#ezra cameo lol

[inkopolis-connection]

Little Buddy Masu! 🍣

[stealingpotatoes]

I love all your Jedi and especially your cal art!! The way you write him and Merrin is 💯💯

Anyway, in survivor he meets loads of people and makes friends everywhere because of course. I like to think that Luke mentions Cal to people and literally EVERYONE knows him. And Luke is like genuinely how the fuck does this man know every person in the galaxy

aww thank you so much!!!!!! i have severe merrical brainrot rn so you're in luck loll

and LOL love that. hey between cal's friends, the fact ezra met everyone ever w the rebels cameos, and ahsoka also knowing way too many important people thanks to her main character energy (see: filoni putting her in everything), the jedi academy's like INSANELY well connected

[jessicas-pi]

DIRECTOR'S CUT ON COMMIT TO THE BIT but only like the first two chapters i am so far behind 😭

girl I wish I had been as productive as you think i've been 😭 there's only two chapters so far-

(But, hey, good news! Chapter three is verging ever closer to probably being done! And it's only taken me about... eight months... hahaha *dies on the inside*)

Anyway, i'll do what I did with the other ask and just go through it and talk about stuff!

Okay, so this fic was originally called "The Con" because it involved winning a lot more bets via subterfuge and holding hands. That changed and so I renamed it!

Oh yeah! And so, this fic was partly inspired by the song Summer Nights from Grease, where the guys and girls are enthusiastically listening to completely different stories of the same event. I flipped it around so they had completely different reactions to the same story and Sabine and Ezra were very UNenthusiastic and that was what the scenes with their friends were based on!

Aylan (the vostress kid) definitely heard some obitine stories from his dad and finds the parallels very amusing.

I know i've said it a few times before, but it always delights me to mention that the three Togruta sisters (Chisica, Am-lee, and Khenna) are based on me and my sisters.

OHHH fun fact! Originally the conversation where they split up the profits from the bet and the conversation where Sabine brought up fake-dating were two different conversations! The first one was as-is in the fic, but the other one happened like a week later when Sabine was hanging out in a tree coral with some of the girls and watching Ezra doing lightsaber forms and maybe drawing him shirtless a little bit and they hype her up to "ask him out again" and she goes over and interrupts him and they end up having the fake-dating idea conversation while he's not wearing a shirt and she's blatantly checking him out (and at one point actually half-reaches-out to touch his abs before she catches herself) and he's just "????" the whole time. It was funny, but I decided it was too early in the (fake) relationship for her to be so obvious about it, and I needed Fenn Rau to overhear the conversation and that was easier if they were on the Ghost, so I combined the scenes.

Oh also! Originally, both Vinn AND Tarik were gonna get kicked out of the friend group for being nasty but then I decided to make Tarik less nasty and give him a redemption arc.

ok, reading on, la de da...

The post-stargazing scene! So, I had to keep dialing things back because my shippy writer brain was moving their relationship ahead WAY faster than it was supposed to go. For example, in this scene, originally, they were going to share Sabine's bunk and definitely not cuddle or anything, it won't be weird at all, but again--just too soon. I made up for it with excessive cuddles in the end of the chapter & in chapter 2.

KATKA CAMEO!! Ok so for those who don't know---katka is an OC from my Teenage Rebellion AU. She's Gar Saxon's niece but she's utter sweetness (with a slight twist of crazy) and totally on board to stick it to the Empire. In the TRAU, she also has a massive raging crush on Ezra (albeit an Inquisitor iteration of him), so when I needed a random character to be envious of Sabine here, I figured I'd reuse her lol.

Oh yeah! Another condensed scene! Where she tells him about the Mandalorian ways of saying "I love you" and where she asks him to fake marry her used to be two different scenes! Like with the other one, I added the second one to the first. I went through a few versions of the fake-marriage-proposal, including one where Aylan came along with Ezra to Mandalore and was the one to suggest they tie the knot, apparently unaware it's all fake (but actually 100% aware it's all fake because his psychometry revealed it)

not to brag or anything but "Ezra did not regret fake-marrying into money" is one of my favorite lines i've ever written.

(btw, I still crack up when I remember that in your comment on chapter 1, you called Ezra a repressed victorian maiden for panicking over being able to see sabine's arms and legs. and I think everyone should know that You Are Right, Ezra Is A Repressed Victorian Maiden.)

OK ON TO CHAPTER 2!

i had so much fun with this chapter because they're both full to bursting with love for each other and neither of them will admit it until the last possible moment. I think that might actually be why Chapter 3 is taking so long--they're not hiding their feelings anymore so there's no more poetic internal monologues about how much they adore each other lol

Ah yeah on the topic of repressed feelings--the line "Kanan is fairly sure it’ll take at least five years and possibly a child for Sabine to admit that she’s actually in love with her husband" was supposed to actually be what happened. Sabine and Ezra were going to go on pretending the marriage was fake for years and finally one night when they were cuddled up, Sabine blurted out that she was in love with him and he was like "Yeah. I know." and she was like "wait what?? how did you know?? I was so subtle about my feelings!!" and he was like "Sabine, you kissed me good-night ten minutes ago. you're constantly calling me extremely romantic pet names in mando'a. we have two children and only one of them is adopted. your feelings are about as subtle as a paint bomb to the face." and she was just like "....oh." and then that was the end of the story! BUUUUT then I decided to do a love confession during the Lothal arc, and that led to the... surprise... at the end of chapter 2, which led to there needing to be a THIRD chapter!

OH HAHA OK MORE FUNNY STUFF. So the part with sabine's nightmare that leads to the "two besties chilling in a bathtub...?" scene was ALSO split up into two different events! I've been thinking about doing some edits of both chapters of CttB because I didn't really stop to edit either of them before posting (and a good chunk of chapter 2 was literally written the day before I posted it), which I mention because I was considering reverting the two scenes back to their original versions because the og tub scene was pretty funny. It's hard to describe in brief words, but basically... yeah it's too hard to describe, just take my word for it, it was pretty funny. (it involved Ezra singing along to We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together with a shampoo bottle for a microphone and Tristan playing a petty revenge prank that goes sideways.)

The cut between Ezra worrying about Sabine being upset about his feelings for her and thinking "what would she think if she knew??", and sabine's pov opening with "Sabine can't stop thinking about kissing his stupid face" never fails to make me snicker.

Oh hey I just got to the thrawn pov and that reminds me. at one point I was thinking about having a scene including Ezra and Thrawn's conversation aboard the Chimaera and thrawn REAAAALLLY pushes his buttons about Sabine, using the information that he figured out about their marriage. Actually, if I do that edit, I might write that scene.

Poor Hera--she keeps unintentionally being responsible for all of the sabezra relationship development lol.

OOH SOMETHING ELSE! So, originally, the love confession was WAY different. First of all, it wasn't in their room--it was in one of the caves. Sabine still went looking for Ezra, but she found him by following a Loth-wolf. And he actually confessed his feelings first! In this version, he was afraid he was going to die and impulsively blurted out that he loved her. Then he got nervous and started rambling a little and she shut him up with a kiss. But I changed it--I wanted her to be the one to take the leap and 'fess up, and if I set it in her room, I could have the funny Ketsu scene afterwards.

And then True Love's Kiss woke someone else up! (aka kanan got yoinked out of his comatose state by telepathic TMI)

oh yeah and to anyone wondering, that "another dawn breaks" line from the Kanera scene was ABSOLUTELY a reference to A New Dawn.

Oh and that Ketsu scene---that was actually a scene I saved and reused after cutting it from a different WIP of mine! There were two variations--the one I ended up using, and one where she accidentally interrupts the very first kiss and they're both like "OH COME ON!" because they've been waiting for this moment FOREVER and like ten seconds in, it gets interrupted, and Ezra decides that, darn it, he's been waiting for this for so long, he's not going to wait any longer! and he just pulls Sabine right back into the kiss and uses the Force to shut the door in Ketsu's face. I did this version so that I could include dialogue!

I'm just now realizing that I actually skipped over the entirety of Family Reunion and Farewell, I went straight from Jedi Night to Happy-Ever-After. But in my defense, plot-relevant episodes don't matter much when it comes to crack fix-it fics.

And... I think that's all my thoughts I have on this! Thank you for the ask!! :)

*roll end credits*

[lesbinewren]

I’ve learned too much about the Ahsoka show against my will (haven’t watched it and fighting the urge to) and the more I learn about Sabine’s plot there the more I wish they’d never touched on Rebels characters in live action. What are your thoughts on Sabine through the Ahsoka show, having seen it?

i think what stands out for me is that i didn’t hate it as much as a lot of other sabine fans i know, my gripes are more just the way that her story sometimes scrapes so close to being really really good, but never quite makes it all the way there. a big part of this i think is how they strayed away from a lot of overly-specific references and spending too much time on things that would need to be explained to non-rebels fans, which i appreciate from the perspective of making the show accessible (esp bc i have met a few people now who watched rebels for the first time BECAUSE of ahsoka), but i do think weakens certain aspects as far as being a spiritual successor to rebels

i think the broad strokes of what’s there could be really good, they just need more fleshing out. a lot of this is something that could be “fixed” for me in future seasons/stories assuming a certain amount of care is taken.

i’ll start with what i liked: i did warm up to natasha’s performance a lot quicker than i thought i would. the intro she has in the show had me captured pretty quickly, both because i think it’s a well-written character intro and how natasha sells it. i still prefer tiya’s iteration of the character, but natasha was really great at capturing the mix of soft kindness and attitude, plus sabines specific blend of insecurity and confidence. i think some of her best moments also come from how well she nails the chemistry between her and other ghost crew members (as sparing as those scenes are, which is a major gripe of mine). her and eman’s ezra are so electric to watch, and her one scene with hera hit it on the head (that scene also did a ton of heavy lifting as far as selling me on LA hera). you can FEEL the love she has for both characters and immediately get a sense of what their relationship is like, even if you don’t know all of their history. i genuinely think all of the LA rebels were at their best when they were interacting with each other, because those relationships all hit the nail on the head and i hope to see more of that in the future, especially with her and hera (and PLEASE bring zeb in, i miss him so much you can’t show me that you can make him look good in live action for a cameo in a different show and then not let him see his family!!!)

i liked the attention to detail the set design team had when it came to her apartment on lothal, i liked that they gave her a cat, i liked that they outright stated her sibling relationship with ezra. i liked her back and forth with huyang, i liked that they let her keep her more masculine style armor vs re-casting bo-katan armor, i liked that the show did not hold back on seeing how she’s been struggling with the loss of ezra and her birth family (though i don’t really like how the off-screen killing of the wrens was handled). i liked her rivalry with shin, i liked the scenes with her howler, i liked that she got a poncho for a bit, i liked the way she treated the first noti that she met. i liked the way she got to be selfish and messy and yet still we see that she’s a good person, that she learns from her mistakes and makes the right choices in the end even when it’s hard. i like that she cares, she cares so much it gets her in trouble and despite this she still gets to be sassy and snarky and have all of these pluralities that make her who she is.

genuinely, though everything below is way more long winded than what’s up here, my feelings towards sabine in this show do lean more positive, my criticisms are just more complicated and wordy than my likes lol. i think there’s a lot that’s done right (which i think majorly has to do with natasha’s performance), and so, so much potential. there’s a nonzero chance that season 2 could address most of my issues in a way that satisfies me and turns around my feelings on this, even if ultimately i think i will still always prefer and wish for more animated sabine

criticisms under a cut bc this is longer than i thought

the two big issues i have are the way her mandalorian heritage is handled and the way her jedi arc is handled.

when i say the way her mandalorian heritage is handled, i guess the better answer is the way it ISN’T handled. sabine being a mandalorian is so nonessential to her character in this show, that if you took her armor off you wouldn’t even know she was mandalorian. hell, keep her armor and just don’t have her helmet (which i also think she should have worn more without CONSTANTLY GETTING KNOCKED OFF ARE YOU KIDDING ME) and i bet you a lot of casual viewers wouldn’t have even picked up on it! compare that to her in rebels- being a mandalorian is so integral to her identity, even when she isn’t on good terms with any other mandalorians. she references it herself, other characters reference it about her. this is a character that wielded THE DARKSABER for crying out loud, and her mandalorian identity is erased? in an era where a show called “the mandalorian” is a disney+ flagship that this show itself is essentially a spin-off of, it boggles my mind as both a storytelling and a marketing decision.

any criticisms about mando s3 you may have aside, the last live action show before this one was about the reunification of mandalore. one of your leads in this new show is a mandalorian with a personal connection to the co-lead of that show who once possessed the macguffin you revolved a subplot around there (and is actually the one who handed it over to said co-lead in the first place, kicking off the shows whole backstory). and you just… don’t think about at least letting mandalorian heritage be a bigger part of this character? and not even that, but actively ignoring how important it was before? i understand wanting this show to stand on its own, but it feels like such a waste. sabine loving her mandalorian heritage while also rejecting certain parts of it is a huge part of what makes her character so cool and interesting, and i actually think could have worked really well in tandem with the jedi arc they have for her.

my hope is that now that they feel they’ve done the legwork to establish her as a jedi they won’t have to put quite as much focus on that and in season 2 and wherever else she shows up we’ll be able to see more mandalorian-focused aspects of her, but we’ll see how that goes.

which does bring me to the whole jedi thing. i don’t hate it- i completely understand why people do, but i did warm up to it by the end of the show. i also am not opposed to the idea of anyone being able to connect with the force, it just being a lot harder for those who aren’t naturally force-sensitive, to the point that it’s a non-issue for me. while it wouldn’t have been my preferred direction for her story to go, i actually do like the idea of sabine being a nontraditional jedi, blaster in hand yet following their teachings in her own way because they resonate with her as someone with a desire to help others and do good, and as an extension of how she loves and honors kanan and ezra as her family. we do see inklings of this in rebels, where she rejects certain violent parts of mandalorian culture in favor of “sounding like a jedi” based on what she’s learning from kanan (again a reason to focus more on her as a mandalorian, but whatever).

the problem is, it doesn’t really feel like the show’s jedi arc for her is actually following up on those things. the show doesn’t really address why sabine wants to be a jedi, outside of maybe it being a way for her to find ezra with ahsoka. but now she found ezra. so why does she care about being a jedi? is it because she believes in the code? because she wants to connect with the jedi in her life? because after all she’s been through, she’s searching for peace and balance within herself the jedi path can provide? the show doesn’t really bother to bring this up. i can fill in the gaps with my own fanon, but it feels odd to essentially be told “this character, who showed no interest before, wants to be a jedi now.” this is again something that can be explored in season 2 to satisfy me, but as it stands right now i struggle with it. because right now, the answer feels like “why does sabine want to be a jedi? so ahsoka can have a padawan”

especially because the closest we get to an answer isn’t actually a jedi thing at all- if anything, it’s dark side mindset. the most consistent thing we see with sabine wanting to be a jedi in the show is actually wanting to yield the power of the force. especially when it comes to her attachments (specifically ezra here)! nothing to do with selflessness, with inner peace, any of the core tenets of the jedi philosophy- it’s just about that power. i don’t think it was the intention, and if it was i think sabine struggling with the dark side is entirely natural to her character after all she’s lost at this point, if it was portrayed that way. but her triumphant moment of finally unlocking that power is not one where she realizes she has to find calm within herself to feel the force around her, but one where she is able to access it purely out of fear for her own life in a panicked moment, and then again out of fear for ezras life.

and maybe this is part of the story! the season does end with her rejecting her attachment and instead of going home with ezra, going back to help ahsoka because it’s the right thing to do. so it’s headed in the right direction in that regard. another hope i have for season 2 is that we’ll see sabine struggle still with using the force when she’s at peace and not in a life or death situation, and the frustrations that come with that. maybe she starts relying on strong emotions like anger or fear to wield the force, and ahsoka has to guide her now on not just finding her connection, but on finding it without relying on emotions that could lead her to slip towards the dark side, even though it’s much harder. i think it would create some really great tension considering how sabine’s initial apprenticeship with ahsoka ended, and we then get to see how “ahsoka the white” handles these problems differently than she did before. but who knows?

i also think i said pretty recently i would instantly be 100% more on board with this arc for her if she was allowed to at least talk about kanan. she was close to him, she loved him, he was a huge part of her life and her arc in rebels- and her relationship to him is ignored. are hera and ezra’s relationships to him (which do get acknowledged) bigger parts of rebels? absolutely. but there are several entire episodes revolving around the relationship between sabine and kanan, and other moments between the two of them throughout. i understand the show wants to be accessible to people who haven’t seen rebels, but it feels odd to have the entire scene where ezra builds his lightsaber dedicated to his relationship with kanan, while sabine’s relationship gets ignored. sabine gets to have a nonverbal reaction to huyang bringing him up, (which natasha plays well) but then… that’s it? the shift is then immediately focused again to her relationship with ahsoka.

and even that connection isnt explored to its full potential. like, how does sabines relationship to kanan affect her one without ahsoka? and not just “kanan and ezra were master and padawan and now me and ahsoka are.” like, kanan was, in a way, her first jedi master. and she witnessed him die tragically, saving the life of her and two of the people she’s closest to. has she built kanan up in her head as an ideal ahsoka doesn’t live up to? is she guilty that she didn’t have as much an interest in being a jedi while he was still alive? does she compare the way she saw kanan teach ezra to the way ahsoka teaches her? do things she learned from kanan ever conflict with what ahsoka teaches her? i don’t necessarily need the show to spell out answers for these questions for me- i like getting to write my own headcanons in the margins of the series. but i feel like it’s such a missed opportunity to not even acknowledge it.

and my final smaller issue is that a lot of the trademark elements of her character no longer exist in this show. while the set dressing does a great job of showing her artsy side, we don’t really get to see her draw or paint or even talk about art. we dont get to see her knowledge of or affinity with explosives. i say it’s smaller because i dont have as much to say on it, but tbh i missed these parts of her as much as i did her as a mandalorian. while sabine in this show has a lot of her personality, relationships and style from rebels, which i appreciate, the interests and background that not only make her unique but make her who she is are missing, and it is honestly sad.

in a way, i love when a lot of these things are left open. i love getting to fill in gaps like this and create some of those emotional connections in my head, that’s a huge part of the fun of fandom for me. it’s also why i don’t mind that we haven’t (yet, i’m sure it’s coming eventually in some form lol) seen all of the details of sabine and ahsoka’s initial attempt to find ezra, and them parting ways because of ahsoka fearing sabine is veering to close towards the dark side. i like getting to write it in my head a little bit, i think that particular info is enough to build on for the shows purposes for me.

and frankly, i don’t need every single one of my questions here directly answered. in fact, i would say i DONT want the show to outright answer all of these. rebels didn’t feel the need to hold our hand through every single character arc and relationship dynamic, and this show shouldn’t have to either. i like my room for headcanons! but there’s a point where they all build up to a point where it feels a little bit careless, like the writing sabines arc in this show often prioritized ahsoka’s arc and what needed to happen there before her own, even if it meant leaving out major parts of sabines character.

a lot of it i genuinely think couldve been fixed with just a couple more episodes of this show (8 episode season my beloathed) and perhaps things will be explored and fleshed out in season 2 to satisfy me- we are technically looking at an incomplete story with this show, so things could happen next season that make a lot of my points moot.

again, i think that this show had a lot of legwork to do regarding sabine as a jedi and catching us up on her relationship to ahsoka, to the point that it didn’t necessarily have time to fully dive into a lot of issues with this first season- and maybe now that that’s established, they will be able to do a lot of these things! i think the show is headed in the right direction based on the ending, with both sabines choice to help ahsoka and also how the show does make a point to show sabine picking up her mandalorian helmet and when she could have left it behind. that last bit especially felt very pointed considering how little her mandalorian heritage was brought up in season 1, that maybe it will play a bigger role in season 2. we now have a sabine that they don’t have to show being out of practice, so maybe we’ll get to see her be the incredibly competent fighter/pilot we know she is! maybe now we’ll have time to explore exactly why she wants to be a jedi, how being a mandalorian is important to her and interacts with her jedi beliefs. we’ll have time for her to do art, maybe she’ll get some opportunities to blow things up again! maybe now that she knows huyang knew kanan, she’ll get to talk about him. maybe she’ll get to reunite again with hera, chopper, zeb and ezra and we’ll see those relationships shine.

but until we have a season 2 in our hands, these are my current thoughts

[katewalker]

Phoenix, Air, Kavinsky, a Ezra Koenig cameo... we would have killed it in 2012 with this, begging the young to learn about french touch (pop rock, electro, etc.) instead of just saying "they clearly wanted daft punk but couldn't lol" because the genre is soooo much more than daft punk, yeah they're the most iconic representants, but there are so many good artists out there making excellent music.

[xdaddysprincessxx]

Fic Author Self Rec ✨

rules: when you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 🤍

Thanks for the tag @beefrobeefcal !😘🫶🏼

This was hard 😅 but here it is:

1) Cabin in the Woods - Dave York x f reader

This is my baby! My very first fic 🥹

2) Scarecrow - Serial Killer Farmer Joel Miller x f reader

Now here’s my fave. My lil honey bun. I have a soft spot for dark romance and love a good serial killer au 😅 and my sweet farmer Joel was and still is my favorite I’ve written so far. I think about him often

3) Fear Thy Neighbor - Serial killer Joel x librarian f reader

lol @ me when I said farmer Joel was a one shot. 🤡 it’s okay tho he’s my fave and he deserves love and he found it! Also huge shoutout to @neverwheremoonchild for their love for them and talking to me and brainstorming with me ❤️

4) Pieces of Him - Cult leader Joel Miller x f reader

Uh yea I am a sucker for Joel Miller, throw in cult leader au and you’ve got me 🤷🏻‍♀️ if you haven’t noticed by now I love writing more dark/horror esque stuff and this was fun to create.

5) In Every Lifetime - Demon Ezra x Witch f reader

I have been so slow at writing this one but I love my Ezra so much! I have huge plans for these two and I promise we will get back to them soon!❤️

These were in no particular order but these are def my personal faves if I had to pick lol also I appreciate every single of you who reads my stuff, you guys are angels! ❤️❤️

Npt: @bonezone44 @gasolinerainbowpuddles @juletheghoul @foli-vora @strang3lov3

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: “Idiot’s Array“

In which Lando has a helluva fun ride.  Everyone else?  Not so much.  Lol.

Even in the closest we have to a “filler” episode, Rebels brings the A-game lighting.

Lol Chopper banging his dome on the table.

Look at these idiots I love them.

Per the lore, an Idiot’s Array’s only use is to block a Sabaac.  Now taking calculations on how statistically unlikely it was that Lando just happened to have one ready.

Lando is either incredibly Force Lucky or, as Zeb thinks, he cheated.

Personally I’m a fan of Force Lucky because I think it’s a) cool and b) hilarious when people who are most assuredly NOT Force Sensitive in any way still have the Force tend to... bend funny around them.

See also: Jar-Jar and Han Solo.

I would point out, just on a side note, it has been five episodes since the last cameo, eight since an OT OG character was integrated into the plot.  Rebels spaces out its cameos and therefore does not feel like it’s overrelying on them to compensate for an uninteresting cast.

Please appreciate Ezra practicing floating his helmet and Hera apparently teaching Sabine how to ride a speeder with me.

The face of a man who knows he will be in the doghouse in a moment. XD

Hera doesn’t buy Lando’s attempts at flattery but that doesn’t stop Kanan from giving him the stink eye from here on out lol.

“Good thing I wasn’t there, you’d have bet me.”  “Nah, you wouldn’t have covered the pot.”  Zeb and Ezra bantering like true bros now.  <3

“I think Lando’s cool.”

“Nevermind I suddenly dislike him now.” XD

If no supposed to ship why include this moment of Ezra getting sore about Lando flattering Sabine at all?

If no supposed to ship literally why parallel Kanan’s jealousy and dislike of Lando existing charmingly next to Hera with Ezra’s jealousy and dislike of Lando existing charmingly next to Sabine, right down to parroting the same dialogue?

Seriously, Lando makes one witty remark towards their girls and Kanan and Ezra independently team up to verbally throw him under the bus at every possible opportunity lololol.

Y’all confusing, writers.

Also, oof, Lando’s line hitting back on those insecurities that got exposed back in the Jedi Temple visions.

A bouncy little cue comes in that sounds very similar to the Jawa theme “Little People Work”.  It’s a very fun ditty, recalls the more whimsical parts of Williams’s original trilogy score.

Hi James Hong.  Your voice continues to be instantly recognizable and distracting in everything I watch you in.

I do like Azmorigan’s unique alien design.  Very viscerally gross.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: That little food shudder Azmorigan does.

The trumpets burst in like a noise of alarm here, heh.

Hera of course has picked up on what she’s supposed to do but she’s really not happy about it.

“Uh, sounds like your ‘sophisticated mining equipment’... is snoring.“  :)

The sound design is also excellent this episode.

“That was a really useful tray.”  So many of the lines in this episode are just hilarious.

Also the pure comedic timing of losing sight of Hera and the guard riiiiiiiiight as she’s raising the tray lololol.

Excerpts of the Rebel Alliance theme as Hera makes her escape here.  There’s a loud brass theme that overplays this sequence, possibly it’s Azmorigan’s but I’d have to see if it reoccurs again when he makes another appearance.  The strings that pipe in under and between the brass lend a frenetic energy to the moment before the brass sections comes back in, softer and more triumphant, with the jump to hyperspace.

You can tell exactly where Hera aimed by the very slight strained squeak in Lando’s voice as he speaks here.  (Which I swear might be more pronounced on the DVD version?  Will have to double check.)

Zeb and Ezra are sharing the singular brain cell again, lol.

I agree Ezra, the puffer pigs are cute.

A light flute melody playing here, again, bringing back a bit of the whimsical feel of parts of the OT score.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: Ezra’s helpless chagrined shrug at Kanan as he and Zeb chase the pig past him.

Also Sabine covering her mouth trying not to laugh as Ezra divebombs after it.

Kanan sounds soooooo done lol.

Rebels said down with state-controlled industries that bar private business endeavors.

So apparently the way signal modulators work is that each ship has a unique identifying code which can be communicated to and picked up by other ships.  A signal modulator masks the ship’s actual identifying code and provides a false one, usually by cycling through a few fake or stolen ones.  (Hence “modulator”.)  This has been your obscure technical lore trivia for the day.

I love Ezra but this boy causes me so much secondhand embarrassment sometimes.

LOLOL Kanan’s expression.

Sabine attempting to be helpful by manning the Phantom’s rear guns.

One of the battle cues from Return of the Jedi drifts in a little bit here, and the track finishes with a brief flare of the Rebel Alliance motif.

Oh shit, and this tiny piece right here gets expanded and used in the finale!

*hums it*

Nn na na naaa naaaaaaa... nana naaaaaaaaaaa, yep that’s a tiny bit of one of the finale cues.  My gosh this must be its first iteration.  Eeee!  That’s exciting!

Just spitballing here, but maybe this particular tiny motif is to musically stand for the concept of victory?  It’s tacked onto the tail end of the blend of Ezra and Sabine’s themes that’s my favorite cue from the climax.

“It’s your face’s fault.”  Ezra radiating adorable little brother energy in that line lol.

“Did you walk here?  You don’t walk anywhere!”  Man at this point I’m just going to be quoting the whole episode just sooo many funny bits.

Ahhh yes, and the reveal that Ezra built a stun blaster into his saber hilt.  A practical, utilitarian, and very unique idea for a lightsaber.

Once again, Kanan and Ezra on the same wavelength about throwing Lando under the bus lol.

Oooh this is another excerpted Jedi track, from before the briefing I think?  I need to listen to my CDs again, pretty sure this bit is associated with the Alliance in any case.

If no supposed to ship, why juxtapose the Kanera/Sabezra banter moments, as if they are two sides of the same coin?

Sabine sound very patiently indulgent of Ezra here, too.

Oh and there’s that “victory” musical idea playing out again.  Man, I already liked that finale cue when I thought it was just Sabine and Ezra’s themes mixed together and now there’s another layer to appreciate on top of that.

Frick this is a good dust effect.

I love this episode it’s just so much fun.  One of my favorites to rewatch over and over again for sure.

Back to dramatic next week but this was a delightful break.

[oh-three]

Ahsoka S1E7

Oh, hello, Coruscant.

Oh no, Hera's on trial.

"I protected the New Republic by ignoring you." Lmfao.

AYY, Mando S3 mention. Thanks, Teva.

THREEPIO! Talk about unexpected cameos. Nice to see that Anthony Daniels is still hard at work.

Leia is such a lifesaver oh my god.

Hera, you are so lucky.

"How real is the threat of Thrawn's return?" Yeahhhhh, you don't wanna know.

ANAKIN HOLOGRAM.

"Practice these forms often...Or at least more than I do." Lmao Anakin.

Anakin had so much faith in Ahsoka, I love him.

"He made twenty more of these recordings." Lmao. Why am I not surprised.

Huyang has no faith in the purrgil navigation lol. 😂

I forgot how cool it is to watch purrgil come out of hyperspace.

WELP. I mean, Thrawn did want the purrgil wiped out. At least they know they're in the right place now? lol

Question: how did Thrawn deploy so many mines so quickly?

What are the chances Ahsoka & Huyang pull an Obi-Wan and fake their destruction to get those fighters off their backs?

INQUISITORIAL DATABASE. HELLO.

THE LOOK ON THRAWN'S FACE WHEN HE READ ANAKIN'S NAME. HE KNOWS.

The way Ahsoka realized that Morgan found Thrawn

Ooooh, Sabine's told Ezra about the fall of the Empire.

"The usual level [of complicated] or worse?" Always a good question.

"Great Mothers, I'm in need of your assistance." He's so scared lmao.

Ahsoka talking to Sabine through the Force >>>

HOLY SHIT, THE MOTHERS SENSED THEM USING THE FORCE.

"Friends of yours?" The best sarcastic line ever.

Oooof, Baylan's leaving Shin. Sound last advice though.

"If Lord Baylan proves capable-" Sir, Lord Baylan has abandoned you.

Omg, Ezra made the Noti slingshots. How adorable. (Seriously, the callback here, though)

Why. does this. remind me of cattle herding.

"Oh, not this again!" Ayyyy!

THE BANTER. LMFAO.

I don't see how fighting Baylan is currently helpful, but okay.

Ezra is back in action!! He doesn't even need a lightsaber, look at him.

HEY, DON'T RUIN MY BOY'S HAIR

Yeah, okay, ouch. That's a headache.

I thought Baylan just died for a sec there. He is way too accepting of the fact he just lost

The look on Thrawn's face when he realized Baylan abandoned them.

NICE TIMING, AHSOKA.

Ezra is a horrible negotiator

Well, Huyang's happy for once.

And Thrawn was worried about losses before. Rip, yeah, there go two crews.

"Acceptable" ???

Ahhh, it was a distraction, I see. Time was definitely lost, oh boy.

The way the night troopers are running to get on the ships and totally leaving Shin, the look on Shin's face as she realizes that they never cared about her.

HUG.

All these reunions make me wanna cry, man. These last few episodes have been everything.

"I think I might be going home after all." 😭

I am so happy for Ezra rn.

[ooops-i-arted]

Let’s go ahead and do Grogu + Child development for season 3 episode 3 because I honestly don’t have a lot of commentary since Grogu’s screentime is minimal.

(I will say I am still VERY curious still what Pershing was doing with Grogu specifically.  We know he was harvesting blood but what about DNA?  He talks about cloning - is the 101 Yoditos AU still a possibility???  Will we have an army of Grogru clones?????  Let me dream!!)

Right off the bat we see Grogu once again making sure Dad is okay.  You know, Din, it’s not healthy for your child to see you in danger so often, it’s gotta give him anxiety.  (Great tv for us, though.)  He’s patting Dad a bit, perhaps he remembers Cara looking after Din when they were trapped in the cantina in Redemption?  He definitely knows Dad would never want the helmet off.  (I loved the “wtf???” look he gave Bo & Friends in The Heiress when they took theirs off.)  Even after he’s in the pod, he’s still watching Dad, seeming concerned.

I wonder if we’re going to see more of his ability to connect with the living Force?  We know now he “connected” with Luke somehow during the Scotty Beam Me Up rock meditation sequence, and we saw him connect with and calm the rancor.  Does Grogu sense the mythosaur at all?  Will he be the one to ride the mighty beast?  We know there’s a Jedi out there who specializes in animal connection - I know I complain about excessive cameos a lot but I wouldn’t be as mad if it was Ezra Bridger, who I actually really like, come to teach Grogu some more Force stuff.  But this is all speculative and I digress.

Of course the big question is once again whether Grogu spoke.  Did he say “This is the Way”?  I think he intended to.  These new sounds are different than the stock baby sounds and even the classic patu.  I think Grogu is more purposefully trying to speak and imitate Basic!  This shows a huge leap in observational and cognitive skills.  We’ve already seen him put together that sounds can be communication and he can use them to get his needs met.  Now he’s at the next step, trying to speak so that he can communicate with people on their level!  It’s honestly a really huge step because a late learner has to want it on some level.  If they don’t care, they don’t get it.  (Had a student years ago, not a native English speaker and didn’t care about learning English or understanding us, until we put snowflake window clings up and she finally learned to speak just to ask us if she could have them, because she loved Elsa.  Before that she didn’t give a shit no matter what we tried to do to engage her.)

Side note but I am SO glad Grogu can close his new pod too.  It’s good he recognizes an unsafe situation and does it himself without being asked.  He really is paying attention to details so much and reacting quickly!  (Or maybe he’s just like, “there’s no way this lady will let me sit in her lap and have fun” and/or “there’s no way she’s as good a driver as dad” and just did it for that reason lol.)  I bet he wasn’t happy about having to do a whole trip away from Dad, ugh.  Think Bo spent that whole time putting Din on speaker because Grogu wouldn’t stop whining unless she did?  She’s still mostly an unknown to him, though she was pretty nice to him last episode, so he might’ve tried to test her.

For the end scene he’s pretty much just a quiet observer.  Writing-wise, he’s not really relevant to the scene, but I also think he’s picked up from Din that the Armorer is someone to be respectful of and listen to, and once again is imitating his primary caretaker.  Maybe next time we’ll get to see the other Mandos and Mando kids interacting with and playing with him?  Or Din and Paz get in a fight and Paz is very surprised when he’s thrown across the room lol?  If Grogu is officially a Mando now, I think it’d be fun to get to know his tribe members!

[silver-starss]

Ahsoka episode 7 thoughts

Hera deserves better :(

I love Mon Mothma here. You can tell she's on Hera's side, but is genuinely trying to be impartial when rendering judgment

NO WAY DID XIONO JUST DISRESPECT C-3PO. Also lol @ Chopper getting offended. My man was about to commit some light war crimes

I was going to say the C3PO cameo was a little much, but I think I prefer that to CGI Leia. And her involvement with the mission was mentioned several episodes ago so it doesn't come out of nowhere

Anakin holo-recording! And Ahsoka still keeping them in a stash!!! <3

Ventress mention??? Ventress mention!!! :)

Thrawn being actually tactical is nice to see. I wish they'd touched on his history with Anakin a bit more - he's clearly familiar with him, but he easily could have been describing Anakin's reputation alone

Zeb namedrop! At least he's doing something. Still no word on Kallus...

"The Emperor died??" "So they say" LMAO

We didn't get to see Ezra learn about Jacen :( Maybe an in-person meeting next episode??

Disappointing that Ezra and Sabine still aren't having an honest talk about how she got there

Nooooooo Baylan and Shin are such a good duo, I don't want to see them separated :(

What is Baylan doing? What is the destiny he's seeking??? I need to know!

The implication that Ezra taught the Noti to slingshot Raiders is sending me

HOLY SHIT. Ezra is a badass!

I can't believe I'm attracted to Ezra Bridger now but we're going with it. Between him and Shin, I'm in full Bi Panic Mode

THAT FORCE BLOCK THO

Some great action in this episode

Ahsoka stealing Baylan's ride is queen behavior

Ahsoka being a proud auntie to grown up Ezra is absolutely adorable

Ezra’s entire portrayal felt so on point in this episode. Quippy yet wise, confident but not overconfident, and his casting was perfect

I still wish Sabine would have told Ezra the truth before Ahsoka's arrival. I assume Ahsoka's going to out it in the finale, but the reveal will lose some impact now that she's come to the rescue

Love how you can see the difference in Rosario's demeanor before and after the WBW. We saw it in ep 5 but it's on full display here. She's so much lighter now, more like the Snips we all know and love.

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

So, in my continued watching of the various Arrowverse TV show, I have finally gotten to see the big crossover event that the Arrowverse has been building to since the first season of The Flash and that is Crisis On Infinite Earths. I just kind of want to talk about what I liked, what surprised me and some other things. Remember, there might be spoilers here.

What I Liked:

To be honest, there is quite a lot that liked here but, I will try to keep this not too long.

All the cameos were pretty neat. Got to see an adult Robin from the 66' Batman series on Earth 66. There was a second of another Robin but, I am not sure which Robin that was supposed to be. Getting to see Kevin Conroy on camera in live action as Batman was pretty cool and really liked that take on him too. He basically admitted to killing a bunch of his foes, including that Earths Superman which, as you can imagine, didn't sit well with either Supergirl or Batwoman. We got to see Brandon Routh's Superman and he got to meet Ray Palmer/The Atom which was pretty funny. After the crossover we got to see Stargirl with some people that I am not sure who they are, we got to see Raven and Starfire which, I believe is the version from the Titans TV show and we also got to see the Doom Patrol. As much as I had not seen the show, it was cool getting to see Lucifer from the Lucifer TV show get to have a small part. Of course, it was neat getting to see Ezra Miller's Flash show up too. Lots of pretty neat cameos in my mind.

It was, in my opinion, about damn time that Black Lightning got to meet the other CW heroes, minus Green Arrow since he died before Black Lightning got the chance to meet him.

Nash got what he deserved once the universe was reset. I was so glad too see him get punched since pretty much all of Crisis was his fault. It was satisfying to see him get what deserved.

As I said, there was just so so much that I really liked here that it is hard to pick specifics so, I am just going to move on.

Things That Surprised Me:

In the moment that it happened, I was so not expecting The Flash from Earth-90 to sacrifice his life so that Earth 1 Flash could live and not vanish in Crisis which had been built up to since season 1 of The Flash. Not complaining that Earth 1 Flash survived but, I was not expecting Earth-90 Flash to make the sacrifice.

As much as I had anticipated Oliver's death (Arrow ends with season 8 and Flash has like three more seasons lol) I was not really expecting it to happen as early as it did.

Lex Luthor's involvement was not something I saw coming. I was not happy that The Monitor brought him back to life but, I was not really expecting him to help the heroes in the moment that he did.

Oliver basically becoming a cosmic entity was hugely unexpected but very cool too.

I'm sure there are probably more but, I can't think of more things at this time so, I am going to move on.

Other Things:

I am just lumping the rest of my thoughts here because I don't really know how else I want to categorize them.

I really wish that the episode of Black Lightning that was apart of the Crisis just had more to do with the actual Crisis. It spent too much time on how the anti-matter from the red sky was affect Jen and everything with the two other versions of herself. Like, they spent too much time on that crap and the the anti-matter wave comes, Black Lightning gets teleported out before that Earth gets wiped out. Plus, as a whole with all six episodes considered, Black Lightning only has like two appearances in the whole of the Crisis and I just wanted to see him interact with the other characters more. On the note of characters from Black Lightning, I wish that Black Lightning was not the only hero from that show to be apart of the crossover. Why couldn't Thunder & Lightning be in it? Dreamer got to make an appearance, why not those two?

I also wish that they had used all the characters from Legends of Tomorrow too. Like, they used Sara, Mick and Ray and only had Nate and the other guy, whose name is escaping me right, get like two seconds and that's it. Even in the Crisis part that was an episode of Legends of Tomorrow and still didn't use many of the members of the team.

The whole thing with Nash Wells just being stuck watching tragedies was really stupid to me. Especially when I basically helped the heroes break into the place where the Anti-Monitor's anti-matter canon is located. Like, if Nash was technically serving the Anti-Monitor, why didn't the Anti-Monitor stop Nash from revealing it? Why not do something to stop Vibe from getting the information they needed to get into that room.

Layla's whole thing felt extremely forced. She spends like two episodes of Arrow before the Crisis doing sketchy things and then bam, she's the Harbinger....who is somehow easily manipulated to help the Anti-Monitor and then does absolutely nothing to help the heroes.

I was not really a fan of the whole sub-plot of trying to bring Oliver back via a Lazarus Pit on another Earth. I mean, sure, it was an excuse to have Constantine be apart of the Crisis but, it was ultimately not worth it if you ask me since that is when he becomes a cosmic being. Could have done something a little more interesting without that little sub-plot.

The part after our heroes finish mourning Oliver's death when Barry reveals the table and chairs for all the heroes, that part was interesting to me. Like there's a spot for The Flash, Black Lightning, Supergirl, Superman, White Canary and Batwoman and they did this as a sort of Justice League setup sort of thing. I just find it interesting because like why doesn't Martian Manhunter, Dreamer, or any of the other Legends get chairs? It feels to me like they're saying that The Flash, Black Lightning, Supergirl, Superman, White Canary and Batwoman are the MORE IMPORTANT Arrowverse heroes and the others are just lesser heroes or something. Just how it felt to me.

Well, that is all that I can think of at the moment. Like I have already said, I really did enjoy the Crisis crossover. Is it pefect? No, but it is very clear to me that all the actors and crew and directors put their hearts into making this crossover the best that it can be. Also, I'd like to add, I've seen a few episodes of Arrow post-Crisis and my headcanon right now is that the Arrow TV show ended when Crisis ended lol.

[lasats-are-lovely]

How did you felt when you saw Zeb on the mandalorian? Like did it felt like you almost had a heart attack because Zeb appearing on mandalorian was so surprising like there wasn't even a hint that he would Cameo and see his 1st live-action debut in the mandalorian instead of Ahsoka where he would be more likely to appear in due to returning rebel characters and resolving the fates surrounding Ezra and Thrawn?

Okay, so it's kinda funny, because uh... basically all star wars media since season 1 of the bad batch i've been watching mainly to see if there would be a rebels cameo. Rebels is Star Wars to me. Granted, with most shows I didn't expect to see anyone, but I had hope - and besides Andor I didn't truly expect to see anyone until Ahsoka (and like, I wont say that I'm mad that Kallus wasn't in Andor, but I *really really really* wanted him to be and it would have made so much sense, and they could have at least name dropped him and- I could go on and on lol)

So when I saw Zeb, I was speechless because... like. What??? Sir??? Why are you here??? Totally didn't expect him to be there, but I had the biggest smile on my face because he was. Garazeb and Kallus are my favorites from Rebels and I miss them so much.

[agentthirsty]

OH I finally watched Ahsoka. Still wish Rosario Dawson had not been cast as Ahsoka and I'll die on that hill, but I buried my grievances and watched and I enjoyed it for the most part. There were multiple little things I had qualms with, aside from Rosario, but I'm not gonna focus on all that. The show really ended up being a Rebels sequel and I was very pleased with that aspect.

Loved seeing Sabine and Hera and Chopper. Cried when they showed Jacen the first time and then every time Kanan was brought up lkjasdfhsalkdfhasd. Was missing Zeb but we got that cameo in The Mandalorian so I'm not fretting too much over his absence. And then Ezra 😭😭😭�� his casting was perfect. I didn't think we'd ever get him back but he's here and he's hot 😭😭😭

And Anakin and the Clone Wars flashbacks and Rex ooooooo I was beside myself. When Anakin called her Snips I had a conniption lkajsdfhsalkdf

I also really liked that they brought in more elements from the animated side like the Nightsisters and majik, the World Between Worlds, Morai there towards the end, and mentioning the Father, the Son, and the Daughter.

But yeah, I'm not going to focus on all the negatives. It's hard enough having your favorite character done wrong. I was so hesitant to even watch. But anyways, yeah, expect Ahsoka reblogs lol

OH AND THE NOTI ARE PRECIOUS I NEED TO PROTECT THEM

[im-no-jedi]

Ahsoka spoilers

maaaaaaaaan

if y’all thought my reaction from last week’s episode was intense…

you should’ve seen me last night watching episode 6 😆

I knew ahead of time that Ezra was in the episode, I had even seen screenshots of him

but the moment he appeared on screen while Ham and I were watching the episode, I lost it. I had a meltdown. I literally felt like the father in the story of the Prodigal Son. it was a lot LOL

I guess it was similar to last week in that I was seeing something extremely beloved by me that I thought I had lost (that being TCW), and I was seeing it in a new format to boot. but unlike that, the fact that Ezra was live action was irrelevant to me. sure, I was studying Eman like a HAWK, which was unnecessary cause holy frick that man is Ezra irl, he’s absolutely PERFECT. but the biggest thing for me, the thing I was mostly focused on, was simply seeing him again 🥺

I truly thought he was gone forever at the end of Rebels. Kanan had died, and Ezra disappearing honestly felt the same way for me. ngl I don’t blame Sabine for doing what she did cause I honestly probably would’ve done the same thing, especially for Ezra haha

it was one thing seeing a character like Rex last week. Rex is also one of my favorite characters (obviously). but he was just a little cameo, and he wasn’t even real in that moment, just a memory/illusion. but Ezra is real. he’s not just a cameo, he’s not going away next week. he’s here to stay. I get to see more of him. he’s part of the story again. so it’s just more meaningful overall to me really.

also lbr comparing a character that I think of like a son to a character that I simp for is actually incomparable. Ezra being an adult doesn’t change a thing for me, that is my SON. my CHILD. if Hera won’t admit to being his mom, then I will LOL

so yeah. big emotions last night. the prodigal son is home and I’m living. oh and Thrawn is pretty cool I guess 😜

[jimmyvofindy]

After watching this again I’ve decided to bump it up to a 7/10 ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I think my problem I had with it was Eddie Murphy not being the Eddie Murphy I grew up with. And if I consider that IM not even the same person I grew up with, the movie takes a different feel. His character in this movie might actually be closer to what Eddie Murphy is in his private life 🤷🏾‍♂️ If Kenya Barris (cameo air plane scene) played the “Akbar” part my expectations would’ve been on a different level. Kenya Barris’ humor is more subtle than Eddie’s. You can’t wait around for Eddie to stick a banana in a tail pipe in this movie. If you can throw that preconceived notion out, enjoy and learn about the complexities of relationships and prejudices, this movie deserves a viewing. Are there things and characters I would’ve liked to have seen more developed? Yes. I understand that, like all movies, there are deleted scenes that may satisfied my curiosity. I wonder why they needed to edit this down in the first place since it’s on Netflix? Maybe because there was a possible theater release? I would’ve liked to have seen more scenes with Jonah Hill’s character “Ezra” and his sister “Liza” played by Molly Gordon. Their scene in temple and the back and forth dialogue making fun of each other was hilarious. I would’ve liked to have seen that EVERY time they were in the same room. On the flip side “Amira” played by Lauren London has a brother “Omar” played by Travis Bennet who is equally as funny and has great “come back” dialogue with Amira and Akbar. Ezra’s relationship with his podcast partner “Mo” played by Sam Jay is also hilariously excellent. All of these funny relationships might be the reason I expected,any time Eddie Murphy was in a scene, to be LOL 😂 hilarious. 🚨 Spoiler🚨We actually don’t see the “Eddie Murphy smile 😁” until the last scene. Maybe they could’ve REALLY banked on “the smile”? 🤔 But guess what? I can’t WAIT to see a movie about Amira and Ezra raising a child. Just the arguments of what to name the baby would potentially be comedy gold. 🤣 https://www.instagram.com/p/CoCvemYLeEn/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: “Droids In Distress”

Wacky droid hijinks and nostalgia abound, let’s get into it.

Now, this is an episode that for a different show would have been used as the pilot.  It’s got all the earmarks of a weekly serial testing out its tone and character dynamics, while acting with confidence like those are already established.

Note that this isn’t a bad thing.  It reminds me most of Teen Titans’s early Season One, there’s a certain kind of charm and innocence and an earnest attempt at convincing you, “Don’t worry, this will be a FUN show! :D”

Frankly starting off lighter eases you better into the world and characters so when things do get more serious and dramatic later you’re more invested because you’ve had more time to get endeared to the characters.

See also, Star Trek: Lower Decks, which had the audacity to end its Season Two on a cliffhanger, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY SILLY COMFORT SHOW, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE STAKES!

Anyway we open rather appropriately In Media Res with the notes of the TIE Fighter Attack track from A New Hope, which auditorily puts us right into that OT headspace. :)

Once again the tight writing very quickly establishes the situation: The Ghost is on the run from the Empire, in need of cash flow and supplies, they have to occasionally run weapons for someone shady, Ezra is Force Sensitive, and--perhaps most importantly for the later story arc--Kanan has been avoiding training him.

Boy I miss concise exposition like this.  So much story is already set up in some densely-worded dialogue.  (Not just Kanan’s reluctance to teach Ezra but also Zeb’s misgivings with working for Vizago given the uncertain nature of the weapons he deals in.)

Also don’t think I missed Ezra being most concerned with the fact that they are running out of food.

RIGHT SO I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW GIDDY I WAS THE FIRST TIME I WATCHED THIS BECAUSE ICKLE MINI TARI LOVED THE STAR TOURS RIDE AT DISNEYWORLD.  Seriously it was one of my top favorites.  Never rode the updated version (haven’t been back to DW in years) but the classic version was iconic for me.

And this is a cameo/Easter Egg that actually works in context because you don’t need to know anything about this droid pilot, he works organically in the story as he is without any background knowledge required.

Unlike many of the other cameos we could name in certain other Star Wars shows *COUGH*.

Threepio and Artoo on the flipside... Okay, I’m not quite sure how to articulate that it still works better than in aforementioned other shows but it does.  Again Imma chalk it up to, they just fit more organically into the plot and around these characters and also advance the bigger plot by introducing a thread that suggests the crew is going to be connected to the larger Rebellion, which pays off this Season Finale... instead of being a sideshow diversion disconnected from the main characters that may or may not make another appearance down the line sometime.  Maybe.

Side note of appreciation for Chopper gleefully taking right to his role of Public Nuisance Annoying Everyone (But Especially Ezra).  I don’t think there was much acting involved for either of them lol.

XD

Still love how bouncy and dynamic the character animation was these early episodes.

Has that fun kid-friendly feel that lures you into a false sense of security lol.

Our first hint at Sabine’s backstory, cleverly hidden as part of her cover story.

I kinda like that Garel is close enough to Lothal that a very small shuttle is able to just ferry people back and forth in like twenty minutes.

Lol Zeb whapping Sabine because she’s laying it on too much.

One of the nice things about having low-stakes plots in the beginning is it allows room for lovely little breathing scenes like this one with Ezra leaping across the rooftops.  It’s not plot necessary, we could have easily just cut to him arriving at the other hanger, but it’s just... pleasant.

There’s some nice mood music (a very slowed down mellow Main Titles theme), some very mild action, and we feel a satisfied little thrill along with Ezra seeing just what he’s capable of already just knowing that he’s Force Sensitive.  This is the first time he’s consciously tapped into the Force and it’s just a little bit exciting.

Just look at his face gkjhgkjh I’m so proud of him and all he did was some parkour.

Subtle animation detail appreciation: Zeb visibly shudders backing away from the crates.

I love Threepio throwing some indignant shade Sabine’s way with his “[...] if she is an amateur.” line.

We know Zeb is the muscle  of the group, that’s already established, but it’s still obvious in the voice acting and Zeb’s intense tossing of the Stormtroopers that he’s more agitated than normal.

Threepio being oblivious and fussy as per usual.

Please enjoy the Fridge Horror of knowing that the Empire was planning to mass-produce T7 ion disruptors and probably not for their starship-crippling properties. :)

Ezra immediately backing off the hostility once he knows why Zeb’s upset. <333  He’s such an empath I love him.

See this is why I don’t understand people who hate Ezra.  Was he a little bratty this episode?  Sure, but also see how he lets that drop out of compassion once he understands the situation.

Also Ahsoka came onto the stage waaaaaaaaay brattier and a smug know-it-all to boot, just admit y’all hate the kid-appeal characters and refuse to let them be stupid and dumb in order to have some character growth.

Hera’s frustration when she hears that Kanan hasn’t been training Ezra. <333

Lol and love how there’s an immediate follow-up in the next scene.  I want to see the beginning of that conversation.

Pryce gets name-dropped here for the first time.  Predictably Threepio is making a muck of things.  See, this is why no one tells you anything or trusts you with the mission Threepio.

Ezra has clearly dealt with underworld figures like Vizago before lol.

I do wonder if all of this is just a massive Batman Gambit by Artoo, because he seems to be completely unfazed by anything that’s happening.

The AT-DPs get quite a bit of focus in this series and I think their ubiquitous presence in the first season preps us mentally for the heavy upgrade that is the AT-ATs.

Love this shot tracking Hera as she shoots at the AT-DP, very frenetic with the blocking and the camera movements.

The duel between Kallus and Zeb is honestly better than some of the lightsaber fights don’t @ me you know it’s true.

This music cue when they launch the disruptors is a unique one, particular to only this moment I think, but I like it.

Aaaaaaand the first of many times Kallus gets yeeted with the Force.  Lol.

See Sequel Trilogy, this is the general powerset of someone who only just learned they were Force Sensitive and hasn’t had any training. /salt

Kanan seems very surprised and amazed by what Ezra can already do without any formal guidance.  This’ll play into his insecurities later, his whole thing about how Ezra’s powers are growing faster than he can teach.

I think it’s safe to assume Ezra had a lot of latent natural talent that he’d been unconsciously using this whole time that just needed a tiny push to begin manifesting in earnest.

Again, though, Sequel Trilogy, all we unlock is basic shit like Force Sense, Force Jump, and Force Push.

Not surprising Kanan went to fetch Zeb, he’s about the only one even close to Zeb’s height lol.

Kanan looks so proud of Ezra, aww.

More lovely work with the subtle expressions; Kanan’s smile fades and his eyes drop a bit.  Like he realizes, “Oh boy, now I gotta face all my inadequacies and problems.”  Love it.  Love that it’s episode two and we’ve already established so many of the upcoming character arcs.

Hi Bail!

Luke’s theme closing us out once again, apropos given where we are and who we’re with.

For our first “official” non-pilot episode, this is a solid entry.  As I said, establishes a whole bunch about the characters and their relationship dynamics and upcoming arcs and plot points.  It’s also very fun, sets the general early tone of “Adventure and excitement but not too much... yet.” and the animation continues to impress in small ways, mostly the dynamic shot choices, camera angles and movements and the subtlety of emotion displayed on faces.

Coming back to this one always just leaves me with a warm feeling like, “Aahhh yes, back when everything was innocent.”  It definitely plays up the nostalgic feeling of the OT, which was always one of Rebels’ strengths as a show.

Next time, one of the many “filler” episodes that come back in an important and unexpected way in the finale.  You’d think, given the number of Avatar: The Last Airbender alums on the project, fandom would know better than to discount the seemingly light-hearted low-stakes disconnected episodes. XD