Rebels: "Zero Hour: Part Two" (Ep. 3.22)

-- "There's a future for us, one where we're all free, but it's up to us to make it happen."

Spoiler alert: Kallus didn't die. I'm a bit surprised. Not that the way he didn't die wasn't cool, but I really expected that he would be one of the characters that they ended. Yes, that means some characters got ended in this season finale.

Sabine returned, so that was cool. Not that I think she'll be staying around, but involving the Mandalorians is always interesting.

And I suppose that's really all I have to say about this. These two episodes are mostly combat and anything else I could say would be spoilery.

They do leave me ready to get into season four, though, so that's where I'm heading.

"This way!

The other way! The other way!"

"This is your friend?"
"I might have made him angry."

Rebels: "Visions and Voices" (Ep. 3.11)

-- "Our futures converge on a planet with two suns."

This episode has so much in it, I hardly know where to begin, especially if you want it without spoilers. Oh, who am I kidding? None of you are going to watch this, so I'll just spoil away!


Ezra is being plagued by visions of Darth Maul... which turn out to be not so much visions as the real thing. Talk about a way to ruin your day! Maul is still stuck on that thing whole Ezra being his apprentice thing. PLUS he wants to know what it was the holocrons were going to reveal to him and Ezra. He REALLY wants to know.

Which leads them back to Dathomir, apparently where Maul has set up shop, in the ruins of the Nightsisters' temple. Or something. And the dead Nightsisters don't really seem that happy... about anything.

Just to ponder, because the episode implies that the Nightsisters are now extinct. But are they? I mean, I never assumed that Maul's group of Nightsisters were all of the Nightsisters, but the episode implies that that is so. Maybe it's the influence of having played Galaxies, but my impression was that the Nightsisters were spread all of the planet in different clans. So now I don't know... Are all of the Nightsisters dead? All of them?
Yeah, I probably won't look into it.

At any rate, they're not happy and are looking for a way to hook themselves back into the land of the living.

And the darksaber shows up.

And Obi-Wan... Well, that's all I'm going to say about that.



"I told her I had a plan."
"Really? And she left anyway?"

Rebels: "The Holocrons of Fate" (Ep. 3.03)

-- "Once a secret is known, it cannot be unknown."

Tom Baker is back! And so is Darth Maul!

And... Caleb gets spaced. Caleb, you ask. Well, it appears that Kanan has been keeping a secret and that it's that Kanan is an assumed name.

Actually, this episode is all about secrets, secrets of the holocrons and the secrets they hold.

And, man, things keep getting interestinger and interestinger. We get a reference to "twin suns" and Maul muttering, "He's still alive," and, and, and... all sorts of things.

I don't know at what point Lucasfilm or Disney or whomever decided to start really connecting the animated series... What's the plural of series? I mean, I know it's both the singular and plural, but it seems inadequate here. There are multiple animated series being referred to! Anyway, I don't know at what point they made that decision, but you can really see that process beginning to happen at this point in Rebels. Not to mention the overlap of Rebels with Rogue One. And the return of Maul in Solo. Not that I think that will result in a satisfying conclusion considering the clusterfuck Disney is having with that.

Actually, Disney is just having a big clusterfuck with the whole Star Wars franchise, right now, and they don't necessarily look to be pulling themselves out of it. The animated series seem to be the only thing they have a grip on (maybe), and I think that's because they didn't really take them seriously and left them in the hands of the team that had originally been working on them. We'll see how that goes as they transition back to Clone Wars now that Rebels has ended.

But I digress...

At any rate, this seems to be a significant episode. Maybe. It does, at least, lay some clues for things to come. Maybe. It's intriguing, to say the least. I think it's safe to say at this point that if you really want to know what's going on in the Star Wars universe, you need to be watching the animated shows. The movies are... well, they are clearly lacking the kind of scope they need to have.

"I thought you said it was safe."

"It is safe; that may be the problem."

"The airlock is down there if you want to show yourself out."

"A dull and dour chamber. This is the chamber of a Jedi."

"We asked for a chance to defeat the Sith, and we failed."

Rebels: "Steps Into Shadow -- Part One" (Ep. 3.01)

-- "You wouldn't believe the secrets he knows."

Pre-viewing comment:

I did, of course, know that Thrawn was going to appear in season three, but I didn't know he starts off the season! I'm very excited that Thrawn is now, finally, a canon character. He's an excellent villain. At least, he was in the Zahn novels. I'm hoping they do him justice here.

This episode does not disappoint! Not only do we get the introduction of Grand Admiral Thrawn, but we have Hondo as well! You know it's going to be good when Hondo is around. And, hey, Dr. Who makes a voice appearance! THE Doctor, Tom Baker. How awesome is that? It's very awesome!

Tom Baker is the voice of The Bendu: I'm not sure if that's a race or a name. He's a Force wielder, but he uses some neutral aspect of the Force, something between the Dark and the Light. Baker's listed in five episodes, so I'm sure we'll find out more about what all of this means as he teaches Kanan how to see without his eyes.

So, yeah, Kanan is blind. That happened at the end of season two, so it's only a spoiler if you're not watching. I'm not apologizing.

Also, Ezra has learned to use the Sith holocron he got at the end of season two. He's learning to use his anger to give him power.

And we've jumped ahead enough that Ezra is visibly older. I'm guessing two years, but I don't really know.

It's a good episode; now, leave me alone so I can go watch part two...

"Acting out of anger offers quick results, but it's a trap."