[CaptainCrunch]

Just some thoughts, I need to rewatch these two episodes

Episode 10 Jedi - Night

Spoiler!

I can understand why people would be upset, but I think that its a good kind of an upset because this was in a lot of ways a beautiful death of a key character.

Ever since the start of this series Kanan has grown and changed as a character from tortured ex jedi, to unsure mentor, to a father figure, and finally a hero.

When we first met Kanan all we knew was that he was a jedi who blamed himself for the death of his master during the Jedi Purge, he didn't want to be a hero or really even a jedi anymore. But as he took Ezra under his wing he realized that he knew so little about not only the force but the place of the Jedi. He went though amazing growth, he didn't want to be a rebel, I think he was a guy who was weary and tired, but fate intervened and he became a extremely likable and positive character.

And then he did the only thing he could do which is die.

This whole episode was beautiful and strange to look at because they went out of the way to mute the colors.

I loved the tie in with Rogue One as Thrawn's pet project and the reason why the Empire was on Lothal was getting a possible funding cut to support Krennic's project Star Dust, the Death Star. so Admiral Thrawn had to return to Coruscant and had to leave Pryce in charge. There's been a rift between Pryce and Thrawn for a while, mainly due to her being fairly incompetent as a military leader.

We get another cool link to ANH when we finally see what the Interrogation droid does. Basically it shoots you up with a hell of a truth serum.

The rescue plan was neat using gliders to make a stealthy approach. But as always the plan goes awry soon after and during the excape, Not only do they encounter Ruhk which costs Kanan his light saber. But we finally get something that I'm not sure I agree with.

Lets be honest, we know that Kanan and Hera have been circling around the whole love angle for a while. And while her truthful statements under the influence of the drugs was cute. Having her finally tell Kanan that she loved him under the drugs was a odd choice for me writing wise.

Anyways, Pryce being the idiot that she is decides to destroy the fuel cells that are attached to the Tie Defender Factory to kill the Rebels.

Kanan in a ultimate show of self sacrifice holds off the explosion with the force while pushing Hera and the escape shuttle away.

In a completely heart breaking moment though, the last thing we see is Kanan looking at Hera and his eye's clear up completing a promise that he made to her after being blinded that he would see her again. Then he was consumed.

Then we get a really nicely done end credit with ashes falling.

What's really nice about this is it starts to lockup a lot of story line questions.

Why weren't there Tie Defenders at Yavin? Because Pryce angry at the escape destroyed the factory. You can bet that part of Thrawn's fate is going to be tied up in Pryce's fate and he's not going to be happy

Spoiler!

A spoiler of a spoiler, awesome.

In the EU Thrawn is banished to what is Wild Space by the Emperor as an explanation of why a Grand Admiral wasn't involved in the OT. Could Thrwan finally have enough of Pryce and kill her leading to his banishment?

Suddenly with a blast the mission on Lothal basically ends, there's no more factory, and no reason for the Empire to really stay there. This nicely sets up the final four episodes maybe not staying at Lothal.

this also takes Kanan off the board and reduces the number of Jedi left accounted for to one, and that's Ezra.

We know that we're heading towards a major fight now, but this episode is a punch in the gut and really shows that Filoni and Disney are really able to up the emotional ante in this series

Episode 11 - Dume

Spoiler!

the hard part of dealing with a hero's loss is how do you deal with the aftermath. Sometimes shows go way over the top, they have funeral scenes and they stretch it out with long laborous conversations.

Rebels did a beatiful job of dealing with the aftermath of Kanan's death and they came up with a really nicely done spiritual episode, based around the question of what do we do when we lose.

This episode starts in the best possible way. With the Imperial Aftermath of Pryce's actions. Yes it confirms that the Tie Defender is dead, that not all the rebels died, and Pryce decides to up the stupidity angle by planning a parade to celebrate the death of Kana.

Like I said previously Thrawn's loss of his prized project and his reaction are going to be interesting.

We then see our hero's returning to the base, and what really works is the simplicity of their grief and how they handle it. Zeb with his shocked reaction, and Chopper rolling over the Hera to quietly take her hand. Chopper has been the most interesting character in this show in a lot of ways, and I've always found it amusing that they've made it so you can almost understand his language. But he's crabby and cantankerous, but he really does care.

Meanwhile our hero's react in a different way, Hera goes off to mourn and Chopper encourages her to add Kanan to her family by adding him to her heirloom while she finds sadness in not telling Kanan how she felt earlier.

Sabine and Zeb react how you'd expect them to, they hear about the parade and want to lash out and get a measure of revenge.

Surprisingly Ezra doesn't join him as he goes off to meditate on his loss.

There was a beautiful conflicting shot by the way of the parade. From Sabine's view you see how overwhelming the Empire is and the hopelessness of fighting it. Zeb see's the destroyed shut down fighter factory and see's possibilities and hope. Its an interesting character switch.

We see the confrontation between a holo Thrawn and Pryce where he basically congratulates her on the parade over the death of Kanan, then asks her if she thought she could hide from the consequences of her stupidity. When Ruhk steps out of the shadow, I had the fleeting thought that this was the end for Pryce. But instead Thrawn sends his assassin off to basically do something reckless.

Eventually Zeb and Sabine confront the Noghri and Sabine sneers as she's basically says "We're not interested in a fair fight" They then beat Rukh down but don't kill him when they could of, instead they humiliate him and send him back as a message that they're not giving up.

Meanwhile Ezra is confronted by a white wolf and some darker wolves who seem more hostile, in his escape he's knocked out and wakes up to see a huge Loth wolf with blue eyes who calls himself Dume. Which is Kanan's last name. Even though in the credits dume's voice is credited to the force, it was fairly clear that Freddy Prinze Jr is doing the talking here.

Dume gets Ezra to admit that he felt fear and hopelessness in the early confrontation with the darker wolves. Dume tells him that they must fight fear together. So the master student relationship continues.

Dume then gives Ezra a tablet with three hands on it, one raised in greeting, one in the stop symbol and one a closed fist and tells him it came from the Jedi Temple on Lothal.

Dume also tells Ezra that knowledge and destruction reside in the temple, which is shockingly the same thing that Ashoka told Ezra about the Sith Temple on Malachor, that housed a weapon of unimaginable power.

So the question is what's in the temple on Lothal that Darth Vader took control of the last time we saw it?

Restore the past and redeem the future Dume tells Ezra before sending him back to his friend.

the last scene we see a re-union of the rebels, and as I said before they know they can't cry and mourn anymore.

Hera added Kanan to her family

Sabine and Zeb restored personal hope.

Ezra got a mission, they're going to save the Jedi Temple.