#apparently sabine's taking center stage for this one

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So ready to reunite with my favorite Rebels heroines!

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Ranking Rebels: The Top Ten

It’s been several months now since Star Wars Rebels concluded and we learned the fates and futures of the surrogate family that lived in the halls of The Ghost. Rebellions were sparked. Sacrifices were made. There was a lot of critical theory about art. Fruit was stolen. Droids sang. Pufferpigs puffed. It made for a beautiful, if not always perfect, four year story that will become a cherished part of the Star Wars mythology.

With a new animated series on the horizon, what better time to take a look back at Rebels history. Not all episodes were created equal. For every, “World Between Worlds” there is a “Blood Sisters.” Just as I did for The Clone Wars, I plan to rank every episode of Star Wars Rebels from worst to best. As always, feedback and discussion is appreciated!

Previous Installments: 66-61, 60-51, 50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11

10. Rebel Assault

The attack on the Empire’s factories on Lothal was an operation that had been building for seasons. With Hera finally receiving approval to lead a squadron of X-Wings to the grassy plains of Ezra’s homeworld, “Rebel Assault” opens up with a triumphant and brilliantly executed dogfight that Steward Lee directs to near perfection. Seeing classic Star Wars starfighters chase each other through blockades and high atmosphere is the stuff of dreams and Rebels delivers, before smartly transitioning into a tense and bleak second half. Hera’s attack fails and as a result she and Chopper are left to sneak through the locked down streets of Lothal’s capitol as Imperial forces close in around her. Lee dials back on the music and allows the episode to fall eerily quiet which does wonders in ratcheting up the unease and tension. It ends on a killer cliffhanger that opens up Rebels for an incredible final stretch of episodes and makes for a great midseason finale.

9. Fire Across the Galaxy

While it showed signs of confidence and maturity throughout its first season, it wasn’t until its first finale where Rebels finally felt like a show that had come into its own. Whether it’s the ensemble’s thrilling attempt at rescuing their friend and mentor from the clutches of The Empire, Kanan’s cathartic and wonderfully choreographed duel with The Grand Inquisitor, or the universe altering reveal of Ahsoka Tano at its conclusion, “Fire Across the Galaxy” is filled to the brim with excitement, adventure, and character. The fact that writer Simon Kinberg is able to fit as much content into a single twenty two minute episode is stunning and it is even more impressive that it comes across as wonderful as it does. By its conclusion, most of its central cast has grown and the series has taken its first step into a larger world and cemented itself as a Star Wars story that will be worth remembering.

8. The Siege of Lothal

Darth Vader was a specter that loomed over Rebels since its premiere. Kanan and Ezra could only go so long before attracting the attention of the galaxy’s most famous Sith Lord and with Ahsoka Tano now in play, the appearance of the Dark Lord seemed inevitable. Before Rogue One, Rebels brought Darth Vader back to the screen in menacing and iconic fashion. Whether its James Earl Jones’s effortless voice performance, Henry Gilroy’s script, or Bosco Ng and Brad Rau’s direction, Vader fills every frame he is a part of with a dark presence and in the process tests the Ghost Crew like never before. It makes for a stunning premiere that not only impacted the main cast but hinted at some of the iconic and emotional stories that were to come throughout Rebels’ second season.

7. The Honorable Ones

“The Honorable Ones” was a risk from the get-go. Even if it played off a familiar trope of two adversaries being forced to survive in dangerous conditions, Kevin Hopps’s script had the challenge of carrying a full episode that is essentially two conflicted men arguing and also providing a nuanced view of war without undermining Star Wars’ purposefully simplistic morality and condemnation of fascism. Hopps succeeds by making “The Honorable Ones” about Kallus the man rather than the organization he represents and in the process allows for two series best performances out of Steve Blum and David Oyelowo. In the process, both men are able to come to an understanding about each other as beings and about their own struggles even if they cannot reconcile the conflict they find themselves embroiled in. It makes for a powerful script and would set up one of the series’ best long term character arcs in Kallus’s eventual defection to the Rebellion.

6. Jedi Night

Until its conclusion, “Jedi Night” plays out like classic Rebels fun. The crew conducts a rescue of a team member and loved one the sorts of which have played out through the show dozens of times. Dave Filoni and Henry Gilroy pepper the script with moments of action and levity and while the stakes are high, there is a sense of playfulness that echoes throughout. In actuality, “Jedi Night” is a sort of pre-emptive eulogy for the man it is about to sacrifice. Kanan Jarrus slowly sheds and reforms his appearance, his identity, and eventually his life to rescue those he loves and director Saul Ruiz does this through smart visual cues that play off well with both the script and Freddie Prinze Jr.’s incredible performance. “Jedi Night” feels like a collective breath before its act of tragedy and sacrifice and the result is gut-punching but also unforgettable.

5. Twin Suns

“Twin Suns” is an artful and beautifully directed closure of not only Ezra’s character in the third season of Rebels but also of one of the most winding and tortured character arcs in the franchise. After decades of turmoil, Maul’s life comes to a close. From its opening frames, director Dave Filoni creates a clear visual language that emphasizes open space, isolation, and character action and in the process prepares us for what is to come. It makes for one of the most creatively inventive installments the show attempted and this, of course, culminates in its incredible final moments. Stephen Stanton’s masterful recreation of Alec Guinness’s Obi-Wan Kenobi is jaw dropping and it makes his moments of wisdom passed onto Ezra feel genuine and his pity and remorse towards Maul oddly heartbreaking. Filoni’s decision to stage this final battle between the decades long adversaries as a Kirosawa-like samurai film represents one of his best directorial decisions to date and the result is unexpected but entirely appropriate and even poignant.

4. A Family Reunion-and Farewell

Rebels’ final episode could have stretched on for hours and fans would likely have lapped it up. Trying to conclude this four year story of family, resistance against tyranny, and maturity in adolescence in forty four minutes seemed like a near impossible challenge. The result is an episode that makes every second of that runtime count with an explosive final charge for Lothal’s independence that brings aboard a sprawling ensemble of the Ghost Crew and some of their most iconic allies. It is super charged with action and heroism, but it is ultimately the conclusion of Ezra Bridger’s emotional arc that makes “A Family Reunion-and Farewell” sing. Taylor Gray’s performance here is mature and emotionally resonant as Ezra finally comes to term with the loss of his family but also how best to honor those who are caught under tyranny and oppression. It marks a moment where Ezra not only becomes an adult but also a hero to which the galaxy can aspire to. Even then, this isn’t even taking into account the incredible series epilogue that not only provides a much needed conclusion to the series’ beloved characters but hinted at new adventures to come. It makes for a powerful and near perfect finale to a show with a legacy that will stretch on for years to come.

3. Trials of the Darksaber

Like “The Honorable Ones,” “Trials of the Darksaber” is one of the rare episodes of Rebels that slows down the action to focus entirely on character. However, this Sabine-centric episode foregoes any sort of plot oriented B-Story at all and instead bunkers down for an emotionally raw tale of a master and student. Directed by Steward Lee and written by Dave Filoni, “Trials of the Darksaber” begins with a visually dynamic lore-dump about the blade that passed hands from Pre Vizsla to Darth Maul and now rest in the hands of Sabine Wren. With the importance of this strange weapon now understood, Sabine now faces a responsibility that could change the tide of the war to their favor. Forced to not only conquer her own insecurities but also face the trauma of her past, Sabine undergoes a rigorous training under Kanan that culminates in an emotional outburst that lays all bare. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Tiya Sircar provide phenomenal voice performances that feel vulnerable and genuine and it makes for an episode that is quite unlike anything else in the series and one of the highpoints of Rebels as a whole.

2. A World Between Worlds

For decades one of the few story concepts that Star Wars never touched was time travel. In a universe where lightspeed travel was as simple as taking a bus and a magical energy force could lead to all manner of strange abilities, the power to traverse time and space was always off limits. That is until “A World Between Worlds.” Selling Star Wars fans on this concept would’ve been risky from the start, but it helps that this installment of Rebels is close to perfection. We knew from early on that there was something special about Lothal and the Jedi Temple that lay hidden at its center. With the Emperor’s interest and the mystical behavior of the Lothwolves adding onto this mystery, it slowly became apparent just what kind of realm was lying hidden beneath the coned walls of this strange building. The design and execution of the World between Worlds itself is one of Lucasfilm Animation’s best creations. With twisting and churning pathways that seem to stretch through space in infinite directions and populated by ethereal voices that connect throughout the Star Wars saga, this pathway into the stars feels like something ancient, unknowable, and mythic. The result is suitably awe inspiring and entrancing. Even better, writer and co-director Dave Filoni, alongside Steward Lee, ground this world in a key emotional arc for its characters. In addition to allowing fans to see Ahsoka Tano one more time before the close of the series and show a tease of what the next chapter of her story was, Filoni and Lee position this realm as a key emotional turning point in Ezra’s grieving over the death of Kanan. Ezra is given a taste of ultimate power in the hopes of saving those he loves, but is forced to realize that the past shouldn’t be changed and not everyone can be saved. It’s an emotional beat that is key to the final steps of his series long arc and rings true as the episode comes to a close.

1.  Twilight of the Apprentice

How could it be anything else? The season two finale of Star Wars Rebels is not only the best of the series, it is arguably the best product that Lucasfilm Animation has released, and some of the most powerful material in the entirety of the franchise. “Twilight of the Apprentice” is an atmospheric, emotional, and suspenseful hour of television that is filled with betrayals, sacrifice, revelations, and character altering decisions. It leaves a trail of changed lives in its wake and the series would never be the same after. Written by Dave Filoni, Simon Kinberg, and Steven Melching and directed by Dave Filoni, “Twilight of the Apprentice” would see the convergence of several generations of current and former students of the Force on the planet of Malachor. There Ezra’s frustrations with Kanan’s teachings combined with his own empathy for those in need would lead to his near seduction to the Dark Side by a reemerging Darth Maul. Kanan’s inability to trust fully in his student would be a partial catalyst in his blinding by the same former Sith Lord. And Ahsoka, poor Ahsoka, would come face to face with the man that used be her master. It makes for a dark and painful installment of television, but the incredible voicework by the full cast sells the experience and thrilling lightsaber duels abound. It is hard not to find yourself wrapped up in the saga that unfolds even before the final fifteen minutes elevate this installment into the realms of a classic. Ahsoka’s confrontation with Darth Vader was clearly a fascination of Filoni’s and the resulting product is as apocalyptic, tragic, and mythic as one could hope or dread for. Ashley Eckstein, James Earl Jones, and Matt Lanter sell the moment with heartbreak, anger, and disbelief, Kevin Kiner provides a beautiful musical score, and Filoni crafts a risk taking and iconic sequence. Like all great Star Wars, “Twilight of the Apprentice” ends with a wordless montage set to music. It’s a cinematic moment that feels earned and appropriate and may just be the best Star Wars that we have seen in years.

------------ So, there you have it. Rebels has been ranked. As always, feel free to reach out to tell me where you agree, disagree, or if you just want to chat about the show. I loved getting to critique this series and offer my thoughts as it crew into a truly great piece of television. I feel that I grew as a writer and a person with this show and getting to share my excitement, speculation, frustration, and adulation for it has been a highlight of my life for years now.

Thank you all for your readership and friendship.

May the Force Be With You

Nic

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Three Great Details About Apeshit By Beyonce & Jay-Z

“I can’t believe we made it,” sings Beyoncé in “Apeshit,” the first single from her surprise joint album with Jay-Z, Everything Is Love. And to prove that she and her husband have made it, in the song’s accompanying video, Beyoncé delivers this line from the Louvre. As the New York Times has pointed out, it is not actually that expensive to shoot a video in the Louvre (about $17,500 for a full day’s shoot). But music videos aren’t about numbers; they’re about how things feel — and there’s no place on earth that feels as lavish, as rich with accumulated cultural power and wealth and colonialism, as the Louvre. If you want to show that you have made it, that you are rich and powerful and one of the greatest artists of your generation, you go to the Louvre. And as an artistic choice, the Louvre is par for Beyoncé’s course. For the past few years, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has increasingly cribbed from the iconography of classical Western art in her own image-making. Her pregnancy announcement photo shoot and her birth announcement photo shoot both referenced Botticelli’s Venus and the Renaissance trope of the Madonna and child, and her 2017 Grammys performance drew on goddess imagery from multiple artistic traditions. So when Beyoncé shoots at the Louvre — taking on by turns the poses of Venus de Milo and Victory — she’s continuing an artistic project of recontextualizing classical Western art, of making herself the aesthetic object on which so much wealth and cultural capital has been spent. And coming from a black woman, that’s a radical statement. “In a way, Beyoncé is exploiting/marketing her blackness as creativity — as a kind of weapon — within and against the very Eurocentric system of culture and consumption from which she has benefited,” says James Smalls, a professor of art history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. That’s an especially radical statement to make in the context of the Louvre, where little of the art features people of color in positions of strength and power. “From the Middle Ages up to the 19th century, works of art that showed black people usually represented them as servants or secondary figures,” explains Smalls. “They were not deemed worthy subjects of paintings, sculptures, or other kinds of cultural works.” One of the few exceptions to that trend is Marie Benoist’s “Portrait d’une négresse,” also displayed at the Louvre. “That painting is an anomaly because it presents a black person as the sole aestheticized subject and object of a work of art,” Smalls says. And it’s the painting that appears at the end of the “Apeshit - Beyonce & Jay-Z” video, after shot after shot of portraits of white people.

Benoist painted “Portrait” in 1800, during a brief period in which France had abolished colonial slavery. (In 1794, the French emancipation proclamation liberated the colonies; in 1802, Napoleon reinstated slavery.) In that six-year span, portraits of heroic black people became popular in France, and that created an opportunity for an image of a black woman who is not tending to or subordinate to a white person, who is instead considered worthy of being at the center of her own portrait. As Smalls has pointed out, in its full context, “Portrait” is not a wildly politically subversive image. It’s most likely that the unknown and unnamed subject was a servant with few legal rights who had little choice about how she posed or whether she was okay with her breast being exposed to the world for the next 200 years. Benoist the painter has much more agency here than the black woman at the center of the picture. But in the context of “Apeshit,” with its montages of painting after painting of white faces and white statues, “Portrait” feels both shocking and subversive. It’s a black face in the center of the frame, apparently in control of her domain. And it’s one of the only figures in the Louvre that we don’t see get reinterpreted by either the Carters or their dancers: The only figure in the Louvre that can withstand the unstoppable force that is Beyoncé, that does not need to be remade and reexamined. Part of Beyoncé’s project over the past few years has been to treat art as a form of power: It is a form of focused aesthetic attention, of social capital, and of wealth given solid form. Taking over the Louvre means taking all that power for herself and for the black bodies she brings in with her — except for the “Portrait.” In “Apeshit,” it can stand on its own. What do Beyoncé, The Smurfs 2, and you have in common? All three have the theoretical ability to rent out the Louvre. Though there was widespread awe that the Carters’ video for “Apeshit” took place inside the most famous museum in the world, turns out, it’s actually not all that uncommon. According to the New York Times, about 500 shoots take place at the Louvre each year, which have included films on opposite ends of the “is this a good movie” spectrum, from last year’s Wonder Woman to 2013’s The Smurfs 2, which even the Louvre couldn’t save from its 13 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating. Though the museum only allows photography in the galleries for private use, it makes exceptions for professionals through written authorization. As of 2015, the Louvre’s policy states that to shoot a short film or music video, the cost for both interior and exterior shots would be just €4,500, or about $5,200. It’s possible that if the Carters had a crew of more than 50 people, that number would have been closer to €18,000, but as the Times notes, “there are hotel rooms here that cost more than that.” Hosting private events, however, will cost you a bit more. A tour for under 50 guests will set you back €10,000, while renting out the reception hall beneath I.M. Pei’s pyramid will cost, at the very least, €28,000. Though, to reiterate, that isn’t an amount at which anyone would gasp, “Mon dieu!” Lorde, I have an idea for you about where to film your video for “The Louvre.” Call me! In the video for Beyoncé and Shawn Carter‘s “Apeshit,” the first visual from the pair’s surprise joint album Everything Is Love, the two stars romp through the Louvre in Paris, seizing center stage in a high-culture palace that �� like most Western art museums – historically made little room for non-white artists. Some of their mission involves the strategic highlighting of non-white images already in the Louvre. Beyoncé and Jay-Z rap in front of an Egyptian sphinx, and in galleries filled mostly with neo-classical French paintings – white artists, white subjects – the camera singles out black faces. (The video is directed by Ricky Saiz, who also helmed the “Yonce” video from Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s eponymous 2013 album.) Viewers catch brief glimpses of a pair of black figures in Paolo Veronese’s painting “The Wedding at Cana,” where Jesus turned water into wine, as well as a quick look at Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s “Portrait d’une Négresse,” a depiction of a black woman staring guilelessly back at the viewer. But the Where’s Waldo? moments highlighting black figures are fleeting – the possibilities for this in the Louvre, or any major Western art museum, are limited from the start. So Beyoncé and Jay-Z set about interjecting blackness into a space that has never placed much value on it, claiming one of the centerpieces of European culture with gleeful defiance. They frequently film themselves moving in opposition to the frozen stillness of paintings by Jacques-Louis David, a French neoclassical artist whose work – like “The Oath of the Horatii” and “Madame Récamier” – invokes the Greco-Roman tradition. Much of the potency of the “Apeshit” video comes from the contrasts drawn between the “white” art on the walls and the black women on the gallery floors. In front of David’s “The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Joséphine,” a court scene of relentless white extravagance, Beyoncé and eight black dancers hold hands and begin to dance. It takes just a few synchronized sashays to upstage David’s massive painting, replacing an ornate symbol of white authority with a celebration of black bodies in motion. The Louvre’s stature depends on people believing that “The Coronation of Empress Joséphine” is the art, but the eye tells a different story – hanging behind Beyoncé and her dancers, the painting is reduced to wallpaper. Throughout the “Apeshit - The Carters” video, Beyoncé and Jay-Z repeatedly upstage some of Western classical art’s most famous images in one of its central sacred spaces. Beyoncé holds a series of chopping micro-poses with her hands before Saiz cuts quickly to an image of a distressed character, hands held up to shield her head, taken from another David painting, “The Rape of the Sabine Women.” The placement of the hands connects the two frames, but Beyoncé’s is virile, aggressive and in charge, while David’s figure seems merely fearful.

Radical gestures roll in on a mightily slippery sliding scale these days, don’t they? We’re far past any cultural division between high and low or pop and art at this point, and artists on the charts are also sniffing out their next inspiration, album cycle, or comparison to their own personal affairs in the grander schemes of culture and history. You’d be hard pressed to find a more hallowed repository of the West than the Louvre, so of course that’s where Beyoncé and Jay-Z have rolled up to set their new music video for the track “Apeshit” from the fresh album they dropped like an anvil right on top of your weekend. Of course this isn’t the first time they’ve been there, nor the first time some Pop-ish upstarts made a Major Statement at the French museum, but it would seem to be a major escalation in the Carters x Louvre relationship, to say nothing of the pride re: their own marital ties that the album and video are so keen to showcase. When worlds (and genres) collide is still a strong trend across multiple spheres of art and culture—turning meaning and message into something of a competitive game of Russian nesting dolls or an arms race of spectacle-based oneupmanship—but what might we make of this night at the museum if considered in light of the 1960s Marxist avant-garde French Situationist International? Founded in 1957 by Guy “Barrel of Laughs” Debord and Asger “Beware the Palette Knife” Jorn, the Situationists were guys and gals, but mostly guys, who wanted to, as the name would indicate, create some situations and elevate to the level of philosophy the notion of taking a freaking walk outside. But they also had a strategy! And key among their techniques, to which you can probably attribute the rise of “culture jamming” and just whatever Banksy thinks he’s doing, was the détournement. Discussed in chapter 8 of Debord’s 1967 tract The Society of the Spectacle, the technique calls for taking advantage of existing cultural objects or canonized art, rerouting their message, and even advocates for theft: “Plagiarism is necessary. Progress depends on it. It sticks close to an author’s phrasing, exploits his expressions, deletes a false idea, replaces it with the right one.” You would not have wanted this guy for your editor, but if you were looking to smash the state (of meaning), Debord was your man.

So, if “détournement serves as a reminder that theory is nothing in itself, that it can realize itself only through historical action and through the historical correction that is its true allegiance,” then is the spectacle of “Apeshit” a glam, historical correction of the Western assumption that houses of European culture contain the highest achievements of man- and womynkind? Beyoncé and Jay-Z have more clout and pull at this point than a merely rich person or garden-variety aristocrat putzing around the Cotswolds or Monaco, and they built that for themselves. When they pull off a stunt like this, it feels like another chime in the prosperity gospel that Doreen St. Félix examined in the arc of Rihanna’s career, as well as further evidence that the ability to make a compelling spectacle of oneself, to write a personal narrative as large as that of the progress of a civilization, is success. The false idea here is white supremacy, and perhaps the correction then is that European colonialists may not have had the time or the means to make their masterpieces if it weren’t for the economic boon of slavery and historical pillaging of resources from southern and eastern continents for the benefit of countries like France. The Situationists didn’t really like spectacle much (“The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living”) but they recognized that it was inescapable in modern society (“The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images”). Given this circumstance, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, god bless them, would appear to be doing their best to create a spectacle that people who look like them can see themselves in too, as opposed to the near uninterrupted stream of black death spectacle the media and world is awash in on a day to day basis. Look forward to hearing this jam blasting out of car speakers this summer—it’ll be a real situation. The surprise release of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Jay-Z’s new album, Everything Is Love, (credited as “The Carters” on the album to recognize they’re performing as a united duo, not as individuals) on Saturday, June 16 has left the music world reeling. Already, what fans have been carefully dissecting – and what we’re interested in unpacking, too – is the imagery from the music video for the album’s lead single, “APESHIT”. The six-minute video is likely going to be considered one of the best of 2018, with The Carters and a troupe of dancers taking over the Louvre. In case you couldn’t already tell, the fact that Bey and Jay Z even got unfettered access to the Louvre for their own use is a stunning power move – adding a glorious power to the “APESHIT” lyric “I can’t believe we made it/ This is why we’re thankful”. Let’s start with the primary location in “Apeshit”: the Louvre. Historically, it’s a predominately white space that primarily features white, male-created works of art. It’s a microcosm of history, which itself is mostly white, male, and heterosexual. Tradition and the Louvre go hand-in-hand, too, which means that Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s presence is a total disruption from the beginning. For modern audiences and fans of The Carters, the disruption is surely welcome. Not only can we expect to see (and do see) The Carters standing next to some of the most famous works of art, including the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory of Samothrace, but we see that they are aligning themselves with it right out of the gate. Their presence in a place that preserves what history has deemed the most important artworks, standing next to said art while themselves looking like art and using their body language to engage with this art, already implies they are as worthy of being there as the older work. It’s a middle finger to convention, a dare aimed at squarely at the gatekeepers of history and artistic tradition: You know we deserve to be here. The Carters begin positioning themselves as iconography from the moment we first see them, standing in front of the “Mona Lisa”. Sure, it’s a callback to the first time they took a photo with arguably the most famous painting in history back in 2014, but something is different this time around. Like the “Mona Lisa”, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are dressed simply, but powerfully. Suits for both, in bright colours and styles specific to their tastes and representative of the times they live in; again, just like the “Mona Lisa”. But even more of an echo of the painting is their expressions: a strong stare straight ahead, lips pressed together, shoulders back. They are telegraphing to us that they are as iconic as the “Mona Lisa”, without even saying a word. By donning expressions very much in the same vein as the iconic painting, they’re telling the viewer that they’re basically in the presence of a peer. But even more than that, they’re commenting on the beguiling and enticing space they occupy in our own culture. Much like the “Mona Lisa”, they are telling us that they know we think about them in a way we don’t think about other music artists. They know that we’ll spend hours analysing them and their work, attempting to find meaning in their movements and lyrics, trying to work out the symbols and icons they’ve put forth, and hoping to crack the impenetrable fortress they’ve built around them (from which they only emerge to become vulnerable when they want to). Humans have spent centuries trying to unpack the enigma of the “Mona Lisa” and still continue to do so to this day; do you really think you can figure out The Carters in a day? Another immensely important moment from “APESHIT” comes in the repeated glimpses of Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s “Portrait of a Black Woman (Negress)” from 1800. One of the few works of art painted by a woman in the Louvre, the painting is deeply important both as a feature in the Louvre and its place in art history, because it is the only painting of its time to depict a black woman who is not a slave or similarly subjugated person, but rather simply presented in all her glory.

The painting affirms that black women are worthy of being in artistic spaces, and in enduring imagery. The painting is shown a few times, and it’s the second to last painting we see before the video closes on Bey and Jay turning around to regard the “Mona Lisa” – further confirmation that Benoist’s painting and its subject deserve recognition. It’s also no accident that the “Winged Victory of Samothrace” statue is frequently seen in “APESHIT”. Implying triumph and power, the statue has endured over centuries, and The Carters imply just as much by once again standing in front of it, in perhaps a nod to their own triumph and the power they’ve achieved. According to the Louvre website for the piece, the statue depicts Nike, and was likely created to commemorate a naval victory by the Rhodians (who hail from Rhodes, part of the Dodecanese island group in Greece). The towering relic from the Hellenistic period is, as the Louvre’s description notes, intensely dramatic and glorifies the female body in connection with something traditionally masculine (victory in war). That endowment of power to a female body is then emulated in the female bodies that stand before it in present day, through Beyoncé and her troupe of female dancers. All of these women come together and move as one being, with Beyoncé presiding over them all. She is the modern image of victory over the warfare placed on her body, career, intellect, personal life; having succeeded, she can now dress like “Winged Victory” and, in a sense, pass along her victories to the women who dance on the steps in front of her. Twitter user Queen Curly Fry’s in-depth Twitter thread breaking down the art seen in “Apeshit” is thorough, and her comments on the incorporation of the “Venus de Milo” into the video is so neatly articulated that we couldn’t have said it better if we tried: “Here, Beyoncé once again models herself as a Greek statue, this time the Venus de Milo. However, in this shot she wears a nude bodysuit with wrapped hair, reframing both goddesses of beauty and victory as a black woman. This dismantles white-centric ideals of beauty.” Similarly, Twitter account Tabloid Art History nails why it’s so important and iconic for Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and her dancers to be dancing in front of “The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Joséphine” by Jacques Louis David from 1804: “What I especially like about this part of the video is that the painting itself depicts a disruption, Napoleon taking the Pope’s role from him and crowning Josephine himself. Beyoncé further disrupts this by taking on Josephine’s role as the one being crowned.” If we consider Napoleon’s role as a major coloniser in the early 19th century, particularly in Northern Africa, then Beyoncé’s placement in the shot is extra symbolic. Beyoncé standing underneath the place where Napoleon is seen crowning his wife in the painting is a symbolic retrieval of stolen power. One of the other paintings we see in “APESHIT” is another Jacques-Louis David painting, “The Intervention of the Sabine Women.” Interestingly, we only see portions of the painting, never the entire artwork. This could be a sly comment on the dissection and appropriation of black bodies by white culture for their own aesthetic uses – or it could just be a deft use of quick cuts for dramatic effect for the video. Or maybe it’s both.   Twitter user Queen Curly Fry notes here that the painting, for the puposes of “APESHIT”, depicts “(white) female fear evoked by (white) male violence is juxtaposed w/ (black) female empowerment (‘get off my dick’).” The painting’s use of white female tears –long criticised as a way for white women to shift any blame they deserve for racist behaviour, or to turn a blind eye to racial injustice – is in direct contrast with Beyoncé and her dancers’ freedom, calm, and enlightenment. In the end, “APESHIT” is a triumph because it is a statement that only The Carters could successfully make. The visual tells the powers that be to fuck off with their tradition, their preciously guarded history that has sought to erase non-white people from the history books, and their preconceived notions about how black bodies can be ornamental. They’ve used art to push back, to demand honour for the work they’ve contributed. “APESHIT” is a force to be reckoned with, and The Carters’ use of art to make a statement is an announcement to the world that they’ve shaped culture as much as anything hanging on a gallery wall.

[ellohcee]

For the um....writing promts.... what about fever? Maybe one could be sick and the other takes care of them

Alrighty, here it is! I’m hoping to continue this one some day, as it’s actually part of a much longer piece that’s still in the rough stages? So I worked on this part for the ask since it fit!

50 Prompts

#35 - Fever

Miraculous Ladybug

Prompt List

AO3

- - - -

The clouds were thick above Paris,blocking the late morning sun from view and turning the world gray asrain pelted the earth, soaking everything. It was another in a stringof stormy days that had been persistently hanging over them, goingnon stop most hours. It was this dark Thursday morning that Marinettesat through class in a daze, her face warm and her head feeling likeit was stuffed full of cotton. She could barely focus on anythingbeing spoken, while Alya gave her concerned side glances every sooften. Time slipped in and out for her, and she had no idea what timeit was or how long it had been since her eyes focused on the board upfront.

Time passed at normal pace for the restof the glass, and it was almost eleven when Adrien heard a soft thumpbehind him, and a concerned whisper from Alya. He turned in his seatto find Marinette with her head on her arms. He frowned in concern,but apparently he and Alya weren’t the only ones that noticed.

“Marinette, am I boring you?”

The accused party picked her head upquickly, immediately regretting the rushed action as her head swamnauseatingly. “No ma'am, I’m sorry.”

Mme. Bustier hummed thoughtfully and walkedtowards the seats before proceeding up to the second row. She leaneddown over Marinette and stared at her intently, making the girlnervous from the close attention. The woman then reached out a hand,feeling Marinette’s forehead. “You have a fever. You should go homefor today. Do you want to call your parents?”

“Ah- um, okay. But I really don’tneed to bother them, I live just down the street,” Marinetteprotested softly, knowing one of them would come to get her withouthesitation but not wanting to drag either of them over. “They’reworking.”

Bustier clicked her tongue softly, butlet the matter slide. “Well then, do you have an umbrella for thewalk?”

“Umm, no, but it’s fine, really-”

“I have one, I can walk herthere,” Adrien volunteered happily, bringing mixed reactions from certain parts of the class. Chloe looked downright scandalized, practicallygrinding her teeth against desire to say something. Alya lookedabsolutely pleased, folding her hands over the desk with a grin, andMarinette was just softly puzzled. It struck her that normally shemight be freaking out that Adrien was offering to walk her home, butshe was just too tired and sore to invest that kind of energy rightnow.

“Very well, you’re excused for theday Marinette. And Adrien, I expect you back within the hour, sinceyou don’t have far to go,” Mme. Bustier instructed, walking backtowards the front of the class.

“Yes ma'am,” Adrien replied, beforeturning to look at the girl behind him. “Ready to go?”

“Ah, yes,” Marinette replied,snapping out of her daze and quickly packing her things away. Whenshe made another mistake of standing too abruptly, her head swam justa little, but it passed soon enough for anyone to notice. Marinettecarefully made her way down the steps, half expecting Chloe to tripher out of pure spite over Adrien’s volunteering. Luckily there wasno incident from Chloe under Adrien’s pertinent stare, and he guidedMarinette out of the classroom. Once down the stairwell and outsidethe front of the school, Adrien popped open his umbrella and steppedcloser to Marinette, holding it mainly over her.

As they walked down the front steps andproceeded towards the bakery, he noticed his friend was unusuallyquiet. She must really not be feeling well.He frowned. Usually Marinette was chattering with nervous small talk,but she was just… quiet. Her eyes were nearly closed so it was awonder she could see what was in front of her, that flush in her cheeksworryingly red. When they arrived at the shop front connected toMarinette’s home, Adrien took a moment under the shop’s awning toclose the umbrella and leave it propped against the wall, out of anypasserby’s path.

Adrien pushed thedoor open and caused a small bell over their heads to jinglecheerfully while Marinette trudged inside. The inside of the bakerywas warm and inviting, smelling of many delicious scents that Adriencouldn’t place but knew must taste amazing. Sabine looked up to greetwho she thought was a customer but instead found her daughter, andthe baker’s face turned worried as she moved around the counter.“Marinette, honey what are you doing home?”

“Um, goodmorning, the teacher excused her for the day, she’s not feelingwell,” Adrien supplied, causing the woman to look at him.

“Oh, thank you somuch for walking her home, that’s so kind of you! Your name wasAdrien, right?” Sabine asked pleasantly, earning a shy nod from theboy. “I really appreciate you making sure she got home. Adrien,would you mind terribly waiting here for a moment while I get her tobed? I’ll be right back.”

As Sabine began toshuffle her daughter towards the house, Marinette looked blearilyover her shoulder and offered a smile. “Thanks Adrien, see youtomorrow,” came her soft parting.

Adrien smiled back,happy to see a sign of her usual self despite his friend’s condition.“Bye Marinette, feel better.” As the two disappeared, the blondestood in the bakery and looked around. He’d been through here before,but he’d never taken the time to really study it. Everything was neatand clean, the warm lighting illuminating a glass case full ofbeautifully decorated pastries. It made him feel welcome, it was anice change from the depressingly huge and empty manor he was usedto.

When Marinette’smother returned, she bid Adrien to follow her. They walked shop frontand into the part of the building that was their home, morespecifically the kitchen. “Do you have to rush back to school,dear?” Sabine asked, opening a cupboard and taking a few items outto place on the counter.

“I’ve got nearlyan hour still, but I don’t care to test Mme. Bustier’s patience,”he said with a chuckle.

“Alright then,I’ll make this to go,” Sabine hummed cheerfully, grabbing adisposable cup from a stack they used for the bakery. She grabbed somemilk from the fridge and filled up the cup, placing it in themicrowave. While the milk heated, Sabine grabbed a small squarecontainer and brought it over to Adrien. “I was going to give yousome fresh baked croissants as thanks, but Marinette asked me to giveyou these,” Sabine said, opening the lid.

Adrien’s eyeswidened in surprise to see a neat pile of small pastries, covered ina thin dusting of powdered sugar.

“These are thelemon jam squares she made by hand, she is the daughter of two pastrychefs after all,” Sabine laughed at the incredulous look on theboy’s face. She closed the lid and handed him the container.

“Wow, thank you,”Adrien said, carefully placing the box of pastries in his bag.

Meanwhile, Sabinetook the steaming cup out of the microwave and open a jar of richcocoa powder. She mixed in a generous spoonful and covered it with alid, walking over to Adrien once more and handing it to him. “Andtake this too, it will warm you up on the walk back.”

“Thanks, I reallyappreciate it,” the blonde said with a smile. It never failed toamaze him how nice Marinette’s parents were, even upon the firstmeeting when they treated him so kindly without any reservation.

“No, I’m the oneto be thankful, it was very kind of you to walk her home when she’snot feeling well,” Sabine said, placing a hand on the boy’sshoulder.

“It was noproblem at all, I just wanted to make sure she got back safe,” heexplained, cheeks going pink from the praise he was not used to.“Well, I’d better get going, thanks for the care package,” headded, smiling widely.

“You’re welcome,I hope you like it. Take care on your way back to class, alright?”Sabine asked, setting a hand on the boy’s shoulder as she walked himback out to the bakery.

“I will,”Adrien replied, waving as he left. The little bell above the doorjingled once again, and he bent down to grab his umbrella. Adrienpaused for a moment to open the container, picking up one of thepastries and taking a bite. It was fresh and soft, topped with alemon custard and filled with strawberry jam in the center that madehim melt on the spot.

“Woah,” hebreathed in amazement. “This is fantastic,” he said to himself,taking a sip of the hot chocolate. It was rich and flavorful, runningwarm down his throat and leaving a trail of pleasant heat to hisstomach. Adrien inhaled deeply and let it out as a sigh of purecontent, opening the umbrella with a ‘wumph’ of displaced air andheading back to the school. The whole way back he pondered how todiscreetly share the snacks with Nino and Alya without getting mobbedby the whole class.

- - - -

Later that dayafter classes had ended and Adrien was home for the day, he foundhimself thinking about Marinette, how flushed her face had been andhow tired she seemed. “Hope she’s okay,” he sighed, flipping thepage in his text book. The sound of the rain drowned out all otheroutside noise beyond the walls of the mansion, turning into apleasant white noise. Well, until the explosion.

Adrien looked outhis window in shock, seeing a thin plume of smoke drifting towardsthe sky near the Eiffel Tower. “Aw man, while it’s pouring out?Come on! Plagg, transform me!”

“What?? Whileit’s raining??” Plagg cried out, the rest of his forming complaintcut off as he disappeared into the ring.

Chat Noir sprang from his normal window with all the usual grace, using his staff tolaunch over the main gate and across the city. His searching eyesfound nothing as he carefully ran and jumped between slick rooftops,but once he got closer to the smoke, he stopped on a terrace to tryto scope out the situation. Ladybug didn’t appear to be present yet,so he scanned the destruction for answers. A spot in the street hadbeen decimated, the pavement cracked and crumbled. This was thesource of the smoke, but he could find no trace of the presumed Akumathat caused it. Either that, or someone was just playing withexplosives in the street. He was more hoping for Akuma.

A few minutes lateras he was patrolling the area, he caught a flash of red. “You’re alittle late there, LB,” he teased, seeing her come in for alanding. But when her feet hit the roof, Ladybug stumbled harshly andkept going in an attempt to correct herself, right for the edge.“Woah!” Chat called, darting out from the overhang and wrappinghis arm around her waist, pulling her towards himself and away fromthe edge. “Ladybug, are you okay? What just happened?” hebreathed in shock, searching her pale face.

“Sorry, sorry,”she said, holding a hand to her head as she tried to control heruneven breathing. “I’m not feeling too good.”

Chat’s eyebrowsfurrowed in concern. “What, you too?”

“What?” Ladybugasked, glancing up at him.

“Um, nothing. Areyou sure you’re up for it today?” the blonde asked, setting a handon her forehead. “Even through my glove you’re burning up.”

“I’m fine,really,” she replied with a weak smile. “Besides, I have topurify the Akuma, they don’t take sick days Chaton,” she chuckled.

Chat’s frownincreased, her jibe doing nothing to make him feel better about thesituation. “Well, I guess we don’t have a choice about that. Buttry to take it easy, alright? Leave the heavy lifting to me and youtake care of the Akuma once it’s time,” he insisted, setting a handon her shoulder.

“Alrightalright,” she relented softly, smiling at him. “Thanks Chat.”

He tried to smileback at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes, as all he could thinkabout was Ladybug nearly stumbling off the building a moment ago. Hewas going to have his hands full trying to watch her and the Akuma atthe same time.

Maybe this would bean easy one.

Yeah. Sure.

[roseateultra-blog]

Having trained one himself, it was to be expected. It was a phase that seemed unavoidable for Rockruffs. As charming as they were, it was a trial in itself to get the Pokemon past this stage. However, the payoff was more reward than the risk of something going horribly wrong. Lily certainly seemed to think the same, as she was determined to see Sabine, her own Rockruff, through it. Davaste admired her for it, knowing she was capable.

That would be tested during what should’ve been a very normal training session.

Knowing he had a baby Pokemon or two around who would be interested in a scrap, he packed a few with him to battle Lily’s blossoming party who, by now, had made it to Akala Island in her island challenge travels. The two siblings had agreed on meeting near the Ruins of Life, where a battle arena lay that would be fine for a quick training battle.

It was after the last of Davaste’s own party had been fainted, that the signs became apparent to Davaste himself before it reached Lily. Sabine had fought viciously, something that Davaste noticed, but, his sister so enraptured with her victory, hadn’t picked up on. She sprinted in to congratulate one of the stars of her party, yelling praise toward the canine Pokemon.

“Sabine, that was righteous! I’m so pr--” Lily had reached the point of scooping up Sabine, the Rockruff caught off-guard, and still riled. Her hackles raised, teeth bared with a spurt of flame. Davaste moved far faster in that moment than he had moved in a very long time.

“Lily--!”

Davaste had thrust his arm between the wily Rockruff, and his own sister, causing the Rockruff’s teeth to sink into the flesh of his non-tattooed arm. A wince, and a grimace from Davaste indicated his pain as the dog Pokemon’s fiery fangs flushed over his unfortunate skin, causing the areas around the bite marks to blister painfully. Sabine seemed to realize what had happened a second too late. She retracted from the boy’s space with a whimper, but the damage had been done. Her tail lowered to plaster itself between her hind legs as a regretful look crossed her face.

Lily had both hands clapped over her mouth in horror as Davaste lifted his arm to inspect the damage. It hurt, but he was unphased beyond the initial sting that was occurring. Especially since burns were what he was intimately familiar with. Still. The blood running from the puncture marks was gruesome-looking as it formed scarlet rivulets down his skin. He blamed neither trainer nor Pokemon for this happening, he was merely glad both were okay if not a tad shaken now.

“Fuck, ah, that hurt far more than I was hoping it would,” Davaste seethed between gritted teeth.

“Dav! Why did you do that!” Lily demanded, staring at her brother. She remembered herself, and went to pick up Sabine. The dog didn’t struggle. In fact, she whined pitifully in apology. Lily gave her a reassuring pat, then stared sternly at her brother. A scowl had formed on her face.

“You... ugh! I could’ve taken that... I was the one that made the mistake.”

“... Maybe so, but I wasn’t about to risk it.”

“Dav...” The younger of the siblings sucked in a deep breath, much like she’d seen her brother do when he needed to collect his thoughts. Her eyes closed momentarily, until she felt ready to return her gaze to her sibling. She squeezed Sabine a little tighter in her arms.

“I know my limits. I know I’m... I know I’m how I am,” Her eyes were fixed on the wound. “but, you can’t keep protecting me all the time--”

--you can’t protect me forever.”

There’s palpable silence after she says that. By that point, Davaste had taken off his shirt to begin wrapping it around his injury until he could treat it properly.

“... I know. However, I felt you didn’t need a scar like that.” Davaste avoided looking at Lily, his eyes never moving from his arms and hands as he worked with getting the bleeding stopped. As if to make his point, he held up his opposite arm that carried both the burn from his own dearest partner Pokemon, and the image of that Pokemon inked over it.

“Yeah but, isn’t that just part of growing up? Part of growing as a trainer?” Lily’s brows furrowed. She was peering hard at Sabine, whose ears had flattened so much they might as well have been permanently glued to her head at that point. Davaste didn’t answer her. His eyes flirted with the ground instead, head turned away from his sister.

“I can take my own hits, Dav. I love you, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but don’t you think it’s time to stop hurting yourself for my sake?”

The words struck Davaste the moment they left Lily’s mouth. He looked pained for a moment, as an ache hit him in the chest. The realization of her words was sudden, it was as if the ground began to crumble out from under his feet. All the shields he’d built over years for the sake of walling in his emotions, they fell away for one fleeting second. It was far too much all at once to be dealing with in such an immediate way. He let out a small noncommittal grunt, really it was the only thing he could muster. He needed to keep control. Control. Like he always was. In control. After another beat, he finally managed a reply.

“... You should put Sabine back in her Pokeball so she can calm down properly, now that the danger’s passed.”

“I mean it, Davaste.” The fact she’d used his full name had made it that much worse. At that point, his mind was becoming too frayed to stand being there, being admonished by his sister in an emotionally poignant way. A few rocks that had been strewn about nearby rumbled ominously as his powers began to leak out of him.

“I know,” his voice was barely above a whisper. Lily seemed to take that as a cue to do what he had instructed. She whispered a few sweet nothings to Sabine, who gives the girl a placid lick on the nose for her trouble. With that, she let Sabine retreat back into her ball, before Lily clicked it back into place on her belt. The movement of the stones caught her eye, but she had felt the tumult long before she witnessed it.

Davaste concentrated on the pain of his arm to keep himself grounded. However, he was frozen in place. He could feel the drift, but he couldn’t do it, not here. It was extremely hard not to just leave mentally, especially after Lily’s words sparked something very deep, and personal within him he wasn’t equipped to confront yet, especially not in such an open place with his sister being so close and vulnerable. This time, it was her that broke the silence that had grown.

“Dav, c’mon. We should go to a Pokemon Center so you can get that treated. It looked like it really, really hurt.” Lily wasn’t naive, not as naive as Davaste might believe she was at times. She could sense her brother’s inner turmoil, and did her best to put off a wave of reassurance to keep him with her, to maintain him. She’d known him far too long not to notice that behavior of his. She also wasn’t blind to the way the surrounding air had changed. She held her hand out.

There’s a hesitation from Davaste. It worried Lily at first, but his golden eyes moved to look at her directly, signalling he was still there. He would give her the slender pinkie finger from his uninjured arm which she wrapped her hand around, warmly, firmly. The stones stopped their menacing shaking beneath the duo’s feet. Davaste let his eyes shut in a long blink, then replied.

“... Right.”

[fck-dis-shit-im-out]

Seven Spectacular Details About Apeshit By Beyonce & Jay-Z

“I can’t believe we made it,” sings Beyoncé in “Apeshit - The Carters,” the first single from her surprise joint album with Jay-Z, Everything Is Love. And to prove that she and her husband have made it, in the song’s accompanying video, Beyoncé delivers this line from the Louvre. As the New York Times has pointed out, it is not actually that expensive to shoot a video in the Louvre (about $17,500 for a full day’s shoot). But music videos aren’t about numbers; they’re about how things feel — and there’s no place on earth that feels as lavish, as rich with accumulated cultural power and wealth and colonialism, as the Louvre. If you want to show that you have made it, that you are rich and powerful and one of the greatest artists of your generation, you go to the Louvre. And as an artistic choice, the Louvre is par for Beyoncé’s course. For the past few years, Beyoncé has increasingly cribbed from the iconography of classical Western art in her own image-making. Her pregnancy announcement photo shoot and her birth announcement photo shoot both referenced Botticelli’s Venus and the Renaissance trope of the Madonna and child, and her 2017 Grammys performance drew on goddess imagery from multiple artistic traditions. So when Beyoncé shoots at the Louvre — taking on by turns the poses of Venus de Milo and Victory — she’s continuing an artistic project of recontextualizing classical Western art, of making herself the aesthetic object on which so much wealth and cultural capital has been spent. And coming from a black woman, that’s a radical statement. “In a way, Beyoncé is exploiting/marketing her blackness as creativity — as a kind of weapon — within and against the very Eurocentric system of culture and consumption from which she has benefited,” says James Smalls, a professor of art history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. That’s an especially radical statement to make in the context of the Louvre, where little of the art features people of color in positions of strength and power. “From the Middle Ages up to the 19th century, works of art that showed black people usually represented them as servants or secondary figures,” explains Smalls. “They were not deemed worthy subjects of paintings, sculptures, or other kinds of cultural works.” One of the few exceptions to that trend is Marie Benoist’s “Portrait d’une négresse,” also displayed at the Louvre. “That painting is an anomaly because it presents a black person as the sole aestheticized subject and object of a work of art,” Smalls says. And it’s the painting that appears at the end of the “Apeshit” video, after shot after shot of portraits of white people.

Benoist painted “Portrait” in 1800, during a brief period in which France had abolished colonial slavery. (In 1794, the French emancipation proclamation liberated the colonies; in 1802, Napoleon reinstated slavery.) In that six-year span, portraits of heroic black people became popular in France, and that created an opportunity for an image of a black woman who is not tending to or subordinate to a white person, who is instead considered worthy of being at the center of her own portrait. As Smalls has pointed out, in its full context, “Portrait” is not a wildly politically subversive image. It’s most likely that the unknown and unnamed subject was a servant with few legal rights who had little choice about how she posed or whether she was okay with her breast being exposed to the world for the next 200 years. Benoist the painter has much more agency here than the black woman at the center of the picture. But in the context of “Apeshit,” with its montages of painting after painting of white faces and white statues, “Portrait” feels both shocking and subversive. It’s a black face in the center of the frame, apparently in control of her domain. And it’s one of the only figures in the Louvre that we don’t see get reinterpreted by either the Carters or their dancers: The only figure in the Louvre that can withstand the unstoppable force that is Beyoncé, that does not need to be remade and reexamined. Part of Beyoncé’s project over the past few years has been to treat art as a form of power: It is a form of focused aesthetic attention, of social capital, and of wealth given solid form. Taking over the Louvre means taking all that power for herself and for the black bodies she brings in with her — except for the “Portrait.” In “Apeshit,” it can stand on its own. What do Beyoncé, The Smurfs 2, and you have in common? All three have the theoretical ability to rent out the Louvre. Though there was widespread awe that the Carters’ video for “Apeshit” took place inside the most famous museum in the world, turns out, it’s actually not all that uncommon. According to the New York Times, about 500 shoots take place at the Louvre each year, which have included films on opposite ends of the “is this a good movie” spectrum, from last year’s Wonder Woman to 2013’s The Smurfs 2, which even the Louvre couldn’t save from its 13 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating. Though the museum only allows photography in the galleries for private use, it makes exceptions for professionals through written authorization. As of 2015, the Louvre’s policy states that to shoot a short film or music video, the cost for both interior and exterior shots would be just €4,500, or about $5,200. It’s possible that if the Carters had a crew of more than 50 people, that number would have been closer to €18,000, but as the Times notes, “there are hotel rooms here that cost more than that.” Hosting private events, however, will cost you a bit more. A tour for under 50 guests will set you back €10,000, while renting out the reception hall beneath I.M. Pei’s pyramid will cost, at the very least, €28,000. Though, to reiterate, that isn’t an amount at which anyone would gasp, “Mon dieu!” Lorde, I have an idea for you about where to film your video for “The Louvre.” Call me! In the video for Beyoncé and JayZ‘s “Apeshit,” the first visual from the pair’s surprise joint album Everything Is Love, the two stars romp through the Louvre in Paris, seizing center stage in a high-culture palace that – like most Western art museums – historically made little room for non-white artists. Some of their mission involves the strategic highlighting of non-white images already in the Louvre. Beyoncé and Jay-Z rap in front of an Egyptian sphinx, and in galleries filled mostly with neo-classical French paintings – white artists, white subjects – the camera singles out black faces. (The video is directed by Ricky Saiz, who also helmed the “Yonce” video from Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s eponymous 2013 album.) Viewers catch brief glimpses of a pair of black figures in Paolo Veronese’s painting “The Wedding at Cana,” where Jesus turned water into wine, as well as a quick look at Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s “Portrait d’une Négresse,” a depiction of a black woman staring guilelessly back at the viewer. But the Where’s Waldo? moments highlighting black figures are fleeting – the possibilities for this in the Louvre, or any major Western art museum, are limited from the start. So Beyoncé and JayZ set about interjecting blackness into a space that has never placed much value on it, claiming one of the centerpieces of European culture with gleeful defiance. They frequently film themselves moving in opposition to the frozen stillness of paintings by Jacques-Louis David, a French neoclassical artist whose work – like “The Oath of the Horatii” and “Madame Récamier” – invokes the Greco-Roman tradition. Much of the potency of the “Apeshit” video comes from the contrasts drawn between the “white” art on the walls and the black women on the gallery floors. In front of David’s “The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Joséphine,” a court scene of relentless white extravagance, Beyoncé and eight black dancers hold hands and begin to dance. It takes just a few synchronized sashays to upstage David’s massive painting, replacing an ornate symbol of white authority with a celebration of black bodies in motion. The Louvre’s stature depends on people believing that “The Coronation of Empress Joséphine” is the art, but the eye tells a different story – hanging behind Beyoncé and her dancers, the painting is reduced to wallpaper. Throughout the “Apeshit - The Carters” video, Beyoncé and Jay-Z repeatedly upstage some of Western classical art’s most famous images in one of its central sacred spaces. Beyoncé holds a series of chopping micro-poses with her hands before Saiz cuts quickly to an image of a distressed character, hands held up to shield her head, taken from another David painting, “The Rape of the Sabine Women.” The placement of the hands connects the two frames, but Beyoncé’s is virile, aggressive and in charge, while David’s figure seems merely fearful.

Radical gestures roll in on a mightily slippery sliding scale these days, don’t they? We’re far past any cultural division between high and low or pop and art at this point, and artists on the charts are also sniffing out their next inspiration, album cycle, or comparison to their own personal affairs in the grander schemes of culture and history. You’d be hard pressed to find a more hallowed repository of the West than the Louvre, so of course that’s where Beyoncé and Jay-Z have rolled up to set their new music video for the track “Apeshit” from the fresh album they dropped like an anvil right on top of your weekend. Of course this isn’t the first time they’ve been there, nor the first time some Pop-ish upstarts made a Major Statement at the French museum, but it would seem to be a major escalation in the Carters x Louvre relationship, to say nothing of the pride re: their own marital ties that the album and video are so keen to showcase. When worlds (and genres) collide is still a strong trend across multiple spheres of art and culture—turning meaning and message into something of a competitive game of Russian nesting dolls or an arms race of spectacle-based oneupmanship—but what might we make of this night at the museum if considered in light of the 1960s Marxist avant-garde French Situationist International? Founded in 1957 by Guy “Barrel of Laughs” Debord and Asger “Beware the Palette Knife” Jorn, the Situationists were guys and gals, but mostly guys, who wanted to, as the name would indicate, create some situations and elevate to the level of philosophy the notion of taking a freaking walk outside. But they also had a strategy! And key among their techniques, to which you can probably attribute the rise of “culture jamming” and just whatever Banksy thinks he’s doing, was the détournement. Discussed in chapter 8 of Debord’s 1967 tract The Society of the Spectacle, the technique calls for taking advantage of existing cultural objects or canonized art, rerouting their message, and even advocates for theft: “Plagiarism is necessary. Progress depends on it. It sticks close to an author’s phrasing, exploits his expressions, deletes a false idea, replaces it with the right one.” You would not have wanted this guy for your editor, but if you were looking to smash the state (of meaning), Debord was your man.

So, if “détournement serves as a reminder that theory is nothing in itself, that it can realize itself only through historical action and through the historical correction that is its true allegiance,” then is the spectacle of “Apeshit” a glam, historical correction of the Western assumption that houses of European culture contain the highest achievements of man- and womynkind? Beyoncé and Jay-Z have more clout and pull at this point than a merely rich person or garden-variety aristocrat putzing around the Cotswolds or Monaco, and they built that for themselves. When they pull off a stunt like this, it feels like another chime in the prosperity gospel that Doreen St. Félix examined in the arc of Rihanna’s career, as well as further evidence that the ability to make a compelling spectacle of oneself, to write a personal narrative as large as that of the progress of a civilization, is success. The false idea here is white supremacy, and perhaps the correction then is that European colonialists may not have had the time or the means to make their masterpieces if it weren’t for the economic boon of slavery and historical pillaging of resources from southern and eastern continents for the benefit of countries like France. The Situationists didn’t really like spectacle much (“The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living”) but they recognized that it was inescapable in modern society (“The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images”). Given this circumstance, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, god bless them, would appear to be doing their best to create a spectacle that people who look like them can see themselves in too, as opposed to the near uninterrupted stream of black death spectacle the media and world is awash in on a day to day basis. Look forward to hearing this jam blasting out of car speakers this summer—it’ll be a real situation. The surprise release of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Jay-Z’s new album, Everything Is Love, (credited as “The Carters” on the album to recognize they’re performing as a united duo, not as individuals) on Saturday, June 16 has left the music world reeling. Already, what fans have been carefully dissecting – and what we’re interested in unpacking, too – is the imagery from the music video for the album’s lead single, “APESHIT”. The six-minute video is likely going to be considered one of the best of 2018, with The Carters and a troupe of dancers taking over the Louvre. In case you couldn’t already tell, the fact that Bey and Jay Z even got unfettered access to the Louvre for their own use is a stunning power move – adding a glorious power to the “APESHIT” lyric “I can’t believe we made it/ This is why we’re thankful”. Let’s start with the primary location in “Apeshit”: the Louvre. Historically, it’s a predominately white space that primarily features white, male-created works of art. It’s a microcosm of history, which itself is mostly white, male, and heterosexual. Tradition and the Louvre go hand-in-hand, too, which means that Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s presence is a total disruption from the beginning. For modern audiences and fans of The Carters, the disruption is surely welcome. Not only can we expect to see (and do see) The Carters standing next to some of the most famous works of art, including the Mona Lisa and Winged Victory of Samothrace, but we see that they are aligning themselves with it right out of the gate. Their presence in a place that preserves what history has deemed the most important artworks, standing next to said art while themselves looking like art and using their body language to engage with this art, already implies they are as worthy of being there as the older work. It’s a middle finger to convention, a dare aimed at squarely at the gatekeepers of history and artistic tradition: You know we deserve to be here. The Carters begin positioning themselves as iconography from the moment we first see them, standing in front of the “Mona Lisa”. Sure, it’s a callback to the first time they took a photo with arguably the most famous painting in history back in 2014, but something is different this time around. Like the “Mona Lisa”, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are dressed simply, but powerfully. Suits for both, in bright colours and styles specific to their tastes and representative of the times they live in; again, just like the “Mona Lisa”. But even more of an echo of the painting is their expressions: a strong stare straight ahead, lips pressed together, shoulders back. They are telegraphing to us that they are as iconic as the “Mona Lisa”, without even saying a word. By donning expressions very much in the same vein as the iconic painting, they’re telling the viewer that they’re basically in the presence of a peer. But even more than that, they’re commenting on the beguiling and enticing space they occupy in our own culture. Much like the “Mona Lisa”, they are telling us that they know we think about them in a way we don’t think about other music artists. They know that we’ll spend hours analysing them and their work, attempting to find meaning in their movements and lyrics, trying to work out the symbols and icons they’ve put forth, and hoping to crack the impenetrable fortress they’ve built around them (from which they only emerge to become vulnerable when they want to). Humans have spent centuries trying to unpack the enigma of the “Mona Lisa” and still continue to do so to this day; do you really think you can figure out The Carters in a day? Another immensely important moment from “APESHIT” comes in the repeated glimpses of Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s “Portrait of a Black Woman (Negress)” from 1800. One of the few works of art painted by a woman in the Louvre, the painting is deeply important both as a feature in the Louvre and its place in art history, because it is the only painting of its time to depict a black woman who is not a slave or similarly subjugated person, but rather simply presented in all her glory.

The painting affirms that black women are worthy of being in artistic spaces, and in enduring imagery. The painting is shown a few times, and it’s the second to last painting we see before the video closes on Bey and Jay turning around to regard the “Mona Lisa” – further confirmation that Benoist’s painting and its subject deserve recognition. It’s also no accident that the “Winged Victory of Samothrace” statue is frequently seen in “APESHIT”. Implying triumph and power, the statue has endured over centuries, and The Carters imply just as much by once again standing in front of it, in perhaps a nod to their own triumph and the power they’ve achieved. According to the Louvre website for the piece, the statue depicts Nike, and was likely created to commemorate a naval victory by the Rhodians (who hail from Rhodes, part of the Dodecanese island group in Greece). The towering relic from the Hellenistic period is, as the Louvre’s description notes, intensely dramatic and glorifies the female body in connection with something traditionally masculine (victory in war). That endowment of power to a female body is then emulated in the female bodies that stand before it in present day, through Beyoncé and her troupe of female dancers. All of these women come together and move as one being, with Beyoncé presiding over them all. She is the modern image of victory over the warfare placed on her body, career, intellect, personal life; having succeeded, she can now dress like “Winged Victory” and, in a sense, pass along her victories to the women who dance on the steps in front of her. Twitter user Queen Curly Fry’s in-depth Twitter thread breaking down the art seen in “Apeshit” is thorough, and her comments on the incorporation of the “Venus de Milo” into the video is so neatly articulated that we couldn’t have said it better if we tried: “Here, Beyoncé once again models herself as a Greek statue, this time the Venus de Milo. However, in this shot she wears a nude bodysuit with wrapped hair, reframing both goddesses of beauty and victory as a black woman. This dismantles white-centric ideals of beauty.” Similarly, Twitter account Tabloid Art History nails why it’s so important and iconic for Beyoncé and her dancers to be dancing in front of “The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of Empress Joséphine” by Jacques Louis David from 1804: “What I especially like about this part of the video is that the painting itself depicts a disruption, Napoleon taking the Pope’s role from him and crowning Josephine himself. Beyoncé further disrupts this by taking on Josephine’s role as the one being crowned.” If we consider Napoleon’s role as a major coloniser in the early 19th century, particularly in Northern Africa, then Beyoncé’s placement in the shot is extra symbolic. Beyoncé standing underneath the place where Napoleon is seen crowning his wife in the painting is a symbolic retrieval of stolen power. One of the other paintings we see in “APESHIT” is another Jacques-Louis David painting, “The Intervention of the Sabine Women.” Interestingly, we only see portions of the painting, never the entire artwork. This could be a sly comment on the dissection and appropriation of black bodies by white culture for their own aesthetic uses – or it could just be a deft use of quick cuts for dramatic effect for the video. Or maybe it’s both.   Twitter user Queen Curly Fry notes here that the painting, for the puposes of “APESHIT”, depicts “(white) female fear evoked by (white) male violence is juxtaposed w/ (black) female empowerment (‘get off my dick’).” The painting’s use of white female tears –long criticised as a way for white women to shift any blame they deserve for racist behaviour, or to turn a blind eye to racial injustice – is in direct contrast with Beyoncé and her dancers’ freedom, calm, and enlightenment. In the end, “APESHIT” is a triumph because it is a statement that only The Carters could successfully make. The visual tells the powers that be to fuck off with their tradition, their preciously guarded history that has sought to erase non-white people from the history books, and their preconceived notions about how black bodies can be ornamental. They’ve used art to push back, to demand honour for the work they’ve contributed. “APESHIT” is a force to be reckoned with, and The Carters’ use of art to make a statement is an announcement to the world that they’ve shaped culture as much as anything hanging on a gallery wall.

[just-here-for-humor]

Circus of Dreams 13

Sabin, the twins, Artemishia, Josiah, and Blue walked through the marketplace of the town. Shops and cart vendors lined the street; there were even some people who just had their wares spread out before them on a large mat.

"Alright Blue and I will get canvas and such for tent repairs and y'all can get food stuffs. Sound good?" Josiah offered.

"Yep. And we meet back at the end of the street like we do in every town."

"Yeah."

With that the group split ways to make the shopping quicker. Going faster was better, if trouble stirred up most of the shopping was already done. Josiah took Blue's hand in a firm grip; his hand nearly engulfing her's, and lead her along the busy street, telling her to stick close. She looked at the shop windows and displays trying to see if there was something worth spending her pay on. They passed toys, produce, carpenters, and an apothecary selling herbs and potions.

The duo entered a small store whose sign depicted a needle and spool of thread. Shelves filled with big rounds of fabric sat in crowded rows before the door. The end of the store had smaller shelves located behind a counter which held spools of thread and skeens of yarn in various colors. Josiah went to the counter where an older half-elf lady sat to ask her for canvas and thick thread. Blue explored the small shop, gazing at the colors and patterns of the fabric, and lightly touching those that seemed especially soft. It was quiet in the shop and it made her think of a library. Once he had procured the items Josiah came back to her with a substantial bundle underneath his arm. She reached for it but he took her hand saying that he had it. After he said that they were next going in search of a candlemarker. When Blue cocked her head at this statement Josiah explained that they would use the wax to make the fabric water-resistant.

The candle shop was similar to the one with fabric; however, it was less cramped but smelled weird. The scent tickled Blue's nose and made her want to cough. Jars of popourii and various candles either scented or not combined in a finicky way. She was glad to leave that shop after Josiah had made the necessary purchases.

"Where to now? Nadine had asked us to look for paint brushes. Is there anything that you would like?"

She shrugged not sure. Nothing had quite caught her eye yet.

"We'll stop at the general store first then. If you see something just pull me in that direction."

The general store was much bigger than the previous shops they had been in. Multiple rows of shelving ran along the interior. Food, candy, grain, oats, and various outdoor and houseware utensils lined the shelves. There were even some simple magic items like stones of farspeech held behind the counter. Josiah went to the counter to ask about paint brushes as Blue walked the isles. She ran her fingers over a carved horse toy. It was painted blue with orange and pink flowers blooming on it's back. It was a very pretty toy. She counted her money in secret, just in case of unwanted looks, before deciding to get it. Blue had remembered something else that she had wanted to look for and wanted to make sure she would have enough left over.

Josiah was paying the half-dwarven man at the counter for a variety of paint brushes. As he stepped to the side with the brushes she set the horse up on the counter. The half-dwarf smiled at her.

"That's a very pretty horse you picked out," he said to her.

She shyly nodded in response.

"That'll be ten copper pieces."

She counted out the money as Josiah started to reach for his own coin pouch. Blue shook her head at him and gave him a look of resoluteness. He understood and hooked his thumbs on his pockets instead. She handed the man the pieces and he put them in the register.

"Would you like the horse wrapped?"

She shook her head and patted at her waist showing that her dress had a small pocket sewn on it. He handed her the toy and she carefully slipped it into the pocket. The horse's head stuck out of the top and she patted it as if making it secure. Blue went to Josiah and took his hand. Josiah thanked the man and she gave a small wave as they left the store.

Blue looked up at Josiah and tugged his arm. When she had his attention she said one word: Bakery. Josiah nodded and looked around as they went until they found one and went inside. Once in she looked around, trying to gauge if any of the pastries on display were the one she was after.

A young woman stepped from the back room calling to someone as she went, "Check the danishes soon Isaac. We don't want them to burn," then she turned her attention to them, "What I help you with?"

"Oh I'm not sure she wanted to look in here."

Blue gestured to Josiah for him to lean down, then she whispered in his ear.

"Do you sell something called a c...cæphóri?"

"No I don't think so. But we might call it something else. Can you describe what it is?"

Blue once again whispered in Josiah's ear. This might have been the longest period of speaking she had done but it was necessary. She really wanted a cæphóri. Josiah was even surprised at the amount she spoke even if it was in clipped sentences.

"It's apparently from Lastrot. It's a batcha honey and cinnamon biscuit. Sometimes it might have chocolate or jelly as well."

"Oh I know what you're talking about. Yeah we have some. We call them kappers here. How many did you want?"

Blue held up three fingers and stepped closer to the counter as the woman got turned to a mesh covered patter. She pulled out the cæphóri and placed them in a small white box. She tied the box with a strip of ribbon and handed it to Blue.

"Two silver please."

Blue handed the woman two silver and was glad to see that some silver and copper still remained in her pouch. She didn't even have to spend her gold piece. Blue once again took Josiah's hand and gave a small wave as they left the store. They went and met up with the others then and returned to the cluster of tents marking their temporary home.

Blue slipped from the group to go find Lutz. He was in the main tent checking the stage and seating to make sure the collaspeable wooden structures were still steady and unlikely to come apart.

"Hey Blue."

She gave a small wave and held up the box as she undid the ribbon as pulled open the lid.

"What d'you have there?"

In response she held out a dessert for him to take, before grabbing the second one for herself.

"What's this for."

She tugged a messy braid in her hair; the best on she had managed to make that morning, and said, "For thank you."

Lutz broke into a toothy grin, reminding Blue of the other reason he was called a wolf man.

"You're a sweet kid, ya know that? It's been a long time since I had a cæphóri."

They sat on the edge of the stage and bit into the pastries at the same time, Lutz humming gladly as he tasted it. It was as sweet as he remembered and this particular baker had added moonberry jelly to the center making the cæphóri especially tantalizing. They finished theiri pastries and licked the honey's stickiness from their fingers.

Blue slid the box towards Lutz. He looked inside and grinned at seeing a third cæphóri.

"Thank you Blue. You don't know how much this means to me. This really takes me back to my homeland. I still miss it sometimes. This was a wonderful surprise."

Blue squeezed his hand in response, shutting her eyes and sighing contentedly.

Part 12: http://just-here-for-humor.tumblr.com/post/176142223135/circus-of-dreams-12

Part 14: http://just-here-for-humor.tumblr.com/post/178019463325/circus-of-dreams-14

[rebelsofshield]

From Spark to Flame: Predicting the End of Star Wars Rebels

In just a day the fourth and final season of Star Wars Rebels will be upon us. What began as a spark of rebellion has grown into an odyssey following the journeys of a diverse ensemble of heroes and villains spanning years, battles, generations, and a galaxy. It’s hard to believe that in less than a year’s time this series will conclude and close the book on a unique chapter of the franchise’s history and likely pave the way for the next iteration of this universe on the small screen. What should we expect in the series’ final season? In many ways, this final installment is a mystery, but because I love speculating and critiquing I’m diving in any ways. The following is my long, and I stress long, breakdown of my thoughts, opinions, and predictions going in. Who lives? Who dies? Who shacks up? Who cameos? How gratuitous will the wolves be? All here. Well kinda.

(There are potential spoilers below. Nothing not readily available to the public, but if you want to go in entirely clean, maybe stay out.)

Part I: What We Know

Something that Rebels shares with its parent series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is that it in many ways functions as a prequel to a large chunk of the franchise. While there are certainly climactic events and character arcs that are unique to the series, Rebels takes place in a period of the Star Wars timeline that is bookended by existing media. This has become even more apparent with the release of Rogue One in 2016. As a result, going into season four there are a few concrete facts that can help shape our expectations of how Rebels’ final season may play out.

Hera and Chopper Live

We know that the Ghost crew’s pilot, captain, and resident maternal figure, Hera Syndulla and her cantankerous droid, Chopper, are the only two members of The Ghost crew that are confirmed to survive the events of the series. Hera receives a literal shoutout line in Rogue One and Chopper has a now famous cameo in the background of the Yavin Base. This is not to say that the other members of The Ghost crew may perish, more on that later, but as of The Battle of Scarif, only two members are known for sure to be active members of the rebel alliance. We also can safely assume that at the very least Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus are no longer active Force-users in the Alliance. The dialogue between Mon Mothma and Bail Organa regarding Obi-Wan strongly indicates that there are no Jedi present in the rebellion at the time of the film. Now, there are many ways that Dave Filoni and crew could cheat this, but I would bet against having Ezra and Kanan swinging lightsabers by Hera’s side by the time this season ends.

The Battle of Lothal will most likely be a loss for the Alliance

Rogue One also reaffirms a statement in the opening crawl of the original 1977 Star Wars by stressing that the Battle of Scarif and the theft of the Death Star plans is the first major military victory for the Rebel Alliance in their war against the Galactic Empire. By this logic, it is unlikely that by the time the series closes its narrative Lothal remains under the sway of the Empire. Now, it seems unlikely that the series will end in a complete downer with our heroes failing in their mission, it is possible that Lothal proves a more symbolic victory, but more on that later.

Thrawn’s TIE Defender Plan is a Failure

One of the plot threads we see shown in the final trailer for the fourth season is the internal conflict between the development of Grand Admriral Thrawn’s TIE Defender fighters and Director Orson Krennic’s Death Star. Tarkin begins to suspect that Thrawn’s pet project may not be in the Empire’s best interest moving forward given its expensive cost and lack of proven success. What is presented to us is a scenario where the TIE Defender likely has a short lived life-span with a premature death. While Star Wars has retroactively inserted vehicles, technology, and lore into the Original Trilogy period since the Prequel Trilogy, it seems confirmed here that Tharwn’s attempt to update the Imperial fighter squadron machine is fruitless.

Part II: What We’ve Been Told/Shown

In the months following the end of Star Wars Rebels season three, we have gained quite a few kernels of information from both the cast and crew of the series. Before I jump into full on speculation, I wanted to take a moment to show and extrapolate on other information we’ve gained for the series.

The season will be shorter and more serialized

One of the major complaints leveled at the second and third season of Star Wars Rebels is the focus on anthologized storytelling at times lead to episodes that seemingly did not tie back into the overarching plot or felt like diversions. Season four, intentionally or not, will somewhat address this issue. It runs shorter than the second and third season, clocking in at 16 22 minute segments, several of which form two part 44 minute episodes. Also, according to Dave, the first several episodes wrap up disparate plot threads before converging on one long story that feed into a narrative that covers the thrust of the last chunk of the season. Conventional wisdom seems to hint that we will spend much of this season on Lothal as the liberation of the planet becomes a priority for the rebellion and our cast.

Mandalore is in Civil War

Ever since Ursa Wren slayed Imperial Viceroy Gar Saxon to protect her daughter, Mandalore has broken apart with the various houses and clans vying for control of the planet with the Empire backing the remnants of Saxon’s house. This conflict takes center stage in the season premiere “Heroes of Mandalore,” which was partially screened at Celebration Orlando and then in its entirety at FanExpo. (I saw the first half myself and it’s pretty great. No spoilers, but it left me with a pretty huge cliffhanger that I’ve been anticipating the conclusion to since April.)

Rebels seems to be pulling out all the stops in putting this conflict to screen. Not only do we get a wide variety of Mandalorian characters and factions, numerous characters from this series’ past as well as The Clone Wars are due for an appearance. After teasing her return to Star Wars animation last year, Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica fame is due for a reprise of her character Bo-Katan and appears to be wielding the legendary Darksaber (perhaps Sabine hands it over to the rightful ruler of the planet?). In addition to the return of Sabine’s mother and brother, the Rebels Season Three Blu-Ray also reveals that Sabine’s father will be making his debut in the premiere. Having seen part of the episode I can confirm that he plays into Sabine’s character in a fun fashion, it’s very apparent about how his and Ursa’s personalities mixed to create their daughter. Shots of Mandalorian soldiers being turned to dust also seem to hint that the terrible weapon developed by Sabine will be deployed by the Empire.

That being said it seems unlikely that the Mandalorian conflict will spill over into the greater galactic conflict with the Empire. While Sabine and some of her close allies may take part in the battle on Lothal (Sabine can be glimpsed in the final shots of the second trailer with the rest of the Ghost Crew), the lack of Mandalorian presence in Rogue One seems to make this an unlikely possibility.

The Clones Are Back

After sitting out season three, Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo confirmed that clones Wolffe and Gregor would be seen on screen once again before the end of the series at Celebration Orlando earlier this year. Similarly, Dave cryptically dropped concept of Captain Rex wearing camouflage armor seemingly hinting at the popular fan theory that an older extra in Return of the Jedi may be the famous clone veteran.

Saw Gerrera and the Partisans

We also have been informed that Forest Whitaker will be reprising his role as Saw Gerrera in the early portions of the season. In addition to confirmation that his alien partner, Edrio Two Tubes (or maybe it’s Benthic. I honestly didn’t even know there were two of them. Did you know that?), will be joining him. The final trailer and Filoni have both hinted that this season widens the gap between Gerrera and the rest of the Alliance and may explain why he is no longer a part of the larger rebellion by the time Rogue One rolls around. He also seems set to butt heads with some key characters in the ensemble. Ezra in particular seems drawn in by Saw’s no nonsense results oriented strategy. Ezra has often been marked equally by both his compassion and his desire to see the Empire and Sith defeated. It seems likely that he will be used as a vantage point for the viewer allowing them to see both the allure and danger of a more dangerous and fanatical battle against The Empire.

Space Married

One of the most widely popular and to many the most consistently playfully frustrating aspects of the Rebels ensemble has been the frequently hinted at but never explicitly shown relationship between Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus. According to clips shown at Fan Expo and the first and second trailer for this season, fans may finally get their wish and see the symbolic mother and father of The Ghost crew commit to some form of romantic relationship. Whether this has a happy ending is a whole other thing, but for a few happy moments we are more than likely to see this couple finally, maybe, kiss…or something. At least an emotional forehead touch.

Rukh

Thrawn’s Noghri bodyguard from Timothy Zahn’s classic trilogy of novels is set to make his first canon appearance this season voiced by the legendary Warwick Davis. While his role appears to have been reshuffled to be more of a special agent/assassin in Thrawn’s employ rather than the almost enslaved bodyguard in his Legends appearance, it is unclear just how much Rukh borrows from his original role. Most importantly, is he the one to place once again place the killing blow on The Empire’s blue skinned Admiral? I’m inclined to think not.

Space Wolves

Dave Filoni loves wolves. Like, he really really likes wolves. What would the final season be without a whole lot of giant magical space wolves? The Loth-Wolves so far have remained a mystery, but their importance and almost mystical presence have been stressed throughout season four’s marketing campaign. While we can rest easy knowing that Ahsoka isn’t pulling a Sirius Black and transforming into a wolf like some fan’s speculated, Filoni has stressed that the large white predators are a Bendu-like creature that border the light and the dark. What connection do they really have to the planet of Lothal and the series as a whole? Who knows, but it will be nice to finally get a sense of how they fit into the planet’s culture.

Ahsoka Lives !(?!)

Oh yeah, Ahsoka is back. How? Why? Where? Who knows, but Dave Filoni has confirmed that we will see Ashley Eckstein’s fan favorite former-Jedi at least one more time before the series ends.

Part III: Rampant Speculation

So what does this all mean? Where are we going? Who is that? Where am I? Before I start jumping into the general end game for the series, let’s get a few more pieces of speculation out of the way. Let’s talk characters. Let’s talk deaths. Let’s talk why Nick keeps using repetition to spice up this segment of his article.

Kallus and the Rebellion

While Alexsandr Kallus (yes, that’s officially his first name now) has been a rebel operative for about a full season now, this season marks the first time that the former Imperial operative is an active participant in the Alliance. Sporting a snazzy new outfit and set to make a change in the galaxy, Kallus is sure to be one of the more intriguing aspects of this season going into its start. I highly doubt that Kallus’s assimilation into the rebellion will make for a clean transition. In particular, Kallus seems primed to be a key source of antagonism with Saw Gerrera. As we learned in “The Honorable Ones,” Saw’s partisans were responsible for the deaths of Kallus’s men on Onderon. Similarly, Saw’s own fanaticism makes it seem likely that he won’t be keen on having a former Imperial Intelligence officer enter the Alliance. The two seem primed for a confrontation and Dave Filoni and the creative team would be smart to capitalize off this. The idea of having David Oyelowo and Forest Whitaker face off is too great an opportunity to pass up.  

Thrawn will survive

Grand Admiral Thrawn’s survival is one of the most hotly debated aspects of the series. The iconic Legends turned canon Chiss admiral has been a fan favorite on and off screen. While he more or less came out on top at the conclusion of season three, Thrawn’s fate is a bit more ambiguous this season. Like many iconic Rebels characters, he does not play a role in the original trilogy and for a character of his stature and in-universe importance, it seems unlikely that he is still an active participant in the Imperial war machine at the time the series concludes. We may have actually been given our first clue to the fate of Thrawn at New York Comic Con last weekend. Timothy Zahn, the original creator of the blue skinned villain, announced that he would be writing a sequel to his canon novel, Thrawn, tentatively titled Alliances, which would feature the character teaming up with Darth Vader himself. While this inherently may not seem like a dead giveaway that Thrawn makes it out of the series alive, the original Thrawn novel concluded just before the character’s introduction in the season three premiere episode “Steps into Shadow.” While it is possible that the sequel novel may function as a pseudo-prequel or even a mid-quel, this seems to indicate that Thrawn’s narrative continues past what is seen on screen. Similarly, the final novel in Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy appears to hint that Thrawn spent much of his later career stationed in the Unknown Regions, although the language is vague and inconclusive.

Expect Lots of Cameos

With the Ghost Crew now firmly a part of the larger rebellion, it seems inevitable that we will be seeing at the very least cameo appearances from numerous famous characters. Bail Organa, Jan Dodonna, and Mon Mothma all seem like givens for speaking roles, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see various others as well. With the continued attempts to establish creative synergy between Rebels and Rogue One, I think it is highly likely that characters such as Admiral Raddus will appear, especially given that Stephen Stanton is already a regularly employed member of the Rebels voice cast. I also wouldn’t be surprised if we got a few more notable cameos such as Cassian Andor or K-2SO. Having two Fulcrum agents such as Cassian and Kallus interact seems like another relationship that would be key to exploit. I also would be very surprised if we finished the series out without seeing Leia or Darth Vader again. Both characters made a splash in their first appearances in the series’ second season and it seems like both characters still have something to contribute to the narrative, Leia in particular.

Only one Ghost Crew member will die

While Hera and Chopper are proved to make it out of the series, Rebels will not pull a Rogue One and end with the death of the majority of its cast. We may not know what fates may befall Ezra, Sabine, Kanan, and Zeb but a massacre seems off the table. For a simple and almost logistical reason, Rebels is a series that is at its heart tonally optimistic and targeted at a mature but younger audience. It isn’t afraid to kill characters, good or evil, this is true, but Rebels is a series that is most concerned with exploring family and the importance of standing up for a larger cause in difficult times. I do not see Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm, and especially Disney XD, sanctioning an ending for the series that reinforces such a bleak understanding of sacrifice and familial bonds. It may be a good ending, but it’s hardly the best and certainly not the route that Rebels will take. That being said, it seems just as unlikely if the entirety of the Rebels cast is to survive. Heroic sacrifice and the cost of war are a theme of Star Wars and Dave Filoni at times has been all too aware of this. I am willing to go on the record and say only one member of the Ghost Crew will perish and there are two likely candidates.

Sabine seems least likely out of the four non-confirmed survivors of the series to perish. Her fate at this point is almost more connected to the Mandalorian struggle than to the rebellion itself. While it may be a poignant end for her story to have her sacrifice her life to bring liberty to her people and reunite her family, it feels out of place and, again, overly bleak for the series to take this route for her character. Besides, with the media blitz that Sabine has received since her involvement in the Forces of Destiny toyline and animated shorts, I doubt we’ve seen the last of our graffiti inspired Mandalorian warrior.

Ezra is this series’ biggest question mark. Rebels is at the end of the day about him and his journey from street rat to Jedi apprentice to freedom fighter. Does the story end in his death? I’m inclined to think not. Why? Well, again, on a practical level, I cannot recall a single television series aimed at a preteen to teen age demographic that ended with the death of its child protagonist, even if, yes, Ezra is pushing the age boundaries for that term at this point. Rebels has to keep in mind both its adult and child viewers and killing off the hero in the hero’s journey may not be the move that best placates both audiences. That being said, in terms of canon, Ezra does create a problem. He is simply too prominent and powerful a figure to be left around in the universe by the time we reach the events of Rogue One and A New Hope. Well, where is Ezra then? I’m getting to that, I promise.

That leaves our two likely death candidates being Garazeb Orrelios and Kanan Jarrus. Zeb is the character I’ve spoken the least about in this write up and frankly there is a reason for this. While he began the series as one of the show’s more compelling and entertaining characters, season three proved just how stagnant a character the Ghost Crew’s Lasat had become. In two strong episodes in Rebels’ second season, Zeb’s character arcs had effectively resolved themselves. Zeb had not only found out that he was not the last surviving member of the Lasats, in fact there is a whole planet of them, but had also reconciled with his longtime nemesis, Agent Kallus. With Kallus now a willing member of the rebellion, this relationship also seems to have reached its natural conclusion. While there is certainly opportunity to develop this dynamic further, it almost feels as if Zeb’s purpose is to function as an extension of Kallus’s character rather than his own. Unfortunately, this makes Zeb the most dispensable and cleanest death for the Rebels team to pull off. Zeb has been with the viewer long enough for his passing to have an emotional impact both in and out of the series, while at the same time avoiding any long term damage to the series dynamics if he were to be taken off the table. Perhaps he sacrifices himself to save the Ghost Crew or Kallus? Or maybe him and Kallus go out together in a blaze of glory? It could go either way.

And then there’s Kanan. This is the hard one, because Freddie Prinze Jr.’s blind Jedi Knight and resident Ghost father figure has been not only one of the strongest characters in Rebels’ ensemble but also one of its most beloved. There is a genuine affection for Kanan. I’m sure a very large portion of the fanbase would love to see him and Hera happily settle down together and raise some Twi-Lek/Human hybrid babies (I mean we know that can happen thanks to The Clone Wars), but, man, things just don’t look good for him. Like Ezra, Kanan’s continued participation in the Alliance creates a massive problem for the larger lore of Star Wars. A practicing Jedi Knight being a participant in the Alliance would surely be noticed and would have come up in conversation, especially considering the addition of Luke Skywalker to their ranks following the Battle of Yavin. Kanan has to be removed from the playing field somehow. While it is possible he could join Ezra on my big series end theory, it is just as likely if not plausible that he becomes one with the Force. This would undoubtedly be the most emotional route the crew could take and it is a very likely possibility.

Part IV: The Ending

So how does Rebels end? How does this saga conclude in a manner that resolves its various plot points but also moves us towards an emotionally satisfying conclusion that capitalizes off the series’ themes? In all honesty, I’m taking a stab in the dark, but it’s one that I am confident in.

Lothal is the key. Not only is it central to the conflict at the series’ conclusion and is it the home at which Rebels began, but there is something about the planet that is special. Hinted at way back in “The Siege of Lothal” by Minister Tua, there is a secret reason for The Empire’s interest in Lothal as a planet. While this has become lost in the dozens of climactic events that have occurred in the seasons since, the secret for the Empire’s presence on the grassy planet has never been answered.

We know for a fact that this cannot be related to the strip mining of Lothal’s resources as Tua confirms that this isn’t the case. Similarly, Thrawn’s use of the planet as a staging ground for the development of the TIE Defender didn’t come to fruition until after he had been relocated to the planet at the start of the third season. Whatever secret lies buried beneath Lothal has been there for quite sometime and has barely if ever been touched upon.

So what is it? We do know that Lothal is a planet filled with hidden Force secrets. From the lost Jedi Temple seen in the first season to the Lothwolfs, Lothal has a rich secret Force culture. We know from the novels and comics that Emperor Palpatine has been stockpiling Force and Sith artifacts to use in outlook stations to observe some strange threat in the Unknown Regions, which is maybe probably Snoke or something . My theory is that there is some secret Force artifact, temple, or object/place of similar significance that The Empire is actively in search of located on Lothal. Dave Filoni has stressed repeatedly that this season will be delving into a great deal of stranger imagery that is not unlike some work they’ve done in The Clone Wars in the past. While he keeps it vague, it is not hard to call to mind images of the Mortis Trilogy or Yoda’s strange walkabout to learn the secrets of the afterlife.

I believe that while much of the Battle for Lothal will remain a military campaign, Ezra and likely Kanan’s story will take a swerve into the search and discovery of what this Force secret may be, and the Lothwolves are likely the first step to finding this. While we do not know enough regarding this secret to truly learn much about it as of yet, my guess is that this artifact sends Ezra to or leads him into the unknown regions and he is forced to abandon the rest of rebellion to follow his quest. Ezra leaves the rebellion war effort to focus on a task that is possibly even more important and even dangerous.

While I believe that this will occur towards the end of the series, my thinking is that perhaps the Force grants Ezra a brief glimpse into the future. He is able to see key events in the rebellion and will learn that the future, while always in motion, will lead to freedom. I suspect that this is where Rebels will show the fates of most of our cast in how they tie into the original trilogy, such as showing Captain Rex fighting on the moon of Endor. It will be vague and likely not mean much out of context to Ezra, but fans will be able to discern where and what is occurring.

With Ezra out of the picture, we end the series with him a new environment and seemingly unknown. We know for a fact that only a scant few voice actors and production supervisors have worked on the final scene of the series and that it has been top secret. I believe we end the series with a conversation between Ahsoka and Ezra. Dave has hinted for a while that we will see Ahsoka Tano again, but the nature of her reappearance has always been vague. We do know that Ahsoka disappeared into the depths of Malachor following her duel with Darth Vader. The promotional TOPS cards (shown above) released in 2016 seem to hint at this as well, even showing Lothwolves. It seems her fate lead her onto the same path that Ezra now finds himself. It ends with both eras of Star Wars animation joining forces to find a common future.

Well, that’s how I see it anyways. I may be completely wrong, but I feel confident that the end will be something at least slightly similar to this.

We will know soon enough. What are your opinions? Where and how do you think Star Wars Rebels will conclude? I would love to hear your thoughts and critiques and predictions.