__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
AW crap, you just know after a heart lifting preview like that, that something really bad is going to happen. Well that and the tag line for the second episode.
They've really done some outright beautiful animation work on this series. At first I didn't like it because I was so used to the harsher lines of TCW's, but sometimes there are things where you actually have to pause them and look back at them.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I've been thinking about the ending of this series, and it has become a very good season. I thought I would lay down the options on the ending. There isn't much in the way of spoilers out there, but I want to lay this down based on the byline of the second episode next week
Spoiler!
The Crew of the Ghost deal with a devestating loss. Most people assume that its Kanan that dies, and that makes sense, since we see more of Ezra in the trailer then Kanan, so lets go with that
So I'm going to go with three series, the light, neutral and dark ending
The light ending
Spoiler!
Kanan sacrifices himself to rescue Hera and the crew is devestated, we know that Ezra has a temper and he looks for revenge. We've seen the confrontation with Palpatine, but I'm not convinced that its on a reality level, it looks like its on a spiritual level.
So Ezra finds a way using the Wolves to confront Palpatine who tries to either recruit or kill him. Ezra manages to defy temptation of using his darker instincts to gain revenge. On his return from the confrontation Ezra realizes that he can't continue to be in this rebellion because it would be too easy to fall to the darkside. So he goes into a self imposed exile. They could even do a flash forward to Ezra seeing the end of the Empire from Tatooine or Lothal and smiling.
The Dark Ending
Spoiler!
Same as above, Ezra looks for revenge for the death of his father figure. He works his way into a confrontation against Palpatine.
Palpatine tries to recruit him, and this is based on the confrontation being in the last episode. Ezra attacks Palpatine out of rage and see's that Palpatine is on a whole other level. The Ghost crew tries to rescue him, but they lose Zeb and Sabine in the attempt. Ezra realizes what he's doing and pulls and Ashoka and sacrifices himself so that Hera and Chopper can escape. The series ends with a similar scene of Ezra walking into the temple
The psychotically dark episode that would probably make a million fans scream in terror and then go silent
Spoiler!
Ezra in his rage goes to confront Palpatine, who has laid a trap for his friends. As Ezra watches Palpatine as one of Zeb or Sabine is killed.
We all know that Palpatine wants to replace Vader, that's the way of the Sith. So Palpatine uses the whole you need the darkside to save your friends.
Ezra eventually agree's out of desperation, and becomes Palpatine's secret apprentice.
The remaining hero's confront Ezra but he's too angry and far gone, and he kills one of Zeb or Sabine.
Ezra decides that Vader has to go and the secret apprentice confronts Vader believing that its the right thing to do. They fight in a fallacious battle. At the last second, Ezra has his moment of redemption and saves Hera who still hasn't given up on Ezra, and he apologizes, and he falls to Vaders sword.
The last scene has Hera crying as she goes to warp speed with only herself and Chopper left.
We know have the truth of the conversation between Tarkin and Vader on the Death Star that there are no more Jedi.
So which one is it going to be
Spoiler!
For me the move to Disney won't allow this series to go as dark as the Clone Wars series went in the end, they do have to wrap up the Jedi Question, and the survival of Zeb and Sabine.
As much as they've teased that Ezra has a lot of darkside impulses in him, I can't really see them having Ezra going fully dark, I also can't see them allowing Ezra to survive because it leaves loose ends.
I tend to think that Ezra will confront Palpatine on a spiritual level and fight him, and the line "Do not underestimate the Emperor" that Yoda spoke of will come to pass. Ezra might be fairily powerful, but the Emperor will deal with him brutally.
Ezra will fall either by Palpatine hands or Vader sword.
In terms of the other hero's. I'm not convinced that Disney will allow a blood bath in terms of killing off four hero's in one season arc.
I would expect that they have ready made fates for all four. We know that Chopper and Sabine stay with the Rebellion. We know that Zeb's story was pretty much sewed up by the discovery of his people and the safe colonization beyond the barrier. We know that Sabine has the Mandolorian family and she's seen enough devastation to stay with the Rebellion.
Which leaves the fate of two minor characters. Rex and Kallus. I'm convinced that when they designed Rex's look they based it on the Rebel soldier at the Bunker in ROTJ, so they will give him that ability. Kallus has yet to complete his redemptive journey. Since defecting he really hasn't done much, but it would be nice to see him have a self sacrifice moment to end his character.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
It would be very fitting to see Kalilus self sacrifice to save Zeb. I honestly just have no idea how they wrap up so many characters but I'm excited to see how it goes down.
__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
I found the two episodes posted last night, I plan to watch them tonight. But the non spoiler reviews are really positive in spite of the gravity of the episodes.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
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.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Ezra wasn't angry about the death of his mentor/father. Instead he felt . . . hopeless and reflective.
So I believe that the possibility of him going dark,especially with the Dume Wolf are low.
How do the hand symbols work here.
We've seen in the previews earlier that somehow the Celestials come to play in this. The Father, Daughter and Son.
In those Clone War episodes Anakin was suppossed to supplant the father and represent balance. Is this the concept around Restore the Past Redeem the future.
Do the hands represnent the Son (Closed fist) the daughter (hand raised in greeting) the Father (hand raised in stop symbol)
Is this quest about Ezra going to that world and taking the role of the father, balancing the force.
I mean we have to admit the galaxy is at the height of darkness right now.
Is the Temple somehow a gateway to the Celestials? Does Ezra have to refuse the Temptations of the Dark Side in Palpatine, the Light Side in Dume, and take his place in bringing balance and hope.
It would make sense if the Force was somehow bought into slight balance which allowed things like the Destruction of the Death Star by a Jedi wannabe.
I think there are no more Jedi because Ezra like Kanan ascends to something else.
The weapon in the temple is something that Vader and Palpatine don't want a jedi to get his hands on, the ability to challenge the dark Side.
Just my two cents.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
So really cool piece of trivia. The voice actor who played Admiral Thrawn is Lars Nikkelsen, his brother Mads Nikkelsen played Urso in Rogue One who helped destroy the Star Dust project in Rebels that forced Thrawn back to Coruscant.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Last edited by CaptainCrunch; 02-23-2018 at 11:25 AM.
Reason: yeah yeah, fixed a major mistake
Watching the two scenes that start Dume are an amazing rewatch.
We finally saw a menacing Thrawn. I mean really menacing and angry at Pryce. Just the threat that he would deal with her when he got back was said with such controlled fury that you almost get goosebumps. I still thought that Ruhk was waiting for the order to kill her from Thrawn.
As much as we think that Palpatine will be the major threat at the end of this series, I believe its going to be Thrawn.
The scene when the rebels return to base is so well done that you can't help but get emotional.
When Sabine gets off of the shuttle and throws her helmet and rubs her eyes, its such a strong combination of anger and grief that it comes through the screen in waves.
Lets face it, this group really hasn't had to deal with a major death yet, and while they haven't had any real major victories, they haven't suffered any losses and frankly the only one who knows how to deal with it is Chopper.
Zeb didn't know how to react, lets be honest the expressions that passed over his face were amazing, he went from confused from sad to wanting to comfort Ezra to angry in a short period of time.
Ezra was lost and while we don't see the anger that we saw in the last few seasons we saw the fear. He lost his mentor and his father and you get the sense that he doesn't believe that he's ready or strong enough to take Kanan's place, he was lost and didn't have a mission until the end of the episode.
The hardest one to watch though was Hera and the facial expressions combined with the voice acting was amazing. This is the first time that we've seen her broken, and she can't process anything, you see guilt and resignation, and confusion, but you don't see resolve or anger. You see for the first time that she feels hopeless and that she failed Kanan on a personal or professional level.
The last one is Chopper, I mentioned above that Chopper is such a great character, I mean he started off as a pouty petulant teenager, and he's stil a pouty petulant teenager. Filoni once compared R2D2 and Chopper and he said that R2D2 was like the family dog, he wants to please and love and be loved, Chopper is a cat, he's a jerk. But deep down is a doid that survived the Clone Wars and is probably deeply scared. So when he rolled up to Hera and took her hand it was such a poignant moment. It was the moment when you realized that under his crusty exterior that as a droid he's capable of both love and compassion.
With only 4 episodes left and so much to solve, I doubt that this group every really recovers from the loss, they'll push it aside but it will still be there.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;