Star Wars Rebels

[Regulator75]

I finished Dark Disciple a few weeks ago, I really enjoyed it. Would have made an excellent 4 episode arc in TCW.

A key character like Ventress needed her story to come full circle.

[CaptainCrunch]

I actually really liked how they dealt with Ventress in the Legends EU because it left her open to a return. basically she fought Obi-Wan and he wounded her and she somehow came around to his way of thinking and helped him out. He took her on his ship back to Coruscant and she woke up long enough to tell him to "Defend Coruscant", the events of which are summed up in ROTS. then she died. Obi-Wan ordered her body sent to the Jedi Temple so she could be given a Jedi funeral. But the ship never got there and her body was never found. I always thought that Ventress was a really unfortunate victim of the Jedi and the Sith.

[GreenLantern]

Training Begins for Sabine this weekend:

[CaptainCrunch]

Hopefully we get some more of her story and what happened to her mother who was in Death Watch.

I'd also love to learn what happened to her at the Academy.

[CaptainCrunch]

Good episode last night that focused around Sabine and the Dark Saber.

For an episode that featured no battles against the Empire and no characters put into jeopardy, it was a emotionally dense episode that finally allowed us to dig into a main character in Sabine, we were also allowed to glimpse into the damaged psyche of Kanaan.

Basically the Dark Saber is the one weapon that would allow Sabine to reunite her family and get the Mandalorians to join a rebellion that's desperately in need of soldiers. However Sabine when offered this opportunity wants nothing to do with it.

At this point we get some nice background history of the Dark Saber a weapon forged by a Mandalorian who became a jedi. This is interesting because we've seen the Jedi and Mandalorian as functional enemies who have fought and lost to the Jedi consistently over time. Because of that the Mandalorians have spent a lot of effort in creating weapons to kill Jedi.

For those that watched the Clone Wars series this weapon is a familiar and key plot point as it was used prevalently in the Mandalorian/Maul story lines and welded by.

Basically the last Mandalorian to weld the Dark Saber was Pre Vizla who felt that the Mandalorian pacifist stance was wrong and led the splinter Death Watch which over threw Sabine with the health of Darth Maul, who killed both Pre Vizla and Obi-Wan's love Satine with it.

Anyways, Kanaan eventually convinces a reluctant Sabine to train to use the Saber so she can return to her family and basically convince them to join the Rebellion.

This is where we start to see the problems with Kanaan who is still frightened of training incorrectly and he starts to train her using training sticks. The fights between her and Kanaan and Ezra are painful and almost to the point of useless as Sabine continues to fight her past which beyond knowing she was at an Imperial academy.

We get a real revealing moment as well when Rau gives her Mandalorian weapons that she uses to take Ezra down a few knots and we see Kanaan using his lightsaber to beat her down and remind her that the Jedi beat the Mandalorians. It was actually an ugly moment for Kanaan who is still dealing with a lot of guilt and indecision as well.

At this point, Sabine still harboring a emotional hurricane flees and Kanaan talks to Hera who reminds Kanaan that she knows what its like to come from a dysfunctional family that abandons you.

At that point Sabine does return and Kanaan allows her to use the the Dark Saber to train which he hopes will allow Sabine to own her training.

We see a really interesting training cycle that reminds you of the wax on wax off Karate kid scene where he runs her through the progressive forms or motions of light saber battle and we see it get faster and faster, but we also get the feeling that Kanaan is pretty much toying with her and it affirms how much faster and better Jedi are then non force using people.

During this training we finally get Sabine's back story and in a lot of ways its heartbreaking and the voice actor Tiya Sicar does a great story of conveying Sabine's hurt and sadness and anger and resentment towards her family as we find out that Sabine designed weapons for the Empire that were used against the Mandalorians, and when Sabine sickened by it speaks out against the Empire, Clan Vizla turned their back on her and chose the Empire. We also see that Kanaan is still having struggles with his emotions probably from the guilt of abandoning his Master during Order 66.

In otherwords behind the sometimes light facade of this series we really are dealing with a pretty emotionally shattered group

Hera has her family issues with her father not exactly being a good father who was willing to abandon her for what he thinks are a higher calling
Zeb watched his people get wiped out by the Empire
Ezra is still dealing with the death of his parents, and Ahsoka and the fear that he can't protect his friemds
Kanaan for the end of the Jedi order and the death of his master.
Sabine with the abandonment of her clan and the fact that she helped kill her own family
Chopper though is the only one without a key backstory except that he was abandoned during the Clone Wars.
In the end this is the start of the Mandalorian arc and the emotional side will ramp up as she returns to Clan Vizla to face her past decisions.

Some small observations

The Convoree's returned in this episode is large numbers, Dave Filoni has described these birds as messengers and observers with a deeper meaning. We really last saw them in a noticeable way when Ahsoka entered the Dark Temple at the end of last year. We also saw that Sabine had painted one on her shoulder armor.

During the training when Hera asks about the training sticks, Kanaan says that she's not ready to wield a lightsaber. This to me was a critical glimpse into why Kanaan is probably not a good teacher. He failed to remember that Sabine is not a Jedi trainee, but he's trying to train her like one. At some point in the Episode Sabine lashes out at poor Kanaan telling him that he's an awful teacher

One of the biggest questions when it comes to Sabine is who her mother is. Conventional wisdom is that it is Bo Katan who was prevalent in a couple of TCW's Mandalorian story lines and was a member of Death Watch though she came from Clan Kryze. She was also the sister of Countess Satine. Which when you look at the names Satine and Sabine could be a hint to their family link.

Anyways a really strong emotional episode after last weeks Zeb filler.

[CaptainCrunch]

As an addon Katee Sackhoff who voices Bo Katan has confirmed that she will appear on Rebels this year.

[Coach]

I'm just stopping in without reading any other posts to say this show kicks serious ass. I'm just starting the 3rd season. That battle between Vader and Ahsoka.... wow.

"Then you will die."

Might be one of my favorite Vader moments period.

[GreenLantern]

Ya it was great, I can't figure out why my PVR isn't taping this show anymore, it didn't tape last weeks episode for me. Why!!!! I imagine they will replay it this weekend before the next episode though.


Also spoiler from the season 3 trailer from reddit involving another ANH character:

Spoiler!

Is that gold leader?

[CaptainCrunch]

It took me a long time to like the Ashoka character. maybe because they over powered her from the start, and she didn't have much depth beyond being the spunky side kick. But they were really brilliant in how they matured her as the show went on. I still remember the episode where she lost most of her squadron and was crushed and lashed out, because the biggest flaw of the jedi order was really to deny emotions. don't mourn rejoice and all that stuff.

But as she went along and matured she really got some great story lines.

Even in Rebels she was really good, when they asked her if she knew who vader was after their first encounter and she said no, but the way she looked, it was clear that she knew and she wanted to be sick.

And her last scene with Vader where she thought she could reason with him, and you could see the hope for a brief second before Vader basically squashed it.

Even though I doubt that we will see her again in Rebels, I have this hope that in the last episode of rebels good or bad, that if she's alive that she left the war behind and we see her briefly as an older woman, with a family, something that i think she badly needed.

[GreenLantern]

I disagree, I think we are going to see an Ahsoka that is tight rope walking that line between light and dark. At the end of last season we see her going down deeper into the Sith temple. She is going to learn some of their secrets thinking she can control it.

I think ultimately trying to balance the light and dark will be what destroys her.

Vader: Revenge is not the Jedi way.
Ahsoka: I am no Jedi.

That part was so well done.

[CaptainCrunch]

I had really hoped that the female inquisitor would have been Bariss who had framed her for the temple bombing and went to the darkside, and had that link as one of the Jedi Sentinels was the Grand Inquisitor.

I always thought that Bariss' story line and her betrayal needed some real resolution.

[GreenLantern]

Weird that we have such a long break between episodes. Last episode was Jan 21st, next one isn't until Feb. 18th apparently.

I guess if they are going for the 22 episode format that takes us into the end of March which is where last season ended. That is two nearly month long breaks this season.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

Weird that we have such a long break between episodes. Last episode was Jan 21st, next one isn't until Feb. 18th apparently.

I guess if they are going for the 22 episode format that takes us into the end of March which is where last season ended. That is two nearly month long breaks this season.

These breaks in shows drive me up the wall.

Rebels off for a month. Gotham goes on a break, comes back for three episodes and then doesn't return til April, same as Agents of Shields.

I guess the networks think that we're going to watch the repeats so that we can remember what's happening.

[GreenLantern]

Season 1 of He-Man popped up on Netflix the other day, 65 episodes, lol.

I don't need 65 episodes, but they could spring for another 3-4 to fill in some of these gaps instead of just taking the time off.

[Regulator75]

nvm

[CaptainCrunch]

They had an amazing ad for Rebels last night that merely showed jedi colored light sabers and you had Kanan's voice talking about defense and all of the other jedi philsophy and then they went to another light saber and you heard Mauls voice talking about hatred and anger making you stronger and then you see a Sith blade.

I still really believe that Ezra is going to fall this year.

[CaptainCrunch]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

http://dorksideoftheforce.com/2017/0...h-empires-end/

[zukes]

Well if it is ending, tonight's episode didn't move it very far along. It was a continuation of the Mandalore story. It was well done and had a couple twists and I don't want to give away the end so I'll spoiler..

Spoiler!

Sabine stays with her family and says that she is not the leader of the Ren's but will find the leader. I suspect we will see her again, but I don't know if she will still be for the Rebels cause....

[CaptainCrunch]

I liked the episode tonight, even from an artistic perspective it was really strong

Spoiler!

The fight on the ice was really well done, you could see the ice cracking and hear it cracking as well.

The conflict between Sabine and her mother was really well done as well. The one thing that I really didn't like in the Clone Wars were that the Mandalorians were pacifists. It seems like when Sabine was killed that the pacifism was abandoned and then they were brutalized by the Empire.

I do have a sense that we won't see Sabine again this season if at all. It just seems like her storyline was pretty much complete once we found out what happened to her at the academy. I don't see much reason for her to stick around as a background character.

Now that job falls to Zeb.

Chopper just kills me for some reason. Filoni described R2D2 as the family dog, always wanting to please his masters, Chopper is the family cat in that he's a bit of a ahole.

Not much development of the main rebellion storyline, but I think we have 5 episodes left in the season.

I've read the episode guide for the last few episodes

3×18 “Secret Cargo” – 3/04/2017
When a routine refueling mission goes wrong, the Ghost crew find themselves transporting an important rebel leader across the galaxy, pursued by Imperial warships.

I wonder which leader that is. Could we finally see Mon Mothma making a relevant appearance as they did confirm that the actress who played her in Rouge One was making an appearance

3×19 “Double Agent Droid” – 3/11/2017
Chopper and AP-5 team up to infiltrate an Imperial station to steal needed codes, but an Imperial specialist turns the droids against the crew to cause chaos.

I wonder if this is the agent Kallus episode that I've heard about?


3×20 “Twin Suns” – 3/18/2017
Reacting to a vision of Maul, Ezra defies Hera and Kanan to travel to a remote planet in hopes of stopping the former Sith lord from carrying out his plans.

This is probably the Obi-Wan episode and it might be the end of the Darth Maul story. There doesn't seem to be much left for him to do.


3×21 – “Zero Hour – Part One” – 3/25/2017
In final preparations for their attack on Lothal, Phoenix Squadron’s plans are disrupted when Grand Admiral Thrawn discovers their location.
3×22 “Zero Hour- Part Two” – 3/25/2017
Trapped on Atollon with the rebel base under siege, Hera and Kanan fight to keep the squadron alive, as Ezra attempts to rally help from an unexpected source.

I wonder if the unexpected source is the Knights of Wren? Also there's still the matter of Ezra's destiny to come into play. Grand Admiral Thrawn has been a little disappointing to me as he hasn't had a big impact this season. But I expect him to show up with his Tie Defenders. I still believe there will be a season 4 as the cast has been recording dialogue for it. So I expect this episode to end with a tragedy. Maybe its time for Zeb to go as he doesn't have much to do. I doubt that Kaanan is going to die at this point.

[Regulator75]

Decent little article about the EU / Legends and Canon.

http://comicbook.com/starwars/2017/0...-george-lucas/