As promised, here is the next post on the original Thundercats! I know it is overdue, but this has been a wild and wacky year for everyone. There were days when this blogger just could not find the time or the energy to write, which meant the posts she was supposed to write got shoved onto the back-burner.
But we are here now, so let’s celebrate! Today’s subject is Jaga the Wise, the mentor and surrogate father figure for Lion-O, the young Lord of the Thundercats. The court adviser and magician, Jaga was the only person outside of the royal family who could wield the Eye of Thundera and the Sword of Omens’ full power. It is never explained why this is so, but given how much magic he possessed, it does make some sense.
Of course, it is just as possible that Jaga was somehow related to the royal family. Though he is supposed to be based on the jaguar, to this blogger’s eye, Jaga has always had a more leonine appearance. Since he and the other Thundercats were of the nobility, and nobility regularly intermarries with royalty, this writer’s theory might have some weight. What makes her theory somewhat more plausible is when one considers the 2011 series, where Lion-O’s ancestor Leo was in love with a female panther. Thus intermarriage among the various upper echelons of Thunderan society only makes sense, from both a historical and a narrative position.
Regardless of how he was able to wield the Sword of Omens so effectively, the fact is that Jaga could do it. Even so, we only saw him wield the Sword in flashback; during the first episode – “Exodus” – Jaga has no visible weapon. We never see him physically engage with the Mutants, but since he was running around the ship, it seems safe to assume he did some fighting. He was certainly impressed that a twelve-year-old Lion-O could use the Sword after almost dropping it some minutes before vessel was attacked.
As the royal magician, it appears that Jaga was acting as regent for Lion-O when the final Thunderian refugee fleet fled the dying planet. He was the unquestioned commander of the flagship and he is the one who told the rest of the fleet to use evasive maneuvers. The fact that Panthro, Cheetara, and Tygra all answered to him without question only supports this idea.
Unfortunately, Jaga’s efforts to protect the Thunderian remnant traveling with Lion-O’s ship are not successful. As far as viewers can tell, the entire convoy is wiped out in a few minutes by the Mutants, who then board the lead vessel in an attempt to steal the Sword of Omens. They are repelled, of course, but they do enough damage that even Panthro cannot repair the ship to the point it can limp to the Thundercats’ original destination.
Neither can he make the ship do more than sputter in the direction of Third Earth. Jaga then demonstrates his wisdom by ordering the rest of the crew into the suspension capsules, so that they may live until they reach Third Earth. Due to his advanced years and the fact that the capsules only slow the aging process, not stop it, even if he were to use one himself Jaga will die by the time the ship lands. He says his good-byes to the rest of the crew, including a poignant farewell to his young king, then takes the helm as the others settle into hibernation.
Since this was the 1980s, the decade of Star Wars. While I do not have a problem with the Obi-Wan Kenobi effect per se, the fact that the writers made it so obvious for Jaga in “Exodus” does kind of tweak my desire for a more…original exit. That being said, it is not a bad send off for him, and it makes his subsequent ability to offer ghostly guidance more believable than it might be otherwise.
From this point on, Jaga only shows up as a spirit who winks in and out of view when he needs to impart moral advice to the young king. It is hard to tell if Lion-O is the only one who can see Jaga when he drops in, or if the other Thundercats can see him as well. Captain Shiner does not see him during the episode where the heroes first encounter the mercenary captain and Willa, leader of the Warrior Maidens, also does not seem to perceive Jaga’s ghost when she and Lion-O first meet. Though perhaps she did see him, and she just didn’t want to interrupt him. She never says anything that would let us make a definitive judgement either way, so that is left to conjecture.
After Lion-O “grows up” following the Anointment Trials, Jaga imparts moral advice a little less frequently than he used to. From that point onward he operates in the manner of a good court advisor and fatherly ghost, bringing Lion-O news of danger he would normally learn about too late to defend against. Though the young king and his former regent are temporarily reunited when Lion-O must rescue his mentor from a spirit dungeon, they never come into actual contact again during the rest of the series.
In many ways, the 2011 series did Jaga more favors than it did other Thundercats. He even had his position in the court firmly established this time around; the ambiguity around his original position is dispatched by the simple statement that he is the head of the clerics and, therefore, advisor to the Lord of the Thundercats. His super speed is a little hard for this writer to buy, but considering the writers nailed two out of three points, that qualifies as a minor annoyance that can be rectified with little trouble.
What has always been more annoying about the 2011 Jaga, for me, is the caste of clerics themselves. It is never stated just what their function in Thunderan society is. Are they religious clerics? Considering how Cheetara and, later, Wilykit offer moral guidance to Lion-O and the others, that seems to be the entire point of their existence. But we do not see them officiate a religious ceremony or attend to any other duty except to protect (or try to protect) the royal family.
If they were meant to be warrior or magician clerics, then that would have been a nice tidbit to learn. And it would not have taken the writers more than a couple of lines of dialogue or a few background scenes to clear that up. As it is, the most we see the clerics do is try to fight Mumm-Ra, only to die en masse in one enormous explosion. And why are they all blindingly fast, when there is only one Cheetah among them (that we can confirm, anyway)? In the original series, only Cheetahs could move with the speed the clerics demonstrate. So why do all the clerics, who are not of the same subspecies as Cheetara? If the answer is “magic,” that would have been nice to know while the series was on the air! Ugh….
Putting Jaga in charge of a group of warrior magician monks/nuns is not a bad idea. Not telling us what these magician monks/nuns are supposed to do, how they wield their magic (Cheetara specifically says some of Jaga’s magic flows through her – what?), and how they are all as fast as the speediest cat in the land IS bad. It leaves the entire system feeling slipshod and tacked on; if they had taken the time to explain what the heck the clerics were for and how they operated, it might have worked. As it is, to this blogger, it just felt like unnecessary baggage.
So while I can say that I liked the 2011 version of Jaga, I cannot say I enjoyed the manner in which they fit him into the universe. And that is not counting how they made him a ghost advisor to the young Lord of the Thundercats. Trapping his soul in a magic lamp to torture him into giving up information is not kosher, guys. Having the Lizards or the other Mutants kill him while Mumm-Ra gloats, only to be shocked when the Thunderan mage fades away – that would have worked much, much better.
But beggars can’t be choosers, right? Two out of three is not bad at all. For the most part, 2011 Jaga is a nice homage to the original 1980s character, and the writers deserve praise for that. He’s not perfect, but hey, neither is anyone else.
With luck, I will see you next week with a film review, readers. Until then: “Thunder…Thunder….
Since I have disposed of this book, I thought it best to review it here and now rather than later. Star Wars: Outbound Flight focuses on the grand, enigmatic experiment which occurred just before the Clone Wars began in the Star Wars mythos. A Jedi project headed by Master Jorus C’Baoth, Outbound Flight was an ambitious attempt to leave the Star Wars galaxy, planting colonies on the way out.
Unfortunately, Outbound Flight never got past the edge of the Outer Rim into Wild Space. They met a Chiss force led by Thrawn and were wiped out.
After reading Survivor’s Quest, which I will review here in a little while, I really wanted to know what happened aboard Outbound Flight. So when I saw the book in a store, I bought it without hesitation.
Outbound Flight, sadly, was something of a disappointment to me. I have heard from Mr. Bookstooge about Zahn’s limitations as an author, not to mention experienced them when I finished his promising Quadrail series. Outbound Flight is, unfortunately, in this category as well.
I think the reason I did not notice his limitations in his other works – or put up with/ignored his weaknesses in his other stories – is because the characters were so engaging that these faults didn’t annoy me. Zahn’s rendition of Mara and Luke, their relationship, along with Han and Leia and their relationship, is always fun and interesting. So I think that usually I can give Zahn a pass on the slower parts of the books he wrote which were previously reviewed here. Outbound Flight, sadly, lacked that staying power for most of the tale, though I did grow to like a couple of the characters herein.
Before I discuss the story, I have to say one thing in defense of Zahn. Looking up the submissions guidelines for Baen and the other publishers of his work, I see that they require something on the order of 100,000 – 150,000 word limits on their manuscripts. That is a lot of work to fill out; creating a story which meets criteria like that means you get a thick book in the end. (My small paperback copy of Outbound Flight itself was almost an inch thick!) It may not be that Zahn is a weak author so much as he works with publishers who refuse to take stories slimmer than an inch in the spine, and he cannot transfer his stories away from those companies due to contracts or something.
I could very well be wrong, of course. And, since I do still enjoy the majority of Zahn’s work, this is probably personal bias speaking. But it is something I have been thinking about lately due to the fact that some of Zahn’s books work fine despite their length while others do not. I can only assume that those stories which “feel off” do so because they should have been shorter, but he had to make them longer than was healthy for them to satisfy the requirements of his publisher(s).
Anyway, back to Outbound Flight. It begins with Jorj Car’das – up and coming smuggler and the youngest member of his present crew – thinking he is going to die pretty soon because his current captain has ticked off a Hutt crime lord, in part because he gets a kick out of it. (Yeah. Wow. How is it this guy isn’t dead yet?)
The crew makes a blind jump into hyperspace, but the Hutt follows them. What neither of them realizes until the freighter is knocked out and the Hutt’s ship destroyed is that they are in Chiss space. Actually, they are in Thrawn’s lap. He has Car’das and his two crewmates brought aboard his ship, the Springhawk, where they learn he can speak Sy Bisti. Thrawn eventually invites them to stay for a little while longer so he can learn Basic, paying them for their time with some loot taken from slavers. Car’das agrees to the bargain on his captain’s behalf, but asks to learn the Chiss language as well.
Meanwhile, back in the Republic, C’baoth is fighting with the bureaucracy to get the Outbound Flight project approved. His apprentice, Lorana Jinzler, does her best to keep up with him but it is clear that she isn’t pleasing him any more than the irritation of the bureaucracy. Instead of getting what he wants, C’baoth is shunted to work on some negotiations on Brolf….
Only to find Obi-Wan Kenobi and a teenage Anakin Skywalker are waiting for him.
Things sort of spiral out from here – it turns out that Palpatine wants C’baoth out of the way because he is so strong in the Force and has Dark Side leanings. (This book shows us quite clearly how the clone went mad; the original beat him to it.) You don’t want a rival when you are trying to take over the galaxy, after all, and Outbound Flight is the means Palpatine plans to use to get rid of C’baoth – along with a whole lot of innocent people.
Car’das’ character was wonderfully expanded in this novel, and I really enjoyed reading from his perspective. Watching him interact with Thrawn, who has the hint of Dark Side leanings of his own in this book, was great, too. Lorana was another interesting character who grew more likeable the longer I read about her, and Zahn handled Obi-Wan’s perspective well while giving us hints about Anakin’s eventual fall to the Dark Side.
None of this, sadly, saves the book from its rather tedious pacing. The novel probably would have worked better if it was shorter, but I don’t think there are very many Star Wars books out there which are short – unless you count the ones meant for children. Even the short story collections have very thick spines.
I’m not casting Outbound Flight into exterior darkness, though, because it fleshes out the above characters so well and explains what happened to the project. My local library has received this copy so that others can read it and (maybe) enjoy it more than I did. If long books or Zahn’s stretching beyond his limits bother you, then this book will probably not be something you absolutely need to read – unless you want more original Expanded Universe background on Outbound Flight, Thrawn, and Car’das. (I really liked him in this novel – did I say that already? He was extremely interesting and well-developed here.) If even that doesn’t appeal to you, then please avoid this book.
Well, that’s it for now, readers; I am wiped. I got absorbed in the book while I was writing this in order to keep at least some of the details straight, so this is quits for me. Until next time, may the Force be with you.
It appears that Star Wars Rebels’ writers have begun to specialize in flash-bang season endings. The two part ending of season three, Zero Hour, premiered as a one hour episode Saturday March 25, 2017.
It. Was. A. BLAST!!!
I will delve into that episode later on. This is a season review, so I cannot concentrate simply on this slam dunk of an ending, no matter how much I wish to do just that. I would also like to ask in advance that anyone who reads this, if they have a Twitter account and are following the Rebels writers or the Rebels Recon Twitter accounts, could post a link to this article there. I want to see a lot of things in future Rebels seasons, and they are mentioned at the end of this post. Problem is, I do not have a Twitter account. However, as Reagan once said, “There’s no telling how high you can go as long as you don’t care who gets the credit.”
I do not care who gets the credit. I just want the Rebels’ writers to know about these questions and requests.
Okay, so, season three kicked off with a one hour, two-part episode called Steps into Shadow. In that debut, we saw Kanan adjust to his physical blindness with the help of the enigmatic Force-sensitive known as the Bendu (voiced by Tom Baker). Meanwhile, in this same show, Ezra “stepped into the shadow” of spiritual blindness as he skated close to the Dark Side.
Many fans leapt off of the deep end and said that Bendu showed Kanan a new way of looking at the Force. I think what actually happened is that Bendu just reminded Kanan he had the Force as an ally. He lost his physical sight, but not his ability in the Force, when Maul blinded him. The latter can and has often been a suitable substitute for the former, but Kanan’s training was not complete. If he had been a full Jedi Knight when the Order fell to the Empire, he probably would not have needed Bendu’s help to learn to “see” using the Force.
I also believe, contrary to the hype on the Internet, that Bendu taught Kanan as a wielder of the Light Side of the Force would. Could Bendu use the Dark Side of the Force – oh, yes, he certainly could. We saw the proof of that in Zero Hour. But if he had tried to teach Kanan Dark Side techniques, Kanan would have recognized that and had nothing more to do with him afterward.
Quite frankly, I think that Bendu was in fact a creature of the Light Side, something he did not want to admit. His ancient, almost primeval connection to the Force meant that he could access or be aware of the Dark Side without giving into it on a day-to-day basis. After all, if he was evil, Bendu would have made a power grab for the galaxy thousands of years ago. Dark Siders are absolutely unable to sit on the sidelines of the universe, as Bendu apparently did for millennia, meditating on the Force. That is a Jedi – or Light Sider – practice, not a Sith custom, from what I know of Star Wars lore.
The most touching part of “Steps into Shadow” was Kanan’s reestablishment of his connection with Ezra. Blaming himself for Kanan’s blinding at Maul’s hands and feeling rejected because Kanan would not adapt to this handicap, Ezra gave into his anger and began listening to the Sith holocron in search of answers. It nearly got him killed. Only by reconnecting with Kanan did he have a prayer of being saved.
And this leads us to the next episode, The Holocrons of Fate. When Maul kidnaps and threatens the Ghost crew, Ezra’s immediate instinct is to rush in to help, to use the quick and easy way to save Hera, Zeb, Sabine, and Chopper. Kanan, with Bendu’s help, manages to calm him down and show him that the harder way can be and usually is the better way.
But Ezra still had to learn patience, as displayed in The Antilles Extraction. In this episode, he has to wait for Sabine to call him and his crew to get her and defecting TIE pilots Wedge Antilles and Hobbie Klivian. The show is also a good one for Sabine, as she gets to use her Mandalorian infiltration skills for the first time on camera.
The episode reveals, too, that the new Fulcrum is none other than Agent Kallus. Those with an ear for voices immediately picked out his identity when he contacted the Rebel base. His terms of speech betrayed him as well. No Imperial but Kallus ever spoke with that particular edge and bite to his words. The fact that he did his best throughout the show to help Sabine, Wedge, and Hobbie escape was also a dead giveaway.
Hera’s Heroes and The Last Battle were interesting installments. Heroes, aside from its homage to the comedy Hogan’s Heroes, showed more emotional depth for Hera and raised the stakes for her. It also managed to shine a light on her motherly affection for Ezra and his filial love for her, something no other episode previously spent much time demonstrating.
It also set up the fascinating grudge between her and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikklesen), who lived up to Zahn’s characterization during season three’s run. Ezra grew further (with Zeb’s input) when he helped Rex and a group of Separatist battle droids realize that they had been pawns in a civil war which was nothing more than a means to overthrow the Old Republic and the Jedi Order. It is about time someone in-canon pointed that out. It was so painfully obvious to the audience in The Clone Wars TV series and prequels that some of us could not help wondering why no one – except a few characters who were knocked off – put two and two together in the storyline. But then, politics can blind almost anybody. At least Ezra finally said it!
Next we had Imperial Supercommandos. The episode showcased Mandalorian culture and answered several lingering questions about what became of Mandalore and its sectors when the Empire took power, as well as giving us a very necessary and interesting back story on Sabine. Adding Fenn Rau to the Rebellion’s cause was the icing on the cake.
Iron Squadron was a good episode for Ezra, showing how much he has changed since the first season. Much like Sato’s nephew Mart, he was cocky and reckless at the beginning, though in Mart’s case these traits are due to his desire for revenge against the Empire that killed his father. The quiet hint that it was Thrawn who killed the Rebel cell commanded by Sato’s brother, Mart’s father, added another dimension to Sato and set up the potential for a confrontation between the two in the future – one which proved to be more final than this viewer expected.
The Wynkahthu Job lightened the mood with a hilarious pirate excursion led by that old scalawag, Hondo Ohnaka. Adding Azmorigan to the crew, whom Hera wanted to blow out the airlock on sight, was a stroke of genius. Then we had An Inside Man, which showed Thrawn’s brutal methods of discovering Rebels in the TIE factories on Lothal. The show was most memorable, though, for its confirmation that Kallus was the new Fulcrum. Kanan and Ezra’s distrust and dislike, fueled by their years of combating him and the continuing loss of their rebel compatriots down below, added light to an otherwise grim episode. Ezra’s promise that Kanan could throw Kallus through the next glass map was only outdone by the duo’s piloting of an AT-DP to escape the factory. It just goes to show, the Empire has no imagination. Their pilots very rarely display the ingenuity that the Rebels do in combat.
After this we had the creepy but essential Visions and Voices. This episode was spooky, very spooky, but also well animated and plotted out. Ezra’s connection to Maul is weakened but not severed in this episode, as we had hoped. However, he does learn here that there is no way he can ever trust the former Sith apprentice as an ally against the Empire.
The two part Ghosts of Geonosis, with Forest Whitaker returning to voice Saw Gerrera after playing him onscreen in Rogue One, had its perks. It started out like a typical horror film, and watching Saw and Rex share Clone Wars memories about the Jedi was a great deal of fun. Sabine and Zeb’s scavenging the shield generator was another excellent, near-horror film caliber escapade. The ending for the show felt a little watered down, though. Something about Saw simply handing over the Geonosian egg felt too easy, as did his forgiveness of the Geonosian drone “Click-Clack.” Even so, it was not a bad ending. His hinting about the Death Star was good, too.
Warhead was a cute episode, but Trials of the Darksaber blew it and several other shows out of the water when it came to emotional impact. Sabine’s training in the use of the Darksaber and Kanan’s forcing her to face the pain of her past hit this viewer in all the right emotional places. But what also got to me was Kanan’s caution, his wariness about letting her use the saber. Though a capable warrior he would trust with a lot, Kanan knows there is a deep, coiled pain and anger buried behind Sabine’s façade of unconcern. Her reluctance to use the saber only makes this worse, and he does not want her to get hurt out of anger.
And this nearly happens. Sabine has never physically mixed it up with any of the crew. Her knocking down Ezra is natural enough; he is used to handling a lightsaber and he had never beaten her at anything before. Because he could outdo her in lightsaber practice, he started to swagger a bit. It makes sense that Sabine would want to knock him down and remind him which of them was older, had more training, and more battle experience.
But going after Kanan, taking her frustrations out on him – this we have not seen before. Even Rau was surprised that she would go after Kanan with such ferocity. The episode strained their friendship near the breaking point, but the two of them got past it when Kanan finally decided to push and not coddle Sabine. She pushed back, and in doing so, she faced her pain and anger, finding solace on the other side.
Legacy of Mandalore did not feel like it delivered on the emotion promised at the end of Trials of the Darksaber. Of course, Darksaber was so emotionally loaded that it would make sense for almost any follow-up show to dial back the intensity a bit. You do not want to leave your audience an emotional wreck, after all, or they will be wiped when you show them something else important. Legacy fleshed out the picture of Mandalore under Imperial domination, too, adding more to Sabine’s back story by introducing her mother and brother (is he older or younger than her?). Having Ursa Wren shoot Gar Saxon to save her daughter was a good touch, as it winked to her name sake. You do not go after a mother bear’s cubs if you want to live. Saxon, it appears, had a death wish.
Of course, all of this ignited another civil war on Mandalore, and we have yet to meet Sabine’s father. I, for one, want a whole lot more of Mandalore in the next season and any following seasons. Speaking of, Ketsu Onyo has been absent for all of Season 3. Where did she go? Has she joined Clan Wren in their war against the factions allied to the Empire? Or is she bounty hunting again?
That will have to wait for the questions/speculation half of this post. After this show we had Through Imperial Eyes, which showed Kallus spying on the Empire. Hearing that Fulcrum might soon be discovered as a spy, the Rebels decide to get him out. Therefore Ezra, Chopper, and AP-5 infiltrate the Star Destroyer which Kallus is aboard to do the deed. Kallus demonstrates that he is as smart, in some ways, as Thrawn in this show. But he is not smart enough to realize that Thrawn has had him figured since An Inside Man, and he accidentally reveals himself to Thrawn completely in this episode.
After this we have Secret Cargo, a bang-up episode in its own right, followed by the lighthearted Double Agent Droid and the amazing Twin Suns. For a full review of that episode, just type “Star Wars Rebels Review: Twin Suns” into the search engine on my blog.
Finally, we have the explosive Zero Hour episodes. Wow, wow, wow, wow! Thrawn springs his trap on Kallus and locates our heroes’ Rebel base on Atollon, which has Commander Sato’s and General Dodonna’s starship fleets overhead in preparation for an assault on Lothal’s TIE Defender factories. The episodes are high intensity, and there is a lot to cover in them. In the interest of time, I will just hit the highlights.
Kanan goes to Bendu for help, provoking the ancient creature into a fury by pointing out that his neutrality, his standing in the middle between the Light and Dark Sides of the Force, is in essence cowardice. He is willing to sit by and let others die above his world for no other reason than to preserve his position as a practitioner of the “middle way” between the Light and the Dark.
This is good point in the story because Kanan is right; there is no middle ground in the war between good and evil. Good will eventually win, but that does not mean evil should not be resisted, spiritually on all occasions, physically when the battle moves to the material realm. To stand aside, to try and sit on the fence, at those times, is foolishness. For one thing, a fence is usually higher than the surrounding landscape. That means that sitting on it makes you a great target.
For another thing, sitting on the fence is like sitting in a corner during a play. If your part in the play, originally, was as one of the characters who did something, but you chose to sit in a corner onstage and pout for some reason, then the play will go on without you and the audience will laugh at you.
Kanan forces Bendu to get out of the corner and join the play by his accusation of cowardice. Bendu does not like it, and his zapping the Ghost – not to mention at least one A-Wing – as the Rebels escape Atollon shows this. But for the most part his ire is turned toward Thrawn and the Empire. Whether or not he will ever return to mentor Kanan and Ezra from the other side of the Force remains to be seen. I’m kind of hoping he does not get to do that. I would not trust him not to steer them into trouble they might not be able to walk away from as payback for what happened in Zero Hour.
Another great thing about Bendu’s part in Zero Hour is that it makes Force-generated storms canon again. Anyone who encountered the Witches of Dathomir in the now “Legacy” stories knows that the Nightsisters on that planet could and would drum up such storms using the Dark Side of the Force. In his anger, it seems Bendu went the same route.
His prophesying Thrawn’s defeat before the Grand Admiral shoots him in the head was great, too, as was his body’s disappearance into the Force. I have only heard of Jedi or Light Side Force wielders having this occur when they had gained a strong connection to the Force. I suppose Dark Side users or Sith could have it happen, but it seems unlikely. They use the Force instead of letting it guide them; I have never heard of a Sith or Dark Sider becoming one with the Force in body and spirit. It gives me hope that Bendu melded with the Light Side and won’t be a problem later on.
But I am not laying all my chips on that bet.
Ezra, Sabine, Tristan, Rau, Chopper, and Clan Wren Mandalorians riding to the rescue of the Rebels on Atollon were also very cool. Just in case I did not make it clear before, I WANT MORE MANDALORE IN UPCOMING EPISODES!!! YEAH-HOO!!!
Sato’s kamikaze run into Admiral Konstantine’s Interdictor cruiser nearly started this viewer crying. It was a touching moment, but I sure hope someone is able to collar Mart before he runs off after Thrawn to get revenge.
It was nice to hear Hera call Kanan “love” again, too. She seems to have gotten out of the habit lately, and we have not had as many Kanan/Ezra interaction episodes as we once did. Kanan’s worry about having nothing left to teach Ezra is disconcerting; I am hoping he will be around for a long time yet, even when Ezra becomes a Knight himself. They both have a lot more to learn about the Force, and a lot more to do as Rebels. I would like to see them both make it there in one piece.
At last, we come to Kallus. Though his appearances this season have been sparse, Zero Hour made up for it all. From his epic fight with Thrawn in Ezra’s old home in the Lothal comm. tower, to their interaction aboard the Chimera, Kallus shows he has “turned Rebel” completely. The most interesting part of this transformation is when he starts to laugh as Thrawn prepares to head down to the surface to destroy our heroes. Kallus’ warning that the Rebels are smarter than Thrawn thinks is based on experience; as he admitted, he tried to catch them several times and almost had them at his mercy. But they still escaped him. They still beat him. And eventually, they won him over without even trying to do so.
In many ways, I think that Kallus is what Thrawn could have been if he had joined the New Republic – or, in this case, the Rebellion. Kallus is very smart, shown by how he dodged discovery for so long and by how quickly and thoroughly he reprogrammed the assassin droids Thrawn uses for combat practice. He has an intellect that almost matches Thrawn’s, but he also has something else I pointed out long ago, something which Thrawn does not have: he has a sense of honor. You cannot have a sense of honor without some heart, readers, and Kallus’ survival trip on the Geonosian moon with Zeb brought both to the fore. Kallus started asking questions – and he did not like the answers that he found. So he did something about it. He joined the Rebels.
Incidentally, if the writers want to keep Kallus’ hair the way it was while he was aboard the Chimera, I would not say no. It gave him a roguish look quite fitting for a Rebel. He ought to keep it that way. 😉
Now to those questions and requests I mentioned above. As stated, I want more Mandalore in the upcoming season, but I suspect that the writers will deliver this whether I ask for it or not. I want to know what Sabine’s father is like, I want to know where Ketsu is, and I want to know if Mandalore is Thrawn’s next target. It would make sense if it was. Mandalorian dissidents helped the Rebels beat his master scheme to bring them down. This would make Mandalore Thrawn’s next objective, so he can defeat them and they will never be able to help the Rebels again. Mandalorians have been the best warriors in the galaxy for millennia, excepting the Jedi. You would need a super genius such as Thrawn to overcome them, simply because they are so determined, strong, and refuse to bow to anyone outside their own clan-oriented political structure.
I also want to see how Kallus adjusts to the Ghost crew and how he fixes in his mind the logistics of being part of a Rebellion. He had unlimited resources while with the Empire, but the Rebels routinely have to steal fuel just to keep their ships going. He will not be able to simply snap his fingers and get what he needs for a mission or a plan as a Rebel, and that might irk him. It would also be nice if he could get a girlfriend. Maybe she could be a Mandalorian (and no, I am NOT suggesting Sabine be that girl!). His character arc in season four is bound to be interesting.
I want to see some more Kanan/Ezra, Hera/Ezra, Sabine/Ezra centered episodes, with a few Zeb centric shows as well. There have been hints all this season that Sabine and Ezra are closing in on a romantic relationship. I would like to see the ball rolling on that before the series ends, whenever that will be.
This brings up my next request: I want a season five for Star Wars Rebels. I would also like a season six, seven, eight, and maybe even a nine. To infinity, and beyond! We have three year intervals between each of the original trilogy movies and, no thanks to Lucasfilm’s decision to scrap the “Legacy” novels, we now have no idea what happened between those films. The adventures the Ghost crew will have throughout the Rebellion after the Alliance is firmly established would be a great way to explore these years between Episodes IV, V, and VI.
This segues nicely into my next request: can we have Kyle Katarn, Dash Rendar, Syal Antilles (Wedge’s actress sister), Mara Jade, Corran Horn, Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, Tycho Celchu, Winter, Talon Karrde, Kam Solusar, Baron Soontir Fel, Ysanne Isard, Admiral Daala, Kyp Durron, Borsk Fey’lya, 4-LOM, IG-88, Jerec, Booster and Mirax Terrik, the Dark Woman, and several other “Legacy” characters returned to the franchise through Rebels? Thrawn has been successfully reintegrated into the timeline through this series, so why not at least some of these characters?
They were great and good characters, after all. Lots of people like them. And I mean lots. Winter, Celchu, Pellaeon, Syal, and Rendar would probably be some of the easiest characters to reintroduce to the franchise here. With Konstantine dead, Thrawn is going to need a new Admiral under his command, after all. There is now plenty of room for Pellaeon to become part of the franchise.
And none of these characters would have to be explored onscreen in Rebels. All they would need is a reintroduction, however brief it might be. Then the novel and comic book writers could expand on these characters for the new Star Wars timeline. Timothy Zahn would love to rewrite Mara Jade, Talon Karrde, Borsk Fey’lya, Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, and several of the other characters he created into the new timeline, I am sure. If Rebels were to fill in the blanks between the original three movies, there would be plenty of room for these characters to pop in and out of different episodes and missions.
This would also leave open the door for appearances by such canon characters as Aurra Sing, Quinlan Vos (who survived the Purge for a while in the old timeline), Admiral Ackbar, Bossk, Dengar, Jabba the Hutt and other original characters. If Boba Fett entered the series – whew, what an antagonist he would be! Han and Chewie could even drop into an episode or two. We have had Threepio, Artoo, Saw Gerrera, Maul, Darth Vader, Tarkin, Lando Calrissian, Ahsoka, Princess Leia, Mon Mothma, and now Obi-Wan Kenobi show up, for Pete’s sake! Why not these characters?! They are all great, popular personages, and we would like to have at least some of them back!!!!
I would still like to know more about the Dume family, too. If Kanan never knew his parents, then he might have an entire extended family he does not know about. That is a plot twist that could be worth exploring. It would be nice if Zeb could get a girlfriend or find more Lasat to join the Rebels as well. He did not get much time in the limelight this season. Hera is growing into quite a leading figure in the Rebellion, and seeing her relationship with Ezra and the rest of the crew expand would be great.
Finally, since the “Legacy” novels loved to bring in surviving Jedi or new Force wielders, this means Kanan and Ezra could stick around for most of the Rebellion. They would not have to meet Luke during the Rebellion (they have already met Leia, for Heaven’s sake!), but they could still be there when he jumpstarts a new Jedi Order. It happened with Vima da Boda. Who says it cannot happen with Kanan and Ezra?
This brings up something else which was great about the “Legacy” stories, and which I would like to see in the new storyline: what about the other Force-sensitive youngsters who may be floating around the galaxy? Jedi Sentinels could spend years on certain planets carrying out deep cover missions, which means a few might have escaped the Purge. What would happen if one of them joined the Rebellion? How would Ezra and Kanan handle, say, Kyle Katarn, Corran Horn, or poor Kam Solusar? He would be an interesting character to reintroduce, as would Kyp Durron.
And what would happen if a Mandalorian fighting alongside Clan Wren and the Rebels discovered she or he was Force-sensitive? Does the Rebellion get recruits and surreptitious help from Naboo, like they do from Alderaan? Would our Rebel crew ever need to go to Kashyyyk for something and meet Wulfwarroo and Kitwarr again? It would be nice to see some more Wookiees – better animated than in Spark of Rebellion – in the series. There must have been at least some besides Chewie who wanted to bring down the Empire, and joined the Rebellion as a result! Heck, maybe Maz Kanata and her cantina castle could be featured in an episode or two!!
The possibilities for such ideas in this series are endless. Since it is set in the five years before A New Hope, I would be surprised if the series did not have a five season run. I would be most pleased if the show ran through the years including and between A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and the Battle of Jakku. The Ghost crew would not need to be in the Battle of Yavin or the Battles of Hoth and Bespin, although they might be brought into the Battles of Endor and Jakku. As Dave Filoni himself points out in a recent IGN interview, Star Wars is a big galaxy. There is room for plenty of stories involving characters – Jedi, Force-sensitive, scoundrel, Rebel, and Imperial – that can be explored without interfering with the original films. The books and comics of the “Legacy” years did this and got off Scott-free. Why can’t Rebels?
Will it happen? That is up to Filoni and Lucasfilm’s Story Group. I only know that I really, REALLY wish it would happen. I would dearly love to see the intact Ghost crew celebrating above Endor. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Hera would be able to keep her spunk if she lost Kanan and Ezra. They are two of the people she fights for and loves most. She loses them, and there may not be much of a “General Syndulla” to get excited about in Rogue One.
That is my opinion, anyway. I really hope that our Rebels’ Jedi survive the Rebellion, that we can see Ezra and Sabine in whatever series fills in the blanks between the new films, and that we can return some of the best “Legacy” characters to the new Star Wars timeline. It is a big wish list, but it is what I want for this franchise right now.
But if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. We shall have to see what happens, readers! May the Force be with you! (Lightsaber ignites in the background.)
The Star Wars Rebels episode “Twin Suns” was teased just a wee bit too much as the final confrontation between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Maul. While they did indeed confront each other and Maul, as expected by most of us, died, their battle was very brief. If you watch the above Rebels Recon show, they explain why.
I admit that I thought the fight would last longer than it did. However, I also see the wisdom of the writers in keeping it so short. Maul and Obi-Wan dueled for years during The Clone Wars series, and so it makes sense that this battle would be quick. For one thing, Obi-Wan was in better physical condition than Maul was. At the beginning of the show it seems that Maul’s been wandering around Tatooine searching for Ben Kenobi, and from what I saw of him, he did not have a pack full of water and food on him. This indicates to me that he’s been wandering around in the desert heat hoping to pick up some sense of Obi-Wan’s location through the Force. Not a particularly smart move, in my opinion, but despite Maul’s animal cunning I do not think I would ever label him as brilliant.
All this means that Obi-Wan was fresh and able when he faced Maul beside the campfire. On the other hand, Maul had been weakened by his wanderings through a strange, harsh environment while he was looking for Ben. So physically, it makes sense that Obi-Wan would be able to best him so swiftly. Also, he had what Maul lacked –
Hope.
We will go back to that momentarily, but for the moment, I want to discuss Ezra’s part in this episode. IGN’s Eric Goldman (and doubtless others as well), thinks that having Ezra take center stage for the majority of the episode was a mistake.
I disagree. The reasons why Ezra was central to “Twin Suns” are manifold:
First, as the writers pointed out, Ezra was the one that got the Rebels involved with Maul. His determination to find a way to bring down Vader – “to destroy the Sith,” as he put it – left him open to Maul’s manipulation, which Obi-Wan pointed out. Ezra’s desire to stop the Sith was morphing into an obsession. If he did not let it go, it would eventually have gotten him and his friends – along with possibly the entire Rebellion – killed. Someone had to snap him out of his fixation on annihilating the Sith.
That someone turned out to be Obi-Wan. This makes a lot of sense and leads to the second reason for Bridger being central to the story. When a person becomes obsessed, even in the less-than-maniacal way that Ezra was, interventions by close friends and family can be less effective than those done by total strangers. Kanan and Hera stage an intervention of sorts for Ezra at the beginning of “Twin Suns,” but he ignores their reasonable arguments and runs off anyway.
Obi-Wan, a master Jedi he has heard of and admires, points out that he really, really should not have come to Tatooine. Maul was using him to find the man he hates more than anyone but the Emperor. Ezra’s determination to find Obi-Wan himself in order to find the “key to destroying the Sith” blinded him to this fact. Kanan and Hera did not have this blinder over their eyes (pun intended; even though he is physically blind, Kanan smelled a trap), and so they saw the danger in following Maul’s breadcrumbs.
Of course, Obi-Wan also deflects Ezra from discovering the truth about the fact that he is, actually, guarding the key to wiping out the Sith. This is both to protect Luke, who is not yet ready to fight in the Rebellion, and also to protect Ezra. Luke still has some growing up to do, and the fact is that the Rebellion is not nearly ready for him yet. They are still in the building-up phase. If Luke were to join them now, and the whole thing collapsed under its own weight (or Thrawn’s), then all hope of defeating the Emperor disappears with him and the Rebellion.
We know that this is not going to happen, but Obi-Wan does not know this. He only knows he has to keep Luke safe. And, if things were changed here in this interim between Rebels and A New Hope, the TV series would qualify as fan fiction, not a tie-in series. And that would never do.
As for Ezra, if he were to learn about Luke, he would begin trying to recruit him into the Rebellion. Obi-Wan cannot let that happen. He shoos Ezra off so that the boy will not recruit Luke too soon. This will also, hopefully, keep Ezra safe. As long as he remains oblivious to the fact that Vader is Anakin Skywalker, when he later meets Luke, he will not be able to reveal anymore about Luke’s heritage than Obi-Wan already told him. In fact, he will be able to reveal even less.
This appears to be a sort of backhanded indication that neither Ezra nor Kanan has figured out that Vader is Anakin Skywalker. This is in spite of Ezra being present when Ahsoka let slip her suspicion, to his mind, that her old master had become the Emperor’s apprentice. Whew! 😉
Also, as the writers pointed out, Ezra naturally feels responsible for leading Maul to Obi-Wan. He goes to Tatooine to make up for his mistake, but he nearly makes it worse. This is why he has to be present throughout so much of “Twin Suns.” Ezra has to let go of his need to kill Vader, or it will destroy him and his friends.
Interestingly enough, Ezra is forced to do this in a desert, a very dry and tough place. The hermits in ancient times and even during the Middle Ages who lived near or traveled to arid regions would retreat into the desert or some other desolate place to remove all distractions. Obi-Wan does this when he moves to the cave a few hours travel from Owen Lars’ moisture farm; Yoda does this by retreating to Dagobah – and Luke, it seems, did the same thing before The Force Awakens.
Ezra’s journey is more reminiscent of a spiritual retreat than going into a hermitage, naturally, and it fits the episode nicely. Lost in the desert – more so perhaps than even Maul is – Ezra must confront not only the former Sith’s evil in a manner similar to the way that Christians must face the temptations of the devil, but also his own obsession with destroying the Sith. It is a journey of purgation for him, leaving him a stronger, more clear-headed Jedi apprentice by the episode’s end.
Now we will go back to the battle between Obi-Wan and Maul. It is a brief battle, but a loaded confrontation all the same. Maul states that he has come to kill Obi-Wan, then suggests that his revenge might be better served by letting him live in the “squalor” of Tatooine’s desert instead. Obi-Wan calmly points out that Maul’s jab shows how spiritually empty he is. He has traveled around the galaxy for years seeking to destroy the Sith, to possess power, and to become “great” according to the Dark Side’s standards.
The pursuit has left him an empty shell. At the beginning of the episode, according to Mr. Goldman, Maul seems dangerously close to slipping into the madness Savage Oppress first found him in during The Clone Wars series. Having never watched more than a few episodes of that series, I cannot confirm this. But it makes sense. Maul has been consumed by his hatred, not fed by it. It has destroyed him, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Though he expresses contempt for Obi-Wan’s style of life, the former Jedi Master is actually far better off than he is in all the categories which I just mentioned.
This infuriates Maul. His hatred reacts violently to Obi-Wan’s calm tranquility. He has no such peace in his own soul, and for that reason he seeks to destroy it in Obi-Wan by digging for the reason that Ben would come to the desolate world of Tatooine. He gets close, of course – too close to be allowed to live. Obi-Wan knew that would happen. Plus, he has already lost two people very dear to him to Maul. He cannot and he will not lose Luke to the former Sith apprentice.
And before you ask, no, Maul would not kill Luke. He would do something far worse, and Obi-Wan knows it. We saw how Maul tempted Ezra to court the Dark Side at the end of Rebels’ season two and several times throughout season three. If he had killed Obi-Wan, he would have found Luke, and he would have taken him as his apprentice to teach him the ways of the Dark Side. Thus Maul would have destroyed all hope of building a new Jedi Order and a New Republic in the future. That is a threat which Obi-Wan must stop.
But even after he permanently neutralizes Maul, Obi-Wan does not gloat over his victory. Instead, he holds Maul as he dies. Considering the Zabrak killed his Master and the woman he loved, his showing compassion and pity toward his old enemy shouts volumes. Obi-Wan did not have to stay with Maul until the end. He certainly did not have to tell him Luke was actually the Chosen One foretold in the prophecy (apparently). But he did it anyway. Not because Maul deserved it, exactly, but because he felt compassion and pity for this creature that had been destroyed so thoroughly; first by the Emperor, then by his own hatred.
For his part, Maul seems to have some regrets about his life. But if he had the chance to live it over again, I think the only thing he would do differently was avoid getting cut in half, if he could. Maul is totally committed to the Dark Side. He is ruined. Asajj Ventress may yet have been redeemed by her love for Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos, but the fact is that Maul has had no such opportunities to reform. He has hated for so long, too, that it is doubtful he would have accepted such prospects for redemption, even if they had been handed to him on a silver platter.
So he dies reiterating the Dark Side’s will to vengeance. What is interesting is his use of the word “us” when he says this. It is possible he means the entire race of Dathomir and, most specifically, his mother and brother.
But personally, I think he may have meant himself and Obi-Wan. After all, Obi-Wan would not have cut Maul in half if he had not killed Qui-Gon Jinn. Maul would not have done that if his mother had not handed him over to the Emperor to be trained as a Sith instead of a regular Dark Side wielder. If he had not been cut in half, Maul would not have gone on to wreak such sorrow on the galaxy in general and Obi-Wan Kenobi in particular. It sounded to me as though this was the implication behind Maul’s line that Luke “will avenge…us…” I might be blowing smoke, of course, but there is always the possibility that I could be correct.
Now, Mr. Goldman points out that the manner of Obi-Wan’s kill strike does not show the appropriate level of contact for such a maneuver. While he is equally quick to mention that Rebels is not as flexible as The Clone Wars when it comes to realistic death scenes, the fact is that this is a kid’s show. It would not do to show Obi-Wan cutting Maul in half vertically instead of horizontally. Doing that also would have spoiled the ending we all enjoyed so much.
That being said, the implication that Obi-Wan gutted Maul is quite clear. And remember, readers, that he is half-droid. There is not much to gut; slicing through what is left of his torso and the droid part of his body would certainly finish Maul for good. I, for one, am quite satisfied that the Rebels writers went this route. It is not a graphic death scene, but it still fulfills the Internet meme showing Obi-Wan moaning, “I should have cut him in half the other way!”
The last thing to address is the fact that Ezra doesn’t tell the Ghost crew or the rest of Phoenix Squadron that Obi-Wan Kenobi is alive. At least, he does not do so on camera. It is possible that he will tell Kanan and the others in a more private setting. It is just as possible that he will not, though I think that Kanan will want to know whether or not Ezra killed Maul. Ezra will have to tell him no, because even if he fibs – or were to attempt to fib – Kanan should be able to sense that he is fudging the truth. Or he will at least be able to sense that Ezra is not telling him everything.
Mr. Goldman points out in his article that we never see Obi-Wan telling Ezra to keep the fact that he is alive a secret. For starters, I think Ezra would be smart enough to realize that, if Obi-Wan wanted to avoid a fight with Maul, he does not want anyone to know he is alive. It is also possible that Obi-Wan saw Ezra and Chopper off of Tatooine. He is (presumably) riding the same Dewback he lent them when he approaches the Lars’ farm the next evening, after all. I do not think the animal would just wander back to Obi-Wan after Ezra and Chopper had dismounted and climbed aboard Maul’s ship to take off. He had to get it back.
If that is the case, then Obi-Wan might have taken the opportunity to tell Ezra, “I’m here because I don’t want to be found. Best not to mention me to anyone when you get back.” We do not know if this is what happened, but it seems to be a logical assumption. The fact that Obi-Wan’s mount at the end of the episode is the same one he loaned to Ezra and Chopper before the fight strongly implies this theory.
Another thing to love about this episode is all the little tweaks and nods to A New Hope buried in it. Ezra and Chopper setting out together is quite the nod to Threepio and Artoo’s journey across Tatooine before they get picked up by Jawas. The attack by the Sand People is somewhat spooky for me, since I recently acquired and began playing Knights of the Old Republic. I did not quite have flashbacks of all the times the Sand People killed me and my team, but I have begun to find their honking cries rather annoying. Their Gaffi sticks are equally irritating. But I did not celebrate when Maul killed them all, as you might have expected. He set them up to die. It is not something to cheer over.
Obi-Wan’s fatherly (or is that grandfatherly?), kindness and admonishments to Ezra reflect how his teaching tactics have changed since he lost Anakin to the Emperor. He is now well prepared to take on the fatherly role of mentor when he leads Luke to make the fateful trip to Alderaan. This could be seen as a dry run for his mentoring of Luke two years hence.
His subtle deflection of Ezra from the truth is also reminiscent of how Luke later confronts him about the fact that he hid Vader’s true identity from him, although he did not quite lie about it. Both times Obi-Wan stretches the truth to protect the young fellas, and I doubt that Ezra would – or will – be any happier than Luke when he finally learns that Obi-Wan fibbed to protect the two of them from Maul, Vader, and the Empire at large in this episode.
The kicker, though, is when Obi-Wan stops within hearing of Beru Lars’ call to Luke to come in for supper. As she does this we get to see his shadow as he races indoors in answer to her summons. This scene is magnificent, and if I am not mistaken, they took the voice of the actress who played Beru Lars in A New Hope and used it for this episode. She called Luke in exactly the same way before she reminded him to find a droid that spoke – I believe it was Bocce. And when I say she called him the same way, I mean exactly the same way. They clipped out her call from A New Hope and put it in the ending for “Twin Suns,” if I am not mistaken. As a final note, Stephen Stanton’s imitation of Alec Guinness could not be better. I am amazed and impressed. Well done, Master Stanton. (Author bows respectfully.)
Well, readers, this is my take on the third last episode of season three of Star Wars Rebels. It was a good episode and I enjoyed it. Marvelously animated and masterfully told, “Twin Suns” is an episode we are all going to want to show our children at some point in the future.
Remember, readers: the Force will be with you. Always.
Thoughts on the Edge of Forever 