A More Civilized Age: A Star Wars Podcast - 66: Path of the Jedi, Idiot's Array, and Vision of Hope (Rebels 10 - 12)

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

The first season of Rebels has come around the turn of the midseason and is headed directly towards a dramatic conclusion. But before it gets there, we have some business to take care of. First of all, Ezra's gonna need to get a lightsaber. Second, we gotta get to the bottom of this "senator-in-exile" business. And of course, it wouldn't be a Filoni-helmed Star Wars product without a few special guest cameos. And hey, somehow, we're not even that mad about them. Next Time: Rebels 13 - 15 ("Call to Action," "Rebel Resolve," and "Fire Across the Galaxy") Show Notes Hosted by Rob Zacny (@RobZacny) Featuring Alicia Acampora (@ali_west), Austin Walker (@austin_walker), and Natalie Watson (@nataliewatson) Produced by Ricardo Contreras (@a_cado_appears) Music by Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal) Cover art by Xeecee (@xeeceevevo)  

Let us return once more to a more civilized age, a Star Wars podcast. I'm Rob Zakini, joined by Aliaqampora, Austin Walker, and Natalie Watson. We are, as always, supported by you, our listeners via patreon.com slash civilized. So head over there if you want to support the show or just want to get access to all our awesome Q&A episodes. I think the last one is a full hour of us watching you. tubes and being like, what do you think of that guy? And that is podcast magic.

Everyone should happily pay fun to do that. We also looked at some JPEGs and said, what do you think of this helmet? Mm-hmm. So. Very true. We did. We were viewing things. Yeah, we were viewing things.

Now, you won't be, of course, but there are copious show notes. I put all the helmets in the show notes. Yes. Thank you, Rob. Yes. Exactly. So, you know, it really can be. You can watch along with us.

It just requires some planning and forethought. So, like, sorry if you're doing dishes, but maybe you can just put your laptop off to the side and just, like, copy, paste some links, you'll, you'll have the perfect experience. Make a slideshow. I'm saying this now, we might put multiple Filoni zones in this episode, so I'm sorry. Oh, my gosh. Oh, see, there you go. All right, so, yeah, we should get into it because we have a trio of one-offs here, the tie-in to some of the season's major ongoing threads. And, boy, I cannot wait to talk about some of the things we learn in the third one.

But first, we have to start with Path of the John. We don't have to get to the third one before we're getting to wild shit. They're all one and three especially. Two, two. I mean, I will say that watching these made me rethink how we have to think about episode continuity that like for two reasons. One is we knew that this is a show that doesn't have many arcs but does have standalones that connect. But I didn't really feel it, I think, until this arc or this set of episodes. partly because it's like right away he's like

Canaan, we'll get in the summary, but right away, Kane's like, what happened back on the asteroid base? I'm like as if it were just like a pick up the thread. Do you know what I mean? Which too made me think about how we have the curse of doing a podcast recap show and, you know, a crit show where we're going to be saying for this whole series, why didn't they talk about blank?

And then the next episode immediately is that? And Clone Wars trained us not to think that the show would work that way. It's not our fault. It's not our fault. We were conditioned. We were conditioned. Exactly. Take some, take some, you know, sympathy on us here. You know, it's not my fault. So that's, I think, is one of my big takeaways from these before we even get into any of them, right? I haven't quite come down on, like, what I feel about that yet for this show. Because also some of these episodes, the second episode we watch, feels completely standalone. I guess not exactly. There are names that come up. The name Vizago comes up. I was like, oh, yeah, that guy. But, like, it's mostly a standalone. So I don't know. Yeah, but we'll open with Path of the Jedi. And I think that one's an easy one to summarize.

It's an easy one to summarize. It's a very quick, but then there's a lot to dig into. Basically, Canaan decides he needs to have Ezra take his Jedi quals. So he and Ezra go to a hidden Jedi temple and do an Empire Strikes Back speed run with a special appearance by Yoda. I I I I can't

I can't fucking believe that that little green froggy freak is in this fucking show too when is he not here

when will he die MK immediately was like so wait is he just spending all of the time between the two trilogies just facetiming with Jedi from Dagobah like is he He's just hanging out and be like,

He knows? He knows that these people are out here. He literally said, this is why the meme is so, is the meme. Because he actually did know that there were other Jedi. He actually, he actually truly did know. He's just keeping it from Obi-Wy-W-W-Y. He literally has met Ezra, Bridger, and Canaan last name. Uh-huh.

And he told, he told Luke that, There, he was the last Jedi. Everyone's not dead. Well, he didn't say that. But he didn't say he was the last hope or something, right? And this is the little bit of wiggle room that these fuckers have to keep doing it. And okay, and here's the other thing before Rob gets back. I'm going to save it.

I don't care. You finish your thing. All right. You finish you how you don't care? You don't care anything? No, I was speaking for you. I thought you were going to say, I don't care. We don't care.

I don't care that Yoda. I don't care. that Yoda didn't know 40 years ago in the after movie that was before, I don't care. But that's actually not what I was going to say. What I was going to say, I'm going to say it now, is I think this episode makes a sick case for

there being a hundred Jedi out there still. Because it's sick when Jedi during this period sneak around and go to ancient Jedi temples and like try to uncover the mysteries inside and try to figure out what's going on inside of them. It's sick when the mystic knight-errant leads their apprentice into the wilderness so they can connect with the force and make their own lightsaber. Like, this shit bangs.

It's why I've role-played Star Wars when I was 13. Like, this is it. Yeah. Sorry. You're right. But, like, Yoda shouldn't have, like, a radar sensor. I know. I know.

Like, did he divide his soul into a bunch of little pieces and then, like, put them into each temple, or? Here's the end of the summary. Here's the rest of the summary. I have. At the end, Ezra gets a khyber crystal and he fashions his own lightsaber with the gang aboard the ghost. That's it. That's all that happens. They're like, we got to go see if, like, you got to go undergo Jedi exam. Here's Yoda. And then here's your crystal. There's the inquisitor, like, ghost. There's the vision of the inquisitor in the same way that it's, that is the

Darth Vader vision for Luke. Yeah, exactly. Yes. I guess, but yeah, we do open on picking up Immediately where we left off, Canaan is freaked out by what happened, you know, aboard the asteroid base. And it seems like there's a conversation between him and Hara that, like, he has floated this. Wait, wait, because there's something before this that I need to know what, what, I felt like I missed some. I thought for a second, I skipped an episode because it's open to the Canaan walking around being like, where's Ezra? And we get Ezra, like, running through the wilderness back aboard the ship. Like, he's like, where was he? We didn't get that, right?

I didn't miss something. He was just chilling. Why is he sprinting back? Because he's in trouble. He's late for class. He's late. He's toast in the mouth mode. But he's like, sorry, I'm late.

I was with Sabine. Yeah, I know. What were they doing? I was thinking about that. Okay. I think he was probably, I think she was probably, like, out in the desert, like, just maybe painting or, like, chilling. And he was there.

And he lost track of time. comes back and he's like, oh, I was hanging out with Sabine. But really he was just, he was there while Sabine was like doing some cool stuff. Oh, you're right, because this might actually be something he was referred to in the next episode. Maybe the tissue is like that connective. Oh. Okay. Because there's a moment where like Sabine has a little exchange about the last time he commented on her art.

Oh, you're right. And so is he like watching the artist at work, uh, a la Mr. Elton in Emma, where he's just like, oh, it's So what you really captured, it's a blank canvas, you really captured the essence of the cat monster of Lothol. Yeah. The Loth cat, please, as we've learned. The Loth rat, the Loth cat, and the Loth wolf or whatever. Anyway, yes.

Rob, go ahead. Yeah, so we get, you know, Hara and Canaan have had some sort of conversation. Kane isn't sure he wants to do this, but Hara's adamant that he has to. And so they fly off on the Phantom. and Canaan gives him a bit of history, which is that, you know, when Canaan was coming up, there were 10,000 Jedi nights, those days are done. And Ezra's asking, like, am I basically walking the path you did?

Did you take this test? Neasra sounds like, no. Canaan is a bit evasive, but he's also quick to say everything was different. And so, you know, like in some ways they are both, like, Canaan is working from a book, the Jedi don't seem to have worked from for a long time. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Which is interesting because it helps underscore how little of a playbook Canaan has for all of this. He can't just refer to his own upbringing. It definitely doesn't seem like Canon was a Jedi that was like in line to be like the Jedi that we've seen before. Like he's not an Obi-Wan. No. He's not, he was not. I mean, later in this episode, Yoda was like, oh, a master you are, huh? Huh, you're a master?

I mean, he must have been, like, pretty young when Order 60s. He's probably Ezra's age, right? He was probably around Ezra's. He's probably, like, an young adult, late teen. Like, he seems like he's in his, like, 30s, maybe. So, yeah, he doesn't know how to train someone. He doesn't know how to be a master and have, like, It doesn't seem like he was particularly on that path either.

So it's interesting. But he knows what he should do is tell Ezra, find us a temple. And by the way, I have the GPS also. And so weirdly, Ezra just starts getting visions as they get closer. Like really setting his boy up to succeed. As they just hone in, like, the force emanation is getting stronger. And Ezra's like, I think I'm getting something. And he, well, you know, you guys.

is a little convenient that it was on Lothal. Like, I know that we've been talking about the fact that it's really cool that we're really building out this one planet of Lothal. But I guess because of the blockade, they wouldn't want to go in and out of Lothal. I think it's the other way. I think it's like, it's Lothal because there's a force, there's a force temple here because the force is coagulating in places. And it does that.

And the Jedi would have recognized that. and built a temple here and that's why Ezra is here and that's what like this is the shit about the force that gets tricky right is that like tattooing like this is one of those planets I wish it was tattooing but tattooing all of the cool shit about tattooing has nothing to do with the force it has to do with Jabba's palace and you know what I mean like scum and villainy low force power shit the thing about this is like the idea that like oh there's okay so there's a temple here uh remember what else there is here there's like a khyber mine here because that's part of what the empire wants.

So that's why the Jedi are here. They're here to get Khyber, and that means the force is here. And so it's like, yeah, okay, Lothal is kind of one of these places that was touched by the force and becomes like a layline or whatever in the force. That works for me. More than we keep going back to tattooing over and over again because the viewer knows it, you know. I wouldn't mind if they had gone somewhere else, but I'm glad they didn't go back to the ice cave. of Ilos

Illam, I always get it wrong I always get it wrong. One of those is the Mass Effect Planet too. It's Elos is the Elm. Is that where the kids went? Yes, they went there. Which is also, this is a re-do of that episode. I guess I am glad we didn't go there. Like, that would be the very Star Wars thing to do

that we hate. So that's a good point. Though there were a pretty cool episode of them going there because Canaan went there and then being like, holy shh. Well, like, the empire is there mining it right now. in fiction. Oh, yeah.

So they could have gone and seen that, and that would have been kind of sick. But I'm kind of with you, Natalie, like it does feel a bit like in Batman stuff where he's like, oh, I have a bat cave hidden around here. And so there's always a proximate, like here's where all the shit he needs to be Batman is nearby. And what do you know?

We have a Jedi temple. But this is just the direction of the universe is gone. Because basically this is a fallen order situation. Like they go to a little, you know, oh, find the Jedi meditation point. and unlock the Jedi temple place to get your new upgrade. You had this stuff back in the day, too. You know, you look at the, like, especially when you're looking at the old Republic

comics and stuff, the Jedi were everywhere, right? And now we're wrapping back around that with the High Republic in the idea that the Jedi were out on the frontier of the High Republic era, building temples and stuff. But I do want to call out both of your anxieties, I feel, were also felt by the production team or the marketing team or whatever at the time, because multiple times in very things, and maybe including this Filote's own watch, but definitely on like the, the episode trivia page on the website, it straight up is like, there were other Jedi temples at the time besides the one of Corrassant. Remember that one episode of Clone Wars

or Savage went to a Jedi temple and killed those guys with that big pike? That was a Jedi temple and it wasn't on Corrassant. Remember that they had the thing on Illam. There's Jedi stuff all over the place, and it's like a little defensive, you know? So I do imagine that there was a little bit of pushback on the idea. The Savage thing, it was more like temple slash listening post though like that didn't totally feel like a temple i think it i think it was only because i've now looked it up yesterday to look up was that thing that and it's a small entry on wikipedia but it's there and it's called the whatever whatever jenni temple i think it was maybe being used as a listening post at the time but you know who could say they're militarized

I mean, they can't train everyone on Corrassant. Well, I think that they, I think generally you get trained there and then maybe you get deployed out into one of these other places, maybe. Other hugs. Well, let's you meet a cool kid and you're like, I'm just going to train this one while I'm just out here in the field and see how that goes. And that's how we end up with Ventress. Yeah.

Yeah. I'll let them know about the cool kid later. Oh, no, I'm dead. Damn you weakway pirates. There's also a really sick thing here, which is that the, um, Some of the stuff in this temple is based on more Ralph Macquarie art, including this Yavin Temple piece that is not the direction they ended up going with Yavin in a new hope. Yavin 4 being the moon where the rebel base was at the end of Star Wars. And you can see like, oh, yeah, like this is kind of like the writing here shows up.

The style of writing shows up. It does have that vibe. You're not wrong. What's up with this weird projection in this image? Yeah, what's with the ghost demons? I don't know. Does it feel like the good guys do business here? Because it doesn't quite feel that way.

This might be like the empire has occupied an ancient temple or something. I don't know, you know. Maybe, maybe. I mean, also this temple, once they get in it after doing a little force magic to open the gate or whatever, like lift the pod of the temple up out the ground so they can get inside of it is like metal as fuck immediately. with dead skeleton Jedi on the ground. Yeah, I was waiting for him to be like, t-he. And like, you know, it actually not, not. He walks across, like, amongst these skeletons wearing robes.

Yeah. And Canaan tells Ezra, Ezra's like, what are, like, what am I supposed to do here? Like, what's going on here? He's like, this is what's going to happen. You're going to go in there. you're going to find what you need to find and I'm going to wait out here for you and that's it

and he's like I see what you're saying what if I don't yeah what if I don't make it back and Canaan's like well there's a bunch of like all these you see all these dead bodies these are dead masters like that died waiting

for their padwans to return and I was waiting for the like he or whatever and no just says it so seriously like so that he's very serious. This is a very serious. It made me think we were going to get a fake out.

I thought we were going to get the like, who do you think sent the boat parable? Do you know what I mean? Like God sent the, you know, there's the floodwaters and then the person's waiting on the top of the roof and is like, oh, sorry, God's going to save me. I'm not going to take this boat. I'm not going to take your help. And it's like, who do you think sent the boat? Classic, classic thing that they teach you when you're a kid, I don't know. Yep.

I thought this was going to be a thing where it's like, yeah, those guys died because the lesson was. that sometimes as a master you have to stick your neck out for your Padawan and you have to go help. And then my brain was like and it was opened up and was like,

what if this is a temple to a different Jedi sect that actually believes that Padawans and masters have actually believes in helping dead ass Natalie. I was like, what if it's a different,

what if it's like a Jedi sect that has slightly different visions of what tutelage and, you know, it should be. And it's not that because the brain is the brain of Star Wars.

is too small for the idea of competing Jedi sects. But boy, do I want that world. Well, I will say, I think it does feel like something competing is implied, though. Like, if you view it as all these temples are old. Right. This is what I said. Yeah, that, like, the Jedi Temple on Corrassan is a political institution. Yes.

This is, like, St. Peter's Basilica. Right, right. This is, we have now moved to the seat of power. but a religion used to be distributed and you would have because like they're not doing this shit with Padawans in the modern era of Jedi. So this is some old school shit. And you can just imagine by the way some shitty old like Opus Day type Jedi who were like in my day if if your Padawan didn't make it back from the fear cave. Yeah. Then you just you just meditate until you died man. And that's that's why we were so hard.

Yoda would never do that Yoda would never sit there until he died No he did the opposite He told the kids they were going to die He was like we'll be on the other side of the ice cave He's like I'm going to go home You might not So good luck kids

And you know he's old enough He saw this temple in use Man we don't know that I don't know when this temple was actually in use But Well Yoda's important He can't just sit there He has to go take set at me

I still don't know that I believe that like those are masters of paduans never returned like I had wons are way too uneven a group to you know what I mean it's like draft prospects like are you are you telling me seriously that a third rounder you're going to have like that's true during the clone wars but if you go back like 500 years before it's a more ascetic age it's a more ascetic age and you're and you're like if you're a Jedi you're way more monk and you're like I was just going to sit around until I died anyway. It's a big fuck up. My whole life was training this Padawan.

Now they're dead. I'll just wait until the, you know. Yeah, because there's also so many more Jedi that it's like, it's other people are taking care of shit. You know, there's only two, it's more guys to just be guys who sit. That happened twice. Yeah, that's true. And there might also. Twice on one planet, though.

Maybe Lothal's not the spot for raising, raising bad ones. I guess it might also, you didn't see it, though, where, boy, back in those days. the Jedi doing this initiation shit you took it really serious right you're staking everything on your pad of one yeah and boy by the time Anakin's in there it's like I remember

what that kid's up to I even checked out I don't know he's fine is he ready to go take over a clone legion yet and like die on the front line no okay we'll talk talk to me again in two weeks you have him run it again you just run it again change it no

leave it the same have him run it again he's getting it through this he's got to get through it pass yeah yeah yeah and then So Star QB, okay? Yeah. So we get the, yeah, so Ezra goes through the gate to begin his task, but he asks Canaan, what am I looking for? And Canaan replies, nothing and everything.

Ezra says that doesn't help. And the door closes, and Canaan more to himself than Ezra says, I know. But that's what Master told me. And I do kind of love that, like, this is the second time I think, Canaan is referred to kind of how, like, he remembers Yoda saying things. But when Ezra's puzzled by them, Canaan kind of always confesses, I didn't get it either. And I kind of dig this where it's like, you can imagine all the Jedi in Yoda's age before Order 66. You'd always tell yourself, generations have lived and died before me.

It's always been fine. I'm going to listen to these guys. Like, this all means something. And what kind of dig about Canaan is that he seems like a guy who's entertained the possibility that, like, maybe it don't. Maybe these guys didn't know. Like, is this actually helpful? Does this help anyone does help me? What does it mean?

Yeah. And this is all he has. Like, this is all he has to offer in this moment. Like, kind of dead words. Well, and he left them and found different words for 15 years or whatever. And now he's being asked to do the job that he only has those old words for. Because in intervening 15 years, he learned a lot of other words. He learned how to survive.

He learned how to shoot. He learned how to bag hair. era. He learned how to start a rebel cell. He learned how to, you know what I mean? He learned all this other important shit that the Jedi didn't teach him, but he didn't, the stuff that they did teach him waned. And he kind of gestures at that in this episode when he talks about how he's done some bad things or whatever. I don't know if you remember this. He's like, I turn, he says, this part, I was like, I need to know about, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. But he says some stuff there. And so I kind of do feel like he's trying to slip into those old words, but he never found

resolution on those old words. Those words didn't protect his master. Those words didn't protect the other Jedi. So why should he trust them now? It's just that they're the only ones he has for this. And he knows that if he doesn't give Ezra anything, this could be trouble, right? Yeah. Because he does know, does he know Vader as Anakin? He probably doesn't know Vader is Anakin. But he knows that Jedi falls sometimes theoretically. Yeah. This is what I really liked about how we started off this episode where Ezra is like kind of shockingly self-aware or like self-reflective in the in the sense that he says he knows that he's like kind of blowing it but he also acknowledges like this isn't how I grew up like I want to become the Jedi

you see in me but like he's been raising himself for the past seven years he has no he's no sense of uh or adherence to structure or hasn't practiced structure in a really long time especially with like a mentor figure or an authority figure in general so coming into this point

where he both of them haven't really fulfilled this role or been in this position before and thinking about Canaan having probably been Ezra's age the last time he heard

these types of words and never being in a position where he had to impart them on someone else and believe in them the way you have to believe in them to really impart them on someone else is really fascinating. More fascinating, I think, than the dark side cave shit, to be quite honest. You know, we get the... Canaan shows up. I was just messing with you kid.

Come on, you need to follow me. And within seconds, you're like, yeah, we got a vision here. And that's confirmed by the Inquisitor being there and killing, like, Phantom Canaan. And we get into a bit like what the, a bit like what we saw in the previous episode, really, where, like, Ezra's big breakthrough moment is, oh, fuck, what's his big breakthrough moment?

It makes them connect to the animals. Oh, he's afraid of, he's afraid of being vulnerable and opening up to other people or something, right? Yeah. He's afraid of being alone. He's afraid of the truth. Oh, yeah, afraid of the truth. And, oh, yeah, afraid of the truth.

I was afraid of the truth. The truth about his parents, yeah. And he's afraid of being alone. I do think that this is, I think there's a more, this is a smoother through line than that one, because we do get his big fear is, is the projection of everyone thinks he sucks. Everyone thinks he fucking sucks. Wow, you shouldn't listen to AMCA. Okay, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Ezra is growing on me. We're at the Ezra's growing on me arc, starting this episode. I've been defending him since basically the jump. You have. I think he sucked for a while. I think him, go ahead, Allie. Well, I was just going to say, I do think that this is like, early for him, though. We're spending a lot of time with his emotions that, like, don't, like, I know that he

feels self-conscious around the crew. Like, it doesn't seem that deep that we're seeing it. And I think also, like, the, it's funny that Rob, you said that this was a speed run of Luke's experience, but, like, Luke's experience was, like, two minutes, and I got it. He fought Darth Vader. He saw his face. That was good. Ezra gets like a full 5-7 here and like the depths we keep going through his like brain

is not compelling. It gets worse as it goes on. I like it. I think that the two things I like. One is the stuff that he sees from the people here, you're right. We know that they don't like. We know that he's afraid that they don't like him. I don't even think it's particularly revealing in the fact that the way that they don't like him is different for each person that like Zeb thinks he's annoying and Sabine thinks he's a little boy and not like appear and obviously not a love interest. And then Hera, I think the bit about like, oh, Hera wants to use me for my skill is actually pretty good. Like that's pretty sharp that the show underscores that that is a potential relationship between the two of them, especially given where the third episode of

this arc goes. But then I think that the thing that really does connect those two, this with the big takeaway at the end is that unlike I'm afraid of the truth and that lets me use the alien cats to defend myself, here the thing that he voices is that he wants to be like these people who are selfless and who give other people hope. And he can't imagine himself being like them. In fact, he thinks he's kind of hated by them. And that has a direct through line in terms of the thematic thing that his deep fears are about. His fears are about not being able to stand up next to these people and be like them. And so I think that much works. And the other thing is, I think the lightsaber fight, which is completely empty because we know

it's fake, still fucking rules. I think the lightsabers look so good in this show. And the like really rapid animation stuff is so fun that the stuff with the Inquisitor and Canaan is just a blast to see early on. And then, and then I don't know, I think the Inquisitor's voice is just so good. I like seeing him chew up the scenery and be threatening. And the bit where he swings at Ezra, you know it's going to go, you know it's not going to kill him. But there's presence in that role that I still think works for me more than the last two episodes, which I was so down on, you know? Yeah, you take his presence there seriously rather than it feeling like a figment of Ezra's sort of, like an exaggerated version of him. That would just be something that that

that Ezra might imagine the Inquisitor to be like, but it feels very within the Inquisitor's character as presented to us. Also, we get that little line from the Inquisitor that I feel is real. He says about Canaan, oh, is that what he's calling himself now? The Dark Side arc. Oh, not even that.

Wait, what's the Dark Side arc? Well, wait, was it when Yoda was talking to him? Yeah, it's later. That's later. The part that I'm talking about is when the Inquisitor, like, faces off against Canaan, the Inquisitor, you know, Ezra yells Canaan or something like that. And the Inquisitor is like, oh, is that what he's calling himself now? Which is like, oh. Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Well, what's going on there? And also, if there is truth there,

what's that mean about these sorts of force visions and what they're ground? I mean, it's the force is speaking, right? The force is pulling on something real in order to, in order to produce this vision. And so where does that come from? It doesn't come from the Inquisitor, obviously, but it comes from, is it coming from Canaan? Is Canaan's doubt bleeding into this thing? I don't know. Anyway. So what the Inquisitor says is, so he called himself Canaan now, did he? So to me, it sort of seems like, so that's his name and not necessarily, like, I don't know. The delivery on it, the delivery on it fully felt like. Yeah, like he, this is a different identity. So he called himself Canaan, did he? That to me is like he's lying about who he is to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

What's going on with it? I wonder if that's a fear of Ezra's or if that's something extrapolate, like if that's some sort of insight into the force question mark. I don't know. But the idea that I think both are interesting. One, if it's Ezra not trusting that these people, that Canaan is who he says he is or that there's something that Canaan's I mean that is an anxiety of like Ezra's is that people are hiding you know things from him that he's not like he's not uh clued in but also if it's if it is some sort of insight into I mean it would make sense for Canaan to take a different identity of course I've been we've been recommending Ezra do like to stop saying your Ezra and stop saying you're a Jedi especially yes please stop saying that to people counter argument

and this can let us move forward on the, on the summary, what if Yoda has a little, what if Yoda has rolled 20 up and is running this whole circumstance, this whole thing? And that's him as the GM being like, oh, so Canaan calls himself now, does he? And that's just, Yoda is embodying the, is controlling the Inquisitor in this vision. Because, of course, the next thing that happens is that Yoda shows up as the glowy lights from Dagaba from that fucking episode, from the Clone Wars episode. He's quigoning.

He's quigoning or he's whatever the other things were, the glowy orbs from Dagaba. Yeah, the emotion ladies. I think you're onto something there, awesome, because there is something that, like, Yoda does, especially when he's talking to Caden. He's working on this, like, misrepresenting information because he's talking to Ezra.

And then when he's talking to Cainan, he's like, oh, I said something different in you. Are you training somebody? And it really has the feeling of like asking somebody if they got a haircut when you've already looked at their Instagram. Like he there is an element of yeah, the whole and now master are you of this decision honest you must be. There is an element of like Canaan in some way, shape, or form is the prodigal. Like there's something here that is like to me. Me, it feels like it has always felt to me like he didn't complete his trading.

Yeah. That he's not, he's not a Jedi. And he's close to it. He qualifies in a lot of ways, but he didn't actually, like, do the thing and make the commitments they're supposed to. If you told me that, like, the ceremony was on Empire Day, I would believe you. You know what I mean? Like, he was supposed to graduate that week or next week. But his shame seems to imply something more proactive happened as well.

Like, I'm wondering, is this in Asoka situation? where he bounced, where he got real far down the path and was like, this is not me. I don't know. Well, doesn't Yoda explicitly say like when you lost your way, like you've lost your way before,

like you've gone. Which is what they say about Asoka. Right. Yeah. Right. Oh, yeah. She lost her way. You know, it sucks when we lose someone like that.

Like, this is the episode that we watched that was all the unfinished animatics, but the vibe of it was very much like, oh, this is how they talk about this when someone quite justifiably you know, throws their gun and their badge on the desk and leaves, they're like, damn,

I couldn't, you know, it's a shame they couldn't hack it. For a while they, okay, so things I like about this. I like Socrotic method Yoda more than I like Clone Wars Yoda. The Yoda who walks around and like asks you questions and pokes at you and like... This is fun Yoda.

And he started turning into that during his little Odyssey. This is, this is Dagaba Yoda. He's turning into the Tehi. In fact, it is literally Dagaba Yoda. This is Frank Oz doing Yoda. So it is actually Yoda. It is movie Yoda. I think he has it a little bit more. And I think that there is like, there just is something

more aligned with the way that the original trilogy thinks about the force here, which is like, and at least the original trilogy characters think about the force, which is that you can get to. to it. You can be guided to it through open-ended questions that it's in you already. It's in the world already. So it can be revealed to you not through, not through rituals, but through questions that deep down inside you already know the answer to. And so like there's a lot of that here. And like, come on, you can give it, come on. You can just be truth, truthful. You can be

honest. And honesty is powerful because the force is true and therefore da-da-da-da. But instead of saying all that stuff, let alone instead of having the Jedi, you know, counsel or the fucking guards with the double-bladed lightsabers and the big throne rooms and all that shit, it is just like a weird old guy prodding you to say the thing you know is true in your heart already. And I like being in that mode. I don't think it's better necessarily. I think the other mode gives you other stories to tell. But after doing six seasons of Yoda as kind of bumbling, political power, monk who's retired into, you know, monk whose main concern is war and Senate politics, I'm excited to have a little bit of this version of the Jedi Master again,

you know? Also, I did spend a little bit of time being like, I wonder if it's really Yoda. I wonder if this is actually just a projection from Canaan projecting what does someone who is, who is knowledgeable and wise in the force. What's that sound and look like? But then Wikipedia.com says, Yoda was hiding in Dagaba during this time period, which the show was set. And having Yoda speak to characters from afar helped ensure that audience did not, quote, think that he had left Dagaba, which is very funny. Uh-huh. There was some fear, maybe.

That's something you say, though, when he's definitely sneaked away from Dagabba. Damn motherfucker snuck away. I know it. I know he's going to go away. What's the Cantobite? Yeah, he's on Canter Bite right now. Uh-huh. Oh, this is from a TV guide to, uh, a TV guide.

not interview, but article. Yeah, this is a quote from Dave. Here we go. Dave quote, coming in, coming in hot. I'm just going to read, I'm going to read this whole thing. Not the whole thing, but though rebels takes place between the two Star Wars movie trilogies, a time when the few surviving Jedi are hiding from the empire, the 800-plus-year-old icon is drawn from hiding to offer counsel to fledgling Jedi Knight Canaan and his new

Padawan, Ezra, on the remote planet of Lothal. The twist? He only appears as a disembodied voice. But what a voice it is. Frank Oz, who famously starred as Yoda, in puppet and computer-generated form in five of the Star Wars films, returns to the franchise for this episode. I felt, this is quote from, this is from Dave.

I felt personally to keep Yoda as this disembodied thing would confuse the audience less, says executive producer Dave Falode. He also directed the installment. I didn't want you to think Yoda could be teleporting from planet to plan it. It helped that Filoni was directing an actor so closely associated with one of sci-fi's most beloved characters. Quote, what's great about Frank, by keeping the voice very present and active, you do feel like it's a watchfulness that he's speaking to you from afar. And I didn't

want anyone to think that he'd left Dagaba. It was on the outer rim of what we do, but I think we were able to pull it off. Ha-ha, on the outer rim, Dave. You bastard. You motherfucker. I will say, like, the camera work feels like you were getting Yoda vision. almost the way it circles around the characters as like there's a bit of like the it like the air of the of of Oz's recordings is almost as if he is like sort of pacing around and like observing and like doing the very holding forth and I think the camera kind of mimics

that because it feels like the characters being circled and observed and sort of measured and weighed and both of them pass ish he draw you know he draws out from Ezra that behind the anger he has at the empire is this envy of the ghosts of what they do and how their work changes the way the universe feels right and changes how people feel and he wants to do that and once he sort of commits to that Yoda kind of the magic was inside you all along and he turns into the little lights go away and he turns into a little chiber crystal that's Yoda he put Yoda in his lightsaber he put he put Yoda in there mm-hmm Yoda is inside his gun well okay spoiler for his fucked up lightsaber he's redacted oh yeah I love his lightsaber me too it's so good

And first of all, I love that everybody helped out. I'm so, it was so cute. I love his family. I want to go to there. Oh, I also, before they leave, Ezra's like, I was thinking, shouldn't we use it as a base or something? Who knows what's in there?

And Canaan is like, I know what's in there, the past. Boom, drop it, leave, love it. Canaan's great. Also, he knows this is how you get God. Yes. Let's not go into the big temple. He literally said when he was going in, he was like, yeah, I mean,

strong possibility that Imperials will be here strong, you know, strong vibes. Yeah. They are on the planet and they are looking for this kind of shit. So and then yeah, everybody gives them some extra stuff spare parts. Chopper gives them a power cell. It's cute. Even chopper.

Allie, can you describe the lightsaber for people who haven't seen it? It's like a big, it looks like a big staple done. It's like flat and it has like a thing that you, so it has like a handle that you hold on and a thing that you push in. And it's like painted a little bit. It's like white and orange because it existed in Clono's Rebel, so it should look like that. And I think it's great.

It's like industrial in a different way. Like it feels like somebody you built out of like parts from Home Depot. You know? I mean, I guess that's already true about the lightsabers, but it has DIY vibes. it does. Yeah. And it looks like a, like, not like a kid made,

but like a kid made it. Yeah. Like it has like a kidish kind of vibe to it in a way that, but it's, you know, a fucking laser sword that can cut you in half, which is scary as shit that you could just make that. Like that's wild. You could just make a laser sword.

Well, you have to go through the heart puzzle to get your crystal. So there's that barrier. If only Emmy award-winning David Tennant were here to help him build the lightsaber. It was David Tennant, right? It was the droid guy.

Yes, that's he young. Who's, I believe, going to be in this new Asoka show. And it's that character. Oh, wow. I did like this more than the Young's arc. I hate the ergonomics of his lightsaber. I'm sorry. I think it's clever. I think it's good that it looks like a little tool and all that

fits the characters. The ergonomics. He's young. He doesn't know what it is to have a body yet. He's his body isn't breaking. I don't know. That like little faux handguard thing just seems like it's going to not be great for the finger. Bang his knuckles on it. He's going to, yeah. He's going to throw a balance off because the blade doesn't really have weight in that way. Maybe it's been rebalance. Okay, but what if inside there are little like weights or like, you know what I mean that you can like a Just to adjust the like a mouse exactly. Yeah. And he's like pulled those all back to offset the forward weight of the grip or of the guard. All the Jedi are posting, you know, their, their lightsaber settings.

Uh, on the Jedi internet. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Anyway, that's an episode. Yeah. Uh, it's, it's fun. And then we get to an episode that's very much intended to be a little bit of fun.

Idiots Array. now regrettably it is not the Star Wars rounders we might have hoped for but there should have been more cards in this episode honestly it should have just been nothing with cards but instead it centers on some real dirtbag Lando Carrizian stuff basically the setup for it is the crew is a little short on funds and right as we learned this we also learned that Zeb is in a high-stakes sabbat game because they're they're broke and they're looking for work but there is no work and with an unbeatable hand Zeb, best chopper, but is beaten by his opponent, who is, of course, Lando. Instead of taking all their money, Lando enlist the crew for a little cargo delivery. While traveling with the crew, his raw sexual magnetism throws everyone into chaos. No one knows what to do with smooth-talking Lando Calarizian. Everyone is fucked. everyone's brain just goes

go-go-gog. I mean, he's certainly trying to fuck everyone if you're asking you're saying it that way. Inclusive people, he should not be trying to fuck. Okay, no, no, no. I have to make, I have to defend Lando here because I want this one. I know, I know, I'm sorry. But of the conversation that he has

with Sabine is the most normal conversation that you would have. It's not normal. Okay, he calls her the lady, which is a little weird. I will give you that. But, like, just being like, oh, I recognize that graffiti. That's not what he said. That's not what he said.

What he said was, oh, I recognize that graffiti. He said it like that. Whatever word you say, I'm going to say it back to you. It's not his voice. It's an affect he puts on to flirt with people. He also says, like, he necks her kind of, and he's like, it's simplicity. Yes. I love your life.

Nuust and it's simplicity. He's negging her. while he's talking about like your dumb art is really good yeah and then he like put doesn't he like put his arm around her shoulder and they walk away together i don't know i have to look back this is this is the full lando treatment and uh things get even worse uh even though some of the crew's warming up to him things get very chilly when they realize his cargo delivery is a twilight to a sleazy crime boss as morgan now you know how sleazy is Because he's a fat glutton. She's with his mouth open. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Anyway, he got James Hong back for that role, by the way. They did. Surprise got you the Twilight and shoves Hera toward her toward the crime boss. Uh-huh. But it turns out, even though everyone's very upset about the fact that he appears to have bought one of the crew in a card game and then also traffic to their captain, it's cool because... Hera recognized that, like, Lando was running a scheme and sort of read his cues that this is an Alley-Upe type situation. And so she's going to escape immediately, and Lando gets to keep his black market money equipment, which turns out to be a truffle pig puffer fish. I will say the truffle pig puffer fish star of the episode.

I wasn't sure about this episode, but like that thing is made of good vibes. the physical comedy that arrives, like the fact of Warner Bros. Cartoon just erupts into the middle of the hallway. Absolutely worked for me. They take it to Landau's new mining claim as Morgan and his goons are waiting for everyone.

The shootout unfolds. The ghost crew is victorious. And while Landos stiffs them all on payment, we do discover that a very determined chopper stole Orlando's fuel for the spaceship. And we've all learned. A lot. Yeah.

And then we get a final bit from Lando being like, I knew they did that. Lando's huge daffy duck energy. Yeah. So can I just, okay, I just want to, I have a little, like, thing. Maybe I've mentioned this before, but there's always something that bugs me about the way Lando is portrayed outside of the original trilogy. Sure. Yeah.

I don't think people get Lando. I think he is a consistently misread character. All the Lando is a flirt and a courtly smooth talker is at a moment when he's trying to lure, like, Lul Han and his friends into a false sense of security. Lando is the only character in Star Wars that dissembles. He is actually, like, the most, like, coolly calculating strategic character. He isn't a guy that gambles. Like, this isn't, like, the thing about Lando is that so much of what we see, what later creators take from him is an act and they think that's the real person and the real person

is the fact the entire time the empire is like taking over cloud city he is basically getting his go bag ready and setting like like laying the groundwork for a mutiny to get everyone off the station when things break bad and then lando's also the guy who's like we need someone to fly the lead the, lead the strike force to go into the Death Star. And Lando also turns out to be that guy. And by the way, at that point, all the courtly, like, smooth bullshit has dropped away. Like, he's all business in return of the Jedi. Right.

And so it kind of bugs me. Like, I guess he would, like, you know, he's in his gambler mode. He is, like, manipulating other people around him. But the thing that does bug me a lot when I see portrayals of Lando is they lean really heavily on the first half of appearance in Empire and they really miss the fact that the guy is not as sloppy as all that he isn't as he's not this much of a dog in some ways and you end up with a performance like in this like in this episode where like Lando comes across as a bit of a sleeves bag running like really long shot half-ass Cohen Brothers grade schemes for money.

And I just don't think that was ever the guy. But the thing I will sympathize with is it is tough to channel what Billy D. Williams did with that character. Billy, like, Williams... And this is Billy D, but he didn't write the shit. And neither did the original screenwriter of Empire, right? Yeah, it's, I don't know, like, the character feels so different here. Well, like, I think one of the things I think about a lot when the original, when Lando shows up an empire, he does his big suave arrival and, you know, oh, we had some good times, huh, Han.

But then when he, like, ends up talking, there's a point where he's talking to Leia about the situation on the, on the thing. Or maybe he's talking to both of them, both Han and, and Leah about Cloud City. And Han's like, so you got a good thing? You got a good thing going, huh? You got this gas mine. Is this working out? And he's like, listen. If we're not as sufficient as self-sufficient as I wish we were, we've had some labor problems, you know, and that is not, the, the mask drops in that moment, because he's just talking about his everyday, he's not running a con with Cloud City.

He is trying to run this thing as a business in this moment, and, you know, maybe he'll get back to con to running a con later or whatever, but that's not the mode he's always in. I think that that's pretty much right, Rob. I'm with you on that. Well, and then, like, this is literally a cartoon, and he's a character who in other appearances is rendered cartoonish. And so here that is, like, it doubles, and you get the guy who is just truly on one throughout this.

Just hitting on everyone all of the time. Like, it's so... Straight up, you know, is Canaan treating you right type shit. I mean, so I had not checked the credits. I'm actually really surprised that it is. as Billy D Williams because like the voice the performance feels off like like voices

changed it's been a long time it's been 40 years but also like it just he's not it doesn't feel dialed into what he was doing in Empire there's 34 years previously that's a long fucking time it feels very much like him playing up like a memory of like parts

of the role that he inhabited but yeah it's it's very it's even the way he looks in the show it's a bit of the character caricaturist version of Landau. And I don't necessarily hate it, but I think it sort of matches sort of the characterization we get here, which is that a lot, yes, like Austin exactly, like when the moment where that mask drops in Empire and you see that like, this is a guy with a lot on his mind and

he's trying to make a go of it. And like, things don't sit as lightly on him as that cape. Right, right. The friend showed up the worst possible time, right? part of the role he's playing as the sort of scummy governor is about keeping the empire off his fucking back. Yeah, it's out of desperation. It's out of like, it's out of self-preservation. And I think it's fine to also have this character who's a gambler and a flirt. Like, I don't, I don't think that that's like a...

Yeah, because it's whole, like, at least that's holistic. Like, there's, they're not, in this episode, he's a scammer and a flirt and just never let's like the way that he like goes kind of tete-a-tete with hera the whole time where it's like flirtatious banter but oh she gets like she gets it like she knows what we're doing is like there's never a point where he's like listen like let me just level with like right he's so one-dimensional in this episode that and the fact that he's not only like that with hera but is also strangely like that with sabine or at least is like putting himself in a position where Sabine like trusts him more or like wants to like

engage with him more than she would Ezra and he's like specifically setting himself apart from as like he's really weird the structure he tries to like he talks about our ship our he's like he's like embedding himself in the ship dynamic in the crew dynamic just a purely structural way the writers of this episode are making the that part of that B plot is, oh, and also, Ezra can feel some sort of way about how there's a connection between Lando and Sabine and that he's being cut out of that. Like, that's what that B plot is. It's like, oh, and then Lando will be a wrench between Sabine and Ezra for 22 minutes or for,

you know, seven of 22 minutes. That'll be part of the thing. And that's like, okay, like, I guess you can do that story. It doesn't especially work for me. It's so that Ezra can be like, I told you so. he pulls the rug out from under like that's because he says like I got a weird feeling about this guy or whatever or like I don't there's something about this guy it just feels boilerplate to me it feels like so yeah that's all I'm not even like mad about it I'm not

there's I don't feel no just I feel like Lando's wasted I mean it's I'm I was excited to see Lando in this context I was excited to like see him like I was like holy shit Lando owned chopper like how do I even look what? is going on um so i was like excited to to have an episode with him and and this crew specifically but yeah it just felt like we got the like we got the like kids birthday party lando damn yeah yeah but i will say i think i'm a little closer with with alley here in terms of i don't get like the strongest creep factor vibes with him and sabine i think he's like looking at a, like, I think genuinely

to agree, he is a guy who, like, appreciates culture and he's looking at a kid's art, and she's a decent artist, but like... Rolling my eyes. I'm laughing. Reminds me of Jane Orr's protest paintings on Bith. Yeah, he's been to make. But it's not fake. It's all real.

Like, she's... He then says that... No. Then he calls her shit simple. Well, and he's a compliment... Her work is... He says, your work is even more stunning in simplicity. Shut the fuck up, Lando. He's playing her.

He's trying to play her. Whatever to whatever end, who the fuck knows? Maybe he wants to sell her to another guy that he knows that he's already sold someone to, by the way, because his relationship with Asmodian or whatever is like. He's the people seller. Yeah, he's like, oh, nice to work with you again, Asmoregan. Like, as if they've had a rapport before. I don't know what he's done in the past. Didn't he say something about the last one?

Isn't there some? I forget. How long has he been trying to get this puffer pick? How many other people has he moved to get this close to As Morgan? Who could say? I also, look, I do love this, look, the fact that people buy and sell droids not great. But I do love when Canaan comes over and is like, wait, you can't, and Zeb shows Cain and the cards. And immediately Cairn's like, I'm just going to shut up.

I'm not like his morals goes so far and then he's like but that is a hell of a hand like it's not really here's a thing the hand he has is he has sabok in sabak sabak's like blackjack you're trying to get to a number right at sabok it's 23 um and you can get there a bunch of different ways and depending on the rules of sabok you're playing you know and also sabak versus pzok the old republic variation thereof you have cards that go up you have cars that go down you've cards that my double your value, you've all these other cards, right? There is a thing called the Idiots Array, which is when you have Sabak and you've made it along with the Idiot card.

And that just beats Sabak. So when he's like, that's a, and this is a hand that can't lose. It's literally a hand that can lose. It's literally, there's one more hand that can't lose. And then you get called an idiot after. You get, like, you lose in the most, you take the biggest L if you think you have Sabok and the other person, if you have Subbock. walking the other person has the idiots array.

And also, like, we know Lando uses skifters. Right. Landau cheated. We know that about him. He's a cheating guy. He's a cheating guy. They might not know this, obviously, but, like. That hasn't happened yet, but.

Yeah. Well, I think this is. That movie isn't out yet, that's all. This is the major reason that, like, the reason Lando has to play everyone on the ship is because he needs to keep getting them to sign on to his plans. Yes. When everyone else, when if they ever, like, spoke as a group and are like, are we doing this? The answer would be no.

There's no way if he's like, so I need to pretend to sell Hera to as Morgan. So are y'all in on that? The answer would be no. We're not doing this. We're not leaving her aboard his ship. But by turning it into, hey, Hara, you know, your man Canaan out here was out here doing X, Y, and Z wasn't consulting with you. so how do you feel about that? And so, you know, out of irritation,

she's like, fine, I will improv my way through this and I'll like sign out with Landau's plan. So like his whole thing is we've seen this crew be a pretty united front at a lot of times. What Landau's doing in this episode is imparting a little like more dynamism to the relationships in some ways and sort of exposing some fissures where, you know, You find the places where what are the circumstances under which they would fail to be a united front?

And he finds those seams and hits all of them. I like that Hara explicitly calls him out on that being his strategy. Like she explicitly says to him, you keep catching us at these like intermittent points where I forget what I have it, I think, right here. Yeah, they stand by the pig. Uh-huh. Sorry, the pig conversation. Oh, after he goes nice, he feels. finally appreciates you about

Canaan. And that's the thing. She's like uh-uh, no. No. And she's like you need to stop. And she says enough with a divide and conquer. You think by setting us against each other, you'll keep us off balance enough to get what you want. But what you want depends on my crew. Working together

in sync. Is that clear? As Crystal Captain. Or whatever. But I love that she sees right through him immediately and then says it to his face even and calls out that, like, hey, you're not going to, we've been friends for two, we've been a crew for too long. Like, you're not going to set us against each other. And he fucking chills a little bit at that point, which I appreciate it.

He does. Yeah. Also, we skipped the Hara's incredible line while she's escaping from the barge, which is a great, I love the design of that thing, too, this kind of like slowly moving through space barge from, as Morgan. And as she escapes after knocking everyone out with the tray, she hits. she hits them with the that was a really useful tray

which is just on the right side of they I guess they fly now for it to work for me it was a really useful tray yeah it was a really useful tray she also her excuse to the guards outside his room is like

he needs to take a moment while I'm going to go change clothes in my quarters I was like whoa like I don't know just no we're in original trilogy timeline people get sold into sex slavery that is what's happening in this fucking episode well it is it's like it's so associated with the twilocks that nobody even bats an eye yeah when this woman in full flight gear shows up and it's like hey found that twilight you were looking for and everyone's like yeah that makes sense sure bring her in weird outfit but sure yeah and it's like she clearly flew the ship here and is morgan's like cool awesome Awesome. Love it. It's ridiculous.

But it is, yeah. I like that we're in this realm of things where like things are just like they are what they are. It's not disguising itself as kind of something else. It's pretty up front with that. I'm sorry. This show's just so much fun. I'm sorry. I adore when the fish inflates and it's Canaan, the fish, the pig fish, puffer fish pig pig.

The puffer pig It's called a puffer pig It is called a puffer pig Yeah it's called a puffer pig officially But like so Canaan's stuck in the In the cockpit And we get the two shot of him and Zab The two people who should not be flying the ship

And frame between them is the clearly Terrified Popper Pig I'm sorry It's just like the show is so good That stuff I love I love all the puffer pig stuff I like this episode generally I just Landau's weird

But this is fantastic This is the thing The episode is really slimy in a lot of ways. I still had a lot of fun with it because a lot of its bits do land eventually. But it is one of those things

where there's many moments where you sort of stop and they're like, oh, this is, this is gross and it's weird they're going along with this. Like, you know,

we're basically in a... They do feel like they're stuck, which I like. Like, they're broke and they're in the middle of this adventure with this slime ball. This is a lost cowboy bebop episode. You know what I mean?

They've like stumbled into some shenanigans with a weirdo who's trying to steal an animal, you know, so that he can use the animal on the mineral, the mineral outpost he has, the mining plot he has, because the Imperials made mining scanning equipment illegal. So that's what he needs an animal to do it because the animal isn't illegal. Great. I like that conceptually quite a bit.

So, yeah. The puffer pig is really cute. Puffer pig is really good. I love that Canaan is kind of trash at flying. Like, he pulls it off in the end after Harris, like, go into the cloud. There's two big, not big, but there's two really good Zeb moments in this. The first one is when Hara first learns that he bet Chopper, and she calls him by his full name, which is Gazeb Orelius.

Gerazeb, Gerazeb. Gerazeb. Orelios. Fantastic moment. But I was also, I was surprised by like how, how. Goofy-coated he was. I guess it's the Ezra vibe. But when they're in the room and Ezra's like, Lando said we shouldn't open this and he immediately hits the button.

Yeah. Uncle energy. He is, yeah. You know, it's their ship. It's on Lando's ship. I want to open it. Let's see what's in there. You know, he's been smuggling.

He's been doing jobs for people. Lando sucks and Lando beat him. And that's why he opened it. you know if Ezra had lost the ship or whatever if Ezra had lost chopper in a bet Zeb would be like

don't touch that you already fucked up so much for us already you already got us in this mess but now because Zeb did it Zebba that wants to take a look I'm gonna touch his box I'm gonna fucking touch his box

he's already in trouble he's more in trouble you already grounded me I dig the gun battle it's not the most dynamic thing but it's a fun Western finale of everyone, like, takes their position, starts shooting from cover.

It looks like we might have finally killed that fucking slingshot. The slingshot's dead. Slingshot is dead. It's over for the slingshot. Slingshot's probably never coming back. I don't know. It's dead because the lightsaber does the slingshot thing. Yeah. He just can't arc it. This is why I don't think that

Ezra should have a lightsaber yet. I think that his journey to the foreshould be going slower. We should have at least seen through season one with one weapon. Like, I feel like getting a weapon upgrade in season one is a little fast. But... No, it's Surf Dracula.

Wait, what? It's what? You play with the Surf Dracula tweet? Surfing Dracula? Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah, this is a good, yeah. This is Tofer Floren. Shout out to the homie.

Back in the day, if you do the TV show called Surf Dracula, you've seen that full surfer every week in new adventures, but in the streaming era, the entire first season got to be long-ass flashbacks to how he got the surfboard until you finally get to see him surf for five minutes in the finale. Okay, that's a really fucking good tweet. Okay, they're right. I don't think it's relevant here. They are right.

They are right in a way. But that kid needed to get that lightsaber and he needed to get gone with that. Speaking of episodes connecting, the fact that we don't even know it's a gun, technically, until this episode, right? Because he shoots it for the first time. And then everyone's like, whoa. And Canaan's like, mine doesn't do that. Yeah. It's like, it's interesting that this show has that, like, we've said it already, but it's just interesting this show has that component to it.

where like characters are like time is passing basically and it feels real and again it does feel like a tabletop game every time it does feel like he bought he got this upgrade and he got the version of he got the special ability that lets it do a little a little gunshot also and Zeb rolls intimidation on the pig and passes and creates a floating piece of cover slash wrecking ball well like Sabine is just playing a platform or an action platform. So we need to play Jack and Daxter right now.

This is all like sort of double jumps and shit. I also just the show, look, the show's just fun to watch. Everything with Chopper wrestling

the fuel canister aboard, which the entire time I was like, is he going to use it as a bomb? Because Chopper does feel like the sort of character who would kill everyone. And this episode would be like, wow, like can you believe Chopper

detonated a fuel canister under those guys? And they're all dead now. That seemed like a thing that might happen. But instead he's wrestling it aboard the show. but we get a great shot of framing the two sides exchanging fire within the foreground chopper

can't it all the way forward so we can speed right up the thing and like hammer it another couple feet it's great I love this stuff like I think this is one of the real strengths of this show is I think this show can be fun to

watch in ways that Clone Wars never was Clone Wars could be spectacular you know and Barr is a spectacular sequence but I don't I think Clone Wars was ever funny. It never had the swashbuckles. The show has comedy in its veins in a different way. People are bouncing around.

We talked about this visually. I think it's all over the visual animation design of the show. Going all the way back to Spark of the Resistance, there are times when character proportions or the timing of events or timing of animation is designed in such a way to make it, you know, to, what's the word I'm looking for? there's a word for this in animation where you like kind of overdo it in order to make something seem bigger than it really is. You know, you time the animation frame such that you have the wind up be extra long and then boom, you're at the delivery. There's a lot of that in the combat

in this in this show and the lightsaber fights and the gun fights a lot in the way people move across stuff. The way Zeb jumps from place to place, the way that Zeb bounces off this puffer pig. It's constantly playing with traditional animation techniques in that way in a way that like Clone Wars kind of had a filmic style, and it wanted to keep to that. It wanted to look like a film and not cheat, quote, unquote, in the way that, like, you know, animation does to make something seem faster or bigger or more explosive than it really is, you know? Mm-hmm. So, big fan on just like, yeah, I'm enjoying it as a production, for sure.

Do we want to go to the Filoni zone? I realize we skipped the first Faloni zone. Oh, absolutely. And I can jump ahead. and it maybe is what I should do. All right. The first of the Flonie Zones and the second one both have a two part. There's like a part one, part two about editing and the value of editing a show.

But it's nothing that I think this audience hasn't heard before about what an editor does. I think it's really geared towards a young audience who's not heard that terminology before. We don't have to watch it. If you're interested in watching it, you should go watch it. It's on Rebels Recon 109 and 110. But we are going to jump ahead to the nerd shit here, starting at two minutes of this first one. Let me quickly share my screen. All right.

Does everybody see Chopper? I am watching. Yes. All right. I want to do a count here. Three, two, one. Go. This week, we met with casting creators to discuss that mystical energy field that binds the galaxy together.

In Path of the Jedi, we learned that there are. our Jedi temples scattered all across the galaxy. Was this a concept that was just created for rebels, or is this something that has been tossed around before? There are a lot of places where you find in Star Wars storytelling where you actually delve deeply into how many temples are out there, where are they in the galaxy. We've seen a couple in Clone Wars,

so we know that there are other temples scattered throughout the galaxy. The Jedi order being as old as it was developed over time, and there would be the satellite institutions scattered outside of wherever the Central Jedi Temple. I love Pablo. We had a long debate about about the believability of one of these things being on the planet that Ezra's on.

But at the end of the day, it's all kind of working together somehow in a bigger picture that we're not really revealing yet. Is this a sort of trial that all Jedi students have to go through at some point? There's a lot of debate about this. I think we tend to lean on the idea that a Jedi trial was customized to the Jedi in question. The temple environment is responsive to who you are. And that's a really critical element of this. just like the cave is responsive to Luke on Daigoba.

Luke only needed two minutes, Allie. Azar needed more. He has no idea who Yoda is. When he hears that voice, right, he doesn't know who it is. He doesn't know who the fuck that is. Because of the series of trials that he's put through. What are some trials that you've been put through

in the making of the show? Why did they always ask him questions like this? He can't open the holocron. Do you think it's possible? He just always sounds like that, no matter what question you feed? Yeah. Finally finds peace, and that's when this thing opens.

And it has been a thing where I'm like, wait, I can relate to that. When I really calm down and not worried about things, things start to make sense. Having Frank Voicing Yoda was actually also a great thrill in a major part of the episode. What was that like? Yeah, I've worked now 10 years on Star Wars almost, and I have a lot of great memories. Definitely, you know, of course, working with George is number one. To think that, like, years later in my life of that, I would be working with Frank on Yoda dialogue. You just kind of step back and you look, and you're like, wow, I didn't see being here.

Do you think he's going to Frank for the mandolory at some point? So we went to the story group's Pablo Hidalgo to get answers. I think, I think he... Eric Geller wants to know. Are stormtroopers considered an elite corps of the imperial military or are they just regular soldiers? Oh man, what's the best way to answer this that's fully respectful of the awesome 501st Legion? It's easy to put on paper that stormtroopers are the best of the best. But then when it comes to having to put them on screen, they often fill roles where you can't

have the best of the best. I mean, if you're going to exhibit a soldier in Star Wars, an imperial soldier, you're not going to create some sort of generic military guy. You want to use stormtroopers. So that means you have to have a mix. Tony Gilroy being like, nah, nah, nah. If you look, some of the stormtroopers are really good. The guys who raided the Tanavre four at the beginning of a new hope, those guys were really good. They really made short work of those rebel defenders. They sure did. That's Rob's argument.

That's argument. That's argument. That's argument. That's argument. But Tarkin wanted them to get away. that these guys aren't clones because they're definitely anything but uniform All right

So that was our one from last time We have a more here from 110 You know what Watch Chopper We'll watch Chopper for a second here We're coming in at Cotto Is Charlie Mario Pain?

146 It's not Mario Pain It is a Super Nintendo though Three Two, one, go Wow This Super Empire Strikes Back Oh, with the Mode 7 flight sequences?

Uh-huh. Chopper's playing. Chopper's got the S&S controller. It's not your fault. It's really, really hard. Chopper's losing. Chopper threw the controller down. He marked the highly anticipated return of a fan favorite character.

We talked with casting crew about the old smoothie himself and his game of choice. The old smoothie? The old smoothie. The old smoothie. And it looks like he's just getting into the mining game. Where is the character's development at this point? development at this point. I guess he does become a mining guy. The Lando that you see

in Idiot's Array is very much smuggler and a schemer. He isn't really legit at this moment. He's operating in the fringes. Lando's probably more like a scheme a week kind of guy. He may be into mining this week. He may be into use starship sales the next week. He might end up

producing a stage play the week after that. Like, he strikes us as a kind of character who has a lot of... This guy laying groundwork for lots of things that whipped around the writer's room. Yeah. like Lando. So she kind of sniffs him out as being full of it right from the start. What did her? Yeah, I'm sure it wasn't the first time someone tried to sell her. And so far as he could be useful, that's fantastic. The way he speaks to her, not so much,

but it's nothing she can't handle. Now, fan girl, Vanessa, when I saw that name on the page, I had a heart attack and several times during the episode, Freddie would turn to me and say, do you know what this means? The past gets so excited when Billy D is going to be there and then I never put them in the room with Billy D because I don't think they could handle it. I was so charismatic and his personality is so defined by his voice. Only I get to hang out with Billy D. The game of Sabak is the stuff of legends in Star Wars.

I mean, Lando lost the Millennium Falcon to Han Solo playing this game, but this is the first time we actually see it. How did you go about creating it for the episode? You have to get out the rules and I ask Pablo and Leland what are the exact rules. And of course they know all of that. And of course they know. What I did for that was not only make sure that the gameplay made sense in the course of the episode,

but I also provided ABC, our concept artists on the show of that original set of cards, so then she could make cards that weren't exactly that, but made sense, that the values made sense on the card faces. I'm glad that we're able to keep that Sabak mythology alive in a show like this. If the Rebels cast got together to play a card game like Sabak, how do you think that would go down?

You know, Steve's probably got like a pocketful of extra cards. No, I would, I would be. pick Freddy. In real life? Oh, yeah. I think Freddy would win. Don't tell Freddie I said that. Freddy's really smart and he's street smart. So what's the vibe? With Freddie Prince Jr. on the show. We love reading your reactions to Path of the Jedi. What is the vibe? I don't know. Jacob Lockett asks, where and when did Canaan get his lightsaber crystal? He seemed surprised that Ezra had even received one. Well, Kane was a Padawan during the time of the Clone Wars, so we have every reason to believe that he would have gotten Khyber crystal, the same way that we see

those younglings together in the gathering episode of the Clone Wars. So he probably would have gone onto the crucible, that ancient ship, voyaged all the way to Ilam and gotten his crystal there. He met Dave Tennant. And that's kind of been tradition. The suggestion is that's become such the ingrained notion of where you get it

that Jedi may have forgotten that there were other paths back in the day. So an ancient Jedi temple, like the one seen on Lothel. Could actually have had Kiber crystals there. So I think Kainan was surprised that one actually did turn up at a site like that. And one more question, because everybody wants to know.

Who is Fulcrum? Oh, who is Fulcrum? That's a good question. You know, in order to really get into that, you really have to look in the history of secret informants and their role in galactic conflicts. And for something like that, you really have to examine a carrier who's troubled you. Okay, bud.

Uh-huh. Boo. Boo. Bo. You better be a hell of a reveal now. They're starting to tease it. They're starting to tease it. They're starting to tease it.

It could just be any rando. Yep. Like, uh, it's some random senator or something. Well, well, yeah, I know. Well, I think it's. Who do you think it is? I think it's, uh, saw. Oh.

I think saw's fulcrum. Saw feels too. Do you know who fulcrum is? Do I know who fulcrum is? I feel like you do. I mean I'm getting a vibe from you My thing is that fulcrum

We know that Andor uses the name fulcrum So my question is Is there a folk? Yeah, in Rogue 1 he's fulcrum Oh But we know Remember we had this conversation

I was like there's no way Andor was in When were they making this show again? 2014 I don't believe Andor is in this show Rogue one was 2016 Again I could not

imagine a world where and or's in this show and none of us like a chess player like that especially not right now you would deploy andor you he's not really like sitting back and like making right he's not like a freya freya's got fulcrum vibes but who's frayah luthens uh number number one. The brunette. Is that what her name is. With a K.

Is it Clea? Clayah. It's Clea. Clea. Clea. Because I remember my theory of Cass and Clea. Oh, right, right.

Yeah, Clea. She's got fulcrum potential. Yeah. Maybe that's not my theory. But Andor is like, quoting apologies. No, that's okay.

Yeah. Andrew, I don't think this is Andor. So the timing doesn't work out. Because again, Andor season one is happening while this stuff is happening. Folkram seems well established. Right. Well,

We're going to know who it ain't in a second here because our final episode is Vision of Hope. Ezra gets a vision of hope during his Jedi training, and it's where his favorite pirate Hollandette hero, Gal Travis, is being rescued by the ghost from Imperial ambush. And during that rescue, Gal Travis has all sorts of cool, nice things to Ezra. And indeed, it does turn out. out that Travis has come to Lothal for the express purpose of meeting the ghosts. Ezra insists the gang need to rescue him, especially when his old friend, Zara from the academy, warns him that Callas is preparing a raid.

They rescue Travis from the imperial raid, but over the course of their escape, he keeps encouraging them to surrender or complaining of injuries that forced the gang to slow down so the pursuing Imperials can catch up. Eventually, a suspicious Hera diehards him by giving him an unloaded blast. to see what happens when he thinks he's got the gun. And he immediately reveals to Ezra that he's been an imperial op for ages. And the reason he's been able to get away with it is because none of the people he causes to get caught, ever make an escape, or they get flipped. The gang escape back to the ghost where Hera consoles Ezra for his misbegotten trust, explaining that their hope is also the thing that makes them vulnerable to falling into traps like this.

there's also another plot here that's like quiet which is um callus is running the counterop here and there's a little bit of fun like callous versus the inquisitor vibes where like callus tells minister toa hey the inquisitor is fucking up by focusing too much on the Jedi part of this you think about them as a unit you think about the rebels and not just the Jedi and I thought that was kind of an interesting little, it's tiny, it's not enough to say too much more than that, but I hope that that keeps, I hope that there's tension there or there's like, you know, that's like classic ISB versus, you know, a Sith inquisitor type shit. Well, it's still a secret Sith empire.

Right, exactly. Like the degree to which this is actually all about forced shit is obscure to the Imperials. Yeah. I do like that we opened again with the equivalent of everyone throwing milk bottles at Ezra, except now they're shooting at him. No, he is a lightsaber So

I'm just imagining Like Zeb just like So like kind of casually With like maybe like a beer in the other hand Just being like Just shooting Just stand out there Yeah shooting

I'm stunned they're not growing It's simultaneously Like you could see a boom box in the corner I don't say where's the music Yeah they need music What's playing right now Oh yeah I like this episode quite a bit

It is fun. I think this is like... And we fucking knew it. Yeah, we fucking knew it. I think, Allie, you have something to say to the... Yeah. Is there something you want to say now? I have one thing to say.

Yeah. And it's I, too, believe in hope. And I was in the previous episode of the War Civilized States. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You were hopeful about Gal Travis. Because I just... And I keep having this thing.

I feel this way about Sebo, too, because this is... this is Star Wars Rebels and I'm like I was like I want us to get to the rebel base I want to see some grassroots action I want to see some community effort and I thought that we would run into Gal Tavis and he would be at the base and he would be like running shots and it would be chill and it would be this guy the guy who I just puts a picture of this is the guy you were like I'm all in this hand can't lose look at that is a that is evil that's pure Sabah That's evil-coded. Look at his smile. And to the side and then to the front, that's evil shit. That's evil shit. Evil posing. So here's my question.

This opens. They get this message. They run inside to watch it. Harris, like, I recorded the whole thing. And either she or Ezra's like, and Fulcrum told us, I think she did. Folkentrol is that he sends messages to little coded messages that go over the heads of the Imperials. And then the message is the least, the least healthy thing. Go to the old Republic building.

That's basically what he says. Go to the old Republic building where there's the name of this. He mentions the name of an old painting, which is a sick painting, by the way. It's like this like incredible propaganda poster for Lothal from the Republic era. Like everyone's like lifting sheafs of wheat. like a very public works project, you know, what WPA style. But it's very clear that when he's like, it's a day for New Freedom. He's talking about the New Freedom mural.

I think that's a little, little on the nose. But then my question ends up being, does Fulcrum, this whole episode, I was like, does Fulcrum trust this guy or did Fulcrum tell Hara, you know, figure out if this guy is up to anything? And that just doesn't come back around at all. But this whole episode, I was like, if he's, if he's, you know, a double agent against the rebellion, then is Hera trying to sniff him out? Is Fulcrum trying to sniff him out? And that just doesn't come back up.

But he's, like, very obvious about where to meet. They figure out where he's going to meet. It's pretty immediately clear that they've been figured out. Yeah, when they were like, there's no way the Imperials would figure this out. It's so coded. It's so secret and passworded, password protected. I was like anyone could

anyone could figure this out this is like this is the code is not I just thought it was they were like only someone who was born in raison Lothal would be able to

sniff this one out like I don't know if you had some good like Google and context clues I think you could I think some you know critical reading like I feel like you get it

also they're recruiting people from Lothal like the kid who shows up again oh Zaire Zaire Yeah Zaire is a kid And speaking of lines

That just sometimes I feel like What show am I in When Ezra says to Zaire Like let's not get you shot or whatever I was like Jesus Christ Yeah uh huh Uh huh Well I'm amazing he hasn't been

I can't believe that scheme worked Where they're just letting him wander around All he has to do is like push him over. He just like shoves him into a wall every time he meets up with him and just leaves and runs away. Oh yeah, I was over here. There's this rebel here. It was crazy guys. That works again.

I was like I was over in this alley for 10 minutes chatting with somebody amiably, but that was actually me trying to bring this rebel in. He literally was like he was trying to sell something on the black market to you. And he got promoted. He got promoted. He did. And he's leaving. There's that bit where he's like, I'm going to shit me off somewhere else. And Ezra's like, Ezra says something sad.

And Zerr is like, what? Don't tell me you're going to miss me. And Ezra gets flustered. It's good. And he's like, I got to tell you my real name before you. That's right. Does he tell him? Does he say his name?

No, he doesn't get it out. He doesn't get it out. Yeah. It's sad. Interesting. Well, they'll find each other again. You know it. I hope so. I just think you could go to the old Republic building on any day and find somebody

to arrest. Probably. Like that's where people who don't fuck with the empire go. Yeah. Yeah. But instead Trayvis lands his big bright red shuttle on it. That's a trap. With his antique senatorial droids. Yes. Those droids are like again lifted from Macquarie art. I love that design. It's so cool. They're like a much more like minimalistic C-3PO protocol. style vibe and they're silver instead of being gold and they just have like a really cool look they're like silver navy right yeah yeah yeah they have like cumin-esque faces yeah yeah i guess it's the senate it's the senatorial navy actually it's like that blue that blue that the senatorial guards used to wear actually there i think about it i guess one thing just when we get the night

before the the the raid is being set up where where callus is in his office like the exterior shots of the imperial hq on loathel and it is funny the degree to which their city planning for these new bases they're like seating around is basically creating a little mini corosance like the entire apper like what the old republic did with the galaxy where everything sort of flowed into this one capital

and it's the central hub of everything the empire's like distributing that model further out to more efficiently extract but what they are recreating is a series of like little Palpatine offices and little like you know Republic headquarters

buildings throughout the galaxy. There's an odd little detail where they replace the legislative chambers of Lothal with a mock-up of their own defunct institutions. Right. Well, and it's, you know, maybe this is on the nose to point out, but

when you look at that building and it's towering over these other things, that's the Death Star, baby, you know? I'll post a screenshot here. Like, again, it's this big, you know, top northern hemisphere of a big rounded building with trenches, you know. And they know what they're doing. And then, yeah, like they even get, if you go forward from the shot, the map of the region.

And the map of Lothal has, or I guess of Lothal City has that as the center with all these little hubs around it. And it is the hub and spoke system of the republic still. And like all the empire did was concentrate a problem that was already there in the republic, right? which is what we've been talking about since season one of Clone Wars, the sort of like lack of self-sufficiency of Rodea is here again. None of these planets can take care of themselves, and that system is something the empire seems to want to, like, reinforce, you know,

to make them all just places for further extraction, not even a place of consulate. Like, ideally, they're not shipping anything to Lothal that people are just living on less and less. To the degree that, in fact, we get another bit of that this episode, which is the way that they decide to move through towards Travis and then around during the escape is through the water tunnels, which are empty because the empire is rationing water. So it's this thing of like the empire has turned Lothal into a site of extraction and they've reduced

what the overhead of running that side of extraction is. In the Republic era, we kind of get an image of what Lothal is through the, or we get an image of an idealized Lothal through the big, whatever, what was, New Freedom, Pope, propaganda painting with like, oh, there are people holding, again, big, big sheafs of wheat and, like, doing, doing the activities of a successful, self-sufficient planet. And that version, even though it was part of this republic that was also sort of, you know, we've talked about the sort of inherent globalism of the republic that makes it harder for countries or for planets to be self-sufficient, that has been,

that lack of self-sufficiency has been extended even further. So I think there's a lot happening here with that stuff. I think that's good. I like that painting a lot and posting it. I also did chopper murder. I was going to say, Chopper kills her other droids. Chopper finally.

Yes. Kills another droid. We love to see it. We also get them journeying through the tunnels and it's like, Ezra, I just need you to take it down a notch where they're joking about how bad the sewers smell and she's like, it smells like Ezra. And he's like, wait. You know what I smell like.

Ezra, she says, you smell like shit. That's the joke, man. It's like, oh, no, you're owned. You're obsessed with me. You're obsessed with my poo-poo smell. Yeah, it's... Esra needs to take four showers. Ezra's got to wash his ass.

Teenage rooms are some... And... I don't know. Zeb... Zeb? The fact that Zeb, Ezra and Chopper share a room or whatever I use chopper's not actually in there But just the two of them

You know it smells crazy in there It's so crazy in there You know Oh god Like the mildly towel smell Zeb has incense and friezeb has incense and frieze And he's like those covers it all up No it

It kills the odor The odor haven't you seen the commercials the bubbles they eat it that's a different product to them no you feel scrubbing bubble bubbles

no it's the old the old for breeze the old for breeze commercials they have bubbles also that you spray it into the air and then it would zoom in into the molecules and the bubbles eating the

the stinky smell and then they would pop and then it would be like, ooh, ocean breeze. Right. Yeah. That's, that worked on Zeb, and he's got a lifetime supply of febrize in there. They're just like crate and crate. There's actually another bedroom.

It's just filled with crates of febrize. Yeah. That's my, that's my fagrease room. Yeah, that's why he can't sleep in. He can't get cane that because can't, he's like, you have a room. You just filled it with fibrillies. You have a frieze room. Hero wouldn't stand for this.

She has a monthly. They have a chance. Shores chart. Yeah, you're right. And she is a monthly, everybody has to scrub the ship right now. Yeah, you're right. That's fair. That's fair.

But up until that day, that month, you know, it gets to a breaking point every time with them. You're right. You're right. I love the bit here. So they go and they meet up with Gal Travis and Gal Travis immediately just suss. The guys come into a restaurant. them and he's like, we should give up. It seems like we're, uh-oh, hands up

everybody, they got us. He's standing, first of all, when we find him, he's like on stage, like with the two guards on either side and he's just like, oh, you got my message about where to find me secretly. And it's like this guy, he's

in, he's on, oh my, he's so obviously, oh my God, it's just. Yeah. We also get a wild callback to the pilot. Did anyone catch this? When Callis comes in to arrest them? And he's like, Jedi Knight, Canaan, whatever Canaan last name.

Oh, yes. Padawan Jabba. And that's because when Ezra was arrested early on, maybe it was in the second episode. He's like, what's your name? He goes, Jabba the hut. So he calls him Paduan Jabba here? It's so funny. It's very funny.

It was not expected. Canaan Jaris, Jedi Knight, Padawan Jabba. It's great. Perfect. Again, like the things you say, like the hat. It's like someone let them have that. You know what I mean?

Like someone flipped a switch that said, yeah, go ahead. You can do callbacks now. Yeah, you can have continuity. Yeah, we've all watched the rest of development. You're allowed to do that now. Well, so something I do, I do like here as well is I think the first person where I really give the sense that the crew is wising up to this is. is when Travis is like, no, nobody knows I'm here.

Just before the Imperials come through, Canaan frowns at him. Like, he's already picking up that little force sensitivity. The vibes are off. Like that whatever's coming through the door, Travis maybe already knows about it. And it's not something, because they're going to split up. Canaan doesn't get to follow this thread,

but there's the strong sense of he doesn't like it. He doesn't like the way this guy is acting. Yep. I mean, Canaan, I think Canaan goes into this knowing it's going to go different. I mean, he says to Ezra, like, he tries to tell Ezra that his visions aren't always comprehensive and that visions are accomplished. And Ezra's so caught up with the, with the mention of his parents, etc., that, like, he just is too tunnel visioned in on, we have to help him. We have to go meet him.

I know where to find him, et cetera. to the point where it feels like Kainan and Hara kind of sign up for this knowing that this is going to go wrong but that they will get more information that it is still worth doing the mission

because of what they will come away with knowing. Well that's partly why Zeb and Sabine are perfectly positioned to drop smoke bombs and you know drop. bunch of people from the rafters like sting it's great yeah and we get more of that great gun that hera has that fantastic cool like macant like almost metallic sound of her gun going off

shoutouts by the way to the person who wrote in from the last Q&A to let me know what type of gun that was I've already forgotten it's smoke and fog looks so good in the show too I'm just looking at like when they pop the smoke and the stormtroopers are emerging out of it just long as get blasted But, like, it all looks, it all looks fantastic. I also love the thing where Sabine, like, tosses the rest of the bombs and then runs around the corner and, like, does a slide away and Zev has to reach out and grab her before she falls off the building. Great little animation. Looks good. The, the Imperial Shuttle kind of, like, hovering nearby as the sun sets in the background.

Good. We're making a show that looks good to look at. I also dig, you know, their escape route is being protected by Chopper. I do love the little aside here of the Imperals are doing the smart thing, which is they're sealing off tunnels. But the problem is that, again, it's a big, complicated organization. They don't know which droid belongs to who. So they see a droid where they're supposed to be a droid.

Now, is this one of ours? I don't know. Listen, we're just, and they just move on. They sort of half-assily, like put a little like cap on the, on the manhole cover. Right. And they're like, totally let us know if anyone comes through. And he's just like, yep, okay. they leave and he just saws it right open.

I dig this moment of like sometimes being a stormtrooper is basically being working at like the DPW or something. Like you're just the public works guys who are like, I don't know, I guess you were told to expect somebody from like Con Ed, so you must be a guy. Uh-huh. I also, you know, there's a point here where I was already, you know, I didn't trust Travis

because of the arguments Rob made episodes ago. But there's a moment where he's like, okay, well, we've one of two options. Either Travis is a traitor and effectively bait for rebels, or he's a punk because he can't keep up, he's slowing down, he's trying to catch his breath. And obviously this is all just to give the Imperial's time to catch up, but like, I don't know. Some people can't hang. Like, are we going to get this, are we going to get this scene but with Mon Mothma, who we know is for real or more for real than Yaltravis certainly? Al-Travitz, certainly, and or season two where, like, she can't keep up in the sewers as they're trying to run away.

Some people aren't cut from the same cloth, you know? It's true. It's true. Yeah. Not everybody can hang with real rebels. One thing that you can do to not be misconstrued as evil is when you stop, be, like, looking around and just, like, checking to see people fucking, if the bad guys have caught up with you yet. Yeah, the fact that this works reflects poorly on the other rebel cells.

Yeah. You know, Saul Guerrera again is right. All of them lost. They're extremely fucking lost. This is how they get got. If Saul Guerrera has another big, big, you know, speech, it has to be about how other people get caught up by shit like this. No one else is discerning enough, you know? Well, this is the thing.

Like, saws out there like real rebels are fitting timers to buy. And blowing up buildings. And again, like, Austin, like, I love that you call this guy Brooklyn Dad Defiant because that is his energy, his public, his public messaging is, at best, he is like, I'm speaking the truth to the empire. And that's why you need to buy my merchandise at my store. Yep. Don't ask me what I do for a living, please.

I pay my taxes like anybody else. Anyway, I got a new Shopify store up. Please support. The fact that in this one, he is like, I heard there's some rebels out there doing, I know I'm talking over myself now, but it's a little push and pool is his little game, right? Because on one hand, he has to try to encourage people to do big explosive things so that they can get caught in the trap. You know what I mean? So here he's like, I hear there are some rebels out on low thought.

really trying to stick it to the empire. They're called, anybody, anybody who dares defy the tyranny of the empire, they're called an insurgent, and they're really courageous out there on Lothal. And that's like, get them to come in. But then next week his episode, he would totally be like, and make sure to put your, you know, your flag with the blue republic stamp in the window. We're going back to the republic. The way things, back to brunch, says God, Travis.

it really just come off like a radio announcer being like calling all swifties like i know you're out there like don't forget to like vote on your phone well it's like when the radio message comes through the energy is pure christmas story when ralphie's going to get his fucking decoder ring to get the get the message, except instead of the Ovalteen ad here, it's, uh, you get, you get turned by the empire. Yeah. Uh, but the thing, the other thing is this. So it's when he starts asking about the rebel cell. Yeah. That the game is up. Harrah has this look on her face where if Ezra were not there, this dude, the lights would just go out on him like Tony Soprano. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And instead, she sets this up so

that Ezra can get a good look at what this guy is and like how this shit works and it's this like it is a really gentle like he's gonna be hurt and she knows that but also you know to quote a line from the first season Mr. Robot when he like basically blows up his therapist's boyfriend and reveals these a piece of shit he's like her radar is off and it needs to be

recalibrated and this is kind of of what, like, this is how Hare chooses to play it, where she is going to create the most mask-off moment. And it's going to be devastating for Ezra, but it will be salutary.

Right. Except, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, like, we're there in an era where like the stakes are high. The empire has won.

They are a small resistance contingent on this planet. Like, there's no, it can't, there can't be any bullshit. Like, it can't be like, there can't, there also can't be any gray areas between them. If she had cut, especially given the fact that Ezra saw him mention his parents, if she had cut him off any earlier than she did, that would have sown this doubt and mistrust with Ezra. Like, Ezra would have been like, well, I, I never would have known what. You know, there's just like there's, there's too many open-ended things. Everything needs to be a, you know, dotted eye cross. Like, everything needs to be clear cut as possible.

The transparency has to be there, except with Fulcrum's identity. But outside of that, like, it just, it, it, it, I really appreciate that she gave, as or the opportunity to see the reality of what dealing in and out of the resistance is like. You're going to see traitors. you're going to see your heroes, people that you look up to, like, turn their back on you and sell you for, like, the first, you know, at the first chance they get. And that's, and this is why you need to stick with us and why what we're doing is so important. So.

But we also get them mentioned and we know, Heron knows something about his parents and doesn't say it again. This isn't the time. This isn't the right moment. I mean, there's never a good time. There's never a good time. But in the sewers, while they're running away and he's got a gun to, you know, I just, it's not the right time. I think she is going to, I think that is going to be like either a season ender or something.

I do think that's going to be a big reveal at some point. Or Ezra will kind of just be like, I know what, you know, it'll be one of those where he's just like, you don't need to tell me. Nobody is telling him. No, he is going to. find out and it's good like this no this is going to go so badly because they didn't tell him like uh like a what was it a bix situation was it bix was it who which what are you thinking about i'm thinking of every dark jenai situation yeah yeah well yeah basically because you didn't tell someone something they oh i mean not bix i was thinking of

assage ventress and yes asage ventress and and and and and and Quinlan Voss. Quillen-Vos, and she doesn't tell him that she killed his master. And so when he gets, when Duku tells him that, this happens all the time, actually. Just because someone doesn't say something, somebody becomes evil. And you just need, especially Ezra, who's young, young Jedi. Like, they're doing a good job so far. Don't fuck it up.

They should probably tell him soon. So that this is not. Unfortunately, we. live in the world of television and no, that's what I'm telling. What I don't tell him? And also, I just can't believe they leave this guy with a pulse. Like, this is the other thing.

Yeah, they should have worked him. And again, again, you know who wouldn't have done that? Saw Guerrera. Saw Guerrera is not letting this guy walk. No one, no. I do think we got that shot of Ezra, which I'm laughing at now by the time. It's like hard as hell when Ezra looks back at him through the fans as the fans spin up and he like broadcasts. I'll be back for you. Yeah, he's like, I'll be back for you.

100% that energy. That's good. Well, he's made now, right? He can't be like an imperial asset. Oh, no, I thought you were talking about Ezra. And I'm like, no, he's not made. Because otherwise he would have had to kill him. Right, yeah.

If Ezra was a big man, he would. Ezra does give him his full government name, though, which was a very funny bit of this episode. Stop it. After he pulls the gun, he's like, my name is Ezra Bruser, though. You already know he's evil. And now they got leverage Because if those parents aren't dead If those parents are not dead

That's what I feel like I like it has to be a thing If it's being drawn out this long I mean it has to be a thing I'm sure we probably will see Cal again and he will probably bring it up And be like you still don't know About what happened

You know whatever it is But it's it's definitely going to be used as a wedge between him and the ghost crew. My only question is, like, is it this next episode or is it two seasons from now? Do you know what I mean? Like, how long are they going to keep us on the hook for what's the truth about Ezra Bridger family? I hope it's not two seasons from now. Well, the next two episodes are the season finale.

Next three episodes, but yes. Which I think is about as long as I'm going to let them. Go with this. Expect me to care. Wow. Damn. Yeah. I feel that.

It's three episodes, just so we all know. It's three. It's three of them. But one of our episode. One, one more of these. Next, this episode is the end of season one. There's the thing that bugs me here, though. A true rebel would know when he's holding an empty blaster.

Okay. So there's the whole thing about like, can you feel the difference between like a loaded gun or not? And the answer is like guns are heavy. bullets are not, so it can be tough to tell. But Blasters run on power packs. It's basically a battery. So this dude check to see if there's something, if the magazine is full.

Yeah. Like, it's going to, yeah. I don't think that that's, I think that the terminology here is weird because the action she takes is that she then hits a button on it as if to recharge it. I think she means, yes.

I think she means to knows if the safety is off, which raises different questions. Because if he had turn the same if he had charged it making it ready to shoot he would have had a gun on them and that would not have been a good situation but the thing that she does does feel like what natalie just said which is like hit a button to turn it turn the safety back on or off so she can shoot movies have given me a disproportionate fear of just at some point it'll be very important for me to instinctively know what position a safety needs to be in for

going to be operable. Yeah. Because it's always just like, I don't know. Yeah. Does the nub forward or backwards? Yeah, I just don't know. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

I think she should have had a backup gun with her just in case. I agree. But, yeah. But I do like, though, you know, like little shades of, you know, what Andor gets into more here is what he describes is a really effective intelligence operation. what he lays out is we don't round people up right away we just use it to roll up entire networks and we turn people but like where he goes raids don't follow raids lag behind

and this mission goes wrong because they speed up the timeline like this whole thing worked because he is never there when the stormtroopers kicked down the door and because of the Jedi shit this time he has to be there when they go in and he gets exposed

but because the ghost kind of like fumble here and because the rebels kind of operate via a cell network is he just going to roll on doing the

Galtrevis stick and other people are going to get got that's what I was how much blood is on their hands that's why I didn't understand them not at least like I mean I guess

where do you take a bit like exposing him in some way like how many rebels has this guy gotten killed right and he's being left with them now admittedly admittedly he's kind of helping the rebels because he's calling them you know like steel sharp and steel yeah like this is like again this is the same reason there's people saw won't do business with if you like this is the first this is your first

cut is are you ready to be a rebel group and if the answer if the answer is no you're going to get a Galtravis transmission where he's like, hmm, where will I be next week? Well, just think about ports. Think about the days of, think about the days of the seas and where ships would come into ports. But now maybe we'll find space to talk. They say the sun rises in the west and I think rebellion will rise. Also in the west. Doc seven.

like yeah exactly it's exactly that shit so like I do kind of feel like the the problem is like he is effectively like it's it's not quite as bad as like what the FBI is doing where they go into chat rooms and they're like you ever think about committing terrorism no and they're like well I'm thinking about doing terrorism here's a nice here's some stuff people get arrested for that though it's not that far from it yeah so I do I do think, like, to a degree, the empire is really wiping out gangs of dumbasses, and the people who, like, pass this test are more likely to find their way into the saw camp. Oh, I want Luthan to do it. I want the Luton gets the Galtravis invite so bad. Oh, my God, he would destroy him. I want someone to go to Luton with being like, I got this invite for a meeting with the guy.

Seems legit. Galtravis is a senator in exile. and Luton just like crumpling the well there's a paper in Star Wars so not crumpling snapping the data snaping the day yeah yeah exactly exactly please like it'll be pretty people or it'll get pretty real when they're like it turns out the rebels torture people because let me tell you Galtrava is not getting a quick death uh if saw or Luton get hold of him yep yep exactly but anyway they get back to the ship and there's kind of two lessons that that Ezra has to get here

because he's really beating himself up for making a mistake and indeed like he did well the thing he doesn't know is the force fucks with you through visions this is this is the thing they don't tell you about the force is I'm gonna meditate

and you with the force and the force will give me visions and it's like yes but the force only gives you visions in the most dramatically ironic ways and that is why it's kind of useless for planning and but Canaan's take is

You know, your feelings just weren't centered. You didn't, you know, you weren't, you weren't totally balanced. You saw what you wanted to see. And that's not how a Jedi can go scrying. Okay, thank you, Canaan. Good, good moment for that talk. The exchange with Hara is a little more interesting. Because, you know, she's, let's face it, she's the hardcore rebel of the group, right?

She's the one who handles the secrets. And she, her answer for, like, why this works, she doesn't say, she, she doesn't frame it as Ezra Blewett. She frames it as we all missed it We didn't see it And why is that? And it's because of hope And I do like this notion of The thing that Navels them to keep fighting Also makes them think there's people out there like us

Who we're doing the same thing and need our help And The most effective way to trap people like the ghosts Is to have someone like Travis come along And say like I'm one of you We'll see if we get more Galtravis. You know, I want to hear what Dave has to say about Galtravis and whether or not you should

have, you should have bought in to the Galtravis. Take us away. Okay. There we go. Rebels recount 11. My entire team of animators and artists tried to create the least trustworthy looking man in history. We'll see.

We'll see what happens here. Everyone could see it coming except Allie. Wow. We'll see. No, Ellie just wanted. to believe. All right. We were at 2.11, Cato,

2.11. 3, 2.1, go. Half of the season, Galtrava seems like he's going to be a really powerful ally for the crew, but that turns out to be a charade. Was it always the intention

that he was an imperial plant or was that an aspect of his character that developed later on? It started very early on. I think when the idea of the character came together, the thought was that that dynamic

was in place. I think it goes with this type of rebel plot. You're probably going to have people that betray you in different sides. And we all like the idea of having like this kind of vacuum for Ezra around, not having parents and having somebody who don't want to kind of put in that role falsely,

unfortunately, in Agaul Travis. The idea of traitorous communications was something that definitely did happen in World War II, where you'd get people using propaganda to that end. I always find these kind of things interesting, because when you work on them, you wonder how much does the audience know or not know or realize and the crew on Rebels that work on the show would be like,

oh my gosh, some fans are onto it from day one. And I'm like, well, of course. That's the whole point is, like, we do leave clues. There are little things you can catch as far as what Galtrevis's real intentions are throughout the previous episodes. From his earliest appearance when he started leaving that information out about Luminar and Dooley being out there,

there was already fans wondering whether or not that was a trap in terms of Galtravis, whether or not he was in on it. Creating the look for Galtrevis, did you know that he would be part of an imperial plot? No. It was foolishly clever. I had no idea. I was just shocked as everyone else. So devilish. There's no visual hints whatsoever about...

No, honestly, if anything, we just looked at senators, generic senators from the prequels and sort of went, well, what would that be? The same can be... There are clues here and there that kind of lead you or distract you or mislead you because we know people are looking for stuff. So as much as we can put things that direct you in the right way, we can put things that mislead you and send down the wrong path. and then it's just fun to hear what people are saying online. Were you aware during those early episodes that he, no. He's on the forms. No clue.

I had no clue and I was devastated. Oh. I really was. So that was not acting. This is Vanessa Marshall. I was really upset. I mean, as always, Kara handled it like a boss. Sure.

Handed him the unloaded blaster. That's right. Yeah. Like a boss. So as you're working on this series, do you find that you are becoming more like her in real life? Not at all. Oh my god.

You guys had a ton of questions. He put on us on Twitter. So as always, we tracked our story group's Pablo for answers. 10 holes. Okay, Pablo. Brian asks, Landau doesn't have a ship in this episode.

Does Idiots Array take place before he owned the Falcon or after he lost it to Han? That's a good point because if Landau had the Falcon, he wouldn't need the help of the crew of the ghost in this episode. So given how close we are to the events of episode four, if I were a gambling man, like Landau, I'd put my money on this story taking place after he's already said goodbye to the Falcon. goodbye to the falcon at least once more. Great, thanks, Pablo. Have a question about Vision of Hope. Nope. That's it to at Star Wars with the hashtag Rebel's Recon. We'll choose a question to us.

So the reason I don't trust Pablo is because he was like and Dooley is a hologram. And I'm like, that's just not true. It's just not. You're just going to lie to me? He's lying to us. In Rebels Recom? Yeah.

We need to do some more recon. Maybe on Pablo. Yeah. I don't trust him. He's, you know, I like him because. it's a tough place to be. You got to be the lore guy for Star Wars. That's tough.

Impossible job. Everyone will, you will get people, you would do it. You would be the lord guy. No, I wouldn't do it. You couldn't pay me to do that job, but I could do it. I see. I see. This is how, that's the thing that you say across the table of Lando, seven minutes

before Lando gets you to do something, Rob. Because I was like, oh, you couldn't do it. I see. You don't have the skills. And you're like, no, I have. the skills. I could do it. The next thing you know you're on fucking... Okay, fine, Lando. Give me that story Bible.

Let me show you how much I could do this. Five years later. Okay, I think I've reconciled all this. It's all works now. Oh, we got bought by someone new. We'd throw it all out and start over. Okay. Star Wars. We did it. We did another set of episodes. I'm liking these. I come away from them feeling satisfied and looking forward. to the next ones and just generally, you know, happy to be here, happy to be in the Rebels era.

Like, listen, this didn't happen with Clone Wars, but like when I'm like, we can't keep watching more of these because I can't run ahead, that was never a problem with Clone Wars. It is a problem with Rebels where Rebels is like really fun, light fare, especially the end of a workday. Yes. Yes, it's so easy to pop it on and be like, yeah, I don't want a couple of episodes. And it would be very easy Just let it keep running

You know It's a different vibe in so many ways Clone Wars felt like homework In a different way I mean it still feels like homework I'm still taking notes I'm still like doing the work Looking up lore

Which by the way I left something out The temple The temple has the temple on Lothal It's the one where they did the game shows It's the one where they did the game show It's not no It has the light and dark symbols Of the Force from

don't you say it right from there from the place i forgot the name of mortis from mortis it has those symbols are in that temple they knew yeah from mortis what do we go to mortis in in this show if we go to mortis in rebels i think i will have to defect from those worlds can't collide no i want to know we need to leave mortis in Clone Wars. We don't... Okay, but, but could it be better because something could happen because it's not a prequel that has a locked set for the characters. You know what I mean? What does Ezra have to do with any of that? I don't know. Maybe... He doesn't need to know about Mortis. He used to deal with the empire. What at the end of this is that is that Ezra goes and

lives on Mortis to become the new force god keeper? The force god that keeps the brother and sister, the son and daughter? I don't, I'm not saying this. Good, but I'm saying this is the world that's in front of us. Anything could happen. I don't think that's what I don't think that's what. I think I know what happens with Ezra, unfortunately. Maybe that's how they, maybe they do need to usher him off stage, though, where it's like, no, he is going to be the only one because it's going to be like, Luke, you watch the neighborhood. Right.

Ezra will watch the skies by going to Mortis and keeping the force energies balanced. Right. Well, I thought you were saying we would take him off the stage in a different way, which is just like, he has. to get out of here so, so that Luke is the only one who could do the Luke stuff. Well, yeah, that would be part of it, right? It's like, I have to go restore the balance of the force on Mortis. Right. I was going to reference a Cotor thing, but you haven't played Cotor yet.

So we got to play Cotor. Something for everyone to look forward to. In the future. The gang plays Cotor. I want to play it so bad. I want to see you. The gang, the gang debates which mods to install them Cotor too. No, no, no, no, no.

Okay, well, in two, no. I think you play it the way it is. The pure experience. Pure experience. The reason Rob mentions is because Cotor 2 is notoriously unfinished and there's lots of stuff on the cutting room floor, but also it's on the cutting room floor. And sometimes that's because they didn't have the time

and the budget to get stuff in. And sometimes it's because it's not very good. An entire episode will just present these arguments and we'll do research. Exactly. Have so much to look forward to. And in two weeks, what they have to look forward to is, is this the end of season one?

Is it? This is it? Head of season one, short season. We're watching call to action, Rebel Resolve, fire across the galaxy. Ooh, fire across the galaxy. That fucking bang.

That sounds like shit's gonna get real. Yeah. Uh-huh. All right, well, that'll be us in two weeks and then the, I guess it might be more like the middle of the month I'm talking about,

when does that Q&A drop? That's what I'm saying. Again, we might have squeezed it in after season one. All right. So if you'd like to, whenever we do get around to it, if you want to hear our Patreon backer Q&A or you just want to support the show, you can do so at patreon.com slash civilized. Until next time, please rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice. And remember who was the first to call Gal Travis. Rob Zakene.

You don't have a Rob Zakney. We're going to be able to be. We're going to be. You know, I'm going to be. Oh. We're going to be able to be. Thank you.