A/V STAR WARS REBELS (show's over, spoilers allowed)

Spoiler

Considering that Thrawn implies that everything at Batoon was Pryce's fault (i.e. extremely high civilian casualties), "Jedi Knight" and "DUME" clearly shows how blood thirsty the woman is and how much she cares for the collateral (none what so ever).

 

Yeah, while Thrawn's Pryce subplot made her a much deeper character than the show in general, it was pretty clearly the story of someone becoming a hardcore villain.

 

Considering that he was allowed to see the scripts, I'd imagine Zahn wrote it that way knowing that eventually this would be the result.

 

Liked both episodes a lot.

Spoiler

overall they were great except for the ending of Sabine/Zeb vs Rukh. Why? Whhhhyyyy? Why did we need childish paint jobs and joking? It’s doesn’t match the tone of the rest of the episode, or even the scenes proceeding it.

I think back to Rise of the Old Masters. That was a perfect episode with the perfect tone throughout. We should be getting those types of episodes all the way through this last few episode especially given the circumstances.

Overall it was my only real nitpick of the two parter. Oh and gliders.

The stuff with Hera and Kanan was excellent, the rescue mission and fallout were great. Looking forward to seeing where we go next.

 

In "Jedi Knight" when Rukh asked to speak to Pryce in the other room did he have something important to tell her or was it because "plot"?

 

The only other alternative is that they're lovers.

 

Thrawn

Spoiler

executing Pryce for her failure would be a good way for the younger audience viewers to accept his survival (if he indeed does survive) especially if he sent Hera an "apology/congratulatory" message for the foe that bested him

Just to show that he's not 100% a d*** compared to Pryce

 

My thoughts on the episodes last night

Spoiler

I really enjoyed "Jedi Night" but I could feel the impending danger the whole time. I didn't want it to be Kanan, but I guess it had to be. The only thing that felt out of place was Rukh asking to speak to Pryce in the other room for no reason so it could move the plot forward with Kanan and the escape, but otherwise, great episode. I didn't even mind the Loth Bat plan.

"Dume" I was mixed on. None of the wolf stuff made sense to me, so hopefully in time it will. At times they seem real and can be touched and other times they seem mystical. Is it both, is it neither, is it a mix of the two? Do they have the Force ability to astral project like Luke in TLJ? They obvious have the power to move our heroes from one part of the planet to the next so I guess I just have to shrug and chalk it up to the Force for now.

As for everyone grieving in their own way, I'm glad cooler heads prevailed and Zeb and Sabine didn't do anything stupid to get themselves killed, but spraypainting Rukh and letting him go felt cheap and childish after they lost one of their own. I guess the Tie Defender program is dead for now or at least it's not getting any resources as all the resouces will be going to project Stardust we can assume. It seems the focus, at least for the team, will be to save the Jedi Temple.

What are your theories on the tablet the wolves gave Ezra?

 

Spoiler

He better!

 

Spoiler

I thought it was confirmed somewhere that Thrawn survives. Is it not a definite?

 

Always in motion, the future is

 

Spoiler

In real life, if you spray painted someone’s entire body, they would either die or become very very ill. Considering Zeb already had beaten Rukh to a bloody pulp, it would’ve been more humane just to kill him.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Spoiler

I like the fact it does kinda confirm again that Operation Stardust was gobbling up the resources of the Empire for other projects like the TIE Defenders and apparently Tagge's ideas for more SSDs.

 

The details of the stone from SW.com

Spoiler

1) I thought the final version only had three hands.
2) I wonder if we'll see the back - reminds me of Legend of Zelda obv

 

A thousand times this.

 

Wait that’s a thing now?

 

I will be interested to see if

Spoiler

Thrawn is the one to get rid of Pryce

 

I also

Spoiler

thought that Ruhk was going to explode with that bomb, but nope it was just paint.

 

Spoiler

The biggest surprise of "Dume" was that it was a paint bomb.
The second surprise was to Warwick Davis that he was still employed.

 

Hey, you can't say that about the host of hit ITV game show Tenable!

 

I had to google your reference as I didn't have the tenable knowledge of British programming.

 

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/dave-filoni-digs-into-the-events-of-star-wars-rebels-big-double-feature

Spoiler

The voices in the beginning... I recognize some from the episode. Am I correct about that? I had to go back and listen several times. Was there anything in there from previous episodes?

Dave Filoni: It's a tricky thing. Sound is very important to me as a storyteller. I think part of that stems from my love of Skysound and the work Matt Wood and Ben Burtt and Dave Acord have done, and I've worked with them for years so I have a lot of appreciation for what sound can do for you in a story. To the very last moment of this series, we really orchestrated the sound to tell you important third and fourth layers of the story.

You will hear [more] voices before the end of the season... Everything is pulled specifically. Bonnie and I worked quite a bit on getting that sound to tell a story. It's the kind of thing that if you don't hear it... you don't lose anything from what you're watching. But if you're into this sort of thing and like a deeper dive in some things, like how the Force works, the sound will help tell you parts of that story.

Is Kanan seeing the future?

I always subscribe to the possible future idea. I don't think anything's ever set in stone. When Yoda warns Luke that, "If you leave now, help them you could." I always think that when Luke sees his friends suffering on Cloud City he sees that, but he doesn't see whether or not his friends get out. By taking his own action he kind of robs them of their own agency and he can be throwing them into more peril and he could be throwing himself into peril, so I think you have to be careful how you read what you see in the future.

You have to be careful how your own feelings are coloring it. Which is why Kanan's asking Ezra to take up the point on the mission to rescue Hera, so his own feelings don't color the rescue mission. But then also you know there are other forces at work in the universe that do try to manipulate the future to their advantage. We'll see how that plays out as we go forward.

What is the significance of the haircut?

Well, I think for me it just deals with an idea of purification and Kanan knows something's going to happen. I play in my head with the idea of how much he actually knows is going to happen in a literal sense. But he knows this is a transformative moment for him. So in that there's almost this ritualistic idea that he needs to recenter and somewhat transform himself. The way that he became, growing his long hair and growing the beard and all those things are kind of things he inherits and takes on as he lost his sight and as his world got strange and complex. So it's almost like him revealing himself again by taking away these things, letting go, taking his hair off symbolically. It plays to me in that realm of a transitional thing.

Then I started thinking... what did he look like when he first met Hera? I don't think for him it's as conscious as that. For me, creatively, to say he looked more like this. You know, you look younger when you shave and cut your hair. So it's kind of an interesting identity that he takes on at the end.

I have to know, what was he gonna say to her? Kanan to Hera? "I have to tell you something...".

Well, I put that in really late. Because I always played with the idea that if he has an inkling that he might die that day during that mission, I thought he would have an instinct to want to tell her, but that could be dangerous... I think it's very human in that moment to say "I need to tell you this, something really bad might happen today." And how he feels about her. I thought without that moment where he wants to be completely truthful to her it just feels false.

Speaking of which, having the whole moment between Hera and Chopper... the second they show up Chopper just rolls right for her.

That was a super important moment to me. I've always felt Chopper has this secret high emotional level. People don't realize sometimes the reason someone is cantankerous or picks on them is because they care a great deal. You start to see the beginning of Chopper's little facade break there a little bit and the idea that he would be the one that could approach her and know not to say anything but just take her hand was a powerful image.

For me, how Hera deals with this is very important. She's very distraught but she's also a powerful leader. I didn't want her to melt into nothing because Kanan was gone. I think she has a lot of pride. For me, finding images to depict that, just her hand closing on her little droid's hand, at one point she had a line there where she said, "I don't know what to do." I got rid of it. I was like, "I don't want to hear her say that right now".

I always get worried about the audience hearing the writer... I want to read it on her face. Vanessa can deliver so much through her voice, she's so good in those scenes. Her and Freddie, frankly, it's the best they've ever been. They're so great together. I want to do 20 episodes with these two...

How did Ezra not pick up on [the Dume Wolf being] Kanan? The marking on the forehead, the blue eyes...

I think that's a subjective question. Is that Kanan? I have answers for all of that... What I will say...is that Dume the Wolf can't exist until Kanan the Jedi is gone. Those two things don't exist at the same time. Dume the Wolf has a lot in common with Bendu as far as what kind of thing they are.

There's a similarity between these type of occurrences. The only wolf that's particularly what you would call real are probably the gray ones that are always running around but don't really say much. The white one is more of a guide. We can get into that later. There's a little more you need to see before we really break it down. Since season 1 I've been obsessed with this idea of Ezra falling asleep in the wilds and waking up and there being this giant spirit guide there to talk to him. For a while, it was this giant Loth-cat.

It worked later for the mythology to change it to this wolf. But you know you have these ideas and kind of figure out where they fit and then later it actually works. It's interesting how that happens. I drive the crew nuts with these wolves because they have to look a certain way and move a certain way but they did a brilliant job bringing them to life. They're equal parts friendly and ferocious.

Do you have a message for the fans, anything you want to tell people that you want to let them know after you break their hearts?

It's very simple, they just have to trust me. They have to trust me here in where we're going with it. None of it is done recklessly or because of a line in a different movie. It's all important. It's as important to the people making it as it is to the people watching it, the reason we're trying to do this so well is because we value the people that have stuck with us for all 4 seasons. This is how the story has to go. I think we'll see what they think when they come out the other side.

You can read more of my interview with Dave Filoni, including more about Kanan and Hera specifically and why Kanan's death was so personal for the showrunner himself later this week. Until then, may the Force be with you.

 

Spoiler

I am surprised they did not get Freddie to give his reaction to events