Full Series The Bendu

I still get forest spirit Shishi Gami of Princess Mononoke fame vibe off this character, and it was just cast into SW cause Filoni.

 

Id like to know a few things about Mr. The Bendu.

How old is he assuming he is male. Are there more of him or is he the last 1?

I hope he doesn't become a pointless mystery like the name of Yoda's Species.

 

http://studio-ghibli.wikia.com/wiki/Forest_Spirit

Hey maybe Mr Bendu is

Spoiler

Snoke in his humanouid form, he's clearly a shape shifter and spirit-like,lol.

 

you cannot endu the bendu. He is everyone's friendu. Unless you ask him to take sides, that is. If you do that, he tendus to feel offendu'd.

 

Beware of The Bendu Kanan, for he will bend-u.

 

I find it cool that they admit in the recon that the Bendu is based on 80's muppets/puppets. Now I'm definitely sure he has some Ludo in him. And maybe, as others mentioned, that turtle form Neverending Story:

 

I really think the whole idea of this guy ever existing is wrong. Of course there's plenty of supernatural stuff around every corner in SW, but this is really too much. It could've ended with creature's (or what it really is) true neutrality and represent it like one of the Force avatars. But in the end it was shaped in more individual form of independent person with its own emotions and goals.

 

After the S3 Finale episode, I'm concerned that Kanan will not meet his fate not in battle with the Empire or protecting or fighting Ezra but due to the Bendu. In order to help his fellow Rebels escape, Kanan purposely goads the Bendu to become unbalanced. Causing the Bendu to lose his corporeal form at Thrawn's hands but which may cause trouble for Kanan any time he uses the Force. The Bendu is not likely to be contained by his planet and may be vindictive towards Kanan, In fact, the Bendu may be vindictive towards all other Force Weilders those within the Force, like Yoda, as well as the living. Reprocussions beyond the Rebels series and perhaps into the TLJ might result.

Maybe by the end of the Saga the Force abandons humans all together, as they cannot be trusted with such power.

"You have meddled with the primal forces of natue! And you must atone!". True, this is from the film "Network" but it feels like this might apply to Kanan.

 

This is probably on the money.

 

How do you interpret Bendu's end in the Season 3 finale?

I took it as Bendu really did die, but became one with the Force, hence the ominous laughter and disappearing body.

He said to Thrawn that he is beyond his ability to destroy him, which is true, from a certain point of view. Thrawn can destroy his physical body, but he cannot destroy his Force ghost/spirit.

 

No, he pulled the exact vanishing act when Maul arrived in Visions and Voices.

 

That might make more sense. From the ROTS novel:


"An infinite mystery is the Force." Yoda lifted his head and turned his gaze out into the wheel of stars. "Much to learn, there still is."
And you will have time to learn it.
"Infinite knowledge..." Yoda shook his head. "Infinite time, does that require."
With my help, you can learn to join with the Force, yet retain consciousness. You can join your light to it forever, Perhaps in time, even your physical self.
Yoda did not move. "Eternal life..."
The ultimate goal of the Sith, yet they can never achieve it; it comes only by the release of self, not the exaltation of self. It comes through compassion, not greed. Love is the answer to the darkness.
"Become one with the Force, yet influence still to have..." Yoda mused. "A power greater than all, it is."
It cannot be granted; it can only be taught. It is yours to learn, if you wish it.
Slowly, Yoda nodded. "A very great Jedi Master you have become, Qui-Gon Jinn. A very great Jedi Master you always were, but too blind I was to see it."
He rose, and folded his hands before him, and inclined his head in the Jedi bow of respect.
The bow of the student, in the presence of the Master.
"Your apprentice, I gratefully become."


The Bendu does not come across as a particularly selfless or compassionate being.

 

Bendu was wounded, not dying, which tells us he's a mortal and living and not dead or immortal. He has powers and abilities that are outside the conventional Force wielders, one such ability is to make himself scarce and vanish. Being that he was distracting Thrawn, it was pretty obvious he was gaining enough time and energy to pull off a vanish. Had Thrawn shot sooner instead of yapping he could've killed Bendu. He's a selfish & malevolent and vengeful creature, and its not the first time, as we saw him early on take away the pole that protected them from the spiders.

 

Wasn't that supposed to teach Kanan how to handle the spiders in the first place? A "Overcome your fear" lesson.

The Bendu might be a self-deluding darksider - but that wasn't the impression I got from all the episodes prior to this one.

 

I still prefer my interpretation that he died and became one with the Force. Not because of some training like Qui-Gon and Yoda, but because it is his inherent ability as a creature capable of controlling the Force as a natural ability or instinct, similar to birds being able to fly.

If he really did just disappear to heal his wounds in some cave and to be able to taunt Thrawn with his laughter, than Bendu is just a selfish vicious creature, albeit extremely powerful.

 

I like your comment about Bendu being selfish, I hadn't thought of that before. I think it is accurate. Bendu's piety is about himself being in the middle of the Force. Narratively, we haven't seen the basis of that piety. In the end, we see Bendu get angry and vindictive towards another Force user. Something has certainly challenged the world view of the Bendu, and he acts out with fire and brimstone. But to Bendu's credit, he is not pleased with war coming to his planet, and I can't blame him.

 

I am pretty sure it was Kanan's imbalance that awake Bendu from his dormant slumber when they landed on Attallon, that mix of Light and Dark, in the beginning of the season.





Maybe Bendu means "beyond you". Maybe the Acolytes of the beyond serve him directly or indirectly. Before the Bendu transforms into his "storm", he sucks up the earth and elements around him in order to manifest himself into that evil storm.

What he tells Kanan:

Bendu: I am unseen, unknowable. like a rock in the river. Do you think it chance, this world was so difficult to find, eh?

...

For what purpose? I was here long before you, and will be long after. I am the Bendu, the one in the middle.

Bendu: Perhaps it was the will of the Force, that the Jedi, and all your kind perish. and I serve the will of the Force.

Realistically, Kanan confronting Bendu, more reminded me of Sybok when he confronts "God", and was really a malevolent alien entity . Bendu seems to be a recluse or hiding from Sith and Jedi alike for many years, in what amounts to self imprisonment. Attallon does not appear on any maps oddly, only maps created by the ancient peoples of that lived in the system, Was Bendu responsible? ^ Apparently so.



Bendu can appear and vanish at will, before this encounter as we saw in Visions and Voices. He can also disguise himself as a rock-like structure in plain sight to be unseen even by those familiar to him(ex. Sabine's darksaber training). For whatever reason Bendu did not want to stay for a chat with Maul nor want to get involved in the Jedi vs Sith war at that moment in time, or so he let on. For such one with the Force, view to be correct, it would have to mean he was long since been dead and spirit beforehand. You cannot wound a spirit or kill an immortal with conventional means anyhow. For such an scornful, vengeful, wrathful, angry and malevolent creature, to become one with the Force, would only imply that the Jedi way of looking at things is completely wrong and regular Sith Lords are coming and going out've the nether-realm of the Force, and it would make Yoda's trials pretty pointless along with the Shaman of the Whills/Priestess(es).

Plus, one does not need to bodily disappear to become one with the Force(ex. Jinn).

 

Wasn't the whole point of the Through Imperial Eyes episode, Kallus deleting Atollon from Imperial records?

Or at least, from their current maps (replacing it with another planet).

I don't know that he's outright malevolent or evil - at least not in the sense that Palpatine is - but he does claim to be both the light and the dark during his rant. He's certainly dangerous.

"Stupid Neutral" may be in play - the kind of character that attacks both Good and Evil in the name of "maintaining balance"

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidNeutral

 

According to the writers, for Thrawn, it was on all Imperial maps. So how did it get on the maps that were deleted? Kallus is somehow Dooku deleting Kamino? LOL

So if that the planet did not exist[somehow beyond the efforts of Kallus who could not of deleted every Imperial map/chart in existence and he certainly never deleted any kinda Imperial archive or data vault just Thrawn's personal map], but we also learn it was due to Bendu keeping the planet hidden and himself. Thrawn did not appear appear to recognize or remember his own maps that he studied, he instead turns to studying "art". Thats why Thrawn had to whip out a non-Imperial map during this finale. Bendu we learn apparently chose the planet precisely because it was so hard to find per his own statement to Kanan. All of that occurred WAY before Kallus switched sides & deleted anything. Presumably not even Republic(pre Imperial) had maps charting Atallon, it went uncharted . Somehow AP-5, & chopper discover it. Oddly enough Ahsoka doesn't sense anything about the planet, nor the presence of Bendu, but Maul sensed it was a "strange place, when near the presence of Bendu who just vanished, and he went on to say that planet being so remote the Empire will have a difficult time finding them there.

Thrawn: Such as a system that does not appear on Imperial charts. But is represented in the art of the ancient people of this sector. I believe they call this "Atallon".

 

I suppose that the map was a newly created one - a compilation of all the recent droid surveys - and that's what Kallus got at and modified.

Hence Thrawn not knowing which planet had been removed in Through Imperial Eyes.

 

I take him as a Godzilla like character. In some movies, Godzilla is evil and levels cities. In others, he is a savior and saves earth from aliens. Overall he's just a force of nature, rising from the sea. Bendu is Godzilla meets this:

 

So is he died? I still don't know.

 

Wookieepedia isn't sure either - his own entry strongly implies he lived:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bendu

but the Atollon entry talks about him dying.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Atollon

Both entries contain major spoilers.