Rebels: "Flight of the Defender" (Ep. 4.06)

-- "I'll believe it when I see it."

My first experience with the TIE Defender was... oh, a long, long time ago. Sometime in the early 90s. It was introduced in either X-Wing or T.I.E. Fighter, the first two of the Star Wars video games. I don't remember which of the two games it debuted in, but I was more than a little ambivalent about it for a long time. Sure, it's a cool looking ship, but it wasn't in the movies, and I had a problem with that. Yeah, I was a real legalist at the time, and this was all before the Expanded Universe began.

At any rate, the Defender is full canon, now, and it's cool that they're showing us bits of its development, like they did with the B-wing.

All of that being said, this story isn't really about the TIE Defender; that's just the cover story for whatever it is they have developing as what I'm guessing is the last plot arc of the series. Kanan almost says as much during the episode.

And all of it starts with Ezra's mystical encounter with an extinct wolf.

"I like those cats more and more."

"I told you it'd get interesting."

The Destruction Proof

My oldest son's introduction to Lego was largely through the release of Star Wars Lego in 1999 (which makes me feel fucking old, now, realizing that that was 20 years ago). He was three and totally in love with Star Wars, and I was still collecting Star Wars stuff at the time and bought some of the initial Lego releases. Of course, he also fell in love with Lego, though the Star Wars Lego releases were always his favorite, as opposed to my younger son who loves Bionicles the most. Which doesn't mean that he, also, doesn't have plenty of Star Wars Lego.

At three, though, building Lego was a bit beyond what my oldest could do. We would sit together and I would build the pieces while he watched and "helped" me find pieces and, sometimes, push a piece into place. And all was fine with the world...

...until we got the x-wing fighter Lego. The x-wing fighter was a bit larger and more complex than the other Star Wars Lego my son had, and he quickly learned that his favorite thing to do with it was to crash it. Of course, when he did, he couldn't fix it.

So, see, you have this Lego set that took... Okay, I don't actually remember how long it took to build it -- that was 20 fucking years ago -- but more than an hour, I'm sure, based on the build times for smaller sets I've done more recently. Not that it took that long to fix it, but it still took me much longer to put it back together than it took him to crash it. Over and over again.

Fortunately, the x-wing was a pretty simple design. Usually, it was just the wings he'd knock off, though, sometimes, he'd break the fuselage in half, a more complicated thing to fix. Still, it could take 10-15 minutes to fix it, and he'd turn right around and immediately crash it again. A few seconds worth of time.

All of that changed when we got him the Millennium Falcon. The Falcon was a large set that took hours to build and was a complicated design. That didn't stop him from having "crashing it" being his favorite thing to do with the set.

This is when this behavior became a huge issue, because there was no "fix" for the Falcon that took less than half an hour and, sometimes, he'd do something to it that would require sections of it to need to be deconstructed before it could be put back together again. There were times fixing the thing took almost as long as the initial build.

Then there was the Gungan sub, which had these long, thin, blue tube pieces that served as the propulsion system, like long thin straws that were too tiny to actually drink through. On top of crashing the sub all the time, he also chewed up the propulsion system. Yes, my son did that, not the dog. The tail piece got funkier and funkier as he went from chewing one tube to the next until it couldn't be put back together at all.

And, yes, we did talk to him, repeatedly, about crashing the Lego sets and chewing on the "straws." Especially about chewing on the straws, because he got more and more upset about the fact that the tail piece to the sub didn't look right and wouldn't spin correctly. And, yes, there were times when I wouldn't fix his Lego, especially the Falcon, because it just took too long to do. He'd go throw a fit about it and eventually go back to playing. It took him a long time to get past the breaking stage of his Lego play. Basically, it took him getting to the point where he could build things himself; then he no longer what his sets to be destroyed.

Which might be a metaphor in and of itself.

The real point, though, is that destruction is much easier than construction. I'd say that ease of the process is a clue as to what is going on.
So, you know, when #fakepresident Trump says he's "making America great again" and does something like rolls back environmental guidelines or puts people in cages or gives money to the rich, you can see that all of those things have "crashed" decades worth of work from other people. This is not creating or making anything great; it's just the destruction of what other people have worked to build.

Sometimes for the sake of doing it, like doing his best to destroy everything that Obama accomplished while he was in office, especially the affordable care act. Some of the things #fakepresident Trump is doing cannot be rebuilt, the equivalent of my son chewing up those blue straw pieces. Possibly, the environment will not recover.

What I'm saying is this:
If someone tells you they're building something great, look at the process. If it's something that's quick and easy, it's more likely he's not building anything at all but just acting as a wrecking ball. #fakepresident Trump is someone who gets off on destruction. On destroying the work of other people. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that destruction is never great. Sure, sometimes it's necessary, but it's always destroying the work of someone else and should never be done just for the sake of doing it.

Maybe if #fakepresident Trump had ever actually built anything himself he would have more respect for the work of others, but I'm pretty sure Trump isn't actually even capable of building a sandwich, so what we're going to get are his repeated attempts to tear down what other people have done.

Rebels: "Steps Into Shadow -- Part Two" (Ep. 3.02)

-- "Get ready for another demotion."

More Hondo! And he speaks Ugnaught!

heh

So... Last episode, Ezra was promoted and given his own mission to command. Let's just say that the promotion ends up being short lived. Let's just say there's some Dunning-Kruger effect going on here, as Ezra thinks he's got it all under control. You know, on his first command mission. Though I'm pretty sure it didn't go as badly as Ahsoka's first mission.

Also, I learned something in this episode!

Most everyone is familiar with the y-wing fighter as they appeared in the original Star Wars trilogy:

It's one of the reasons everyone preferred the x-wings, right? I mean, besides the fact that Luke flies an x-wing. Y-wings just look kind of junky.

But y-wings are also prominently featured in The Clone Wars and, in Clone Wars, they look like this:

I've always just assumed that the ones in the movies were a later model, like with the changes in the x-wing between the original trilogy and the current trilogy. Turns out there's a completely different explanation for the different look. Which I'm not going to tell you.

Anyway, while I was having my ah-ha! moment, my kid looks over at me and says incredulously, "You didn't know that?"

Yeah, well, I don't know everything about Star Wars. Even less so these days as I actively avoid material which may contain spoilers.

And/or horrible Star Wars fanboy trolls.

"When were you going to share that information?"

"Well, of course, I just did."

"They fight so hard to gain so little."

Clone Wars -- "Overlords" (Ep. 3.15)

-- Balance is found in the one who faces his guilt.

[Remember, you can sign up to join the Clone Wars Project at any time by clicking this link.]

Other than that the Force exists, Star Wars doesn't often stray into the realm of metaphysics, even when dealing with Jedi training. There are moments, as with Yoda's speech in The Empire Strikes Back:

For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you. Here. Between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere! Yes, even between the land and the ship.

Then Yoda lifts Luke's x-wing out of the swamp to prove his point. But, on the whole, the show tends to take a much more Han Solo view of the Force.

"Overlords," though, firmly steps into the realm of metaphysics and deals very directly with aspects of the Force that we've never seen before. And, other than this story arc, may never see again. Considering that The Clone Wars is canon, it makes me wonder how the events here relate to what's going on in The Force Awakens, because it almost has to relate. [Except for the fact that Abrams probably didn't see these episodes or do any research into what he was talking about or what he meant when Snoke said, "There has been an awakening in the Force." We just have to hope that other people who know more about what's going on were paying attention and keeping things on track.]

This episode also directly addresses what it means that Anakin is "the chosen one." Hopefully, without giving anything away, or at least too much away, the idea here deals with potential. Not only must Anakin have the potential to be the chosen one, but he has to choose it. So many stories deal with this idea in terms of absolutes. "You are the chosen one, so are the chose one. It is your destiny, your fate, and there is nothing you can do about it." I like very much the idea that Anakin must make a choice to be "the chosen one."

More than any other story arc in The Clone Wars, I think this one is a must see. Whether you enjoy the story or not, if you're a fan of Star Wars, this is essential viewing.
Personally, this is my favorite arc from the whole series. I wish they had delved more into this story and these characters.

Into the Trench

As I've mentioned before, I'm teaching a creative writing class at me younger kids' school. It's an elective course in the middle school. What I don't think I've mentioned is that my younger son (the middle child) is in my class. This has been both rewarding and frustrating. It's rewarding in that my son is, actually, an excellent writer. He has great ideas, and he's able to relate them in a manner that is actually readable. Not to mention that his writing has great voice.

It's frustrating, though, in that he writes like I do. Not in the same style as me (although, I do see similarities), but by the same process as me. What that means is that it's hard. Writing is not something that I am able to just sit down and do. It's a struggle. Every time. I often feel like it's equivalent to having a huge mass of hard clay and having to beat it into shape with my fists. The good side of this, though, is that I don't really have to do huge amounts of editing afterward. I tend to get it the way I want it the first time. My son writes like this, so it can be painful for me to watch him needing to write for an assignment. The blank page is his greatest enemy, and he can sit and stare at it for, literally, hours without putting down a single word. Having to motivate him to work on assignments for class is a nightmare.

What I'm about to share with you is something special. Well, it's something special to me. But, first, why I'm sharing it:

Briane Pagel has been running The 100-Day, 100-Question Great Star Wars blogathon. That's pretty much what it sounds like, and I've mentioned it a few times at this point. Recently, however, in order to motivate more writers to get involved, he added a twist to it to make it a bit more interesting. You can go here to find the links to the various rules and stuff, but the gist of it is that there are now writing challenges along with the trivia questions. All of you should go sign up, write your piece and get involved. [Remember to say I sent you :)] The current writing challenge has to do with writing a piece of fan fic. Personally, I'm not a big fan of fan fic. However!

See... I'm breaking all the rules with my entry. The first one I'm breaking is that I didn't write this. My son did. I'm sharing it, because it's like a piece of double fan fic. It's fan fic based on The House on the Corner and Star Wars! And, if you've read The House on  the Corner, you'll know just how perfect a melding this is. The entry is also too long, but this is a great little story by my son, and I just couldn't cut it in half. And, well, Briane seems to think it's cool for people to break the rules, but I think that's just because he's a lawyer. The more people break the rules and get caught doing it, the more business he gets. heh

Anyway... This is what my son turned in for his very first writing assignment this year in the creative writing class, and I feel privileged to share it with you. As I said, this is special to me, and I hope you all enjoy it. Oh, I did do some editing on the piece, but that was mostly confined to punctuation and paragraph formation. I suggested one word change and one spot where I thought he needed to move a word, so, really, my input was very minor. What you're seeing here is what he wrote. He was 10 at the time. Just to throw that out there.

Into the Trench

I was bored. There was nothing to do. I thought about what I could do, but I didn't feel like building with my Erector sets or going outside to play. Suddenly, I had an inspiration! I would go to the Imagination Room. Why hadn't I thought of that before? I would invite Tom, too.

As I was looking for Tom, I thought about what we were going to do. I decided we were going back to the scene in Star Wars when Luke blew up the first Death Star. I had been daydreaming all the time I had been looking for Tom. Leading Red Squadron, flying in the trench, tar... I'm sorry, using the Force to target the gas exhaust. And flying from the wreckage of the Death Star.

When I finally found Tom, he accepted with an “Are you kidding? Let's go!”

Before I knew it, we were in the Imagination Room, and I was thinking about Star Wars as much as I could. Then, suddenly, we were in the hangar at the base on Yavin 4! There were so many ships to choose from! From A-wings to B-wings to Y-wings to X-wings, we just couldn't choose! I finally settled on a nice Y-wing, and Tom chose a trusty X-wing.

Somehow, we knew how to fly the ships. I didn't really care how we knew. We must've gotten the skill when we crossed over to this world.

A few seconds after I left the hangar, I was hurtling through space. I saw Yavin looming over me. It was big. Very big. Maybe even bigger than Jupiter. Of course, I had never seen Jupiter up close like this.

I turned on the telecommunications, and immediately hailed Tom, “Tom, are you there?”

“Yeah.”

“So what's our plan?”

“We were supposed to make a plan?”

“Well, duh, stupid-head, what did you think?”

“Oh...”

A new voice crackled in the radio, “Lock s-foils in attack position.”

That's when I finally saw it: the Death Star. A large gray spot on a black background. The battle had begun.

* * *

It was barely three minutes until we got to the Death Star, now a 1000 ton ball of metal right there in front of my face. I admit it. I was unprepared. And scared. Very scared. No, Jedi do not have fear, I thought. It was too late for fear, anyway.

Then, there was the trench. “This is it,” I breathed to myself. I didn't realize that my communicator was still on.

“Oh, stop whining, Sam.”

“Tom?”

“Yes... I mean, no, an Imperial TIE fighter come to destroy you all.”

“Tom, the TIE fighters don't even come at this point. We're not even in the trench yet.” I had started to lighten up a little.

“Yes, we are. Have you looked up at all?”

I looked up. “Oh, crap,” I thought.

There was laser fire blasting all around me. From the corner of my eye, I saw an X-wing explode. It went down in flames; then, just before it crashed, I heard a horrible, bloodcurdling scream, and the pilot died. That's when I realized the full danger of the assignment. Okay, it wasn't an actual assignment, but it was still dangerous.

There was blaster fire all around me, and I was trying desperately to dodge it. As I swerved madly about the trench, I heard something on the communicator, “All units, approaching TIE fighters coming up fast.”

I felt a sudden jolt as something exploded behind me...

And I knew it was my own ship. I spun out of control, careening straight for the wall. I was going to crash!

Fortunately, reality chose that moment to reassert itself, and I landed with a thud on the floor of the garage apartment. “Darn!” I shouted, as Tom tumbled past me. He looked angry. I probably pulled him out the second the Death Star was about to blow up.

“Definitely darn,” he grumbled.