But as a method it has been proven to work for countless of times. In the SW universe paragliding is part of the lost arts as the technology has replace wings in many places.

They even blend it to the Imperium architecture. If it hadn't been for that latest incarnation of Imperial Inquisitors - the dome headed tracker - the could had actually worked as the actual op was short and well executed. They could have got away and not alerted Lothal's Imperial regiment.

This is the most sad moment in the SW Rebels history. For over four years they teased us about the romance and it ended with Mother being sent away, leaving Ezra without a guidance or a master. As a knightly duty, this is a perfect example of heroism. And it speaks so much about love.

It makes us do silly things. And most wonderful things.

If Grand Adm. Thrawn would had know that the night he departed to see the Emperor he was going to achieve a great victory I believe he would have stayed at Lothal. Maybe even made an excuse. So I guess we are lucky that dark force user cannot see into the future.

It is reserved to Grey and Jedi alone.

So Grand Admiral didn't see the future as he used his experience and logic to calculate that the rebels were going to hit most likely the parade. What he didn't see was that the rebels were smarter, but not as informed that Kanan's sacrifice had completed the mission and he was about to lose that dome headed inquisitor.

We are only lucky that Zep isn't a member of wookies race as we might had seen dismembered of some limbs like Han Solo described the incident of making a wookie mad.

 

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Spoiler: S04E12-13 Wolves and the Door

I feel for Ezra a great deal for losing his master. Obi-Wan lost his master, but he was immediately given a status of Master. In canon history there hasn't been a situation were the master has gone and left the apprentice in dark. So, I'm only glad that Dume has taken the boy wonder in his pack.

I bet most of the people who saw the Last Knight and don't follow Rebels has no idea about the direction the movie universe is taking. I believe we are going to see more Force Creatures and Force Spirits like the ones rebels encountered in the tunnel leading back the Jedi Temple.

It is a mystery to me why the Emperor or Sith for that matter didn't had Force Familiars like Ezra's LothWolves. Then again it is a mystery to me that he sees a need to dig into the Jedi history and try to find their lost artefacts, when he trust so much to technology. Jedi or Grey weren't really magnificent technology builders in the past as other races had done it for them. For all their existence, they have been the guardians of the Light, so find the Darth Sidious exploring Jedi temple at Lothal, while he expect Thrawn to pop in for afternoon tea is most intriguing, and it makes me wonder if Grand Admiral knew anything about it.

In the last episode I said that the Sith cannot see the future, they can only sense the force reflections or disturbances in the Force balance. So, in a way, they aren't completely blind, just anchored firmly into the present. Therefore the question becomes did he knew about the Jedi Temple's secret, when he sent Lord Hyden to investigate the zone.

Note the grey master in the middle. We have seen the other light and the dark side in the Clone Wars, but never encountered the Grey Lord. Therefore, the question becomes, once the Emperor saw the partial results from the dig site, did Darth Sideous knew that he'd found the lost chamber that allow the user to time travel?

If the Sith could control the past, the present and the future, would the universe seize to exist? Maybe as their temple is dedicated to the chaos and destruction.

"He who controls it, controls the universe!" - Lord Hyden

Ezra saved Ashoka from the Sith Temple and he immediately altered the past, where we saw her limping into the Sith underworld. The most intriguing this is that Ashoka's Force Familiar summoned Ezra to act at the Sith Temple Gateway. Did it knew that Ezra was going to come to save her as the time flows in all directions at that place?

I suspect Ezra is now the Gateway's Guardian and he can summon the place through his familiars, the Loth Wolves and Dume. Which leaves the question of how Darth Sideous knew how to project himself into that temple?

<3 Disney and Filoni.

 

[Rodders]

Isn’t this going to Ben the last series? Definitely one to get as a box set and power disc my way though. (I still have the Clone Wars to watch.)

 

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Isn’t this going to be the last series?

Yeah, this is the final season. Dave Filoni and his team has been cooking a new series at the background. That is the most I know about it.

 

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Spoiler

bringing back Ahsoka just to inevitably kill her in the finale was cruel!

I'm not so sure they will kill Ashoka as she has been a long time in the series and she might be a connecting piece between Filoni's products. I'd like to see Rebels gang more in the future, even if they're just side-characters. I'm suspecting that Chopper is going to sacrifice itself to save others.

 

[night_wrtr]

These last few episodes have been amazing. I can't imagine what they have planned for this finale.

 

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I can't imagine what they have planned for this finale.

Sadness and great things if the Clone Wars is looked as an example. The Emperor is most likely to be the main villain and I'm sure we'll see some sort of conclusion to Thrawn saga as well, but I don't think they're going to kill him off completely.

 

[night_wrtr]

Sadness and great things if the Clone Wars is looked as an example. The Emperor is most likely to be the main villain and I'm sure we'll see some sort of conclusion to Thrawn saga as well, but I don't think they're going to kill him off completely.

My prediction is that Thrawn has some sort of success against the rebels, or at least the Ghost Crew, and is given another task by the Emperor somewhere else that gets him out of the OT timeline. I think he survives and we'll see him again somewhere post ROTJ.

 

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I think he survives and we'll see him again somewhere post ROTJ.

When I look at First Order technology and how it have ballooned out of portion I could believe that Thrawn is one of the founding pillars for the First Order. He has ambition to make the best technology in the galaxy to beat his opponents. So if you look at the StarKiller Base the whole thing might be result of his madness on taking the Emperor's plans to next level of madness. What is also interesting is that so far Thrawn has mostly escaped Vader's visits. Maybe he'll be able to escape them after ROTJ as you say.

 

[night_wrtr]

Very good points. I can see this happening for sure. Makes me wonder if you have read the Aftermath novels? They basically cover the few years after ROTJ and the collapse of imperial leadership. The way the third book ends makes me jump to conclusions...

Also, have you seen the cover of the second Thrawn novel?

Spoiler

 

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. Makes me wonder if you have read the Aftermath novels?

I haven't. But I have seen the Thrawn cover before.

 

[night_wrtr]

I haven't. But I have seen the Thrawn cover before.

They are good imo, but plenty of reviewers have found room for complaints, such as the writing style and characters. I didn't have any issues and liked all three, but it seems like one of those 50/50 things.

 

[Juliana]

I read the first Aftermath and really enjoyed it. I also read A New Dawn, because I love Kanan's character, and it was nice to get his backstory, but I enjoyed Aftermath more I think.

 

[night_wrtr]

A New Dawn was good, I agree. Both for him and Hera.

 

[night_wrtr]

After watching the Rebels finale, I am officially more impressed and intrigued with this story arc and the potential for more than I am the Sequel Trilogy. Dave Filoni knocked it out of the park.

 

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After watching the Rebels finale

I'm sorry that I'm late with the review. I just have a lot things in my hands. If you feel you want to talk about it, please feel free.

 

[Juliana]

I loved the finale, and it was a lot less dark than I thought it would be. Now I need to watch the end again!

 

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Spoiler: S04E14 - A Fool's Hope

I knew that they had to bring the family together for the last hurrah and I am so glad to see that the clone brothers made it to the end with their much upgraded walker ... er ... carrier thing.

In fact, I'm glad that Ezra has managed to gather together such a large network of contacts who own him favours from over the years. Saving the Lothal and its mysterious temple certainly called for using the whole stack including the space pirates. I would have done same in his shoes as soon as I would have calmed on my rage.

I don't like losing people, and Ezra is the same. Only he has much, much cooler head on his shoulders and so much more responsibility for being the Champion of Lothal. He isn't a Jedi Knight, not even a fully pledged master of his Force Order. I'm still not sure what she is as the Grey's can go from side to side while they search for the inner balance. Logically the temple guardians would have gone into a defence mode, but since masterless Ezra decided to follow his guts instead of using the temple to gain edge.

We never know would his plan had worked, because Raider decided to play the Judas card. It seems obvious now from the hindsight that he was never to be trusted after Ezra's parents went missing. I suspect his was the one, who gave them up to the Imperials.

"Trust me I have done this many times," Hondo, Space Pirate.

I guess we are lucky that Hondo's luck almost equal Solo's own mojo. Both of them are rascals and both get in trouble as often as it's humanely possible. Yet, the method of hiding in the shipping lane and then using the other vessels signature to get into places is a valid and used tactics seen often utilised by the submarine crews. It's too bad that Disney is never going to show a serious space piracy at top of their game, but if they ever do a space pirate show, Hondo's crew should be starring in it.

What's even more noticable is that Hondo is rolls with more bounty then Han. Still as always Rebels were outnumbered 10 to 1 with whole stormtrooper battalion assaulting the mountainbase under the Planetary Governor. Against those numbers you have to be well trained and experienced to survive. In fact I'm amazed that they managed to hold out as long as they did and only lose so few.

"Where is army now, boy?" Dome headed Inquisitor.

If luring them into the cave was Ezra's plan all along, it worked well, as it's his domain and the known fact is that getting trapped inside a box with a lightsabre weilding Force user is usually lethal for the opposition. Only a great firepower can bring them down, hence you see so many clone troopers storming the Jedi temple. In Ezra's case, the Imperial had nothing to stop the Lothwolves.

They are simply overpowered compared to a standard stormtrooper. Also the old clone troopers showed much higher standard and ability to combat than anything the Planetary Governor could throw at them.

 

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Spoiler: S04E15 - Family Reunion and A Farewell

From the beginning to the end the SW Rebels has been a remarkable series. It has brought us so many characters, scenes, and action we could only dream on seeing on the silver screen. Over four season Rebels has produced tales that rival the original movies. Even the original New Hope. If you replace Luke with Ezra, his tale inside the rebel ranks has been larger than what we ever get to experience with the Master SkyWalker.

"In my experience, when it comes to Jedi, worse the plan, better the result."Rex, veteran clone commander.

Only Ezra isn't Jedi, but if you replace the Jedi with the Force User, the law stays true. Force Users are always better than normal people to beat the odds. There's no two ways about it. If there had been one Rogue One, the whole mission could had turned differently and the rebels might not have suffered such huge losses.

I have to say that the deception has become standard tool for Ezra's gang and it's no wonder that he chose to use the prisoner scheme to get entrance to Lothal Planetary Palace. And as always, due their style the action was set to go from the beginning. I doubt that Ezra even planned on getting very far without using it even though the deception could have taken the Ghost crew to better positions.

I believe that Filoni wanted to avoid repeating the same old. Hence the pigs can fly.

The only problem was Thrawn. We don't know if he met with the Emperor but it's most likely that he planned the Protocol 13 from the very beginning as a tactical move. And as a master of strategy Trawn always had an upper hand, and Ezra despite seeing a vision, could not have been able change his fate.

This is the moment Thrawn confirmed Ezra's place as temple guardian. He also admitted that he has never been able to wield the Force, all while he was lured by their mysteries as one back in the time the Jedi order numbered in thousands. People considered them as galactic peace keepers that the Sith ultimate corrupted with Darth Sideous using the Man-Inside tactic to his advantage.

So, where the Emperor failed with Luke, Grand Admiral Thrawn succeed on taking out the Master and the Apprentice without ever using a hint of the Force. "All that matters is who wields the power." What is slightly surprising is that Thrawn repeated known Sith lies all through his speech to poor Ezra.

If I throw another parallel to Master Luke's tale, Emperor's challenge to Ezra was greater than anything Luke ever faced, because getting lured by Sith artefact is nasty way to get influenced by the Sith. We don't know if Darth Sideous ever presented same kind of challenge to Anakin, but he didn't tried this trick at the end of his life. I believe that the Emperor was telling the truth when he said that all Ezra needed was to open the gateway to the temple to save his parents.

As a Jedi challenge, Ezra won. He reached the Jedi Knight status, before the Emperor was able to seduce him with the lies. I admit that it must be hard to let whatever you have wanted for so long time and lose it for the greater good.

When Supreme Leader Snoke ushered the Royal Guards to take lives of the apprentices (both Kylo and Rey are on same level with Ezra) we never get to see why Emperor's Royal Guards are so feared as opponent. If they are Mandalore originally, they must have fought against the Force Users more often we've experienced it. But there is no lore about that so we have to assume that Darth Sideous personally trained his guards, while Snoke failed to fully utilize their potential.

As an opponent Ezra could not have had worse. Only to top that Vader would have had to be present in Trawn's capital ship. On one on one fight, I believe Ezra would have beaten Darth Sideous, but lost completely against Vader. I wish they would have shown longer match than that but I have to admit that the fish save is the best save. Douglas Adams would have certainly approved this scene.

Hail to Disney, Dave Filoni and rest of Rebels makers. You are awesome. I totally approve the ending and welcome Thrawn suffering in Lorecraftian hell. At least we now know why there are no other force users in the galaxy before Master Luke takes his place. I hope we'll get to see the old character in the new series at some point. The Star Wars Rebels is the best space fantasy man can wish to see. Well done.

 

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Would anyone want to speculate what Sabine's role is going to be on side of Ashoka? And where are they going to go to hunt the fish?